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SOIOGICAL. MAP 

of 

fBBSMJSfB C OINTY 



1 Lesley, State Geologist 
tared expressly fortius Work. 

I N D I A N A 



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EXPLANATION OF COLORS. 

Upper Barren Measures. 

Pittsburgh Bed and 
Upper Coal Measures. 

Lower Barren Measures. 



Upper Freeport Bed and 
Lower Coal Measures. 
Conglomerate, XII. 

Maueh Chunk Red Shale, XI. 

Pocono Sandstone, X 

Catokill, IX. - 



4 P. M 



S r 



WESM 




ItdtainssU 



BufcnaVisfarSf* 

M»n>re.s>la 
^iitci xvilu' 










eVernuu l'< ' 



Ol : L1XK MAP 

of 



llli^UOT© (01 NIT 

(i\t<l expressly fbrthis Work. 




HISTORY 



OF THE 



COUNTY OF WESTMORELAND, 



PENNSYLVANIA, 



WITH 



B? ^HICAL SKETCHES 



T^Q 






S ALBEET. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
L. H. EVERTS & CO. 

188 2. 

PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT it CO., PHILADELPHIA. 



I 



. 



\- \o^°\° 



PTiEFACE. 



The rapid. ; tv ; n w hich tlese sheets (equivalent to some four thousand manuscript folios) 
passed through the press and the hands of the editor precluded that careful and close scrutiny 
which an ordinary work is in all justice entitled to receive, and this by a proof-reader not per- 
plexed with other business affairs. As a consequence there are some typographical errors and 
perhaps a few inadvertencies, some of which are apparent to us on a final scrutiny. One mis- 
statement which crept into the body of the work from a broken copy, but which was printed 
in only a very few of the first of the impressions of this edition before we noticed it, we desire 
to correct. In ;hat part of the ecclesiastical history in which the histo-y of the Roman Catholic 
Church is giv i it is said that the Right Rev. Abbott Wimmer was the first prelate to enter 
the council ha at the Council of the Vatican, etc., when it should be, as it was intended, he 
was with thosi prelates, etc. The copy was here wrongly read ; hence a discrepancy which wt 
desire to explain. We make this explanation of the correction not with the mere object of 
righting the misstatement, but from a sense of duty, fully appreciating that no one would be 
more sensitive to an undue and equivocal exaltation than that ngnt reverened prelate himself. 
For minor inaccuracies (such as no book is f&# fom) — other than misstatements — we do 
;ipolo>i?e ivt ;l<-!«. for excuses. We believe the body of the work to bo essentially froe from 
stakes in regard to dates and positive averments. Where dates appear that confuse nr rp\tf. 
ubt, they are found to be verified or corrected in other portions of the history, and that eithc; 
corroborar'iDr statements or manifest implication. 

In giving opies of old documents and of records they are given literally as they exist, and 
ve not been -. n- phraseology only where it was proper to do so. 

G. D. A. 

June 17, li 



CONTENTS. 



ILLXJSTBATIOITS. 



..facing 



b 

nF.. 



PAOK 

364 
B78 
601 
MS 
568 
28 
806 

nt 

333 
708 
687 
604 
S3] 
528 
401 
(38 

126 
;.7'. 
436 

OS 
566 



h M 

, A ■ 

v a. others, Jitmcd P „ 

Chambers, William 

Croushore, George W 

Croushore, Geolge W. Residence of. - 

Conemaugh Yisduct 

County Home 

Coart'House 

Covode, George II 

Covode, John 

Cowan, Edgar M 

Daly, Thomas L 

Diilinger, S.imu. I " 686 

Fulton, James A _ " 365 

Gaffnejr, D between BIS, 533 

Calloway, J«»uu facing 649 

George, Isaac " 643 

Gibsonton Mills between 664,565 

Given, Robert facing 628 

Greenawalt, Caleb '* 708 

Guffey, Willian " 707 

Johnston, A " 438 

Johnston, Johi. W " 639 

Hill i Kenney Works of " 684 

Hitchman, W. I., Residence of. " 544 

Hun, George I' " 624 

Hunter, James A " 334 

Interior St. Clair's House „ - 222 

Keener House _ facing 706 

Kline, N. L. K " 692 

Kline, W. J. K " 368 

Kreps, Jacob K " 664 

Krepps, Jamei T " 369 

,aird, H. F " 341 

.ippincott, J.> tl " 650 

•>■ u ~ " 363 

isius " 569 

nlius, Residence of. '* 562 

.... .me. of County _ between 12,13 

Map, Geological, of County _ „ « 12, 13 

Map of Westmoreland as Organized facing 61 

Map, Battle of Great Meadows, 1754 " 19 

Map of Coke Region „ between 404, 405 

M I, Fort I.igonier » 102,103 

Marcband, H. C facing 328 



•PAOK 

Markle, C. C facing 

Markle, C. P., Residence and Paper-Mill of. " 705 

Murkle, C. P., & Sons, Paper-Mill of. „ " 648 

Markle, Cyrus P " 656 

Markle, Joseph " St-ft 

Markle, Shepard B.,Jr " 667 

Markleton Wood-Pulp Mills •' 

McAfee, James R " i 

McCall, Franklin " 

McCall, Franklin, Residence of. " 

McClanahan, M. P " V 

McCormick, EH " 

McFarlane, Andrew L *' 

McGonigal, John R " 

Miller, Samuel ** 

Milligan, John D " 

Moore, J. W " 

Overbolt, Abraham between 688 

Overholt, H. S facing 

Overholt, J. S between 688, 

Painter, Israel H facing 

Paul, S.J " 

Pershing, Samuel " 

Plumer, George ■ 

Plumer, George, Residence of. " 

Plumer, J. C " 

Pollock, John " 

Robertson, 0. B *' 

Robinson, John Q « ** 

Robinson, Roberts " 

Robinson Coat of Arms— ■■ 

Scottdale Rolling-Mlll and Furnace facing 

Shepler, Joseph " 

Shields, Robert " 

Shryock, David W „ " 

Shupe, Daniel " 

Sloan, ,T»we« .... " 



St. _i« 1 1 Mifiiiij 

St. Xuvier's Academy ( dast Vtev 

Sutton. Dr. Le*is 

Thompson, Lewis 

Tintsman, A. O 

Townaend, John H 

Turaey, Jacob 

Walter, John 

Weimer, 8. C, Buildings of _, 

Wlralug, James A 

Toung, John , 

Zimmerman, Z 



..I rfng 



b59 

60 

640 

370 

526 

699 

690 

699 

662 

031 

727 

66'' 

G*T 

BM 

711 

6^> 1 

366 

660 

367 

682 

661 

630 

62« 

.151 

«/> 

6H 

f i 

211 
224 
693 
276 
278 
371 
719 
64T 
077 
342 
682 
971 
626 
303 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introductory- -Early Provincial History. 
Prefatory— Necessity of P'eserving the Facts of Local History— Chief 
Sources of Local History — Written Accounts and Traditions — Venn's 
Grant— His Policy — Suc-'es* of His Colony — Alexander Spottswood, 
Governor of Virginia, w<nts the British Government to make a Line 
of Forts along the We 'tern Rivers — The French In Canada— Their 
Policy towards ihe Iudi'ns — Alienatioa of the Indians from the Eng- 
lish Indians of Wester :< Pennsylvania confined to their Reservations 

on the Ohio— The Ohio ompany — Rivalry between the Governments 
of Pennsylvania and Virginia respecting the Indian Trade 13 

CHAPTER II. 
The French Occupancy of Fort Duquesne. 
Conrad Weiser and Geotg 3 Crogan— Weiser's Report on the Tribes about 
the Ohio — Their Num->' rs and their Disposition — King Shingass and 
Queen Alliquippi— Gits Settlement— George Washington sent by the 
Governor of Virginia & the Indian Tribes — Hie First Journey, and the 
Information he AoquJftd — The Ohio Company cuts Roads, makes Set- 
tlements, erects a St ffe-House and Fort at Redstone, and takes pos- 
session of the Forks of the Ohio River — Its Soldiers and Men are 
driven away by the Jnucli, who erect Fort Duquesne — The Governor 
of Virginia reinforce) Washington, who retires to the Great Meadows, 
and Fights his First JUtttlo at Fort Necessity — Braddock's Campaign 
projected • 17 

CHAPTER III. 

1 katjjdogk's Expedition. 

Braddock's Forces at £\ rt Cumberland — He comes up the Ohio Com- 
pany's Road, piloted bj Washington — Opens the Road to the Youghio- ! 
gheny, and through o it part of Westmoreland to the SConongabela ; 
after crossing whiel River the Army, in a Defile on the South Bank 
above Turth Cn . "' is Surprised by the French Canadians and Indians j 
from the Fort — Tb I lumber of the Enemy and their Leaders — The j 
Virgiuians cover tie Retreat of the British — Washington carries off i 
the Army — The Route, Courses, and Distances of the March — How ; 
the Trail maybe found at this Day — Effect of Braddock's Defeat on I 
the Pennsylvania folonjsts — The Battle-Ground visited by Soldiers 
under ITorl I ! ■ Feara after the Battle— The Appearance of the t 
Field ? 20 i 

CHAPTER IV. 

- ! , . l'i;)'ITI«)>, 1766— BODQDET \1 LiGONIER, 1?58. 

The Country ovemiti ly Indians and French after Braddock's Defeat — j 

Settlers rlee to the last of the Mountains — Forts and Block-Houses i 

on the Peunsvl' ania Frontier — Cul.-luhu Armstrong's Expedition in i 
I75G against tli- I* "anniug Town — The Town taken and destroyed, 

ported UUsd— The Trampiug-Ground of these I 

h and Indian War carried on under William Pitt 
Hands the New Expedition from Philadelphia l 
if — llif- command— Col. Bouquet brings the Van- 
kcroBfi Laurel IJill to the Loyulhanna, where he 
I awaitson the rest of the Army under Washing- 
Mere to unite at Rnyetowu, or Bedford 25 



and Capt. Jato 
Wanton — The 

— John Forbes 

against Fort Di 

guard of the A 

b Stockai 

ton iiii'/ 



CHAPTER V. 
F »' ■*:>' Expedition, 1758. 
r 1 1 oi win Fort Ligonier to reconnoitre about Fort 
lien under (.runt, and their Route — Their Ba- 
the > 2-Mile Run— Vheir Trail the first Road of the 
iug ]' pie I rough Westmoreland from Laurel Hill 



to the Ohio — Grant arrives at the Hill overlooking Fort Duquesne — 
Is Surrounded and Defeated — Capt. Bullet carries the Remains of the 
Command >ack to the Stockade of Ligonier — The French and Indians 
fill the Woods about Ligonier, and with their united forces attack 
Bouquet — The Battle lasts nearly all Day, when the Enemy flee off 
through the Woods — The whole Army under Forbes at Ligonier — 
He proposes to advance towards Fort Duquesne — Washington leads 
the way, and cuts the Old Military or Forbes' Road — Duquesne de- 
serted by the French, and first occupied by the British and Ameri- 
cans— Fort Pitt erected 28 

CHAPTER VI. 

First Settlements in Westmoreland- — Battle of Bushy 

Run, 1763. 

Settlers come into Ligonier Valle,. , about Fort Pitt, and along the Old 
Military Road— Their Isolated S. uations, their Squalid Huts, Potato 
Patches, and First Clearings — Condition of Indian Affairs at the Peace 
between England and France, 1761 and 1763 — Pontiac — Fort Ligonier 
made a General Depot — Officers Commandant at Fort Ligonier — The 
Great Uprising of the Northwestern Tribes— Fort Pitt and Fort Li- 
gonier surrounded and cut off from connection with the East — Capt. 
Ourry and his Men from Bedford come to the relief of Ligonier and 
hold the Fort — Bouquet marches from the East to t he relief of Fort 
Ligonier and Fort Pitt — The Force with hhn— Bouquet 0ods tlu 
Frontier overrun and the Inhabitants utterly lirstnun — I 
Fort Ligonier (1763)— He strengthens the Post, and with 
Army and a Convoy of Pack-Horses proceeds towards Fort 1 
attacked by the Indians uuder Kyashnta, the Chief of th 
and fights the Battle, of Bushy Run— II • Defeats and Scatt. 
Enemy in the most successful Engagement fought with the B 
and carries his Force? and Provisions into Fort Pitt 3_ 

CHAPTER VII. 
Settlement from 1759 to 1769. 

Misunderstood Boundaries of the Treaty of 1754 ( Albany)— Pun hase of 
1758 and Boundaries thereunder — British Officers give Permits to Su- 
tlers after Forbes' Campaign — Pennsylvania wil] not give Title to Set- 
tlers, but passes Laws to keep Settlersoff this Torritory — Virginia ir 
duces Settlers to migrate hither and locate — The Boundm/ 1 
between Pennsylvania and Virginia not definitely known— Sett 
come into the Country after Pontiac's war (H64)— They locate at R 
stone, on the Youghiogheny, at the Forks of that River, am) ab 
Pittsburgh, Ligonier, and along the Great Roads — Mason and Dixo 
Line run — Proclamation of the Governor of Pennsylvania wain, 
these Settlers oft — Rev. John Steele sent to them to explain the La 
and request them to remove— They refuse to remove— The " Ne 
Purchase," under Treaty of Fort Stanwix,..f 176k— List of the Barliei 
Settlements made in Western Pennsylvania to this date (1768)— Clan 
oring of Emigrants and New Settlers tu have Lands grant- -' them b 
the Province — Special Land Titles — Penn's Manorial Besarvatfr 
The Divesting Act— Preliminaries to the opening of the Land 
— Public Notice of the opening given — Laud Office opened for 
cations in the New Purchase, April :j, 1760 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Predominant Nationalities of the S 

"Now Purchase" in Cumberland County Territory- 
Justices of tlie Peace for that part of Cumhei 
Laurel Hill — No evidence of any Authority be ; 
Magistrates — Bedford Couuty created — Towt 
part of Bedford County which later became 1 
for Bedford County — Number of Landhobb 



CONTENTS. 



The Southwestern Boundary of Bedford County— No Actual Juris- 
diction of Bedford County Government tolerated by the Settler?— 
First CourtH of Bud ford— Those in the first Com mission— Number of 
Applications at the opening of the Land Office in 1769— Prominent 
Men who took up Land at that date— Different Nationalities of the Set- 
tlers : Scotch-Irish, Germans, French Huguenots, English-Americans 
—Localities of their Settlements— Predominant Nationality of Penn- 
sylvania Settlers before the Revolution— Immigration of the Scotch- 
Irish, particularly that of 1771-73— Their Nativity, and account of 
their Denization in the North of Ireland— Their Distinct Character- 
istics— How they were held by Friends and by Defamers— They and the 
Dutch, bad neighbors— Their Influence in Public Affairs in Western 
Pennsylvania, and reference therein to the Whiskey Insurrection. 42 



Customs, Morals, 



CHAPTER IX. 
and Manners 



the Erection 



PRIOR 

OF TUB COUNTT. 

The German Settlers— Whence they Emigrated— In what they Differed 

from the Scotch-Irish— Their Maimers, Habits, etc.— Their Belief in the 

Supernatural— The Mennonists— Peculiarities of their Religious Be- 

li e f_Kelation of these First Settlers to the Civil Law and Procedure 

in Courts— The Customs and Laws which they Formulated— Effect of 

their Religion* Belief Oil their Civil Society— Peculiarity of their 

Morals blended with their Mann ere— Southern Portion of the County 

being rapidly filled up compared with the Northern Portion— Terms 

i _ inia Titles and terms of Penn's Titles — First Settlements north 

of the Conemaugh— Early Pittsburgh— Fort Pitt abandoned— Early 

Efforts of the Settlers to erect a *iw County after opening of the 

Pennsylvania Land Office— Bedfon County erected 47 

CHAPTER X. 

Westmoreland Cot ntv Org .nixed — Counts Established, BTC. 
isticeafor Bedford County exercise jurisdiction over the Westmoreland 
part of the County— Great Distance to the County-Seat— St. Clair as 
Penn's Agent— Petitions for a New County— Westmoreland County 
en"-* ' •; Aft ,i Assembly and organized— Courts authorized and j 
tamed — List of the County Justices In the first Commission | 
( Con Connty divided Into Townships — The first Grand ; 
constables and Supervisors appointed ami Inn-keepers li- 
I— The County Offices ami Officers— St. Clair the first Prothono- 
, and Juries Briaon his Clerk — Huffnagle, St. Clair's Suoces- 
a the Records of the Couuty— John Proctor the first 

Sher ft*— Officers returned — Election DiBtriCtS ■"' 

CHAPTER XI. 

First Jail — Early Punishments — Slavery in 1781. 
i Ion of the Jail at Hanna's— The Pillory— The Whipping-Post— The 
Stocks— The First Indictment in the Quarter Sessions — Tames Brig- 
lam) and Luke Picket whipped at the Poet— Vefltigee of Bng 
tleial Elizabeth Smith whipped at the Post and sentenced to 
iars at Hard Labor with an Inhuman Master for Larceny— 
axible i i Slaveryand Servitude in the Old Westmoreland 
Bill of Sale for a Negro Woman Slave-Extent of Slavery iu the 
unty Hi 1781 Reference to the List of Slaves made out in Pursu- 
it ait of Assembly 57 

CHAPTER XII. 
Old Hannastown, te Seat. 

in ted to locate a Oonnty-Seat— Robert Ban da's Settlement 
-They :•■'. on Banna's Town — Difference of Opinion as to the expe- 
I iting the County-Seat tin 'ie— Description of the Old 
l— Opposition to its Location flj the People of Pittsburgh— Cor- 
Eteporti of the Trustees — Various 
-Troubles at the Place in 1774-75.... 61 

CHAPTER XIll. 
I] h Trot bles OF 277 1 Bl 
iftb I r PenuBvlvama -I'n ; 

.. ,,i Virginia and Pennsylvania summarized 

to fl jht for the Demands of Virginia— 

r >f Virginia — England's ColorifaJ Policy— Vir* 

Ministry— Charges against Dnnmore 

Drnmore's or Creese p'a Warof 1774 — How 



the Indians regarded Western Virginia — John Connolly— He takes 
possession of Fort Pitt — Issues a Proclamation — Apprehended by St. 
Clair, and coaimitted to Jail at Hannas f own--He returns to Pittsburgh 
— Is opposed by Penn's Magistrates— lie re urns with Authority from 
Dunmore, and appears with Simon Girty aui a Babble at Hannastown 
— Refuses to allow the Justices to bold 0*art — The Justices persist, 
and hold Court to preserve order till the Li ~s are adjusted G3 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Connolly's Usurpations, Indian Alarms, Etc. 

The Pennsylvania Justices further resist C unolly's Usurpation — He 
sends Three of them iu Irons into Virgil a — The} are released by 
Dunmore — Commissioners appointed by the' Jouncil to viBit the Houbc 
of Burgesses of Virginia— Evil Summer of 1 74 — Petitions from Early 
Inhabitants of Westmoreland to Governoi penn — Meeting held at 
Pittsburgh— The Association first formed— Devereux Smith's Letter . 
to Dr. William Smith— Some acts of Co-nully incited— Dunmore 
opens Offices for the Sale of Land in Per isylvania Territory — He 
issues a Proclamation to the People — St. Cla r superintends the Mili- 
tary Arrangements — Forts repaired, and list of now ones erected — 
Bangers organized atid posted at various I tints — Alarm of the In- 
habitants—Many Settlers cross back over tie Motn tains— They are 
urged to remain by St. Clair and Others — TVjple of '-igonier Valley 
gather near the Fort in fear of the Indians grossing the Ohio — Num- 
ber and Lists of the Signers of the Petitions to governor Peun — 
Hempfield Dutch and Pittsburgh Irish 66 

CHAPTER XV. 

Dtnmore's War. 
Dunmore** War begun by the Murder of some F-iendlv Indians, espec- 
ially Logan's Family— Virginian Army QnaniseaV-Dunmore at 
Pittsburgh with Connolly— Great Gathering ai 1 Organization of the 
Indian Tribes — The Campaign of 1774 — The H pes of our People in 
Col. Lewis — Dunmore and Connolly want to s e the Army defeated 
and the Indians on the Frontiers— Lewis galnj the Battle of Point 
Pleasant— Dunmore's Treaty — Indictment : The People vs. Duninore — 

Dunniotv tliiMii-h Connolly still tyrannizes .>.«m* the Pennsylv 
Bottlers, many of whom talk of leaving their CI aringd— Condition of 
the People iu 177. r >— Leaders in Westmoreland Ui 1775— The Military 
Spirit 70 

CHAPTER XVI. 

We>tmh:;;:i, ami's DECLARATION 0V IkDE] | 1775. 

Congress and Tlconderoga— Westmoreland listening to the 
Lexington Common— Meeting held at Pittsburgh and 1 t Fiaunastown, 
May 16, 1775— What they said at Pitteborgh— What they did at Han- 
nastown — Westmoreland's Declaration of Indepeidi Spirit of the 

Resolutions Adopted— who wrote them — Sim Larity between the 
Declaration and the Resolutions in Ej p ■ ssion n 1 I —The 

Military idea of Resistance- Observations and If imarka 011 the Paper 
—Westmoreland's Great Glory— Tho Regiment oj| A<wonators.... 73 

XVII. 



CHAPTER 

The Affairs of Westmorblakd 02s the RbV0- 

LtJYION, 

Public Affairs— -Connolly and Dunmore still Scheming— Connolly trie-. 

to carry the Pennsylvania and Virg 09 fa the King — Hi* 

Plan to effect this, and to hold the West for Du wtf Onmut 

—Boston Harbor closed— Call .V.. 1 Meeting ai tate-House, July 
15, 1774— Hanna and Cavett as Deputies— Willi Uompson on t te 
Committee of Safety— The aaaociators- Edward 1 sndJajne 
Delegates to tiit- OonTeutiOD of 1776— Special wing West- 

moreland Electors to vote for Members of 1 onvention— The 
County divided into Two Districts for thte E a— One District 
North and one South of the fooghiogheny — Tl Section Officers 
—Members returned to the Convention of 1776— ■>•' L |! ■ 

subject to HiUtary Sendee, and required h of Allegi- 

ance— Frame of Government foi I I. >pted ,,tor 

elected fii t Councilor — A.chilald Lochry, rlrst 
tenant, succeeded i..\ 1 oofc andl Col J ampbt 
Lieutenant — The Wee< to i; Itself- rftish 
the Indians— Hatred bet liana an. ieW< 
Settlers 



CONTENTS. 



'HAPTER XVIII. 
Westmoreland in the Revolution. 

First Battalion directed :o ho raised in Pennsylvania for the United Colo- 
nies— Capt. John Ke].-,.i:'i Company from Westmoreland — Ordered to 
Canada — Services of i his Company — Second Pennsylvania Batialion 
under St. Clair — Capt. William Butler's Company, and Capt. Stephen 
Bayard's Company — History of the Services of this Battalion in the 
Expedition intoCana la,aud in the Retreat to Ticonderoga — The Third 
Pe- isylvania Regiment formed out of Saint Clair's Battalion — Memo- 
rial of the Officers of the Third and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments — 
Sketch of Capt. Jame* Chrystie, and of Thomas Butler — Pennsylvania 
Rille Regiment — Its History — Capt. Joseph Erwiu's Company — Their 
Gallant Services at Long Island — The Company Incorporated into other 
Commands — State Regiment of Foot — Capt. Carnahau — Capt. Scott's 
Company — The Second Pennsylvania Regiment — Condition of the 
Western Frontiers at the Beginning of the Revolution — George Mor- 
gan, Indian Agent at Fort Pitt — Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment 
raised by Authority of Congress — Directed to be raised in Westmore- 
land and Bedford C< unties — Seven Companies raised in Westmoreland 

\ — Its Officers — Mus.ered into Service for the Defense of the Frontiers 
— They receive Orders from the Board of War to join Washington — 
Letter from Col. Mackay to President of the Board — Letter from 
Lieut.-Col. George Wilson to Col. James Wilson — They set out for New- 
Jersey — Their Terrible March — Their Condition 00 their Arrival at 
Headquarters — Hon. T. Pickering's Mention of their Distressful Con- 
dition — Change in the Officers • of the Regiment — Return of -Turn-, 
1777 — Different Reform of 1777 — Engagements of the Regiment— 
Their Losses and Oaanalties — Valley Forge — Regiment ordered to 
Pittsburgh in 1778 — Col. Brodhead, with the Regiment, makes a de- 
tour up the Weal Branch— Remains of the Regiment stationed at 
Pittsbin g tfl from the Older-Book of the Regiment — Mor- 
gan's Rifle Regim 'nt— Character and Object of the Organization — Its 
Officers— Their & irfoefl he Saratoga — Col. Richard Butler second iu 
command — Capt. Pan Swearingen — First Lieut. Basil Prather — Second 
Lieut. John Han in — Anecdote of Van Swearingen — His Subsequent 
-Stonj Point— Its Position and Importance — Washington de- 
termines to Capture it if possible — Confers with Gen. Wayne — Col. 
Richard Butler commands one of the Detachments who are detailed 
for this Service — They carry the Fori at the Point of the Bayonet — 
Arthur St. Clair a Brat Services ho the Revolution — Biographical 
Sketches of Col, S&neas Mackay — Of Col. Stephen Bayard — Of Lieut.- 
Col. George W Up id- Of Col. Daniel Brodhead— The Fighting Butlers: 
Thomas, Sr., Ri hard, William, Thomas, Jr., Perciral— Other Mem- 
bers of the Butl'-r Family— \t\>-. dotes- Col. James Smith — Ool loan 
Gibson SI 

CHAPTER XIX. 

BoiM" ,CE AN)> ClVll. DlSBEHSIONB, 

Indians in lTTt: . mi 1777 — Effect of Savage Warfare on the Whi 
White Senega MYKee, Elliott — Depravity of 

some WIih Frontier — Murder of Cornstalk — List of Com- 

mandants at ii-t Pitt— Mcintosh's .Expedition from Fort Pitt to 
Beaver— Brodbt- id's Expedition to Conewago— Other Expeditions 
from Wester rania and the Weal — dark's Western Expedi- 

tion ami hie v eetmorelanders— Dates of these Noted Expeditious — 
Nature of the Indian Warfare in the- West— Border Settlement of 
Westmoreland most Exposed— The County daring the Troublous 
Times divided one part North and one part South of the S 
gheny — Peopli along the Youghiogheny acknowledge no Law — Vir- 
ginia establish-, three Oonnl il bweetorn Pennsj Iranla — 
Bounil:'i <■ , U ia Ohio, and X 

I 4s from Yohogania < rds— Their first Elec- 
i'rimitiv Court-Hou le and Jail— Carious Pines and Sentences— 
When their Jiirtediction ended— Boundaries run and Difficulties set- 
tied — Mason » u ,\ Dixon's Line — Limits of the Actual 
Westmoreland County through the Revolutionary Wa 
erection of ott . r Counties which have bean stricken off from West- 
moreland 97 



CHAPTER XX. 

Fours 11 OCK-HOUSES, AND F.NCIDENTS OP WARFARE. 

Reliance o Weffcmoreland in her Militia— Her means oi defense— De- 
scription >f l t . Early Stockades, Forts, Block-Houaee— Blocfc-CabiDfl 
andSiati iu -fort Ligoniar and Capt. Shannon and Ool. McDowell— ! 
Bannastown Stockade— Fort Hand— Fort Beed- JTort On d Y< it I 



Shippen, at Capt. Proctor's — Fort Allen — Rugb's Block-House — Kep- 
ple's Block-House — Miller'B Block-House and Station — Palmer's Block- 
House — Williams' Fort — Fort Waltour — Fort Wallace — Canadian's 
Block-House — Barr's Block-House — Shields' Block-House — Miller's 
Fort on the Sewickley — McDowell's Block-House — Teague Island Fort 
— Incidents — The Francis Family killed near Wal tour's — Attack on 
Waltour's Fort and death of the Old Man Waltour — The wounded 
Indian who killed Waltour comes to Fort Pitt — Has his wound 
dressed — Confesses that he shot Waltour — A Company from about 
Brush Creek go to the Garrison and demand him, that they may 
punish him themselves — He is given up to them — He is taken back 
to Waltour's Fort to he burned at the stake — While thoy are hu it- 
ing up a Sheriff and a Jury to hold a mock trial the Indian escapes — 
He is followed Ninety Miles, and when last heard of had taken to 
the Allegheny River — Finley'a adventure at Fort Wallace 102 






CHAPTER XXI. 

Forays and Adventures. 
During the Early Part of the Revolutionary War— The Volunteers — 
Col. James Smith takes a Detachment up the Allegheny to French 
Creek or Venango — His Arrangement of the Men while on the 
March and in their Encampments — His Plan of Fighting the Indians 
— Brodhead's Expedition to Conewago and Brokeustraw — He cuts 
off a Party of Forty IndianB on their way to the Westmoreland Set- 
tlements — Notice of Fort Armstrong, Kittanning — Brodhead sends 
Capt. Brady into the Seneca Country — Trouble between the Continen- 
tal Officers and the Militia Olticens — Ranging Companies formed 
during the War by Direction of the State Officials— They are Sta- 
tioned along the Rivera — Their Officers — Their Manner of Fighting — 
The Heroic Women of Early Westmoreland : Experience Bosarth, 
Massy Harbison, Mrs. Margaret Oliver, Mrs. Matthew Jack 107 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Lower Ligonikk Valley during ihi: Revolution. 
Ligouier Valley a Favorite Ground (or the Indians, and the First Stop- 
ping-Place of the Whites— Privations of the rfl along the 
Four-Mile Run, Mill Creek, the Old Road, and Indian Crm k— Murder 
of the Campbell Family, and Captivity of Robert Campbell (with 
curious anecdote?) — He is sold to a British Officer— He is exchanged 
— Killing of the Old Man Barman and three of bin 'tines 
Flack taken Prisoner— Escapes from ffonrj I, ■ trough 
the 'Wilderness bj means of a Compass— Cha I taken uy In- 
dians in Ambush — His Account of the Manners, Habits, and Ways of 
Living of the Northern Julians — His Master cures him of a 
Foot — Peter Haharg token bj the name Party — Is made to Rui 

Gauntlet — Cliflbrd token I— Is Exchanged after having 

been with the Indians nearlj Three years— Comes to the Valley 

Dies at Home— James Cliflbrd and his two Dogs, " Whig" and 

— lli& adventure w [| b the Indian whom tie shoots Indians lying in 
wait attack a Party of Five wh 

They kill Miss Means, Young Means, and Young Reed— Cot Mc- 
Dow< 11 escapes with Hiss Reed on bis Horse into the Fort- ,] be Bodies 

of the Others buried by the People of the Fort i]\ 

CHAPTBB XXIII. 
Utter Ligonier Valley ddrino the Revolution, 
The Upper Part of Ligonier Valley — Remains of the Old Indian Fort— 
The Early Settlers here: the Harmana, Gays, and others— Willi 
Block-House the PI Early Settlers — Different 

Murders and Captures ia this Region — tudians capture Andrew and 
John Harman along the Fonr-MUe Ran— They kill i be ol ■ .v i 
bor'fl Horses and t;ike Another— Thej i i id hearths 

Mother calling th ry the Boys ti ■ rth John 

Dies— After trying to freeze Andy to 3 m in other 

ways to kill Him, in- si but is trained op with ■■■ □ -Ho 

is adopted by that Tribe, the Senecas— Lives with them some Years 
—Is parted with for a Bottle of Bum to en I Taken 

to Ljqi 'i '' si b Serrant— After the rear.- in 1763 comes Home, i 
they had long thonghl him Dead—Hie Account of their Ways of 
Banning, of Hnuting, and of Fighting, witl if Ms 

ttlng — OBpture of Jacob Nicely by 
and adopted by toem— Mi taw end Dies Hfs 

Father viajpi him before h*s Death . .. no 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Captain Brady and His Exploits. 
Capt. Samuel Brady, the Hero of Western Pennsylvania, is stationed at 
Pittsburgh in Col. Brodhead's Regiment — When his Family is muruered 
he Bwears to wage a War against the Indians long as he lives— He is 
sent to Sandusky to get Information for the Commander-in-Chief— He 
gets within Bight of the Town and watches the Indians all Day —On his 
way back he kills a Warrior, and saves Jenny Stupes and her Child 
—His Companion, the Dutchman Phouts, and his pet Delaware— He 
and the Dutchman go up the Allegheny to get some News— They 
follow an Indian Trail— They capture an old Indian who tries to 
1 ill I'hoiits, but who is killed by him— Brady as Captain of the 
Rangers— Battle of Brady's Bend— Brady kills the Bald Eagle, who 
had killed his Relatives— Brady watches in the French Creek - ran 
try — He and his Men pursue a Returning Party of Indians— Brady's 
Leap— He follows up a Party which had entered the Sewickley Set- 
tlement — nis Men attack a Party of Warriors and rout them — His 
Adventures with Wetzel and the Spies after the General War, as well 
as all others which have been substantiated or corroborated by Con- 
current Accounts * 118 

CHAPTER XXV. 
LoCH&y's Expedition. 
The Settlements In 1779 and 1780— Ferocity of the Savages, and De- 
pravity of a Class of Whites — Some Whites from about Hannastown kill 
Friendly Indians — Kirkpatrick'a Cabin attacked by Indians, and there- 
in of the CoBtOffl of claiming Scalps— Brodhead ordered to send a De- 
tachment under Maj. Craig from Fort Pitt to reinforce Gen. Clark — 
Clark's Plan of a Western Campaign — Westmoreland requested to co- 
operate with Him — Bickerings and Jealousies among the Leaders ol 
the County — Col. Lochry, as County Lieutenant, under Instructions 
from the Council, raises a force of Volunteers to join with Clark — The 
Difliculties under which Lochry labored— Clark's Letter to the Officers 
of Westmoreland, disclosing his Plan of Campaign — Luchry's (Friends 
volunteer— The} rendezvous at Carnalian's Block-House — They pro- 
ceed down the River after Clark to unite with him at Wheeling — 
Lochry's last Letter— Arriving at Wheeling (Fort Henry), Lochry 
fiuds that Clark had gone on down the River — He prepares Boats to 
follow — Goes to the Mouth of the Kanawha — Capt. Shannon sent for- 
ward with a Letter to Clark — He and his Men are captured — The In- 
dians place them on an Island as a Decoy for the other Whites — 
Lochry's Men land some distance above the Island— Upon landing 
they Kre attacked by a large Force of Indians and entirely cut off— Me- 
morial of Two of the Prisoners who were exchanged — Capt. Orr, and 
his Account of this Expedition — Lieut. Samuel Craig's Narrative of 
his Captivity- STew Volunteers called out towards the end of the Year 
17S1 124 

CHAPTEK XXVI. 
Cuawform's Expedition to Sandusky. 

The Moravian Indians — Their Christian Character and their Former 
History — Their Efforts at Peace-Making between the Whites ami Whir- 
ring [ndUluS -Description of their Villages — Their Unfavorable Loca- 
tion — They are Mumed with harboring Hostile Indians — The Whites 
of the Southwestern Part of Pennsylvania are instigated to Disperse 
them — They raise a Force of Volunteers for that Purpose — Col. David 
Williamson in command— Their Route of March — They come upon 
the Indian) bj nrprise — Represent themselves as Friends — Get pos- 
n ol" their Villages, and begin the destruction of the Houses, 
: ml the murder of the Men, Women, and Children — They are taken 
out, one after another, and with Clubs, Mallets, and Hatchets mill'- 
dared whtts Ebej supplicate fur mercy — Their Bodies are then burned 
— Col. Crawford's Expedition later in 1782 to the Sandusky Towns — 
He if ' his Force scattered — He is taken Prisoner and 
I at the Btaki — Escape of Dr. Knight 131 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Condition of the People in 1780-81. 

Westmoreland County in the Latter Part of the Revolution — Evidences 
from the Court Records and from Acts of Assembly— The Militia 
I to Place in expectation of Indian Attacks — The 
Ontpoi ' west of Fort Pitt abandoned— Extracts from the Correspond- 
cnce of Brodhead, Irvine, and Others bearing on the Affair; Ql be 
Com ty, :J5 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Destruction of Hannastown. 

Spring of 1782— The Outposts deserted— Condition of the Hannastown 
Settlement — The People gather near to the Stations and work at Har- 
vest together — A Party go out to take off the Harvest of Michael 
Huffnagle, north of Hannastown— One of the Reapers, seeing Indians 
watching from behind Trees, gives the Alarm, .and they flee towards 
the Fort— The Court at Haunastown adjourn* without a Crier — 
Records taken to the Fort — General Jail Delivery — They all gather 
into the Stockade — Scouts sent out — Brison and Shaw pursued by the 
Indians — Capt. Matthew Jack comes upon the Indians and escapes 
from them?— He rides round the Country - and alarms the People — He 
saves the Love Family — Indians come to the Town — They hold a Con- 
sultation, and are seen to have White Men for Commanders, who are 
dressed like Indians — They plunder the Houses, fire on the Stockade, 
and mock at the Inmates — They send out a Party towards Miller's 
Station— The People gather at Allen's, at Hugh's, at Unity— Settlers 
gather into the Houses and get down their Rifles — Indians come on to 
the Mowers in the Meadow at Miller's — The Number and Class of Per- 
sons collected there— Women and Children gather into the Miller 
House — John Brownlee called back from attacking the Indians by 
his Wife — Gives himself up to the Indians — A Young Man takes 
Brownlee's Child and runs towards George's— Is pursued by a Pack of 
Indians and bides in a Rye-Field — Singular Escape of a Babe left on 
the Ground at the Mercy of the Savages— She is found Sleeping in her 
own Cot the next Morning— She lives to be Married, and dies in Old 
Age— The Houses at Hannastown burnt down— Captain Jack is too 
late to alarm the People at Miller's— The Renegades secure the In- 
mates of the House— They burn the Houses and shoot down the Cattle 
— Tie the Hands of the Prisoners and load them with Stolen Goods 
— Drive the Weeping Women into Captivity— Brownlee carries a Load 
on bis back and has his Little Child on his neck— The Indians recog- 
nize Brownlee — One crashes a Tomahawk into his Head and kills his 
Little Boy, and also a Woman who faints— Affairs about the Fort — 
Peggy Shaw saves a Little Child— A Ball strike? her in the Breast— 
The barbarous Medical Treatment she receives while she lingers out 
her Life — The Two Bodies of Indians unite and go into Camp in the 
Crab tree Bottom— People collect at the George Farm— At Nightfall a 
Crowd with Smuts go Armed to assist those in the Fort -They come 
to the Smouldering Town— Are let into the Sin, kale :m«i Sound an 

Alarm— The Indians, listening, are scared, thinking Reinforcements 

have arrived, ami after Midnight they leave for the North— Their 
Route— They are pursued as far as the Kisklminetas— The People look 
out on Deserted Homes— They bury the Dead where they were found 
—To keep them from starving the siate allows them to draw Rations 

—What became of the Prisoners— Who the Invaders were and where 
they came from — Gen. Irvine's Letter to Washfrtgl Sloguhw Ac- 
count from an Indian after the War of the Party which burnt Han- 
nastown— -The Heroes of the " Hannastown War"— The Town after 
its Destruction ■ 138 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Last Days op Hannastown — Execution op M IHA.CR1 
End of the Revolution— Formation of new Counties, Washington and 
Fayette — New State Project— Who were at the head of it— Causes of 
its Inception— Its Prospective Limits— It fail ■ i I n - SB rela- 
tive thereto— 17 83-8+— The Last Days of Hannastown— TrW of 
Hamachtaga, an Indian, for Murder— And also of - p s other ft I 
era at the same Court— He is defended by Brackenridge — The Indian's 
Deportment— His Opinion of tile Court— His Trial— Ie found Guilty of 
Murder, and wishes to be Shot instead of Banged— The Prisoners in 
the Jail want him to kill another Prisoner and oi Death — 
He refuses to do flu— The Jailer's Child takes Siek, Whe n Mauiaehtaga, 
goes out and gets Herbs to cure it — He returns to the Jail, and goes 
into Voluntary Confinement— The Day of the IV —A 

great Crowd of People assemble — The White Man h«»ng, and then 
Mamachtaga hung— He dies like a Warrior, after hav: S first painted 
himself for the Occasion.. l-*8 

CHAPTER XXX. 
The Pionebbs — Their Hoi .. etc. 

The Honeers— How the Early Settlers came in— Their tfbjest ir Kfflf- 

grating and in Removing — First Settlers near the Fo'in— How oej 
Built their Houses — House-Raisings— Appearance of tbj**' ' '"'■■■"■" 
side — How they were Furnished— Home-Made Furnuur 3 — Description 



CONTENTS. 



of Ancient Han naa town.— The First Frame and Stone Houses in differ- 
ent parts of the County*— Dr. Schoepf *e visit to Western Pennsylvania 
after the War 153 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Primitive Housekeeping and Farming. 
How to commence Housekeeping — Split-Brooms and Gourds — The 
Spinning-Wheel and Cradle — The Cock-Loft and Stable — Clearing the 
Forest — Getting to Farming — Resorts and Devices of the Farmer — 
Wheat Lands — Common Crops — Gardening — Rye Coffee — Mrs. St. 
Clair's Tea-Parties — The Raising of Flax, and a Description of the 
Process of its Manufacture — Spinning — Tow in Poetry and in Law — 
Wool-Carding— The First Cardiug-Machines — The old case of Mc- 
Ginnis vtrnu* Giger, in the matter of wrongly Dyeing the Linsey- 
Woolsey — Dress of the Common People — Going to Church — Nineteen 
Grooms married in one Blue Coat at different times — Dress of the 
Fashionable People— Calico 157 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Bears, Deer, Wolves, etc. 

Fruits and Denies — Game — Maple-Sugarand Molasses — Depredations of 
the Bears — How they were trapped and killed— Mitchell shoots a Bear 
on a Sunday — Wrffes, and Adventures with them— Moorhead and 
Kelly- -Christian Shockey attacked at Night by Wolves, climbs a Tree 
and awLtits till Morning — Premium for Wolf-Scalps — Deer-Hunting — 
Venison used instead of Beef — Squirrels — Birds and Wild Fowl — Pests 
of the Farmer — Game Laws, and Premiums offered by Law at Different 
Times for destroying Auima s and Birds — Farming the Chief Depend- 
ence and Occupation of th< People — How Farming in General was 
carried on 162 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Salt, Whiskey, Ea rlv Mills, axd Furnaces. 

Some of their Chief Wants — Si.lt — First brought from the East, then 
from Big Beaver, Kentucky, nondaga — Prices — Methods of bringing 
it over the fountains— Its D scovery on the Sewickley and on the 
Conemaugh — Process of its First Manufacture — Reduction in Price — 
Scarceness of Money — The Rat I us fixed by some of the Earl; Courts 
— Prices of other Commodities —Cheapness of Land — Paying their 
Preachers aud Taxes — Rates alU wed per Bushel for Wheat, Rye, and 
Oats — Whiskey-Stills — Manufacture of Whiskey — What they kept in 
their Stores or Shops — Manner of doing Business — Whiskey the Me- 
dium of Exchange — Its Universal Use — Exported and Imported — Tub 
aud Grlst-Mllls — List of First Mills In \ — Iron— Turnbull 
& Marmie's Foundry and t unmce — The Westmoreland Furnace — 
**«l. St. Clair buil ds Hermitage Furnace — Mount Hope and Ross 
Punacces— Joou'ieiiiy Hopkins— The Baldwin Furnace— Other Fur- 
naces— Axe and Jail Manufacture, etc 166 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Primitive toAns and Methods op Transportation. 

Something on Roads in Great Britain, and of Indian Trails in America— 
Kn " I by the Indians in their Selection of Routes— 

Th " ir M inoei o Traveling— Of their Trails East and West, North 
an,t s '■ I ' Routes of the First Whites westward of the Moun- 
tains — I/Hail R< mains along those Routes in Westmoreland, and Me- 
morials <f their Presence in Names of Streams, Hills, etc.— Nemnco- ■ 
lin's Pt£h — The Catawba War Trail— The Kittauuing and Juui ita 
Paths- The dlffa "ent Termini of the Aboriginal Paths — Of the Indian 
Villq . re — i he < thio Company's Road — Brad- I 

dock's Road— B i rd's Road— The National Road— Forbes' Road— Old ! 
. Road— Chartered Turnpike— Old Military Roads— Method 

ted in the Ai mies — Want of Roads to the First Set- 
tlers—First Road Petitions, 1773— Difficulty in getting to Mill— Im- 
portance of keeping the Public Roads in Repair — Manner of Travel 
and Method of transporting Merchandise on these Roads— Pack- 

Horses and Paok-£addles— What a Pack-Saddle is — Rates fur carrying 
— Remarks on o le of the M Lost Arts" — How they went to War, to the 
Assembly, to the East for Goods, and a-Oourting 176 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Turnpikcs— Coneotoqa WAGONS- Vjoseek Inns. 
The State assists in makiug Roads— The Old Pennsylvania State Road- 
Its 'Jorrse th-ough the Count; —Tic Villages bui't along hV— Cones- j 
'ogi Wagons ud Hicks — First Load f I ta; dise hauled a< 



the Mountains — How long they were in bringing it — Cost of carrying 
— First Mails from Pittsburgh East and West — How Papers and the 
Mails were delivered — First Carriages and Carioles — The Pleasure of 
Traveling in these Contrivances -The Felgar Road— The Jones' Mill 
Road — The Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company incor- 
porated — The Northern Turnpike — The State appropriates Money to 
the Southern Route — Progress of the Undertaking — Its completion — 
Public-Houses— Their Great Number along the Turnpikes and in the 
Villages— They become Famous in their way — The Old Class of Inn- 
keepers—The Good Cheer and the Solid Comforts they offered Trav- 
elers — Homer gives some Hints as to their Signs— The Sceptre de- 
parted from Israel— Regrets o*" i Certain Class that Railroads have 
ever been built 181 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
The Last of the Border Commotions. 
New Boundaries of the Purchase of 1784 — Emigration of Weatmore- 
landers — Hariuar's Campaign— His Defeat — St. Clair, Governor of the 
Northwest Territory— His Campaign and Defeat — Indians attack Fron- 
tier Settlers of Pennsylvania— Condition and Extent of the Frontier 
of Westmoreland and Allegheny— Unprepared state of the Inhabit- 
ants — Westmoreland Militia — The Prominent Men of that Period — 
The State organizes Rifle Ranges — Appropriations for the Western 
Counties by Act of Assembly — Government of the United States called 
on for help — It responds and enlists Men — Correspondence from and 
between Officers and Military Men relative to the state of Affairs, and 
giving Statements at length of Indian Depredations— Particular Inci- 
dents—Capture of Charles Mitchell, murder of his Mother, and an 
account of his Captivity with the Oornplauters — The Episode of Capt. 
Sloan, Wallace, Hunt, and Knott, in their Tour of Observation in the 
Western County— Sloan in command of Fort Hamilton— His able and 
successful Defense of that Post — Presque Isle — The laying out of the 
Town and of the Road along the Allegheny River resisted by the 
Indians at the instance of the British in Canada— The State takes 
Active Measures to enforce the Laws — Militia called out from West- 
moreland and the other Counties for this Service — Last of the Indian 
Troubles in Westmoreland lfifl 

CHAPTER XXXV [I. 
The WHISKEY Insurrection. 
Excise— Hatred of the Scotch and Irish for the Law— Inequality of the 
Tax— Effort made by the State to Collect the State Excise in 1785— 
"The Devil 1 ' comes fur Collector Graham at GreenSDUrg — Act of 

Congress levying a Tax on Distilled Spirits— Regulations madeforiui 

Collection— First Meeting in Opposition to the Law— Johnson, the 
Collector for Allegheny and Washington, tarred and feathered — No 
Place for Officers to be had in Westmoreland and Washington in 1792 
— Office opened at Greensburg aud abandoned — Meeting held at Pitts- 
burgh in 1792— President Washington issues a Proclamation— Wolls, 
Collector for Fayette and Westmoreland, attacked in his House — He 
opens an Office in Philip Beagan'B House in 1794 — His Son and Reagan 
fortify the Premises— They are besieged by a Large Party — They capit- 
ulate: — Capt. Webster, Excise officer for Somerset, taken and com- 
pelled to give up hi- Commission — Government Officers serve Process 
upon Delinquent Distillers — Neville and the Marshal driven away 
after serving the Writ on one Miller, near Peters Creek — A Party de- 
mand the surrender of Neville's Papers — Neville's House defended by 
a Party of United States Soldiers, who Fire upon the Mob— Their 
Commander, Macfarlane.is killed — The Excitement increases — Gather- 
■ ingof the Rablde and Militia at Braddock's Field— They want to attack 
ami hum out the Government Officers and the Friends of Law — Brack- 
enridge prevails upon them to cross the River — The next Day they 
disperse — Volunteers and Regulars called out by the President — Com- 
missioners appointed to go to the Scene of the Trouble — The Army at 
Carlisle— Commissioners appointed by the Delegates at Parkinson's 
Ferry coufer with the President— Commissioners on both sides hold a 
Conference — Committees meet at Redstone — The Committee pass a re- 
solve to take the sense of the People on the question of submission to 
the Laws upon the Terms proposed by the United States Commis- 
sioners — The Returns Unsatisfactory — The President orders the Army 
over the Mountains— Change in the Sentiments of the People— Meet- 
ings held all over the Country— Report of the Meeting held at Gin 
burg— Resolutions— The People subscribe anew to the Tcsls— The 
Army withdrawn— Trial of the Offenders— Effects of the Iusunoctioi 
on Wee'moreland— BlogruphicaJ Sketches of Participants and I»ocu- 
iu nits m ariwr on the Ins-.trre.cti m . „. ij f 



10 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

William Findley. 
William Findley, the First Member of Congress from Westmoreland— 
His Colleague in the Commission to the President of the United States 
at the Time of the Whiskey Insurrection, David Redick— His Account 
of his Early Life and his Motives in settling in Pennsylvania — His Set- 
tlement in the Octorara Settlement and his Efforts to remove the Obli- 
gations of the Scotch Covenanters in Matters Civil— His Early Advan- 
tages—His Opinions on Slavery— Elected Member of the Assembly, of 
the Council of Censors, Member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1790, and Member of Congress— "Modern Chivalry" and Findley 
Caricatured — His Views on the Federal Constitution — His Answer to 
Rev. Samuel B. Wy lie's Strictures on the American Constitutions — 
His Account of the Publication and Statements of his "History of the 
Insurrection" — Antagonism of Bracken ridge and Findley— Their Po- 
litical Opposition and Personal Dislikes of each other— Findley's Con- 
tributions to the Register — His Shrewdness and Sagacity as a Poli- 
tician — Debasement of the Politics of that Day — Instances of Personal 
and Party AbUBe— Othor work of Findley— His Industry— His Resi- 
dence—Its Location— His Death and Grave — His Appearance and 
Dress — His Neighbors — His Family — His identification with the Whis- 
key Insurrection, and the important part he acted in it 207 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
ARTHtm St. Clair. 
Nativity and Birth— History of his Family in Scotland— Is sent to Col- 
lege, and thence- to London to Btudy Medicine — Enters the British 
Armyasan Ensign — Comes to America iu the French and Indian War 
— -Serves under Wolfe in Canada— Marries in Boston — Appears in 
Western Pennsylvania— Commands at Fort Ligonier — Appointed to 
Office in Bedford County under the Proprietary Government and in 
Westmoreland County — Takes an active part in the Border Troubles 
With Virginia, and in Dunmore'e War — Agent of the l'enns — Accom- 
panies the Congressional Committee to Fort Pitt, 1775— Resolutions of 
May 16, 1776, at Hannastown— The Assooiators— Plan to gOsAgainat 
Detroit— Takes part Oo] alssiu the Revolutionary War— Ap- 
pointed and Commies tel In Pennsylvania Service — Sent to 
la— At Three Rivers — Services In Canada— Joins Washington 
— II ih S< i ha Jersey Campaign of 1770— Is sent to Command 
rnpaign of 1777 — Bui Ldvance— Surrender 
ofTicon ort of Inquiry — St, Clair a1 Yorktown — And with 
.<[ Ufa- Hembei ol the Council of Censors— 
I Got esldent — Erection 
ttionofthe Northwestern Territory— Api Anted its Gov- 
i i -Enters upon I Governor — Indian War— Made Ma- 
Ihief of the American Army— Expe- 
dition against the Miami Indians— Account of the Battle and Defeat 
— His Politics— His Duties as Governor— Is Removed from Office— Re- 
turns to Ligonier Valley— His Residence — His Financial En 
mettt— Its Causes— Treatment of the Government in regard to these 
as— Is sold out by the Sheriff— Removes from bis Hume — His 
Last Days— His Death, Funeral, and Koi ittering over his 
on liis Character and Misfortunes 213 

CHAPTER XL. 
War of Eightpkn-Twelve. 
Causes of the War— ' i ires War with Great Britain— Gov- 

ernor Snyder [ssnes a Proclamation, and directs the Organisation of 
the Pennsylvania Militia — Officers and Arrangement of the Weet- 
moreland Militia under this Plan—British and Dudtans appear in force 
on opposite side of Lake Brio— Fears of an Invasion of Northwestern 
Pennsylvania from Canada- Militia from Western parts of the State 
ordered bo Assemble at Erie— Oliver Hut Capt. Bird and his 

Ballad—Condition of Affairs on the Northwestern Frontiers at the 
Breaking out of the Wat Troubles with the Indians -<■> n. Bull, 
Governor of Micblgi oads -Surrender of De- 

troit—The whole West in Arms— Army of the North* 

,.,.,, ii n aou— John B. Alexander and the Rifle Company of 
Westmoreland— < Correspond Alexander and the Military 

Authorities— The Ri the Government of the 

■ i States— They are accepted and ordered to March— Liwi ol Offi- 
cers ' repb Markl-'N Company of Horse — Muster- 
apt. Marl ■ ay — These Volnnteei to the 
DcAtchment Hent to the Missies! neural of the E peditien 
— It? entire t«c« morelandoro Cant. 



Alexander detailed on Special Duty — Promoted to rank of Major — Win- 
ter Campaign of 1813 — Fort Meigs — Gallant Cotoduct of Maj. Alexander 
and the Pennsylvania Volunteers at Fort Meigu — Opposed to Tecumseh 
— Termination of the Siege — Conduct of the Westmorelanders men- 
tioned by Gen. Harrison in General Orders to the wholo Army — Maj. 
Crogan at Uppor Sandusky— Orders discharging the Rifles, and Com- 
mendatory thanks of the General 226 

CHAPTER LXI. 

Ecclesiastical Historv. 
The Presbyterian Church — Reformed Church — Greensburg Seminary — 
Evangelical Lutheran Church — Ministers of the Early Lutheran 
Church — United Presbyterian Church — Methodists — Early Methodism 
in Greensburg and Vicinity — United Brethren — The Mennonites and 
their Early Settlement — Baptist Church— Mouut Pleasant Institute — 
Roman Catholic Church— Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania... 233 

CHAPTER XLII. 
The Press and. Literati i.k. 
The "Pittsburgh Gazette" — "Farmer's Register, 1 ' the First Paper printed 
in Greensburg—" The Greensburg and Indiana Register" — The" West- 
moreland and Indiana Register" — " The West *ioreland Republican 
and Farmer's Chronicle" — " Greensburg Democrat 1 " Republican 
and Democrat" — " Westmoreland Democrat" — The " Greensbuig Ga- 
zette" — "Greensburg Gazette and Farmer's and Mechnnick's Regis- 
ter" — (And again) "The Greensburgh C;- eette" — * The Westmoreland 
Intelligencer"—" The Sentinel"— The 'American Herald" — " The 
Tribune" — "Tribune and Herald" — "''he Pennsylvania Argus" — 
"Frank Cowan's Paper"— "The Democratic Times 11 — "The National 
Issue" — "The News" — "The GreenBbi;rg Press" — "The Evening 
Press" — German Newspapers: "The Star of the West" — "The West- 
moreland News" — " The Ligonier Free 1 ress" aim* " The Valley Dem- 
ocrat" — Mount Pleasant "Lit Mary Gazette" — "Latrobe Inquirer" — 
'• Latrobe Advance" — "The Reveille"- -The "Irwin Spray" — "The 
Irwin Chronicle"— The West Newton ' Weekly Cycle" — "The West 
Newton Press" — " The Scottdale Tribmie"— The " Miner's Record" — 
oddities— Observations — Extracts — L terature — Dr. Frank Cowan's 
Publications 27 l J 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
The Legal Profession. 
Provincial Courts— The County Justices — Distinction of President Judge 
— William Crawford, the First Presiding Judge— Judge John Moore — 
Increase in Legal Business — Difference in Practice— Kiret Regular At- 
torneys— Characteristics of the Early Practice-i-Judge H. H. lhe'- 
enridge — James Ross — John Woods— Steel Scmpli ■ " orj 
—William Wilkius— Legal Ability of the Early practitioners— The 
Bench— Judge Addison— Judicial Forms, etc— Juigs John ^ 
Judge Thomas White— Jodge J. M.BurreU^Jndgef.C Knoi Judg 
Joseph Bufflngton— Judge James A. Logan — Judge Jam a 1. Hunter 

John Byers Alexander— Alexander William Foster— The H 
of Evans— James FTndlay— Biohard Coulter— John ?• leaver— Albert 
<;. Marchand— Henry I>. Foster— A. A. Stewart— It. ■'■ Man 
Joseph H. Kubns— James C. Clarke— John Latto— Boll of Attor- 
neys 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Thh Mi.iu. ai, Profession. 

The Profession in the Early Pays of the Provlm 

Westmoreland— Quackery — Dr. James Postlethwaite— John I 
M.D.- Dr. Alfred T. King— Dr. David Alter— The Wwti 

.::.( i and Society— List of Enrolled Practftiom 
Henry G, Lomlson— Dr t David Alter — Dr. James A. Fulton — Dr. J. Q. 

Bohinson— Dr. W.J.Kline— Dr. J. T.Krepps— i>r. J. D.Hilligan... 344 

CHAPTER XLV. 
■ 
D of Early Instntotion in the Early Proi Hate — Mr. 
Somerville's School at Greensburg— Country Bchools — First Insti- 
tutes — The Superlnl id Ii d I tbs opinion of the 
tion touching it — Fiist Country Bchools in the North of the < 
List of County Superintendents: J. s. Waltbour, II. >1. Jones, J. Sfl- 
liman, J. R. Spiegel— Present Status of the Common Schools— Tfat, 
County Ii titute of ISO 



CONTENTS. 



n 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

Mexico. 
Public Excitement on Declaratid of War, May 13, 1846— Military 
Spirit — Companies in Greensb'-rg — Promptness of the Young Men of 
Westmoreland in responding to the Call for Volunteers — "Westmore- 
land Guards"— Roll — AdV»"S about Greensburg before their Departure 
— The Company's Plac? i" the Army — Account of the War in Mexico, 
and Particulars of V Je Campaign of Gen. Scott's Army — Services of 
the Second Regiment and the " Guards" from Vera Cruz to Mexico — 
Honors paid the Company on its Return — Sketches of Capt. Simon H. 
Drum, Lieut. Richard Johnston, Andrew Itoss, and other Members of 
the Company — Casualties and Deaths — Roll of the Company when 
discharged 382 

CJ'APTER XLVII. 

Westmoreland in tue Civil War. 

The Call to Arms — The Response from Westmoreland— The Eleventh 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers — History of its Colors — Biographi- 
cal 'ketch of Capi. E. H. Gay— The Fourteenth Regiment— The 
Twenty-eighth Regiment— The Fortieth Regiment (" Eleventh Re- 
serve") — Forty-first Regiment (" Twelfth Reserve") — The Fifty-third 
Regiment — Six-ty-fourth Regiment (Fourth Cavalry) — Seventy-fourth 
Regiment — Eighty-fourth Regiment — One Hundredth Regiment 
("The Round- nut")— The One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment — One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regiment (Nine Months' Ser- 
vice)— One Hi. mired aud Sixty-eighth Regiment (Drafted Militia) — 
Two Hundred and Sixth Regiment (One Year's Service) — Two Hun- 
dred and Eleve nth Regiment (One Year's Service) — Two Hundred and 
Twelfth (Sixth Artillery) Regiment— The Militia of 1862— Militia of 
1863— Colored Troops, etc _ 388 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 
Canals and Railroads. 
iks on thj subject of Transportation — How it was regarded in j 
Pennsylvania-_Canals in Pennsylvania- -Public Works of the State— 
Fiist Canal-Boat west of the Mountains — Advantages of the Canal | 
e — Dickens account of Canal-Boating along the Conemaugh— 
i Railways — The First Railroads in Pennsylvania — A Continuous 
through the State projected— It is finally Constructed— Stations 
Dis'int g — Western Pennsylvania Railroad — Pittsburgh and 
lb . -lie Railroad — Southwest Pennsylvania Railway 400 

f'HA'TEl; XI, iv 

Coke. 

Fei s of tha C*.ke Region — Connellsville Coke Region — Pioneers in 

1 ?oke B' fiiness — Description uf the Coal Business — The Properties 

okedCo-il — Questions of Goat — Other Veins of Coal within the Con- 

i .lsville Region— Growth of the Coke Industry— Statistics— Mount 

asant Re^j ul i — Moore wood Mines — Coke Crushing — Standard .Mines 

•the* ' i unit Mount Pleasant— East Huntingdon Town- 

* Regie i _ Scottdalo Iron-Works— Scottdule Coke Region— At 

-rsville—Latrobe Region— The Monastery Coke-Works — Latrobi 

.8 — S' man's Works — Loyalhanna Works — Ridgeview Works — 

' :lair 'oiks — Millwood Works — Irwin Region — Westmoreland 

Compa„y — Penn Gas-Coal Company— Sewickley Region — Coko- 

v Region 405 



CHAPTER L. 
Civil History, Statistics, and Miscellaneous. 
Changes in the Territorial Limits of Westmoreland prior to the erection 
of Washington and Fayette Counties— Purchase of 1784, and changes 
in Township and County Lines subsequent thereto — Mississinuwa 
Township— Election Districts, 1881— Tables of Population— List of 
Judges, Associates, Justices, and County OfiBcers— County Expetses 
—Big Frost of 1859— Centennial of 1873 and 1875— Resolutions of 
1876 « 4 

CHAPTER LI. 
County Buildings. 
Acts relating to County Buildings— The Old Court-House— Present 
Court-House— Sheriff's House and County Jail— Poor-House, now 
County Home— Tables of Expenditures, etc., for County Homo— The 
Cattle Show — Wool-Growers' Association — Westmoreland County 
Agricultural Society 425 



CHAPTER LIT. 



Nomenclature.. 



IS 



CHAPTER LIE 
At Biographies. 
John Covode — Alexander Johnston— William Freame Johns! 
White Geary— Hon. James Keonan— Richard Coulter Drum- 

dore John Bonnett Marchand— Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner 436 

Appendices 



BOROUGHS AND TOWNSHIPS. 

Greensburg 10 - 

Hempfiei.d 528 

Mount Pleasant 634 

North Huntingdon 

Rostraver 66 i __ 

FAIRI'IELD 569 

DOKSGAL .... 579 

'Derby.... 5g- 

WAaniirotfOfl,.. 60x 

KLIN nllj 

DHWl ,33 

1011 

Allegheny 





East Hi 67 ^ 

r; go,, 

Loyalhanna ; 702 



Lower 710 

Bki.i 

OOOK TIT 

Perk 721 

St. Clair 726 



12 



CONTENTS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



Addison, Judge 302 

Alexander, J. B 311 

Alter, David 364 

Ashbaugh, D. B 678 

Baker, Reuben 604 

Barclay, Thomas J 524 

Baughman, Jacob 668 

Beaver, John K 322 

Beazell, Benjamin F 567 

Bouquet, Henry 28 

Brady, Hugh T 524 

Brinker, George 605 

Brinkrr, Joaiah 726 

Buffington, Joseph 308 

Burrell, Jeremiah M 333 

Burrell aud Knox, Judges 307 

Carline, A. M 709 

Carotbers, James P 667 

chambers, William 605 

Covode, G'orge H 677 

Covode, John 436 

Cov.no, Edgar 334 

Cowan Family , 567 

Orousnore. George W 532 

l limn,. us Family 652 

Daly, Thomas L 566 

Pick F.imily _ 161 

Dilll nger, Samuel 688 

DilUnger Family 686 

Donnelly) William : 

Hum, Richard 442 

Ekin Family 

Find lay, James 817 W 

Foster, A W 816 

Foster, I enrj l> 324 i 

Fox F;i ily i,-i, 

Fulton funic: A 366 

Oaffnej Daniel 

lohn. 549 | 

440 I 

George, Isaac 

I, llobert 628 

Green. ivier 862 

G-eenawalt, Calob TiiS 

in ..., 707 

Hecht Family 652 

Uough Family 661 

large F 2 , 

nugus Family 628 

Hunter, Jamce A ::::', 

Irwin Family 558 

amity 522 

Johnston, Alexander 437 

.',.!,i,i ton, John VV 639 

Johnston, W. F 439 

Jordan Family 547 

,,, in, James 441 

King, Alfred T 363 

Kline, Nicholas I.. K 692 

Kline, W.J. K ,,, 

Kline Family 026 

Krepp, Jacob F 664 

Krepps, Ja s T ,169 

Kuhi.8, Joseph II 129 



PAGE 

Loucks Family ,. 687 

Lowry, Hortensius 568 

Marchand, A. G 323 

Marchand, Henry C 328 

Marchand, John B 144 

Marchand Family 828 

Markle, Cyrus P , 656 

Markle, C. C 668 

Markle, Joseph 653 

Markle, Shepard B., Jr 657 

Markle Family 703 

McAfee, James It '43 

MoCuJJ, Franklin .,.13 

McClanahan, M. P 603 

McCormick, Eli 

MeCrmiek Family 558 

McFarlaue, Andrew L 

McGonigal, John B 604 

McQuilktn Family 627 

Miller, Samuel 640 

Milligan, John D 370 

Milligau Family 706 

Moore, J. W 528 

Morrison, John 24 

Ormsliy, John 361 

Overholt, Abraham 688 

Overholt, Henry S 

Overholt, Jacob S 689 

Overholt Family 

Fainter, Israel .. . 

Pail, James 1 .,_ 631 

Panl, - mnel J 

Penning, Samuel 126 

Plumer, Alexander 661 

Plumer, George 658 

Plumer, George, Jr 

Plumer, John 61 - 

rohn - 701 

Posllethwaite, Juims 346 

Beid, K. II 603 

l; ,l„ i '<,, n, Oliver B 690 

Bobinson.John Q 366 

Hoblnson, Robert S 660 

Kobrer, Frederick, Br • 523 

Shepler, Joseph 666 

shields, Robert 630 

Shryock, David W 526 

Shupe, Daniel 

Sloan, James 

hi, — 

Smith, William T Ml 

Smith Family -■■• 651 

, .John 

St. Clair, irtbur 

Bterrett, John 





Laird, H. P 

Leigbtty Family.... 
Lippfneott, .1 
Lobingter family.. 
i. James A 

' oucks, P S 



Ml 
651 

546 
310 
8 
693 



Stewart, v. \ 

Stoner Family • 

Sutton, Lewie '-> 

Tarr Family 61 I 

i, Lewis . • '1'' 

Tiiitsman, A. O 

I i] a soph M 446 

Towneend, John II 677 

1 

Wall, r, John 632 

William 

8. B , 671 

W'lsiu^, Jamea J 

Young, John 303 

/jmniermali, Z 629 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE COUNTY OF WESTMORELAND, 

PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY— EARLY PROVINCIAL HISTORY. 

-Necessity of Preserving the Pacta of Local Historj 
. i iii-[ iry— Wrttn ! ' ' 

Qmnl — Hia Policj "-» ' 

la, wants the British Government to miike a Line 
rta along tbe Western Rivers—The French in Canada— Their 
Policy toward us— Alienation of the Iudinns from I 

li„b.— 1. i tl to their Rese 

on the Ohio— The Ohio mpany— Rivulrj between the Govei i uenl 
,1 i Vii rluia respei tlug the Indian Trade. 

We propose in the following pages to colled 
thing of the early history of the county of Westmore- 
land, a county which has aptl) I 
mother of counties. What, above all other things, 
has induced as to this attempt is the fact that nothing 
of the kind has heretofore been attempted. A local 
history cannot be compared with a general hit 
narrative, nor has it been the intention of the writer 
to show his effort in thai direction. He has, however, 
made a reasonable effort to collect all matter relating 
o. out- early bistorj from the written and p 
documents accessible, but which are so 
around, like the mystic leaves which, blown by the 
blast from the hollow earth, were scattered to all the 
winds in the cave of the Sibyl. To collect and to 

illustrate what has been written has been our labor, 
and we have tried from the first to represent to our 

mporaries a truthful picture of our am 
and their times. In the lapse of well-nigh a bll 

nearly all things change,— laws, customs, habits, 
manners, society, as well as the physical aspect of the 
very earth. The Westmorelander of 1773 would no 

and of to-day than we 

. e the Westmoreland of 1973. 
By the word "history," which we choose in 
ence to adopt, we mean not only an account 
civil and military affairs of the people who first came 

into these woods, but a narrative of -uch individual 

a saved from the all-devouring tooth 

Of Ti ne. a description of their cabins and furniture, 

meet in( is< and graveyards, of tl 

uel personal appearance, of their house-warm- 



ings and militia-musters, and a notice of such things 
ii ing of local interest, an- not usually 
printed in general collections. We shall, as best we 
arrange our i his- 

torical matter may I ed in some chronological 

. to tin- end that a 
our local affairs as they follow each other. W. 

■ions that tin undertaking of this kind, even in the 
rudest outline, will bed, 

and we do not 1 fal- 

realized. The history of our 
county, or indeed that of an. f, of any 

commonwealth or of any municipality, will, how. 
ably produced, be far short of anything like perfection. 
Tlii- m m circumstances peculiar to our country 

in its colonization an I pi 

student of our 1.' .lent, labors 

under many and great disadvantages. In writing up 

neral narrative many most inter,, ting particulars 

must necessarily be omitted, either as irrelevant to the 

nil text, or as r I ly a local intee 

while, on the Ot ! ithe 

an isolated district with somethin torica) in- 

terest finds extraneous and matter contin- 

ually obtruded on his attention. In oilier words, the 

early history of Western Pennsylvania embri 

largely tin history of our county, while tbe hist 

of our county itself has a living interest only to 
ourselves. It is true that tb i nv 

Oounty, of Washington, and of Fayette is in part the 
history id' Westmoreland County, but the public 
mind has so long separated these boundaries and has 

so localized such places as Fort 1 i ones 

as the Whiskey Insurrection, as to make all matter 

worthy of note centre in the county \\ here such matter 

rightly belongs. It would be as unreasonable that 

the history ol ' as bounded in the gnu.. 

the great Elizabeth to her sailor 

embraci the histoi the pi of Penn ■•, 

colony of Calvert. We he i 

that we do better ii 

history of Westmoreland a, we know it, and to touch 

neral history of the Stat.' and the We-: 

13 



14 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



in so fat as if is at eded t i throw light on the former, 

levelop thi ii This fact, however, is ap- 

that all the local history of that part of West- 

land which, alter tli on oi thi i ounty of 

Washington in 1781, belongs to that county was, by 

the singular troubles which occurred from about the 

time of the establishment of our county to that date, 

no more identified with the history of our county, 

red, than the local history of Augusta 

ii v in Virgiuia is identified with it. 

We may make the remarks of a very sagacious and 

.or own in observing that indeed the 

very difficulty at this time encountered in procuring 

iiir information upon the subject proposed to 

ted in this work is strong evidence in itself of 

■ans that exist of redeeming without delay the 

earlier events of our history from the grasp of I 

Every passing day increases the labor of 
h, and a few years will obliterate and c 
to utter obli . ion all that we should desire to re in- 
ner and preserve of our past annals. We, work, like 
the lapidary, to replace the scatti of a mosaic. 
No one can, as we have intimated, be aware of the 
unseemliness of such a task unless he wanders in the 
same field. The absolute facts which belong ol 
to our history arc scattered here and there in frag- 
ments in books, many of them unworthy i leed oi 
else they lie in not yet arranged. A. great 
and most profitable account of our early affair: 

mark applies to the unwritten history of any 

other part of our country — might have been found in 

the memories of the aged; but this source is now, 

: . very unclear and deceptive. It would be use- 

: us to inquire into the causes of this however 

much we lament the fact, for by far the most interest 

attaches what the older people carry in trad 

I'he \ i many of the peasants of Lancashire, 

I from lather to son, is that part of Macalllay's 

account of the b Sedgemoor ami the Bloody 

Assizes which most cxcilcs the attention of i he reader. 
With us such memorials have ' .1 to go in 

decay. We may remark tl vents havi 

been little regarded by the people who were witnesses 
to them, and for reasons such as control these, what to 
us might be a subject of wonder, oi admiration, and 

o even till 
past tin trite ami trivial a nature as to be 

below the dignity of a subject for narration. When a 
on ob rved that accounts of Indian war- 
fare, descriptions of bonier life, the romantic details 

' ventures were I 

ired bj lie readers of their time, 

i null anil to misstate 

facts. .\ ml il is too true that often what purports to he 

an account of manners ami customs, either of the indi- 

■ tilers, is far from the truth. White 

oil' with gold-bedecked chieftains 



i rum " 



was as absurd as to represent Ligonier Fort as a Nor- 
man castle with drawbridge, turrets, and donjon. 

Such arc the incongruities of circumstances; while 

still another disadvantage arises from the bias which 
our Blinds are likely to assume in treating of a suh- 
SO nearly contemporaneous. We usually run 
into one oi' two extremes, and consider that all if 
of the generations and the times immediately pre- 
ceding us and ours were either all great heroes or 
half-civilized old clowns. All we can do is to rule 
tribute our mite to the literary store-house of'our noble 
old county. 

We shall of necessity have to begin at a time long 
prior to the formation of our county, as the soil of 
Westmoreland was dedicated with tears and blood to 
imperishable renown in the annals of English and 
American history before her children sat down ti- I 
enjoyment o :e within its borders. 

All the vast region of this continent on its discovery 

was, according to the polity of the English govern- 
ment derived from feudal time-, the property of the 
king. With it, as with all the demesne lauds of the 
realm, he might do as he pleased. Accordingly all 
the lands not colonized by the state were appropriated 
to favorites or to dependants. To satisfy a debt owing 
from the crown to Admiral William IVun. a donation 
of the tract now common!] known as Pennsylvania 
was granted to William I'cnn, son and heir to the 
creditor, a Quaker in religious persuasion, and a 
favorite and courtier at the court of Charles the Sec- 
ond. The nature of the grant was that it was given 
after the fashion of feudal grants, with the feudal 

elures somewhat restricted, in con fortuity with I 
new usage established at the restoration of the Stu- 
arts to the throne- Charles Sin art, the king, claimed 
a title in these hinds, inhabited by savages, from dis- 
covery and from conquest, as in 1664 all the settle- 
ments and possessions of the Dutch along the Dela- 
ware River were taken from them by the English. 
'I'he charter ol I'enu was signed by the king on March 
4, 1681. 

It was not till a long time after the establish!! 

boundaries as we now have them 
were definitely fixed. There were conflicting disputes 

with He- colonial authorities of New York, of Con- 
necticut, of New Jersey, of Maryland, and of Vir- 
ginia. The dispute between Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land was satisfactorily adjusted in 17i>n by com- 
promising on the famous Mason and Dixon's Hie 

division line which long divided tie ites i 

the iri'f Stales. The dispute with Virginia is the only 
which interests us. Virginia, from the time that 

Washington walked over the land under instruction 
of Dinwiddie, claimed all Western Pennsylvania. 

At the peace of 17114 the limits of the Province v. 
not marked, and in 177-4— 7o a county formed by the 

burgesses of Virginia, and inhabited mostly by Vir- 

* ir tli<- reader has any curiosity in this line lie "ill be further 
fieu by referriug to Hull. mi's Constltutloi ' lund. 



INTRODUCTORY— EARLY PROVINCIAL HISTORY. 



15 



ginians, was established within the territorial limits 
of what is now Pennsylvania. 

Governor Perm, before he made a settlement, pro- 
posed to purchase of the Indians their title to the 
occupancy of the land. He early treated with them 
and gave them valuable consideration for their hunt- 
ing-grounds. We will briefly repeat the order of 
these purchases and concessions, so that we may have 
an idea of how the bounds were increased. By treaty 
with the Pive Nations in 173G all land within the 
boundaries of Perm's territories was claimed to have 
been purchased from the Indians. But owing to some 
misunderstanding afterwards the Indians did not 
acquiesce, and separate treaties were made. It is said 
with some degree of positive assertion that the misun- 
derstanding of these treaties did much to drive the 
Indians subsequently to take part with the French. 
By a treaty at Albany in 177>4 the Indian leaders of 
the Five (later the Six) Nations again conveyed to 
the Penns all the lands westward to the setting of the 
sun. The dissatisfaction produced by this treaty on 
the great body of the natives fully justified them in 
joining with the French in that long and bloody war 
known as the French and Indian war. The Indians 
claimed that they did not understand the limits of 
this purchase, and that lands were conveyed which 
did not belong to the tribes making the conveyance. 
By the treaty of Easton I17">*), to put a stop to in- 
creasing warfare, these lands were surrendered to the 
Indians on the ground that they had not understood 
the terms, and the right of the whites to occupancy 
was confined to the east of the Allegheny Mountains. 
But by the last great purchase, that of Fort Stanwix 
in New York, of 17i>\ all title of the Indians, with a 
small exception in the northwestern part of the State, 
was relinquished and passed to the whites. West- 
moreland belongs to this purchase, and it will be 
noted farther on how this treaty operated on the land 
titles and on the colonization of our county. By the 
treaty of 1784, at Fort .Stanwix again, all the remain- 
der of the land was finally secured. Thus in 1785 all 
the right of soil belonged to the Province. Before 
this right was vested, by an act of 17(59, it was made 
highly penal for any one to settle on lands owned by 
the Indians, or rather not purchased by the authori- 
ties from them. The reason was to prevent the In- 
dian? from becoming open enemies. 

The success of the colony was rapid and great. In 
one year after the arrival of Penu the number of col- 
onists was estimated as high as four thousand. The 
Welsh settled along the Schuylkill, and the Germans 
founded Germantown. The government of Penn had 
been instituted with one great object. This object 
was to secure a place where the religious opinions of 
his sect, the Quakers, might be exemplified ; where 
no enforcement acts of conformity would be in force ; 
and where religious toleration, civil liberty, and unbi- 
ased justice to all men were the worthy, philosophical, 
and Christian doctrines of a practical government. 



Hence not only the colonists knew this, but the red 
men also understood it; and here lor more than two 
generations, the most precarious time in an infai.t 
colony, the whites and the Indians lived in undis- 
turbed harmony. The settlers along the Schuylkill 
and Delaware when they went to lied did not go in 
dreaded expectation of the night. Here the children 
were not in deadly fear at the sight of a painted bar- 
barian. Here the outposts of civilization were not 
marked with piles of ashes, the only remains of a 
cabin reared in difficulty and with hope. That feel- 
ing of security which comes from habit was a fruit 
of the treaty under the great elm at Kensington. 
Hence settlers came flocking in numbers, not only 
from the British Isles and the Low Countries, but 
from other colonial settlements, — from Connecticut, 
from Maryland, from Virginia, from North Carolina, — 
and with those who came in with the laudable desire 
of making a permanent home came others who were 
bent on the making of money. These were the traders 
that followed a business scarcely less honorable than 
the business of Capt. Kidd, — land-sharks and water- 
sharks. 1 They treated with the Indians and they 
clicafed them ; they dealt in contraband goods, and 
they pursued their calling in contravention of the 
instructions of Penn and his plan of dealing with the 
natives. But it must be acknowledged that they were 
an important element in the grand scheme of coloni- 
zation, which with us, after all, is more a matter of 
fact than of theory. 

Under the wise policy instituted by Penn, and car- 
ried out by his successors, the colony grew and flour- 
ished unprecedentedly for more than sixty years. But 
as yet all settlements were •onlined to the east of the 
Susquehanna. 9 

In the early part of the eighteenth century, Alex- 
ander Spottswood, Governor of Virginia, headed an 
expedition which went out to explore the limits of 
their own colony. Frjm the summit of the Allegheny 
Mountains he first looked out upon that vast expanse 
of territory theretofore unknown to the whites. He 
proposed a plan to the British government by which 
they might anticipate the settlement of this portion 
of country before any other of the European nations. 
But, owing to the domestic relations of the govern- 
ment and to the ceaseless war on the continent, the 
colonies were left to see to their own advancement, 
and to protect the interests of the mother-country in 
its most remote boundaries. This politic and far- 
seeing Governor also, in view of the attitude and in 
view of the intention of the French government in 
relation to these colonies, advocated the policy of es- 
tablishing a chain of forts from the lakes to the Mis- 
sissippi, for the attitude of France and of England 
was plainly to be observed. The English saw with 
jealousy the progress of the French on the St. Law- 
rence and the lakes. The French were active in re- 

1 " There be laud rats, and there be water-rats."' — Shi/lock. - 1745. 



16 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



claiming this unoccupied ground which each claimed, 
the French by occupancy and discovery, the Eng- 
lish by original and earlier charters from their own 
monarehs, which charters were, it is true, boundless, 
and took in all the land from the Atlantic to the 
Great South Sea. It is therefore to be noticed that 
the country west of the Allegheny chain was not 
absolutely within the prescribed boundaries of either 
nation. There was, however, a kind of tacit under- 
standing among the individual traders coming into 
these regions under protection of the colonial authori- 
ties directly to the eastward of them. These traders 
occasionally, as early as 1720, ventured as far west as 
Carlisle, and a prominent and fearless one, John 
Frazer, opened a trading-house at Venango, and 
afterward, about 1752, on the Monongahela at where 
Turtle Creek empties. Had these early traders been 
protected by the proprietary government of Pennsyl- 
vania, there is no doubt that the colony would have 
been greatly benefited by it, and that following dis- 
sension, which lasted for many years between the 
government of Pennsylvania and the government of 
Virginia, would not have arisen. But the pacific 
measures which at first were to the advantage of the 
colony were now working a disadvantage to her own 
citizens and an advantage to the French, for the 
colonial system of the French differed greatly from 
that of the English. The French proceeded on a 
fixed policy and on instructions sent out from the 
ministry at Versailles. This policy was enforced by 
Governors of high rank and executed by willing sub- 
ordinates. Instead of many colonial establishments, 
eacl) conflicting with the other on matters arising 
from misunderstood boundaries and from other mat- 
ters growing out of deep-seated prejudices, they had 

ntralized colony, in which all interests were the 

same, and in which their very missionaries took an 
active and an effective part in shaping and control- 
ling. The policy of Penn towards the red men was 
good so long as the red men were left to themselves, 
for his treatment towards them was eminently just; 
but tlie same policy when they were left to the wily 
influence of the French was certainly not to he ad- 
mired. The Indians when moved back step by Step 
con 1.1 not at last understand such justness. And 
they surely had reason, for in several instances they 
were unjustly defrauded of their territory or their 
hunting-grounds ; not, indeed, by the agents of Penn, 
but by their own race, the Indian Yankees of the 
Six Nations, who, representing themselves to be the 
owners of territory which belonged to other tribes, 
drove a thrifty bargain in disposing of it to good ad- 
vantage to the peaceable representatives of the pro- 
prietary. A sufficient instance is that in which this 
confederacy — who would have sold their own land as 
well as the land of their neighbors a dozen times a 
day — ousted the Delaware's from their possessions on 
the head-waters of the Susquehanna. 

But thus it was that through many causes the In- 



dians who claimed these parts were, before the middle 
of the century (1750), confined to their reservation on 
the Ohio River, a name which embraced the river we 
now call Allegheny. Here they were more than ever 
open to the influence of the French, whose base of 
operations was at Montreal. These, with a diplomatic 
policy peculiar to themselves, won the good graces of 
the Indians by representing that they were their only 
friends, and effected an alliance at the expense of rum 
and tobacco, arms for their use and trinkets for their 
amusement. They also succeeded in forming the 
various tribes, each with a local enmity towards the 
other, into one confederacy as against the whites of 
English birth and against their own natural enemies. 
Xo sooner did an English trader open a cabin to deal 
with the natives than he was peremptorily commanded 
by the authority of the King of France to leave. 
Some were treated in a hostile and barbarous manner, 
although there was no open war. The French, de- 
scending the head-waters of the Ohio, at various places 
put up marks to indicate that the country was of the 
dominion of the Christian king. In the mean time 
the English settlements in Pennsylvania were extend- 
ing westward. The traders, who to an extent were 
the pioneers of civilization, preceded them, and 
wherever they could opened a paying trade. The 
proprietary government made no effort to effect settle- 
ments west of the Susquehanna ; and even the method 
of traffic pursued by these traders was not, as we have 
said, countenanced. But in spite of the strongest 
prohibitory enactments and the immediate exertions 
of the Governors themselves there were always many 
ready to risk life and property in pursuit of this 
lucrative calling. In time the succeeding proprieta- 
ries and executives winked at this breach id' faith 
with the Indians. And thus, between the English 
under shadow of the colonial government of this 
province and the French, all the Indian trade was 
monopolized, and at this juncture (1748) the Ohio 
Company was organized. 

Thomas Lee, one of the Council of Virginia, with 
twelve others of Virginia and Maryland and a few 
merchants of London, finned a company with the 
design of effecting settlements in the wild Lands west 
of the Alleghenies, ami under t J i i —. ostensible project 
"l securing part of the Indian trade. Their grant 
embraced a portion of live hundred thousand acres 
lying on the south side of the Ohio between the Mo- 
nongahela and Kanawha Rivers. The privilege was 
reserved to the company of embracing a portion of 
the lands on the north side of the river if deemed ex- 
pedient. The company had several further benefi- 
ciary exemptions, in the nature of freedom from tax- 
ation, on condition of their seating settlers on the 
land within a limited time, and of their building a 
fort and sustaining a garrison to protect the settlement. 
As nothing could he done without the assent of the 
Indians, the government of Virginia was petitioned 
to invite them to a treaty. The company further 



THE FRENCH OCCUPANCY OF FORT DUQUESNE. 



17 



resolved to make roads from the head-waters of the 
Potomac to seme point on the Monongahela, to erect 
houses, and to locate settlements. 

And now commenced a rivalry between the govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania and the government of Vir- 
ginia. Andrew Palmer, president of the Council of 
the proprietary government, on June 23, 1748, gave 
instructions under his hand and seal to Conrad Weiser, 
in which he was to use his utmost diligence to acquire 
a perfect knowledge of the number, situation, dispo- 
sition, and strength of all the Indians about the Ohio, 
whether friends, neutrals, or enemies. Weiser, from 
his knowledge of the language and dispositions of the 
Indians, was eminently fit to treat with them on the 
most favorable terms. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE FRENCH OCCUPANCY OF FORT DUQUESNE. 

Conrad Weiser and George Crogan — Weiser's Report on the Tribes about 
the Oh iu — Their Numbers and their Disposition — King Shingass and 
Queen Alliquippi— Gist's Settlement— George Washington sent by the 
Governor of Virginia to the Indian Tribes— II is First Journey, and the 
Information he Acquired — The Ohio Company cuts Roads, makes Set- 
tlements, elects a Store-House and Foil at Redstone, and takes pus- 
session of the Forks of the Ohio River — Its Soldiers and Men are 
driven away by (tie French, who erect Fort Duquesne — The Governor 
of Virginia reinforces Washington, who retires to the Great Meadows, 
and Fights his First Battle at Foit Necessity— Braddock's Campaign 
projected. 

Weiser, setting out from Berks County, crossed 
the Kiskiminetas and came to the Ohio Aug. 25, 
1748. He was rendered valuable assistance by George 
Crogan, a trader and agent in the interest of the Coun- 
cil, 1 who was settled on Beaver Creek, a few miles 
from where it empties into the Ohio. The number 
of their men and the various tribes of which they 
were composed were learned from themselves, who 
gave Weiser the count in little bundles of twigs or 
sticks tied to represent the several tribes. They had 
in all seven hundred and twenty-nine warriors. The 
Senecas, Wyandots, Delawares, and Shawnees had 
the most. These were chiefly ruled by the Five 
Nations. 

This celebrated confederation, which had brought 
under their domination all the other Indian tribes in 
the middle part of the continent, when they were 
first known to the whites had their council-fires 
about the lakes in New York. Having conceded 
their lands to the whites, they now still held north- 
western Pennsylvania. These five nations were the 
Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, 
and the Senecas. They were sometimes called the 

1 The executive department uf Pennsylvania was composed of the 
Governor and his Council. These were simply advisory. The ontire 
legislative body consisted of a single body uf delegates chosen by the 
people. The Council is not to be understood as an Upper Mouse of the 
Legislature. 



Six Nations after they had admitted into their family 
the Tuscaroras, a tribe which was expelled from 
Carolina in 1712. They were called by the French 
the Iroquois; they called themselves the Mingoes. 
They had been engaged in war from times long be- 
fore they were known to the whites, and such was 
the force of their combination and their love for war 
that all native opposition gave way before them. 
They had, since the Province was in possession of the 
whites, brought under their control the strongest tribe 
known to the early settlers. This was the tribe of 
the Lenni Lenapes, as they called themselves, but 
who are known in history as the Delawares, a name 
they received in honor of Lord de la Warr, for whom 
also the colony of Delaware and the river on which 
they lived when first known were named. The king 
of the Delawaies, Shingass, lived, at Washington's 
first visit, 17"':'., not far from the Allegheny River. The- 
tribe was divided, and some of them always remained 
friendly to the English. The confederation com- 
manded the Shawanese also, a tribe powerful in war, 
and which produced many able warriors, of whom 
Tecumseh and Cornstalk are ranked among the 
highest. Part of the Shawanese and part of the 
Delawares early came to the Ohio for the conven- 
ience of game. Of all single tribes the Shawanese 
was the strongest, and when on the war-path the 
most savage. There were other tribes which had 
dwindled down to insignificant numbers. They all 
lived within neighboring distance of each other, but 
each tribe claimed a distinct hunting ground. One 
tribe which lived between the Turtle Creek and the 
Youghiogheny was under the sway of a woman. 
She was known to the English by the name of Queen 
Alliquippi, and is the same mentioned by Washington 
in his journal of 1753. She appears to have been the 
friend of the English. She had a son who claimed 
the distinguished title of Prophet, and who professed 
to see in the future the realization of the most ro- 
mantic dreams of the red men. 

Weiser found that although a t'uw were favorable to 
the English, and especially to the colonists of Penn- 
sylvania, yet the majority were completely under the 
influence of the French. 

But neither the now active attempts of the govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania nor the attempts of the Ohio 
Company under the patronage of the government of 
Virginia effected anything either in conciliating the 
disaffected Indians or in thwarting the encroachment 
of the French. The latter still persisted in their 
scheme of erecting fortifications in a proposed line 
from their settlements in Canada to their settlements 
at New Orleans. They had erected forts at Presqne 
Isle, 2 in Lake Erie, at Le Boeuf, at Venango. These 
active determinations so quickened the latent spirit 
of the English that Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia 

- Presque Isle is near Erie; Le Boeuf, now Wuterfurd, iu Crawford 
County; Venango, near Franklin ; Venango River, now French Creek ; 
i Duquesne, now Pittsburgh. 



IS 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



s nt a young man of the name of George Washing- 
ton to ask an explanation of their designs. Wash- 
ington came out on this expedition, and on the 22d 
of November, 1753, stopped at Frazer's, at the mouth 
„of Turtle Creek. We should note this incident, that 
Washington was one of the first to tread the wilder- 
ness where now is Westmoreland. He came on his 
route by way of Wills Creek to where (list was settled 
as agent of the Ohio Company. 1 ami thence north- 
west to Shannopin's, the name of an old Indian town 
on the Allegheny, about two miles above the Ohio. 
From here he examined the location at the junction 
of the river, and reported its situation as favorable 
for a fortification. He proceeded to Logstown, 2 where 
he had called a conference of Indians. In all his 
efforts and in his object he was thwarted by the influ- 
ence of the French ; but he acquired a great deal 
of information, learned the number of forts erected 
and projected, with the number of their garrisons ami 
their equipments. On proceeding to Venango he 
there, under the French flag, had an interview with 
the French commander. They there openly disclosed 
to him their design of holding by force against all 
intruders the land which they claimed from the dis- 
covery of La Salle. The council was peremptorily 
brought to a close. On his return he narrowly es- 
caped with his life; once an Indian shot at him from 

t Cii!USToriTF.B GtST— The name of Christopher Gist a model Amer- 
ican pioneer, is inseparably connected with tin- early settlement of 
Western Pennsylvania. We shall frequently allude to him and to his 
servi He was a native of Maryland, and, like his father, 

Kichard, wasa surveyor, tie »;t.".i man of excellent character, ener- 
getic, fearluss, and a thorough woodsman." lid was intimate with the 

fi.it' .1 men oi Maryland and Virginia, and when tin? Ohio Company 

was i '■ employed Gist as their surveyor and agent. In 1750 

In- was sent out h\ i loan to explore and examine the country bordering 
on the Ohio ami its branches. At the time he received the appointment 
he was residing at Vadkin, X. C. tie immediately set out on his object. 
With a i.ii iiud t\\ o horses he arrived at Shunnopin's Town, one of the 
principnl Indian towns in this region, t< which traders resorted or 
at which they had store-honses It was situated on the bank of the 
Allegheny River, now in the Twelfth Ward in the eiiy of Pittsburgh, 
between Penn Avenue, Thirtieth street and Two-Mile Run. About 
twenty Delaware families occupied tin' place, under their chief, shan- 
nopin. Although it wnsasnmll place, it was one of much importance. 
From there !n- went down the Ohio to Beaver Creek, and thence to the 
eastern part* of Ohio Territory. After exploring the Miami Valley, he 
returned to North Carolina by way of Kentucky and Southwestern Vir- 
ginia. In the winter of 1751-5*2 In- was employed by the company in 

exploring the con ntry borderingou Ho- Kbughinghenyand Mo igahela 

and the south Bide <>l the < lliio. Iii the latter part of the summer or fall 
of 17j:i ho commenced a settlement for the company at the place since 
known as Mount Brnddork, in Fayette County. Eleven other families 
settled with him here. This settlement, before Braddock's campaign, 
was the first settlement of the English-American colonists in Western 
Penns*, [vania. From Wills Creek (Cumberland, Md.) Gist accompanied 
Washington as his guide to Venango. 

s Logstown wasa cluster of log houses built by the French for the In- 
dians. They had a trading-house here, and here many conferences were 

held. There has great dispute arisen lately as to the exact location of 
th'/ place, some contending that it was situated on the north side anil 

son. be Bouth s ii'.ii tie' oiiio. Both sides produce good authorities 

for their position. The fact ap| - to he that there were two Log-towns 

dire llv opposite each other, one on either side of the river, mid one 
older than the other. The older le>g-tow n appears from good authority 
to have heen situated on the north side ol the river.and whether there 

was 01 was not another Logstown is not material. 



the distance of fifteen paces ; and again in attempting 
to cross the Allegheny, then floating witlt ice. 

He relates in his journal an amusing incident of his 
return. He stopped to see Queen Alliquippi. She 
hail expressed concern at their passing her by and not 
calling. To ease her lacerated feelings he presented 
her with a watchcoat and a bottle of rum, and he 
states that the latter was the more acceptable present, 
and that it entirely mollified her indignation. 

But nevertheless the Ohio Company still contin- 
ued their movements in the West. They had built 
a block-house at Redstone, now Brownsville, and in 
the spring of 1754 made arrangements to take perma- 
nent possession of the country about the forks of the 
Ohio. About the middle of February, Trent, Gist, 
and several others arrived at this point, and there 
waited on more, to the number of seventy or eighty, 
to come down the river, the Monongahela, on which 
Redstone Old Fort was built. They began the forma- 
tion of a redoubt. Before their work was finished a 
French officer, Contrecoeur, with a thousand French 
and Indians and eighteen pieces of cannon, arrived 
from Venango. They compelled Ensign Ward, com- 
mandant in the absence of Trent, to surrender. This 
was the first open act of a war which desolated the 
colonies for nine years, and which agitated both con- 
tinents, but which in the end resulted in favor of the 
English, and so shaped the destinies of these colonies 
that they in time equaled in dominion and in power 
either the empire of King George or the empire of 
King Louis. 

The French, taking possession of this disputed 
point, built a fort, which they called Fort Duquesne, 
after the Governor of Canada. They expended much 
labor upon it and made it a strong fortification ; but 
it was never submitted to the ordeal of a siege. They 
made to themselves a stronger defense by the alliance 
of the natives, whom they drew to their interest by 
favorable treaties. They summoned all the neigh- 
boring tribes together and loaded them with presents, 
guns and ammunition, blankets and heads. And now 
occurring the treaty of 1754, the alienation of the In- 
dians was made complete./ This treaty was held at 
Albany by order of the king. This had been recom- 
mended by the Lords of Trade and Plantations, that 
all the provinces might be comprised in one treaty. 
Thus we see how that the interests of all the prov- 
inces were affected, and how the subsequent war be- 
came one common to all. 

The action of the Ohio Company in attempting to 
build a fort tit the Forks of the Ohio River was under 
authority and assistance of the Virginia government. 
Governor Dinwiddie, representing the necessity of 
this procedure, issued a proclamation for recruits. 
To such as entered the service he gave a bounty 
of land, appropriating for this purpose two hundred 
thousand acres on the east side of the Ohio. Under 
these claims lands were held in the southwestern part 
of the State; but not all, for some were held by mili- 



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THE FRENCH OCCUPANCY OF FORT DUQUESNE. 



10 



tarv permit, and some under the land titles of the 
colony of Virginia, but all under the belief that the 
jurisdiction of that colony covered this debatable 
ground. 

— "IJn t it was not in the nature of those English-Amer- 
ican colonists to so easily give in to the demands of 
an enemy, howsoever well or ill those demands might 
be founded. And the Governor of Virginia, determin- 
ing on securing the site so advantageously pointed 
out by Washington, had in the mean time sent out 
two companies subject to Washington's orders./ Capt. 
Trent, with one company, had preceded Washington, 
wdio was at Wills Creek when he got information of 
the surrender of Ensign Ward. Washington knew 
that it was impossible that he could take the position 
lost, but he resolved to proceed to Redstone, and there 
fortify himself till the arrival of reinforcements. He 
hewed a road through the wilderness and over the 
mountains on an old Indian trail which crossed to the 
Potomac, and which was pointed out by a friendly 
Indian in his service called Nemacolin. At the 
Youghiogheny he was stopped for want of a bridge. 
This was about half the distance to the Redstone. 
He here found that the French were advancing to 
meet him. He therefore hastened on with the pur- 
pose of intercepting them at a place called the Great. 
Meadows, which location he knew to be a favorable 
one for his security. 1 At the dawning of the day on 
the 28th of May, 1754, they saw the French erecting 
their tents in a retired valley. A detachment was 
ordered to surround them; both then fired upon the 
enemy at the same instant. Their leader was killed, 
and all, with the exception of one that escaped, were 
captured. A stockade was here erected, the reinforce- 
ments came in in due time, and Washington, by the 
death of Col. Fry, the commander of the expedition, 
was left in sole command. 

Washington was at this time but twenty-two years 
of age,/ but his nature was of a calm, calculating, 
and heroic kind. \,He learned from his Indian spies 
that reinforcements had arrived at Fort Duquesne. 
It was therefore impossible for him to take it. He 
retired to his stockade now called Fort Necessity, 
and there awaited the approach of the enemy. They 
had scarcely secured themselves when they were 
attacked by fifteen hundred French and Indians. 
Nearly all day in the heart of the wilderness the 
battle raged. So well did Washington defend his 
handful of men that they were accorded unwonted 
terms by a capitulation, and allowed to return to 
their homes, marching off in military order with 
their baggage, j 

England and France were now enemies, and the 
British government resolved on opposing the French 
in America by aggressive movements. Reinforce- 
ments of royal regulars were sent to the colonies. 
A plan of campaign was adopted, and in this cain- 

1 See Note 2, page 21. 



paign three expeditions were organized. The first, 
under command of Gen. Edward Braddock, com- 
mander-in-chief, was to operate against, Fort Du- 
quesne ; the second, under Gen. Shirley, against Fori 
Niagara and Frontenac; the third, under Gen. 
Johnson, against Crown Point. 

The campaign of Gen. Braddock, and the particu- 
lars connected with it, are perhaps better known to us 
than any other incident in our historical annals. 
This local interest has been heightened by the 
national interest attached to it. In this campaign 
Washington first served with something more than 
ordinary distinction. The magnificent inception of 
this expedition, the first extensive campaign of reg- 
ular troops with modern artillery for a battle with tin- 
aborigines and their allies; the great expectations 
formed upon its success; the bloody conflict; the 
lamentable death of the veteran general flushed with 
military enthusiasm; the mild, gentlemanly, and 
heroic behavior of the young Virginia colonel; the 
rout and retreat; the burying of the body of their 
commander at midnight, when, as some will roman- 
tically have it, the slender Washington, by the un- 
certain light of torches, read the office of the dead ; 
the care taken by the army to hide his resting-place 
from the savages by making his grave in the mad, 
that the army wagons driven over it would make it 
imperceptible, with many more incidents, have hen 
often dwelt upon, and have become to us quite familiar. 
We will not, therefore, impose upon good nature by 
being tediously prolix, for we are unable at this day 
to develop any new facts worthy of notice. 

The Province of Pennsylvania was blamed for not 
taking a more active part in Braddock's campaign. 2 
As the contingent of forces from the Province was not 
authorized to assist in this expedition, the blame 
seemed more reprehensible or more apparent. The 
troops from Pennsylvania were sent to Gen. Shirley, 
and nearly one whole regiment was recruited, mostly 
from the western counties. The colony raised a num- 
ber of horses and wagons, and opened a road from 
Fort Louden through Bedford to Fort Cumberland. 
This was the most westerly road in the Province. 
Three hundred men were ordered to be employed >>n 
this road. The Assembly also gave a full share of 
funds. The lack of more active measures was not so 
much due to the spirit of the colonists as to the un- 
willingness of the hereditary Governors. 

"- Much undesi rved opprobrium hue beer cast upon Pennsylvania f'T 
her backwardness in offering assistance to Brnddnck. The Governor*, 
under instruction of ilie proprietories, would not sanction <>i nppt 
' any 1 iw to raise revenue which would tax the estates or the prop] letaries. 
Hence the Assembly refused to appropriate funds or raise ami equip 
troops so long as these unjust exceptions were insisted npou. Common 
danger and the wild cries of the people after the defeat of Braddock, 

under the administration of a new Governor, harmonized tl interests. 

Although this Is a matter not of local interest, it is well to In- known and 
not forgotten. 



20 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER III. 
BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. 

Braddock's Forces at Fort Cumberland— He cornea np the Ohio Com- 
pany's Road, piloted by Washington— Opens the Road to the Youghio- 
gheny, and through our part of Westmoreland to the MouongahelH ; 
after crowing which River the Army, in ;i 1>> file on the South Bank 
above Turtle Creek, is Surprised by Hie French Canadians and Indians 
from the Fort— Tho Number of the Enemy and their Leaders— The 
Virginians cover the Retreat of the British — Washington carries off 
the Army— The Route, Courses, and Distances of the March — Huw 
the Trail may he found at this Day— Effect of Braddock'a Defeat on 
the Pennsylvania Col mists— The Bat tie-Ground visited by Soldieis 
under Forbes Three Years after the Battle— The Appearance of the 
Field. 

This campaign may be briefly summed up. 1 Brad- 
dock, on the 20th of April, 1755, left his camp at 
Alexandria, on the Potomac, in Virginia, and took 
up his march towards Fort Duquesne. After stopping 
some days at Fredericktown, Md., he marched by 
way of Winchester, Va., to Fort Cumberland, on 
Wills Creek, where he arrived on the 10th or* May. 
He was hen' delayed by reason of the neglect of the 
Pennsylvania authorities in furnishing him the ne- 
cessary wagons and horses needful for the transporta- 
tion of his stores and munitions of war. 2 On the 
day of their arrival, in general orders the appoint- 
ment of Washington as aide-de-camp to the general 
was proclaimed to the army. 3 He here reviewed his 
army, and expressed confidence and pride in the scarlet 
coats, the bright buttons, the brilliant musket-barrels. 



1 Orders were is*ued from the Britinh ministry in 1754, to the Gov- 
ernors of the provinces, directing them to resort to force to drive the 
French intruders from their station on the Ohio. 

On the Mih of Jnuuiiry, 175o r Maj.-Geu. Sir Edward Braddock, who 
bad won great distinction a- ;m able and brave officer and a strict dlsu- 
nlinarfftii, and who had been appointed commander-in-chief of all tbe 
kind's forces in America, tailed from Cork, Ireland, with two regiment a 
of royal troops. Each regiment mi inhered five hundred men. One, 

the Forty- fourth, was under Col, D tar; the other, the Forty-eighth, 

was undei Sir Peter Halket. They arrived ;it Alexandria, Va. t on the 
BULll of February, 1735. 

\ I i council held at the camp at Alexandria, which was attended by 

rontons of the middle and northern colonies, three expeditions 

ion, the first against Fort DuqiiPBiie, under com maud 

1 duck in [lerson; tho second agaiust Niagara and Frontenae, 

under Gen. Sliirlej (Governor of Massachusetts); the third against 

Crown Point, under Gen. William Johnson. 

- The whole camp ligu was planned with want of foresight, not to say 
in ignorance. Of -ill places fin* a base of supplies for an aggressive cam- 
paign, Alexandria was the U-t to be considered. Tho country through 
which the army passed could furnish neither provisions nor carriage. 
In Pennsylvania the conflii i between the Executive and the Assembly 
was of such a natui e and had reached such a height that the confidence 
of the inhabitants was so shaken as to overlook any inducements held 
out by tho Governors for them '" contribute in the absence of leg sla- 
tivs enactment; for, as we have said, the Governors were instructed by 
ih" proprietaries not to sanction any bill for raising revenue or supplies 
unless their estates were exonerated. It is will known that Benjamin 
Franklin, on ins imiiviiln.il responsibility , secured a supply of wagons 
and horses from fork and Lancaster Counties, and the necessary 
to move the army and the supplies. There were no Pennsylvania 
troops with Braddock ; most of those from this. Province in that war were 
with Gen, Shirley. 

3 Braddock had orders from the king, dated at st. James, Nov.12, 
17-54, respecting the rank of the colonial officers, by which he was to 
suffer no American field-officer to take command of even a battalion of 
<: •louj.ti troops. Washington hud resigned in i onscquence of this order, 

■Sparks, vol, ii. p. G8. 



the red cross of St. George, and the blare of the trum- 
pets that echoed through the woods. He had with him 
about a thousand regulars, — royal troops, whose perfect 
movements had helped to make the reputation of that 
wonderful machine which had marched across the 
Peninsula,— thirty sailors from the fleet of Admiral 
Kepple, whose squadron had transported the royalists, 
and about twelve hundred provincials, mostly from 
Virginia and New York. In addition to these he was 
joined by about a hundred and fifty Indians and fron- 
tiersmen from the back regions of Pennsylvania, who 
were dressed like Indians, and who fought after the 
Indian fashion. These had been encouraged by the 
colonists to come, and had they been accepted would 
have been of good service as scouts. Of these forty 
to fifty were friendly Del aw ares from under the fa- 
mous Sca-roo-ya-da, a steadfast friend of Washington 
and the Americans. Crogan, the interpreter, and 
" Captain Jack," 4 with his bordermen, were also of 
them ; but the offer of their services was rejected 
with indignation, and they were rather despised than 
appreciated. Some of these, for the mere love of war 
or bound by promise, and full of hatred towards the 
French and their allies, remained in the skirts of t lie 
army, and later on that day of disaster did service 
never to be forgotten, while the rest, with a mutual 
disgust at the regular gentry, retired to their moun- 
tain fastnesses, and remained inactive during the 
campaign. 5 

4 This "Captain Jack" was one of tin- most peculiar outgrowths of bor- 
der tunes. There is a romantic interest attached to his name, ospe [ally 
in the Cumberland district of this State, where his name is lo ulizod, 
What follows here is on the authority of that eminent antiquary and 
in ist reliable local liistoiian, Mr. I. I>. liupp, whoso reputation For ac- 
curacy is of the highest [History t\f Cumberland County ] 

,L Between 1750 and 17-% there figured a character of some note in Cum- 
berland County. Captain Jack, Hie 'Black Hunter,' the 'Black Rifle,' 
the ' Wild Hunter of the Juniata,' the ' Black Hunter of the Forest,' was 
a white man. He entered the woods with a few enterprising compan- 
ions, built his cabin, cleared a little land, ami amused himself with the 
pleasures of fishing and hunting. He felt happy, for lie had not a rare. 
IJut uiie evening, when lie returned from a day of pport, he found his 

cabin burnt, and his « ife and children murdered. From that moi it 

he forsook civilized man, lived in enves, protected the frontier hi habit- 
ants from the Indians, and Be zed every opportunity For revenge that 
He was a terror to the Indians, a protector to the white*. On 
one ocension, near Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a family was 
suddenly awakened by the report of a gun. They jumped from their 
huts, and by the glimmering light from their chimney *aw an Indian 
full to ris»- no mure. Tin- open door exposed to view the ' Wild Hunter. 1 
' I saved your lives,' he cried, then turned and was buried in the gloom. 
He never shot without good cause. II j* look wiiBas unerring as bis aim. 
lie formed an association to defend thesettlers against savage aggression. 
On a given signal they would unite. Then' exploits were heard of in 

175G on the Con cheague and Juniata. Ue was sometimes called the 

'Half-Indian;' mid Col Armstrong, in a letter to the Governor, says, 
' The company under the command of the Half-Indian having left the 
Great Cove, the Indians took advantage and murdered ninny.' He also, 
through Col. Crogan, proffered his aid to Braddock. ' lie will march 
wiili his hunters,' says the c lonel; 'they are dressed in hunting-shirts, 
mnccasjns, etc., are well armed, and Are equally regardless of beat and 
cold. They require no shelter for the night ; they ask no pay.' What 
was tin- real name of this mysterious personage lias never been ascer- 
tained. It is supposed that be gave the name to 'Jack's Mountain,' — an 
ennui ing and appropriate mohuinont." 

& There appears to be a slight variation in the statements of various 
writers respecting the number of Indians engaged on Bruddock's Mile 



BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. 



21 



From here on the 27th of May were sent out five 
hundred men under Sir John St. Clair 1 and Maj. 
Chapman to open the road to the Little Meadows, 
which road had previously been marked out by Wash- 
ington and his friendly Indian, Nemacolin, and after- 
wards used by the Ohio Company. The army was 
divided into two brigades; Halket commanded one, 
Dunbar the other. On the 8th of June the first bri- 
gade under Halket took up its march, and two days 
after the main body under Braddock followed. On 
the seventh day after he had started thence he reached 
the Little Meadows, at the foot of the Allegheny 
Mountains, on the western side, whither St. Clair had 
arrived. A small fort erected here was to be a new 
base of operations and a new station for supplies. 3 

Here was held a council ; and here for the first 
time was the advice of the "Young Buckskin," as 
Braddock called Washington, listened to. He had 
advised that the army dispense with the cumbrous 
wagons, which undoubtedly would retard their march, 
and proceed from Cumberland with pack-horses, as 
the route was mountainous and the way difficult. The 
march hither had shown the correctness of his obser- 
vations. They had found it difficult to get the wagons 
along at all, and the train being from three to four 
miles long took too many men to guard them, who in 
so doing were so separated that an attack at any one 
point would be dangerous to the entire army. He 
here renewed the advice that the heavy artillery and 
baggage remain with a portion of the army and fol- 
low with easy marches, but that the portion of the 
army effective for fighting, lightly equipped, with a 
few pieces of light cannon and such stores as were 
necessary, should press forward to the enemy's fort. 
The advice was agreed with, and the army was again 
divided for safety and efficiency. Twelve hundred 
men with twelve pieces of artillery, selected from the 
different corps, under Braddock himself, with Halket 
and his veterans, preceded Dunbar and Chapman, who 
were to follow by slower and more easy marches with 
the residue of the two regiments, some independent 
companies, the heavy artillery and baggage. 

Braddock then set forward from the Little Meadows 
on the 19th of June, taking with him their thirty car- 
riages, including those which were used for the am- 
munition, and a train of pack-horses, upon whose 

during the war. There w< re without donht some w ho 'ii<l effective ser- 
vice, which i> attested by Washington [see Sparks], and by the records 
of a council lulil at Philadelphia, Aug. 15, 1755, whereat Governor 
Morris said, ■' Brethren of tin- six Nations, you that an- now here, viz. : 
Scnrrooyndy [ami five other chiefs named], fought under Gen. Braddoi k, 
anil behaved with spirit ami valor during the engagement.' 1 

1 Sir John St. Clair was quartermaster-general of the army. 

- The Little Meadows were at the foot of Meadow Mountain. The Great 
Meadow s were about thirty-one miles farther west, ami near the eastern 
foot of Laurel Hill. The Great Meadows mark the site of Foil Necessity, 
the early scene of Washington's youthful glory. This is the Fayette 
County legion. By "Little Crossings" is meant the ford at Casselmnn's 
River, one of the three streams which form the Turkey Foot, now Con- 
fluence. Somerset Co. The "Great Crossings" was the pas age of the 
Youghiogheny itself. The Little Crossings were two miles west of the 
Little meadows, ami the Great Crossings seventeen miles further west. 



backs were borne the baggage and provisions. But 
they proceeded slowly. On the 23d. their fourth 
day out, they reached the Youghiogheny at the I treat 
Crossings, only nineteen miles' distance. The route 
from here to the Great Meadows, or Fort Necessity, 
was not difficult. On the .'.nth of June they crossed 
the Youghiogheny the second time at about a mile or 
so below where Counellsville now stands. Now in the 
wilderness, and no road to go by, they appear to have 
lost their bearings. 3 On the 3d of July a council was 



» The tortuous course of Braddock through Westmoreland cannot he 
accounted fur. He seems to have wandered around like a lost man. 
For the cause of this we venture an explanation. Washington, more 

than any other man, was the ( ilot of that expedition. lie knew the 
topography of this section of country better than any man of bis 'lay. 
For his pre-eminent fitness ami special knowledge Braddock was in- 
duced to give him tin- appointment he did. Now tit the Little Meadows 

Washington was taken down w ith a lever, and was left at Col. Dutlbnl 's 
camp unable to proceed farther. He, led by the destiny that leadssuch 
men through the world, lejoined Braddock the day before the battle, in 
time only to stive the army from total destruction, lie says in a letter 
(Sparks, vol. ii. r- 85), "On the Sth of July I rejoined in n covered 

wagon the advance division of the army, under tho immediate cot and 

or the General. On the'Jth I attended him on horseback, though very 
low and weak." 

As the unite of Bradilock's army is a matter of such local interest, we 
tire able at this day to follow him over the wheat-fields and among the 
orchards of Westmoreland. 

The army first kept on the dividing ridge between the Tough and 
Cheat Rivers. About a mile west of tho Great Meadows, and near the 
spot of Braddoek's grave, the road diverged to the northeast to strike 
the pass through the Laurel Hill, and to cross the Yonghiogheuy at a 
crossing known afterward as Stewart's Crossing, about a mile below 

Connellsville. They were now off their direct route, which evidently 
lay along the river, and were in a wilderness. The road next crossed 
Jacobs Creek at the place known as Welshhanse's Mill (later Tinstmnu's 
Hill), about a mile and a half below Mount Pleasant, iii Fast Hunting- 
don township ; crossed over the Mount Pleasant ami West New ton turn- 
pike below Mount Pleasant, leaving it on the right; thence in a direc- 
tion a littlo more westerly it crossed tin- Big Sewickley near Painter's 

Salt- Weeks, now marked hy tin- line of the Southwest Bail way, ulld the 
point probably between Pniuterville and Ruffsdale stations; thence 
nearly due north, crossing and recrossing the Pittsburgh and Greens- 
burg turnpike between Greensburg and Irwin, leAving Madi&On arid 
Jacksonville on the north and east till it reaches the Brush Crei k fork 
of Turtle Creek. 

It appears by tracing the route on the map that the ooni-o ft om Con- 
nellsville to a di-tance beyond Mount Pleasant is entirely out of the 
direction of Fort Dminesiie from there. This became apparent to Brad- 
dock on the 7th of July, when be bad doubts, and when, as before 
stated, after reflection and examination, he turned into the Long Bun 
Valley near Stewartsville, passing by a mill-seat on that run known 
since that time as Sampson's Mill. 

From the manuscript journal of a soldier who accompanied Bad-lock", 
which lias been exhumed from the King's Library, London, where it 
was deposited, we quote the following, recorded while the army was 
within the limits of our county. The diary for a few days before ami 
after the battle may he found at length in Craig's " Pittsburgh :" 

"On July 4th they marched six miles to Thicket ly Bull, on the Gth 

they marched six miles to 'Monakatuca Camp, 1 called thus from the 
death of Monnkatnca's son, who was shot and killed by a party of In- 
dians. The line of carryitig-bors.-s extended a great length, ami it was 
almost impossible to keep them from 'insults,' so that the teamsters car- 
lied fire-locks. The disposition or arrangement of these horses roried 

a] st every day, bur the most common practice was to let them remain 

on the ground an hour after the march began under a guard of one hun- 
dred men. By thus doing there was no confusion. When the roads per- 
mitted they were allowed to march on the flanks, bet ween the pickets and 
a line of soldiers ; but when it was rocky, and they were close together, 
they were made to fall in the rear. There were parties on the thinks 
at all times and a guard behind. On the 7th they tried to pass Turtle 
Creek about twelve miles from its mouth to avoid 4 The Narrows ;' but 



22 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



held at Jacobs Creek to consider the propriety of 
bringing forward Col. Dunbar with the reserves. Sir 
John St. Clair urged this, but it was rejected on what 
was regarded sufficient grounds. On the 7th of July 
Braddock was in doubt as to the proper way of pro- 
ceeding. The crossing of Brush Creek, which he had 
now reached, appeared to be attended with so much 
hazard that reconnoitring-parties were sent forward.' 
After an examination of the ground he diverged to 
the left, passed down the valley of Long Pain, and 
after one of the best marches of the campaign camped 
for the night in a favorable depression between that 
stream and Crooked Run, about two miles from the 
Monongahela. This was about four miles from the 
battle-ground. Their camp-fires were here watched 
all night by their enemies hid in the bushes. In the 
morning they approached the Monongahela down the 
valley of the Crooked Run, and forded the river below 
the junction of the Youghiogheny, where now is Mc- 
Keesport. The advance, under Lieut.-Col. Gage, 
passed over the ford about eight o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 9th of July, and continued along by the 
foot of the hills bordering the broad river-bottom to 
the second fording of the Monongahela, which when 
crossed again to the north side left a direct route to 
the fort. Cage passed over this second ford at about 
the same time the rear of the main division had come 
oul safely from the first. Many had given up all ex- 
pectation of meeting the enemy until they came to 
the fort, and they had some reason to feel elated in 
spirit. The most exact discipline was rigidly main- 
tained. Washington said afterward that the army 
marching along this bottom was one of the finest 
sights be ever saw. The soldiers were neatly dressed, 
they marched in columns, the musket-barrels reflected 
the summer morning's sun, the broad tranquil river 
on their right hand, the high hills, with green foliage 
to their tops, on their left hand. 

line liny came to n precipice which it was impossible to descend. Sir 
John St. Clair, with a captain and one hnndred men, some Indian 
unities, and Borne light-horse, reconnoltered." The Narrows were de- 
scribed by tin- guides to be a narrow pass of about two miles in length, 
with the river on the left anil high mountains on the right. With hard 
labor it could have been made lint barely possible for carriages Si. 
Giair, upon returning, informed the general that he had found a ridge 
which led the whole way to Duquesne, and which avoided the Narrows 
and Frasser'a, but that some work to he done vet made it impossible to 

more that day. Tiny then encamped there, and the next morning 
marched about eight miles to tin- camp at the Monongahela. 
The following orders nre preserved in this diary: 

"ORDERS AT MoSAKATVCA CaMP, 

"If it should be ordered to advance the van or send hack the rear- 
guard, the advanced parties detai bed from them are to remain at their 
posts facing outwards. 

"Whenever there is a general halt, half of each of the subaltern's 

advanced parties are to remain under arms with fixed bayonets facing 

outwards, and tile other half may sit down by their arms." 
"Orders AT Tin; Camp ni:\u !M inoxoaiiei.a. 
" All the men are. to draw and clean their pieces, anil tiie whole are to 

load to-morrow on the heating of 'the general' with fresh cartridges. 
" No tents or baggage are to be taken with Lieut.-Col. (.'age's party." 
1 Some of these advanced solar as to kill a French officer within half 

a mile of Fort Unijuesne. 



It was about noon when the second or main division 
began to cross after Gage. They were now about only 
ten miles from the fort, and the spirit of the men 
was at the highest. The trail which they followed 
coming out of the river led through a gradually rising 
plain to the hills beyond. This plain, or bottom, 
some four to six feet above the water of the river, ex- 
tended from the river about half a mile. Where the 
route crossing this entered the hills a deep ravine ran 
along each side, which ravines, running from either 
side of the rising ground, came nearly together near 
the top of the hill like the two sides of a letter " A." 
The surface beyond the plain was rocky, and upon till 
sides except that next the river was covered with high 
grass, bushes, and large forest-trees. In these ravines 
and along the banks rising irregularly from them the 
enemy were lying in wait and quietly watching them. 
At that crossing on the north side was Frazer's 
trading-house, near the mouth of Turtle Creek, where 
Washington had stopped on his first journey. Here 
the troops under Gage who were not employed in 
making the banks en their side of the river passable 
for the artillery and beasts, drawn up in order, were 
waiting for Braddock to come up. As the main body 
arrived they drew up the artillery ami baggage and 
huddled the cattle and park-horses along the beach 
until the opposite bank was cut down. The advance- 
guard in this way covered the passages of all the 
streams. About one o'clock the first detachment of 
the Forty-fourth Regiment, with their pickets, passed 
over; the artillery-wagons and carrying-horses fol- 
lowed, then the detachment of the Forty-eighth, 
with their pickets, who had guarded the heights Lack 
of the beach. 

At one o'clock all had crossed and the line of march 
had been arranged again. The advance-guard of some 
three hundred under Gage took up their march, then 
followed a column of workmen, two hundred and 
fifty, under Sir John St. Clair. They were to march on 
till three o'clock, the general following with the main 
body, the artillery, and the light baggage. The line 
began to thread out. Pickets were ordered on either 
side. While the rearguard were yet shaking the 
water from their clothes, the advance-guard under 
Gage had entered the rising hills beyond the plain. 
Both the advance-guard, under Gage, and the next 
division, under Halket, were within the inclosure 
represented by the two sides of the letter " A," — that 
is to say, the two ravines rising with the ground and 
approaching together at the top. On a sudden, a 
rattling volley id' musketry, seemingly out of the 
earth, as no enemy was to be seen, was poured into 
the laces of those who were in the lead. The next 
instant into their right flank came another volley. 
The firing in the front continued excessive, quick, 
and heavy. The line was ordered to halt, and Lieut.- 
Col. Burton was ordered forward with the vanguard 
of the. main division. Thus eight hundred men were 
detached from the line, and four hundred were left 



TBRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. 



23 



for defense of the artillery and baggage. The firing 
continuing, Braddock moved forward, leaving Halket 
in cure of the reserves. The fire was returned by 
those in front, but with no effect, yet the enemy sus- 
tained a continuous and murderous discharge. The 
British could see nothing to shoot at, while their 
men were falling all round. The advance in great 
confusion fell back. Braddock and his officers has- 
tened forward, but they were met by the broken ranks 
fleeing bleeding towards them. The attack was so 
sudden and so destructive, and the panic that seized 
upon these was so terrible, that before they knew it all 
— artillery, infantry, pioneers, baggage — were in an 
inextricable mass. As the advance column were 
driven back the force guarding the baggage in the 
clearing was attacked. These seeing the rest of the 
army driven back in terror scattered. Many of the 
wagon-dnvers and teamsters were killed, many others 
cutting loose their horses fled on their backs across 
the river. The cannon did little execution, for the 
enemy availed themselves of the cover of the heavy 
woods, in which they were screened and protected. 
As the British and Americans were on the open place, 
and the French and Indians in the woods, every good 
position was speedily taken up by these, not only in 
the front, but on the sides of the army, and from these 
positions they fired upon every part, for every part of 
the army was exposed. But as yet the enemy were 
not to be seen, nor did they show themselves until the 
retreat began. 

The general was a soldier who did not know fear, 
and his officers, although not so rash as he, were 
equally as brave. Once Burton headed, by command 
of his general, about one hundred royalists of the 
Forty-eighth, whom he prevailed with to follow him 
towards a rising ground on the right; but after they 
had readied the place, he, disabled by wounds, and his 
men seeing nothing but the prospect of death, turned 
about and fled. No words, no' promises, no threats 
could now avail along the line. The noise of the 
army in that slaughter-pen was so horrific that those 
who escaped never had the recollection of it driven 
away. The cries of anguish of the men mingled with 
the shouts and entreaties of the officers. The shouts 
and ravings of terror, pain, despair, fear, chagrin, 
madness, ascended within the circle of red fire, with 
the howls of the Indians, the clashing of arms, the ir- 
regular rattling and thudding of musketry and cannon. 
Thus they stood, the survivors said, for three hours, 
— but long enough, — huddled together like sheep, 
sometimes in a mass, sometimes in separate bodies, 
all the time receiving the fire from the rocks and the 
trees. In such confusion many were killed by their 
own men, more indeed than by the enemy. Thus it 
happened to the provincials whom Washington 
ordered to fight after the manner of the border war- 
fare. A brave Virginian, Capt. Waggoner, seeing 
that if he could secure a certain spot on a rising 
ground where lay a fallen tree of great thickness, his 



command might possibly turn the fortune of the day, 
with eighty provincials he clambered up to it with 
the loss of only three, and when by a well-directed 
fire from such a secure position he was dislodging a 
body of Indians in the bottom beyond, the British, 
taking the smoke of his guns for the sign of an 
enemy, fired upon his company by platoons, and they 
were compelled to fall back, leaving him and fifty 
of his eighty men on the ground. 

When it was seen to be impossible to make his men 
advance, Braddock endeavored to get them to retreat 
in good order, for they now, wild, bewildered, and 
dazed, were firing their ammunition in the air and 
turning upon their officers. Two-thirds of the killed 
and wounded in this fatal action received their shots 
from the cowardly and panic-stricken royalists. 1 It 
was no longer a battle, it was a butchery. By this 
time half the army that had crossed the river were 
killed or wounded, many of the best officers had been 
cut down, and the general, after having live horses 
shot under him, received, whether at the bauds of 
friend or foe never to be known, a mortal wound. 2 

No panic was more complete. The desolate cries 
of the wounded, exposed to the fire of their own 
brethren, were, as terrible as the unearthly yells of the 
unleashed savages. The royal regulars, when they 
had shot away their ammunition, were the first to 
run. All orders henceforth were either not minded 
or were disobeyed. All by one consent left the field; 
many threw away their guns, and disencumbered 
themselves of their habiliments. Some of the soldiers 
followed the example of the wagoners, and loosing 
the horses galloped off on their backs. They, intent 
mi saving their own lives, deserted their comrades, and 
left all their artillery, stores, and the ammunition in 
their carriages. With difficulty Washington, his coat 
full of bullet-holes, covered the retreating army with 
his provincials. With the utmost difficulty, too, it 
was that the wounded general and bis wounded officers 
were carried off the field by the few who had not for- 
saken them. Braddock was carried in his scarf. The 
road to Col. Dunbar's camp on the top of Laurel Hill, 

1 Washington's letter to Governor Dinwiddle. — Sparfo, vol. ii. p. SS. 

* Tho stories of particular persons having sliot Braddock are not of 
late origin. We do not credit the Fayette County " Faucet" story. The 
same Kind of a story was related by a Mr. Daniel Adam-, of Kewbiiry, 
who was regarded as a good authority, and who in tiro Keirburypart HisroM 
of 1643 told what he had heard from a Capt. fllslmry, who was witli Sir 
William Johnson. This captain had become acquainted with a man who 
had served under Braddock, who had told him that a captain in that 
expedition, after many others had done the same thing, appealed to 
Braddock advising him to retreat, and that Braddock immediately shot 
him down. This captain had a brother who was a lieutenant, ami who 
was near at the time, and who saw his brother fall ; that this lieutenant 
raised Ins carbine and shot Braddock ; this occurrence several saw, hut 
lame told ; that Braddock wore a coat of mail in front, and only a hall 

from behind could have killed him. This narrative was believed and 
credited as authentic for a long time, and even inserted into creditable 
histories; this too, in the face of the inharmonious narrative, egre- 

giously lame, to wit, that the same French officer (D eskau> who com- 
manded against Johnson had the year previous defeated Braddock. We 
place the Stewart-Faucet story in the same category. This narrative I 
have taken from an old paper into which the original was copied. 



24 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



thirty-six miles away, was strewn with accoutrements. 
The dead and the dying, all baggage, the money chest, 
the cattle, and the small-arms were left to the enemy, 
who, emerging from their hiding-places, took posses- 
sion of the field. A small body of Indians dogged 
the rear of the retreating army down to the river- 
bank, and killed and wounded some as they were in 
the water, but further they did not pursue or harass 
the terrified fugitives on the road. Nevertheless their 
victory was complete. 

An attempt was made on the south side of the river 
to stop the disordered men and form some of the sol- 
diers into a force to cover the retreat. Braddock and 
some other wounded officers remained there a con- 
siderable time, indeed until the rest had all gone by. 
He still gave his orders from his litter, and directed 
Washington to speed to Dunbar with orders to send 
aid for the wounded, and with a small force to meet him 
on the way. At this side of the first crossing of the 
Monongahola he was joined by Gage, who had rallied 
a company. This was all of the army left; the rest 
were lying on the battle-field, or were along the 
road. These marched all night and the next day, 
and on the following night at about ten o'clock came 
to Gist's, where they halted to dress the wounded 
and refresh the men. 

When the army was collected at the station of Col. 
Dunbar it was in numbers still formidable; but its 
spirit was broken, and no attempt was again made 
to march into the enemy's country or to retrieve 
their lost fortunes. The panic was infectious, and all 
discipline was forgotten among even those wdio had 
not been engaged in the battle. They hid their heavy 
cannon in holes in the ground, and made no effort to 
maintain that post. They did not rest easily till 
they got back to Fort Cumberland. 

The ball that met Braddock penetrated through his 
arm and lung. He lived four days after he was 
wounded. During this time when he was talked to 
In gave orders, but he rapidly sank into a stupor, 
and his thoughts and expressions were mostly wan- 
dering. In the night-time, after a long silence, he 
said, audible to those around, although in a medi- 
tating manner and as speaking with himself, " Who 
would have thought it! Who would have thought 
it!" He remained silent again, or at most talked 
incoherently. On the fourth day, immediately before 
he died, he said, " We shall better know how to deal 
with them another time." On the next day, the 
14th of July, the second day after the army had left 
Dunbar's, he was buried in the middle of the road, 
and they marched and drove their wagons over his 
grave to make it indistinguishable. Some say that 
he was buried in the darkness of the early morning. 1 

1 In 1SU2 the remains were reinterred at ttio foot of a white oak-tree, 
and the place suitably marked. This is at Mount Braddock, Fayette Co., 
Borne of Braddoek's bones, however, passed into the possession of Peale, 
tile {.'rent showman, in whose museum in Philadelphia they were ex- 
hibited as relics until the destiuttiou of the building by fire. 



The enemy that emerged from Fort Duquesne were 
French, Canadians, and Indians, under command of 
Capt. Beaujeu.- It appears that the commander of 
the French was kept well informed by his Indian 
spies of all the movements of the British, and that 
it was his intention to await them at the fort. But 
this Capt. Beaujeu, the commandant of Duquesne, 
begged permission to march out and surprise his en- 
emy when they were not expecting it. He was sec- 
onded by the entreaties of Capt. Dumas and Capt. 
Lignery and about a dozen subalterns. His force was 
about six hundred Indians and several detached com- 
panies of French and Canadians, in numbers above 
two hundred. They had great trouble to get the In- 
dians to accompany them, and to do so had to give 
them much strong drink and offer many promises. 
They marched out of the fort in the early morning 
of the 9th of July, and intended to resist Braddock 
while he was crossing the river. They did not arrive 
in time for this, for the army was preparing to cross 
when they came to the hills. They there lay in am- 
bush. At the first regular fire of the British the 
commander, Beaujeu, was killed. His followers 
showed signs of fear and confusion. This occasioned 
the first and only lull in the firing of the French which 
was uoticed by the British. This was the moment, 
the Americans say, that Braddock or Gage should 
have taken to push onward to the enemy. But the 
opportune moment was hist; hence some said Brad- 
dock acted as one wdio had lost his reason. Dumas, 
however, took the command in place of Beaujeu, and 
showed the coolness and the skill of a veteran officer. 
His orders were obeyed, anil while he remained with 
his regular French in the front, his officers deployed 
the Indians on either flank of the British. 

Dunbar conducted the army to Philadelphia, but 
Washington was the good genius of the retreat. It 
may be doubted that Washington ever, in defeat or 
victory, was more impassably himself than in this 
campaign. What might not be expected from so 
young a man, wdio, not expecting anything but vic- 
tory, should appear to greater advantage when he 
marched from defeat? In such a school was the man 
taught wdio bore the weight of a country for seven 
restless years. 

The completeness of this victory and defeat, al- 
though felt, was not fully seen till the detachment 

- "The name in full of Beaujeu was Daniel llyacinthe Marie Lienunl 
de Beaujeu. He was the second son of Louis Ltenard Sieur de Beaujeu 
and Therese Mijeau de Braussac, his wite, born in Montreal, Aug. 17, 
1711. The family was originally from Dauphine, France. Beairjeu had 
commanded at Detroit and Niagara." (William M. Darlington, K«q., in 
" Centenary Memorial, 11 p. 2G3.) See record of ins death and burial in 
the chapter on the religious history in this book. 

Mr. Darlington says that '* Beaujeu seems to have succeeded Contre- 

co'iir lit Fort Duquesne," and in this statement he follows various other 
authors. But Sparks, citing the last autboiilles (the French ''An hives"), 
savs that Contrecoenr was commander of Fort Duquesne, and Bancroft 
(" History of the United State*") follow* him. Contrecoeur was "com- 
mander" of all the French in those palts, and all orders came from him. 
Beaujeu was " commandant" at the fort. 



ARMSTRONG'S EXPEDITION, 1T5C— BOUQUET AT LIGONIER, 1758. 



25 



sent nut by Forbes, when be took possession of tbe 
fort, three years after tins, came upon the battle-field 
to pay the last rites to tbe mangled bodies of their 
former companions in arms. They gave a pathetic 
account of their sorrowful duties, and many have since 
rewritten it. No words, however, can tell the deso- 
lation which they felt, and the devastation which 
they saw. Nothing before or since in the warful an- 
nals of America can be compared with this. The 
dead had been left to lie as they fell. They saw where 
the wounded had died un cared for, and found among 
brush and rocks the skeletons of those who had per- 
ished by tbe tomahawk or through hunger and thirst. 
The birds and wild beasts had plucked off the naked 
flesh of the desecrated victims. Blackened ashes told 
where heathen vengeance had been gratified. Some 
were lying in heaps; others had dragged themselves 
in their torments to a distance. Some were found sit- 
ting on the trunks of fallen trees and on rocks ; others 
were lying side by side in t he embrace of death. A 
few were identified, and these were interred sepa- 
rately ; the bones of many were collected together 
and buried in one common grave. 

The loss of the French and their allies, according 
to their own report, which may be taken with allow- 
ance, was only about thirty, and the most of these met 
death by accident from the falling timbers in the 
woods cut by the cannon-balls. Of the British, sixty- 
four out of eighty-five officers, and about one-half the 
privates, or about seven hundred, were killed or 
wounded. Every field or horseback officer except 
Washington was carried off the field, and he had two 
horses killed under him. 

The Indians may claim the glory of this victor}-. 
Those engaged were confederates who were not con- 
fined to the tribes about the Ohio, for all under the 
control of the French throughout the West were 
brought to the fort. The Wyandots and Southern 
Ohio tribes were represented, and Pontiac, then a 
young warrior, headed some of his Ottawas from the 
Western lakes. Cornplauter was there, too, with the 
Senecas, and many others since known to fame. As 
to the exact number of those with the French who 
fought on that dreadful day we have no authentic ac- 
count. The number currently reported are as we give 
them, but it is almost certain there were many more. 

Before dismissing this subject we cannot but call 
attention to, first, the remarkable proportion of offi- 
cers killed to the number engaged ; and, second, to 
the noticeable distinction to which many of the sur- 
vivors arrived, from which an idea of the composition 
of this army may be obtained. Gage became the 
commander of the British armies at Boston in the be- 
ginning of the Revolution ; Washington, commander- 
in-chief of the American army; Horatio Gates, after- 
wards a major-general in the American army, com- 
manded a company of independent troops from New 
York ; Col. Daniel Morgan, the hero of the Cowpens, 
drove a wagon of his own, for he was originally a 



teamster. Among the many others were the Lewises 
of Virginia, afterwards distinguished and gallant offi- 
cers, and Col. Hugh Mercer, who died with glory at 
Princeton. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ARMSTRONG'S EXPEDITION, 1756— BOUQUET AT 
LIGONIER, 1T5S. 

The Country overrun by Indiana ami French after Brnddock's Defeat — 
Settlers flee to the East of the Mountains — Forts ami Block-Hcmsps 
on the Pennsylvania Frontier — Col. John Armstrong's Expedition in 
175G against the Kittanning Town — The Town taken ami destroyed, 
ami Cant. Jacobs reported killed — The Tramping-Ground of these 
Warriors — The French ami Indian War carried on under William Pitt 
— John Fmlies commands the New Expedition from Philadelphia 
againBt Fort Duqnesne — His command — Col. Bouquet bringB the Van- 
guard of the Army across Laurel Hill to the Loyalhanna, where he 
erects a Stockado, ami awaits on the rest of the Army under Washing- 
ton and Forbes, who were to unite at Raystown, or Bedford, 

The disastrous effect of Braddock's defeat was more 
sensibly felt in our colony than even in Virginia. An 
undisturbed peace had existed between the Indians 
and the Pennsylvania colonists till the war broke out 
between the two European mother-countries in 17o4. 
One reason which augmented the distress was that, as 
a general thing, the colonists were averse to war, and 
had always favored a pacific policy. Some of the 
citizens, from their religious perceptions, were opposed 
to warfare on any pretense whatever. Now tin- whole 
frontier of the colony was left open to the free ingress 
of the savages. The frontier county was Cumber- 
land, which extended no farther than the Juniata. 
Numerous acts of hostility were committed on these 
settlements. Detached bands of exasperated and 
bloodthirsty barbarians attacked the stations, and 
marauding-parties preyed upon the isolated settlers. 
The Indian nature after being long restrained was let 
loose. Like the beasts which had got used to living 
on the flesh of the dead that Braddock left, they 
thought they had a right to kill all they met. They 
murdered the men and women, and burnt their pitiful 
cabins to the ground, so that the harvests were un- 
gathered, and such as had timely warning had to flee 
for life through a wide stretch of hostile country. 
During the fall and winter of 1755 the settlements 
of Great Cove and Conococheague in Cumberland 
County were overrun and the inhabitants slaughtered. 
All the settlements surrounding were in great com- 
motion. Many were scattered with their families to 
all the neighboring places of safety ; many were taken 
in eaptivity to the depots of the French in Canada. 
In short, all the horrors of an Indian war were expe- 
rienced. The authorities were clamored to for relief. 
It became evident that a long line of block-houses 
with garrisons would have to be established at the 
public expense for the protection of the inhabitants 
who were unable to protect themselves, ami thus keep 
the war from the hearths of all. And, indeed, if 



26 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



timely efforts had not been made to put a stop to this 
warfare the whole of the frontier to the west of the 
Susquehanna would have been deserted. It has been 
estimated that in 1755 this section possessed three 
thousand fighting-men, and that in the next year, 
1756, outside the provincial forces, there were not one 
hundred. These terrible times continued, with some 
intermission, till the Indians were partly conciliated 
by a treaty at Easton in 1758. But now it was evi- 
dent that what had been reclaimed from nature would 
have to be protected by the force of arms. Theclaims 
of our own colony were not to be despised, for al- 
though she had been profuse and liberal both in men 
and money in the assistance of her sister colonies, 
her own borders were left open to fire and murder. 

The authorities, encouraged by the settlers, had 
given their assistance in the erection of a number of 
these block-houses and forts. In July of 1755 prep- 
arations were made to erect a fort at Shippensburg, 
called thus after Edward Shippen, one of the Council. 
This was completed in the fall. Previous to this time 
a line of forts had been erected along the Kittatinny 
hills from the Delaware to Maryland, guarding the 
principal passes, and each garrisoned by from ten to 
thirty men. West of the Susquehanna were Fort 
Louther, at Carlisle; Fort Franklin, at Shippensburg; 
Fort Shirley, on the creek which empties into the 
Juniata; Fort Littleton; Fort Loudon, on the Cono- 
cocheague, now Franklin County. Fort Shirley was 
on the Indian path from the West to Fort August i, on 
the Susquehanna. There were many block-houses, 
some without garrisons, to which the inhabitants 
might flee mi timely notice. 

At a time when, no account of the massacres which 
were horrible beyond description, the despair of the 
frontier colonists was at the highest and their fear 
the greatest, a successful expedition was planned and 
executed. There were on the west side of the Sus- 
quehanna eight companies of the First Pennsylvania 
Regiment, called the Second Battalion, under com- 
mand of Col. John Armstrong. Two chiefs, Shingass 1 
and Jacobs, were considered the instigators of these 
incursions. Jacobs, with his warriors, had his home 
at the Delaware Indian town of Kittanning, and here 
sometimes Shingass abided. Here they had great 
quantities of ammunition, received from the French, 
and from here they sallied out on their war-trips. 

Hither the English prisoners captured about that 
time (1755) on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and 

1 Shingass (sometimes written Shingaat) is described as a small man 
in stature, but of the utmost activity, prowess, and physical endurance, 
He, with bis mutual friend and neighbor, Captain Jacobs, helped, mure 
than any other of the Western Indians, to devastate the settlements of 
Ovnococheague, Great Cove, Sherman's Valley, and the other settle- 
ments then along the frontier. Jacobs, an Indian chief, known by tint 
name applied 1" him by the English-Americans, had hiswigwam be- 
times along the Yongb and Jacobs Creek, after whom this stieam was 
called. A large tract of land in East Huntingdon township, not far 
from Ruffs Station on the Southwest Railway, is designated in old 
warrants as "Jacobs' Swamp," the best part of that land, now very 
valuable, having been reclaimed from marsh. 



Virginia were taken. Speaking in the forms of their 
own language, they with the Shawanese had taken the 
hatchet against Braddock which was ottered them by 
the French, and went directly to war with whom they 
called the Virginians, which also of course included 
the Pennsylvanians. They, however, were influenced 
to this probably more by the Six Nations, some of ■ 
whom'lived among them.' 

While the general-jn-chief of the British forces in 
America, Gen. Shirley the successor of Braddock, 
and the Governors of the northern provinces were 
preparing an aggressive campaign with new levies to 
reduce the posts held by the French immediately after 
the unsuccessful campaigns of the year previous, by 
the sudden invasion of New York by Montcalm, the 
leader of the French in Canada, at the head of a for- 
midable force, the whole attention of Gen. Shirley 
was directed to resist their farther advance in that 
direction. Hence during the fall of 1755 and the 
year 1756 the whole frontier of Pennsylvania was 
overrun by scalping-parties of Indians assisted by the 
French. The unexpected change in affairs affected 
no colony so much as ours. 3 King Shingass with his 
warriors and sub-confederates fell upon the settlers 
of the Tuscarora Valley, and those of Northampton 
County, as well as those of Franklin, killed and car- 
ried off many persons and destroyed much property, 
so that whole settlements were deserted, and with the 
general results as before stated. 

About the middle of August, 1756, Col. John Arm- 
strong, who was a militia officer of the Province, and 
who with the Second Battalion of the provincial 
militia was about that time stationed on the west side 
of the Susquehanna, conceiving the idea of suddenly 
surprising and defeating them on their own ground, 
made preparations for an expedition against Kittan- 
ning. He proposed passing up the Juniata and 
down the Kiskiminetas, along the path upon which 
these depredators came out on their excursions On 
the 30th of August, 1756, with a force of three hun- f 
dred and seven men, lie left Fort Shirley. 4 

After a laborious march, and by the exercise of the 
utmost precaution and vigilance, Armstrong reached 
the town without having been discovered. His 
last march was thirty miles, and made at night, so 
that he might attack the place before bis men or his 
movements were discovered. The attack began as 
the light of day made objects distinguishable in the 
cornfield lying outside the town, in which many of 
the warriors slept beside fires built to keep off the 
gnats, which along the river bottoms were extremely 
annoying. Captain Jacobs was in the town, and when 
he discovered the presence of the whites, which was 



2 Statement of George CrogAU at the council at Carlisle, Jan. 13-10, 
17 50. 

3 Governor Morris 1 message, July 24, 1755. 

4 The best account of this expedition, which account is very interest- 
ing in details, is tho " Report" of Col. Armstrong himself, which for de- 
tails is referred to. 



ARMSTRONG'S EXPEDITION, 175G— ROUQUET AT LTGONIER, 1758. 



made known from the noise of their attack, he gave 
the war-whoop, and at the same time ordered the 
sqUaws and children into the woods. In this singular 
battle the Indians for the greater part kept t< » their 
houses, and fired upon the whites to good advantage 
from the port-holes and crevices in the walls. From 
these advantages some of the whites were killed and 
many were wounded. Seeing that firing upon the 
houses was ineffectual, Armstrong ordered the houses 
nearest of access to be set on fire. In doing so many 
more were wounded, and among them was Armstrong, 
who received a ball in his shoulder. However, the 
fire once started burnt with effect, and speedily 
reached the principal house, in which were Jacobs 
and the more desperate of his followers. As those in 
it attempted to escape they were shot down, and 
Jacobs himself, as Armstrong reported, was killed. 
He says he was identified by some of the soldiers by 
his boots, which he had gotten from a French officer, 
and by his scalp, which they secured, as he dressed 
his hair in a peculiar manner. 1 

The destruction of this town and the death and 
scatterment of those who inhabited there was a severe 
blow to the savages. Henceforth they were afraid to 
leave their villages in any great number together, 
because they might expect an attack from their ene- 
mies as sudden, as unexpected, and as disastrous as 
this one had been. They had hitherto regarded 
themselves as safe in their camps and wigwams from 
any attack by the English on the western side of the 
mountains. The victory was indeed singularly event- 
ful, because it was a single victory during a time of 
defeat, disaster, and gloom. Such of the Indians 
as belonged to Kittanning and bad escaped the dis- 
aster that had befallen their brethren refused to 
settle again to the east of Fort Duquesne, and wisely 
resolved to place that tort and the French garrisons 
between them and the colonists. 1 

But the relief expected after this victory was a 
temporary relief only. The disasters of 1755, 17">!>, 
and 1757 were not confined to Pennsylvania. The 
French and Indian power was everywhere in the 
ascendant. By the British ministry affairs at home 
and abroad were conducted illy. The people in Eng- 
land demanded a new ministry, and in June of 1757 
William Pitt was created premier. By this change 
new life was restored to the body politic. His appeals 

1 They said they knew his squaw's scalp also by a particular " boh" in 
tlie hair, ami l>y the same token identified a young Indian by the name 
of " King's Son." It haa been questioned whether Jacobs was killed here 

or not. There is mention of a " Captain Jacobs" (as he sL'iis his mime) 

in "Col. Henry Bouquet's Journal, etc., 11 in 17(>4, a chief of the Delawares, 
but others say this was a sou of the former. It at best, at this day, is 
not worth while to contradict the report or get up argument, for .i- the 
report was generally believed at that day it served ail purposes for good, 
ami whether the "old original Jacobs" was lolled there ami then or 

elsewhere ami afterwards, he is now dead enough. 

- Gordon's " History of Peunsj Irania." — Before the town was destroyed 
there were about thirty houses in it . . . Col. Armstrong's loss was 
seventeen killed, thirteen wounded, ami nineteen missing. . . . Arm- 
strong County was named iu his honor, very deservingly. 



in the interest of the colonies and against their old 
enemy, the French, were listened to as they had never 
been listened to before. To the colonies he promised 
his assistance, and they responded to his requests. 
Pennsylvania came up promptly. She voted £100,000, 
put the roads in repair, raised troops, and prepared 
quarters for others. 

In the spring of 1758 came Admiral Boscawan with 
twelve thousand British soldiers. These, with the 
other British, the Royal Americans and provincials, 
made a force of fifty thousand, all employed in the 
service of the colonies. The campaign of 1758, as 
that of 1755, embraced three expeditions: — the first 
against Louisburg, an island in the St. Lawrence; 
the second against Ticonderoga, a si rong fortress be- 
tween Lake George and Lake Chnmplain, Northern 
New York ; and the third against Fort Duquesne. 

The new expedition against Duquesne was under 
command of Brigadier John Forbes, a young man 
and ti good soldier, by birth a Scot." Philadelphia 
was made his headquarters. Which was the more 
available route from here to the West was a matter of 

] debate. Washington advised that the army proceed 
on the old Braddock road, and Forbes for a long time 

; had not made up his mind. The route through 
Pennsylvania westward was urged by the provincial 
authorities with good reasons, but the Virginians 
objected to it. The authorities of Virginia wanted 
to cover their frontier by active operations in that 
portion, and perhaps wanted to make more perfect 
their claim to the disputed territory. But Bouquet, 
the chief officer upon whom Forbes depended, who 
was a soldier of fortune in the service of England, 
advocated a new route, and prevailed upon Forbes to 
choose it; and on the 1st of August. 1758, seventeen 
hundred men were at work west of Bedford in open- 

sJohs Forbes.* — Forbes was a native of Scotland, born in Peutrief, 
Fifeshire. Like Arthur St Clair, lie was bred to the profession of medi- 
cine. While young he entered into the military service, ami rose to the 

rank of lieutenant-cob 1 iu Scott's Gray Di agoons. lie won by faithful 

services the approval of his military superiors, — the Earl of Stair, Lord 
Ligunier, ami other great soldiers with whom he was connected. He was 
a -i. iff- . dicer to some of these generals, and was quartermaster-general of 

the army under the Hake of Bedford. He was abut forty-seven or 
fotty-.-ijbt when he was appointed to the command ill which he distin- 
guished himself. From his indomitable will ant] tenacious purpose he 

\mis called the Bead of Iron, or by his followers in .re Commonly "Old 
Iron-head." As a gallant soldier " so,. king the bubble reputation even at 
the cannon's mouth," he was given to cursing, a vie considered a virtue 
aiming the European soldiery of his age, — "a vice which they brought 
with them from Flanders."' During the whole campaign be suffered 
from accumulated infirmities and a general debility, ami on hi- return 
from Fort Duquesne to Philadelphia was carried the whole way by horses 
ami by men in a litter. More than once, it is reported, he got out of his 
litter ami made things lively. On his return to the city, weakened and 
broken down with disorders, he died, March 13, 1759, aged foitv-niiio 

years. He is buried in the chancel of Christ Church, Philadelphia. 

Ilia character has been thus d esc i ibed: A- a man, be was just ami with- 
out prejudices, brave without ostentation, uncommonly warm ill his 
friendship, and incapable of flattery; acquainted with the world and 
mankind, he was well bred, but absolutely impatient of formality and 
affectation. 



* The Scotch pronounce his name iu too syllables, the English in one 
syllable. 



23 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER V. 

FORBES' EXPEDITION, 175S. 

Maj Grant is sent out from Fort Ligouier i<> recoi itre about Fort 

Duquesne - N'umber of Men under Grant, and their Routt — Their K. t- 
runipuient on the Nine-Mile Run -Their Trail the first Road of 1 1 if 
English-speaking People through Westmoreland from Laurel Hill 
to ill-- ( H li-- — Or. mi iii 1 1 vr? iii i In- Hill overlooking Fort Duquesne — 
I? Surrounded and Defeated— Capt. Bullot carries tin- Remains of the 
Command hack in (In- Stoi kade --1 Ligouier— The French ami Indians 

fill tin- W Is about Ligouier, and >\ i 1 1 • their united forces attack 

I h-- Batik- lasl? iii-aily all Day, when ihi- Enemy flee off 
through tin- Woods — Tin- whole Army under Forbes at Ligouier — 
Hi- proposes to advance towards Fort Duquesne— Washington leads 

the way, ami cut? the Old Military or Forbes 1 Road — Duques I — 

1. 1 the French, and first occupied by the Briiish aud Ameri- 
cans- -Fort Pitt elected. 

Tins expedition which Bouquet sent out was under 
Mnj. Grant. His command consisted of thirty-seven 
officers and fight hundred and five privates. Grant 

'The return on the 25tb September, 1758, two months before tin- 
taking of the furl, was, nil count, live thousand nine liundreil ami eighty 

in all, wiili detachments mi die road and stationed on tin- frontiers of 
elcveu huudved ami eighty-seven in addition. 



ing out a road across the mountains of Western Penn- 
sylvania. 

Forbes' forces in all amounted to about seven 
thousand men. 1 There were twelve hundred High- 
landers, three hundred and fifty Royal Americans, 
twenty-seven hundred Pennsylvania Provincials, six- 
teen hundred from Virginia, about one thousand 
wagoners and laborers, and the rest were from Debt- ] 
ware, Maryland, and North Carolina. The Virginia, 
North Carolina, and Maryland contingent was to 
assemble at Winchester under Washington, and the 
Pennsylvania forces at Raystown, that is Bedford, 
under Bouquet. Bouquet, the gallant Swiss, brought 
the regular vanguard of the command to this point 
in advance of Forbes, who was detained at Philadel- 
phia by sickness. Bedford, as we shall call Raystown, 
was the most westerly point to which supplies could 
lie sent. A road had been opened from Fort Louden 
past here to Fort Cumberland in 1755, on which the 
Pennsylvania supplies were forwarded to Braddock. 

By slow moves Forbes in September, 1758, reached 
Bedford. By this time the brave Bouquet with twenty- 
rive hundred troops and pioneers had crossed on over 
Laurel Hill and made his camp on the bank of 
the Loyalhanna. Making it secure, he here waited 
until the main body should come up. He made his 
communication with the post at Bedford and the 
headquarters of the army secure. He was fifty miles 
from Duquesne, and he did not choose to advance 
till the general with the other part of the forces ar- 
rived. He remembered Braddock. He, however, was 
vigilant in all things pertaining to the safely of the 
in. mi and the success of the expedition. To gel in- 
formation and as a matter of precaution he from 
here sent out a portion of his command to recon- 
noitre in the enemy's country. 



himself was major and the senior officer in the High- 
land regiment, wdiich was divided into four com- 
panies, two of wdiich he now took with him, and he 
was supported by Maj. Lewis, of the famous Lewis 
family of Virginia, with above two hundred Royal 
Americans, and a body of about fifty Virginia pro- 
vincials under Capt. Bullet. His instructions were 
to approach as near the fort as practicable, to avoid 
a surprise, and chiefly to collect such information as 
would be of consequence. He left the camp at the 
Loyalhanna on the 11th of September, the command 
not being encumbered with baggage or provisions, and 
having no cannon. Marching from the Loyalhanna 
camp he the first day passed through a gap of the 
Chestnut Ridge, and traversing most probably the 
southeastern part of now Derry township came to the 
Loyalhanna, which he crossed about half a mile below 
the Shelving Rocks. He made his camp on the oppo- 
site side of Nine-Mile Run, so called from being nine 
miles from the fort at Ligonier. The site was well 
chosen, it having on the east the run at the base of a 
steep bank of twenty feet, on the south a dee]) ravine. 
The plateau above was covered with heavy timber. On 
this plateau where he rested he threw up an earthen 
wall facing the west and north, running in an angle 
from one side to the other. The wall was of the 
height of a man. The ditch from which the earth 
was cast was on the outside of the wall, and the camp 
proper was within this triangle so formed by nature 
and art. We have an exact description of this en- 
campment and the road upon which Grant, follow- 
ing 1 lie old Indian path, went. This is in the journal 
of Christian Post. Post, a childlike missionary, full 
of the ancient faith, and a man fully competent to 
conciliate the native-, was sent from his home in 
Berks County by Governor Denny on two important 
missions. On his second journey he came in the 
route of the army of Forbes, and in November of 
1758, two months after Grant's march, came to the 
Loyalhanna, where, leaving Forbes, he traversed the 
path which Grant, had taken thus far. He give 
an exact description of the camping-places of the 
main army afterwards, having on his return from his 
mission followed their road. But Post, leaving the 
camp described, proceeded down along the trading 
path, as he calls it, live mile- below this site. Here 
llie trail divided; Grant followed the western branch, 
near to which was afterwards the old I fauna-town 
road, while Post passed on down the path which led 
alongside the Loyalhanna and on to the old Kittan- 
ning towns. This particular place was known to the 
last generation as the Breastwork Hills, and till within 
a few years musket-balls, Hints, old bayonets, and 
occasionally buckles and rusty sabres were unearthed. 
Thirty years ago the breastwork might have been 
traced, but now it is all leveled and the place culti- 
vated. 2 

- When the writer was a mere liny he heard famous stories t.- sleep -". 
about cannons filled with bright gold pieces having been buried along 






^Mi 



^ 




<J£m<f X^W 







FORBES' EXPEDITION, 1753. 



29 



The .second day Grant proceeded twenty-five miles 
farther, or to within about fifteen miles of the fort. 
Alt-bough the Indians and French were being con- 

tlif first minis, and pleasing versions by old superstitions persons, who 
averred they had heard other persons say that they themselves heard hy 
night the sound of drums aud fifes coming from the Breastwork Mills. 
He recollects of seeiug, i prran.se it was u part of the field not worked, Hie 
last visible remains oi the encampment ; and it pnzzled him exceedingly 
to know who made it, as this was apparently away from any of the main 
military roads. The impossibility of getting accurate iufurmatiun from 
the "oldest people/' who are jnet two generations too late, anil it"' dis- 
tressing lack in knowledge of snch an interesting buI jei t as tint of the 
early roads, have impelled h m to compile a chapter on that subject. By 
noticing attentively he has come to a knowludge who built this earth- 
work, aud unhesitatingly pronounces this to have been the route of the 
English detachment under Grant, and the first unite through the wil- 
derness this side- of Laurel Hill alter Bradthick's. All duttbts are dis- 
pelled bj u c parison of dates, ami the taking of Post's Joui'UhI fur the 

'Jth of November, 1758, wh le Forbes was lying at Ligouiei stoi kude. 
W> itiBert part of the diary line. 

From the second journal of Christian Frederick Post, 1758, on n mes- 
Bftgafroui the Governor of Pennsylvania to the Indian* on the Ohio, in 
the latter part of the same year: 

Nov. 7, 1758.— " We rose early ami made all haste we could on our 
journey; we crossed i lie huge creek, Hukempuliu, near Lawrel hill. 
Upon this hill we overtook the artillery ; ami came, before sunset, to 
Loyal Uanniug, U"a were gladly received in the camp by the geueral, 
ami most oi the people. We made our fire near the other Indian camps, 
which pleased our people. . . . 

8th. — " At eleven '/cluck the general called the Indians together, the 
Cheiitkecs and Catawbas being present ; he spake to them in a kiud and 
loving maimer, and hid them heartily welcome to his camp . . . After 
that he drank the king's health, and all that wished well to the English 
nation; then he drank King Beaver's, Shiugus', aud all the warriors' 
healths, mid recommended us (the messengers; to their wire, aud desired 
thom to give credit to what wo should say. . . . Our Indians parted in 
love and well satisfied. And we made all necessary preparations for our 
journey. 

9th. — "Some of the colonels and chief commanders wondered how I 
came through so many difficulties, and how I could rule and bring these 
people t^ reason, making no use ot gun or sword. I told them it is done 
hy do other menus than faith. Then they asked me il I had faith to 
venture myself tocomesafe through with my companions? I t»ld them 
it was in my heart to pray for them; 'you know that the Lord has given 
many promises to his servants, and w hat he promised, you ma} depend 

Upon, lie Will perform.' Tlien he wished us good success. We waited 

till almost noon for the writing of the general. We were escorted by 
an hundred im-u, rank and file, commanded by Capt, Haslet 

" We passed through a tract of good land, aUOUt BIX miles 0D the old 
trading path, and came to the creek again, where there is a large tine 
buti'iin, well timbered ; from thence we came upon a hill, to an advanced 
breastwork, aboul ten miles from the camp, well situated for strength, 
lacing a small branch of the aforesaid creek; the hill is steep down, 
perpendicular about twenty feet, ou the smith side, which is a great de- 
fense; and ou the w est side the breastwork, about seven feet high, where 
we encamped that night." 

Our Indian companions heard that we were to part in the morning, 
ami that twelve nieu were to be sent With us, and the others, part of the 
company, t" go towards Fort Dnquesae. Our Indians desired that the 
captain would send twenty men instead of twelve, that if any accident 
should happen thoy could be more able to defend themselves in return- 
in- bat k. . . . It began to rain. Within five miles from the breastwork 
we departed from ' apt Haslet; he kept the old trading path to the Ohio. 
Lieut. Hays was ordered to accompany us to the Allegheny River with 
fourteen men. We went along the path which leads along the Loyal 
Uanniug Creek, where there is a rich fiue bottom laud, well timbered, 
good springs, and small creeks. At four o'clock we were alarmed l.y 
three men in Indian dress, and preparation was made on both sides for 
defense. Isaac Still showed a white token, aud Pisquetomen gave an 
Indian halloo, after which they threw down their bundles and lau away 
as last as they could. We afterwards took up their bundles, and found 
that it was a small party of our men that had been long out. We were 
sorry that we had scared them, for they lost their bundles with ail their 
food." 

These men, no doubt, wore soldiers scattered from Grant's command. 



stantly Informed of Forbes and Bouquet from the time 
Bouquet left Bedford, yet Grant succeeded in coming 
within sight of the fort without being detected. It 
was nearing dark when he was only a few miles 
from that spot for which two mighty nations were 
in contest. Two miles back lie had left his bag- 
gage and horses under Capt. Bullett with fifty men. 
In the dusk he approached the fort. In the early 
part of the night two officers with iilh men were 
ordered to approach the fort, and if the outposts 
were not too strong to capture them. They were met 
by no enemy. They set fire to a store-house, but the 
fire was seen and put out. In the morning Grant, 
desirous of securing the victory for himself, sent Maj. 
Lewis with most of the ammunition and two hundred 
men half a mile back to secure, he said, the baggage. 
Believing that the garrison was small he posted his 
main body, about four hundred men, in a line on the 
j face of the hill, and then sent out a company of fifty, 
with drums and bagpipes playing, to draw, or rather 
to drum, the enemy out, And it had the desired 
effect, for they came out in a hurry. By the noise of 
martial music the French were aroused from sleep. 
They knew the ground better than Grant did. Sepa- 
rating their forces into three divisions, two of these 
skulked out, one along the inner bank of each of the 
rivers, to surround the British, while the third posted 
itself in front till the others took up their positions. 
Securing their vantage-ground, they came in over- 
whelming numbers and surrounded the Highlanders 
and provincials on all sides. Hearing the noise of 
arms, Major Lewis hastened with his force to the res- 
cue. The Indians fought with the tomahawk and 
scalping-knife, and hastened to closely embrace their 
old enemies. As they darted out from their coverts 
they filled the air with their terrific war screams, a 
sound to which the foreign Scots were unused. The 
two chief officers, Grantaad Lewis, fell into the hands 
of the French. When many had fallen a retreat com- 
menced. Then it was that the fifty men under the 
brave Bullet saved from utter annihilation the re- 
mains of the detachment. This officer, discovering 
the rout of the troops in front, dispatched with greal 
prudence the most necessary part of the baggage on 
strong horses, and with the remainder of his men se- 
cured an advantageous position along the road. He 
had his men well screened, and by a well-directed fire 
they stopped the violence of the pursuit and thus 
somewhat checked the tumult of the men. With 
great coolness he blinded them by a successful strat- 
agem. Seeing that his number was few compared 
with that of the enemy, he ordered his men, from a 
previous agreement, to march up to the Indians with 
arms reversed as if they sued for quarter. The In- 
dians with a treacherous design themselves fell into 
the snare. Wheu near enough Bullet gave the word ; 
a dreadful volley was discharged into the midst of the 
wretches, and a charge with the bayonet following, 
the assailants were effectually discomfited. The re- 



30 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



mains were thus saved from being cut to pieces. The 
enemy were baffled, and Bullet covering the retreat, 
the command was successfully carried back to the 
Loyalhanna camp. The loss of the British and col- 
onists was about three hundred. 1 

The slowness of acting which at first had marked 
the French and their Indian allies is partially ac- 
counted for by Capt. James Smith, at that time a cap- 
tive among the Indians. He states that reinforce- 
ments from the camp-fires at Detroit, expecting the 
approach of the English in the summer of 1758, left 
for Fort Duquesne ; that they expected to serve 
Follies as they had served Braddock ; that during all 
tin' fall they had full accounts of the army from 
Indian runners ; but that withal Grant had stolen a 
march on them, they not looking for a thing so im- 
probable. However, after this engagement they had 
a council, and resolved to march out and meet the 
army, for the Indians were becoming dissatisfied, and 
as it was late in the year they were, compelled from 
ity to go into their own country and get food 
for their squaws and children that these in the severity 
of the winter might not starve. Having been so long- 
on the war-path and from their wigwams, many of the 
helpless ones it is believed had perished during the 
previous seasons. And in truth the influence of the 
French over their allies was somewhat waning. So 
it was proposed to attack the army under Bouquet in 
their own camp, and if fortunate close the campaign 
by one battle. 

Instead of being disheartened at this unforeseen oc- 
currence, Bouquet resorted to more active measures in 
seeming his camp and holding it till reinforcements 
came; for, flushed with this victory, it was not tin- 
looked for that the enemy should be emboldened to 
attack him. This they accordingly did. The repulse 
of Grant was suffered on the 14th of September, and 
four weeks from that time all the force of the garri- 
son, which now was composed of more French than 
Indians, from their desire of holding the position, 
came out in ba le array and filled the woods around 
the camp at Loyalhanna. The number of the French 
was estimated at twelve hundred ; that of the Indians 
at above two hundred. They were under command 

1 "The French had the day before received a reinforcement of four 
hundred men from Illinois, under ('apt. Aubrey, commander in the at- 
tack on Giant, who met with a bloody defeat on the hill whore our 
a t-house now stands, and along through the woods to where the bag- 
kept with a guard on the slope above the Two-Mile lttin. 

o t was captured but Boon exchanged. In 17i;n lie was Governor of 

Kust Florida. lie afterwards rose to high rank in the British army, ami 
Berved in it .lining part of the war of the Revolution. He was in the 
battle of Gel inantown nud of blonznonth Court-House ; at the latter he 
coninriuileil, and defeated tin- American Gen. Lee. He died at his seat 
at Ballendulluch, near Elgin, Scotland, May 13, 1800, in the eighty-sixth 
year i.f his age. At the lime of his death he was Governor of Stirling 

Castle. Capt. Aubrey, the Fronch commander, was taken prisoner the 
uext year at Niagara, tie was afterwards Governor of the French 
colony at New Orleans. Returning to Frame iii Febr uary . 17To, he lost 
hi- life by the Broking "I I lie \ essel off the French coast, near the month 
i the Garonne." — Win. M. Darlington, Ety,, •' Pittsburgh in the Last 
Century." 



of De Vitri. On Thursday, the 12th of October, 
1758, their combined forces attacked Bouquet. The 
engagement commenced in the forenoon about eleven 
o'clock, and lasted till three o'clock in the afternoon. 
The enemy were repulsed on all sides. They again 
renewed the attack at night, but Bouquet throwing 
shells from his mortars into the woods among them 
they were forced to desist. They retreated under 
cover of the darkness. The loss of the British was G7 
rank and file, of which twelve were killed. 

The Indians now, for the first time in this long and 
bloody war, showed signs of disaffection. They could 
not be prevailed upon to carry on the war, but left 
the war-trail for their hunting-grounds. It bad been 
only by artful promises that they were held so long, 
and when the first signs began to appear of their 
warfare being unrewarded with booty they treacher- 
ously withdrew. The French were not able of them- 
selves to fight successfully against the English and 
their auxiliaries. 

All the meagre accounts of this engagement at 
Ligonier that we have yet met with are stated above. 
Few have paid a more than passing notice to the fact 
that here in Westmoreland County, in Ligonier Val- 
ley, in the heart of a great wilderness, part of the 
renowned organization which had been perfected by 
Turenne and Luxemburg, which had sustained glory 
on the fields of Belgium, had ravaged the Palatinate, 
and had been marshalled against the Stadtholder king 
and Marlborough, were brought face to face with their 
immemorial foemen. But it is true that here, under 
the lilies of France, the soldiery of Louis again closed 
in conflict with the soldiery of George under the 
royal cross of England. Here in miniature was 
fought over the conflict of Namur and of Landen. 

By the 1st of November, 1758, the whole army 
under Forbes and Washington was around Ligonier 
stockade. Forbes, of delicate health, was now so 
feeble that he had to be carried on a litter by the 
men. It was getting late in the tail, and a council 
of officers was called to determine on future action. 
Winter in reality had already set in, and the tops of 
the Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge were covered 
with snow. It was considered hazardous to attempt 
an offensive campaign with the winter before them 
and without a knowledge of the country or the 
enemy. So it was about concluded that the tinny go 
int. i cantonments about the stockade till the breaking 
up of tin 1 season. But several French and Indians 
and a lew captives falling into the hands of the 
English, the actual number of their enemy and the 
disaffection of the Indians were learnt. When this 
was known it was resolved to hasten forward speedily 
as possible towards the fort. 

Washington, as colonel, was sent forward in ad- 
vance of the main portion of the army to take com- 
mand of the division whose employment it was to 
open the road. On the 12th of November, about 
three miles from the camp, he fell in with a number 



FORBES' EXPEDITION, 1753. 



31 



of the enemy, and in the attack which followed they 

killed one man and took three prisoners. One of 
these was an Englishman named Johnson, who had 
been captured by the Indians in Lancaster County, 
and from him was derived full and authentic infor- 
mation of the state of affairs at Duquesne. 

Upon this occasion a most unfortunate accident 
happened the provincial troops. The noise of the 
firing from the detachment under Washington being 
heard at the camp, Col. Hugh Mercer, with a number 
of Virginians, was sent forward to his assistance. The 
two parties, approaching each other in the dusk of the 
evening, mistook each other for the enemy. A number 
of shots were exchanged, by which a lieutenant and 
thirteen or fourteen Virginians were killed. Washing- 
ton was in the greatest danger during this melke, for 
soon as he comprehended the situation he ran in 
anmng his men and beat down their guns. 1 

On the loth, Col. Armstrong, with a thousand men, 
pushed forward to assist Washington in opening the 
road for the artillery and baggage. On the 17th, 
Forbes, with four thousand three hundred effective 
men, pushed forward after leaving strong garrisons 
at Bedford (Raystown) and the Loyalhanna. 

The advance under Washington cut its way through 
the morasses and over the hills in a more direct course 
than the course Grant had taken. They crossed the 
Loyalhanna at where it was afterwards called Coch- 
ran's Ford, about two and a half miles from Latrobe. 
Here they came out on the old Indian path, or Ohio 
trail, first used by the traders, which, as we have 
stated, ran direct to Duquesne. They followed the 
course westward, going past the settlement after- 
wards of Hannastown, and passing out of the limits 
of the county near Murrysville; thence, crossing the 
Turtle Creek, they went straight for the fort, keeping 
to the foot of the hills. The old Forbes road, or 
Hannastown road, as it was variously known, may be 
traced on some old maps of the county. In some 

1 This affair has been greatly misrepresented, and in tin* traditions of 
tin- people- of that part of the valley greatly distorted. II is hard to 
tunke some understand that Washington did nut command there in an 
engagement against the enemy. 

The substance of this occurrence is derived from Sparks* " Washing- 
ton," ami the account there made np from Washington's writings. 

I was told by a very old gentleman of this comity, now deceased, what 
was related to him as the substance of a conversation between Wash* 
lugtun and William Findley, the first representative in Congi 
thisdisttict. Findley said that Washington, speaking with him about this 

Bkirniish, said he hail always considered that he was in more danger then 
and there than on any other occasion in his military career. At that 
time, which was long after the occurrence, lie remembered the particu- 
lars well and described accurately the situation of affairs, lie also called 
Findley 's attention to the physical outlines of the entire region between 
Ligonier and Pittsburgh, and recalled certain observations made at the 
time he engineered the road,aud which he yet attentively retained. 



places it may be followed by natural marks. In few 
places is it used any more as a public road. It was. 
however, for many years after the only highway 
through our county, or, indeed, except the Braddock 
road, from the East to the West. Hut now, as it was 
opened first to the passage of the army, it may readily 
be imagined that it wag pa sable only with the greatest 
ofdabor and care. The army, even that portion im- 
mediately under Forbes, moved slowly. The pioneers 
were nine days in going from the Loyalhanna to tin 
Turtle Creek. The weather was chilly and damp, 
with falling snow and rain intervening. The soldier- 
were constantly on the alert, and a number of friendly 
Indians, who by the influence of Post were induced 
to take arms in the assistance of the English, were 
out as scouts on all sides. On Friday, the 24th of 
November, the Indian scouts in the advance saw the 
smoke arising from the barracks of Fort Duquesne. 
It had been fired by the French by order of their 
commander, De Lignery, and then abandoned. The 
army was about twelve or thirteen miles away. The 
French, taking boat, fled, some down the Ohio and 
some to Canada by way of the Allegheny. The gar- 
rison was only about four hundred. Forbes sent for- 
ward a company of cavalry under ('apt. Hazlet to 
secure, if possible, some of the munition and to ex- 
tinguish the fire. The works were mostly destroyed, 
but a large quantity of war stores was saved. 

The main body with the general arrived the next 
day. ^ Sunday, the 26th, was observed by general 
orders as "A Day of Public Thanksgiving to Al- 
mighty God" for their success, and the Rev. Charles 
Beatty, a Presbyterian minister, and chaplain to Col. 
Clapham's Pennsylvania regiment, preached a thanks- 
giving sermon, which was probably the first Protest- 
ant sermon preached west of the mountains. On 
Tuesday, the 28th, a large detachment marched to 
[dock's battle field to bury the bones of those still 
lying there, as the same duties had been done to the 
stark corpses which lay on Grant's Hill. 

And now at last from the smoking walls of Du- 
quesne floated the English standard. A new fort was 
laid out, which when built was called Fort Pitt, in 
honor of the distinguished premier, William Pitt. 
Hugh Mercer, with a garrison of two hundred, was 
left in command. The army returned to Philadel- 
phia, and in the early part of the next year, 1759, 
Forbes died. Brigadier John Stanwix succeed 
Forbes as commander-in-chief of the middle division 
of colonies. He arrived at Pittsburgh in August 
1759, and on the 3d of September the work of build- 
ing this "formidable fortification" was commenced 
by order of the British Secretary of State. 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER V.I. 

FIRST SETTLEMENTS IX WESTMORELAND— BATTLE 
OF BUSHY RUN, 1763. 

Settlers come into Ligonier Valley, about Fort Pitt, and along the Old 
Military Eoad— Their Isolated Situations, their Squalid HlltB, Pututu 

Patches, and First Clearings— Conditit f Indian Affaire at the Peace 

between England and France, 1TR2 and 1703— Pontine— Fort Ligonier 

made a General Depot— Officers C mamlnut at Fort Ligonier— The 

Great Uprising "I the Northwestern Tribes— Fort Tilt and Fort Li- 
guniei surrounded and cut oil from connection wi li tlu- East — dipt. 
Onriytiud ills Men from Bedford come to the relief of Ligonier aud 
liold the Fort— Bouquet marches l"> . ■ t, > the East to the r-H«f of Fort 
Ligonier and Fori Pitt— The Force with him— Bouquet finds lite 
Frontier overrun and the Inhabitants utterly destitute — II** readies 
Fort Ligonier (17G3)— He strengthens the Post, and with his Small 
Army Mid n Convoy of Pack-Horses proceeds towards Fmt Pitt— He is 
attacked by the Indians under Kynshuta, the Chief uf the Senecas, 
ami fights the Battle of Bushy Kun-Ile Defeats and Scatters his 
]■:,,. m\ in the most surci-ssl'til Engagement fmtght witii the Uustiles, 
and cunics his Forces anil l'iu\ isions into Fort l'itt. 

With the army of Forbes and immediately in 
its train came in the first settlers of Westmoreland. 
Sonic clustered about the tort at the Forks of the 
(thin, ami smut' remained at Ligonier. The most of 
them were soldiers who had served in the campaign, 
ami who, with their families, remained. Some chose 
to settle by location ; in other words, they settled on 
land which they thought they had a right to merely 
by occupying it; but most were allotted land by the 
military commandants empowered to do so, ami these 
settled by military permit. One of the earliest of 
these settlements, after those at the two forts, was the 
settlement of Andrew Byerly. Byerly's settlement 
dates from 1759. It was situated on Brush Creek, 
contiguous to which was the manorial reservation id' 
the l'enns. The order for Andrew Byerly's warrant 
was the thirty-sixth in number, ami called for two 
hundred ami thirty acres. On this spot Byerlyseated 
himself by permit from the commandant tit Fort Pitt, 
and before any other settlers had located between 
Bedford ami l'itt. He accommodated express-riders 
and military agents on this road. Within the next 
two years there were three or four neighbors to By- 
erly. < If these one was Christopher Uutlabaugh. 

Although Western Pennsylvania was then virtually 
within Cumberland County, yet the colonial authori- 
ties did not allow tiny one to take up html, either by 
Rquatting upon it or by purchasing from the Indians. 
It wtis not till 17(>!> that tiny title was given to those 
who had located by military permit and to those who 
received donations of land for service in the Indian 
war. 

But settlers at this date came in cautiously. In 
rude and squalid huts, crouched close to the stockade 
al Ligonier and scattered far apart from Frazer's, at 
Hie mouth of Turtle Creek, the settlers were always 
watchful and on the alert. The land, a complete 
wilderness, was all before them where to ofcoose, and, 
paradoxically, the "flaming sword" was before them 
also. The only strip of light through the gloom of 



the primeval woods was the narrow roadway from the 
mountains to the rivers. Far southward to the still 
unpeopled highway of Braddoek, and far northward 
into perpetual winter, was a boundless, rocky, deso- 
late, ami gloomy wild. To the left and right beasts 
of prey crouched in their burrows, birds of ill omen 
nestled among the cliffs, and barbarians skulked amid 
the trees or made war-clubs and sharpened their flints 
in their tepees by the streams and in the vales where 
the sunshine scarce touched. 

As stated, a stockade had been built and a garrison 
was left at Ligonier Fort. An attempt was made by 
the soldiers posted here to raise corn and garden veg- 
etables, and with the coming year a few others came 
in to share the hardships with them. Their huts 
were built under the shadow of the stockade, and at 
night they rested in quarters guarded by the soldiers. 
The old Fort Ligonier stood somewhat back of the 
site of the present village, on a rise of ground which 
was the lowermost range of Laurel Hill. The loca- 
tion was well adapted for defense and well calculated 
to sustain tt settlement, for although the mountains 
surrounding are comparatively unfruitful and unpro- 
ductive, yet the valleys between are fertile and well 
watered. 

Although the general war was not terminated, yet 
when the Indians were brought into contact with the 
English they, from the results of a wise policy, were 
conciliated. In 175S a treaty was effected at Easton 
between the Delawaresand Shawanese and the whites. 
The fury of the Indians, in the eastern part of the 
State especially, had somewhat abated, but on the 
western frontiers the Indians, under the French, still 
committed depredations. From the treaty of Easton 
the minds of the people had been somewhat at rest. 
But none, knew so well the treachery of that uncon- 
querable race as the settlers themselves. They, taking 
advantage of the lull in the war, pushed on farther 
into the West, — the first eddy of the great wave of 
empire. Point by point was reached and secured. 
Settlements were re-established along the Mononga- 
hcla, several on the old Braddoek road and tit the 
Turkey Foot. 'While these were the forerunners of 
the English civilization in Western Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, others were worming their way far "If in 
Northwestern Ohio. But all were watchful and on 
their guard. And good reasons had they to be on 
their guard. The old enmity between the races was 
not extinct. The defeat of the Indians had not been 
complete, they had been only baffled. On the edges 
of the border warfare had not at any time entirely 
ceased. The outposts were at any time open to sur- 
prise and attack. Far from the West, wdiere the In- 
dians had gathered closer together, came mutterings 
of war. In restless expectancy did the few settlers of 
Western Pennsylvania and Virginia pass over a 
couple of years, from 1750 to 17112 and 17G3. As the 
war between France and England was about termi- 
nating in 17G2, the storm at length broke out. Nor 



FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN WESTMORELAND— BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN, 1703. 33 



did the subsequent treaty of peace stop the aggression 
of these. 

There was a daring and noble — if the word noble 
can be applied to a savage — a noble chieftain, who 
commanded a confederation of Indians which he him- 
self had organized. This was Pontiac. He was chief 
of the Ottawas, and his camp-fires were about the 
lakes at Detroit. Under instigation of the French, 
and from a love of great actions, he waged an unre- 
lenting and a deathless war on the English whites. 
He was possessed of an inherent genius both for com- 
mand and to execute. Besides this he was gifted to 
a wonderful degree with the power of persuasive ora- 
tory. The strength of his organization and the force 
of his arms were felt all over the colonies. While 
the fires of one war were covering over, the fires of 
another war burst out. The natives, under arrange- 
ments concerted with this great chieftain, attacked in 
squads ami simultaneously nearly every one of the 
outer circle of forts ami settlements which circled 
westward from the lakes to the head-waters of the 
Kentucky. The tribes of Ohio, headed by the main 
body of the Shawanese, the most powerful of the 
Mingo confederation, carried the war into the heart 
of our own State. So unexpected and so fierce was 
this incursion that the Indians were all through the 
country before the whites knew. 1 Fort Pitt was com- 
pletely surrounded. It was feared that the fort would 
fall, a fear made more intense from a corresponding 
interest and by the great expectation of the English, 
who had after so much difficulty wrested it from their 
enemies, and who, when they had it in possession, 
boastingly asserted that it should remain in their pos- 
session, forever. Environing this fort, they penetrated 
as far eastward as Bedford. At this time Ligonier 
was the only post between Bedford and Fort Pitt held 
by the English. In the forts, stockades, and block- 
houses the settlers sought safety. The alarm spread 
like wildfire, and the roads in the East were filled with 
frightened women and children. Ligonier was in a 
state of siege. From now till the end of the French 
and Indian war, properly speaking, and even after, 
all the inhabitants were either driven east of the 
mountains or else they were cooped up in forts. 

Fort Ligonier had now become a general station, at 
which provisions and munitions of war were collected 
for the supply of the West. From here, on pack- 
horses, these were sent forward protected. There was 
no stated number of the garrison, for it differed at dif- 
ferent times. After Forbes left, Lieut Lloyd was in 



1 All the tribes from the Hudson to the Mississippi were in the confed- 
eration. So systematic was lie- 1 1' :itt.iek planned, and so siniultftneoHBly 
v. as it executed, t hitt out of the eleven or twelve of the principal British 

forts lying west of the Ohio River hy their preconcerted arrangement 
And their quickness of operation only three were uutaken. Le Bosuf, 
Venango, Presque Isle on Lake Erie, Lea Hay on Lake Michigan, 
Miami, St. Joseph, Ouachtanon, Sandusky, and Michillimackinac hail 
been surprised and the garrisons massacred. Niagara, Detroit, and Fort 
Pin alone remained nncaptnred, but each was besieged by a large num- 
ber of savages, who had with them some Fiench Canadians. 



command for most pari of theyear L758. Lieut. Samuel 
Miles commanded in the latter part of the year 17")!', 
and had twenty men under him picked out ot two bat- 
talions. At the time of this incursion the depot at 
Ligonier was in charge of Lieut. Blaine. Capt. Ourry 
commanded at Bedford. The garrison at both places 

was small. But to preserve this post was of the ut- 
most importance ; for had Fort Pitt and Fort Ligonier 
fallen the whole of the middle part of Pennsylvania 
would have been open to another invasion. To here 
within the walls of the stockade till those around fid. 
Byerly, in the night, brought in his family, for the 
Indians were between his station and Fort Pitt. Fort 
Pitt, with a small garrison under Captain E( uyer, was 
isolated. The Indians, under the vigilant control of 
a bloodthirsty chieftain, Kyashuta, of the Senecas, — 
the confederate of Pontiac in the East, — had hopes to 
starve out the garrison before assistance reached them. 
Amid the commotion and tumult in the Fast, it was 
feared that with all their activity in this emergency 
no relief could be brought to either point. A cam- 
paign would have to be first organized, and a long 
Stretch of mountainous country separated them. But 
the authorities and people appeared willing and able 
to help. If the besieged place- could hold out it 
would not be long till Bouquet would again be among 
them. Some thought that all would be massacred 
before assistance came; others dreaded to hear any 
news, for their ears were open to that which would be 
the most sorrowful. 

In the mean time affairs were critical about Fort 
Ligonier. There was the greatest danger and the 
most widely spread fear of the post falling into the 
hands of the enemy. A party detached from the 
main body of the Indians had already attacked it, 
but by the good managemenl of Lieut. Blaine and 
the bravery of his men, notwithstanding the fewness 
of their number and the badness of the stockade, 
those who attacked it were driven hack. 

As a matter of fact, the possession of this post was 
almost if not altogether of as much importance at 
this conjuncture as the post of Fort Pitt. Its situa- 
tion was such that it immediately covered the iron- 
tiers. But besides this at that particular time there 
were large quantities of military stores here. Should 
these fall into the hands of the enemy, they would be 
able to continue their attack on Fort Pitt, and prob- 
ably reduce the place before any help could come. 

But at the same time in which the greatest appre- 
hension was felt that this post would fall, came rein- 
forcements. Captain Ourry, of Bedford, with a feeling 
and fearless heart, weakened his own garrison for the 
relief of this little band. He picked out twenty rifle- 
men, all good woodsmen, and directed them to exert 
themselves to reach the garrison in all haste. They 
started across the mountains, and evading the Indians 
on all sides by coming in on another route, appeared 
on the hill back of the fort. It was dangerous for the 
brave men to delay, for fear of being discovered, and 



34 



HISTORY OF WEST.M0RP:LAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



it was dangerous for them to run towards the fort, for 
in doing so they might be mistaken for an enemy and 
fired upon. But they soon resolved on doing. Under 
cover of the bushes they crept near to the stockade. 
They were seen by the Indians and fired at, btlt under 
cover of the lire they ran for the entrance of the fort. 
The garrison recognized them and fired upon their 
pursuers, and Hinging open the gates of the stockade 
heartily welcomed their arrival. 

The garrison was strengthened at a most critical 
and opportune time. No one dared now venture out- 
side the limits of the stockade. All such domestic 
animals as were suffered to wander were destroyed by 
the besieging parly. There were many skirmishes 
about tin fort; indeed, one continuous skirmish, if 
we trust the reports on good authority handed down 
to us. Many of the redskins were killed. Among 
them and urging them on were some renegade French 
Canadians, although at that time there was no war 
n the two countries. 

The goid conduct of Lieut. Blaine is greatly to be 
extolled. He had his hands full. All the distressed 
families for a distance of twelve and fifteen miles 
around had on the first alarm fled to the fort for pro- 
tection, they having left most of their effects a prey to 
the savages. 1 Blaine, however, took every precaution 
to prevent a surprise and to repel another attack. 
The [ndians by this time had become expert in one 
of the arts of war peculiar to their mode, and this 
they had practiced during this invasion with gratify- 
ing success. They prepared inflammable substances 
which they bound to their arrows, and these they 
shot into the roofs of the cabins inside the stockade 
and wherever else there was combustible material. 
But Blaine had guards watching incessantly, and 
otherwise took every known means to render these 
missiles ineffectual. He had arms enough at hand 
for the men who had gathered thither, and they he 
armed and made perform military duty. He formed 
them into two companies of volunteers, and they did 
duty with the garrison till the two companies of 
light infantry which were detached from Bouquet's 
force arrived. 

In the mean time was Col. Bouquet hastening from 
the Fast to the distressed posts. All effective troops 
al command were turned for the support of the more 
important positions along the northern frontiers, 
where Britain was maintaining her foothold on the 
very threshold of her empire. Bouquet was ordered 
to relieve Fort Pitt with stores and provisions, anil to 
reinforce it and the intermediate posts with his com- 
mand. His available forces were the shattered re- 
mains of two regiments which had just landed at 
Philadelphia from the campaign in the West Indies, - 
where they had been fighting Spaniards, the yellow 
fever, and malaria. Such was the main part of the 



1 Uupp's " History Western Pennsylvania," p. 158. 

- Tuesu were the Furty^ecuuil and the Si'YOuty-scvenUi Regiments. 



army on which he had to rely in reaching a po3t 
three hundred miles away, cut off and surrounded 
by enemies of whose disposition the men bad no 
knowledge only from rumor. These in number did 
not exceed five hundred, of whom many were so weak 
they were not able to walk, and sixty were carried in 
wagons to be left at the- smaller posts. The govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania had given orders to prepare 
a convoy of provisions for the forces along the 
route, and especially at Carlisle; but such was the 
utter helplessness of the country through which they 
passed — its crops burnt, its plantations destroyed — 
that when Bouquet came up nothing had been done. 
Nay, even the greater portion of Cumberland County 
was deserted, and the roads were filled with flying 
refugees. But by delaying at Carlisle for some eigh- 
teen days, towards the latter end of July, 17(5:?, and 
by the unwearied diligence of the colonel, provisions 
from the neighboring counties were accumulated in 
sufficiency to allow him to proceed. His small num- 
ber of sickly troops, wdio were to fight an enemy not 
unknown to Braddock, instead of encouraging the in- 
habitants rather made them dejected the more. Now, 
after their proffers of assistance and their activity on 
the first outbreak of the war, they did not in any 
number volunteer to assist the brave Swiss colonel 
and his English redcoats. 

Bouquet, thoughtful as he always was, and not 
knowing of the action of Captain Ourryin forwarding 
the twenty volunteers from Bedford, sent forward, lie- 
fore be left Carlisle, thirty men to join the garrison 
at Ligonier. This was before July, 1763. They came 
in a hurried march, and, hazardous as was the under- 
taking, were not discovered till they came to the fort. 
Receiving some shot as they ran, they securely en- 
tered into the little stockade. 

Bouquet toilsomely dragged his little army along. 
Everywdicre be came he heard and saw the signs of 
Indian atrocities, for their war was not carried on by 
them in a body, but in many places and at different 
times. One day a horse laden with merchandise 
would be captured between Carlisle and Bedford and 
the driver killed ; the next day a settler wdio had 
ventured from the stockade at Ligonier would be 
taken captive and hurried to the Indian country in 
the West. Even in the rear of the army, as it pro- 
ceeded, were many waylaid and killed. He could 
get no idea of their numbers, their positions, their 
intentions. He could find no enemy to fight ; he 
could hear of no place to attack them. He had ex- 
pected to venture battle with them at Bedford, for 
about there they had murdered many, although they 
did not attack the fort. But when he came there 
they were all scattered. On the other hand, the In- 
dians, by their fleet runners through the woods, knew 
of every movement of his. 

On the 25th of July it was that Bouquet arrived at 
Bedford; on the 1st of August he reached Ligonier. 
His presence here relieved those whom he found in 



FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN WESTMORELAND— BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN, 1763. 35 



the greatest fear. On reaching Ligonier he deter- 
mined, according to the narrative, to leave here his 
wagons and baggage, and proceeding forward with 
pack-horses, carry such a convoy of provisions as was 
necessary for his own troops and necessary for the 
immediate wants of the garrison at Pittsburgh and 
the needy collected within the fort; for there were 
a few log houses then built between the fort and the 
river occupied by traders, and these all fled for pro- 
tection into the fort, and were under the care of the 
garrison. To all alike were the scanty supplies doled 
out. 

Bouquet's gallant little band, dignified in history 
with the fame-sounding appellation of army, halted 
only for a day at Ligonier fort, and leaving there a 
strong guard, then struck otlton the old Forbes road. 
It was the road Bouquet himself had helped to make. 
He knew the country with the knowledge of a thor- 
ough military man. The first night they encamped 
on the west side of the Loyalhanna. It was Bou- 
quet's intention to hasten past Turtle Creek by a 
forced march of thirty miles the next day, for to the 
east of Turtle Creek there was, between high banks 
and hills, a long defile extending some two miles, and 
this location was considered a dangerous one. In the 
early morning of August 5, 1703, the men were on the 
march. The weather was warm, and in the uncleared 
woods uncomfortably sultry and close, but yet by a 
little past noon they had marched seventeen miles, 
and come to within half a mile of Bushy Run, a 
tributary of Brush Creek, which itself flows into 
Turtle Creek. He had purposed to halt here to re- 
fresh his men till the heat of the day was exhausted, 
and possibly to evade the Indians by passing the 
defile before nightfall. 

The Indians had left enough of their crew around 
the beleaguered fort, and without sensibly, or at least 
apparently, diminishing their number or their ef- 
fectiveness there, were laying a plan to surprise 
Bouquet, for on hearing of his march from Ligonier 
they broke up their camp at the river, and at the 
most favorable time, under the chieftainship of Kya- 
shuta, came out through the woods to annihilate the 
army of relief. The Mingoes knew the country well, 
and it was not unfavorable for ambush and their 
mode of warfare. The land is either hilly or rolling, 
and at that time was covered with rocks, thick bushes, 
and forest-trees. A number of the early inhabitants 
willingly offered their services to Bouquet at Bedford 
and at Ligonier. Among the advance as pioneers 
were Andrew Byerly and some of his neighbors, who 
volunteered to lead the army. The battle which fol- 
lowed, called the battle of Bushy Run, was fought 
near Byerly's Station. 1 

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, when the 
small army was nearing Bushy Run, where they pur- 



1 See note to Peun township, in which the battle of Bushy Run was 
fought. 



posed to slake their thirst and refresh themselves after 
their tiresome march, the advance, among whom were 
Byerly and the volunteer scouts, were suddenly fired 
upon. They were speedily supported by fresh troops, 
and the Indians scattered. Such, however, was the 
preconcerted plan of battle, for as soon as the pursuit 
was ended they returned, and suddenly all along the 
line they rose up like the grass from their ambush 
along the sides of the hills. The regular soldiery, 
unused and all as they were to this kind of warfare, 
under their skillful commander bravely stood their 
ground. They resisted every attack of the enemy. 
Finding their convoy in danger, it being in the rear, 
they withdrew in order until they had it surrounded. 
Seeing that firing did not have the desired effect upon 
the Indians, they were ordered to charge with the 
bayonet. They did, and the savages fled, for they 
were never known to withstand this onset from regu- 
lar troops. But the dispersing them was not victory, 
for they returned to the fight with persistence. Nor 
could they by any known method be dislodged or scat- 
tered. In this manner the little army withstood the 
repeated attacks of the emboldened and insolent enemy 
till night. 

Night fell upon the brave band of foreign soldiers 
in the wilderness, wdio that long summer afternoon, 
without rest or refreshment, had been fighting. Worse 
than all did they suffer from thirst, as there was no 
stream near and they could not leave their convoy; 
besides, they were surrounded completely, and entirely 
cut off from the stream ahead. The night was longer 
than the day; when the day at last dawned it was 
only to renew, for them, the battle. Seeing that it 
must soon terminate some way, Bouquet planned and 
executed a stratagem. 

The army still kept the .position they had occu- 
pied during the night, close to their convoy. A tow 
companies lay along the road. The convoy, being 
upon a rise of ground, was protected by the grenadiers 
and infantry, the horses, teamsters, and baggage 
being in the midst. In the advance along the road 
were two companies of grenadiers. Bouquet wanted 
to leave the impression with the Indians that he was 
about to begin a retreat. In pursuance of this ap- 
parent intention, he ordered the two companies to fall 
within the circle along the road, and also in reality to 
pass through between them and take up a position on 
the road in his rear, where they were hidden from 
view. They accordingly did so, and the lines opened 
to receive and then closed upon them. The Indians 
poured out upon the convoy and prowled through the 
wood to intercept those on the retreat. At the same 
time Bouquet ordered out two companies, one of 
grenadiers and one of light infantry, to lie in wait on 
the ground which the grenadiers had left. These, un- 
observed, took up their position. Then the circle 
around the convoy began to contract, as if indeed the 
retreat had actually begun. On the road of the re- 
treating companies were also two companies of light 



36 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



infantry to resist the expected attack there. These 
rising suddenly from their ambush poured volley 
after volley among the Indians, from which they suf- 
fered exceedingly. Panic-stricken themselves, they 
fled tnrough the woods before the infantry, who fol- 
lowed them with the bayonet, driving them right 
round towards the other grenadiers and infantry, who 
met them with their fresh fire, these being posted 
here to receive them when so driven round. Thus 
hemmed in between two concentrated and converging 
tin-, the Indians suffered great loss, and being panic- 
struck beyond measure they fled separately through 
the woods in all directions. Nor did they once re- 
cover. They left upon the field sixty dead, among 
whom were many reputed their bravest warriors. 
Many more were wounded so that they died. 

The leader of the Indians in this engagement was 
said to be Kyashuta. He was chief sachem of the 
Senecas, and by the power of his command carried 
the Mingoes and all the Ohio tribes into the war. He 
made his name as famous almost as the name of his 
grcatcompeer, Pontiac. He was a savage in every sense 
of tin- word. Turbulent and treacherous as he was, lie 
was one of the last to make peace with the whites, and 
did so only when he was at their mercy. But fierce 
as be was when on the war-path and as he has been 
universally considered, yet there are some wdio have 
given high praise to his character. Washington, in 
1770. when on a tour to the Ohio, stopped to pay his 
compliments to Kyashuta, and he states that he was 
tr-ated by him witli great, kindness. He was one of 
the Indians who went with Washington to the French 
at Venango in 175.'?, before the French and Indian 
war. 

At the time of this defeat the Mingoes had their 
headquarters at the old town of Logstown, on the 
Ohio, built for them by the French. After this battle 
they deserted this place. 

Bouquet, collecting Ids worn-out soldiers, proceeded 
to Bushy Bun, where he encamped. When the dan- 
ger hail seemed the most imminent a number of 
teamsters hid themselves among the bushes and al- 
lowed some of the horses |,, escape. On this account 
part of the convoy had to be destroyed. With the 
rest Bou [uet advanced to Fort Pitt, which he reached 
on the 9th of August, ]7<;:V 

1 Henry Bouquet, who made In'.s uame famous in American colonial 

history, and who has had a post-office in West eland County called for 

him, thus deserving at onr hands b e notice, was born at Rolle, in tlie 

Cii i of Berne, Switzerland, about 1710. At the ago of Beventeen li" 

wti i tved a cadet In the regiment of Constance, and thence patsed 
into the service ol the King of Sardinia, in whose wars In- distinguished 
himself as a lieutenant, ami afterwards as adjutant. In 17-is he entered 
tie- Swiss Guards as llentenant-colonel. When tin- war broke nut in 
1754 between England and France Ik- was soli.itol by tin- English to 
serve in Ann-lira, His ability Boon got In'ni iii giL-at confidence ill Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania, and In- was employed in various services. Tin 
tiist distinguished himself nndei Forbes, and was .mo of bis chief ad- 
11" readily fell into tin- provincial mode of fighting the Indians, 

which says re for In- military genius than bis former services would 

At tin- time of Pontinc's ivar, as wo have seen at length, ho 
Gen. Ainlirrst to relieve the western garrlsono, which be 



CHAPTER VII. 

SETTLEMENT FROM 17o9 TO 1769. 

Misnnderat 1 Boundaries of the Treaty of 1754 (Albany)— Pun hase of 

17..S and Boundaries thereunder— Brit Hi Officers give Permits to Set- 
U.ms after Forbes' Campaign— Pennsylvania will nut give Title !>■ Set- 
tlors, inii p:is*<*s Laws to keep Settlersoff this Territory— Virginia in- 
duces Settlers to migrate hither and locate — The Boundary Line 
hetween Pennsylvania and Virginia not definitely known— Settlers 
come in i" the Country after Pontiac'a war 1 1764)— They locate at Red- 
stone, ou the Youghiogheny, at the Forks of that River, and ;ii t 

Pittsburgh, Ligonier, ami along the Great Roads — Mason and Dixon's 
Line run — Proclamation <if the Governor of Pennsylvania warning 
these Settlers off— Rev. John Steele sent to them to explain the Law 
ami request them to remove — They refuse to remove— The "New 
Purchase," under Treaty of Fort Stanwix, of 17t>s— List of the Earliest 
Settlements made in Western Pennsj Ivania to tliN date (1768)— Clam- 
oring of Emigrants ami New Settlers to have Lands granted them hy 
the- Provinoi — Special Land Titles— Penn's Manorial Reservations — 
The Divesting Art — Preliminaries to the opening of the Land Office 
— Public Notice of the opi-niri*' given— Land Office opened for Appli- 
cations in the New Purchase, Apt il 3, 17G9, 

We shall here give some account of the settlements 
of this region from the time of the occupancy of Fort 
Duquesne by Forbes in 1759 to the opening of the 
land office in lTii!*, a date to be always remembered 
in the history of the Westmoreland settlements. We 
shall also give a summary of the rules and regula- 
tions by which the land office was guided, and try 
to get an understanding of the relation betwt 
and the people. It is a subject frequently to be re- 
curred toj for within this period there is such a con- 
flict of law and disobedience, of justice and injustice, 
of singular friendships and of singular enmities 
among the settlers and the natives, of misunderstood 
boundaries and of violated treaties. 

The intervening period between these two dates is 
the date of Pontiac's war (1703). The settlements of 
this region may be aptly compared to the encroach- 
ment of the now tide upon the beach. Wa\ 
people were borne outward, and then from causes to 
be explained were driven back, only to be again driven 
outward with increased and accelerated force and 
body. From the close of this memorable war, of 
short duration it is true, but filled with barbarities 
untold, there was a cessation, and the country was 
left to comparative peace until the breaking out of 
Dunmore's war before the Revolution ( 1774). During 
this time immigration to the west of the Allegheny 



uccessfully with such inefficient means. Nil soldier of foreign 
birtli was so distinguished or so successful in Indian wai fare as he was. 
The next .year after this battle, that was iu 1764, he was placed at the 
head <>f a force of Pennsylvania and Virginia volunteers, which lie had 
organized at Fort Loudon, Pa , with which lie penetrated in a " line of 
battle" from Port Pitt into tie' Indian country along the Muskingum. 
Tin- savages, baffled and unsuccessful in at! their attempts at surprise 
and ambush, sued for pence, and tin- li Treotyof Bouquet," made then 

ami there, is as notorious in Ohio ;t> the " Rattle of Bouquet" is in Penn- 
sylvania. The Assembly of Peuusj Ivania ami the Burgesses of Virginia 
adopted nddresses of gratitude, tendered him their thanks, and recom- 
mended him for promotion in II is Maje t.i a sen ice. Immediately ifter 
the peace with the Indians was concluded, the king made him brijwdier- 
general and com mat t da til In the Southern colonies of British a km riea. 
He lived not long to enjoy his honors, for he died al Pensacoln, 17CT, 
"lamented hy his friends, and regretted universally.' 1 



SETTLEMENT FROM 1759 TO 17G9. 



37 



Mountains commenced and continued. Settlements 

were then started in places and localities which were 
permanently held. By Bouquet's treaty of 17(14 the 
Indians granted the whites the privilege of erecting 
forts and trading-houses wherever they pleased, and 

of traveling the road from sunrising till sunsetting.' 
Had there been no opposition but that offered by the 
natives, Western Pennsylvania would have been soon 
settled ; but from circumstances peculiar to this colony 
the settlements here were delayed and retarded. 

We have stated that the authorities of our Province 
did not allow any one to settle on lands not purchased 
from the Indians. But it will be remembered that 
by the treaty of Albany in 1751 all lands lying west 
of the Susquehanna, and as far in extent as the limits 
of the Province, were said to have been so purchased. 
This treaty driving the Indians to take part with the 
French, as was terribly witnessed by Braddock's de- 
feat and the aggressive war following, compelled Gov- 
ernor Morris in the next year, 1755, to issue his proc- 
lamation in which he distinctly asserted that this 
fraud was apparent to the whole world, and the de- 
mand so exorbitant that by it the natives had not a 
country left to subsist in. 8 Perhaps the authorities 
were, as was subsequently given out, as poorly in- 
funned as to where the limits extended as the Indians 
were in comprehending the points of the compass ; 
for it was afterwards found that the boundaries did 
not by any means extend so far as the actual limits 
of the Province. Put the Indians the more loudly 
complained of this injustice. Many conferences were 
held about the region of the Ohio, among which may 
be noted those of Weiser's, Post's, and Crogan's, a 
familiarity with the details of which may be acquired 
from any narrative covering this era and bearing on 
thi« section. These all were preliminary, arid finally 
led to the treaty of Easton, October, 1758, which was 
consummated utter the successful expedition of Forbes 
in capturing Fort Duquesne. In this treaty of 1758 
the authorities of the Province surrendered to the 
Indian Six Nations and their allies all to the north- 
ward and westward of the Allegheny Mountains, and 
finally and indubitably secured all the remainder 
eastward to the proprietaries. 

In the southern part of the State, east of West- 
moreland, the purchase of 1758 would have had for 
its western boundary the line between Somerset and 
Bedford, Cambria and Blair Counties. 

1 After Banquet's victory the Indian warriors retreated into tin 1 wil- 
derness of Ohio, and diit not regard themselves as safe, til! they stopped 
at the Muskingum. lint Bouquet v, itli now forces pursued them thither, 
ami at the iii'-iui ii ai ■'■■ treaty of 1764, on the Muskingum, exacted Riicli 
terms ami rest! icted those iucliued to war to such limits that it has been 
regnrded as the most efficacious of all treaties forced from them at the 
point of the bayonet. — Chip's " Old^n Time" 

- At the treaty of Albany, in 1754, the delegates from Pennsylvania 
secured, as was alleged, irregularly, a great portion of the laud to which 
tin- title of the Indians was not extinguished, by which many tribes 
found the ground which had heen seemed to them by treaties with the 
Siv. Nations sold from under their feet. This had been guaranteed to 
them on their removal thither. 



Pennsylvania could thus not claim any of the terri- 
tory west of that line 3 for the purpose of giving lands 
to her inhabitants, because to have done so would 
have been in violation, of her good faith and of her 
prior treaties with the natives. 

Beyond the franchise of the proprietaries, however, 
were the reserved privileges of the crown. The king 
of England, as lord paramount, sent his soldiers 
through both Virginia and Pennsylvania, as he had 
a right to do, opened up his military roads and his 
highways, established bis military posts, ami kept up 
his garrisons. From the time of Forbes till after the 
treaty of 1768 there were British officers and a garrison 
at Fort Pitt. At Ligonier there was sometimes a 
regular British officer and sometimes a subaltern in 
the service of the Province, but who was specially 
empowered by delegated authority from the officer in 
his military department over him to grant under cer- 
tain restrictions permits to occupy parcels of land, as 
the commandant at Fort Pitt could. 

The successful termination of the French and Indian 
war in 175!) and 1760 gave to England the possession 
of Canada, as well as the great West. Hence were 
the fortifications and military posts which had been 
erected by the French turned over to and occupied by 
the British. To have ready access to and communi- 
cation with these posts and from one to the other was 
a necessity. In encouraging all efforts of the royal 
deputies in that direction, no one of the old colonies 
was more ready and active than was Virginia. 4 
Many of her grants hail been made before the time 
of Braddock, and she was now as sedulous as ever 
in protecting them. 

Among those which were regarded as the necessary 
and special privileges of these royal commandants was 
that one to which we have alluded, of granting to set- 
tle S permission to occupy, settle upon, and cultivate 
lands, which might be retained afterwards by a com- 
pliance with the regulations of the Penns, whose ulti- 
mate right in the land was never questioned. The 
object manifestly was to encourage settlers near the 
garrisons, whose labor was necessary for the produc- 
tion of necessaries for the use and preservation of the 
garrison. Soldiers who were married and stationed at 
these posts kept their families with them. Permits 
were granted also to certain settlers along the old 
roads, and at stations on the rivers, where they were 
of advantage to the military authorities or subserved 
a useful and needed purpose. As a very wide margin 
circumscribed the discretion of these officers, it will 
be readily inferred that these permits were granted for 
many reasons. 5 

3 See line marking western limits of the pnrchaee of 1749, and pur- 
chase of 17-50 and prior, on maps of various purchases. 

4 In 1755, by the hooks of the Secretary of Virginia, three millions had 
been granted westof the mountains to her settlers. In 17os that colony 
endeavored to encourage by law settlements in the Indian country. 

5 In 1765 the Becnnd town of Pittsburgh was laid out by permission of 
the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. 

The following is a copy of a permit granted by Arthur St. Clair to 



38 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Many with stout hearts, level heads, and ready 
hands availed themselves of these privileges, and 
some hy speeial permit, others by official influence, 
took up lands in various pasts, but especially near 
the forts. There were others who availed themselves 
of the power delegated to these commandants, and 
got their permits to reoccupy lands which they had 
previously occupied before the time of Braddock, am] 
which they had first possessed under the cover of 
Virginia, or more directly of the Ohio Company. 

The same technicality about titles did not exist in 
Virginia. And now we touch upon a subject which 
in the annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania assumes 
great proportions. The early civil history of this 
region is the history of conflicting boundary claim-. 

Virginia by her charter from James the First, 1609, 
claimed all the territory from the Atlantic Ocean 
which, bounded by a straight line on the northern 
limits, extended "up into the land throughout from 
sea to sea, west and northwest," which line, if now al- 
lowed as then claimed, would take in Maryland, most 
of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and all West 
and Northwest up to 54° 40'. This patent was, in 1624, 
at the instance of the company, revoked, and although 
never afterwards restored, was made the pretext by 
Virginia of great and most arrogant pretensions. 1 

The line of Penu's province was, as is well known, 
from the fortieth degree of north latitude "in a straight 
line westward" to the limits of five degrees of longi- 
tude from the Delaware. 2 Now a degree of longitude 
is between sixty-eight and sixty-nine geographical 
miles, and the five degrees, had they been marked 
and measured, would have reached, as we see, beyond 
the Monongahela. But it came to be believed by 
the authorities of Virginia that these five degrees 
would not reach over the mountains. 3 



Frederick Rhorer, the original of which is in the possession of Caleb 
Cope, Esq. : 

" Bv Arthur St. Clair, late Lieut, in his Majesty's Sixtieth Itegt. of foot, 
having the care of his Majesty's fort at Ligonier. 

"I have given Permission to Frederick Rorerto cultivate a certain 
Piece of Lund in the neighborhood of Fort Ligonier, over a certain 
creek, which empties itself into the Loyal Hanning, known hy the name 
of the Coal Pitt Creek ; beginning at a White Oik Btauding on a Bpring 
and marked with the letters FXRaud running from thence to another 
Tree marked with the same letters and standing on another Spring 
called the Falling Spring, and from these two marked Trees towards 
the sd [said ! Coal Pitt deck supposed to contain two hund. acres he the 
said Frederick Borer being willing to submit to all orders of the Com- 
niander in Chief the commanding officer of the District, and of the 
Garrison. 

" Given under my hand at Ligonier this 11th day of April. 17c,7. 

" A a. St. Clair." 

1 By reason of the alleged point from which to start the ideal line, 
taken from the misprint of John Smith's map, the only one at the date 
of the charters, which point was placed nineteen ni los too far to the 
south, arose the controversy between the proprietaries of Maryland ami 
Pennsylvania, which alter long litigation was finally decided hy the 
Lord Chancellor of England. 

2 But the Pennsylvania authorities, when they were asked to help ex- 
pel the French, expressed with some equivocation a doubt, among other 
stronger objections, whether the intrusion was on their territory. 

; Veech, "Secular History'' in "Cent. Mem.," p. 300, and numerous 
other authorities. 



It would, however, had this question never risen, 
have been a futile and useless thing to attempt to 
keep out this class of settlers who wanted to come 
into these parts from coming in. In the history of 
Pennsylvania it is noticeable that the settlements 
mostly preceded the treaties. 

Immigrants, therefore, in spite of all remonstrance 
and in the face of all dangers, came into this region. 
Virginia offered inducements; Pennsylvania imposed 
objections. Those, then, who did come in found argu- 
ments ready at hand in favor of sustaining the claims 
of Virginia. They alleged that Virginia hail fought 
for the land, had organized expeditions against the 
hostile Indians, had sent Washington with Braddock 
against the French, and had succeeded most effectu- 
ally in reclaiming a region to which she had mani- 
fest right, and had always watched over her settlers, 
giving them lands cheap and not burdening them 
heavily with taxes, and that therefore their allegiance, 
on all grounds natural as well as civil, was due to her 
in preference to Pennsylvania. 

The region, too, was readier of access through 
her undisputed territory than through that of Penn- 
sylvania. The Braddock road, used before the time 
of I'ontiac's war (1764) in preference to tiie Forbes 
road, was after that time the great highway for emi- 
grants to and through those parts, and many, indeed, 
from the interior of Pennsylvania preferred it to the 
other, which was regarded as more difficult and inse- 
cure. 

V- In 1765 many emigrants from Maryland and Vir- 
ginia removed over the mountains for the purpose of 
settling there. 4 These settled mostly in the Fayette 
part of what was then of Cumberland County, be- 
tween the mountains ami the Monongahela River, 
some about the Turkey Foot (Confluence >, some in 
the river bottoms of Greene and Washington Coun- 
ties, with a nucleus at Redsto ne (Brownsville), but 
most in the southern part of what is now Westmore- 
land, and by this time the old plantations which had 
been before deserted were mostly reoccupied. 

We then, in short, observe that although the Penn- 
sylvania authorities did not allow to private individ- 
uals the privilege of settlement, yet by a resistless 
impulse they forced themselves Upon the forbidden 
ground. This the Indians complained of, for it was 
alleged, perhaps with reason, that there were many 
killed by the whites without provocation, and the 
Indians being always at war among themselves, it was 
not improbable that some of them in passing ami re- 
passing from one place to another were thus killed. 
When we are further acquainted with the character 
of these settlers it will not seem at all improbable. 
The authorities, both of Pennsylvania and of Vir- 
ginia, were active in their professions, in their local 
treaties, and in their supervising legislation to mollify 



* This statement takes in its purview those settlers under the Ohio 
Company's grant and at Gist's. 



SETTLEMENT FROM 1759 TO 1TG9. 



3D 



those disaffected; but they with a grum and stoical 
persistence always put forward their grievances, and 
played on the same string. As early as 1766, Crogan 
complained of the persons settling at Redstone , and 
insisted that the government pursue vigorous meas- 
ures to deter the frontier inhabitants from murdering 
the Indians and from encroaching on their grounds, 
at least till the boundaries were definitely fixed be- 
tween the two colonies. Of George Crogan, the Indian 
agent, it may be said that he was one of the most suc- 
cessful Indian diplomatists that was ever in the ser- 
vice of any State. By his tireless efforts many years 
of war were averted, aud thousands of lives were 
saved. 

The running of Mason and Dixon's line in 1767 as 
far as to its second crossing at Dunkard Creek, in now 
Greene County, indicated that all these intruders 
were within Pennsylvania. The Governor of Vir- 
ginia (Fauquier) did not gainsay it, and left the 
proprietaries to fight it out with the intruders as best 
they could. Governor Penn, in 1768, called the spe- 
cial attention of the Assembly to this, and said their 
removal was indispensable to avert war. 

In these proceedings it is seen that there was a de- 
sire on the part of those representing the interests of 
the government and people to conciliate the Indians 
and to secure their perpetual friendship. They were 
thus under obligation to proceed according to the 
white man's ideas of justice. Surveys made over 
those lands not alienated by treaty deed were de- 
clared to be void and illegal. They professed not to 
sell any lands beyond those not purchased. Many 
acts were passed prohibiting any me from thus set- 
tling, and by an act of Feb. 3, 1768, any one neglect- 
ing to remove from such settlements after legal notice 
was, after being duly convicted, to be punished with 
death without benefit of clergy. But this act was not 
intended to extend to those then settled, or to those 
who thereafter settled, on the main roads leading 
through the Province to Fort Duquesne, and so set- 
tled with the approbation of the commander-in-chief 
of His Majesty's forces or their lawfully authorized 
officers, or in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt under 
such permission. And any person presuming to en- 
ter on such unpurchased lands for the purpose of 
marking trees or making surveys was to be punished, 
on conviction, by a fine of fifty pounds and three 
months' imprisonment. This act was violated by 
those who settled about Redstone and the Turkey 
Foot, and perhaps by others farther northward and 
back of the Forbes road. 1 

The reasons for enacting laws so highly penal are 
recounted at large. From the advices furnished by 
the officers in charge of the garrisons, and from those 
who were brought in close contact with the natives, 
there was at this time immediate danger of another 
Indian outbreak. Most of these penal laws were 

1 Steele's Letter to Guv. John Peun, Prov. Records, p. 31G. 



temporary only in their effect, — that is, they were 
made for particular emergencies, and were intended 
to lie in force only for a short time. And as these 
laws died out many of those who had left when 
warned oil' returned, and others intruded themselves 
on the lands. Some, however, did not leave, either 
from entreaty or force ; such were those at Riidjitaae and 
at Turkey Foot.- Proclamations were of little effect, 
and before it was too late it was of necessity that the 
Indian complaints should be redressed, or at least pa- 
tiently listened to. So far did the desire of the gov- 
ernment extend to keep the Indians at rest, that there 
was a severe penalty in money and in imprisonment 
for those who even hunted and pursued wild beasts 
without the lawful limits. 

When those settlers al • and the Turkey 

Foot remained in open defiance of the act of Febru- 
ary, 1768, and of the proclamation commanding them 
to quit, an effort was made to peaceably induce them 
to do so. As these settlers were for the greater part 
Scotch-Irish from their settlements in Pennsylvania. 
the Rev. John Steele, of Carlisle, and three others, 
early in March, 176S, were sent to warn them off, and 
to represent to them the desire ami the will of the 
government of the Province. Shortly after this he 
was at their settlement. The people hearing of his 
coming appointed a meeting among themselves. At 
this meeting he read to them the act of Assembly and 
the proclamation of the Governor, explaining to them 
the law anil giving the reasons for it, and endeavored 
to persuade them to comply therewith. He repre- 
sented that their compliance was the most probable 
method of getting the favor of the proprietaries. 

On the 30th of March (1768) thirty to forty of the 
settlers met the deputies at Gist's, that being the 
point designated as the most convenient for those 
from the Cheat River and Stewart's Crossing (Con- 
nellsville), whither messengers had been sent with 
this request. On the 31st they were at the Great 
Crossings, from wdiere they sent copies of the proc- 
lamation to those at Turkey Foot. 3 

While at Red he was met by a number of 

Mingoes, who sent by him a speech to the Governor. 
They said firmly that the whites must go away, but 
they would wait on the issue of a talk to be held by 
George Crogan and their great men. The treaty in 
prospect came off at Fort Pitt in April and May, 
1768. Between 1000 and 2000 Indians were there, of 
the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanese, and other 
tribes. Hereat many presents were distributed, and, 
strange and inconsistent as it may appear, the only 

- Col. Crawford, in a letter to James Tilghrann, Aug. 9, 1771 (Archives, 
iv. 4'J4). sajs that he had information that (here was a bond or article of 
agreement entered into between a number of the inhabitants of Mononga- 
liila ami Redstone that each would join and keep off all officers of the 
law, under a penalty of £50, to ho forfeited by the party refusing to join 
against all officers whatsoever. See also Col. G. Wilson's letter to A. St. 
Clair, wherein be mentions the resolves of the inhabitants to oppose 
Peon's laws, Aug. 14, 1771 [Archives, iv. 437). 

» Ibid. 



40 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



complaints made were by the Pennsylvania commis- 
sioners against the Indians for selling tlieir lands to 
the settlers, and for the interference of the Mingoes 
at the Redstone Conference. 1 

But the settlers did not remove, nor did any of 
them "suffer death without benefit of clergy" for re- 
maining, for by this and from other things they felt 
assured that among them there was no immediate 
danger of war, for they were a willful-minded, stub- 
born set of men, inured to roughness all their lives. 

But all signs indicated that another Indian war was 
brewing, a war which promised to be a general one. 
The hostiles had been quiet as long as was usual, and 
their mutterings all round the settlements of the 
whiles from Western New York to Western Virginia 
were audible To none was it more instinctively per- 
ceptible than to Sir William Johnson, the one man 
to whom more than to any other the Board of Trade 
and Plantations intrusted the management of the 
royal and colonial interest arising from trouble with 
the tribes. This war was thereupon averted by the 
intervention of Johnson, whose influence over the 
Six Nations was unbounded. At his suggestion a 
great council was held at Fort Stanwix, in New 
York. Here all grievances were redressed, chains 
brightened, tomahawks buried, etc. By the terms 
of this treaty made with the Six Nations, November 5, 
1768, all the territory extending in a boundary from 
the Xew York line on the Susquehanna, past Towanda 
ami Tyadaghton Creek, up the West Branch, over to 
Kittanning on the Allegheny, and thence down the 
Ohio and along the Monongahela to the Province 
line was conveyed to the proprietaries. This was 

called the New Purchase. Of the most of this re- 
gion was afterwards erected Bedford and then West- 
moreland Counties. 

The New Purchase, or that of 1768, on our map be- 
gins at the Susquehanna in Bradford County ; thence, 
following tin- courses of those local streams which 
then were designated by their Indian names, the line 
meanders in a south ami west direction through the 
counties of Tioga, Lycoming., Clinton, to the north- 
east comer of Clearfield; passing through Clearfield 
from the northeast to the southwest corner, it reaches 
a point at Cherry Tree where Indiana, Clearfield, and 
Cambria meet; thence in a straight line across In- 
diana County to Kittanning, on the Allegheny River; 

the down the Allegheny to the Ohio, and along 

the Monongahela till it strikes the boundary line of 
the State on its southern side. 

Let us now glance at the settlements of this "most- 
west-land" at the date of this treaty, 1768. First then 
there was Christopher Gist, agent and surveyor of the 
Ohio Company, who enjoys the distinction of being i 
the first white settler west of Laurel Hill, in Pennsyl- 
vania, who came to stay. In 1752-53 he located at 



1 Ye ■■ li. "Sec. Hist.," p.303. "Minnies of Conference," etc., Trov. 
H,-t-. llupp, ' Uiat. Western I\i.," App'x, p. 181, el seq. 



Mount Braddock, now Fayette County, and induced 
eleven other families to settle near him, some of whom 
were his relations. This settlement was not far from 
Connellsville, and on the Ohio Company's road. 

In 1754, when the French expelled the English 
Virginians from the Ohio and its tributaries, William 
Trent, George Cogan, Robert Callender, and Michael 
Teaff were partners in the trailing business, and 
having suffered by their ejectment, they applied to 
the government of Pennsylvania with a carefully 
prepared statement of their losses. From their ac- 
count and statement, which was supported by affidavit, 
tiny had at that time ten acres of corn, with large 
fields cleared, near Sharpsburg (at Etna borough), 
which they were obliged to leave; also one house at 
the Sewickley bottom, about twenty-five miles from 
Fort Duquesne, up the Youghiogheny, with fields 
fenced and grain in the ground, these last being val- 
ued at three hundred pounds. 

Previous to 1754 the more southern part, presumed 
to be in Virginia, we have said, was visited by settlers 
from Maryland, some of whom remained. Among 
these was Frederick Waltzer, who lived four miles 
west of Uniontown. These, with the exception of a 
few agents among the Indians who for the time 
being were compelled to abide at some certain place, 
and of those who settled in Tygart's Valley, are said 
to have been the fust prior to liraddock's expedition 
(1755). But whatever settlers there then were, alter 
the battle at the Monongahela they had to leave their 
clearings. Some of them returned soon alter, ami 
others not till 176T or later. 

Under Col. Bouquet ami the commandants at Fort 
Pitt, many settlements were made near Pittsburgh in 
17(10 and 1761, which in L769 were located. William 
Jacob settled at the mouth of Redstone Creek in 
1761, and by removal in 1763. James < roudin in 1762 
raised a house at Eleven-Mile Run, which flows into 
tlie Monongahela. The Byerly settlement, near Har- 
rison City, dates from 1758. John Irwin settled at 
the mouth of Bushy Run, not far from Byerlv's, in 
1768. John Frazer, John Ormsby, Sr. and Jr., and 
Oliver Ormsby had made improvements on Turtle 
Creek prior to 1762. 

There is much evidence to make one believe that 
before the time of l'ontiac's war, about 17(12, there 
were more settlers occupying lands at no great dis- 
tance from the great roads and the militan posts than 
we have any specific or absolute knowledge of. Whet 
tlieir numbers or their names were we have no pos- 
sible account. The Byerly settlement, for instance, 
had an accession of several families, as is discovered 
among the decisions of the Supreme. Court of the 
St:. . Some lands about Fort Ligonier, and even at 
a distance from the fort on the summit of Chestnut 
Ridge, were cleared by inhabitants of Cumberland 
County, who at that date had not yet removed tlieir 
families hither. On these clearings were raised po- 
tatoes and corn, and the product in some instances, 



SETTLE? 

and these certainly before 1708, was 
mountains for those there. These Ian 
mere occupancy, taken by "tomans 
called it, after a manner of title p 
conditions, allowed by the lav 
this purchase, under the law? 
in itself no title. Some lar 
and in the Ligonier Val' 
and subsequently the ■ 
Kittanning, and some 
hanna, were thus o< 
were afterwards ' 
ments, and the 
settling upon 
tracts were r 
or, in oth 
Hence or 
tions c 
legal r 
unles 
and 
I 
m 
tl 



TY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



partment. The choice was thus to be 
^y a public advertisement froln James 
■y of the office, on Feb. 23, 1769, it 
>at the land office would be open 
■en next, at ten o'clock in the 
lieations from all persons in- 
'n the New Purchase. The 
■ j rling per hundred acres, 
'it-rent, 
id office we derive the 
n the opening of the 
would be ready to 
istant, it was the 
s that the most 
ese locations 
people, to 
>ng them, 
drawn. 
■ad set- 
were 
e in 
had 
its 



PREDOMINANT NATIONALITIES OF THE SETTLERS. 



43 



of any exercise of official functions until after their 
reappointment for Bedford County, in March, 1771, 
and again (except Pentecost) for Westmoreland, in 
1773. 

Up until 1771 the settlers here were left to the free- 
dom of their own will, uninfluenced except by the 
Indians and traders and the agents and feeble garri- 
sons whom the king kept here to control them. No 
taxes, no courts, no ministers of the law, except those 
mentioned, nor of the gospel, outside of Fort Pitt, 
except when sent here on some special mission, as 
were the K<\ . Messrs. Beatty and Duffield in 1766, and 
Mr. .Steele in 1768. 1 

The county of Bedford was created March 0, 1771. 
The reason assigned for the erection of the new 
county was " the great hardships the inhabitants of 
the western parts of the county of Cumberland lie 
under from being so remote from the present seat of 
judicature and the public offices." The eastern 
boundary ran along the summit of the Tuscarora 
Mountains, and the western and southern boundary 
was the line of the Province, embracing, as will be 
perceived, the entire southwestern portion of the State 
from the West Branch of the Susquehanna and the 
Cove, or Tuscarora Mountains, westward to the Ohio 
and the Virginia line. 

From the old Bedford County tax-rolls it is seen 
that all that part of Western Pennsylvania which 
afterwards became Westmoreland County was at that 
date included in eight townships, and they embraced 
the territorial areas, as near as need be ascertained 
for our purpose, as follows: "Armstrong," most of 
what is now the county of that name and some if 
not the greater part of Indiana County. " Fairfield" 
stretched between the Laurel Hill and Chestnut 
Ridge Mountains. "Hempfield" took in a wide scope 
around Greensburg. "Mount Pleasant," a large dis- 
trict around the town of that uame. "Pitt" embraced 
all of Allegheny County between the rivers 
Allegheny, Monongahela, and Youghiogheny. It 
makes a poor show. "Eosstrevor" covered all of the 
Forks of Youghiogheny and reached up into Fayette 
County. "Springhill" extended over all the south- 
western part of Fayette and all that part of Greene 
and Washington then believed to be in Pennsylvania. 
"Tyrone" covered all the residue of what is now 
Fayette on both sides of the Youghiogheny. 2 

The number of landholders in all was nine hundred 
and eleven, and the number of tenants one hundred 
and seventy-four. "Springhill" had the highest 
number, 3 it being assessed with three hundred and 
eight landholders and eighty-nine tenants. This 
assessment has been considered too low, for the obvious 
reason that no perfect assessment could be made, and 
if ever was made it would be in restriction. 

i Veech, Sec. .'list., p. Sin. 
-' Ibid., Appendix No. III. 

8 Tliia embraced now Faj i t'e County, ami included what was returm I 
fruni Greene County. 



Many of those assessed as landholders were non- 
residents, as Rev. James Finley, in Eosstrevor, and 
George Washington, in Tyrone, in which he owned 
about sixteen hundred acres at and around Perry- 
opolis, in now Fayette, over the river from Layton's 
Station. 

The act erecting Bedford County recognized Mason 
and Dixon's line as its southern boundary, and this 
purviewed the extension of this line beyond .Mary- 
land; but the act, except in indefinite terms, did not 
make provision for a western boundary, nor, except 
on the north and east borders of Greene County as it 
is now, and in the region touching upon and beyond 
Pittsburgh, did it ever attempt to reach beyond the 
Monongahela. The reasons for this we shall else- 
where see. 

Although it was subdivided into townships, and 
had justices appointed, yet its authority was feebly 
asserted and scarcely obeyed. Most of the settlers 
shunned it, and those about the Turkey Foot and 
Redstone and all the disorderly settlers of the Fayette 
region laughed it to scorn and derided it. Even official 
surveys slackened, and settlers coming in along the 
Braddock road squatted without right, and occupied 
where they pleased, only keeping off the location of 
prior settlers. Based upon the uncertainty whether 
they were in Pennsylvania or in Virginia, and fos- 
tered by demagogues, by "bloody law," and by the 
wishes and desires, antipathies and prejudices of these, 
they had pretexts enough not to conform to the laws of 
the Province. " When the back line comes to be run," 
said they, "if we are in Pennsylvania we will sub- 
mit." There could be no other government but that 
of Pennsylvania, and these people were very desirous, 
therefore, that the running of the line be deferred to 
an indefinite period. 

The first Court of Quarter Sessions for Bedford 
County was held April 16, 1771, " before 'William 
Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George 
Wilson, William Lochrey, and William McConncll, 
Esqs., Justices of our Lord the King."* 

When the land office was opened, subsequent to 
the purchase of 1768, and the flood-gates, so to speak, 
were up, the flood rushed in in torrents. From the 
third day of April, 1769, dates the invasion of the \^. 
white race into the wilderness and woods of Western 
Pennsylvania. On that day hundreds of locations were 

4 The otliei justices appointed mid commissioned with the above w 
John Frazer, Bernard Dougherty, Arthur St. Clair, William Crawford, 
James blilligiiu, Thomas Gist, Dorsey Pentecost, Alexander alcKee, Riid 
Geoi ge Woods. 

The first commissioners were Robert Hanna. Dorsey Pentecost, and 
John Stevenson; William Proctor was the lust >hn [fl ; Arthur St. Clair 
was appointed fiist prothonntary, recorder, and clerk of cants by Gov- 
ernor John 1'elin, March 12, 1771 ; and deputy register f"l the pi,, hate 
of wills, 18th of the same month, by Benjamin Chew, register-getieral. 

One word hen- am lit the Penns. John Pentl (son of Kalian!, and 
grandson of William Penn, born Philadelphia, 17'2S, died 17!',".) was 
Governor of the Province from 17C:i to 1771, ami also from 1773 to the 
end of the proprietary government in 177G. 

Richard Penn was brother of John Perm, and was Lieutenant-Governor 
Irom 1771 to 1773, during the absence of John Tenii in England. 



44 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



taken up in Westmoreland County. In the first month 
after the opening of the office there were three thou- 
sand two hundred applications. Although a large 
percentage of these applications was made by specu- 
lators, yet the most were made by those who intended 
to locate here and reside permanently on the land. 

It is not possible for us to specify by name and at 
length those of the earliest settlers under this arrange- 
ment, but from the lists which we shall further on give, 
aud from opportune references hereafter in the body 
of this work and in the notes, the reader shall have to 
get his information. It is noticeable that nearly all 
the men who became prominent in this region, either 
as representatives of the proprietary government or 
in public affairs under the Commonwealth, took up 
tracts of land at this time. St. Clair took up large 
bodies, both in his own name and in the different 
names of members of his family and of his wife's re- 
lations; so also did Hanna, the Proctors, the Loch- 
rys, Wist, Hamilton, Thompson, James Smith, Craw- 
ford, and, indeed, nearly all of those with whose 
names we are familiar as the representative men of 
the early times, and that whether they had money to 
pay for them or no. 

Of those people who took up land to live upon it\ 
'by far the largest proportion were emigrants, or the \ 
children of emigrants, of Scotch-Irish descent, them- 
selves called Scotch-Irish. They claimed that they 
had been only denizens of Ireland, from where they, 
emigrated, and whither they had been transplanted 
from Scotland, the native country of their ancestors. 

These were scattered all over the country, but they 
wei'e to be found more noticeably in clusters where it 
was to be presumed that the land would grow more, 
rapidly in value, and where there were more facilitiei 
for making money and living by thrift rather than by 
labor, but not at the expense of labor. There was 
quite a settlement of them about Pittsburgh, at the 
Forks of the Ohio, along the Monongahela and the 
other rivers, and along the main roads. But where 
were they not ? -~^ 

The next largest class — speaking in reference to 
their nationality — was of German origin, the offspring 
of the early settlers of the Berks, Lancaster, and Cum- 
berland region, although some were emigrants from 
the Palatinate or Rhine provinces, and from Wiir- 
temberg. Of these many chose the most dreary slopes 
of the Chestnut Ridge, and they were the farthest 
back from the main (Forbes') road, although there 
was quite a settlement in Hempfield township, ami 
around the Harrold and Byerly locations, between 
Greensburg and Irwin. These people were not so 
aggressive as the former, and, as a rule, they laid out a 
life-work devoted to labor. 

There were, too, among these some who were de- 
scendants of those Ffench Huguenots who, after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, were scattered 
over Europe, and who having lived for the sp 
several generations among the neighboring nations 



wdio received them, had, from intermarriage and cus- 
toms, lost not only their language but the most prom- 
inent distinctions of their nationality. They hail, in 
fact, ceased to be French, and they had forgotten their 
sunny vales, and their cottages embowered with vines, 
wdiere on trestles the purple grapes glistened. But at 
this day, in Ligonier Valley especially, shall you find 
French names and people of French lineage as com- 
pletely Americanized as the descendants of those 
voyagers who came over in the "Mayflower." The 
rest were American-English. 

Before we begin the narrative of such events as are 
connected together in the history of our county, prop- 
erly so speaking, this may be a more proper place to 
acquire a knowledge of those people who made up the 
greatest number of its inhabitants, and who have left 
upon it, both in its organizing state and in its more 
progressive state, such plain and enduring marks of 
their presence. By looking at the intervening space 
between the time when the country was left to peace 
after the termination of the Indian wars and the 
opening of the land by the subsequent treaties, and 
the epoch of 1773, we see, in the aggregate, what is a 
difficult matter to discern by even the process of 
tracing up the settlements and the transitions of the 
settlers from place to place. It is seen that the termi- 
nation of the French and Indian war (1763) was fol- 
lowed by an extension of settlements in all directions. 
Where the land was secured to the English, as was all 
the northern territory of Canada, the only barrier was 
the occupancy of the Indians. This the English- 
Americans, as a separate nation or people, which they 
evidently from many reasons were, did not count on ; 
and in this spontaneous transition nowhere did so 
great a movement take place as in the parallels which 
mark Southern Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the 
northern line of North Carolina. The advance 
rapidly seated themselves on what was then the 
other side of the Alleghenies; and notwithstanding 
that a royal proclamation forbade settlers seating 
themselves beyond this barrier, yet the hanks of the 
Monongahela were occupied by emigrants from Vir- 
ginia, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; and 
soon after away off in Tennessee ami Kentucky were 
the Long Hunters seeking sites for future opulent 
towns and cities. 

In summing up the nationalities of the inhabitants 
of the American colonies before the Revolution, as 
late as the year 1775, Mr. Bancroft states that fully 
four-fifths of the inhabitants of those thirteen original 
States had for their mother-tongue the English lan- 
guage. In the other fifth the German element pre- 
dominated, and predominated to a greater degree in 
Pennsylvania than in any other of the colonics. 
Pennsylvania, indeed, from the policy of its founders, 
became a general receptacle of foreigners of every 
shade of political opinion. The position which the 
city of Philadelphia relatively then tilled as the me- 
tropolis of America was also an allurement for many. 



PREDOMINANT NATIONALITIES OF THE SETTLERS. 



/Of the two races of foreigners which largely co'n-\l portion of Pennsylvania was opened to the world, a 

ie A 



ojli< 



ptituted the growing population of Pennsylvania, the 
tiorthern Irish, or Scotch-Irish, were more aggressive 
In their nature than were the plodding Germans. 
And while the Germans were confined mostly to the 
eastern part of the State, the Irish spread out towards 
the western part, and through Maryland and North- 
western Virginia. 

Of this Scotch-Irish element — a people who, 
•wherever they were settled to any extent, had a con- 
trolling influence in public affairs — it is stated that the 
immigration, though not at all regular in either its! 
extent or duration, had reached a considerable cur' 
rent before the Revolution. As early as47A5 i -' 
ony of five hundred had settled in North Carolina, 
and in 171"- a colony from Ulster founded London- 
derry, in New Hampshire, and between these two 
remote points the Irish, in little clusters, were to he 
found in many places. Between 1750 and 1754, when 
in strictness there was no Western Pennsylvania or 
Western Virginia to the English, Virginia had a 
large accession of these foreigners, who, it is asserted, 
went there in preference to Pennsylvania, because at 
that early day they could not succeed so well in that 
Province as the industrious, frugal, and plodding 
Dutch, as they were called, while many that were 
here sold their lands to others and took up locations 
more remote in either Virginia or Carolina. But 
still couuting on these unaccountable spurts, Penn- 
sylvania was the centre of the Irish immigration up 
to 1776. In 17211 there was a large migration in this 
State, and those, forced by domestic troubles in their 
own country along the early part of the century, 
coming out preferred the domestic quiet offered by 
the mild government of the Broadrims. But none of 
these movements from the northern counties of Ire- 
land was in extent comparable witli the movement of 
1771 to 1773. ' And as at this juncture the southern 

1 In the emigration of 1771-78 twenty-five thousand are said t.> have 
Mi risier. They left Erelaud from the high rents and from a Bpirit ,°) 
resentment towards the landed proprietors, who at that particular time 
to ik occasion to oppress the tenantry. The first great emigration to 
Pennsylvania, about 1 7 ">o. ami tin.' subsequent one was not on 

<■( religious persecution there. The long Leases which had ' 

hi more remote times to induce the Scotch-Irish to enter nd oci ipy 
their lands ami to colonize there haviug expired, the landlords took ad- 
vantage ul" their situation as denizeus and of the a icnmulution < » r prop- 
erty which had ful lowed the labors of the colonists auduf their descend* 
outs in order bj advance the rents to such high figures as to be i uiuoua 
to aiaii* of the tenants and burdensome to all. They thence came to 

where land was plentiful aiel 1 Hxes were light. A powerful body of 

these came into Western Pennsylvania and first settled along the rivers 
and -i ■at roads, and with them came others, as we said, from Chester, 
Lancaster, and York Counties, and 9nme from i Veil County, aid. Find- 
ley says (" History of the insurrection," etc.) — and I think he means 
the particular region embraced within the limits of the insurrection — 
'* that the great. part of the early immigrants in this section were the 
sons of farmers in the eastern pari of the Province." Fiudley says also 
that the settlers in certain localities of this region were " generally ac- 
quainted with each other, having emigrated togethor." 

There was a class of felons sent from England into Virginia and Mary- 
land, ami these found their way to the outskirts uf ciwli/ iti >u, gathered 
around the stations (such as Pittsburgh), and hung on the \ erge uf lie' 
ludian trade. The Indian traders used to buy the transported Irish and 



great majority of these found their way hither, and 
in no place within America have they left such last- 
ing impressions "of their peculiar nationality as here. 
They became the -main body of the people. Then 
manners, their habits, and their morals were largely 
the inheritance of the people of the four western 
counties, and they became the centre from which 
new colonies were started and from which other col- 
es were recruited. 

The Scotch-Irish took their name from being the 
descendants of those colonists who had, several gen 
erations before, been transplanted from Scotland int. 
the north of Ireland. The same king who founder 
English colonies and the seat of English empire in 
America planted these Scotch in Ireland. Tims i:i 
time the race became a race neither Irish nor S 
nur yet a cross between the two. There is not a drop 
of pure Celtic blood in their veins. With a taint of 
English blood taken from the soldiers of Cromwell, 
who after the overthrow of the Commonwealth took 
refuge in Coleraine, they maintained their lineage 
unalloyed, and were Scotchmen who for five genera- 
tions had not been in Scotland. But all that now 
affined them to Scotland was their common religion 
and a common tradition. Their land leases and mossi 
mounds in their graveyards bound them to Ireland. 
They were in a certain sense analogous to those Vir- 
ginians who, being the descendants of English-born, 
retaining the speech, religion, ami laws of their ances- 
tors, became, in spite of all contrary assertions, a 
distinct people. 

They thus in their national character evidenced 
the more marked characteristics of both national- 
ities. While they possessed the love of liberty, the 
hatred of tyranny, the ready wit and versatile lan- 
guage of the Irish people, properly speaking, they 
inherited as well the shrewd cunning, the careful fore- 
sight, and the strict Calvinistic morality of the 
Scotch Covenanters. While they differed from either 
they reflected the prominent traits of both. So pecu- 
liar litis been their position in this respect, both at 
home and abroad, that they have rarely 1 n acknowl- 
edged as the representative of either race, nor have 
they been regarded as the true exponent of the na- 
tional aim of either. While the page of history 
shows to the world the great bravery, the undyin;' 
patriotism, the unflinching courage, and the scrup' 
Ions morality of the race, yet it is a singular fact t' 
the battle whose brilliant ami decisive victor" 
Irish soil over foreign and mercenary invad 

other colonists as servants, to he employed in cs 
among the Indians. Slany of these ran away from then 
joined the Indians. The ill behavior of tin-" - im itimef 
actei of the English among the Indians. 

It was calculated that about the year 1750 ii"l less ' 

four hundred felons were annually sent into alnryli 
ili- i ' '" , part oi .' 

Ue- 



4(5 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



considered by most Irishmen as the most signal de- 
feat Irishmen ever sustained. Neither has the patri- 
otism of the descendants of those warriors heen re- 
garded as of any national honor. Not all the glamour 
and the love which attached to the name of Stuart 
could draw them when on a foreign soil to take sides 
with their hereditary king. The son of that heredi- 
tary king, remembering Deny and the Boyne, fixed 
lii~ last hopes on the Highlanders of Scotland, and 
these with their wild battle-cries followed the Pre- 
tender down from Ilolyrooil to Preston Pans. And 
this strange antipathy has extended and has followed 
them everywhere. The Scotch-Irish were not beloved 
in a broad national sense by either the thoroughbred 
S :o( or the pure Irishman. There was as wide a 
barrier between an Arthur St. Clair and a William 
Findley as between a Duncan Ferguson and a Teague 
t >' began. 1 

The Scotch-Irish before leaving Ireland stood in 
the peculiar relation of a people who had lost all 
national obligation. They had no national history 
and no national poetry. For them Burns did not 
sing, nor did any wild Irish ballad, learned from the 
lips of an Irish mother, and full of the incense of 
patriotism and glory, linger in their hearts and in 
(in n ears in foreign lands. They brought with them 
no baby songs redolent of the shamrock and of the 
dewy meadows, of the banshees and the fairy lore of 
Erin. They lived in Ireland as the Hebrews lived in 
Egypt, and as the English Puritans lived in Holland. 
To the pure Irish the traditions of their hearthstones 
and tin- stories of their childhood are never forgotten 
to their dying day, and a sympathy ever yearns 
towards the people of their ancestral isle. The Scotch, 
whether on the banks of the Susquehanna or at 
Lucknow, are moved to tears at the pibroch and the 
half-barbaric chant of "Bonnie Doon." But the 
Scotch Irish lost all sense and idea of nationality, 
ami remembered Ireland only as their abiding-place, 
and in the stead of a national reverence and love 
sucked in with their mothers' milk, they with stoical 
firmness made an ideal of English literature and the 
English ideas of civil and personal free. lorn. Hence 
lias arisen to a prominence what is most noticeable, 
and is indeed admirable in their character, — inde- 
pendence in pergonal action and a predominance of 
Tactical notions of life. These principles and actions 

rvaded their whole being, and were the motives to 

hear arts. 

,'ould I" no difficult matter to prepare a pane- 

or a lampoon on the characteristics of the 

'rish. Both have been skillfully done. 

hemselves they have always had those who 

and adroitly and with much show of 

been apt and ready to laud their an ces- 

fghest heaven; among their enemies 



(and of these they have had full sliare) there have 
always been some to pointedly show forth their fail- 
ings and to hold them up to ridicule. They have 
been attacked from all sides, but in these attacks they 
have not suffered. They were, in one word, detested 
by the Puritans of New England, by the Quakers, 
and by the Virginians. They could not fraternize 
with the Quakers any better than they could with 
the Pennsylvania "Dutch/' whom they regarded 
with abhorrence. 2 

There was always, in the early settlement of th 
Province, a bitter feeling existing between the more 
peaceable of the people of Pennsylvania and the 
Scotch-Irish settlers. The policy of the Quakers 
and the Germans was a peaceable one ; that of the 
others was aggressive. It was said with some evi- 
dence of truth that these new-comers were the means, 
from their treatment of the Indians, of much hostil- 
ity on their part, and of the shedding of much inno- 
cjent blood. The murderers of the Moravian Christian 
Indians at the Tuscararus, in 178:!, were of the same 
rationality as the murderers of the Conestoga Indians 
at Conestoga (by the Paxtang boys) in 1763. Both 
of these slaughters were wantonly committed in cold 
blood upon defenseless and inoffensive natives, and 
this without regard to age or sex, and in notorious 
violation of all the usages of Christian and civilized 
people. So, too, did those do who murdered Logan's 
family, which led to the rising of the tribes and the 
border war of 1774. The wickedness and the dis 
honor of these things will never be forgotten, nor, 
shall they ever cease to shame the pages of Penn- 
sylvania's history as long as annals are written and 
the acts of men remembered. 3 

Then, on the other hand, one writer says that " tlia 
descendants of these first Irish and Scotch, in what- 1 
ever district they may have cast their lot and fixed 
their stakes, are amongst the most prominent, virtu- 
ous, religious, active, useful, industrious, and enter- 
prising of the country." t 

The popular prejudice developed against these im- 
migrants, of which we have spoken, found popular 
expression. Even the deputies of the proprietaries 
became alarmed at the prospect of affairs touching 
this matter. To those in authority who had closely 
watched the changes making in the civil and domestic 
relations of certain portions of the Commonwealth 
it was the cause of remark and of comment. The 
provincial secretary, writing to the proprietaries, said 



s Rupp,"Hist Cumberland County.' 1 

3 Amen» those who along with the Quakers virulently Attacked these 
"lawless people" fur tin- terrible act of the murder of the Conestoga 
Indians was Benjamin Franklin. In a pamphlet which 1m- wrote ami 
had published, a dialogue therein between "Andrew Trncman" and 
"Thomas Zealot" speaks of "Saunders Kent, aji elder theso thirty 
vcats, that gaed to duty" (family worship) "just before the massacre, and 
while be " was saying graca to a pint of whisky a wild iad ran his gully 
[knife] through the waine of a heathen man." . . . This pamphlet 
caused Franklin's defeat fur the Assembly, in « hich he had held a neat 
for fourteen >ears. 



CUSTOMS, MORALS, AND MANNERS PRIOR TO THE ERECTION OF THE COUNTY. 47 



it "looked as if all Ireland is to send all her inhabit- 
ants, for last week no less than six ships arrived, and 
every day two or three arrive also. The common fear 
is that they thus crowd where they are not wanted." 

In some parts of the older-settled portion of the 
Province, particularly in the Cumberland Valley, 
then in York County, the Germans and the Irish came 
in contact with each other, and difficulties and dis- 
turbances rose among them. These feuds had as- 
sumed such a serious aspect in 1749 that the proprie- 
taries instructed their agents not to sell any more 
lands in York County to the Irish, but to offer induce- 
ments for them to settle in the north, or Kittatinny 
Valley. Many of these Irish left these settlement? 
for others farther west before the Revolution, andi 
after the Revolution many others followed. ^s 

What they wanted was land. They did not ask, asN 
the sequel shows, who owned or claimed to own the 
land, whether Penn, or Dunmore, or Shingass. They 
never paid any regard to the claim of the Indians in 
the soil. If they did not at first actually keep the 
border in turmoil, which is hard to prove, they had 
the best motives and incentives for keeping it in an 
unsettled condition. 

A characteristic of these Irish is demonstrated in 
their public political acts. These people cherished 
the teachings of civil and religious liberty more in 
these woods than did their brethren in Ireland, in 
Scotland, or in England. They were the first to take 
active measures in resisting the acts of the kingly 
viceroy of Virginia, and among the first to protest 
against the forced military tyranny of the British 
ministry. And as they were quick to speak and act 
against their mother-government, so when they had 
transferred their allegiance to the republic they did 
not venerate it above what they erroneously thought 
to be their inherent rights. For evidence, in short, 
to prove their overruling influence in the affairs of 
our part of the State up to the close of the last cen- 
tury one single instance is sufficient; for the Whiskey 
Insurrection of 1794 was attributed almost wholly to 
the " Irish" of Pittsburgh and the surrounding region 
in which that sedition arose. The Federalists of New 
England said they did not in the least envy such a 
community ; and the outspoken Oliver Walcott 
pointed to this civil commotion to further his oppo- 
sition to foreign immigration. 1 



1 The observations shaped In the text have been gathered from many 
sources. Of ttie many authorities which we have gone over, and which 
is not tainted with prejudice, is "The First Century of the Kepublic," 
by Hon. F. A. Walker. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CUSTOMS, MORALS, AND MANNERS PRIOB TO THE 
ERECTION OF THE COUNTY. 

The German Settlers — Whence they Emigrated — In what they Differed 
from the Scotch-Irish — Their Manners, Habits, etc. — Theil Belief in the 
Supernatural — The Mennonists — Peculiarities of their Religious Be- 
lief— delation of these First Settlers to the Civil Law and Procedure 
in Courts — The Customs and Laws which thi-v Formulated — Effei t of 
their Religious Belief on their Civil Society — Peculiarity of their 
Morals bleuded with their ofanuers— Southern t'oitiwn of the County 
being rapidly filled up compared with tip- Northern Portion — Terms 
of Virginia Titles and terms of Perm's Titles — First Settlements north 
of the Conemaugh — Early Pittsburgh — Fort l'itt abandoned — Early 
Efforts of the Settlers to erect a New County after opening of the 
Pennsylvania Land Office — Bedford County elected. 

In point of numbers, next to the Scotch-Irish were 
the Germans; but in no place, with the exception of 
their settlement in Hempfield and in Huntingdon 
townships, had these collected so thickly as the 
former. This particular settlement, however, has 
retained the distinctive traits of its German origin 
even to our own day. The Germans lived more iso- 
lated than the Scotch-Irish, and they were found 
scattered all over the county, where effective traces 
of their presence are still to be discerned. ' If we 
compare the names of those of an undoubted German 
origin who signed the petitions to Governor Jchn 
Penn in 1774, we find that the German element in 
some districts, especially in the one to which we have 
alluded, predominated over the Irish element. And 
although these were always a strong body in out- 
county, yet, owing to their detached locations and 
their characteristics in not meddling in public affairs 
to the detriment or disparagement of their private 
interests, the whole controlling of affairs in the first 
years of our history was monopolized by the Scotch- 
Irish and the Americans of English descent. By ami 
by these two elements began to coalesce, and towards 
the end of the Revolution there were at the head of 
county affairs, along with Cook and Jack, Hutlhagle 
and Truby. 

The German settlers of Westmoreland were not all 
of them emigrants from Germany. The major part 
of them were descendants of settlers in the eastern 
portion of the Province. These were the Pennsylva- 
nia Dutch, a people formed by the admixture of the 
Germans and the Dutch of the Netherlands with 
Americans and with other foreigners. These spoke a 
language which differed as much from pure German as 
the German language differs from the English. Their 
characteristics were sobriety, economy, plainness, and 
honesty. They hastened to progress slowly. They 
devoted themselves chiefly to agriculture, while the 
Irish was the first to open taverns, erect mills, manu- 
facture whiskey, and speculate in land. It is notice- 
able how passive the German settlers were during the 
times of the troubles arising out of the claims of the 
two States, of which we shall hereafter speak. This 
passivity may, however, be reconciled when we re- 
call the friendly terms on which the Virginians and 



48 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the Germans were from the time the Ohio Company 

extended the benefits of their privileges to them. 

We have spoken of some of the characteristics of 
the Irish, but to the presence of these Germans do 
we owe most of those pleasing delusions which make 
childhood to many so regrettable. The stories of 
ghosts and goblins, of haunted spots, and of Kriss- 
Kingles are now all but dispelled,— the shrill whistle 
of the locomotive has scared them off; " the interest- 
ing race has emigrated," 1 — but their descendants in 
some remote parts yet, from generation to generation, 
treasure them, and the father transmits to the son 
the legends that held his boyhood. 

The opposition to innovation which was noticed 
by Tacitus in their ancestors in the woods of old Ger- 
many may yet be seen in their offspring. In that 
ag< — we mean the early Westmoreland age — many 
houses had horseshoes nailed to the lintels of the 
doors to protect the inmates from the power of 
witches. Brimstone was burnt to keep them from 
the hen-coop, and the breastbone of a chicken put in 
a little bag and hung round the necks of the chil- 
dren to ward off the whooping-cough. Horse-nails 
were carried for good luck, and beaux hunted for 
four-leaved clovers to get their sweethearts to look 
upon them favorably. A broth made, from dried fox- 
lungs was given ti» patients suffering with a consump- 
tion, and carrying the rattles of a rattlesnake which 
had been killed without biting itself would cure the 
headache and protect from sunstroke. Old women 
were even blamed for riding the unbroken colts at 
night, and more than one person incurred displeasure 
because his neighbor's rye was worse blasted than his 
own. Many years after the Indians were beyond the 
Ohio the belated countryman heard faintly the dis- 
tant war-whoop, the sound of drums and fifes came 
through the stormy nights from the old block-houses, 
and many believed that treasure of English coin and 
battle implements were hidden along the scarcely 
discernible track made before the Revolution. 

These Germans were among the first in our county 
to establish schools for the instruction and catechisa- 
tion of the young. Some of their first teachers were 
from Germany, and it was owing to the instruction 
which these children received in their schools that 
the use of the German language has been so long re- 
t -lined as a vehicle of religious instruction, and until 
a time when the intrinsic utility of it in our county 
was questionable. 

There was a sect of people who settled early in 
Westmoreland County, but not in such numbers as 
to be of influence till rather later than the time of 
which we are writing. This sect has ever stood pecu- 
liar to itself. It cannot be said that those who be- 
longed to it were distinct from the Dutch as regards 



nationality and language, but they were distinct 
from the rest in the matter of their religious views. 
They were, strictly speaking, a religious society, amen- 
able to the civil statutes, but governed by laws of 
' their own. These were the Mennonists. Although 
the Mennonists are not identical with the Ornish or 
the Dunkards, they are usually regarded as the same. 
Touching their religious views, the Mennonists are a 
Baptist sect, taking their name from Menno Simonis 
(born 1496). They reject infant baptism, refuse to 
take oaths, decline military service, and practice feet- 
washing. Their polity being congregational, they 
settle in communities. They originated in Holland, 
and some of them came into Pennsylvania in the year 
that Penn made his first settlement. They kept pro- 
gressing towards the West, and in 1735 there were 
some five hundred families in Lancaster County. 
The Ornish take their name by corruption from Jacob 
Amen. They describe themselves rigid Mennonists, 
but adhere to the decrees of the Council of Dort, 
which did not sit till fifty-seven years after the death 
of Menno. Dunkards take their name from the I ter- 
man name tunken, " to dip." These hold Saturday as 
their Sabbath. They are all Baptist sects. They are 
opposed to war upon any pretext. The strongest 
community of the Mennonists was on Jacobs Creek, 
and in the southern part of the county, 2 while the 
Dunkards were in number the strongest between the 
Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill, in the southern part 
of Ligonier Valley. Dunkard Creek takes its name 
from these people. Some of the earliest of these who 
ventured into Western Virginia and Fayette County 
fell victims to the savages. Among the traditional 
annals preserved by descendants of the earliest set- 
tlers was one where, at a Dunkard meeting, the In- 
dians made an onslaught. The men received the 
blows of the tomahawk upon their heads without re- 
sistance, praying upon their knees, — a figure, if not of 
such historical authenticity, yet as grand as that of 
the Roman senators, who, with their white beards 
and ivory staves, sitting in their curule chairs in the 
Forum, accepted death from the barbarian Gauls iu 
the time of Camillus. 

Although some Mennonists came out quite early, 
especially in Fayette, next the line of Westmoreland, 

there was no community till some time alter. But as 
they were early settlers, and as their descendants have 
left most prominent marks of their thrift, their energy, 
their economy, and their citizenship within our county, 
we cannot well pass over without alluding to them 
here. 

The remark would now be apt that these settlers at 
first were, in their nationalities, a mixture of mongrels. 
In the same sense the ancestors of the English, of the 
Romans, of the Greeks were mongrels. 



1 "Die nlten Fiibelwpsseni Bind niclit mchr, 
Das reizoudc Geschlocht ist ausgowandert." 



■-- East Huntingdon township is ;<t present fli<- s-it of the only com- 
munity i>! Mc mists in I ho county which lias a church an. I a pastor. 

The spct is on tlic decline. See h stun- of East Uuntingilou tuwu- 
ship , i , a. 



CUSTOMS, MORALS, AND MANNERS PRIOR TO THE ERECTION OF THE COUNTY. -10 



As regards their relation to the civil authority and 
with each other, the situation of these all was rather 
peculiar. As it was impossible for them to go so far 
east as Cumberland, where the courts were held until 
the establishing of Bedford, in 1771, and as they were 
cut oft' to a great extent from the effective control of j 
the laws, they, in consequence, shaped a law to them- 
selves, which answered, to all ordinary intents, if notso 
well, yet quite as effective as the civil statutes. These 
customs extended to embrace the very title to land, 
for it was not possible that the land of any settler 
could be laid out in such metes and bounds or pro- 
tected by such fences as would not allow of infringe- 
ment or trespass on the part of his neighbor. Rules 
were thus established unknown to the rules by which 
lands are holden in any other part. But chiefly did 
these customs embrace the system by which society is 
held together. They were, in truth, at this time with- 
out any law in this premises, only the law of which 
they were the makers. And of these customs which ob- 
tained there is nothing more apparent than that they 
were founded upon a strict moral and conscientious 
code, and were but the preservation and the perpetu- 
ation, under unfavorable circumstances, of the laws 
of civil society which had grown up under a long 
series of legal enactments and in immemorial usage. 
It is true that in ordinary instances of trespass the 
aggrieved party took the law into his own hands, and, 
without any refining casuistry, we incidentally allude 
to the fact that it was part of the lex unsbripta tor 
every man to take care of himself. In taking the law 
for a redress of grievances into their own hands, we 
are apt to look for a vivid demonstration of the law 
of retaliation, — " an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." 
But the world well knows that the inhabitants of these 
northern, sterile, and chilly climates are not, in their 
fierce passions, to be compared with the inhabitants 
of the South. Their temperament did not partake of 
assassination, tortuie, and murder. Now and then a 
vindictive and savage nature was found, but if an act 
was perpetrated by such a retribution was sure. A 
robber, a slanderer, a villifier was condignly and per- 
emptorily punished; not, indeed, in the way he might 
reasonably expect, by a hidden shot, by waylaying, 
by a dagger-thrust in the dark, but he always found 
it expedient to leave the country or to hide himself 
from the face of other men as one attainted and 
shunned. There are well-attested instances where men 
who, in the heat of passion, having done wdiat they 
should have been sorry for, left, in utter abhorrence, 
the very fields their labor had cleared, and never after 
returned. This metho 1 of ostracism was commoner 
than we at this day are apt to suppose. And it was 
natural that a course of common law and usage should 
obtain where there was no regular method of pro- 
cedure from the want of courts. The standing of 
these early settlers was in this respect peculiar, as 
was the status of all modern colonies, and is of those 
colonies who leave a highly enlightened state. They 



nearly all had been brought up under the English 
law, either in the old country or under the colonial 
system. They therefore had not to grope their way 
from a state of rude civilization to a state in which 
law is established by the force of precedent. These 
men knew their inherent rights as well as any men 
living. Having been bred under law and order, they 
brought with them enough of their system to meet 
the wants of such a rude state. And the very want 
of courts, which was at first experienced, helped as 
much as other causes to give a high moral tone to all 
actions arising in their personal relation. The obliga- 
tion of law, in truth, rested upon all, and this when, 
to a great extent, there was no law. This is a strongly 
marked peculiarity of the civilization brought into 
these wilds. In this respect the woods of America 
were sacred to republican institutions; there were no 
lordlings and no serfs. The consideration of this sub- 
ject may be far carried, but it may safely be asserted 
that the authority of the people, as a people, was 
transcended and firmly grounded into custom long 
before the fathers of the republic ventured to pro- 
claim to the world the establishment of a democratic 
form of government. 

This manner of life had, in time, an effect upon 
the morals of the people, as the morals of the people 
had an effect upon their manner of life. Shutout, 
as many of them were for years, from connection with 
any visible church, they did not become less godly. 
A singular combination of Christian (or religious) 
and philosophical (or worldly) morality was the result. 
Touching this subject these facts are observable, that 
although they, as a general thing, in their religious 
observances conformed specially to a veneration of 
the Sabbath day, they did not pay much attention to 
the rites and ceremonies of established religion as 
these are usually regarded by those people w ho pro- 
fess a strict Christianity. Their graveyards were 
little lots hedged in in one corner of a field or nook 
of the woods. Many died without the consolations 
of religion. Many were suffered to grow to manhood 
and to die in their beds without baptism. This, of 
course, has reference to the earliest settlers, and those 
•who, in the more troublous time after, lived detached 
from the rest. For it is a matter of interest, in con- 
templating the advance of those people, to notice how 
sedulous they were to have a Christian teacher among 
them, and how, under many difficulties, they labored 
for the instruction of their children. Without en- 
tering at all on any polemical observations, and re- 
garding them from an independent stand-point, we 
may say that there was never so philosophical a 
Christianity taught or enforced, and followed, as by 
these men. Locke's theory was here made practical. 
With their Calvinistic ideas of predestination, election, 
and free will, these faced death with less dismay than 
many whose lives had been devoted to the practice of 
all the Christian duties. The Cromwellian spirit was 
predominant; and it was not an uncommon thing to 



50 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



see a red-faced, sandy-haired hunter, under the influ- 
ence of spirits, quote Scripture, and be ready the next 
minute to defend his argument with his fists, or, as 
we would conventionally say, "put a head upon'' his 
neighbor. Such a one would, when later the mis- 
sionary supplies came round, once or twice in the 
year, take up his position under a tree in the woods, 
and sit for three hours without moving a muscle, lis- 
tening to lorn;' prayers, prosy psalms, and endless ser- 
mons. In these remarks we do not, we are sure, paint 
highly, but rather with a sparing hand show faintly 
what we believe the truth, with due regard to them, 
to our neighbor, and to ourselves. Such were the 
great majority of tire early settlers of our county, 
such their characteristics, and such is a shadowy out- 
line of the moral and social standing in the time im- 
mediately preceding and embracing the formation of 
our county. 

But in 1769 and 1770 not only were the settlements 
of Gist, Crawford, and Stewart, south of the Youg- 
hiogheny, augmented in numbers, but the settlements 
along the Cheat River and about Wheeling, which 
had been begun before Braddock's campaign, were 
a jain renewed. A fort was erected at the present 
site of Wheeling, which through the subsequent trou- 
bles became a centre for that portion of the country. 

The early tide of emigration, before the opening of 
the Pennsylvania office, was directed, as we have said, 
to what is now Washington, Fayette, and Greene, and 
to the adjacent regions southward. These emigrants 
all came out on the Braddock and Burd roads, and 
carried their goods and movables on the backs of pack- 
horses. 

One great inducement was the nearness of Fort Red- 
stone and Pittsburgh, but a more accountable and still 
stronger reason that this region was settled before our 
county proper was the ease and the facility witli which 
the title to land could lie acquired from Virginia. 
The desire for land was all-prevailing, and that colony 
passed no further restriction to the settlement of her 
new territory than was necessary to avoid the confu- 
sion of claims. The fee in land could be gotten for a 
mere trifle ; indeed, it came to be that the mere occu- 
pancy, with insignificant improvements, was recog- [ 
nized as a right. And a right sanctioned by usage 
and recognized by that colony was the tomahawk 
right, which right, it is true, conferred or passed no 
legal title in the first instance, but was acknowledged, 
for the benefit of squatters, as a kind of right de facto, 
and came to be — so strong is custom — recognized as 
valid, and so decided by the Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania. 

The Penns sold for five pounds per hundred acres ; 
Virginia at ten shillings per hundred acres, and that 
without the present payment of the money. Each 
colony allowed a pre-emption right by improvement 
and cultivation ami actual residence where and when 
there was no interference with a prior claim, official 
grant, or survey, and the settler could postpone the 



payment until he had perfected his claim. But these 
privileges were confined to Southwestern Pennsylva- 
nia, and while the majority of those settlers in the 
Forks of the Yough held under Virginia, yet on the 
opening of the land office in 1769 rights were granted 
in this triangle and along Chartiers Creek by the 
Penns. 

Thus, under the impression that they were settling 
in Virginia territory, this region began to be filling 
up before there were many settlers north of the 
Forbes road or the Conemaugh. It is true that there 
early were some squatters in Berry township, anil 
even, somewhat later, a few along the Indian path 
from Ligonier to Kittanning, as far up as Black Lick, 
in Indiana County. In 1769 the first settlement had 
been made at the forks of the Conemaugh ami Black 
Lick, and probably near the same time Moorhead 
and Kelly commenced improvements near the present 
town of Indiana, and these are considered among the 
first settlements in that county. 1 

The tide coming out on the Forbes road and the 
Braddock road still kept along the rivers. From Pitts- 
burgh it crept along the Allegheny northward, and in 
no long time nearly all the lands in what is now the 
southern part of Armstrong County were owned. 
Pittsburgh was slowly improving. Some houses had 
been built outside the fort after the peace of 17G3. At 
that time it comprised about a score of log cabins 
down next the river. In 1765 it was laid out in streets. 
In 1770 it is described by Washington as a town of 
about twenty houses. As late as 1784, Arthur Lee, 
giving an account of the small town at the Finks of 
the Ohio, states that the inhabitants were mostly 
Seoteh and Irish ; that they lived in paltry log houses ; 
that they were as dirty as those in the north of Ire- 
land, or even Scotland; but that there was a great deal 
of trade carried on, the)' taking in their shops money, 
wheat, flour, and skins. Within a lew years alter 
this part of the State was opened the English authori- 
ties concluded that the people must take care of them- 
selves. The old Fort Pitt, which had been erected in 
1759 by Gen. Stanwix, had been, up to this time, 
garrisoned by Royal Americans, and held under the 
military regulations of the British army. In October, 
1 7 7 L' , orders were received by the commandant at Fort 
1'itt, Maj. Edmondson, from Gen. Gage, commander- 
in-chief, to abandon the fort and dispose of the ma- 
terial. This was done accordingly, and the post was 
not held by a military force thereafter until taken 
possession of by Connolly in 1774. Gage will be re- 
membered as the officer who led the advance against 
the old Fort Duquesne under Braddock. 

But no sooner were those settlers fixed securely, no 
sooner were they brought in contact with each other, 
than they felt those wants which are called the bless- 
ings of civilization, and which civilization only brings 
in its train. The series of counties ending with Bed- 

1 Seo history vi Derry township, ittfra. 



1792 

from 

TiEADlNG HOWELL S MAT 
of 



PENNSYLVANIA 



C«?fi£,' 



pla 




WESTMORELAND COUNTY ORGANIZED— COURTS ESTABLISHED, ETC. 



51 



ford had been of slow growth, many years having 
elapsed between the selection of each one. It is al- 
leged that the secret of this slowness was the wish to 
retain political power in the three old Quaker coun- 
ties of Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester, which aggre- 
gately had a preponderating influence in the Assembly. 
But; on the other hand, it would appear to have been 
of the policy of the proprietaries to establish a county 
government west of the Laurel Hill over their new 
purchase as soon as convenient, for the advantage of 
both the Province and the settlers. As early, there- 
fore, as 1770 efforts were made to organize a new 
county out of the western part of Cumberland. Peti- 
tions being presented to this effect, the county of Bed- 
ford, with Bedford Town as the county-seat, was or- 
ganized in 1771. 



CHAPTER X. 



WESTMORELAND COUNTY ORGANIZED— COURTS 
ESTABLISHED, ETC. 

Jnstii ea f>>i- Bedford' County exercise jurisdiction overthe Westmoreland 
part of the County— Great Distance to the County-Seat— St. Clair as 
lVim's Agent—Petitions for a New County — Westmoreland County 
erected by Act of Assembly and organized — Courts authorized and 

oiti s i ed— Tiistof the County Justices in the first Commission 

— The first Court— County divided into Townships — The fiist Grand 
Jury — Constables ami Supervisors appointed ami Inn-keepers li- 
censed—The County Offices and Officers— St. Clair the first Prothono- 
tary, etc., and James Brison his Clerk — Hufthagle, St Clair*s Succes- 
sor, secretes tlie Records of the County — John Proctor the first 
Shei iff — Officers returned — Election Districts. 

In May, 1770, Arthur St. Clair, William Crawford, 
Thomas Gist, and Dorsey Pentecost were among the 
justices of the peace appointed for that portion 
of Cumberland County west of Laurel Hill; but 
it would appear that these justices left no trace of I 
the exercise of their official functions. When, on 
the 9th of March, 1771, Bedford was erected over 
Southwestern Pennsylvania, Mason and Dixon's line 
was recognized as the southern boundary, but no at- 
tempt was made to reach beyond the Monongahela. 
There were some resident justices appointed, the re- 
gion west of the Laurel Hill was subdivided into 
townships, taxes were assessed, and roads were laid out. 
But all accounts go to show that among the disorderly 
and turbulent regular combinations were entered 
into to resist the laws, that the justices of the peace 
were openly contemned, and that deputy sheriffs were 
beaten oft'. Although some roads were made and 
some indictments preferred against offenders, the 
authority of the justices was too feeble, and it was 
too far from the seat of power to make the county 
jurisdiction efficacious. Bedford Town was a hundred 
miles from Pittsburgh. 

The stream of emigration still continued unabated. 
At this time there was a growing desire to settle along 
the Ohio southward, and under the patronage of Vir- 
ginia Boone and Harrod were threading the wilder- 



ness of Kentucky. Pittsburgh became a point from 
which supplies from the East were sent by river to tie' 
Southwest. Many emigrants stopped here, mi that it 
now bore tin' aspect of a town, and was indeed the 
first place west of the Alleghenies where civilization 
and the arts sat enthroned. And besides the fact that 
all the inhabitants, both those about Pittsburgh and 
of our own county proper from beyond the Youghio- 
gheny, were compelled to go to Bedford to transact 
business of law, and to have such affairs settled as 
fall within the purlieus of legal arbitration, there »a- 
a question in dispute which was not settled till long 
after, and which now impelled the Penns to have a 
watchful eye on the boundaries of their Province. 
The influx of emigrants from the Virginia side and 
the attitude of her Governor no doubt hastened what 
otherwise might have been delayed. We mean the 
erection of our county, for we have reached the date 
when, circumstances concurring, its construction was 
deemed a necessity. Preparatory to this many of the 
special friends of the Governors were especially fa- 
vored, and, judging as directly as we can from pre- 
sumptive evidences, we tire assured they were sent out 
to manipulate in the interest of the proprietaries. 
Arthur St. Clair, who had served in the French and 
Indian war under Gen. Wolfe in Canada, marrying in 
Boston, and leaving the British service, on coming to 
Philadelphia got in the good favor of John Penn. 
He was a magistrate of Cumberland County, and 
when Bedford County was organized was appointed 
the first prothonotarv to their courts. He acted like- 
wise as mediator between the authorities and the 
restless tribes, and had much influence over these, 
they not imputing anything dishonorable to him. 
He was indefatigable in his services to the Governors, 
and kept them informed in the affairs of the western 
portion of the Province. So in 1772, only three years 
after the opening of the land office, when one would 
suppose the first settlers scarce had their houses 
warmed, petitions were in circulation all over the 
country west of the Laurel Hill praying for the erec- 
tion of a new county, telling the wants and disadvan- 
tages they labored under, and clamoring that justice 
be brought to their own doors. In the beginning of 
177". the Assembly took th.- matter into consideration, 
and in due time, all arrangements having been per- 
fected, it passed the organizing act, and the Governor 
proceeded to name its officers, which was his right, 
ex officio. 

The time, therefore, had now arrived, and the act 
by which the county of Westmoreland was legisla- 
tively established was passed the 26th of February, 
1773. The first section of the act set forth that as it 
was represented to be necessary by the petition of the 
signers, inhabitants of that part of Bedford County 
lying west of the Laurel Hill, a new county he estab 
lished, the county was thereby created and named 
Westmoreland, the hounds of which began at where 
the most westerly boundary line of the Youghioghenj 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



liiver crossed the boundary line of the Province; 
thence down the eastern bank of the river till it 
crossed Laurel Hill, which it followed northeastward 
till it runs into the Allegheny Mountains; and these 
it followed along the ridge dividing the Susquehanna 
from the Allegheny River to the purchase line at. the 
head of the Susquehanna River; from the same due 
west to the limits of the Province; and by the same 
to the place of beginning. 

The second section of the act enjoined on the in- 
habitants all the rights and privileges whatsoever 
enjoyed by the inhabitants of any other county, pro- 
vided for the election of a representative in the As- 
sembly, and defined the place for holding the el eel ion, 
which was to be at the house of Robert Hanna till a 
court-house should be built. 

The next section declared the authority of the jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court to be the same in this 
county as in other counties, and authorized them to 
deliver the jails of capital and other offenders from 
time lo time as in other counties. 

By the last section it was enacted that there should 
be a competent number of justices authorized by the 
Governor to 1ml. 1 courts of general Quarter Sessions of 
the Peace and of .'ail Delivery, and courts for holding 
• <t' Pleas, designated the time for holding said courts, 
which was to be the Tuesday before the Bedford 
courts in January, July, and October, and directed 
that the place for holding said courts should be at the 
house of Robert Hanna till a court-house should be 
built. These justices were the county justices, com- 
missioned under the broad seal of the Province, -and 
of these any three could hold court. 

There are several sections omitted in the act as 
printed, but these related to the collection of taxes 
which had been assessed in Bedford County, the ap- 
pointment of trustees for building a court-house and 
prison, for continuing suits previously commenced in 
Bedford County, and directed the sheriff of Bedford 
to superintend the first election. 

Thus did the county of Westmoreland assume ter- 
ritorial integrity. It was called Westmoreland after 
the county of Westmoreland in England, a name 
which geographically described its situation. It was 
the eleventh of the original provincial counties, and 
was the last one created under the hereditary pro- 
prietors, 1 

The bounds as taken in and so described embraced 
all the western part of the Province. That the actual 
boundaries were not definitely known is seen from tin- 
fact that they were afterwards extended. The au- 
thorities did not feel safe in taking in any territory 
west of the forks of the Ohio River, and although 
they knew that the Mason and Dixon line would be 
their southern boundary, yet the line was not yet run. 

1 Westmoreland is pronounced by the English with a primary ami 
secondary accent on tin- first ami last syllables. 
" I'.r patient, gentle Earl uf Westmoreland." — Kiiuj llmrtj VI., Van 

III , Art /., S. /. 



Pennsylvania thus left the occupancy of the south- 
southwestern region beyond the most westerly branch 
of the Youghiogheny to the Virginians, but claimed 
as far west as to the Ohio and to that affluent. And 
this part she embraced in Westmoreland. 

On the 27th of February, 1773, the next day after 
the act passed, the Governor sent to the Assembly a 
list of the names of those he had chosen, and whom 
he nominated as justices of the county courts and 
justices of the peace. The names of those in this 
first commission were James Hamilton, Joseph Tur- 
ner, William Logan, Richard Peters, Lynford Lard- 
ner, Benjamin Chew, Thomas Cadwalader, James 
Tilghman, Andrew Allen, Edward Shippen, Jr., Wil- 
liam Crawford, Arthur St. Clair, Thomas Gist, Alex- 
ander McKee, Robert Hanna, William Lochry, 
George Wilson, William Thompson, Eneas McKay, 
Joseph Speer, Alexander McLean, James Cavett, 
William Bracken, James Pollock, Samuel Sloan, and 
Michael Rugh, Esqs. 

On the 6th day of April, 1773, in the reign of our 
sovereign lord George the Third, by the grace of God 
of ( treat Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender 
of the Faith, and so forth, was the first court convened 
at Hanna's. The court was a Quarter Sessions of the 
Peace, and was organized before William Crawford, 
Esq., and his associates, justices of the same court. 
Here, in the low, rickety cabin, overshadowed by the 
grand old trees of the ancient forest, were the great 
principles of the English jurisprudence publicly as- 
serted to the people in this wilderness; and this was 
the first place west of the mountains where justice 
was administered in virtue of judicial authority. 

The first business of the court was to divide the 
county into townships. There were eleven town- 
ships, bounded and mentioned by name, covering the 
territory from Kittanning to the Youghiogheny, and 
from the Laurel Hill to the Ohio River. They were 
named Fairfield, Donegal, Huntingdon, Mount Pleas- 
ant, Hempfield, Pitt, Tyrone, Springhill, Mannillin, 
Rostraver, and Armstrong. An idea of the extent 
of these separately may be formed by knowing the 
bounds of two or three. Mount Pleasant township, 
for instance, ran along the Loyalhanna from where it 
breaks through the Chestnut Ridge to the Crab-Tree 
Run, which it followed to the main road, — that is, the 
Forbes or Hannastown road ; thence in a due course 
to Braddock's road, keeping along the Braddock's 
road to where it crossed Jacobs Creek ; thence up 
Jacobs Creek to the Fairfield township line on the 
east of Chestnut Ridge. Hempfield began at the 
mouth of Crab-Tree Run, ran down the Loyalhanna 
to the Conemaugh, and down the Kiskiminetas to 
its mouth ; thence in a straight line to the mouth of 
Brush Run, and down Brush Run to Brush Creek; 
thence in a straight line to the mouth of the Youghio- 
gheny, up the Youghiogheny to Jacobs Creek, which 
it followed to the line of Mount Pleasant. Springhill 
embraced all within the Youghioghenv to Redstone, 



WESTMORELAND COUNTY ORGANIZED— COURTS ESTABLISHED, ETC. 



53 



and thence was bounded by a straight line to the 
limits of the Province, the boundary of which it fol- 
lowed on the west and south. Armstrong township 
was bounded on the south bv the Conemauirh and 
the Luyalhanna, and extended in the wild country to 
the line of the county on the north, running in a 
straight line from Kittanning to Black Lick Creek. 1 

1 Minutes of the First Court held iii Westmoreland County. 

" At i Court of General Quarter Sessions of tho Peace held at Robert 
Hanua's Esquire for the County of Westmoreland the Bixtli day of April 
in the thirteenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the 
third By (ho Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland, King 
Defender of the FiLith &a And in tlie year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred & seventy three, before William Crawford Esquire and 
his osso< iates Justices of the same Court. 

"Tin- Court proceeded to divide the said County into the following 
Townships by the Limits & descriptions hereafter following viz. 

"Faibfield Beginning at the Mouth of a Run known by the Name 
of the roaring Run and from thence to run down the Loyal Hannan to 
the Chesnul Ridge, thence with tho line of Armstrong Township to the 
Laurel 1 1 ill thence along' the Line of the County to where tho said Roar- 
ing Run crosses that Line, or to a point in Baid line due east of the head 
Spring of the said Run thence down the said Run to the Beginning. 
That part of Armstrong Tow nship that lyes between the Lawrel hill & 
Chesnut Ridge to be added to Fairfield township. 

" Donni gal to begin where the line of Fairfield Township intersects 
the County line and to run along that line to where the Youghio- 
genj crosses the same thence down the Noi tli Bide of Yonghiogheny to 
the top of the Chesnut Ridge thence along the top of theChesnut Ridge 
to the lino of Armstrong, thence up the loyal Hannan to the mouth of 
tlie big roaring Run & thence up the said Run to the beginning. 

" iIr\Ti sgton to begin at the Mouth of Brush Run where it empty's 
Into Brush Creek and to go along Byerlya Path to Braddocks Road 
thence along said Road to the line of Mount Pleasant, thence with the 
lines of Tyrone & Pitt to the Beginning. 

" Mount Pleasant Beginning when- the Loyal Hannan breaks thro' 
the Chesnut Ridge and running down the Loyal Han nan to the Mouth 
nf Crabtree Run and up the same to the Main Road thence with a due 
course to Braddock's Road thence with the south side of that Road to 
where it crosses Jacobs Creek thence up Jacobs Creek to the line of 
Fairfield. 

•• Hem pi ield Beginning at the Mouth of Crabtree Run and running 
down the Loyal Haunon to the Junction of Coiiuemaugh thence down 
the Kiskeinenitas to the mouth, thence with a straight line to the head 
of Brush Run thence down Brush Run to Brush Creek thru with a 
Bt might bin- to tho mouth of the Yonghiughctry then np Ynuglnoghony 
to the mouth of Jacobs Creek then up Jacobs Creek to the line of Mount 
Pleasant, 

"Pitt Beginning at the Mouth of KUkemenitas and running down 
the allegeny Biver to its junction with the Mouongahala then down tho 
(thin to the Western limits of the Province thence up the Western Bound- 
ary to tho line of Spring hill thence with that line to the mouth of 
Redstone Creek thence down the Mouongahala to the mouth of Yougio- 
geny. thence with the line of Ilempfield to the mouth of Brush Run 
thence with the line of said Township to the Beginning, 

"Tyromk Beginning at the mouth of Jacobs Creek and running up 
thai Creek to the line of 1'airtiehl then with that line to the Youghio- 
geny thence along the foot of Lawril hill to Gists thence by Birds Road 
Lo where it crosses lb dstone Creek thence dow u that Creek to the mouth, 
thence with a straight line to the Beginning. 

"SPRINOHILL Beginning at the Mouth uf Redstone Creek and running 
thence a due west course to the Western Boundary of the Province 
thence with the Province line to the Southern Boundary of the Province 
then east with that line to where it crosses the Youghio^eny then 
with the Yuughiogheny to Lawrel hill then with the line of Tyrone to 
Gi.sts and thence witli that line to the beginning. 

" Man m.i.in Beginning at the Mouth of Bruwus Run thence due East 
to the Top of Laurel Hill And Westward . . . to the Limits of the 
Province. 

" UnssrnAVEit Beginning at the Mouth of Jacobs Creek and running 
down the Youghlogeny to where it joins the Monougabula then np the 
Monongahela to the mouth of Redstone Creek and thence with a straight 
line to the beginning. 



By running these lines on a map of Western Penn- 
sylvania it will be seen that some of these townships 
embraced the territory of two and three of our present 
counties, 

" ARMSTRONG Beginning where the line of the County crosses the Con- 
nenuiugh then running with that river to the line of Fairfield then 
along that line to the Loyal Bannon then down the Loyal Haunon and 
the Ki-kememt <s to the allegany then up theallegany to the Kittaiiing 
then with a straight line to the head waters of two lick or Blacklick 
I 'ink and thence with a straight line to the Beginning. 

"GRAND INQUEST. 
"1. John Carpachan Foreman: jr; 2. John Carnachan juniorjnr. X 
Hnghey Newal jur : 4. Hugh Bays jur: 5. Samuel McKeejur: 6. Wen- 
del Oureyjur: 7. Garret Pikes afTd: 8. Samuel Waddle jur: 9, James 
Carnachan jur: lit Hugh Brownlee jur: 11. William Teegarden jur: 
12. Garret Thomas jur : 13. John Shields jur: 14. Ezeklel Hickman jur: 
15. George McDowell jur: 

"FIRST INDICTMENTS. 
"The King "j 

V 
Garret Pendcgrass jr. J 

'• Km i ible entry, true Bill Deft, being three times solemnly called ap- 
pears not (process awarded per Curr.J process i.-Ml Al Process is^ ; 

"The King ^ 

V 
Patrick McGuching, Richard McGuching \ Murk McGuching j 

"Forcible entry, (true Bill) Defts : being three times called appear not 

(Process awarded per CniT. (4 Process issil : Al Process issd.) (Mark 

McGuching one of the Dfts. heing arraigned pleads n on Cal dehocatty 
Geul. Similiter & Issue.) 
"(Removed by Certiorari) 

"Clksfee £2. 10. 1 

AttV geill 0. IS. o 

Shtt 0. 15. 9 



"The King 

v 
James McQuiston, Joseph Ager, George Beard, Daniel 
Ulcfcee, Michael Stockbcrger, John LevingBtone, James - 
Ferguson, William Ferguson, Anthony Walter, William 
Audersou, Casper Smidley, Nicholas Smidley, John Lydich, 
Daniel Pamer & Arthur Harrow. 

"Forcible entry (tiue Bill) 

u July Sessns, 17S0. 
"On motion of Mr. Smith By the court this Indictment is quashed 
"The King | 

v ■ j 

Nathan Prigs, John Swan, Charles Swan, Richard Swan, 
Henry Vanmetre, William Sheppard, John Philips, Thomas 

Roach, Jesse Pigman, Isaac Prifc hard, Simon Moore, Tl as 

Hughes. Bernard Neal, Thomas Brown, Joseph Fairmaii, 
Edward Murdock, Daniel Murdock, John Rice, William 
Bice, William Teegarden, Aqnilla Martin, George New bin, 
William Cuwen, aud Hugh Hale. 

" Forcible entry (true Bill) Defts. being three times called appear not 
(Process awarded per Curr.) (Process issd. Al Process issd.) 



William Forgeson 


tent in 


£50 


Michael Stockberger 


tent in 


60 


George Beard 


tent in 


60 


James McQuiston 


tent in 


50 


Anthony Walter 


tent in 


50 


Caspar Smidley 


tent in 


50 


Nicholas Smidley 


tent in 


50 


Daniel Pamer 


tent in 


50 


Joseph Erwin 


tent in 


25 


James Kincade 


tent in 


2n 


Abraham Leasure 


tent in 


20 



"Conditioned for the appearance of the said Will ia in Forgeson, Michael 
Stockberger, George Beard, James McQuiston, Anthony Walter, Caspar 
Smidley, Nicholas Smidley, .V' Daniel Pamer at the next Court of General 
Quarter Sessions of the Peace to be held at Robert Hannas EBquire f*v 



54 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



At the first sessions of the court, after the justices 
had finished the dividing of the county into town- 
ships, they proceeded to still further improve the or- 
ganization of the county and courts. A grand jury 

the county of Westmoreland to answer to a certain Bill of Indictment 
found against them &c." 

ADDITIONAL RECORDS. 

" Cpox the Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants of the Township of 
inghill ami of thu.se on the West Side of Monongahela River, In the 
county of Westmoreland setting forth That we your Petitioners are at 
present under difficult circumstance fur want of a Road leading into any 
publ'ck Road where we can possibly pass with convenience We there- 
fore Humble request that your Worships would he pleased to Giant a 
pnblick Road to begin at or near the Mouth of a, Rnn known by the 
Name of tin- Fish Pott Run about two Miles below the Mouth of ten 
Mile Creek on the West side of Monongohela Rivet (It being a conve- 
nient place for a ferry as also a good direction for a leading Road to the 
most western part of the Settlement) thence the nearest and best way to 
the Forks of Duuhips Path and General Braddocks Road on the top of 
Luwrel Hill Tho Court appoints John Moore, Thomas Scott, Henry 
Season, Thomas Brownfield, James McLean & Philip Shute to view the 
said Road, that they or any four of them if thp[y] sec cause, <\« lay out 
the same by courses .^ distances the nearest A best way .V make report 
of their proceedings to the next Court, Continued until] next Sessions. 
October Continued. January Contd. 

" Up in the Petition of Sundry Inhabitants of the Township of Spring- 
hill & Tyrone setting forth: that your Petitioners Irave (bund the road 

leading from Washington's Spring to Seweekly Creek, as it is now ope I 

to be convenient for your Petitioners & others the Inhabitants of the 
adjacent Townships, and praying yonr Worships toapj t Rome persons 

to view the same & if they find it of publick use to lay out the same by 

anuses & distances. The Court appoints Isaac Pearce, Charles Han ison, 
Moses Smith, John Vance, William McKee & William Masscy to view 
the saiil Ground, that they or any four of them if they see cause do lay 
out the same by courses & distances fhe nearest & best way & make Re- 
port of their proceedings to the next Court. 

" Upon the Petition of sundrey of the Inhabitants of the County of West- 
moreland setting forth That Whereas the great Road leading from the 
Town of Bedford to Fort Pitt is hardly passable for the Swamps .V logs 
across the Road, and as the said Road is not laid out by an order of Court 
the supervisors will not take upon them to mend the said Road. There- 
fore Me pray your Worships to appoint Men to view the said Road from 
the top of Law r el Hill & to layout the same by courses and distances the 
nearest & best way tiny shall think proper & the hast injurious to the 
Settlements thereabouts T be Court appoints Samuel Shannon, Archi- 
bald Locliry, Joseph Erwin, John Sampson, Eli Mires & Samuel Moore- 

head to view the said Road that they or any four of them if tie y see 

i imee do lay out the same by course; a distances the nearest & best way 
.V make report of their Proceedings to the next Court. 

"CONSTABLES. 
"John Smith of Fail field fined *2us remitted John Cnvenot of Donnegal 
do, 20s remitted George Shilling "f Huntington jur: t.. attend John 
McClellan of Mount Pleasant jur: to attend John Brown of Henipfield 
jur: to attend Jacob Sinnett of the Town of Pittsburgh jur: to attend 
John Sampson of Pitt fined ^k remitted William McKee of Tyrone jur : 
to attend John Mnstersun of Springhill jur: to attend Nathaniel Mc- 
Cartney of Manillen jur: to attend Baltzer Shilling of Rosstraver Jur: 
to attend Andrew Mitchell of Armstrong jur. 

"OYERSEERS OF THE POOR. 
"James McKay & .lames Friend of Manillen Joseph Caldwell & Aran 
Moore of Springhill John Orinsby & Jacob Bousman of Pitt George Paul 
& David Allen of Tyrone Daniel Hendricks & James McCurdy of Fair- 
field Solomon A. John Shepperd of Mount Pleasant Samuel Millet & 

Alexander Thomps f Henipfield Alexander Mitchell & Samuel Big- 

gart ofRosstraver William Mitchell & James Wallace of Armstrong 
Samuel Shannon and Edward MeDowel of Dounegal James Baiid a 
William Marshall of Huntington. 

"SUPERVISORS. 

"Edward Brownfieldof Manellen Jonathan John of Springhill Henry 
Small of Pitt Valentine Crawford ol Tyrone James How ot Fairfield 

' * Scott Of Moiml Pleasant Weiidd Oni;\ of Hem plield Eyshain 



was named, with John Cam ah an as foreman, and a 
list of indictments preferred in the name of the king. 
A number of constables were appointed, ami also 
supervisors for the care of fhe roads. The constables 

Barnct of Rosstraver John Pomeroy of Armstrong George Glenn of 
Donnegal David Vance of Hunt ngton. 
"The follow ing persons were Recommended to sell spirituous liqnors by 

small measure till next term 

" Erasmus Bockavus, Joseph Irwin, John Ban*, William Elliot, George 
Kelty. 

" Kates for Tavern keepers of Westmoreland County 

Whisky V Gill 4d 

West India Rum Y do 6d 

Continent >' do 4d 

Toddy $ do Is 

A howl of West India Rum Toddy in \ 
which there shall he half a pint with loaf > Is 6d 



Is 
V bottle 7s lid 

>> do (is 
'r* do 6s 



ZU4 



Is 



Gd 



Is 



Sd 



sugar 

a howl of Continent do 

Maderia Wine 

l.islmu Wine 

Western Toland Wines 

Grain Y Q'lai t 

Hay & Stabeling r 1 Night 

Pa-turnge ~f Night or 24 liours 

Cyder $ Quart 

Stroti.tr Beer "j- 1 t]n 
"The Tavern keepers to be Furnished by the Clerk of Sessions with a 
copy of the above regulation for which they are to pay on- shilling & 
Bix pence, which Copy tiny lire to fix up in some public part ol their 
respective Houses open to the inspection of all persons." 

The first township formed after these original ones was Deny, erected 
at the April sessions, 1775. It was to begin " at the Loyalhauna ; (hence 
along Fairfield till it strikes Blacklick ; thence along down TwoHck 
Creek till it strikes Connemaugh; thence down Cannemnngh till it 
Btrikes Kiskiminetas; thence up Loyalhanua to the place ol begin- 
ning." 

At April sessions, 1776: "The court orders that Mie line between 
Fairfield and Donegal is to be the Laurel Run, the run next Ligonier, 
this side Laughliu's plantation, and adjoining the same. 
"The court orders that that part of Fairfield township beginning al 

Gall »rai th's Run, near his house, being the same 1 se that John Qiuks- 

't'li formerly occupied to the west of Squirrel Hill, be erected into a 
township to he called 1I7». .,(<iVM, nml it to he u division line between 
the same township and Fairfield. 11 

At Ji :ny sessions, 1781: "The Court erect that part of Westd 

County iin 1 tided \\ itliin the following bounds in a township — That is to 
say, Beginning at the we*1 side of the Monongahela River, at the 
mouth ol Peter's Creek, thence np the Baid creek to the head thereof, 

I hence with a straight line to the head of Sawmill Creek, thence up the 
Ohio River to the mouth of the Monongahela, thence up that river to 

the place of beginning, the same to be called Wharton, ' 

January sessions, 17*1 : 

"The Court considering the large extent of the township of Tyrone, 
do hereby erect that part of the said township lying south ot the Youghio- 
gheny River into a separate township hereafter to be .-ailed FVanilm." 
[This now in Fayette, and nut the Franklin in Westmoreland.) 

The following excerpts are taken from the oldest records, in addition 
to those before cited : 

This entry at July session, 177i», will indicate in part the duties of the 
overseers, i Ifico now vai ated in our county, — 

"William Shaw kit.' 0\et seer for Henipfield gives Information "f the 
following strays, viz.: One young man- in tie- possession of Robert 
Ilanna, a hay horse years six old in the possession of John Jack- 
son. A mare in the possession of James Blair ami a Creature in the 
possession of Robert Taylor." 

At the April sessions of 1780a constable was appointed for Hannas- 
town, as there had previously been one appointed tor Pittsburgh. 

"At this sessions Captain Nehcniiah Stokely [kite of the Revolution- 
ary army] was recommended to his excellency the President [of Penun.J 
for license to Bell epjriiUOUS liquors by small measure at his house on 
Sewiekley," 



* This is Capt. II inks ton, who ran the Indian do WD and scalped him as 
related by Capt. Smith. See infra. 



WESTMORELAND COUNTY ORGANIZED— COURTS ESTABLISHED, ETC. 



55 



were set right to work, and some jurors who ha<l been 
summoned not attending were fined. A few persons 
were recommended to sell spirituous liquors, among 
whom was Joseph Erwin, who kept an inn at Han- 
nastown, near the ancient court-house. Rates regu- 
lating the sale of liquors and fixing the price of 
lodging were published. All liquors and drink were 
sold by measure. We learn by the rates, still pre- 
served, that whiskey was to be charged for at four 
pence per gill ; strong beer, eight pence per quart ; 
cider, one shilling per quart ; pasturage for twenty- 
four hours, six pence ; hay and stabling for the night, 
one shilling; grain, two and one-half pence per 
quart. The tavern-keepers were furnished by the 
clerk with a copy of the regulations on the payment 
of one shilling six pence, and these were to be fixed 
in some conspicuous place, open to the inspection of 
all. 

As drink was sold by measure, the custom of those 
indulging was to sit down by themselves and sip and 
sip. It was not a social custom to treat each other, 
which custom with us is, in truth, a modern American 
one, and even, it is said, does not yet obtain among 
either the Irish or German, both allowed to be, as a 
people, rather given to intemperance in drinking. 

As to the county offices, there was at first no dis- 
tinction between the functions of these. One man 
might hold two or more of the county offices at one 
time. For many years the duties of prothonotary, 
clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions, of the register 
and recorder were exercised by a single person. St. 
Clair was appointed the first prothonotary and clerk 
of the courts which sat at Hannastown. 1 He had 

In the October sessions of 1782: "Robert Jackson being bronght be- 
fore the Conrt and charged with striking the Honorable Christopher 
Hnya, Esq., the said Robert Jackson submits to the Court and is fined in 
tlie Mini of fifteen Pounds, besides custs of amercement ami stand com- 
mitted until complied with." 

At tli is sessions, "John Orinshy Recommended to keep a Public House 
of Entertainment in Pittsburgh. " * 

At the April sessions of 1783, "John Hnys, Sr., of Hanna's Town, 
being brought before the Court and charged of keeping a disorderly 
House, Encouraging Drunkenness in soldiers and others, it was ordered 
that the said John Hays be amerced in the sum of Two Pounds for use 
of Commonwealth, Pay Costs, etc." Among the witnesses for common- 
wealth were Lieut. John Cumlnins and Ensign William Cooper. 

l COPY OF ST. CLAIR'S COMMISSION. 

In tin- Com ' Pleas Docket, 1773. 

The Honorable Richard Pfnn, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and Counties of 
New Castle. Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, to Arthur 
[8KALJ g( Clair, of the County of Westmoreland, within the 

Tbuni asandJohn s " id Province, Esquire, Greeting, Bepoiing special 
lVun, Proprieta- Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Knowledge, 
ri.s ami Govern- Care, and Fidelity, inoio that I have ordained, const!- 
ors of Peiinsyl- ^ . , . , , ., . , , - 

van j a tuted.and appointed,. oat by these presents ooordnin, 

constitute, and appoint you, the .-aid Artiiir St. 
Clair, to he Prothonotary or principal clerk of the County Court of 

Common Pleas of and for the said County of West reland, Giving 

hereby and Granting you full Power and Authority to execute the said 
Office of Prothonotary or Principal Clerk of the County Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of and for the County Aforesaid, in all the several Parts and 
Branches thereof, and the keeping of all Records, Rooks, and Writings 
w batsoever to the said Ottiee belonging. To Hold, Exercise, and Enjoy the 
said office with all Fees, Profits, Perquisites, Emoluments, and Advan- 



filled the same offices in Bedford County from 1771 
to 1773. He was the custodian of the records of the 
court; and these, as is said, during some of the dan- 
gerous times after, he kept at his house, which, it is 
alleged, became a custom with succeeding officers. 
Most of the records of the first courts at Hannastown 
were written by James Brison, who was employed as 
clerk by St. Clair, and he did the office-work also for 
Huffnagle, St. Clair's successor. When Allegheny 
County was formed out of Westmoreland, Brison was 
appointed prothonotary of the new county. There 
cannot be enough said of the legibility and the artistic 
clearness of these first records. They are yet, after 
the usage of a hundred years, clear and readable, 
while many others, extending back no farther than 
forty or fifty years, are sometimes almost indecipher- 
able. A copy of St. Clair's commission and some of 
his autographs may be seen in the offices. 

The records of the courts, dating from a brief time 
after their organization, while they were legibly 
written, were, speaking in a general way, poorly 
kept, in a loose method, and often by incompetent 
clerks. Scanty as they were, some of them have 
been lost, purloined, or destroyed. We look in vain 
for the records of the dates of the most interest next to 
the original ones, — the time covering the Revolution, 
the destruction of Hannastown, and of the removal of 
the courts to Greensburg. At a time during the Revo- 
lution, and at a time subsequent, these records were 
scattered, and were in the private possession of some 
of the officers, sometimes, it is true, from apprehended 
trouble. Huffnagle had been appointed the prothon- 
otary when St. Clair took the field in 1776, and Huff- 
nagle in turn going into the army as a captain, 
another officer under the new government was ap- 
pointed in his stead. Huffnagle refused to give up 
the records, and had them sent out of the county. 
A demand was made upon him for the books and 
documents, which demand he thought proper to re- 
fuse. President Wharton then laid the matter before 
Gen. Washington, and requested the general to order 
Huffnagle before the Council at once to answer for 
what he termed his audacious insult.' 2 Huffnagle 

tages from thence lawfully arising, or thereunto of Right in any wise 
appertaining, until my further Pleasure shall la' made known therein. 

Given under my Hand and the Great Seal Of the Said IVoviine at Phila- 
delphia, the twenty-seventh day of February in the thirteenth V 11 of 
the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, George the Third, of Cleat Britain, 
Piato-r, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and BO forth : and in 
the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred ami seventy-three. 

Rnll'n Penn. 

2 PRESIDENT WHARTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Phii.adki.phia, June "J"., 1777. 
Sir, — Mr. Mich 1 . Huffnagle, now acapt n . in theS ,b Pennayl. Regiment 
in the Continental Service, was appointed Deputy Prothonotary for the 
County of Westmoreland under the late government, but suae tlie es- 
tablishment of the present another has been appointed In the office of 
Prothonotary, and a demand made of Mr. Hoffnagle of the Books and 
publick Reenrdsof said County, which lie has not only thought proper 
to refuse, but has, as the Council is informed upon Oath, secreted them 
in some other County. This is not only a breach id' trust and mnst be 
attended with great inconveniences to the good people of the Courts, 



5G 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



escaped by speedily returning the records, and saved 
ins reputation by bending with the wind. But out- 
side of this particular instance we have every assur- 
ance that the prothonotaries kept the records as 
private property, much as the dockets of the justices 
of the peace. And, by the way, so flagrant had 
become the abuse of retaining and secreting official 
papers that in 1804 (April 3d) was passed a law, by 
which it was declared the duty of every person ap- 
pointed to an office to call upon his predecessor and 
demand all documents belonging to such office, which 
could not be retained under a severe penalty. 

John Proctor, who had been sheriff of Bedford, 
was appointed the first sheriff of Westmoreland. 
Proctor for a time lived at Hannastown, but his farm 
and place of residence were within the present limits 
of Unity township. St. Clair resided at this time 
near Ligonier. They were both near the great mili- 
tary road, St. Clair being beside it. He dated all his 
correspondence from Ligonier. This location was 
convenient for sending packages and letters both 
east and west, for it was only by regular or special 
express-riders that news and documents could then 
lie transmitted. Although not on the road Proctor 
had easy access to it. 

Proctor was commissioned sheriff of the county 
Oct. 18, 1773. Previous to this time he had exercised 
his office by virtue of his former commission. You 
will notice the brotherhood in Proctor's bail bond. 
William Lochry and Robert Ilanna were approved 
of as sufficient sureties, in presence of and before 
David Espy and Michael Huffnagle, by Arthur St. 
Clair, on the 3d of May, 1771. 

Of John Proctor history and biography are silent, 
notwithstanding that he was high in favor with the 
provincial government, and was by nature a leader 
of men. The deputy proprietary chose to give him 
the first commission as sheriff for the county. He, 
with all this, took sides ardently with the cause of 
the people. The first regiment, or battalion, of asso- 
ciators was placed under his command, and he was 
always at the head of a body of militia. During the 
war lie held several offices of responsibility. He was 
appointed one of the two persons for the county to 
seize the personal effects of traitors, his colleague 
being Thomas Galbraith. He was also a member of 
the Assembly. But he did not rise to prominence in 
the military service. It is presumed that the latter 
part of his life was under a cloud, for his property 
was taken in execution about 1791 and sold, and his 

luit is a moat audacious Insult Offr'd to tlie State. I therefore request 
your i.mpIIj «iil bo so obliging as to order tho said Mr. Huffnagle to 
attend this Council immediately, to give satisfaction in the premises, re- 
lying at the Siinie time that the necessity of this application will pleail 

an excuse for the Council in giving your Excell'y any extraordinary 
trouble at this very critical juncture. I have the Honor to be with 
great respect, 

Your Excell. most obed. Hum. Ser't, 

Tnos. Wharton, Jr., President. 
See also " r-enu. Arch ,'' 2d Scries, vol. iii. p. 10S. 



family became destitute. He lived close to Archi- 
bald Lochry on the Twelve-Mile Run, a small 
stream which crosses the Stoystown and Greensburg 
turnpike, and empties into the Fourteen-Mile Run at 
the foot of the hill on the road from Latrobe to St. 
Vincent's Monastery and College. Both he and 
Lochry, with their brothers, took up bodies of land 
at the opening of the office in 1769, and both wen- 
settlers of the county before it was erected. Hi' was 
in religion a Presbyterian, and entertained with hos- 
pitality the missionary fathers who came into the 
country, notably Dr. McMillan, who in his journal 
mentions the Proctors. The rude shed called Proc- 
tor's tent was the incipient church of the Unity con- 
gregation, lie lies buried in the old graveyard, now 
part of Unity cemetery, but his grave i> unknown. 
In the same yard lie the remains of William Findley 
and many of Proctor's neighbors. If he had left 
enough to erect a tombstone over his grave, saved out 
of the profusion of his liberality, the people would 
have been glad to raise his virtue to the skies. 
When the citizen-soldiery on a late Decoration Day 
went in procession to publicly decorate the graves of 
the departed heroes who died for their country in till 
her glorious wars, they were afraid to scatter lilies 
over the hollow place which tradition pointed out as 
the resting-place of Col. Proctor lest it should turn 
out, which was as probable, that they were hanging 
garlands on the grave of a suspicious character whose 
neck . was broken by a fall from his horse when 
running a race for a gallon of whiskey, and who was 
buried in forma pauperis. 

In pursuance of previous arrangements, an election 
was held for county officers on the 1st of October fol- 
lowing. We may observe that most officers were 
elective, the appointment of some, however, being of 
the franchise of the Governor, and by him or his de- 
puties thus filled. Joseph Peeler, James Smith, and 
James Cavett were elected the first commissioner^; 
and John Proctor sheriff, who was succeeded by James 
Carnahan; James Kinkaid and William Harrison 
were elected coroners; and Benjamin Davis, Charles 
Hichman (Hitchman), Christopher Hays, Alexander 
Barr, James MeCleane, ami Philip Rogers, assessors. 
The commissioners were sworn in office by St. Clair. 
They were to adjust the county debts, and assess and 
levy the county rates and levies. Among the most 
prominent who sat on this board was Capt. James 
Smith, the celebrated Indian captive, who was also 
returned to a seat in the Assembly, and was a repre- 
sentative for Westmoreland in the Convention in 177l>. 
He lived on Jacobs Creek. William Thompson was 
chosen the member of Assembly at this election. At 
all the first elections the whole county voted at the 
house of Robert Hanna ; and at many of these elec- 
tions the poll fell short of a hundred votes. 

In 1784 there were three election districts, for on 
the erection of Fayette County it was found that the 
third district of Westmoreland fell within the limits 



FIRST JAIL— EARLY PUNISHMENTS— SLAVERY IN 17S1. 



57 



of the new county, and it was so altered that the 
electors remaining in Westmoreland should meet at 
the house of William Moore, in Rostraver township. 
By the act regulating the general elections of the 
Commonwealth, passed the 13th of September, 1785, 
the county was divided into five districts. Those who 
resided on the north side of the Kiskiminetas and 
Coneinaugh were to vote at the house of Daniel Dick- 
sun : those bounded by the Laurel Hill, Cunemaugh, 
the Chestnut Ridge, and the Fayette County line 
should hold their elections at the house of Samuel 
Jameson ; those of Huntingdon and Rostraver town- 
ships at the house of William Moore, in Rostraver; 
the people of the Fort Pitt district were to vote at 
the house of Devereaux Smith, in the town of Fort 
Pitt ; and all the freemen of the county who were not 
included in the above boundaries were to vote at 
Hannastown. But by the act of 19th of September, 
1786, the inhabitants of this fifth district were to vote 
at Greensburg, otherwise Newton, at the court-house, 
Greensburg having been selected in the mean time by 
the committee and designated as the proper place for 
holding the courts. 

By the act of the 29th of September, 1789, Deny 
township was erected into a separate election district, 
and the freemen were to vote at the house of Moses 
Donald. 

By an act of the 11th of January, 1803, all that 
part of Franklin township north of the Franks town 
road was annexed to the fifth or Greensburg district, 
and to vote at the court-house. By act of the 4th of 
April, 1805, Fairfield township was made a separate 
district, the voting-place to be at William Ramsay's, 
best known as "Palmer's Fort;" and by the same 
act Donegal township was made a district, witli the 
voting-place at the house of Maj. John Ambrose. 



CHAPTER XI. 



FIRST JAIL— EARLY PUNISHMENTS— SLAVERY IN | 
1781. 

Emtion of the Jail at Hanna's— The Pillory— The Whipping-Post— The 
SI icks — Tlie Frist Indictment in the Quarter Sessions — lames ISriy- 
land iiinl Luke Picket whipped ;it the Post- -Vestiges of English Ju- I 
dii inl re. cess — Elizabeth Smith whipped at the Post and sentenced to 
Two Years at Haul Labor with an Inhuman Master fur Larceny — 
Flexible Consciences Slavery and Servitude in the Old Westmoreland 

— BUI of Sale fur a Megro W an Slave— Extent of Slavery in the 

Cuunty in 17S1 — Reference to the List of Slaves made out in Pursu- 
ance uf an Act of Assembly. 

As soon as the place of justice had been fixed at 
Hanna's a jail was begun. It was built at first of 
round unhewn logs, of one story in height, and of one 
apartment, anil in near proximity were soon erected 
a whipping-post and a pillory. The whipping-post 
was a large sapling placed in the ground firmly, with 
a cross-piece fixed at such a height that when the 
convict to be punished was brought out and his wrists 
tied together they might be fastened at the length of 



his arms, above bis head, to it. The pillory, an in- 
strument known in the law as an instrument of pun- 
ishment, but in reality an instrument of torture, is 
described as a frame-work raised from the ground and 
made with holes and folding-doors, through which 
the bands and head of the criminal were passed. By 
common law anybody passing a prisoner in the pil- 
lory for a felony might throw one stone at him. The 
pillory, therefore, as a place of punishment was a 
success, but as a place of amusement it is not to lie 
commended. The stocks is an instrument to confine 
the legs. As there were no stocks available at all 
times, the lowermost rails of the nearest stake-and- 
riilcr fence were used to answer. We may conclude, 
rationally, that the stocks were, from time to time, 
demolished, and this not at the ordinary instance of 
ecutives id' the law. The miserable condition 
of the building and its insufficiency called for its 
condemnation frequently by the grand jury of the 
county. 

In the October sessions of 1773 we have the first 
record of the whipping-post. James Brigland, ar- 
raigned for a felony, pleading guilty and submitting 
to the court, was ordered to receive ten lashes at the 
whipping-post the next morning between eight and 
ten o'clock, and, besides, to pay twenty shillings to 
the Governor, and make restitution of the stolen 
property, paying the costs of the prosecution. For 
another larceny he was to receive twenty lashes the 
next morning following. On the same day Luke 
Picket received twenty-one lashes on the bare back, 
while Patrick John Masterson came off' with rive 
fewer. 1 

1 This is the record: 
" The King 

V 
Luke Picket 

Felony, (true bill) 

Defendant being arraigned pleads non Cul de hoc Att'y Genl. Siinile- 

ter a issue 
" Anil now a Jury being called came to wit. .Tames Kincade, William 

Lyon, John Armstrong, Henry Martin, William Lion, Robert \leeks. 

James Carnaughan, Joseph McDowell, Lewis Davison, Will 'am Davison, 
John Wright >v Alexander Duglass who being duly impaiinclled, re- 
turned, elected tried chosen Bworn and upon their respective Oaths do 
say that Luke Picket is Guilty uf the Pel. my whereof he stands Indited. 
"Judg ut that the said Luke Picket be taken to Morrow Homing 

(being tin- slh Instant) between the hunts uf eight & ten to the I'nhlic 

Whipping Post ami there in r 'ive 21 Lasheson his Baio Back well 

laid mi. that In- pay a tine uf £32..1..0 to hi- Honour the Governor that 

he niake RestitUti ai uf tie: G lode Stolen to the Owner, pay the Ousts of 

P liun ami stand committed til! complied with." 

This is the way they went ah an niding the temperance cau e: 
"It appearing to the Court that John Barr one uf the Tavern keepers 
■ I i In- County keeping a disorderly House It is ordered by the Court 
that the said .luliii Barr is nut to sell any Spirituous Liquors for the fu- 
ture in the Township of Mount Pleasant A that be pay a fine of forty 
Shillings. 1 ' — Tan. Ness., 1774. 
Return of Grand Inquest, April Sess., 1775: 
" \\ estinoreld County ss. 

"We the Grand Inquest for the Body of this County Being Called 
upon by tin- Sherifl uf the Comity To view the Gaol of this County and 
"i Examination we find the said Gaul is nut fit inn- sufficient to con- 
fine any Person in without Endangering the lire uf any Person a 

tine,l. 

"Joseph Beelor, foreman." 



58 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The first mention of the pillory is in the January- 
sessions of 1774. William Howard, the earliest re- 
corded one who suffered this indignity, was, on an 
indictment for a felony, sentenced to receive thirty 
lashes on the hare back, well laid on, and afterwards 
to stand one hour in the common pillory. This in 
January weather was no doubt as great an inconven- 
ience as prisoners now suffer at that season in the 
damp cells of our county jail. During these sessions 
of 1774 and 1775 there are many instances of con- 
victs suffering like Oates suffered in England almost 
a hundred years earlier, under Jeffreys, for a species 
of treason. In the October sessions of 1775 one 
Elizabeth Smith was ordered out to receive fifteen 
lashes on the bare back. She had, no doubt, com- 
mitted a trifling offense, for her fine was only eigh- 
teen shillings five pence and costs, which, as she 
pleaded guilty and submitted to the court, could not 
have been great. And in this case we see some of 
the worst features of the administration of the law 
in its comparatively crude state, in a rather primi- 
tive age. Elizabeth Smith was servant to James 
Kinkaid, and the master losing the services of this 
servant during the time she was awaiting trial in the 
jail, made application to the court at a private ses- 
sion held at the house of Charles Foreman four days 
after her legal whipping for compensation, setting 
forth that he had been put to great charge and ex- 
pense, and that he had lost the services and labor of 
his servant for the time. The court, consisting of 
Hanna, William Lochry, Cavett, and Samuel Sloan, 
considering his application, ordered that the said 
Elizabeth Smith should serve the said Kinkaid and 
his assigns tor the space of two years after the ex- 
piration 'if her indenture. 

A man might wonder if it were possible that the 
nun who drew up the Resolutions of May, 1775, at 
Hannastown, alone, with nature and the world, with 
the God nl' Christians and the spirit of Pantheism 
looking down from the sky and out from the rocks at 
them, were of the same men that lashed helpless 
women on the back, and then rubbed salt into the cuts 
to make them smart; that bought negroes and their 
unborn offspring, and that treated their galley-slaves 
worse than the average Southern planter treated his 
blacks! What is conscionable in one man is uncon- 
scionable in another. Adam Poe showed a spirit of 
liberal Christianity when he subscribed one pound 
sterling to the Rev. Smith's salary when he was 
first called by his congregation, but the encounter 
with Big Foot perhaps made him forgetful, for he 
never paid it. The subscription is yet open. 1 But 
when killing Indians was a virtue, Adam Poe, like 
many another whose head was anointed, and whom 
the arrows of the Amorites could not harm, lived vir- 
tuously, died happy, and went with the saints of all 
the ages to glory everlasting. 

1 " Old Redstone." 



Anticipating any loss that might arise from the de- 
struction of the official records, we have turned into 
print a part of them belonging to the criminal side 
of the administration of public justice. It will be 
noticed that the "king" is the public prosecutor, and 
all indictments on pleas of the crown ran in his name. 
After the Declaration of Independence indictments 
were drawn in the name of the "Commonwealth," 
" Republica," or" Respublica." They now are drawn 
in the name of the "Commonwealth." . . . An old 
gentleman from the country districts being once shown 
these records as curiosities, and not being familiar 
with the obsolete forms of the English processes, re- 
marked that this man " king" must have been a very 
quarrelsome man, for he had a case in every court. 

We observe that from the reputation of the two 
individuals, both of them being celebrated "char- 
acters" in the history of Westmoreland, the following 
entry has some curiosity attached : 

"(October Seas., 177:).) 
"The King ~\ Misdemeanor. 

t-». I (True Bill.) 

Simon Gtrty. J Process awarded. Issued." 

But prosecutions were not confined to such infamous 
characters as Girty, for "the names of some of the an- 
cestors of very highly respectable persons of Western 
Pennsylvania are to be found in the Quarter Sessions 
dockets of this date. 

The following will show how punishment was meted 
out, and may help to illustrate a phase of social life 
with which we are practically unfamiliar: 

"Jei.v Sessions, 1773. 
"TheKing i Assault and battery. (TrneBill.) 

rs. ■ Defendant being arraigned, pleads guilty and submits 

John Fi»her. J to the Court. 

"Judgment that he pay a fine of one pound and ten shillings to his 

Honor the Gove , pay the costs of prosecution, I stand committed 

till complied with, and likewise give good security for Ins g 1 behavior 

to nil Ins majesty's leige subjects for one vi-. ii' iiinl day 10 clou." 

".Iwy, Suss., 1774. 
"The King i Felony. (True Hill.) 

vs > Deft, being arraigned, pleads gniltv and'snbmits to the 

Hill-OS West I (Joint. 

"Judgment that he betaken tomorrow morning between tin- hums 
of s and in to the Public Whipping Post, ami there to receive l "- lashes 

on bis bare bark, well laid on, that be pay a hue of 20 slnlliiigs to bis 

Honor the Governor, pay the costs of prosecntion, make restitution of 
tin- goodB stolen, ami stand committed till complied with." 

This defendant, found guilty of having stolen goods, 
was, <m another sentence, ordered to lie taken mi 
Saturday, the 9th instant, between eight and ten 
o'clock in the forenoon, to the public whipping-post, 
receive fifteen lashes, etc., and to pay a fine of £5 to 
the Governor. 

In the April sessions of 1782, James McGill was 
found guilty of felony, of which he stood indicted, 
and was sentenced in the following terms : 

"That the said James McGill be to-morrow morning taken between 
the hours of 10 and 1*2, to the public whipping-post, and there receive 

lushes on his bare back well laid on; that he thence be taken to 

the common pillory, and there to remain ; and that behave his light 
ear crept; that he be branded on the forehead; that lie pay a fine of 
," etc. 



FIRST JAIL— EARLY PUNISHMENTS— SLAVERY IN 1781. 



59 



There is, however, no evidence that this inhuman 
sentence was carried into execution, for it is noted 
that on motion a new trial was granted. 

But it was reserved for the times of the Common- 
wealth to have recorded the most infamous sentence 
and conviction that disgraces the records of our 
courts : 

"April Sessions, 17S3. 
" Commonwealth "1 Felony. 

vs. V John Smith, the prisoner at the Bur, being ar. 

John Smith. J ruigned pleads guilty and submits to the court. 

■'Judgment, that the said John Smith, the prisoner nt the liar, be 

taken to-morrow morning, between the hours of ten and twelve in the 

forenoon, to the I'uhlie Whipping-Post, and there to receive thirty-nine 

lashes mi Ins Hate Buck, Well laid on ; that his Ears he i ant off and nailed 

t" the Common Pollory ; that he stand one hour in the Pillory ; that he 

make restitution of t lie G Is stolen; that he pay a tine of twenty 

pounds fur the use of the commonwealth, and that he stand committed 
u ii 1 i 1 1 this sentence is complied with." 

If John Smith had been one of the justices, or a 
relation of one of them, he probably would have 
gotten off quite easily, for while assaults upon the 
justices — and they appear to have been rather fre- 
quent — were punished with severity, any ordinary 
offense by an officer of the court, as appears by these 
s:mie records, was condoned, and the offender plead- 
ing guilty, was usually slightly reprimanded lor form's 
sake, and then discharged upon the payment of a 
nominal fine. At the April sessions, 1779, " David 
Sample, Esq., in his proper person conies into court 
ami confesses himself guilty of an assault ami battery 
on the body of Samuel Lewis," for which offense the 
sentence was that "the said David Sample, Esq., for 
his oll'ense aforesaid, be fined a sum of twenty shillings 
lawful money of this State." 

The following will show of what stuff these consti- 
tution-makers, law judges, law expounders was made 
of. At the October session of 1773, William Thomp- 
son, Esq., was held in bond in £200 " to appear at 
the Supreme Court to be held at Philadelphia-, to an- 
swer a Bill of Indictment for Assault and Battery, 
etc., found against him;" and David Sample, Esq., 
was held in £100 to give evidence on His Majesty's 
behalf against William Thompson in said assault. 

Anent the civil troubles of 1774, of which here- 
after, we see that in July term, Common Pleas, 1775, 
Robert llanna brings suit against John Connolly. 
Capias case; to take bail in £20,000. Defendant 
appeared and accepted, etc. 1 

At the first courts, under the forms of their prac- 
tice, witnesses were sometimes held in bond, condi- 
tioned that they should not depart the county until the 
next term of court, to testify on behalf of His Majesty. 

As such a species of enforced labor as Elizabeth 
Smith had to undergo is a species of slavery, we may, 
in this connection, see how far human slavery did act- 
ually exist in Westmoreland. There were at first two 

1 At No. — , Common Pleas, George Washington was plaintiff in a suit 
against John Johns. I have seen the records, but cannot now recall 
the number ai d term. 



classes of servants besides those held as slaves. The 
first were ordinary indentured servants, or those who 
worked for a term; the other class were those for- 
eigners who, being in poverty, paid for their pas-age 
to these golden shores by indenturing themselves at 
a certain rate till their obligations were paid by their 
own labor. These were called redemptioners. 9 The 
better off sort of our early people purchased the services 
of these. The condition of these servants was some- 
times but little better than the condition of negro 
slaves, for it is observable of this class, who were for 
the time being masters, that although in their con- 
nection with each other they had high pretensions 
and integrity unswerving, yet in the treatment of 
those beneath them they were too often tyrannical. 
This in part must be attributed to the age and not en- 
tirely to their disposition. The custom law, not yet 
repealed by statute, allowed men to beat their wives 
with a stick provided it were not thicker than the 
judge's thumb. Wife-beating, indeed, like fist-cuffing 
and gouging (as it was ruled in the courts of Ken- 
tucky), was part of the common law.' 

Vestiges of the aristocratic feeling in the gentry, 
which in England was but a step from the nobility, 
had not yet been eradicated. While Bancroft, with 
the feelings of a Puritan ami a New Englander, point- 
edly asserts that slavery did not hold with its ener- 
vating influences those brave settlers in the West who 
followed Clarke to the capture of Vincennes, he evi- 
dently overshot the mark. The versatile Hugh Henry 
Brackenridge, in a chapter on "Modern Chivalry," 
a rare work, after presenting in the guise of pleas- 
antry all the arguments for and against shivery, cuts 
sharply into the fact that in our own county some 
held slaves who would not for a cow have shaved 
their beards on a Sunday. 4 That human shivery did 
exist in our own county, but in a mitigated form and 
to a limited extent, the record shows. 

2 James Annesly, true heir of I In- .stales of Lord A 1th a in. in Ireland, 
was, when a lad. spirited away from Ireland hy the Connivance Of his 
uncle and a sea-captain, brought to Philadelphia and sold as a " leih-mp- 
tiniior," or "slave.'' as Iteacle calls him. llis accidental discovery tit the 
house of llis master, in Lancaster County, hy two of his countrymen who 

had been tenants on his father's estate, and who passing by happe 1 to 

slop there, and then recognized him, their voluntary and successful 
efforts to take him hack to Ireland and institute legal proceedings, the 
ultimate determination of which reinstated the mm h-wronged heir, — 
tin i .in- t.ots well known. This remarkable story, the text of which is 

taken from the law -hooks, i- the gi Iwoik of Charles K< -ado's novel, 

•The Wandering Heir. " The romantic incidents in the career of this 

heir have also furnished the plot for " Gny Mannering," " Roderick 

Kaiidoni," and " Florence Macacthv,'' popular novels in theii day. 

s Judge Poindexter; quoted in ration's "Life of Andrew Jackson,' 1 
vol. iii. 

* One of the most striking cases of misplaced confidence of which we 
have ever heard was of a prominent church elder, a Scotch- Irish justice 
and a militia captain, declaiing in confidence to an old anil very esteemed 
friend of ours that he was the identical person Brackenridge took to 
make the character of Capt. Farrago, and that the lawyer owed him a 
grudge from an old court action. What made the resemblance BO Milk- 
ing to hini was the fact of his having a redemptioiier as near like Teagne, 
the captain's servant, as two cherries, so that one would go for the other. 
The satire all through is a remarkable one, in that it is true not only to 
1 nature but to facts. 



60 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The following bill of sale from Valentine Crawford 
to John Mintor will show how the business was 
usually done : 

•' Know ifc 1 1 men by these presents, That I, Valentine Crawford, of t lie 
Comity of West Augusta, in Virginia, for and in consideration of the sum 
of fifty pounds, lawful money of Virginia, to me in hand paid by Julm 
Mi ii tnr, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, and myself there- 
with fully satisfied, have bargained and sold unto the said John Mintor 
a certain negro woman named Sail, which said negro woman I, the said 
Valentine Crawford, will forever warrant and defend to the said John 
Mintor, In- heirs and assigns together with increase. In witness where- 
of 1 have hereunto set my hand and seal this 12th day of April, 17711." 

Then follow the signature of Crawford, the seal, 
and the acknowledgment. 1 

The following records are inserted as bearing upon 
the subject of indentured servant- : 

From the record for July session, 1773: 

"On Motion of Mr. Wilson on behalf of John Campbell setting forth 
tlml His Servant Man Michael Heauyhad been committed to Gaol on 
n of Felony, and thai he had been at sundry expenses about the 
Bftine to the am. Mint of £*2 17*. and Id., and likewise Ids loss of time, 
And praying the Court would adjudge the said Michael Beany to serve 
liim a reasonable time for the same, It is adjudged by the Court that 
the said Michael Heanydo Borve Ids said Master John Campbell four 
i tbs and a half uver and above the time mentioned in bin In- 
denture." 

At the same term : 

"On motion of Mr. Wilson in behalf of George Paul to the Court 
setting forth that Margaret Butler his servant girl has a Mulatto Bas- 
tard Child Born during her servitude and Praying the Court would ad- 
judge her the said Margaret Butler to serve him a reasonable time for 
her loss of time unci lying in charges, ft is adjudged by the Court that 
the Baiil Margaret Butlei do serve her said Master George Paul one 
year and six aths over and above the time mentioned in her In- 
denture.' 1 

At the same term : 

'■(hi motion of Mr. Robert Galbraith to the Court in bfthalf of An- 
furth that Joseph Quillen bis servant not doing 
his duty as a Bervant and prayiug the Court would grant him such reliel 
hh to them would Beeni meet, It is ordered by the Court that Joseph 
ion lien Is to be under their custody nntill the next sessions and likewise 
that Summons's be issued against Robert Meek, Alexander Bowling and 
William Bashers to be and appear at the next Sessions to givesunli eul 
],.,,- ins tn the Court why they Bold the said Joseph Quillen as a ser- 
vant." 



At the April sessions of 1779: 



"On motion of Michael Huffhagle, Esq., on behalf of George Godfrey 
that lie had been bough! as a Bervant by Edward Liudsey and by hiin 
i Idmund Price and by him sold to William Newell and that the 
in in of hia servitude is expired, and the said William Newell not attend- 
ing to show cause to detain the said George Godfrey, The Court on hearing 
Testimony on this mutter do order that the said George Godfrey be die 
charged from the fui thei Bervii e of the said William Newell.' 1 

July sessions, L788 : 

" Upon the petition of Sumuel Sample setting forth that Jane tdam 
son a servant woman belonging to him the said Samuel Sample hath 
b.ida bastard child during the time of her servitude, and praying that 

1 01 record in Bonk "A," Recorder's Office, p. 32S: following if the 

jurat : 

"Westmoreland County ■ . Personally appeared before me the sub- 
scriber, one of the Commonwealth's justices of the peace for said County, 
Charles Morgan, and made oath on the Holy Evangely -if Almighty Godi 
ili.it he saw Valentine Crawford acknou ledge the within Bill of sale to 
he his act and deed, and for nsens within mentioned. Sworn and sub- 
3C i ihed before me ibis 1 May. 1783. 

"Ciiaui.es MorgawJ,* 

'• Peoyidenci: Mosts. [L. S.j" 



tin-dint would add such further time beyond the Term of her In- 
denture as may be thought a honorable compensation f<>r the fioss and 
Damages which be sustained by reason of her bearing Bitch Bastard 
Child. The Court having examined the said Samuel Sample upon oath 
respecting the premises and being satisfied of the truth tin reof, Order 
that One Year be ad. led to the time mentioned in the said Indenture as 
a compensation for the Damages uud loss so sustained by the said Sam- 
uel Sample." 

In 1780 slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania. 
Thus it is seen that in a relative degree only did the 
evil exist with us, but nevertheless its presence is as 
well authenticated, and even better, than the proceed- 
ings at Hanriastown at her immortal declaration of 
independence. By the act which abolished slavery 
every one who held negroes or mulattoes as slaves 
was obliged to deliver to the clerk of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions of the county in which he resided 
his or her own name, and the names, number, sex, 
and age of all slaves holden by him. 

The conflicting boundary claims of the two colonies 
not yet settled occasioned a special act in 1782, by 
which the time of taking the registry in Westmore- 
land and Washington Counties was extended. 2 The 
list made in pursuance of this act is yet to be ^ren in the 
office of the clerk of the courts. It contains the names 
of three hundred and forty-two inaies and three hun- 
dred and forty-nine females, and four whose sex is nm 
stated, as slaves. Eleven are called mulattoes. The 
names of the slave-owners are of those who were most 
prominent in social standing, and of course of those 
reputed as the more wealthy. Among them are the 
names of two clergymen, and the greater portion were 
members of the rigid Scotch Presbyterian Church. 
It was confined especially to the southern portion of 
the county, along the rivers and about Pittsburgh. 
Rev. Joseph Smith, of Washington County, states 
that at least six of the early ministers, and almost all 

slderSj were slaveholders. 3 After the pass 

the law some removed to Maryland and Virginia, 
choosing to carry their slaves thither rather than 
manumit them at the command of the law. This act, 
both in its phraseology and in its sentiments of be- 
nevolence and civil liberty, no leas than in its reme- 
dial benefits, stands out prominently as one of the 
noblest, one of the grandest statutes on the rolls.* 



- By the ac,1 passed 13 April, 1782, to redress certaii tvancei in 

Westmoreland and Washing Counties, on account of the trouble be- 
tween the lines, and In nn the complaint that they could not get u true 
account of the number of slaves, owing to the fact that they had no 
opportunity of enteriug or registering their slaves, and that a number 

of the record and papers containing the i feedings ol the county 

i ourts of Youghiogheny, 01onongahela,and Ohio wore yet in th< baud 
of the lato clerks, who were not authorized to give exemplified i 
them, it was provided that all negroes and mulattoes who bad been held 
as Blaves in that ten itory were freed ; and the regisl of West- 

moreland and Washington were empowered to call on the clerks of the 
other counties for all Buch papers a* related to the oath of all< 

■ i wills granting letters of administration, and the registry of 
deeds or other indentures. 

We have not found any records or papers- bearing upon this Bubjccl 
matter among the archives of Westmoreland County. 

" l ientenary Me ial." See uleo "Old Bedstone" and " Life of Rev. 

Macurdy." 

' See Appendix "A." 



OLD HANNASTOWN, THE COUNTY-SEAT. 



G1 



i 



CHAPTER XII. 

OLD HANNASTOWN, THE COUNTY-SEAT. 

Trusters appointed to locate a County-Seat — Robert ITanna's Settlement 

— They ti\ on [fauna's Town — Difference of Opinion as to tl icpe- 

iliency of locating the County -Seat there — Description of the Old 
Town — Opposition to its Location by the People of Pittsburgh — Cor- 
respondence on the .Subject — Reports; of the Trustees— Various -Vets 
Of Assembly relative thereto— Troubles at the Place in 1774-75. 

The trustees appointed to locate and erect the pub- 
lic buildings were Robert Hanna, Joseph Erwin, John 
Cavet, Samuel Sloan, and George Wilson. Of these 
Robert Hanna appears, in this instance, to have been 
the most influential. He was a north-county Irishman 
who had located on the great Forbes road at the 
place afterwards called Hannastown. Here he had 
erected a log house, used by him as a residence. The 
place being favorable, he converted it into a public- 
house. He entertained travelers ; and near him other 
emigrants settled a year or so before the organization 
of the county. In 1773 Hanna's was the chief place | 
between Ligonier and Pittsburgh. In anticipation of 
the county-seat being fixed here, he, after his appoint- 
ment as one of the trustees, rented his house to Erwin 
to carry on the tavern business, and these two, with 
Sloan, who was a neighbor, being a majority of 
the committee, made their report favorably to this 
place for the permanent location of the county build- 
ings and the seat of justice. They represented that it 
was the most central, the most convenient, and the 
most desirable to the people. Nor did it seem unrea- 
sonable or unapparent. The minority, with St. Clair 
as their spokesman, reported in favor of Pittsburgh 
for the county-seat, and put forth the apparent prob- 
ability that in no long time Pittsburgh would be a 
place of consequence ; and, in addition, represented 
the fact that it was a matter of policy in the govern- 
ment to fix upon this place, owing to the claims of 
Virginia and the notoriety of the pretensions of her 
Governor. St. Clair states in a communication to 
Governor Penn that Hanna and Erwin were moved 
to fix upon Hannastown for the reasons we have men- 
tioned. St. Clair himself, with the true fidelity of a 
public servant, — a fidelity which he never transcended 
for mercenary interests, — was favorable to Pittsburgh, 
although at that time the bulk of his property was 
nearer Hanna's. The report of the trustees was never 
fully accepted by the executives; and it is doubtful 
whether, even had affairs gone on smoothly, it would 
ever have been fixed upon as the place at which to erect 
the county offices after the true bounds of the Prov- 
ince had been satisfactorily ascertained. But, as it 
was, the court continued to meet regularly at Robert 
Hanna's house until, towards the end of the Revo- 
lution, the place was destroyed. After the burning 
of Hannastown other trustees were appointed, who 
selected Greensburg, then unnamed, and just laid 
5 



out for buildings on the old Pennsylvania State 
road. 

The reasons why the report of the first trustees was 
not acted upon immediately are apparent, not count- 
ing upon the superior influence of St. Clair. The 
proprietary government existed under its regular 
Governors for only three years after the erection of 
the county in 1773, after which, the troublous times 
of the Revolution intervening, those in authority 
did not have occasion for interference in such local 
affairs. 

Along in 1773 and 1774 Hannastown was a collec- 
tion of about a dozen cabins, built of hewed logs and 
roofed with clapboards, most of them of one story in 
height, but a i'ew of two, claiming the name of house-. 
During the troubles of 1774, under the advice and 
supervision of St. Clair, a stockade for the pro- 
tection of the people was here erected ; for from 
such divergent points the settlements extended out, 
and as early as this year Hempfield township, sur- 
rounding Hanna's, was well covered with people, as 
appears from the petitions of this dale, addressed at 
Hanna's. From the best accessible authority we now 
have, it would appear that Hannastown never at any 
time consisted of more than twenty to thirty such 
cabins. Its most prosperous era must have been from 
the time of the first court in 1773 to 177(i. During this 
time the emigration to the West was comparatively 
large, and that through Middle Pennsylvania restricted 
to this one route. Here, besides the courts, were held 
the militia musters, the greatest inducement, next to 
the courts themselves, in drawing the widely scattered 
people together. But when the war for independence 
commenced, not only was emigration less regular, but 
many of the military characters were in arms either 
in the Continental armies or in the service of < longress 
in the Western department. Some, indeed, quitted 
their settlements altogether. The early settlers did 
not congregate in towns or cities, but the population 
since the close of the Revolutionary war has gone on 
ever since increasing in favor of the cities. There was 
no inducement for them to gather in towns, and every 
inducement for them to go into the country. Money 
was scarce indeed; it was hardly in circulation tit till 
among a certain class, and was only absolutely need- 
ful to those engaged in a mercantile calling. The 
Province of Pennsylvania was famous for its paper 
currency, aud too often for its consequent deprecia- 
tion. 

In the old Hannastown there were only one or two 
shops, where, besides whiskey and gin sold under 
license by measure, there were kept such commoditi 
as gunpowder and lead, camphor and spire, jack- 
knives and dye-stuffs, but no fabrics or wares such as 
we see in country stores at road-crossings now ; stilt, 
flour, bacon, and linen were about till traded lor. A 
weaver, a shoemaker, a blacksmith, or a joiner could 
make perhaps, on the whole, a better living than the 
great majority of such shop-keepers in the early time-. 



62 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Tavern-keeping was the only business that brought a 
corresponding return in money. But as we may 
reasonably infer that its most prosperous time was 
just before the civil troubles of 1776, yet it is pre- 
sumable that towards the end of the war, and immedi- 
ately before the burning in 1782, it contained more 
buildings and probably more inhabitants than at any 
other time. Through fear and necessity consequent 
on long border commotions, they flocked together in 
stations, in forts, and in block-houses. These two 
statements will harmonize, although they appear to 
conflict. 

In a letter dated Pittsburgh, March 3, 1773, from 
iEneas Mackay to Arthur St. Clair, there are some 
very disparaging remarks upon the selection of 
Hanna's as the place for holding the courts of the 
new county then lately erected. Mackay was a resi- 
dent of Pittsburgh, ami of course was personally 
interested in having that place the seat of justice. 
Si, also, as we said, was St. Clair. In this letter he 
says,— 

"Everybody np this way are tfell satisfied there is a county granted 
(his side of the hills, altho' I find everi body else, as well as myself, ob- 
serves with infinite concern that the pi. nit in qnestiou iB not attended 
\\ iih m> favorable cin uinstunces as we at this place bad i eason to expect 

In, in the nature of things. I ua t but express my surprise at the 

point determined in favor of the courts ,,f law first sitting at Raima's. 
Pray, may t ask you tin- question, where is the couveuiency fur traus- 
nctiug business ,,n these occasions, as there is neither houses, tables, nor 

irs? Certainly the people must sit.it the roots of trees and stumps, 

and in en I' rain the lawyers 1 booltB and papers must be exposed to the 

weather; yet to uo purpose, as they cannot presume to write. Conse- 
quently, nothing can he doue bnt that of resising [receiving?] fees, by 
which moans everybody (the lawyers only excepted) going to ot attend- 
ing conn in nst be sufferers. No doubt hut Mr Irwin [he ans Joseph 

Krwin, a resident of the Han na settlement, and inn -Keeper there] and a 
few more ol his party may find their interest in this glaring stretch of 
partiality ; yet we, at this place iii particular, are too much Interested 

to looU over such i teeding in silence. The whole inhabitants exclaim 

against [ho steps already taken t,, the injury ,,!' the county yet in its 
infancy, and that too before it got its eyes or tongne t<> speak for itself. 
. . . My ih-ar friend, if 1 bad as much to say anion- tin- ureal as y^<\t. I 
would declare it -<~ u,\ opinion that it would la- absolutely necessary 

tlllt the C Uli>si •> [lie llieai.S tll6 tlll-teeS s I o I ,.■ J pp i ,1 |C, 1 1 

should he lioinina eil ill I'hila.la., by which means I think we Could not 
fail to have the point iii question carried iii our favor; whereas 

Bl 1.1 I he i l,e appoint. ,1 up tins way It is ten to one it .loo Ki wine all, I 

Ills associates will not prevail." 

Under date of Oct. 8, 1773, George Wilson, one of 
the trustees, in a letter to Governor Penil, says that 
the trustees had met twice to consult on some things 
relative to their trust, and that lie, apprehending that 
ii was ihe sense of the Governor and Assembly at the 
time that the courts should he held at Hanna's house 
until the unsettled state of the boundary would be 
perfectly settled, could not join with the other 
trustees in making their former report. 1 

The following is such a characteristic letter from 
Saint Clair to Joseph Shippen, President of the 
Council, that we give it. entire. It is dated Ligonier, 
Jan. 15, L774 : 

"Silt,— This will he delivered by Mr. Manna, one of the trustees of 
Westmoreland County. To some mauouvres of his, I believe, the op- 

l Archives, iv. 466. 



position to fixing the County Town at Pittsburgh is chiefly owing, as it 

is his interest that it should rniitiiiiie where the law h is fixed the courts 
pro tempore ; he Ives there, used to keep u put, lie house there, and has 
now on that Expectation rented his house at an extravagant price, and 
Erivin, another Trustee, adjoins, and is also public-house keeper. A 
third trustee [Sloan] lives in the neighborhood, which always makes a 
majority for continuing the courts at the present place. A passage in 

tlo- law t.r erecting the county is that Courts shall be held at the fore- 
going Place [the house of Ilailiia] till a Court House and Gaol are built ; 
this puts it in their power to continue them as long as they please, for 
a little Management might prevent a Court House and Gaol being built 
these twenty years. 1 beg you will excuse inaccuracies, as I write in 
the greatest hurry, Mr. II anna holding the Horse while I write. I w ill 
see you early ill the Spring." 2 

The next report is of the 3d of October, 1774, and 
is as follows : 
"We being appoint,-,] Trustees for the County of Westmoreland to 

make report for a proper place, etc., etc., having accurately examined 
anil considered the same, do report that 'tis our opinion that Ilannas 

Towns s to I,,, the most centrical A tit to answer the purposee in- 
tended We are further of opinion that should your Honor and the 
Honorable Council think the Brush Run Manor a more proper place, It 

cannot he of much disadvantage to the County. We pray your 11, s 

Sentiments on this Head, which will he thankfully acknowledged by 
us," etc. 

Signed by Robert Hanna, Joseph Erwin, John 
Cavet, and Samuel Sloan. 3 

On the 7th of February, 1775. in the morning, be- 
fore the people of the town were out of bed, a [tarty 
headed by Benjamin Harrison, son-in-law of William 
Crawford, and one Samuel Wilson, by order of ( 'raw- 
ford, broke open the doors of the jail with a sledge, 
which they got out of the blacksmith-shop near by, 
and let out the prisoners therein confined, three in 
number, telling them to clear the way. On that oc- 
casion Mr. Hanna poked his head out of the cock- 
loft window of his mansion-house, which, never to he 
forgotten, was also the temple of justice, ami made 
the remark, " Boys, you are up early to-day to buy a 
rope to hang yourselves." Hanna appeared on the 
ground, and Sheriff John Carnahan, also there, had the 
lint act read to the crowd, who jeered at him and made 
mouths, grimaces, and very disparaging remarks, in- 
tended for the Governor's province in general, and 
the magistrates there present in particular. Hanna 
had a musket pointed at his head. On the 25th of 
the month Hanna and Cavet were taken into custody 
and confined in the guard-room at Fort Pitt, and were 
there detained in confinement above three months. 4 

In 1775, Pittsburgh, according to the most authen- 
tic authorities, did not contain more than twenty-five 
or thirty houses, so that Hannastown was about as 
large. 

The courts continued to be held at Hannastown, or 
rather at the house of Robert Hanna after the town 
was burnt in 1782, until the January term of 1787, 
when the first court was held at Grecnsburg. 

By act of 10th of April, 1781, the care and custody 
of the lots appurtenant to Hannastown was vested in 

s Ibid., 471. 'Ibid., 579. 

4 Depositions of Carnahan, Hanna, el al., in Archives, vol. iv., 604, 
el seg. 



THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN. 



G3 



the justices of the peace residing in and within two 
miles of the town, to the end that the lots should be 
preserved from encroachment and private use, and 
for the benefit of common to the inhabitants of the 
town or place, until the same should be appropriated, 
under the authority of the Legislature, for building, 
improvement, or other use. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN*. 

Virginia claims part of the Territory of Pennsylvania — Dunmore occu- 
pies Fort Pitt— The Claimsof Virginia ami Pennsylvania summarized 
—Virginia Colonists willing to fight for the Demands of Virginia- 
Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia — England's Colonial Policy — Vir- 
ginia's relation to the Ministry— Charges against Dunmun — His 
Character— Real Causes of Dnnmore'a or Cressap's War of 1774 — How 
the Indians regarded Western Virginia— John Connolly— He takes 
possession of Fort Pitt — Issues a Proclamation — Apprehended by St. 
Claii, ami committed to Jail at Hounostowu— He returns to Pittsburgh 
— Is opposed by Penn's Magistrates— He returns with Authority from 
Dunmore, ami appears with Simon Girty ami a Rabble at [lanuastow n 
—Refuses to allow the Justices to hold Court— The Justices persist, 
and hold Court to preserve order till the Lines are adjusted. 

Such is an outline of the character of the people 
and the institutions of our county at the date when 
it came into existence. The stream of emigration 
was kept unabated, and while many passed on to seat 
themselves farther west, many others were stopping 
here. So it was not long till nearly all the land hail 
a determinate owner, but of course it was sparsely 
settled even in those spots which could be called 
the centres of population. The settlers got along 
tolerably well through 1773, and were to all outward 
prospects in a fair way of becoming a thriving colony ; 
but just as the vigor of this new emigration was being 
felt unforeseen causes intervened which made trouble 
and commotion all over Western Pennsylvania, which 
delayed that natural advancement which it was rea- 
sonable to look for, and which, after very nearly 
involving the people in civil war, did in truth leave 
them in a state of anxiety and dread and constant 
alarms. 

We have now reached the time when one who 
chronicles the events of our local history must enter 
upon a subject not at all attractive, but which fills up 
a large space in our history. Those who have com- 
piled accounts of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County 
have dwelt at large upon this subject, but we do not 
know of any Westmorelander having done the same 
for his own county. To have a clear conception of 
the actual state of Westmoreland during the Revo- 
lution we must enter more into details than we should 
wish to, and study it in connection with subsequent 
events. 1 

1 See Graham's " History of Virginia/' anu " Campbell's "History of 
Virginia." 
Aa we have had no thread to follow for the narrative as it is in the 



In the beginning of 1774 the question of disputed 
territory, and conflicting claims which had agitated 
the two colonies for nearly twenty years in regard to 
the boundary lines of the respective colonies, was now 
brought forward, and culminated in open dissension. 
Virginia, it is recollected, claimed that the fort at the 
Forks of the Ohio was within their charter limits, 
and in some of her demands she judged, indeed, that 
Penn's charter government did not extend farther 
west than Laurel Hill. The actual possession of this 
point was now by occupancy, and by the bounds 
drawn by Penn's agent within the claim and under 
the jurisdiction and control of the proprietaries. 
Virginia was compelled, therefore, to take the aggres- 
sive. 

It must jse admitted that, with the imperfect knowl- 
edge of the Western territory which was then pos- 
sessed, Virginia's claim to this western territory was 
consistently founded. Under her early Governor, 
Spottswood, she had been the first to surmount the 
Blue Ridge and lay claim to the valley of the Missis- 
sippi. Under Dinwiddie, in the person of Washing- 
ton, she first asserted her claim to that unoccupied 
region which gave rise to the war which terminated 
so advantageously for the British in the acquisition of 
Canada; for this she battled long and courageously. 
She had held and maintained actual possession of the 
greater portion of this region south of the Ohio, and 
was the first to colonize the wild lands of Kentucky, 
— a region to which no Indian tribe asserted its right. 

The claim of Pennsylvania was in her original 
charter, and in her subsequent purchases from the 
Indians. There was no question, as was afterwards 
admitted, that Penn's colony in its integrity embraced 
all the original charter limits granted to the original 
proprietary. The dispute was to how far the actual 
bounds extended. Each claimed, and each made ex- 
ertion to maintain its point. The boundary of West- 
moreland, the latest and most westerly of the counties, 
did not extend farther southwest than the most west- 
erly branch of the Youghiogheny, nor farther west 
than the Ohio at Fort Pitt; and summarizing, it is 
seen that Governor Thomas Penn, as early as 1752, in 
his instructions to his deputies, advised them to assist 
the Governor of Virginia in erecting a fort at the 
point of the Ohio, but to take especial pains that 
nothing be done to the disparagement of his claims. 
The notes of the first survey, by Gist, the first settle- 
ments on the tributaries of the Ohio, and the attempt 
at the erection of a fort by the Ohio Company were 
under the assumption that this point was within the 
territory of Virginia; and accordingly in 1754 (Feb. 
19th) Governor Dinwiddie, to encourage soldiers and 

three following chapters, we have compared, among othei'6, Withers' 
"Chronicles," Doddridge's "Notes," Craig's "History of Pittsburgh," 
" History of the Backwoods," " Border Warfare," Campbell's" History of 
Virginia," ltupp's " History of Western Pennsylvania," besides tin- gen- 
eral histories and all excerpts that have come before us. But the old 
series of Pennsylvania Archives and Colonial Records is the one great 
source of information for those inquiring further. 



C4 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



settlers, granted, by proclamation, large bodies of land 
about tbe forks of the river. In March following, 
Governor Hamilton, on the part of the proprietaries, 
wrote to Governor Dinwiddie that, as he had given 
it his attention, he believed the point to be within 
Pennsylvania. In Dinwiddie's reply he stated that 
he was much misled by his surveyors if the point was 
not within the limits of Virginia. This doubt was not 
settled till the occupancy of tbe disputed point by 
the French and the erection of Fort Duquesne. The 
French and Indian war and the Indian war in West- 
ern Virginia obliged both parties to be united in a 
common interest. After this for a time there was a 
lull in the war of words, and from the time when the 
turbulent Kyashuta laid down the hatchet to Bouquet, 
in 17G4, on the Muskingum, till the treaty of Stanwix, 
1768, the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, below 
the Youghiogheny, was populated under the laws of 
Virginia, and mostly by settlers from Virginia and 
Maryland along with the Irish. The establishing of 
the territorial government of Westmoreland then led 
the Virginians at this juncture to occupy Fort Pitt 
and the lands on the northern banks of the Mouon- 
gahela; and it must be borne in mind that these set- 
tlers were ready to fly to arms if need be rather than 
suffer a doubt to rest upon their title. For men are 
ready and willing, so strong is the feeling which at- 
taches to one's fields and firesides, to fight for their 
homes, even in preference, when there is a preference, 
to their government. The agents of Dunmore bad, 
therefore, willing tools to work with. 

Although all unprejudiced minds will not deny 
that Virginia had asserted this claim and screened 
her own firesides and the frontier of Pennsylvania in 
fighting for it, yet to understand the motives which 
actuated Dunmore, her< rovernor, at this time, and to 
appreciate that intense hatred felt even now against 
him by all Americans, there are other circumstances 
which force themselves to our attention. The con- 
siderate and patriotic men of Virginia have dis- 
claimed any participation by the Old Dominion in 
these overt and high-handed acts anil pretensions, 
and have in their histories loaded his character with 
shame and infamy. And this character is justly 
drawn, as it was justly deserved. Some writers, in 
I he exuberance of patriotic fervor, go so far as to 
say that his actions hastened to bring to a crisis the 
troubles between the colonies and the crown, and 
call them the prelude to the Revolution. Connected 
S i intimately as they are with this great epoch, we 
shall, in order to understand the part Westmoreland 
took in that great event, have to refer back to the 
colonial history of Virginia. 

There had been no country so successful in found- 
ing foreign colonies as England, and no country that so 
nurtured and protected them in their infancy. The 
freedom which they possessed from the time they 
came into being sprang from the protection of the 
common law; fur the protecting of these, while they 



were in a state of nurture, was but the protecting of 
the mother-country herself. Under different dynasties 
for several generations the colonial policy of Eng- 
land with her American colonies was founded and 
exercised in eminent justice. She regarded them as 
her offspring, and in truth as her dependencies ; and 
they were dutiful in their allegiance. At length this 
policy was changed. Instead of treating them as her 
near offspring, she chose to deal with them as if they 
were conquered provinces. 

In 1765, nine years before the time of which we 
are now treating, it was that tbe British ministry, 
wanting to increase the revenues of the crown, ex- 
acted a tax of the colonists in the shape of a stamp 
duty on paper and writings, which act is known as 
the Stamp Act. Discontent was manifested strongly 
in Massachusetts and Virginia. Hitherto the Vir- 
ginians had beeu considered the most loyal of the 
colonists. Now the people resisted most strongly this 
unconstitutional act; but the conciliating dispositions 
of the Governors fortunately appointed, however, 
kept the people pacified. Lord Botetourt, from 1768 
to 1771, did all in his power to advance the colony 
and to protect the firesides of the people. He died 
in 1771, and his successor was John Murray, the 
kingly Governor of New York, known in history as 
Earl of Dunmore. And this man was a bitter Tory, 
preferring the interest of the king to the interest of 
the people. He proceeded by means the most unjust 
to bind the colony in an impossible allegiance. If we 
believe history as it describes him in his public ca- 
pacity, we must conclude that he was one of the most 
heartless of men. 

It does not, in view of (he subsequent acts of Dun- 
more, appear to be at all improbable when it is as- 
serted that he was appointed to the governship of 
Virginia to rule them with severity, thus to make 
them feel their dependence, and to quiet the growing 
dissension then arising among the colonists in a com- 
mon interest. It cannot be said exactly whether the 
troubles which he helped agitate in the western part 
of Pennsylvania were in pursuance of a fixed policy, 
or whether they were instigated by his cruel disposi- 
tion. All, however, agree that he secretly, through 
bis agents, gave a left-handed instigation to the In- 
dians in the course of their warfare. It is true that 
when he became Governor the frontier settlers were 
fighting for life with famine, with the severity of long 
and dismal winters, and with their treacherous 
enemies; not in a long, open, and general war, but 
in a war no less destructive. And it is asserted that 
Dunmore found means to supply the Indians with 
arms to destroy his own blood, and, scarcely to be 
believed, furnished money to pay for the scalps of 
mothers and babes. He, by the means of waging 
such an inhuman war, wanted, so they declare, to 
draw the attention of the colonists from the rights of 
civil liberty to the protection of their very homes, 
their very lives. Such Virginians as take this view 



THE BORDER TROUBLES OF 1774 BEGIN. 



65 



regard the blood shed at the battle of Point Pleasant, 
the great battle of Dunmore's war of 1774, as the first 
offering on the altar of liberty. 

Duumore was such a man who, clothed with au- 
thority, could not but use it to his own interest, and 
therefore use it badly. He was a supercilious aristo- 
crat, without a redeeming patrician trait. He was 
hot-headed, stubborn and tyrannical, and was, on the 
whole, as unfit a man as could have been gotten to 
govern Virginia at this juncture. 

These assertions when sifted closely will not, per- 
haps, be literally sustained. But our ancestors, those 
who suffered and had cause to complain, did not dis- 
criminate so closely as we do. It is, in truth, not 
correct to say that Dunmore instigated this war, but 
one thing is certain, he played it and its consequences 
into his own hands, and for what he thought was to 
the interest of the king. The Indians, both before 
and after, opposed the advance of the whites in every 
direction. There was a war of the races everywhere. 
Every foot of ground from the James River to the 
Mississippi was fought tor. With all this, the loss of 
so many is laid at his door. 

We shall not enter at large into the details of the 
war which opened and continued through 1771, and 
which is commonly known as Cressap's war, or Dun- 
more's war, as it does not, only in a general way, con- 
cern our local history. Happily for our infant colony, 
it did not do much actual harm. But we must con- 
sider it in connection with the wide-spread dismay it 
occasioned among the defenseless inhabitants of the 
border, the imminent dangers which looked them in 
the face, and its consequent effect in alternating the 
relations of the people of Western Pennsylvania with 
the royalists. 

The encroachment of the whites into Kentucky 
and upon the lands of the Indians along the Ohio, 
and the influence of the Canadian traders were the 
general causes of the war. The Indians, from these 
facts, naturally regarded Western Virginia and West- 
ern Pennsylvania as the hive from which swarmed 
forth these emigrants. Redstone and Fort Pitt were 
the chief points at which these embarked. The first 
cabin in Kentucky was built by Harrod, who led out 
a party from the Monongahela. Both of these places 
had fortifications erected and garrisons kept up from 
the time of Pontiac's war, in 1764, to nearly this time. 
The Indians then watched the route which led into 
Kentucky, and on the little bands led out to reinforce 
Boone and his confederates they kept up a harassing 
war. And while these were the general causes, the 
immediate causes of this war were the instances of 
single murder committed, sometimes through appre- 
hension, sometimes in cold blood ; and this on both 
sides. There are instances in which the savages 
killed the whites, and instances in which the whites in- 
humanly murdered the Indians. These murders con- 
tinuing, both parties claimed that they were in retal- 
iation for murders committed by the opposite party. 



So far of the troubles of the border in 17":! and 1 774. 
Dunmore early made effort to hold the country round 
Fort Pitt as part of Virginia. To this end lie sent an 
agent into these parts to proclaim his will. This man 
was John Connolly, known to the early settlers and to 
the Indians as Doctor John Connolly. 1 He was a 
relation of the Governor; was a Pennsylvania!] by 
birth; was a notorious Tory, looking for advance- 
ment commensurate with his energy ; and was a will- 
ing tool of Dunmore, as Dunmore himself was of the 
ministry. In January, 1774, Connolly took possession 
of Pittsburgh by an armed force of militia, gotten 
from the south of the Youghiogheny and Mononga- 
hela. He came as the accredited agent of the Gov- 
ernor to hold this point, and to counteract the author- 
ity of Penn's magistrates. To the colonists of Penn- 
sylvania he represented that the militia musters which 
he was holding were for an advance against the In- 
dians, then becoming troublesome ; to the Indians he 

l This John Connolly, the Benedict Arnold of Western Pennsylvania, 
wns respectably connected. He was halt-brother of Gen. James Ewing, 
of York County, a distinguished officer in the Revolution; lie was a 
nephew of Col. Crogun, the Indian agent; and his wife was a daughter 
of Samuel Semple, Washington's host at Pittsburgh in 1770. He enjoyed, 
before his defection, the utmost confidence of Washington, ami of all the 
foremost men of Western Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. He had, 
after his defection, the secrets of Gage, Dunmore, Sir William Johnson, 
Sir Guy Carleton (later Lord Dorchester). He was on such familiar terms 
with all those who moved affairs in the West that he undertook to cor- 
rupt, at the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Col. John Gibson 
(uncle of Chief Justice Gibson). He had corrupted McKee, Elliott, and 
Girty. 

Of his sagacity, energy, and foresight there is abundance of testimony. 
He entertained great projects; one of these was to found a colony on t lie 
Cumberland River. He, with Col. John Campbell, owned the land upon 
which the city of Louisville, Ky., is built. 

When arrested in Maryland, with two accomplices, he had most of his 
papers very artfully concealed in the " mailpillion" of hi* portmanteau 
horse. Enough were found to condemn him, and to reveal bis purposes. 
While he was a prisoner, in 1777, Gen. Ewing became bondsman for Ins 
good behavior, and took him to his farm to regain his health; but he 
soon betrayed this confidence, and was recommitted to prison. 

In 1781, after his release from prison, he plotted an attack on Pitts- 
burgh and other Western posts, lie was to operate from Canada with 
Sir John Johnson. He had a number of blank commissions to fill iu for 
the Tories whom he should gather round him. 

He renewed his efforts against Pittsburgh in 1782, and had gone so far 
as to have his forces collected at Lake Chatauqua, ready for deBcent, 
when a spy reported that Gen. Irvine, who then commanded at Pitts- 
burgh, was ready. 

We shall see how some of his forces descended thence, and destroyed 
Hannastown in July of that .Mar. 

His last appearance was in Kentucky, in 178S, iu an effort to procure 
discontented spirits there to join with the Governor of Canada (Lord Dor- 
chester) iu the seizure of New Orleans, and the opening of the Missis- 
sippi to Western commerce. But be was driven ignoiuiuiously away. 

At last be forfeited the esteem of all Americans, and his relatives and 
friends deserted him. But it dors not appear that be ever repented of 
the treason to bis native country, but, as has been reported, held Girty 
In high esteem till he died. 

It is probable that not another example like his is to bo found in our 
history, wherein so much that was promising in the career of a man 
failed of fruition. He had ability, sagacity, influence, opportunity ; he 
availed himself of neither. He lived after his expatriation, and died, 
on the bounty of the king. His last dayB were made miserable by dis- 
ease and intemperance. 

His career may be traced through all the documentary annals of his 
day. For details, Sparks' " Washington," " Penn. Archives and Colonial 
Records." For his attempt iu the Southwest, Albach's " Western An- 
nals," 4'.r>, et se<i. 



66 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



represented that it was to hold this part of Virginia 
against the Pennsylvanians ; and to the militia them- 
selves was held out the idea that they were assembled 
to. hold their property against seizure by this Province. 
Thus from the first he sowed the seeds of dissension 
among these people. Taking this point without re- 
sistance in January, he changed the name to Fort 
Dunmore, and issuing a proclamation, called the 
militia of Western Virginia together and asserted the 
claims of Virginia. At the same time he continued 
to spread abroad among the people the most unfavor- 
able reports concerning the pretensions of the legiti- 
mate Governors and their unwarranted claims. These 
repeated assertions, put forth in a warlike manner, to- 
gether with the invasion of the soil of Pennsylvania 
ami the disturbance of the peace, were vigorously op- 
posed by the magistrates and the body of the people. 

The body of militia collected at Fort Pitt for the 
ostensible project of an invasion of the Indian coun- 
try, but really used by Connolly in enforcing his 
authority, was, as all militia bodies, a set of Falstaffian 
ragamuffins, who, in a military capacity, were kept 
under control by officers, and in a rude military dis- 
cipline in proportion as their inclinations were grati- 
fied. By obeying half the time they could command 
the other half. These rabble soldiery shot down the 
cattle and hogs of the peaceful inhabitants as they 
chose; they pressed in the horses, and, in short, took 
whatever property they pleased. 1 

For the issuing of his proclamation and the calling 
of tin- militia together, St. Clair had Connolly arrested 
on a warrant, brought before him at Ligouier, and 
committed to jail at Hannastown. Giving bail to 
answer for his appearance in court, he was released 
from custody. On being released he went into Au- 
gusta County, Va., where at Staunton, the county- 
seat, he was created a justice of the peace. It was 
alleged that Fort Pitt was in that county, in the dis- 
trict of West Augusta. This was to give a show of 
legality to his proceedings, and to cover them with 
the official sanction of the authority for whom he was 
acting. When he returned in March it was with 
both civil and military authority, and his acts from 
thenceforth were of the most tyrannical and abusive 
kind. 

When the court, early in April, assembled at Han- 
na's, Connolly, with a force of a hundred and fifty 
men, armed and with colors, appeared before tiie 
place. He placed armed men before the door of the 
court-house, and refused admittance to the provincial 
magistrates without his consent. Connolly had had 
a sheriff appointed for this region. In the meeting 
between himself and the justices he said that in com- 
ing he had fulfilled his promise to the sheriff, and 
1 1 the authority of the court, and that the magis- 
trates had any authority to hold a court. He agreed 
so far as to let the officers act as a court in matters 

i Devereux Suiitli's Letter to Dr. William Sruith.— ftim. Anhkes. 



which might be submitted to them by the people, but 
only till he should receive instructions to the con- 
trary. He wanted to be, and was, tyrannical, but was 
fearful of bringing the power of the Province upon 
himself. The magistrates were outspoken and firm. 
They averred that their authority rested on the legis- 
lative authority of Pennsylvania; that it had been 
regularly exercised ; that they would continue to ex- 
ercise it, and to do all in their power to preserve public 
tranquillity. They added the assurance that the Prov- 
ince would use every exertion to have the boundary 
line satisfactorily adjusted, and by fixing a temporary 
boundary would accommodate differences till one 
should be ascertained. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CONNOLLY'S USURPATIONS, INDIAN ALARMS, ETC. 

The Pennsylvania Justices further resist Connolly's Usurpation — lie 
semis Three of them iu Irons into Virginia — They are released by 
Dunmore — Commissioners appointed by the Council to visit the House 
of Burgesses of Virginia — Evil Summer ol 1774 — Petitions from Early 
Inhabitants of Westmoreland to Governor Penn — Meeting held at 
Pittsburgh — The Association first formed — Devereux Smith's Letter 
to Dr. William Smith — .Some acts of Connolly recited — Dunmore 
opens Offices for the Sale of Land in Pennsylvania Territory — lie 
issues a Proclamation to the People — St. Clair superintends the Mili- 
tary Arrangements — Forts repaired, and list of new ones erected — 
Rangers organized and posted at various Points — Alarm of the In- 
habitants — Many Settlers cross hack over the Mountains — They ate 
urged to remain by St. Clair and Others — People of Ligouier Valley 
gather near the Fort i r i fear of the Indians crossing the Ohio — Num- 
ber and Lists of tbo Signers of the Petitions to Governor Penn — 
Henvpneld Dutch and Pittsburgh Irish. 

Among the stanch and firm adherents of Penn 
about Fort. Pitt were Devereux Smith, Alexander 
Mackay, JEneas Mackay, and Andrew McFarland. 
These Mackays were early settlers about the tort, 
and JEneas Mackay was named as county judge 
among those created at the forming of the county. 
At the usurpation of Connolly these men specially re- 
sisted and opposed his assumption, and stood up man- 
fully, representing in their persons and magisterial 
capacity the claims of the legitimate Governors. 
These magistrates kept up a regular correspondence 
with the Governor and with each other, as indeed did 
all prominent citizens, and among these in vigilance 
and in energy none excelled St. Clair. His commu- 
nications, printed in the archives of the State, are in 
many instances our chief source of information, and 
on disputed points these are allowed the preference. 
This opposition to Connolly was opposed by every 
reasonable and peaceable manner, and with long suf- 
fering. They claimed that it was tyrannical to enforce 
the authority of Virginia over the territory which 
they held, and which they had settled under the im- 
pression that it was within Penn's jurisdiction. 
These justices attended court at Hanna's in April, 
1774. When they returned home they, with the ex- 



CONNOLLY'S USURPATIONS, INDIAN ALARMS, ETC. 



67 



ception of Alexander Mackay, were arrested by 
Connolly. They refused to give bail, and were sent 
under guard to Staunton. Mackay got permission to 
go by way of Williamsburg, the capital of the 
State, in order to see Dunmore. The upshot of the 
interview he had was that the justiees were allowed 
to return home. But when the news of their arrest 
reached the Council it was determined to send two 
commissioners to the Burgesses of Virginia to repre- 
sent to them the consequences which might ensue if 
such proceedings were continued. These two were 
James Tilghman and Andrew Allen. Their instruc- 
tions were to request the government to unite with 
the proprietaries in a petition to the Council of the 
king, first, to have a definite boundary line run, and 
second, to use every exertion to have a temporary 
boundary line drawn. After a good deal of talk the 
hot-headed viceroy dismissed the commissioners, and 
the conference ended in nothing ; and when its 
failure was known Connolly's insolence and oppres- 
sion increased in accelerated proportion. 

These things occurring in the early summer of 
1774, at the very time when word was circulated that 
an Indian war was uprising, the inhabitants of our 
county were in a strait betwixt two troubles. It 
appeared to them that if they remained, either death 
from the hands of Indians, soon to be upon them, or 
their very substance eaten out by a set of mercenary 
militia was their choice; and, further, and of great 
moment, the title to most part of their land was now 
brought into question. On account of these confirmed 
and apprehended dangers the crops of that year were 
in many places unsown, and what was grown was not | 
harvested. For many miles from Pittsburgh eastward 
the fences were demolished, and the domestic cattle 
slaughtered or running at large were not reclaimed. 
Many at this juncture left and returned to the East, 
some hopeful for better times, and some with no in- 
tention of returning. The officers of the county, and 
many who were the most interested, used every exer- 
tion to induce the others to stay. But a panic, con- 
stantly extending, was around them on all sides. In 
the latter end of May and in June public meetings were 
held at various places, and at these meetings resolu- 
tions were adopted which were intended to show their 
distressful situation, and in which the Governor was 
petitioned to give the inhabitants assistance. The 
petitions presented at this time, on the immediate 
apprehension of an Indian war, are headed from 
Hannastown, from Allen's, a block-house on the 
Crab-Tree down towards the Loyalhanna, from Fort 
Shippen at Capt. John Pz - octor's on the Twelve-Mile 
Run, and from Pittsburgh. 

The public meeting which met at Pittsburgh, June 
14, 1774, signed a petition which differs not much 
from the others in the statement of their fears, but 
rather more plainly and forcibly dwelt upon the in- 
dignities they had suffered and the privation they 
were under from Connolly's shameful proceedings. 



These, it is true, had suffered more than those in the 
eastern part. But they said, in effect, that their situ- 
ation was alarming; that they were deserted by the 
far greater number of their neighbors; that they had 
no place of strength to resort to should war be upon 
them; that labor was at a stand ; that their growing 
crops were destroyed by the cattle; that their flocks 
were dispersed, and that the minds of the people weri 
disturbed with the fear of falling to the mercies of the 
barbarous savages. Thus, in distress, next to the 
Almighty, they looked to his Honor for relief. 

The magistrates still continued to exercise their 
functions in opposition to Connolly. He proceeded 
to extremes theretofore unknown. He, by his militia, 
broke open the houses of many citizens, a thing tol- 
erated only under military law. In many instances 
the inhabitants courageously opposed his rabble. In 
several instances they were brought face to face, and 
when defending their houses from illegal visitation 
and from pillage they showed a bravery which the 
maudlin crew dared not encounter. An association 
was even formed for the protection of the people. 
This association was composed of the most active ami 
influential of the inhabitants, and they proposed to 
stand together to resist Connolly, and to make prepa- 
rations for their mutual safety. They called upon the 
militia, and these, in small forces, were posted at dif- 
ferent points. 

While this, perhaps, is getting tedious, we would 
say that the aggressions of Connolly were summed up 
in a masterly manner by Devereux Smith, in the re- 
marks which he made in a letter to William Smith, 
in June, 1774. After laving the distress of the inhabi- 
tants to the tyrannical conduct of this man in the 
present dread of an Indian war, he claimed that Con- 
nolly first alarmed the Indians by the action of the 
militia in firing upon a friendly party in the Janu- 
ary previous, which party were encamped near Saw- 
mill Run, on the Ohio, when the militia, returning 
home, some of them under the influence of whiskey, 
fired upon the party there encamped without provo- 
cation. 

Further, that Cressap had, in vindication of his 
conduct in helping to murder the friendly Indians, 
and in beating up the wdiites of Virginia to arm, al- 
leged the instigation id' Connolly in a circular letter 
to the people on the Ohio ; that he brutally assaulted 
and abused, after breaking open the doors by force, 
the persons of Mackay, Smith, and Spear; that with 
an armed force he surrounded the court-house iHan- 
na's) at Hannastown; that he transported .33neas 
Mackay, Smith, and MacFarland, magistrates, in 
irons, to Staunton jail in Virginia; that he proceeded 
to shoot down and impress the domestic animals 
without compensating the sufferers; that with an 
armed force he attempted to plunder the house of 
Devereux Smith, but was prevented by a Mr. Butler 
at the risk of his life; that when a man had died in 
the fort, and his corpse was robbed by some of his 



68 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



own men, he sent an armed force into the town with 
a general search-warrant to search every house with- 
out exception, and that in the course of the search 
the militia broke open and took out private property 
of a citizen, at the same time insulting him; that he 
sent a party that waylaid a horse laden with gun- 
powder sent out by William Spear for the use of the 
inhabitants of the county ; and these he declares to 
be bul a lew of the many distresses under which they 
labored, and without speedy protection and redress 
they could not long support themselves under such 
tyranny. 

It would appear then, when all the testimony is 
summed together, that this statement, although drawn 
up by one smarting under the abuse of Connolly, was 
nol an exaggerated statement. Connolly himself, 
although of untiring energy and some ability, was a 
drunken, blasphemous wretch, who worked for hire, 
and the men under him were too apt to follow his 
leadership. These he supplied with as much whiskey 
as they wanted, and the only exertion to which they 
were put was to procure provision and forage, which 
they tried to get with as little trouble as possible. 
Dunmore now had opened several offices for the sale 
of lands in what is now the region embraced in Fay- 
ette, Washington, Greene, and Southern Allegheny. 
The warrants were granted on the payment of two 
shillings sixpence. The purchase-money was only 
ten shillings per hundred acres. This was an induce- 
ment for settlers to occupy here in preference to going 
to the Pennsylvania office. He also established, in 
the latter part of the year, three county courts in this 
region. Two of these were south of the Mononga- 
hela, and one north of this, at old Fort Redstone, the 
name of which was changed to Fort Burd. And still 
persisting in Ids pretensions, Dunmore, when he was 
at Fort Pitt in September, where he had stopped on his 
way to reinforce Col. Lewis, issued a proclamation, in 
which he demanded the unqualified submission of 
all settlers to his county governments west of Laurel 
Hill. 

During this critical time the agents of the Penns, 
the magistrates, ami the foremost of the people were 
tireless in their efforts to induce the inhabitants to 
remain at the homes they were just clearing out of 
the wilderness, and they used every exertion to infuse 
confidence into the public mind. The association 
everywhere urged upon the people to have their arms 
ready, and at the first call of danger to fly to each 
other's assistance. St. Clair was reeognized as the 
controlling spirit in the military arrangements. He 
was in constant communication with the Governor, 
and the Governor having great confidence in his 
judgment, left the direction of these executive affairs 
in great part to him. St. Clair gave his advice and 
his personal supervision. Stockades and block- 
houses were erected at every available point where 
the number of people would justify, and at where it | 
was feared the savages might enter. The stockade at 



Ligonier was put in repair, and one which had been 
begun at Hannastown was now hurried up. Kittan- 
ning was made a special point, and here it was in- 
tended that a large depot of arms and munitions, 
under the care of a garrison, should be kept up. For 
St. Clair's idea was to have a road opened from near 
Ligonier to that point in case the southern portion of 
country should be overrun, and also he maintained 
that it was, in a military point of view, a desirable 
place at which to mass a body of troops for active ser- 
vice on the frontier. By this time quite a number of 
settlements had been made along the river in wdiat is 
now the southern part of Armstrong County. It is 
to this date we trace the erection of the many block- 
houses which afterwards offered shelter during the 
Indian depredations through the Revolution, and 
which were long the landmarks of their respective 
localities. This season was built Fort Shippen, at 
John Proctor's; Fort Allen, in Hempfield township 
between Wendell Ourry's and Christopher Trubee's 
(who owned the land upon which Grcensburg was 
laid out) ; one at John Shields' on the Loyalbanna 
about six miles from Hanna's. Several were built 
also in the outskirts of the settlements from Ligonier 
by way of the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas, and a 
long line in the southern part of the county, faced by 
the river-courses which trend towards the Mononga- 
hcla and the Ohio. 

We have seen how the troubles were realized aboul 
Pittsburgh. No less was the eastern portion of the 
county distressed. Under St. Clair a ranging-party 
of ~i\ty men had been organized at Ligonier; but on 
every idle report the people sought the shelter of 
some little fort, and many hundreds, on the testimony 
of St. Clair, fled out of the county. St. Clair called 
in the rangers, who had been scattered about, and 
arranged them to some advantage. Twenty were 
posted at Turtle Creek, twenty at the Bullock Pens 
seven miles east of Pittsburgh, thirty at Hannastown, 
twenty at Proctor's, twenty at Ligonier. Tins, were 
on the direct frontier towards the Allegheny, all tiie 
country between the Forbes road ami the river being 
almost entirely abandoned. A few remained shut up 
in a block-house on the Conemaugh. To St. Clair it 
was surprising, and, as he says, shameful, thai so great 
a body of the people should be driven from their pos- 
sessions without even the appearance of an enemy, for 
no attempt had been made by the Indians on what 
was understood to be Pennsylvania. On the 11th of' 
June a report was started that a party of Indians had 
been seen near Hannastown, and another party on the 
Braddock road. This set the people agoing again. St. 
Clair took horse and rode up to inquire into the facts. 
He found the reports improbable, but it was impossible 
to persuade the people so. He states that he is certain 
he met no fewer than two hundred families and two 
thousand cattle in twenty miles' riding. 

The people of Ligonier Valley had, up to this time, 
made a stand, but on that day they all moved into the 



CONNOLLY'S USURPATIONS, INDIAN ALARMS, ETC. 



CO 



stockade. They all, seized with a strange infatuation, 
contemplated leaving the country, and so strong was 
the current that St. Clair says had they left he would 
have been forced to go with them. Had they gone 
then, with the scanty harvest just ready to cut, they 
must undoubtedly have perished by famine. As it 
was made evident to the settlers of Westmoreland that 
the projected Indian attack was directed against Vir- 
ginia, the only hope of the public peace being restored 
was in the success of the authorities in settling the 
line of jurisdiction yet unsettled. 

The petitions sent by the inhabitants to the Gov- 
ernor arc Mill extant. The one from John Proctor's 
numbered seventy-eight; the one from Fort Allen, 
seventy-seven ; one from the country at large, dated 
at llannastown, one hundred and thirty-four; the 
one from John Shields', fifty; another from Hannas- 
town, ninety-one. 1 



1 "The petition from Fort Shippen, at Col. (then captain) John Proc- 
tor's, on Twelve-Mile Rim," was signed by the following: Lot Darling, 
*Andrew Woolf, George Helliugbar, Samuel Sloan, Williiira Caldwell, 
Robert Ronlston, William All son, William Cortney.Julin Patrick, Ben- 
jamin Cochran, David Maxwill, William Hughs, Elias Pellet, James 
Gauimel, James Forsyth, Robert Taylor, John Leslie, William Ander- 
son, Joseph Campbell, John McK.ee, George Mobre, William Perry, 
Charles Mitchell', James Wallace, John Scnjt, Knight Scott, It it Ste- 
phenson, Andrew Allison, John Cox, William Michel, Joseph Man, 
George Henry, James Campbell, Josias Campbell, John bain, Joseph Sa- 
phut, I-aac Parr, John Moore, Robert Beialciu, John Lydick, Philip 
Cou'/e, William McCall, George Smilie, Fergusotr-Moorhead, Richard 
Jar vis, David Kilgour, John Proctor, Samuel Moorhead, William Lochry, 

,1a s Uanult Arthur Harvey, Patrick Archbald, William Mount, 

John Davis, John Harry, John Pagan, Robert Marshall, John Campbell, 
Henry Zane, Robert Culdwell, George Leasure, James Stevenson, Thomas 
SteveuBon, Robert Cochran, John Taylor, William Sloan, William Mar- 
tin, Andrew Mitchell, David Sloan, James Fjiltoii, Francis McGinnis, 
James Carnahan, William Thompson, Allen Sloan, Moses Dickie, Na- 
thaniel Bryan. 

Tin- one t' l.on Fort Allen, in Hcn i pfjcV' ' -■ ' ■ ■ j ■ ■ '..-'•■ i w- r -1-1 

Ourry's and Ch rUlnphor T i nh i ' i m il In l ln 1 1 I I i v i 1 1 _- 

Wendell Ourry, Christopher Trubee, Frantz Raupp, Nicholas Shencr, 
John Lallerty, John Beudeary, Conrad II. nick, James \\'aterm>,-.h>hn 
Bedeck, Adam George, Nicholas Alliumug, Adam Uhrig, Stufei I'lidi, 
John Golden, Peter l" i.h, Maitiu IllintZ, Michael Konel, Ileum, I, 

Klcyn, Conrad Hister, Hans Guuckee, Peter Knsner, Peter Uber, John 
Krai. slier, Heiulich Sclimit, Jacob kuemcl, John Moffey, Adam Bricken, 
Peter Nanuemacher, Philip Klingelschinit, Peter Klingelschmit, Peter 
Allman, Amloni Altman, Jose/ph Pankkek, Brent Reis, Ilalt/er Move, 
Jacob llanscr, Peter Altman, Christian Banm, George Crier, Peter 
Rosli, Joseph Knt/., Adam Meire, Daniel Wiler, Thomas Williams, 
Michael Ilai/, George Mendarf, William Hanson, William Altman, 
Marx Bretnig, Johannes Breiuig, Samuel Lewisch, Andotly Walter, 
Jacob Welcker, George Bender, Nicholas Jnnt, Michael Hams, David 
Marshall, Heinricb Sil, Richard Archhold, Cdiifad Lincfc, Frcidcrick 
Marschal, Hannes Breynig, Hasper Mickendoif, Jacob Schraber, Daniel 
Malic., Ilciaiich Schrara, Peter Schelhammer, Jacob Mayiiu, Dewalt 
Mackiin, Hannes Kostwitz, Jacob Shram, Lutwig Alterjnan, Llans Sill, 

Jacob Stroll, Christopher Herolt, Gerhart Tarn.-. 

en' these names only twenty-five were written in English, the rest in 
German ; and, perhaps with the exception of Lafferty ami Archbold, they 
were all of German lineage. The names are still preserved in Hemp- 
field, North Huntingdon, ami Penn townships, lint the spelling has un- 
dergone a change, and " KleynV is now " Kline," and " Mackiin" is 
" Mechling." 

A similar petition from the county, evidently signed at llannastown, 
had the following signatures : 

Robert Hanna, Alexander Thompson, William Jack, Joseph Kinkead, 
Manuel Gallnher, William Shaw, William Jenkins, William Dawson, J. 
Donne, Joshua Archer, Johu Gothery, Joseph McGarraugh, William 



It is to be noticed that some of the names are re- 
peated in at least two of the petitions, and it has been 
suspected that a few of the names are not genuine : 
that is, there was no one in proper person to stand for 
the signature. What is likewise observable is that the 
names repeated are those of a German original. 
Maybe more of them might write their names than 
their brethren the Irish; and it might be that the 
signatures were signed in good faith at different times 
by the petitioners, with the hope of moving the au- 
thorities by the unanimous array of names. But feel- 
ing a sympathy with them at this late day in their 
trying times, we cannot help professing astonishment 
at the peculiar ubiquity of our sturdy Hutch ancestors, 
which allowed them to be, in time of danger, at differ- 
ent places at the same time. We might be led to infer 
that they indulged in the pleasing delusion that, being 
"now here, now there, now everywhere" (like the 
ghost in Hamlet), they might, like Paddy at Trenton, 
surround the Indians. 



McCutchin, James MeCutchin, Jeremiah Lochrey, Joseph Brownlce, 
Robert Taylor, John Ould, William Riddle, Hugh Brownlee, James 
Leech, David Ciiib blow, James Crutdilu^£etei- Cast mi, David Clutch- 
low, Jr., John Cristy, Joseph Shaw, David Shaw, William Nelson, John 
Giithrry, James Dunlap, Robert RiddTe.TTnYn Kiddle, William Gnthrey, 
Charles Wilson, Joseph Studybaker, William Darraugh, James Darraugh, 
William Thompson, David Dickie, John Thompson, John Glass, John 
Holmes, Charles Foreman, Samuel Miller, John Shields, Thomas Pattou, 
John Taylor, Samuel Parr, James Case, Adam Maxwell, William Max- 
well, William Bill lies, James Moore, John Moore, Thomas Bui laid ge, Mat - 

tin Cavanagh, Arthur Denworthy, David Larrimore, Thomas Freeman, 
William Freeman, James Blain, Alexander McClean, John Moore, John 
Nobler, William Moore, William Hamilton, Thomas Ellis, Mark Ellis, 
John Ellis, John Adam, Andrew McClain, Robert Bell, William Bell, 
William Bell, Samuel Craig, John Craig, Alexander Craig, John Cochran, 
James Wills, Henry McBride, Isaac McBride, James Bently, Jacob Round, 
Barnabas Brant, William Brant, Edward Brant, Samuel Whiteside, Sam He] 
Leetch, Matthew Miller, Alexander Mere, George Kian, Charles Mc- 
Ginnis, William Killdsey, Thomas Jack, John McAllister, Alexander 
Thomas, Samuel Conper, John Goiirla, Samuel Gotlrla, James Beatty, 
Samuel Henderson , John Br.vson, Robert Crawford, Alexander sinu-rall, 
. I. urns Mc'l'lrlland,. lames \\ bite, Thomas Dennis, John Shrimplcy. Rich- 

. Wini mi Moore, Adam Oury, John Cunningham, John Muck- 
mnlon, Peter Slot, William McCord, Andrew Gordin, John Muppin, John 
Christy, Patrick t'olgan, P. Russell, James Neilson, Abraham P.vatr, 11. 
Mode-ban, Joseph Thorn. Robert Frier, William Powel, William Carr, 
Joseph Erwill, John Brownlee, Thomas Lyon. 

,A petiiioii from John Shields, on the Loyalhanna, about six mile from 
Greeusburg, of the same date, 1774, has the following n s: 

John Shields, John Nobler, John Mclnlire, David Henin, Henry 
Heathly, Manual Gallahan, Isaac Parr, James Parr, Samuel Pari, Arthur 
Denniston, Archibald Trimble, John Denniston, Lorance Irwin. John 
Moore, Isaac Yutingsee, Daniel McManame, Patrick Butler, Daniel Mc- 
Ilnde, James Blain, John Thompson, James Wills, Andrew Wills, Rob, it 
Bell, William Bell, Alexander McClain, Charles McClain, Thomas Bur- 
brldge, Andrew McClain, William Brant, Samuel Craig, John Craig, Alex- 
ander Craig, James Rums, John Cochran, David Shields, Thomas I 'rei 
man, Barnabas Brant, Edward Brant, James Bently, Jacob Round, John 
Moore, William Barns, William Cooper, William Hamilton, James Hull, 
David Loramer, John I.oraincr, Alexander Barr. 

Another, dated Hanna-town, but evidently signed by residents south 
of that place, contains, among others, Joseph McGanaugh, William 
Brown, William McGlaughen, Samuel McK.ee, John McDowell, David 
McKee, Robert McEee, James Paul, William Sampson, John Brown, 
Adam Morrow, John Giffen, Isaac Keeth, Dennis McConnel. George 
Nelson, James King, John Canan, William Shaw, Archibald beach, 
James Boveard, Robert Haslet, Joseph Shaw, James Westley, John ( ',,1- 
hoon, John Lent, Stephen Groves, John Adams, John Hays, Charles 
Sterret, Robeft Hays, and John Gothery, Jr. 



70 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER XV. 

DUN-MORE'S WAR. 

Dunmnre's War hegun by the Murder of some Friendly Indians, espec- 
ially Lupin's Family — Virginian Army organized — Dimmore at 
Pittsburgh with Connolly — Great Gathering and Organization of the 
Indian Tribes — The Campaign of 1774 — The Hopes of our People in 
Ctd. Lewis — Dunniore and Connolly want to see the Army defeated 
and the Indians on the Frontiers — Lewis gains the Battle of Point 
Pleasant — Dunmore's Treaty — Indictment: The People r.s. Dunniore — i 
Dnninore through Connolly Ftill tyrannizes over the Pennsylvania 
Settlers, many of whom talk of leaving their I Tarings— Condition of 
the People in 1775 — Leaders in Westmoreland in 1775 — The Military 
.Spirit. 

It is now time to return to the war itself, which, 
we have seen, was gathering upon the frontiers in the 
early part of 1774. Although, as we have said, Dun- 
more's war was not carried into our county, yet so 
intimately are our affairs connected with it that to 
have an understanding of them at all clear a re- 
hearsal of it cannot be omitted. We shall, in as few- 
words as consistent, briefly relate the whole cam- 
paign. We know, first, the apprehensions of the 
settlers in the Southwest. In the latter end of April 
a party of land adventurers, fleeing from the dangers 
which threatened them, came in contact with some 
Indians at the mouth of Captina Creek, sixteen miles 
below Wheeling. At about the same time happened 
the affair at Yellow Creek, midway between Pitts- 
burgh and Wheeling. At this time there was a large 
] >:iity of friendly Indians encamped at Yellow Creek. 
The surrounding inhabitants prepared to flee. A 
party of these meeting together at the house of one 
Joshua Baker fired upon some Indians collected 
there. Among those who were killed were the brother 
and'daughter of Logan. This it was that drove this 
great warrior to take the war to himself. Hearing 
the coming storm, such settlers as could go fled to 
places of safety, and all the block-houses between the 
Ohio and the Laurel Hill were filled. When this 
news reached the East the colonial government of 
Virginia speedily organized a command for the de- 
fense of the frontier. An advance force penetrated 
into Ohio, but as they could not be supplied with 
necessary provisions they had to retire. The Indians 
followed, and the time following was a miserable one 
to the helpless. Logan's actions were imitated by 
the rest. This renowned Indian did not go with the 
larger bodies of Indians, but he headed a party of 
eight Cayuga warriors, and these had mercy on no- 
thing before them. He himself said afterwards that 
he had fully glutted his vengeance. What the fron- 
tiers of Virginia suffered never was and never will be 
told. Those even in the forts were in a confinement 
compared to which the confinement of a prison would 
be liberty. But during this time preparations were 
going on for the organization and forwarding of the 
expedition intended for their relief by the House of 
Burgesses. 

The Virginia army raised for the war of 1774 was 



divided into two divisions. In September the first 
division, under Col. Lewis, consisting of eleven hun- 
dred, marched from the mouth of the Little Kanawha. 
After a inarch of nineteen days through the wilds 
they erected their camp on the Ohio where the Big 
Kanawha empties. This place was called Point 
Pleasant. Here the other division of the army under 
the immediate command of Dunmore himself was to 
form a junction with the former. For reasons best 
known to Dunniore and his advisers it failed to do 
so. While Col. Lewis was awaiting word from the 
East, he received different news than he had expected. 
Lewis had reached this point about the 1st of October, 
and on the -9th he got word that Dunmore. instead of 
advancing to unite their armies, intended to proceed 
across the country directly to the Shawanese town, for 
Dunniore had on organizing his forces proceeded to 
Fort Pitt. He here consulted with Connolly, and 
had in his service such men as Simon Girty and Al- 
exander McKee, recognized afterwards as notorious 
Tories, and while here at this time it was that he 
further attended to the organization of his civil affairs 
in these parts, as has been noticed before. 

The Indians in the mean time had not been idle. 
They had organized a large and terrible army, com- 
prised of many nations gathered under one chieftain. 
These were the flower of the Indian tribes along the 
Ohio, — the Shawanese, Mingoes, Delawares, Wyan- 
dotts, and Cayugas. In number they perhaps ex- 
ceeded the Virginians. They were all under the 
command of Cornstalk, a chief of the Shawanese, and 
king of the Northern Confederacy. He had hesitated 
long in taking arms against the wdiites. He was an 
eloquent man, of great foresight and judgment, and 
as a warrior is acknowledge 1 on all sides to have 
been the most consummate Indian commander ever 
in arms against the whites. The plan of this battle 
was such as to reflect the highest credit on any general 
who had made an assiduous study of the science of war. 
And his arrangements were executed under his eyes 
with the utmost vigilance and bravery. He had 
brought his warriors with such secrecy and dispatch as 
to occupy a large half-circle across the opening where 
the two rivers flowed to meet each other. He then, 
under cover of the darkness, stretched his line of 
red-skinned warriors across the base of this triangle, 
in which triangle was the army of Virginians. Thus 
far without the knowledge of the whites, the savages 
did not count on anything but decisive victory, for 
their leader did not give his enemy a chance to escape, 
only by winning the battle. He intended to drive 
them into the decreasing point, and either to anni- 
hilate them before they could cross the rivers, or to 
cut them to pieces in the retreat. As for his own 
men, so much did he count on their bravery that he 
threatened to kill with his own hand any who should 
attempt to run back, unless lie ordered them to do so, 
feigning themselves defeated. This was his plan, but 
be had not, in truth, fully secured his position, — not 



DUNMORE'S WAR. 



71 



enough to begin the battle,— till the Virginians were 
warned; for when intelligence had been received by 
Lewis that Dunmore did not intend to advance to his 
support, he hastened to break up his camp, and, in 
pursuance of Dunmore's orders, to march to meet him 
in the Indians' own country. The next morning, the 
10th of October, 1774, he commenced preparations to 
transfer his army to the opposite side of the Ohio. 
Scouts were early sent out along the bank of the 
river. Two of these, at the distance of a few miles, 
were surprised by a great body of Indians. One 
was shot dead, and the other returning reported that 
the savages covered acres of ground. The army was 
immediately ordered out, and no sooner were they 
formed into line of battle than they received the 
shock of the onpouring savages. Some of the most 
prominent of the subordinate officers falling early in 
the battle, the main body fell back towards the camp. 
The line of the enemy now extended almost from 
river to river, a gap of a small space remaining on 
the side next the Kanawha. But when it appeared 
that the Indians were the victors, a bold movement 
fortunately executed by the whites saved them and 
changed the fortune of the day. While the Indians 
were advancing they protected themselves by piles of 
logs and brush, in some places rolled before them. 
They held the ground thus secured all day till evening. 
But Col. Lewis had latterly sent out three companies 
under cover of the high banks of the Kanawha to fall 
upon the rear of the enemy. These succeeded in so 
doing. The Indians, intently engaged on the front, 
received with tremendous effect the fire behind. 
Thinking that the reinforcements from the settle- 
ments, which they knew to be coming, had now ar- 
rived, the Indian lines gave away. As the sun went 
down they retreated across the Ohio to their huts on 
the Scioto. The Virginians suffered a loss in dead 
and wounded amounting to almost one-fifth of their 
whole number, and it was believed the loss of Indians 
was in number not much less. The battle was the 
turning of the war, and in its results effective, for 
no other battle was fought till Dunmore treated with 
the chiefs at that memorable council where Logan, 
by his Patroclus (Jefferson), so eloquently spoke in 
his own defense. 

Dearly bought as was the victory, yet the complaints 
were loud that Dunmore made it of no avail ; for 
all that he gained by the conquest, which he claimed 
falsely as his own, were the closing of the war, an 
exchange of prisoners, and many liberal promises 
worth no more than the promises of an Indian. 
There was the usual amount of talk about burying 
hatchets, brightening chains, smoking pipes, setting 
suns, dear brethren, " sweet voices ;" but the frontier 
people, who knew whereof they spoke, said that he 
ought to have destroyed the Indian towns on the 
rivers, and pushed the tribes back into the far West, 
which he had in his power. 

Those who say that Dunmore was at this early day 



bidding for the assistance of the Indians as against the 
colonists, and instigating war for mercenary and unjust 
purposes, produce these facts, from which they adduce 
their reasons : While at Fort Pitt he associated with 
himself such men as Connolly the Tory, Girty the 
renegade, McKee the deserter; he failed to make the 
junction with Lewis, which was part of the plan 
agreed upon ; he had knowledge of the intended at- 
tack upon Lewis, but neither sent him word nor made 
an effort to assist him ; he drew all the honor of the 
subsequent treaty of peace between him and the con- 
federate chiefs to himself, although it was apparent 
that it was owing to the victory of Col. Lewis that 
they were compelled to accept terms, and not to any 
act of Dunmore ; that the war being but half finished, 
it did not gain anything, whereas the desire of the 
fighting men was to destroy the Indian villages, and 
to leave them not a harboring-place in Eastern Ohio ; 
from the subsequent defection of his chief and most 
intimate associates, as well as of himself, and the al- 
liance of the Indian tribes with Britain in the war 
which he helped to effect with the colonies; from the 
action of Connolly in the year following, 177") ; from 
the known attitude of the colonies and of England, 
one towards the other; for many instances cited in 
which Connolly tried to make the Indians believe 
that the Pennsylvania colonists were their enemies, 
and in which he appositely encouraged the whites and 
the Indians, regardless of consequences, to be in covert 
war against each other. 

It was late in the fall before those settlers who re- 
mained in Westmoreland knew they were saved from 
an Indian war. But their situation was truly pitiable. 
No sooner had Connolly returned than he continued 
his tyrannical acts with the magistrates and the people. 
So unbearable had he become that some of the ad- 
herents of Penn about Pittsburgh thought of leaving 
that place and settling at Kittanning. In November 
a number of armed men, under Connolly's orders, 
seized a Mr. Scott, acting under authority of Penn, 
and carried him to Brownsville, where he was required 
to enter bail for his appearance at the next court to 
be holden at Pittsburgh for Augusta County. In 
November another party of armed men, under Con- 
nolly, went to Hannastown, and breaking open the 
jail, released two prisoners confined under sentence 
of execution ; and in February of 1775 a third party 
went to Hannastown, again broke open the jail, and 
released three prisoners. Connolly was not in com- 
mand of this last, party, for a few days before he had 
started for Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia ; but 
it was under command of Benjamin Harrison, a son- 
in-law of William Crawford. 

There was by this time a distinctive line drawn be- 
tween the jurisdiction and the claims of the two col- 
onies, and each of these had its adherents. Many of 
the most prominent had not given up the hope tli:it 
the disturbances would be settled without difficulty, 
attributing that the most of the present troubles came 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



from some hot-headed and rash men. But in the 
state of affairs getting still more complicated, and 
which had called demands from the Council of the 
king, and advices from the ContinentaHCongress, it 
was not unreasonable that men of high character in 
every respect should be held by the ties which bound 
them under every consideration to their own colony. 
We are, therefore, not surprised to know that as stren- 
uously as Perm's settlers and his agents advocated 
their rights and his claims, so as strenuously on the 
other side and as naturally did such men asCrawford 
and Gibson_jtake the side of Virginia. In~Tannary of 
1775 the Executive Council of Pennsylvania having 
had information that William Crawford, the president 
judge of Westmoreland, sided with the Virginians in 
opposing the justices of Pennsylvania, the Council 
advised the Governor to supersede him in the office 
of judge, which was done forthwith. 

But of the troubles of the settlers during the fall 
and winter of 1774 and 1775 these were of the least. 
During the preceding summer the crops had been 
neglected, and winter found them unprepared. At 
the termination of Dunmore's war a goodly number, 
as was always the case on the frontier, had returned 
to their former homes, and this accession of inhabit- 
ants, who were consumers and not producers, had a 
distressful effect. They could not have come in a 
worse time, for the amount of provisions gathered was 
barely sufficient for those that had remained. The 
harvest of 1774 at best had been scanty ; along the 
southern border it had not been gathered at all. This 
season came very near to what the preceding year 
had been to Western Virginia, a year which in their 
annals was long remembered as the "starving year." 
But with that generosity which was a noble and a 
prominent trait among the early settlers, each assisted 
the other. During this winter many must have per- 
ished had they not resorted to hunting, and got from 
the woods enough game to keep them from want. 
Their small supply of corn, rye, and potatoes they 
divided among each other. And this was but the 
prelude to a long era of want and privation, necessity, 
and constant alarm, which was terminated only with 
the war which secured the independence of the colo- 
nies. 

Readers of general history are well conversant with 
the affairs which were taking place in Massachusetts 
and at Philadelphia in the early part of 1775. We 
will pass them over with observing that they were 
sympathetically responded to and closely watched by 
our colonists. Already were some, by more ways 
than one, controlling the actions of all. 

From notice of foregoing statements it will be ob- 
served that the whole people, as a body, at these early 
times may readily be separated into two classes, be- 
tween which was a prominent line of demarkation. 
Although we alluded incidentally to this distinction 
before, at no other time is it more suitable to recall 
it than now. And this distinction is noticeable all 



through our early affairs, and indeed is noticeable at 
all times and among all people. We may call them 
respectively, aristocrats and plebeians, gentry and 
commonalty ; they are, in reality, the leaders and the 
followers. The class of which the county justices were 
the most prominent representatives, together with 
others who, in a military station, were equally promi- 
nent, deserves more than a passing notice. These were 
the ones who shaped the measures which received the 
approval of the people. As to these justices, we can at 
almost all times bear testimony to their integrity, and 
to their good, sound common sense. They reflect honor 
upon their lineage in the capacity of judges, the 
arbiters of right and wrong. But besides this knowl- 
edge, which it is certain they possessed, an accompa- 
nying and an indispensable qualification for a promi- 
nent man was that he have some knowledge of arms. 
Nearly every man of that day distinguished as a 
leader in civil affairs was also a military man. 
Indeed, from the incessant wars, to be a man dis- 
tinguished above the others was to be one who com- 
manded the respect of his followers by having dis- 
played more than ordinary bravery or knowledge of 
warfare. Of this class of men St. Clair, Capt. James 
Smith, ('apt. Proctor, Col. Lochry were fitting ex- 
amples with us; while of those at Pittsburgh, Cols. 
Crawford, John Neville, John Gibson may be no- 
ticed. To have acquired a seat in the Assembly, or 
a nomination as a justice of the peace, 'or of the 
quorum, was about as much as to say that the one 
so specially favored was, or had been, a leader in the 
militia. 

The military organization of the Province had been 
early attended to, and no less from necessity was it 
than from a desire of glory that every citizen had a 
tincture of the manual of arms and of camp disci- 
pline. The justices of the peace were usually officers 
in the militia. St. Clair, Smith, Crawford, Neville 
had won a sort of pre-eminence in service before they 
were recognized as leaders in the civil affairs. The 
ideas of these men at the head of our county at this 
conjuncture had been enlarged by connection with 
the more prominent men of the colonies, had been 
improved by observation, by travel, by reading, and 
by experience. So they were in manners, in informa- 
tion, in the possession of peculiar privileges and fran- 
chises bestowed by the colonial authorities, far above 
the great body of the people who came hither to earn 
their bread by drudgery, and clear a patch and rear a 
thatched cabin to shelter the heads of their ragged 
offspring ; for these people, as a class, were poor to 
impoverishment. They had made little advancement 
in refinement, they were of different and distinct 
nationalities. Of all the early settlers they had no 
special claim above the others to the boasted liberty 
of those born under the common law of England. 
But it is with a peculiar satisfaction that the West- 
morelander of to-day contemplates the proceedings 
of his ancestors in 1775. 



WESTMORELAND'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1775. 



73 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WESTMORELAND'S DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE, 1775. 

Congress and Ticonderoga — Westmoreland listening to tlie Guns at 
Lexington Common — Meeting held at Pittsburgh and ;it Hannastown, 
Ha] [0, 1775— What they said at Pittsburgh— What they did at Han- 
na-towu — Westmoreland's Declaration of Independence— Spirit of the 
Resolutions Adopted — who wrote tlieni — Similarity between the 
Declaration and the Resolutions in Expression and in Sentiment— The 
military idea of Resistance — Observations and Remarks ou t lie Paper 
— Westmoreland's Great Glory — The Regiment of Associatois. 

What occurred in Massachusetts after the passage 
of the bill by Parliament which closed Boston Har- 
bor, when Gen. Gage was reinforced by British sol- 
diers, and when minute-men were enlisting in every 
village, are matters of general notoriety. On the 
19th of April, 1775, the men at Lexington Common 
laid bare their breasts to the bayonets of the soldiers 
of Great Britain, the representatives of an empire 
upon which the sun never went down. The cracking 
of the rifles of those yeomen " was heard the world 
around.'' When it echoed through these woods it 
reached the ears of a people who had been suffering 
under an indirect British oppression, and who were 
ready to fly to arms for a principle which they recog- 
nized as dear to them as their very existence, and for 
which they were as ready to battle as for their hearths. 
A thrill of sympathy went indeed through all the 
English-speaking people when this act was witnessed ; 
for there were many who, to the last moment, could 
not believe that actual war was imminent, and trusted 
that the differences between the mother and her off- 
spring would be satisfactorily adjusted without the 
intervention of anus. Now it was too late for either 
to retract or recede from their position without sacri- 
ficing on the one side their pretensions, on the other 
side their demands. 

Then the people spoke. On the same day on which 
Congress met from adjournment, May the 10th, 1775, 
Col. Ethan Allen demanded the surrender of Ticon- 
deroga. The organized committee had by this time 
extended from the North to the South. Virginia, as 
well as Massachusetts, was a unit in the cause of the 
colonies. The spirit of freedom extended to here and 
to the most remote colonies in the West. From the 
exertions of those men, who lost for a while all local 
prejudices and forgot all personal interests, the Wot, 
almost unanimously, was carried for the cause of 
liberty. 

We have not, at this day, the means of knowing 
who were the leaders of the others in Western Penn- 
sylvania, and especially in Westmoreland, in shaping 
the course which the others with so much honor fol- 
lowed ; but the facts as they are preserved in history 
it is our pleasure to rehearse. Of the local move- 
ments in the early part of 1775 we can give no par- 
ticulars in detail; their whisperings were lost in the 
great storm which suddenly broke over the land. To 
us it would be a great satisfaction to know how the 



news was carried down the slim cartway of the old 
Forbes trail ; how the rider, forwarded, maybe, by 
the committee at Philadelphia, dashed up the hill at 
the stockade at Ligonier, and stopped at the door of 
Capt. St. Clair to deliver his packet ; how the word 
was received by the settlers at Hanna's; how neigh- 
bor ran to tell neighbor the greatest news of his life. 
Of this we know nothing, but we know that so speed- 
ily flew the news, and so spontaneous was the emo- 
tions of surprise and of fear which it awoke in the 
hearts of the Westmorelanders, that on the 10th of 
May, four weeks after the skirmish at Lexington, a 
meeting was held at Hannastown, and on the same 
day one at Pittsburgh, in which our inhabitants par- 
ticipated. In these they gave expressions to their 
views, and in many respects the meeting held at 
Hannastown was the noblest ever, to our time, held 
in Westmoreland or in the West. 

The resolutions adopted at Hannastown on the 
16th of May, 1775, are perhaps better displayed, as 
all superior excellencies are displayed, by compari- 
son. 

The meeting at Pittsburgh may be thus summar- 
ized. The inhabitants of the western part of Augusta 
County 1 meeting together, chose a committee, which 
committee met and resolved that seven so chosen, or 
any four of them, should be a standing committee, 
vested with all the powers of the corresponding com- 
mittees which had been appointed in nearly all the 
counties, and after resolving, — 

First, That the thanks of the committee were due to their represen- 
tatives in the Col I Council, which sat at Richmond. 

Second, That the committee, having a high sense nt honor in the be- 
havior of their brethren of New England, 

they therefore cordially approved of their opposing 
the invaders of American liberty, and urged upon 
each one to encourage his neighbor to follow their 
example. And then taking into consideration the 
dangers which threatened America by the attack on 
Massachusetts, and the dangers which threatened 
themselves by the action of the loyalists in stirring 
up the Iudians against them, they resolved, — 

Third, That the recommendation of the Richmond Convention rela- 
tive tn embodying the militia he complied with, and that the recom- 
mendation to raise enough money to purchase ammunition be carried 
into effect. 

Then following in a noble appeal to the inhabit- 
ants, in the name of God and of everything sacred, 
to use their utmost to assist in levying the sum, and 
looking to their personal security, they resolved, — 

Fourth, An Approval of a resolution of the committee in the other 
part of the county relative to cultivating friendship with the Iudians, 

Then it was ordered that the committee secure such 
arms and ammunition as they could, and deliver them 
to the militia officers; aud resolved, — 

Fifth. That a sum definite be raised by subscription for the use of the 
deputies sent from the colonies to the General Congress. 

l Representing themselves to be within the jurisdiction of Virginia. 



74 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The meeting concluded by a report of the select 
committee, which was embodied in the form of a cir- 
cular letter to the other delegates in the Colonial 
Congress, which statement sets forth only local griev- 
ances and local desires, and by an order to have the 
proceedings certified and published in the Virginia 
Gazette. 

On the same day, in the shade of the old forest- 
trees at Hannastown, met the backswoodsmen of 
Westmoreland. There, without any pretensions, but 
in modesty and with firmness, they subscribed unani- 
mously to a series of resolutions, the substance of 
which had been written in King John's great charter, 
and which was subsequently embodied in Jefferson's 
Declaration of Independence. The record of this 
meeting, preserved in the second volume of the fourth 
series of American Archives, sets forth in substance 
what follows: 

At a general meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland, held at 

Hannastown on the lfith of May, 1775, for taking into oonsideral the 

very alarming state of the country occasioned by the dispute with Great 
Britain, it « as unanimously resolved that the Parliament by several nets 
had declared the inhabitants of Massachusetts to be in rebellion, ami 
l\ endeavoring to enforce those acts the ministry had attempted to re- 
duce the inhabitants to a more wretched state of slavery than existed, 
or had ever existed, in any State or country. That not content with 
Violating their constitutional ami chartered privileges, they would strip 
them of the rights of humanity by exposing their lives to the wanton 
sport of a licentious soldiery, ami by depriving them of the very means 
of subsistence. That as there was no reason to doubt but the s me 53 B- 
tern of tyranny ami oppression would bo extended to all parts of Amer- 
ica (provided it met with success in Massachusetts), it bad therefore 
become the indispensable duty of every American, of any man who had 
any public virtue or love for his country, or any com pa-si on for posterity, 
i,, resist and oppose by every means which God hail put in his power the 
execution of this system ; and that as for them they would he ready to 
oppose it with their lives and fortunes. And the Letter to enable them 

toacc plish this they agreed to immediately form themselves into a 

military body, to consist oi companies to be made up out of the several 
townships, uiidoi an association declared to be the Association of West- 
moreland l ouuty. 

In words s.i noble was the preamble set forth, and 
no less happily conceived were the articles of associa- 
tion. 

They asserted that, as dutiful subjects, possessed 
with the most unshaken loyalty and fidelity to his 
kingly Majesty George the Third, whom tiny ac- 
knowledged as their lawful and rightful king, and 
whom they wished to be the beloved sovereign of a 
free and happy people throughout the whole British 
empire, they did not by this association mean to de- 
viate front that loyalty which it was their duty to 
observe ; but, animated with a love of liberty, it was 
no less their duty to maintain and defend their just 
rights, which of late had been violated by the min- 
istry ami Parliament, and to transmit those rights to 
their posterity. And for this they agreed and asso- 
ciated to form themselves into a regiment, or regi- 
ments, and to choose officers to command them ; and 
they promised with alacrity to make themselves mas- 
ters of the manual exercise, and such evolutions as 
were necessary to enable them to act in a body with 
concert: for which end they were to meet at such 



times and places as might be appointed by the com- 
manding officers; and also agreed that, should the 
country be invaded by a foreign enemy, or should 
troops be sent from Great Britain to enforce the acts 
of Parliament, that they would cheerfully submit to 
military discipline, and would, to the utmost of their 
power, resist and oppose them, and would coincide 
with any plan which might be formed for the defense 
of America in general or Pennsylvania in particular. 
They then declared, by way of extenuation, that they 
did not desire any innovation, but only wished to see 
things go on in the same way as before the era of the 
Stamp Act, when Boston grew great and America was 
happy. In proof of which they would willingly sub- 
mit to the laws of which they had been accustomed 
to be governed before that period, and even pledged 
themselves to be ready, in either their associate or 
several capacity, to assist the civil magistrates to en- 
force the same. Finally, when the British Parliament 
would repeal the obnoxious statutes, and would recede 
from their unjust claim of taxing them and of making 
laws for them iu any instance, or when some general 
plan of union and reconciliation had been formed and 
accepted by America, that then their association 
should be dissolved; but until then it should remain 
in full force; and to the observance of it they bound 
themselves by everything dear and sacred among men. 
For them there was to be no licensed murder, no 
famine introduced by law. 

The meeting ended by the passing of a resolution 
for the townships to meet on Wednesday, the twenty- 
fourth instant, to accede to the said association and 
choose their officers. 

The resolutions stand recorded without the names 
of the signers attached ; neither is there any positive 
knowledge in so many words who drew then) up. The 
signers without question were all l'cniisylvanians. As 
to the authorship, the strongest presumption — a pre- 
sumption almost capable of proof — is that St. Clair 
had the lion's share in it. The only contemporaneous 
documents to this time made public are two letters, 
both from St. Clair, written within a few days of this 
meeting. In the fust letter, dated Ligonier, May IS, 
1775, to Joseph Shippen, Jr., the fact of the meeting 
is mentioned : \ 

" Yesterday we had a County Meeting, I have come to resolution 

to nun and discipline, and have formed an Association, which I suppose, 
you will soon see in the papers. God grant an end in.iv be speedily put 
to any necessity for such proceedings. 1 doubt their utility, and am 
almost a- much afraid of success in this contest us of being van- 
quished." 1 

In a letter dated at the same place on the 25th of 
the month, when it was time some explanation should 
be given, Governor Penn read the following: 

We have nothing but musters and committees all over the country, 
and everything seems to be running into the greatest confusion. If 
some conciliating plan is not adopted by the Congress, America has seen 

1 The date, or rather the word "yesterday," which is used, was evi- 
dently a slip of the pen. See the chapter on the life and services of St. 
Clair, iu which further evidence is given on this matter. 



WESTMORELAND'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1775. 



7a 



hergolden days; they may return, but will be preceded by scenes of 
horror. An aBsociation is formed in ttiis county for defense of American 
liberty. I got ;i clause added it by which they bind themselves to assist 
the . ■ i v i 1 mugistrate in the execution of tlie laws they have been accus- 
toincd t" lie governed by." 

The idioms of the old English charters; the for- 
mulas used by the writers on the constitution and 
Statutes of England; the stereotyped expressions 
which crop out in the declaration itself; the common 
law forms; in short, the strong English in which the 
resolutions are written, as well as the fact which he 
confesses to his lord paramount, the Governor himself, 
and the fact of his presence at the meeting, all would 
indicate that St. Clair had the chiefest part in direct- 
ing the meeting and presenting the paper. In con- 
sidering St. Clair as an historical character, we arc 
too apt to regard him in his military capacity alone, 
while in truth St. Clair was one of that class of men 
conspicuous in the Revolutionary annals, who blended 
a knowledge of letters with a desire for martial fame 
and ill' active military service. Considered in its right 
place, the vigor of his mind is better-displayed in his 
political career; for he was a man of fine literary 
acquirements and of strong parts, having enjoyed the 
benefits of a collegiate education and moving in good 
and polished society from early life. 

The meeting at Hannastown is remarkable for pro- 
ducing, or at least recording, such ideas as are gener- 
ally produced only by deliberative assemblies, in which 
much argument is exhausted, and in which extensive 
experience and research are brought to bear. The 
resolutions adopted by masses of people collected to 
gether through excitement have, usually, nothing of 
stability in them. Such meetings have universally 
been held up to ridicule, and utterances emanating 
from them arc seldom taken as the expressions of the 
people at large. Rut these resolutions are singular in 
this respect; and the meeting is one of the few re- 
corded in which cool, deliberate determination and 
wise counsel are expressed by a hastily collected 
crowd, and by men unused to legislative or parlia- 
mentary experience. 

The instrument has been called Westmoreland's 
1 declaration of Independence. But it is not a decla- 
ration in the same sense we are to regard the great 
paper adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. During 1775 
meetings were held all over the colonies, in Massa- 
chusetts and in North and South Carolina. In their 
expressions of sympathy many of these are identical, 
and they all contain expressions which could only 
come from a people determined to resist oppression. 
But in few had the idea of resistance and the theory 
of an American Union been so prominent. There 
are sentences in these resolutions and sentences in 
the Declaration which correspond, word for word, so 
that had the resolutions been written and promulgated 
after the Declaration the world would not have detected 
the sham without critically scrutinizing. But it was 
as earnest a State paper, and it as clearly defined their 



causes of complaint and showed the remedy for min- 
isterial mismanagement as any paper ever penned on 
either side of the Atlantic. Therefore we may surely 
say that of all the meetings and of all the expres- 
sions which were anywhere adopted at them none 
excelled the meeting at Hannastown, either in a plain 
statement of grievances, in the assertion of well-de- 
fined rights, or in intimating a plan by which these 
difficulties might be adjusted. 

The noblest idea, perhaps, in the whole paper is the 
idea presented in one of the resolves, which we may 
well believe was heartily as well as unanimously adop- 
ted, in which the men in their hunting-shirts, standing 
there together beyond the barrier of the mountains, 
agreed to meet death for principle. They might be 
subjugated, the country might be overrun by hireling 
soldiers, nay, the king of England might hang them, 
but while to the world they acknowledged his right- 
ful claim as their sovereign, yet they pledged their 
lives not to submit to a corrupt ministry or a venal 
Parliament that passed laws for them which the priv- 
ileges of the English constitution did not admit of. 

In the prompt manner in which the military idea 
was brought out we see the secret hand of men who 
regarded the exercise of arms as part of their legiti- 
mate business. Another fact discernible is the parity 
and the identity of interests which the colonists had 
with each other. On this patriotic ground slood the 
colonists of Pennsylvania and of Virginia. Between 
St. Clair and Crawford, Smith and Gibson, Proctor 
and Neville there were on this question no conflicting 
sentiments. 

The curiosity of the reader would be drawn to the 
association that day effected. The association of 
Westmoreland County was but an identical organ- 
ization which, under different local arrangements, ex- 
tended all over the provinces, and which was acknowl- 
edged as a loyal and patriotic representation at the 
first meeting at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. The 
regiment organized first in our own county about 
Hannastown was under command of Col. Proctor, 
and its standard, unrolled before the Declaration of 
Independence and before the colonics had a flag, has 
been preserved, and was, when the descendants of 
those men celebrated the one hundredth anniversary 
of that glorious day at Greensburg, again unfurled to 
their applause. The standard was of crimson silk, 
and had in its upper left corner the union-jack of 
Britain, and on its folds the rattlesnake with thirteen 
rattles, with the legend below, " Don't tread on me." 
In a half-circle above were the letters " J. P. F. B. 
W.C.P.," standing for "John Proctor, First Battalion, 
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania." 1 By Col. Proc- 
tor it was presented to Gen. Craig, and in his family 
it has been treasured, along with the sword which the 
general carried through the Revolution, as a sacred 
heirloom. 



1 Tliis reminds one of the "S. P. Q. It." on the standards of the Prtc- 
toiian Guards, 



76 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The regiment did not serve in the Continental ar- 
mies under that organization, but most of those who 
had been active in forming it served in various ca- 
pacities, and the associators becoming a regular mili- 
tia organization by act of the General Assembly, 
many of the officers were retained, and promotion 
within its ranks was regular. Some of the men, how- 
ever, enrolled that day lived through that long war to 
tell their battles o'er again, and some died heroically 
on the fields, on the retreat through Jersey, at Brandy- 
wine, and with Greene in the South. As for those men 
who signed the Great Paper, at the last they were scat- 
tered all over America. Most of them were free- 
holders, some were not; but as for all, they had no 
nationality but the brotherhood of man, no inherit- 
ance but the love of liberty, and nothing in common 
but the traditions of freedom. So in death they had 
mi burial-place in common, unless it was the common 
earth, and on Decoration Day the little children with 
garlands and miniature flags do not know where they 
lie in the old graveyards. Their grassy mounds are 
scattered over the hills and valleys of Westmoreland, 
along the Ohio and the Delaware. 

Some have tried to throw a doubt upon the original- 
ity of these resolutions, asserting, without proof, they 
were plagiarized. Could these make out a claim as to 
the insignificance of the characters who wrote and 
signed them, such position might be met with the ob- 
servation of a writer of great authority, and one of the 
closest observers of the characteristics of men. For 
the great Plutarch, entering upon the life of Demos- 
thenes, pays a noble tribute to virtue and to the nat- 
ural ability of man. He ridicules the notion that only 
great men have been born and bred in large cities 
and in famous places, mid. declares that virtue, like 
a strong and hardy plant, will take root in any place 
where it can find an ingenuous nature and a mind that 
lias no aversion to virtue and discipline. Therefore, 
if our sentiments or conduct fall short of the point 
they ought to reach, we must not impute it to the ob- 
scurity of the place where we were born, but to our 
little selves. Thus common sense, no less than phi- 
losophy, tells us that the woods of America, us Locke 
puts it,' produce men who, in parts and in natural abil- 
ities, an- the equals of men born in the capitals of 
Europe. 2 

1 " Essay on the Unman Understanding." 

- For the text ut these resolutions, see Appendix B. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Public Affairs — Connolly and Dunmore etill Scheming: — Connolly tries 
to carry the Pennsylvania ami Virginia Officers for the King — His 
Plan to effect this, and to hold the West for Dnnmore — "Exeunt Omnaa 
— Boston Harbor closed — Call for a Sleeting at the State-House, July 
1."., 1774— Ilanna and Cavett as Deputies— William Thompson on the 
Committee of Safety — The Associators— Edward Cook andjames Perry 
Delegates to the Convention of 1776— Spei ial Law allowing West- 
moreland Electors to vote for Members "1" the Convention — The 
County divided into Two Districts for this Election — One District 
North and one South of the Youghiogheny— Their Election Officers 
— Members returned to the Convention of 1776 — All Male Inhabitants 
subject lo Military Service, and required to take the Oath of Allegi 
mice — Frame of Government for the State adopted — John Proctor 
elected first Councilor — Archibald Lochry, the first County Lieu- 
tenant, succeeded hy Cook and liy Col. Campbell — Duties of the County 
Lieutenant — The West to take care of Itself— British Influence over 
the Indians— Hatred between the Indiana and the Western Virginia 
Settlers. 

During 1775 events followed each other with 
rapidity. In June the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought, which separated forever the colonies from 
the government of England. Tut the loyalists were 
everywhere and in every manner actively engaged in 
stirring up dissension amongst the colonists to carry 
with them the interests of the king. 

From Withers' "Chronicles" we have the statement 
that in July of 1775, Connolly presented himself to 
Dnnmore with proposals of a character to be heartily 
indorsed by the Governor. Dunmore acquiesced in 
Connolly's plan, and, as it, was in his power, offered 
solid bribes to such officers in the Virginia militia as 
were loyally inclined, and upon whom he thought lie 
could depend. These were to co-operate with Con- 
nolly. Connolly's influence further among the Indians 
was known to be powerful. The agent went to I len. 
Gage at Boston, and disclosed to him the plans fixed 
upon between himself and the Governor, lie was then 
made colonel of a proposed regiment to be raised on 
the borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Those 
belonging to it were to be mustered in in the interest 
of the crown. The plan itself was that these were to 
proceed to Detroit, then held as a British military 
post, where they would be supplied and equipped. 
Then with the co-operation of the Indians, all under 
command of Connolly, they were to rendezvous at 
Fort Pitt. From Fort Pitt he was to march through 
Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, and form a junc- 
tion with Dunmore in the April following, 1776. 

Such was the scheme, but it was frustrated by the 
taking of Connolly and by the subsequent withdrawal 
of Dunmore. Connolly was arrested in the latter 
part of November, 1775, at Fredericktown, Md. He 
was kept in confinement, and by an order of Congress 
sent to Philadelphia for security. When nothing 
more could be apprehended front his mischievous 
actions he was released. He retired to Canada, where 
he lived on the bounty of the English government, 
and there it is said he died. But it must not be 



CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION. 



omitted that towards the end of the Revolution he 
made another effort to get the Virginia officers in the 
West to resign from the colonial and Continental 
service and raise the standard of a second revolt. 
Among others, he tried, with many offers, to prevail 
upon Col. John Gibson. A doubt was at one time 
thrown upon the patriotism of Gibson, but this 
doubt has long since been entirely dispelled. 

Among those who did remain loyal to the British, 
and became traitors not only to their country but to 
their race, were Girty, McKee, and Matthew Elliot. 
These were mixed up in Connolly's plan, and some 
time subsequent to this, being apprehended as ene- 
mies, were kept in confinement at Fort Pitt, from 
which they made their escape, and ever after re- 
mained in open hostility against the colonists. 

Connolly and Dunmore were carried away in that 
wind which blew over the country in 1775. Glad are 
we to get rid of them with but one more observation. 
As to Connolly — a man in a secondary position to 
Dunmore, as Dunmore was in a secondary position to 
the ministry — to him, it may be said, the people of 
Westmoreland and of the West owe in a great meas- 
ure their political independence. He was to the 
people west of the Alleghenies in general, and to the 
people of Westmoreland in particular, what Gage 
was to the people of Boston. There is no question- 
ing the influence which he left in these parts derog- 
atoiy to the interest of his master. For years the 
names of both were detested. Perhaps had it not 
been for such men as Connolly and Dunmore, West- 
moreland would not have been so patriotic and so 
outspoken in her subsequent resolves and measures. 

While these notices refer to general history, we 
must not forget that the domestic troubles were not 
yet adjusted. The calm and patriotic men who then 
passed to the head of affairs in Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, and whom to name without eulogy is honor 
enough, regarded these frequent collisions as un- 
worthy the citizens of two great commonwealths. 
The noise had reached the Continental Congress, and 
had attracted its notice. On July 25th the delegates, 
among whom were Jefferson, Henry, and Franklin, 
united in a circular urging the people in this region 
to a mutual forbearance. They recommended that 
all armed men kept by either party should be dis- 
missed, and that all in confinement or on bail should 
be discharged. Although, as Craig says, the only 
armed force kept up was by the Virginian authori- 
ties, it was so worded to avoid invidiousness. But on 
the 7th of August, perhaps before the circular had 
reached the Provincial Convention of Virginia, it 
passed a resolve which directed Capt. John Neville, 
with his company of one hundred men, to take 
possession of Fort Pitt under pay of the colony. 
Neville did so, and St. Clair, in a letter to John 
Penn, expressed his apprehension. With a forbear- 
ance under this infraction which is worthy of honor- 
able mention, the Penns acquiesced. Neville occu- 
6 



pied this post not so much as a Virginian as an 
American, and under direction of the Congress kept 
it secure to the interests and the cause of the colonics 
in general. Neville commanded at Fort Pitt till 
1777, and settling there became identified with the 
future prosperity of the city of Pittsburgh, and with 
(he history of the union by his connection with the 
Whiskey Insurrection. 

The spark that kindled the flame was the Boston 
Port Bill. On the loth of May, 1774, the town of 
Boston resolved "that if the Other colonies would 
unite with them to stop all importation from (.treat 
Britain and the West Indies until that act should be 
repealed, it would prove the salvation of the colonies." 
The act was to go into effect on the 1st of June, 
and when that day came it was observed throughout 
the colonies as a fast day. While the excitement 
consequent on this measure was growing, the Com- 
mittee of Correspondence for the city of Philadelphia 
sent out a circular to the principal citizens of the dif- 
ferent counties, saying that "the Governor, declining 
to call a meeting of the Assembly, renders it necessary 
to take the sentiments of the inhabitants ; and for that 
purpose it is agreed to call a meeting of the inhabit- 
ants of the city and the counties at the State-House 
on the 15th inst., Wednesday, July, 1774." This call 
was signed by Charles Thompson, clerk of the first 
Continental Congress. On these suggestions meetings 
were held in most of the counties, and especially where 
the Scotch-Irish took the lead. Deputies were chosen 
from every district in the Province, and these as- 
sembled at Philadelphia on the day fixed. To the com- 
pany of such illustrious men as sat in that convention 
Westmoreland sent Robert Hanna and James Cavett. 
These men talked with Thomas Mifflin and Joseph 
Reed, and joined in the resolutions of that body, and in 
the instructions which were gratuitously proffered to 
their representatives in Assembly. They further sub- 
scribed to an essay which came from the scholarly pen 
of Dickinson on the abstract nature of liberty and privi- 
leges, and on the king's prerogatives, and which was 
illuminated with copious extracts from Burlamaqui, 
Montesquieu, and Blackstone. Hanna had been an 
innkeeper, and Cavett stood so high that he had been 
elected one of the first county commissioners. They 
received their latter honor by the suffrages of the 
people at a special election. They were then, without 
dispute, fully capacitated to consider of the learning 
of Queen Elizabeth's chief justice, and advise the 
deputies to the next Congress to abate from Great 
Britain a renunciation of all powers under the statute 
of the Thirty-fifth, Henry VIII., Chapter II., of in- 
ternal legislation and of the imposition of taxes. 

Congress, at its session in May, 1775, resolved to 
raise a Continental army. Washington was appointed 
to command the forces of the colonies. The quota of 
Pennsylvania was fixed at 4300 men, and the Assembly 
recommended to the commissioners of the several 
counties to provide arms and accoutrements for this 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



force. They also directed the officers of the military 
association to select a number of minute-men equal 
to the number of arms they had, to be ready to march 
in case of emergency on the shortest notice. To 
assist in carrying these measures into effect a Com- 
mittee of Safety was appointed. William Thompson, 
who had been the first person returned to the As- 
sembly at the election in 1773, was of this committee 
from Westmoreland. 

This Committee of Safety prepared articles for the 
government of the associators. Thus the associators, 
at first merely a voluntary association on the part of 
those who entered it, was by a resolution of the As- 
sembly which required all able-bodied men to belong 
to the military organization, made a compulsory 
militia. The assessors of the several townships were 
required to furnish the names of all persons of mili- 
tary age capable of bearing arms. On those who had 
not joined the associators a sum of two pounds ten 
shillings, besides the regular tax, was levied. By one 
of the articles for the government of this military 
body passed by the Assembly, if one of the associators 
called into actual service should leave a family not 
able to maintain themselves in his absence, the jus- 
tices of the peace, with the overseers of the poor, 
should make provision for their maintenance. 

Towards the close of 1775 a further demand was 
made mi the State for four battalions; and of these, 
<me was placed under command of Col. Arthur St. 
Olair. 

The Continental Congress in May, 177(1, declared 
that it was irreconcilable to reason and good con- 
rim i that the American people should take the 
oaths for the support of government under the crown 
of i treat Britain, ami that it was necessary that every 
kind of authority under the crown should be sup- 
I. A long struggle then ensued between the 
proprietary interest, represented principally by mem- 
ber of the Assembly, and their opponents, called 
Whigs. The plan of the AVhigs to call a convention 
was finally successful ; and at a conference of the 
Committees of Observation for the different counties, 
held at Carpenter's Hall on the 18th of June, 1776, 
it was resolved that it was necessary to call a Provin- 
cial Convention to form a new government in the 
interest of the people only, and to the members was 
pi'.. posed a religious test. 1 The delegates from West- 



1 Oath of Profession: 

•• I do profess in God the Fattier ami in Jesus Christ Hie Eternal Son, 
the true God, ami in the Holy Spirit one God blessed evermore, ami I do 
acknowledge the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be 
given by Divine Inspiration." 

Following is the form of the Oath of Allegiance: 

"I d.j swear (or affirm) that I renounce and refuse all allegiance to 
George the Third, King of Great Britain, his loirs nod successors ; and 
thai 1 "in I"- faithful and hear true allegiance to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania as a free nnd independent State, and that I will not at any 
time do or cause t" he done any matter or thing that will he injurious to 
the fiecdom and independence thereof, as declared by Congress; and also 
tint 1 will discover and make known to some one justice of the peace of 



moreland to this Provincial Conference were Edward 
Cook and James Perry. 

This organization, under the presidency of Mr. Mc- 
Kean, passed to the consideration of the circular and 
resolves which had called them together. They then, 
on the next day, the 29th, unanimously resolved, 
" That the resolutions of May were approved by the 
Conference; that the present government of the 
Province was not competent to the exigencies of 
affairs ; that it was necessary that a Convention of 
the Province should be called by that Conference 
for the purpose of forming a State government ; and 
that a committee should be appointed to ascertain 
the number of members of which the Convention 
should consist." Of this committee the city of 
Philadelphia was allowed two, and each county two 
also, with the exception alone of Westmoreland, 
which was allowed but one. Cook was appointed of 
this committee. 

The Conference proceeded to make such regulations 
as regarded the qualifications of the voters for the 
members to the Convention, and when they began to 
consider the resolution which made it obligatory on 
an associator that he should have paid taxes, or 
should have been assessed before he could vote, it 
was seen that under that order of things Westmore- 
land would be totally disfranchised, for Westmore- 
land had been exempted for three years from the 
payment of provincial taxes. If it were possible for 
this state of affairs to be brought around again by 
any reasonable effort on the part of the tax-payers of 
the county in this year of grace, there would, no 
doubt, be a determined effort to make it perpetual. 
This disability, however, was removed by a resolution 
allowing it to be no disqualification to the electors of 
Westmoreland. 

For the purposes of this election the whole of the 
county was divided into two election districts. The 
first division was of all that part south of the 
Youghiogheny, the inhabitants of which were to 
vote at Spark's Fort, on the river, and the other di- 
vision was of all the rest north of that line, who were 
to vote at Hannastown.- 

Each county for this convention had been allowed 
eight members. Ours was represented by James 
Barr, Edward Cook, James Smith, John Moore, John 
Carmichael, James Perry, James McClellan, and 
Christopher Lobingier. 3 On the 15th of July, 177G, 



said State all treasons or traitorous conspiracies which I now know or 
hereafter shall know to be formed against this or any of the Uuited States 
of America." 

See Appendix C. 

2 Judges, First Division. — George Wilson, John Kile, Robert Mc- 
Connell. 

Judges, Second Division. — Ban-, James John Moore, Clement Mc- 
Geary. 

; Biographical Sketclw of l In: Westmoreland Member* of the < 'onttitutional 
Convention of 1770. — James Uarr, of Westmoreland County, was born in 
km' aster County in 1749, He i emoved t<- Westmoreland County pi [or 
to its organization, ami located in Deny township. At the outset of the 
Revolution he was energetic in assisting the formation of the associated 



CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION. 7!) 



the Convention, now for the State of Pennsylvania, 
met, for on the 4th the Congress had declared the 
colonies independent States. 

The members of this Convention took the prescribed 

battalions both for general and frontier defense ; was chosen a member 
of the Convention of July 15, 177t>; served as justice of the peace sub- 
sequent thereto, and from 17S7 to 1790 whs a member of tlw General 
Assembly, in which he opposed the calling of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1790. He was, however, an associate judge of Westmoreland 
County iimler that constitution, and in Lb02 signed a remonstrance 
against the impeachment of Judge Addison, then president judge of the 
district. On the organization of Armstrong County, Judge Ban* was in 
the new county, ami was appointed one of the commissioners fur laying; 
out the town of Kittanutng, (he county-sent. He was appointed one >>f 
the first associate judges nf Armstrong County, an office which lie filled 
until his death, which occurred May 11, 1824. 

Edward Cook, of Westmoreland County, was born in 1738, <»f English 
parentage, in the Cumberland Valley, on tiie Conococheague, then in 
Lancaster, now Franklin County, Pa. In 1772 he removed to tlie '"Forks 
of Yough," between the Monnnguhela and Tough iogheDy Rivers, now 
Fayette County, and betweeu that date and 177n built a stone house, yet 
standing, wliere he lived ami died. When lie first settled in the western 
part of the State he kept a store, farmed, had a still-house, and owned 
Blaves. He was a member of the Committee of Conference which met at 
Carpenter's Hall, June is, 177<;, and of the Convention of July 1-"., 177d. 

In 1777 he was appointed by the General Assembly one of tin' ■■ mis- 

sioners from this State to meet those from the oilier States, which as- 
sembled at New Haven, Conn., Nov. 22, 1777, to regulate the prices of 
commodities. In 1781 he was in command of a battalion of rangers for 
frontier defense. He was suh-lieiiteuant of Westmoreland County, 1780 
-81, ami lieutenant .Ian. 5, 1782, which latter office he held at the time 
of the erection of Fayette County in 17S3. On Nov, 21, 17S(i, Col. Cook 
was appointed a justice, with jurisdiction including the county of Wash- 
ington, and Aug. 7, 1791, associate judge of Fayette County. II <■ w ,is ; t 
man of influence, and during the Excise troubles in 1794 was chosen 
chairman of the Mingo Creek meeting, and was largely instrumental in 
allaying the excitement, and thus virtually ending the so-called Whiwkey 
Insurrection. Col. Cook died on the 28th of November, 1803. His wife 
was Martha Crawford, of Cumberland, now Franklin County, sister of 
Col. Joeiah Crawford. She died in ls<7, Hged uiuetj -lour years, in the 
old stone house into which they moved, as she always said, in "inde- 
pendence year." Col. Cook had but oue child, James Crawford Cook, 
Who whs horn in 1772, and died in 1848, 

Janus Smith, of Westmoreland County, was horn in Cumberland, 
now Franklin County, Pa,, iu the year 17 ;7. At the age of eighteen 
(17"'.">j he was taken captive by the Indians during their marauds on tin 1 
frontiers subsequent to the defeat of Bnulilock, was adopted into one of 
their families, and accompanied them in all their wanderings until Ins 
escape in L759. He returned to the Conococheague early in 17t;o, wliere 
lie set I led at his old home. He was leader of the famous " Black BoyB" 
of 1703 ami 1769; served as a lieutenant in Bouquet's expedition against 
the Ohio Indians in 17(14. ami in 170fi went on an exploring excursion 
into Southern Kentucky. After the peace of 1708 he removed to West- 
moreland County. In 1774, during Dunniore's war, be was appointed 
captain of a ranging company, ami in 1775 major in the associated bat- 
talion of the county, He was a member of the Convention nf July 10, 
1776, and chosen to the Assembly in 1770 and again in 1777. During 
thi> latter year lie was in command of :i scouting-paity in the Jerseys, 

and in 1778 commissi 1 colonel in command on the frontiers, doing 

excellent service in frustrating the marauds of the Indians. At the 
close of the Revolution, Cul. Smith removed to Kentucky, Bottling in 
Bourbon County. In 17ss he was elected a member of the Convention 
which assembled at Danville t<> confer about a separation from the state 
of Virginia, and from that year until 1799 he represented the county 
either in Convention or Assembly. In 1810 he published two pamph- 
lets against the Shakers, — " Shakerism Developed 11 and "Shakerism De- 
tected,' 1 — and in 1812, " A Treatise on the Mode and Manner of Indian 
War," with extracts from his journal of his captivity. He died in Wash- 
ington County, Kw, in the summer Of 1*12. 

For sketch of life of John Moore, see notes to Chapter XI. 

John Curmichael, of Westmoreland County, was a native of Cumber- 
laud County, Pa., ttorn about 1751. Previous to 177") he had settled in 
what is now Franklin township, Fayette County, on the waters of Red- 
stone i 'reek, about eight miles from Col. Couk's, where he erected a 



oath, ;i copy of which is given in Note 1, \>. 78, ami be- 
sides discussing the plans ami perfecting the measures 
necessary to the adoption of tin- constitution, assumed 
the supreme authority in the State. 1 That the dele- 
gates went beyond the scope of business intrusted to 
them by the people, ami for which they had been 
couvened, was not at the time questioned, but it after- 
wards was, without avail, for the people themselves 
ratified and sanctioned what was done. The old As- 
sembly, in interest with the proprietaries, made a 
feeble remonstrance against the actions of the Conven- 
tion, but it was too late, tor the old was rung out with 
the bells swinging in the steeples on the Fourth of 
July. This body, therefore, among other matters, 
appointed a Committee of Safety to discharge the 
executive duties of the new government, approved 
of the Declaration of Independence, and appointed 
justices of the peace, who before assuming official 
functions were each required to take an oath of 
renunciation of the king's authority and of allegi- 
ance to the State, resolved that Pennsylvania was 
thenceforth a free and independent State, put forth a 
bill of rights, formed a constitution, and declared a 
plan or frame of government for the Commonwealth. 
The constitution went into effect on its adoption. Sept, 
28, 177(5. The Legislature had previously, about the 
middle of June, made provisions for the enrollment 



mill ami still-house. He was elected a member of the Convention of 
.Inly 15, 1770, and of the Assembly in 1777. He died in L7UU, leaving a 
w blow and two smis,— James ami Thomas. 

James Perry, of Westmoreland County, located at an early period on 
Monongahela River, at the mouth of Turtle Creek, ju-d above what is 
known as Fra/.er's cabin, where he took up a large tract of land. He 
was a member of the Provincial Conference held at Carpenter's Hall 
June 28, 1770, and nf the Convention of .Inly loth following. From 
March 21, 1777, to the close of the Revolution In- served ns one of the 
sub-Hcuteuauts of Westmoreland County. Of his subsequent history 
all inquiries have failed to elicit nnj information, 3ave that he removed 
either to Kentucky or Missouri :it a very early day. 

John McClelland, of WfBtmoreland County, was born in Lancastei 
County, Pa., in 17:i4. He emigrated to what is now Fayette County prior 
to 177C, aud took up a tract of land in Franklin township. Hi- was a 
member of- the Convention of July 15, 1776, ami of the General Aesem- 
i \ of L77S. He was in active service on the frontiers during the Kcv- 
olntion, ami was captain in the First Battalion of Westmoreland militia 
ai tie- close of the war. IF- figured with some prominence in the 
Whiskey Insurrection, during its closing scenes, as chairman of the 
committee appointed by the meeting at ttedstone to confer with the 
commissioners of the United stales and State of Pennsylvania. He died 
un his farm in February, 18 in. Gen. Alexander McClelland was bis am. 

Christopher Lobeugier, of Westmoreland County, the son ol Christopher 
L ibengier, a uativeof Wittenburg, Germany, was born in Lancaster, now 
Dauphin County, Pa., in the year 17 in. He removed in the spring of 1772 
to Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland County. He served on the 
Committee of Correspondence for the county, 1775-7G; and was chosen » 

member of the Convention of July 1ft, 1776; and under the constituti f 

1790 was a membei of the House of Representatives from 17;i ! to 179.J. 
He died on the 4th of July, 1798. Mr. Lobengier married, in 17G6, Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Rudolph Miiller, by wliom he had four song and rive 
daughters. She died at Stoystow n, Somerset Co., Pa., Sept. 5, 1815, aged 

seventy-one years. John, the eldes} son, was I the assoi iate judges 

of Westmoreland County, and served in the General Asscml '■ 
Israel Painter and Gen. C. P. Markle, of "Webtmoreland, are descendants 
of Christopher Lobengier. — Article* in "Pennsylvania Magazine,*' by Dr. 
Wm. 11. Egle. 

' M nutes of Provincial Conference, &c., and Pennsylvania \i bives, 
sci "i.d series, vol. iii., historical note. 



83 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



of all persons fit Cor military duty. The test oath, 
which was a general one, was a measure considered 
necessary to restrain the insolence of the Tories, a 
name applied in general t<> those who were loyally 
inclined to the old proprietaries or to the crown. By 
this enactment all wdiite male inhabitants of the 
State above the age of eighteen years, except of the 
counties of Bedford and Westmoreland, should, be- 
fore the first day of the ensuing July, 1777, and in 
the excepted counties before the first day of August, 
take and subscribe to, before some justice of the 
peace, the prescribed form of oath. On all wdio ne- 
glected or refused to take the oath severe penalties 
were imposed by law. Nearly all wdio took a promi- 
nent patt in the Revolution subscribed to this oath. 
These subscriptions are not at present accessible. 
We have inserted all the nanus we have yet found 1 
in the Appendix (which see). The religious test was 
dispensed with at the adoption of the constitution 
of 17'.io. 

By the plan or frame of government adopted for the 
Commonwealth by the Convention of 1776, 2 the su- 
preme executive power was vested in a President and 
( Jouncil, and the Council was to consist of twelve men, 
distributed over the State, of which Westmoreland 
was allowed one, to be chosen by election. John 
Proctor, wdio had been appointed by the proprietary 
the first sheriff in 177M, was elected the first councilor, 
and as such continued from March 10, 1777, to Nov. 
18, 1777 ; he was succeeded by Thomas Scott, who 
was settled in the region afterward incorporated into 
Washington, and whose name frequently appears in 
the history of that county, he being their first mem- 
ber of Congress under the Federal Constitution. 
Scott was councilor from the time when Proctor 
ceased to be one to Nov. 13, 1780, a period of three 
years, and the time limited for any one to remain in 
office continuously." 

Under the new state the military affairs were care- 
fully attended to and made more efficient. To facili- 
tate the system, and to give even to civil affairs a 
martial aspect, several offices were created, the hold- 
ers of which | ossessed extensive powers delegated to 
them. The chief of these was that of county lieuten- 
ant. This officer was the chief military officer in the 
county, and he had both civil and military duties. 
He distributed arms and clothing among the assoeia- 
tors, the Council drew upon him for the amount of the 
assessments for the army, he could order the militia to 
any point in time of danger, he could hold courts- 
martial ; his authority, indeed, in these matters was 
bounded only by the Council itself, or was in abey- 
ance whilst a regular officer in the Slate or Continen- 
tal service was in command over his district. Archi- 

1 Forformof oath see Notel,page78; for list of subscribers see ap- 
pendix to Chapter XVII,, " A." 

-• Conveutli.nsat from July 15, 1776, t.i Sept. 28, ITTr.. 
iii let of councilors and other early officers, including officers of 
rii court, etc., see Appendix "D." 



bald Lochry, one of the Scotch-Irish settlers, and a 
neighbor when at home of John Proctor, was the 
first county lieutenant, coming to office March 21, 
1777. His time of office was most critical and trying 
to the fullest, and although he necessarily got into 
some altercations with officers wdio wanted to divide 
their authority, yet he showed great energy in watch- 
ing and holding the frontiers during those perilous 
years from 1777 to 1781. That he was a responsible 
man, and that the officers of the government and the 
people had confidence in him, is apparent from this, 
that he remained in office till his death. He not 
only directed many small expeditions into the coun- 
try of the Indians towards the north, but himself 
headed many others, and in the outskirts beyond the 
settlements they guarded the cabins of the settlers 
behind. He left his bones, with other of his comrades, 
at the Miami River in Indiana, where he, leading his 
Westmorelanders to join Clark, was surrounded by 
innumerable warriors and killed. 

Edward Cook was Loehry's successor, and he was 
in office Jan. 5, 17S2; he held part of the time under 
a special commission, and did not remain in office 
long, for he was identified with Fayette and Wash- 
ington, the latter by this time erected. Cook, how- 
ever, enjoyed the favor of holding commissions in 
both, and ex officio a justice of the peace in all at the 
same time. Cook's successor was Col. Charles Camp- 
bell, an active military man, and wdio was a repre- 
sentative man and a mouth-piece somewhat later. 
He was often heard from during the troublous times 
of 1791 and 1702. He was an early settler in Indiana 
County when it was of Armstrong township, West- 
moreland. He lived at Black Lick. He in his day 
did well, serving his country and generation with 
watchfulness. Some local information can be gath- 
ered from his correspondence, and if a person should 
see a few of his letters in print he could readily find 
their fellows, for he spelled as an old Indian-fighter 
would spell, began every second word with a big 
letter, and after telling the true state of the " froon- 
tiers," signed, with the conventional urbanity of the 
old time, " With The Greatest Hon'r. Your Most Obt. 
Hbl. Svt, &c." 

At the same time the office of sub-lieutenant was 
created, hut the office being deemed not necessary was 
soon after abolished. 

Pennsylvania was thus fully committed to the cause 
of the colonies. With them all it now was to do or 
die; it was either the crown or the halter. Hence- 
forth during all this eventful era all history of a local 
character is more or less connected with the history 
of the confederated government. Nor can our nar- 
rative dining this time be given with any degree of pre- 
cision or connection. Natural barriers separated the 
East from the West. The Atlantic seaboard furnished 
the armies then in actual service, although recruits 
from the west of the mountains were in the early ['art, 
of the war forwarded to protect the larger cities from 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



,-1 



the invaders, but thenceforward to a great extent the 
West was left to take care of itself. Early in the war 
the British had made a department, with headquarters 
at Detroit. They had still retained their ascendency 
over the Indians, an ascendency which had been 
secured by the most influential man ever employed 
to effect alliances with them, Sir William Johnson. 
This influence was yet kept up by the profuse use of 
money, the distribution of arms and necessaries to 
the tribes, by the standing reward for scalps, and the 
influence of renegade whites who remained loyal to 
the kingly government, and who did not take part 
with the cause of the colonies. But even had the 
same influence been exercised by the Continental 
Congress it would not have had the same results. 
The American settler had been brought up from his 
childhood, or at least from early manhood, to regard 
the Indian as his greatest foe. Nor would an alliance 
with these have been acceptable to many, even had 
such an alliance been effected, such were the feel- 
ings of hatred indulged by most of the Western set- 
tlers, although it was not wise, nor politic, nor con- 
sistent with the pretensions and the motives of the 
general government in them to harbor such feelings. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 

Fii-st Battalion directed to be raised in Pennsylvania for the United Colo- 
nies — Capt. John Nelson's Company from Westmoreland — Ordered to 
Canada — Services of this Company — Second Pennsylvania Battalion 
under St. Clair — dipt. Willinin Butler's Company, and Capt. Stephen 
Bayard's Company — History of (he Services of this Battalion in t!ie 
Expedition into Canada, and in the Retreat to Ticonderoga — The Third 
Pennsylvania Regiment formed out of Saint (lair's Battalion— Memo- 
rial of the Officers of the Third and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments- 
Sketch of Capt. James Chrystie, and of Thomas Butler— Pennsylvania 
Rifle Regiment — Its History — Capt. Joseph Erwin's Company — Their 
Gallant Services at Long Island — The Company Incorporated into other 

Commands — State Regiment of Foot — (apt. Carnalian — ('apt. Soitt's 
Company — The Second Pennsylvania Regiment— Condition of the 
Westetn Frontiers at the Beginning of the Revolution — George Mor- 
gan. Indian Agent at Fort Pitt— Eighth Pennsylvania Regi nt 

raised by Authority of Congress— Directed to he raised in Westmore- 
land and Bedford Counties — Seven Companies raised in Westmoreland 
— Its Officers— Mustered into Service for the Defense of the Frontiers 
—They receive Orders from the Board of War to join Washington- 
Letter from Col. Mackay to President of the Board — Letter from 
Lieut. -Col. George Wilson to Col. .lames Wihon — They set out for New- 
Jersey— Their Terrible March— Their Condition on their Arrival at 
Headquarters — Hon. T. Pickering's Mention of their Distressful Con- 
dition—Change in the Officers of the Regiment — Return of June, 
1777— Different Returns of 1777— Engagements of the Regiment— 
Their Losses and Casualties — Valley Forge — Regiment ordered to 
Pittsburgh in 1778 — Col. Brodhead, With the Regiment, makes a de- 
tour up the West Branch — Remains of the Regiment Btatiuned at 
Pittsburgh — Extracts from the Order-Book of the Regiment — Mor- 
gan's Rifle Regiment — Character ami Object of the Organization — Its 
Officers — Their Services at Saratoga— Col. Richard Butler second in 
command — Capt. Van Swearingen— First Lieut. Basil Prattler- — Second 
Lieut. John Hanlin — Anecdote of Van Swearingen — His Subsequent 
Career — Stony Point — Its Position and Importance— Washington de- 
termines to Capture it if possible — Confers with Gen. Wayne — Col- 
Richard Butler commands one of the Detachments who are detailed 
for this Service — They carry the Fort at the Point of the Bayonet — 



Arthur St. ('lair's first Services in the Revolution — Biographical 
. Sketches ill ('"I. .F.noas Mackay— Of Col. Stephen Bayard— Of Lienl - 
('..I. G.-orge Wilson— Of Col. Daniel Brodhead— The Fighting Bullets : 
Thomas, Si*., Richard, William, Thomas, Jr., Percival— Othei Mem- 
bers of the Butler Family— Anec"" l --s—( 'ol. James Smith— Col. .film 
Gibson. 

On tlie 12th day of October, 177-J, the Continental 
Congress passed a resolution requesting the Assembly 
or Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania to raise one 
battalion for the services of the United Colonies, mi 
the same terms as those which had been ordered to be 
raised in New Jersey, and to be officered in like 
manner. 

The captains were recommended by the Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly on the 25th of October, and com- 
missioned by Congress on the 27tb. 

Capt. John Nelson, of Westmoreland County, 
having in the mean time enlisted a company of inde- 
pendent riflemen, composed for the most part of 
Westmorelanders, had offered his services to Congress. 
Congress thereupon, by a resolution dated Jan. 30, 
177<i, directs that, — 

"Capt Nelson's company of riflemen, note raised, consisting of one 
captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, ami seventy 
privates, be enlisted fur the service in Camilla, mi tin- Bams terms as the 
oilier troops ordered for that ser\ ice." 

It was ordered to New York, March 13, 1770. It 
was, by Gen. Arnold's orders, attached to Col. De 
Haas' battalion in Canada, and after Pe Haas' bat- 
talion left Ticonderoga, Nov. 17, 1770, it was attached 
to the Fourth Battalion, Col. Wayne's, and on the 
24th of March, 1777, was attached to Col. Francis 
Johnston's Fifth Pennsylvania. 

For the roll of this company see supplementary 
notes. 1 Their services in Canada will be recalled 
witlt that of the other Westmorelanders there under 
St. Clair. Some of these remained with the Fifth 
Regiment as it was organized on the Continental es- 
tablishment, when they fought under the celebrated 
Richard Butler, then colonel of the regiment, ami 
himself at that time a Westmorelander, but later, on 
the division of the county, a citizen of Fayette. Col. 
Butler was in command, under Wayne, in the cam- 
paign in the South, in the closing days of the war. 
They were engaged at Brandywine, Germantown, 
Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. 

SECOND PENNSYLVANIA BATTALION. 

The Second Pennsylvania Battalion was raised upon 
the authority of a resolution of Congress, dated 9th of 
December, 1775, which resolved " that an order issue 
for raising four battalions more in the colony of Penn- 
sylvania, on the same terms as the one already raised." 
This was speedily done, and the men were enlisted for 
one year. 

As this battalion was associated with the Fourth 
Battalion, Col. Wayne, and the Sixth, Col. William 
Irvine, while in active service, its history mingles 
with that of theirs. 

1 See Appendix " E." 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



On the 2d of January, 1776, the Council of Safety, 
which bad been requested by Congress to do so, 
recommended Cols. St. Clair and Wayne as field-offi- 
cers, and on the next day they were elected and com- 
missioned by Congress. The lieutenant-colonels and 
the majors were chosen on the 4th, and a resolution 
pissed that one company of each battalion consist of 
expert riflemen. 

Arthur St. Clair had been busily engaged in organ- 
izing the raw levies of Pennsylvania prior to this 
time, and elsewhere we refer to his individual services 
more at length than here. But upon the organization 
of this contingent he was ordered to take part in the 
expedition to Canada, upon the results of which so 
much was expected and eloquently predicted. 

Two companies from Westmoreland, composed of 
his friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and compatriots, 
accompanied him. One of these was under William 
Butler, his warm bosom friend, who shared with him 
lli' (oils of the Revolutionary campaign, and who 
died second in command on the disastrous field on the 
4th of November, 1791. The other company was 
commanded by Stephen Bayard, afterwards lieuten- 
ant-colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment iu 
the line, the regiment which was distinctively the 
Westmoreland regiment.* 

Of the men themselves we shall have occasion to 
say more hereafter. At present we shall touch on the 
services of the battalion, and of the subsequent organ- 
izations into which the battalion was merged. 

On the 16th of February, 1776, the Secret Com- 
mittee of Congress was directed to furnish Col. St. 
Clair's battalion with arms, and to w r rite to him to use 
t ie ni most diligence in getting his battalion ready, 
and lo march the companies as fast as they were ready, 
■ :ie at a time, to Canada. 

On the 13th of .March, Lieut.-Col. Allen of the 
battalion had arrived in New York, and embarked 
some of the companies for Albany. He here received 
an order from Gen. Stirling to direct the rest of the 
companies to proceed to New York, where quarters 
would be found for them. 

< >n the 6th of May, Lieut.-Col. Allen, with the 
S icond, had passed Deschambault, in Canada, and 
was within three miles of Quebec, where he met Gen. 
Thomas with the army retreating from Quebec. 

The expedition into Canada was a failure. After 
one of the most daring and energetic marches through 
the wilderness and into the very heart of the civil- 
ized portion of that province, and after the capture 
of their city and citadel, the inhabitants proved recre- 
ant, failed to rise up, as had been anticipated, and 
declare their independence of the British crown, and 
instead of turning upon the British troops they turned 
upon the Americans, whom they treated as invaders. 

Under this state of affairs the Americans could not 
hold what they had captured. The army of the col- 



1 See Appendix " F" and "G." 



onies, then in Canada, had begun their retreat towards 
the River Sorel. On the 15th of May, 1776, Thomas, 
the commander of the expedition now after the death of 
the young Montgomery, arrived at Three Rivers I Trois 
Rivieres). Here he bad about eight hundred men. 
He left the command here to Col. Maxwell, and con- 
tinued on to the Sorel. The River Sorel flows from 
Lake Champlain, in New York, to the St. Lawrence, 
in Canada. From his position here he issued an 
order to Maxwell to abandon Three Rivers. This 
Maxwell did, and with the rear of his army reached 
the line of the Sorel on the 24th of May, 1776. 

Col. Thompson and Col. St. Clair crossed over from 
Chambly to Montreal, and left the latter place for the 
Sorel on the 16th. On the 24th, Gen. Thompson was 
in command there. 

The British were in pursuit with a largely superior 
force. On the 2d of June, Gen. Thompson sent Col. 
St. Clair from Sorel with over six hundred men to 
attack the camp of Col. McLean, who had advanced as 
far as Three Rivers with eight hundred British reg- 
ulars and Canadians. Gen. Sullivan was at Chambly 
on the 3d (Jane), and reached Sorel on the 4th. Gen. 
Thomas, the commander-in-chief, having died on the 
2d, Sullivan assumed command on the fourth day 
after his arrival. 

On the 6th, Gen. Sullivan ordered Gen. William 
Thompson to march, with Col. Irvine's and Col. 
Wayne's battalions, with the companies of Col. St. 
Clair's battalion which were then remaining at Sorel, 
and with them to join St. Clair at Nicolctte, where he 
was to take command of the whole party, and, unless 
he found the number of the enemy at Three Rivers 
to be such as would render an attack upon them haz- 
ardous, he should cross the river at the most conven- 
ient place he could find and attack them. He ad- 
vised not to attack if the prospect of success was not 
much in his favor, as a defeat of his party at the time 
might prove the total loss of that country! 

Something further wdll be said in another place of 
the brilliant and entirely successful attack on Three 
Rivers, in which St. Clair distinguished himself. 
The imminent danger, the toil, the incessant labor, 
and the glory of that affair were partaken of and 
shared by those Westmorelanders wdio followed St. 
Clair and Butler; and this night foray anil attack 
has been regarded and treated by all the historians 
who have written of the expedition to Canada as one 
of the most brilliant episodes of it. 

The British army, however, were gradually pressing 
back the invader-s. They, with an army much supe- 
rior in numbers to the Americans, composed of regu- 
lars, Canadians, and Indians, were under the command 
of Burgoyne; ours was now under Sullivan. 

When the great historical story of the Revolution 
shall have been written it will be seen that no cam- 
paign of the Seven Years' war was fuller of glory, of 
military heroism, of bravery, of instances of fortitude, 
or of hardships encountered and surpassed, and of 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



S3 



obstacles overcome, than that expedition which, after 
having taken the capital of the British provinces in the 
north, walked backwards, their faces and their bay- 
onets towards their enemies, through the winter snows, 
through the deep, dark wilderness, and through the 
marshes of Southern Canada and Northern New- 
York. 

The rear of the army, with baggage and stores, 
reached St. John'son the 18th of June (1770). They 
were embarked, and moved up the Sorel the same after- 
noon. The head of Burgoyne's column entered St. 
Johns on the evening of the 18th, and Gen. Philips' 
advance-guard on the morning of the 19th. On the 
19th, general orders at Isle Aux Noix directed the 
commands of De Haas, Wayne, St. Clair, and Irvine 
to encamp on the east side of the island. 

Isle Aux Noix proved very unhealthy. Many of 
the soldiers while there were down sick, and many 
died. On June 13th one woman from each company 
of the Pennsylvania battalions who had been left at 
Ticonderoga were drafted and immediately sent to 
the general hospital at Fort George to nurse the sick. 

On the 27th of June, at Isle La Motte, all the army 
took vessels for Crown Point, which they reached on 
the 1st of July (1776). Gen. Horatio Gates arrived 
here on the evening of the 5th, superseding Gen. 
Sullivan in command. On the 7th, at a council of 
war, it was determined to remove the army to Ticon- 
deroga. The battalions of Cols. De Haas, St. Clair, 
and Wayne arrived there on the 10th. 

The army was brigaded by Gen. Gates on the 20th, 
and the four Pennsylvania battalions were made the 
Fourth Brigade, Col. Arthur St. Clair commanding. 

On August 24th, St. Clair's battalion numbered 429 
rank and file, 161 sick, total officers and men 485. 

On the 6th of September (1776), Lieut.-Col. Hart- 
ley, who was in command at Crown Point, desired 
Gen. Gates to send him eitherGen. Wayne's battalion 
or the Second — St. Clair's — and he would defend it 
with them against any attack whatever from the 
enemy. But Gates gave him positive orders to re- 
treat if the British reached that point. 

But the season was too far advanced for the British 
to make any further progress. After threatening Ti- 
conderoga they retired into winter-quarters. 

On the 18th of November, Gen. Gates, putting 
Gen. Wayne in command of Ticonderoga, proceeded 
with the larger part of his army to join Washington. 
The three Pennsylvania battalions whose time would 
expire on the 5th day of January, 1777, agreed to 
remain until they were relieved by other troops. On 
the 29th of November the Second, commanded now 
by Col. Wood, numbered four hundred and twenty- 
six officers and men. 

On the 4th of December, Col. Wayne writes to the 
Committee of Safety : 

" The wretclied condition the battalions are now in for want of almost 
every necessary, except flour ami bad beef, is shocking to humanity, and 
beggars all description. We have neither beds or bedding for our sick 



in lay on or under other than their own clothing, no tnedii ine in i'-ui- 
iiirn suitable for them; the dead and dying lying mingled together in 
our hospital, or rather house of canmge, is no uncommon sight. They 
are objects truly worthy of your notice, us well as ol your most obedient, 
humble servant, Ant'y Wayne." 

On the 24th of January, 1777, the Second Bat- 
talion left Ticonderoga, with Gen. Wayne, for their 
homes. 

Many of the privates of the Second re enlisted in 
the Third Pennsylvania Regiment. 

While these companies were at Ticonderoga, the 
Declaration of Independence, which had been passed 
on the Fourth of July, was read to the men drawn 
up in line on the morning of the 17th. By them it- 
was received with loud cheers. Lieut.-Col. Allen, of 
the Second Battalion, left the service on account of 
the Declaration. He, however, afterwards again en- 
tered it. 

THIRD PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 

The Third Pennsylvania Regiment in the Conti- 
nental line was formed on the basis of Col. St. Clair's 
Second Battalion, in which were the two original 
companies of Capt. Butler and Capt. Bayard. 

It was recruited in December, 1776, and January 
and February, 1777, and arranged in the Continental 
service March 12, 1777. The compilers of the New 
Series of Pennsylvania Archives state that no returns 
of this regiment have been found, and, with the ex- 
ception of a few letters that incidentally relate to the 
regiment, nothing exists upon which to base an ac- 
count at length. 

The health of Col. Joseph Wood, who was in com- 
mand of the battalion, was impaired by wound.-, re- 
ceived in the Canada campaign, and this induced his 
resignation. 

After Capt. Butler accepted the position of lieuten- 
ant-colonel in Morgan's rifle regiment, the command 
of his company devolved on Capt. James Chrystie, 
who succeeded him. 

Col. Thomas Craig succeeded to the command of 
the regiment, retiring only in January, 1783. 

By the various arrangements in the Continental 
establishment, the different companies were from 
time to time transferred to other regiments, and the 
officers were given different commands. 

Most of Capt. Butler's men re-enlisted under Capt. 
James Christie into the Third Pennsylvania. We 
gather these facts from a "Memorial of the Third 
and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments," 1 dated Lan- 
caster, 3d February, 1778, and addressed to the presi- 
dent and members of the Executive Council, and 
their services may be traced up in the context. The 
paper set forth that they, the captains in their re- 
spective regiments, reported agreeably to instructions, 
and that they laid before that body the distressed 
situation of their corps for want of every article of 
clothing ; the men were barefooted, naked, and mis- 
erable beyond expression, several brave soldiers 

1 In Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 1C9. 



84 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



having nothing else than a piece of old tent to shield 
them from the inclemency of the season, and not 
more than one blanket to six or perhaps eight men. 
Very few, indeed, were in anywise fit for duty, the 
clothing of both officers and men having been lost in 
the course of the campaign, particularly twice, in 
consequence of general orders for storing them at 
Concord and at Wilmington, and their blankets lost 
in the several actions they had had with the enemy. 
These regiments, with the Sixth and Twelfth Penn- 
sylvania Regiments, were attached to a division com- 
posed chiefly of Jersey troops, under the command 
of general officers not belonging to the State, and 
these general officers were allowed to have a prefer- 
ence to soldiers from their own State. 
• We have also noticed that Capt. Samuel Miller and 
Adjt. Crawford, from the Eighth Regiment, and Col. 
Brodhead were ordered on recruiting service from 
camp at Valley Forge, Feb. 10, 1778. The stations 
for the recruiting-officers in Westmoreland were at 
Capt. Francis Moor's, Capt. James Carnahan's, and 
Lieut. Joseph Brownlee's. The recruits were ordered 
twenty dollars bounty by Congress, and one hundred 
dollars by the State, and the county furnishing the 
recruits had to furnish the money to pay them. 

The most of these men who went out at the first 
call and survived either remained in the Continental 
service till the war was over, or, coming back here 
after they were discharged from the command of Col. 
Brodhead, took part in the defense of the frontier. 
This they did by enlisting in the militia for short 
campaigns, or by joining independent companies of 
rangers for the protection of the posts. 

On the 17th of January, 1781, the Third was re- 
organized under Col. Craig, and after recruiting at 
Easton, accompanied Gen. Wayne upon the Southern 
campaign. 

Of the officers of the regiment wdiose names we are 
familiar with as Westmorelanders are Capt. James 
Chrystie, Capt. Thomas Butler, Lieut. Daniel St. 
Clair, Capt. Samuel Brady, Lieut. Ebenezer Denny, 
besides Col. Richard Butler and Lieut.-Col. Stephen 
Bayard. 

Capt. James Chrystie (sometimes the name appears 
as "Christy") was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, 
in 1750; came to Pennsylvania in 1755, and settled 
in Westmoreland before the Revolution, and there he 
died. On the discovery of Arnold's plot at West 
Point, he was detailed specially by Gen. Washington 
to visit all the posts. He served until the end of the 
war. and was said to be the oldest captain in service 
except one. He was the father of Lieut.-Col. James 
Chrystie, of the Fifteenth United States Infantry, 
who distinguished himself at Queenstown in the war 
of 1812. They were both dead in 1824. 

Capt. Thomas Butler, at the battle of Brandywine, 
received the thanks of Gen. Washington on the field 
for rallying a detachment of retreating troops. He 
was major at St. Clair's defeat, and had his leg 



broken by a ball, and it was with difficulty that his 
surviving brother, Capt. Edward Butler, got him off 
the field. In 1794 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel 
commandant to sub-legion, and in 1802, on reduction 
of the army, he was continued as colonel. He died 
Sept. 7, 1805, aged fifty-one. 

Daniel St. Clair, son of Arthur St. Clair, died in 
Mifflin County, Feb. 13, 1833. Of those others we 
shall recall them again. 

PENNSYLVANIA RIFLE REGIMENT. 

The Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment and the Penn- 
sylvania Regiment of Musketry were embodied strictly 
for the defense of the Province of Pennsylvania by 
the House of Representatives, at the suggestion of 
the Committee of Safety. 

The House acted promptly in considering the 
matter, and on the 4th of March, 1771!, appointed a 
committee to prepare an estimate of the expense of 
levying a body of one thousand five hundred men, 
victualing and paying them for one year. 

On the 5th of March, on the report of the com- 
mittee, the House resolved to levy and to take into 
pay fifteen hundred men, officers included, and that 
the men be enlisted to serve until the first day of 
January, 1778, subject to be discharged at any time 
upon the advance of a month's pjiy to each man. 

On the 6th of March they determined that one 
thousand of the levies should be riflemen, divided 
into two battalions of five hundred men each,. the 
remainder to be a battalion of musketmen. The two 
rifle battalions were to have one colonel, each bat- 
talion to consist of six companies, to be officered with 
one lieutenant-colonel, one major, six captains, eigh- 
teen lieutenants, etc., and the battalion of musket- 
men to consist of eight companies, officered by a 
colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, eight captains, 
etc. 

Samuel Miles was commissioned colonel of the rifle 
companies, and Samuel Atlee colonel of the battalion 
of musketmen. Nearly the whole of the rifle regi- 
ment was raised in about six weeks, and rendez- 
voused at Marcus Hook for service under Washing- 
ton, who then had possession of New York and Long 
Island. 

To this rifle regiment belonged the company of 
('apt. Joseph Erwin, which was raised in Westmore- 
land, and contained some of the best fighting blood 
there. This company joined the regiment at Marcus 
Hook. They were two years' men. Erwin was ap- 
pointed captain on the 9th of March, 177(1, and his 
commission, as were those of all the other officers, 
was dated on the 6th of April, 1776. 1 

The company served in this regiment until it was 
transferred to the Thirteenth Pennsylvania, from 
which it was transferred to the Second Pennsylvania, 
and was finally discharged at Valley Forge, Jan. 1, 

1 See Appendix " II." 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



85 



177S, by reason of the expiration of its term of en- 
listment. 

On the 2d of July, 177(3, the rifle regiment to which 
they belonged was ordered up to Philadelphia, and 

on the 4th one battalion, under Lieut.-Col. Brodhead, 
ordered to Bordentown, N. J., and on the 5th the 
whole regiment marched for Trenton, and from 
thence to Amboy, on the eastern shore of Jersey, 
under orders to join Gen. Mercer. This it accom- 
plished on the 16th. 

Col. Atlee's battalion arrived on the beach at Amboy 
on the 21st. Col. Miles was ordered over to New 
York on the 10th of August, and Col. Atlee on the 
11th. On the 12th they were brigaded with Grover's 
and Small wood's regiment, under the command of 
Brigadier Lord Stirling. 

On the landing of the British army on Long Is- 
land, which they did in great force and in brilliant 
martial array, Col. Miles was ordered with his rifle 
regiment to watch their motions. He took up a 
position near the village of Flatbush, where the 
Highlanders then lay, but these moving away the 
next morning after to Lord Howe's camp their place 
was supplied with the Hessians. 

On the 27th of August, 177G, was fought the battle 
of Long Island, so disastrous to the Americans. 
There Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, Von Heister, with 
the most perfectly equipped and appointed army then 
in the world, the largest British army that ever 
appeared in the field against the Americans, com- 
posed of regulars, marines, Hessians, ami sailors, ten 
to one, sometimes twenty to one, circled round, 
attacked and drove in the ragged, ill-fed Continentals 
and militia under Washington, Stirling, Putnam, 
Sullivan, and Miles. 

At one time in this engagement Col. Miles' two 
battalions of riflemen (to which belonged the West- 
morelanders under Erwin), Col. Willis' Conuuecticut, 
and a part of Col. Lutz's battalion of the Pennsyl- 
vania Flying Camp were opposed to the whole body 
of the British army, it being round them in a con- 
tracting circle, from which they fought their way back 
with loss but with untarnished glory. 1 

The bravery of the men under Brodhead is spoken 
of with pride in Col. Miles' report of that engage- 
ment, and particularly when they succeeded in push- 
ing their way across a mill-dam under a heavy fire, in 
which some were shot and others drowned, but which 
did not deter the rest from rushing on and driving 
the Hessians before them at the point of the bayonet. 

That whole battle, as it raged round the Pennsyl- 
vania militia at that point, is graphically told by Col. 
Miles in his report. He says, — 

"The main body of the enemy, muter ttie immediate command of 
Gen. Howe, lay about two miles to my left, and Gen. Grant, with another 
body of British troop*, lay about four mi lee on my right. There were 
several small bodied of Americans dispersed to my right, hot not a man 

1 Journal of Col. Samuel Miles; Penn. Arch.. 2d series, vol. i. p. 517, 
etc. 



to my left, although the main hody of the enemy lay t y left. This 

was our situation on the 2i',th of August. About one o'clock at night, 
Gen. Grant on the right and Gen. Howe on my left began their march, 
and by daylight Grant had got within a mile of our intrenchments, and 
Gen. Howe had got into the Jamaica road, about two miles ft ur 

lines. The Hessians kept their position until seven in the morning. 

As soon rs they moved the firing began at our redoubt." 
He thus closes his report : 

"Finding that the enemy had possession of the ground between us 
and our lines, an.] that it was impossible to cut our way through as a 
body, I directed t lie men to make the best of their way as vv ell as they 
could ; some few got in safe, but there were 159 taken prisonetS. I "as 

myself ent rely cut oft' from our lines, and therefore endeavored to con- 
ceal myself with a few men who would not leave me. I hoped to remain 
until night, when I intended to try to get to Hell Gate and cross the 
Sound; but about 3 o'clock in the afternoon was discovered by a party 
of Hessians and obliged to surrender. Thus ended the career of that 
day." 2 

In the action of the 27th of August the rifle regi- 
ment and musketry battalion were so broken up that 
Gen. Washington ordered the three battalions to be 
considered as a regiment under the command of 
Lieut. -Col. Brodhead, — the lieutenant-colonel of the 
rifles, — until further orders. 

On Thursday, September 19th, the three battalions 
mutinied and appeared on the parade under arms. 
After this many of them deserted in parties with 
their arms. " Their complaints were want of pay, 
want of clothes, the want of blankets, and the not 
receiving the particular species of rations; . . . a very 
great cause of desertion was owing to the loss of their 
field-officers." But of these deserters, many of whom 
subsequently returned and did good service, few if any 
were Westmorelanders. 3 

By a return dated Sept. 27, 1776, the three bat- 
talions were then in Gen. Mifflin's brigade and sta- 
tioned at Mount Washington. 

On the 5th of October the Council of Safety deter- 
mined that the three battalions should be arranged as 
follows : two were to be on the Continental establish- 
ment, and to serve during the war, the other to be 
retained in the service of the State until the 1st of 
January, 1778, unless sooner discharged. This last 
was to consist of ten companies of one hundred men 
each, officers included. This they intended ordering 
home as soon as the condition of the Continental 
army would admit of it, as they were by arrangement 
to keep twelve complete battalions in the Continental 

2 Idem. 

From Coi.. Atlke'8 Journal, Penn. Archives, N. S., vol. i., p. 51.3 : 
"I fully expected, as did my officers, that the strength of the British 

army was advancing in this quarter with intention to have taken this 

Kout to our Lines, but how L'reatly were we deceived when intelligence 
was received that the Centre, composed of the Hessians and the Right 
wing, were rapidly advancing by our Rear, and that we were nearly 
surrounded. 

" This we were soon convinced of by an exceeding heavy Fire about 
a mile in our Rear, no Troops being in that Quarter to oppose the march 
of this Grand Body of the British Armj hut Col. Miles' 2 Battalions of 
Rifle men. Col. Willis' Regt. of Connecticut, and a part of Lutz's Bat- 
talion of Peima. Flying Camp." 

See also Col Miles' Journal, Penn. Arch., N.S., pp. l-5'22. 

3 Many marked in some of the old lists as deserters were long after 
drawing pensions.— See Penn. Arch., New Series, iii. p. 197, et seq. 



86 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



service. This regiment was thereafter known as "The 
Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot." 

On the 25th of October, Capt. Erwin's company, 
which remained in the State establishment, was con- 
solidated under an arrangement then made with other 
companies, and some of the officers of that company 
were promoted and transferred to other regiments. 
Those promoted mostly went into the Continental 
establishment. But the remains of these battalions 
thus consolidated followed the fortunes of the Conti- 
nental army. They served in nearly all the battles of 
the campaign of 1777. 

STATE REGIMENT OF FOOT. 

In April, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Regiment 
of Foot, founded upon the remains of Miles' and 
Atlee's battalions as a nucleus, was supplied with 
field- and staff-officers. 

The remains of Capt. Erwin's company, under 
James Carnahan, who had been promoted captain 
from first lieutenant, was connected with this regi- 
ment until the campaign of 1777 was over and the 
army entered Valley Forge. Erwin had been pro- 
moted to a captaincy in the Ninth Pennsylvania in 
the regular line. 

We give the roll of Capt. Carnahau's company as 
it was mustered at Red Bank, May 9, 1777. ' 

Of this regiment John Bull was appointed colonel, 
Lewis Farmer lieutenant-colonel, and John Murray 
first major, on May 2, 1777. On the 2d of June, 1777, 
the regiment was stationed at Fort Mercer. 

On the 6th the Supreme Executive Council pre- 
sented a memorial to the Assembly stating that — 

'■ Aj Congress had allotted twelve regiments to be raised in Pennsyl- 
vania, ml lias called for a return of the regiments, it was their opinion 
tliat it would l»e Imprudent to put into tlie Contineutal service ami |iay 
the battalion now called 'Tlie State Battalion, 1 which lias been raised 
chiefly mil nf the remains of tlie battalions lately under the command 
of Col. Proctor, ami tlie company under tlie command of Capt. Pugh, 
raised for guarding tlie Powder Mill." 

In compliance with this memorial the Assembly, on 
the 10th of June, 1777, transferred this regiment, with 
the artillery company and regiment and company 
mentioned, to the Continental Congress. 

When Col. Bull was appointed adjutant-general of 
the State, June 17, 1777, Col. Stewart succeeded him 
in command of the regiment. 

('apt. Carnahan's company was the tenth in a re- 
turn of the regiment on the 20th of June. 

Col. Walter Stewart took command on the 6th of 
July, 1777, and commanded the regiment at Brandy- 
wine and at Germantown, where its loss was 16 killed 
and 22 wounded. 

By resolution of Congress, Nov. 12, 1777, Col. 
Stewart's regiment was to be annexed to the Penn- 
sylvania line and form the Thirteenth Regiment, 
The Thirteenth in the Continental line was under 
Col. Stewart from Nov. 12, 1777, to July 1, 1778 ; but 

1 See Appendix "I." 



it was known as early as July 6, 1777, as the Thir- 
teenth Pennsylvania Regiment. Although the regi- 
ment was incorporated into the Second Pennsylvania 
on the 3d of April, 1778, the arrangement did not go 
into effect until July 1, 1778. 

Capt. James Carnahan was then transferred to the 
Eighth Pennsylvania. 2 

As there were some Westmorelanders in ( 'apt. 
Scott's company in this regiment, we give the com- 
pany roll. 3 

THE SECOND PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 
The Second Pennsylvania Regiment was in the 
Continental service from October, 1776, to Nov. 3, 
1783. The names of those Westmorelanders who 
were of this regiment appear on its returns during 
the latter part of the war, they being transferred on 
enlisting for the war to that regiment. Most of the 
Westmorelanders who fought and fell as privates in 
the latter and closing campaigns of the war were with 
this regiment, and the list, imperfect as it is, contains 
many names familiar to the last generation, wdio 
passed their last days here. They were under Wayne 
and Greene in the South, and took part in the en- 
gagements in North and South Carolina, at Guilford 
Court-House, at Ninety-Six, and at Yorktown, There 
are no complete lists of this regiment; those which 
were in existence were destroyed by the fire at the 
city of Washington, and by the burning of the public 
buildings, when the city was captured by the British 
in 1814. 

CONGRESS AND THE WESTERN INDIANS. 

When the Revolution commenced the most appar- 
ent danger menacing our people was from the Indi- 
ans, although a perpetual menace was maintained by 
the intrigues of the British in Canada, they waiting 
for the most favorable opportunity to invade that part 
of the colony west of Laurel Hill. It was the daring 
ambition of Connolly to wrest from the colonies the 
western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In an 
effort to do so the objective-point must be Pittsburgh, 
When it was seen that the inhabitants of these parts 
were not disloyally inclined, and that the plan itself 
was impracticable, the British resorted to control the 
Indians to their advantage, at the same time calling 
to mind the deep-seated enmity between them and 
the border settlers of Virginia. The most warful 
tribes at this time occupied the river borders of Ohio, 
and the hunting-grounds and fishing-places of the 
North western Territory, having been driven thither by 
lung wars, by specious treaties, and by their natural 
instincts. 

Congress early perceived the necessity of securing 
the alliance of the tribes, or at least of effecting 
their neutrality. In April, 1776, Col. George Mor- 

2 Capt. James Carnahan was drowned in the Allegheny River, 17S6-87 ; 
bo was father of the late Dr. Carnahan, president of Princeton College. 
a See Appendix " K." 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



87 



gaii was appointed Indian agent for the Middle De- 
partment, of the United States, with headquarters 
fixed at Pittsburgh. Trouble was apprehended, and 
in the fall of 17711 a committee appointed by < 'ongress, 

and stopping there for that purpose, came to the con- 
clusion that an Indian war with the colonists was in- 
evitable, tracing the immediate causes of it to the un- 
bounded influence of the British Governor Hamilton 
over the Shawanese and Delawares. This committee 
recommended that all the militia that could bespared 
go into garrison at Fort Pitt, and that the line of forts 
long before erected by the French, and after them 
held by the English, be manned and armed. 

EIGHTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 

The Eighth Pennsylvania was thereupon raised 
under authority of a resolution of Congress, dated July 
15, 177(1, for the defense of the western frontier, to 
garrison the ports of Presque Isle, Le Bceuf, and Kit- 
tanning. It was to consist of sev en co mpanies from 
Westmoreland and one from Bedford. XTn July 3D, 
17767 the Convention of Pennsylvania, then sitting, 
having recommended for field-officers Col. vEneas 
Mackay (written McCoy), Lieut.-Col. George Wilson, 
and Maj. Richard Butler, they were elected by Con- 
gress. Congress having resolved that the committees 
of the counties in which the companies were to be 
raised should name the company officers, and they 
having named them, Congress, Sept. 14, 177*5, ac- 
cepted them, and ordered commissions. On the 23d 
of September, Congress elected David McClure chap- 
lain, and Ephraim Douglas quartermaster. Nov. 23, 
1776, Congress directed the Board of War to order the 
regiment to march with all possible expedition, by 
the nearest route, to Brunswick, N. J., or to join Gen. 
Washington wherever he might be. 

The regiment on being raised was mustered in at 
Pittsburgh, and remained on duty along the frontier 
of Pennsylvania during that summer and the early 
part of the fall. But when the American army under 
Washington, greatly diminished in numbers, prepared 
to face the large levies landed at New York from 
England, there was a wild cry to forward all troops 
that could be spared to the front. 

When the orders from the Board of War were re- 
ceived by Col. Mackay, the larger portion of the regi- 
ment was stationed at Kittanning. Under date "Kit- 
tanning, the 5th December, 1776," Col. Mackay writes 
to the President of the Board of "War: 

"Sir, — I hist night received your order from the Honorable "the Board 
of War, in consequence of which 1 have this day issued tin- necessary 
orders, ami shall march with all possible dispatch to the place directed. 

... I have ordered a general rendezvous on the 15th instant, at a 

proper place, and from thence bIi-iII proceed as ordered. As I would not 
choose that the battalion should labor under every disadvantage when 
at Brunswick, being now in need of everything, I shall be obliged to 
make Philadelphia my route in order to be supplied." 

In the day-book of the company, which subse- 
quently fell into the hands of Judge Veech, under 



date of Dec. 5, 177('>, is this entry : "This day received 
intelligence for the battalion to inarch to Amboj ." 

The crotchety Scotch-Irishman, George Wilson, 
lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, of the same date, 
writes the following to Col. James Wilson. 1 We 
preserve all the characteristics of the letter : 

"KBTANXAN, Deer. 5th, 1770. 
" Dr. Colonai.l: Last Evening we Reed Marching orders, Which I 
must say is not Disagreeable to me under y Sircumstances of y times, 
lor when I enterd into y Service I .lugded that if a neeesity appeared 
to call us Below.it would be Don, therefore it Dont comeoii me By 
Surprise; But as Both y officers and men understood they Were liaised 
for y« Defence of y e Weste.au frontiers, and their faniellys and Biibstance 
to be left in so Defenceless a situation in their abstence, seems to Give 
Seusable trouble, altho I Hope We Will Get over it, By leaving sum of 
ower trifeling Officers Behind who Pirtend to Have more Witt than 
seven men that can Itendera Reason. We ale ill Provided for a March 
at tins -easoii. But there is nothing hard under sum Sireum-lanecs. We 
Hope Provision Will be made for us Below, Blankets, Campe Klltbs, 
tents, arms, Regementals, etc., that we may not Cut a Dispisable figure, 
But may be Enabled to answer y e expectation of ower Couiitre. 

" I Have Warmley Recomended to y otlieeis to lay aside all Personnll 
Resentments at this time, for that it Would be coustmed By y« Worald 

that they made use of that Sircumstaiiec to Hide themselves under 
from y cause A y 4 conutrie, and I hope it Will have a Good Kneel at 
this time. We have ishued y Neceserey orders, and appointed y° owt 
Parties to Randezvous at Hunows Town, y loth instant, and to March 
Enieditly from there. We have Recomended it to y B Militia to Station 
One Hundred Men at this post untill further orders. 

"I Hope to have ye Plesure of Seeing y Soon, as we mean to take 
Philadelphia in ower Bout. In y e mean time, I am, With Esteem, your 
Harty Wellwisher and Hide Sort. G. Wilson." 

Up until the 5th of December, 1779, the regiment 
is styled in the receipts ''the Battalion commanded 
by Col. Eneas Mackay." In those of Dec. 5, 1776, it 
is first styled "The Eighth Battalion of Penna. 
troops in the Continental service." 

The regiment marched from Kittanning on the 6th 
of January, 1777, and entered upon that wonderful 
march across the mountains of Pennsylvania, over 
the Delaware, into New Jersey in the depth of the win- 
ter. From this they suffered more terribly than from 
any battle. Some died on their march. When they 
came to Trenton Col. Mackay died, and at Quibble- 
town, N. J., their lieutenant-colonel, Wilson, died. 
Here the men were down with fevers and putrid sore 
throat, contracted from the exposure of their terrible 
march. 2 

In the "Life of Timothy Pickering," vol. i. p. 122, 
is the following reference to the Eighth Pennsyl- 
vania : 

"March 1, 1777, Saturdat. 

" Dr. Putnam brought me a billet, of which the following is a copy : 

'"Dear Sir, — Our Cat ta lion is so unfortunate as not to have a Doctor, 

and, in my opinion, dying for want of medicine. I beg you will come 

down to-luorrow morning and visit the sick of my company, for that 

favor you shall hare sufficient satisfaction from your humble servant, 
James l'igott, Capt. of S Batt. of Pa, Ouibleb.wn, feb. 28, 1777.' 

" I desired the Dr. by all means to visit them. They were raised about 
the Ohio, and had travelled near five hundred miles, as one of the sol- 
diers who came for the Dr. informed me, for 150 miles over mountains, 
never entering a house, but building fires and encamping in the Snow, 
Considerable numbers unused to such hardships have since died. The 
Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel among the dead. The Dr. informed me 
he found them quartered in cold shattered houses," etc. 

1 Archives, Second Series, x. p. 041. 

2 See sketch of Col. iEueas Mackay, iufra. 



88 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Col. Mackay and Lieut.-Col. Wilson having died, 
under the arrangement of March 12, 1777, Daniel 
Brodhead became colonel, Richard Butler lieutenant- 
colonel, and Stephen Bayard major. 1 

When Morgan's rifle command was organized, 
Lieut.-Col. Butler was made lieutenant-colonel of it, 
and Maj. James Ross, of the First Pennsylvania 
Regiment, became lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth 
in place of Butler. 

According to a return signed by the latter June 9, 
1777, the number of men enlisted between the 9th of 
August and the 16th of December, 1776, was six hun- 
dred and thirty; enlisted since the 16th of December, 
1776, thirty-four; making a total of six hundred and 
eighty-four. The strength of the respective compa- 
nies then were: 

Rank and 

Sergts. Kile. 

Capt. David Kdgore 3 55 

I apl Samuel M Her 4 82 

('apt. Van Sweariugeu ;; 71 

Capt. .lumps Pigntt. 4 56 

Ciipt. Wendel Ourry. 4 "»4 

Capt. Andrew Maun 4 58 

Cap! Jane's Montgomery 2 hi 

Capt Michael rlnffhnele 4 70 

Onpt. Lieut. John Kuih-v 2 77 

Capt, Lieut. Basil "rather. :j 09 

From the total thirty-six were deducted as prisoners 
of war, fourteen missing, fifty-one dead, fifteen dis- 
charged, otie hundred and twenty-six deserted. Lieut. 
Matthew Jack, absent from April 13th, wounded; 
Ensign Gabriel Peterson, absent from April 17th, 
wounded; Capt. Moses .Carson, deserted April 21st; 
First Lieut. Richard Carson, deserted ; Aquilla White, 
ensign, deserted February 23d; Joseph McDolo, first 

1 Sec Appendix "L." 

B0AKD OF WATt TO COL. DANIEL BRODHEAD. 

" rr.WA. Board of War, Phii.a.. March 31, 1777. 
"Sin, — By a letter from his excellency General Washington we are 
informed (hut, viz.: 'By the promotion of Major Butler, and death of the 

Colonel anil Lieutenant-Colonel, tin- Eighth Regi nl of your State is 

l<ii witl i a Field-Officer, I must therefore desire that yon will order 

the three new Field-Officers to join Im liately, for I issureyou 

thai ii" regiment in tin' Service wants them more from the dissentionB 
thai have lately prevailed in thai Corpj, disipliue lias been much relaxed, 
and it w II require strict care and attention to both Officers and Men to 
bring them hack to a proper sense of subordination and duty. 

" You are therefore lered torepairto your regiment immediately, 

and lest there should he any uncertainty of your receiving this order 
^^ '- have dispatched a special messenger with it, and we can have no 
doubt of your complying punctually herewith, as the public Service re- 
quires it. 

" By order of the Board, . . . 

" Owen Biddle, Cltairman." 

Col. Brodhead left Reading, Berks Co., April -, 1777, to join his regi- 
ment. — Archives, v. 283. 

To settle the question of precedence in reference to the officers of the 
Ninth Regiment, the four oldest commissioned captains made an ar- 
rangement satisfactory to themselves, and making a statement of this 
to the Presideut of the Council, Aug. -I, 1777, from camp at Germantown, 
praj ed the Council that the arrangement stand, and that any antedated 
commission under specious pretensions might not supersede theirs. The 
dates of their former commissions and their rank in the regular service 
of the State were as follows: 

Joseph Ki win, captain, April 6, 1 770. 

Joseph Meridian, captain, July 15, 1776. 

'fh as B. Bowen, eldest lieutenant in three battalion*, April G, 1776. 

John Davis, lieutenant, April G, 177G. — Arclitoet, v. 4S3. 



lieutenant, deserted ; Thomas Forthay, ensign, de- 
serted ; Alexander Simrall, second lieutenant, cash- 
iered; David McKee, ensign, dismissed the service; 
Ephraim Douglas, quartermaster, taken by the 
enemy March 13th. 

It is a fact well known that the term deserted, as 
marked on the old military rolls, goes for very little, 
as in most cases those marked as deserters returned 
and did active and good service, and afterwards, if 
living, drew pensions, and their names are found on 
the pension-lists. It was a custom in the Continental 
army for the soldiers from time to time to take uncere- 
monious leave, and again return to duty. 

A return dated Nov. 1, 1777, shows the strength 
of the regiment present: Colonel, major, 2 captains, 
(i lieutenants, adjutant, paymaster and surgeon, ser- 
geant-major, quartermaster-sergeant ami drum-major, 
'!'.< sergeants. 9 drums and fifes, 112 rank and file fit 
fur duty, 28 sick present, 77 sick absent, 139 on com- 
mand, — total, 351. Prisoners of war, 1 sergeant and 
58, privates. Capt. Van Swearingen, Lieut. Basil 
Prather, and Lieut. John Hardin on command with 
Col. Morgan. Vacant offices: lieutenant-colonel, 4 
captains, 2 lieutenants, S ensigns, chaplain, and sur- 
geon's mate. Lieut.-Col. Buss resigned after the bat- 
tles of Brandywine and Germantown, 

The regiment suffered severely at Bound Brook, 
where Maj. -Gen. Lincoln, with five hundred men, was 
attacked by Cornwallis. Some of them also sustained 
the charge of the bayonets of the British grenadiers 
at Paoli. They were in the, battles of Ash Swamp, 
at Brandywine, and Germantown. 

The regiment was, as all regiments in the line were, 
rom time to time broken and separated. Some of 
le officers were transferred to other regiments: so 
'also were some of the privates upon re-enlistment. 
The service of those who participated with Morgan at 
Saratoga, and with Wayne at Stony Point, shall not 
be forgotten. Most of them, however, came together 
again before Valley Forge. When the regiment was 
ordered to the West, a great portion of those who had 
enlisted for the war were then assigned to other com- 
mands. 

On the 5th of March, 1778, the regiment was 
ordered to Pittsburgh for the defense of the western 
frontiers. This was necessary by reason of the hos- 
tile actions of the Indians and the British military 
garrison in the Northwest, who controlled them and 
co-operated with them. 

By directions of Gen. Mcintosh, Col. Brodhead, 
about the 12th of July, made a detour up the West 
Branch to check the savages who were ravaging Wy- 
oming and the West Branch Valley. Of this expedi- 
tion we give some account later on. But on the 24th 
lie was at Muney, in Northumberland County, and 
had ordered Capt. Finley's company into Penn's Val- 
ley, where two of the hitter's soldiers, Thomas Van 
Doren and Jacob Shedacre, who had participated in 
the campaign against Burgoyne under Morgan, were 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



89 



killed that clay, in sight of Potter's Fort, by the In- 
dians. Soon after Col. Hartley with his regiment 
relieved Col. Brodhead, and he proceeded with the 
Eighth to Pittsburgh. 
Capt. Matthew Jack, in a statement on file, says, — 

" They were stationed nt Bound Brook, New Jersey, in the winter and 
Spring of 1777, where the British attacked and defeated it [the regiment] 
with the loss of a number of men. In the year 177s it was sent to Pitts- 
burgh, to guard the frontier, and placed ler the command of General 

Mcintosh. That they went down to the mouth "I the Heaver and there 
built Fort Mcintosh, and from that went, upon Mcintosh's command, to 
the head of the Muskingum, and there built Fort Laurens. In the year 
1770 went up the Allegheny on Gen. Brodheud's expedition, attacked the 
Indians and defeated them and turned their towns. On the return of 
the regiment, its time having expired, it was discharged at Pittsburgh." 

The following extracts are from the order-book be- 
fore referred to : 

"August 28, at Bedford, William Graham, brigade major. 

" N'ovember ^, Capt. Joseph Finley to act as brigade major in Graham's 
absence. 

"At Tuscarawas (Fort Laurens, Ohio), November 21, court-martial or- 
dered, M.'j. Frederick Vernon presideut, to try Capt. Thomas Cook. 
Tried, not guilty. 

" November "Jo, Capt. Basil Prather, for good conduct yesterday, allowed 
to IlllUt with any three men he el ses. 

u December 31, at Fort Mcintosh. As the Eighth Regiment is deti- 
cieni in Bubalterus, the Gen. appoints sergeants John Guthrie, John 
Clark, Thomas Wiatt, and James Morrison to he ensigns. 1 ' 

During 1779 and 1781 portions of the Ninth and 
Thirteenth Virginia Regiments were stationed at 
Fort Pitt. In these two regiments and the Eighth 
Pennsylvania there were many court-martials. Of 
the Eighth, Isaac Alkin, theft, guilty, fifty lashes; 
James Maxwell, refusal to do duty, to ride a wooden 
horse ten minutes, with a musket to each foot; Ed- 
ward Wilkie, many offenses, otic hundred lashes, and 
to be drummed out of the regiment as a vagabond, 
not to appear again on pain of death ; Thomas Kelly, 
live hundred lashes, surgeon to attend the execution. 

In a letter from Gen. William Irvine to Gen. 
Washington, soon after he took command at Fort 
Pitt, dated Dec. 2, 1781, he says, — 

"I have re-formed the remains of the Eighth Peny. into two com- 
panies, and call tin in a detachment from the Peuua. Line, to be com- 
manded by I.t. Col. Bayard." 

The regiment was kept up by recruits from West- 
moreland County until the close of the war. 

MORGAN'S RIFLE REGIMENT. 

Of the heroes of the Revolutionary war who have 
in American literature been accorded a full measure 
of fame, the name of Daniel Morgan, "the wag- 
oner of the Jerseys," the commander of the cele- 
brated "Morgan's Rifles," and the hero of Cowpens, 
stands conspicuous. Nor has bis fame undergone 
diminution, for it was but the other day that around 
the memorial statue erected by a grateful common- 
wealth to commemorate its gratitude to him and his 
compatriots as to its deliverers the high official dig- 
nitaries of the States which hat! belonged to the 
original confederation stood with uncovered heads. 



It is, however, not generally known in history how 
much Pennsylvania, and especially the Westmore- 
Ianders of the Eighth Regiment, had to do with the 
historic actions of the justly renowned Rifles. The 
glory which that corps won in the campaign in the 
North should be equally divided between Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, and not given entirely to the latter State, 
for the corps has usually been regarded as a Virginia 
corps. 

" Morgan's Rifles," as it was usually designated, or 
" Morgan's Partisan Corps," as it was officially known, 
was a rifle corps organized by Gen. Washington him- 
self, of which Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, was made 
colonel ; Col. Richard Butler, of the Ninth Pennsyl- 
vania, lieutenant-colonel; ami Capt. Joseph Morris, 
of New Jersey, major. 

These officers were personally known to Washing- 
ton, ami were indeed on familiar terms with him, 
as familiar as any man could get to be. His splendid 
judgment of military character and talent was evinced 
in the selection of these officers. 

This Richard Butler was promoted from major of 
the Eighth Pennsylvania to lieutenant-colonel and 
transferred to the First Pennsylvania, and from that 
regiment was transferred to Morgan's Rifles. 

This corpswas made upof chosen marksmen, picked 
out and drafted from the whole army. 

Gen. Wilkinson, in his "Memoirs," has a return 
of Morgan's corps. According to this return the third 
company was commanded by Capt. Knox (who won 
promotion and distinction under Wayne tit Stony 
Point), and the fifth company by Capt. Van Swear- 
ingen, of the Eighth Pennsylvania. Of Virginians 
there were 163; of Pennsylvanians, 193; and ofMa- 
rylanders, 65. There were in all, including sick and 
absentees, 508. Thus there were more Pennsylvanians 
in the regiment then than of any other State. 

There were no better soldiers in the Continental 
army than the soldiers who made up the command of 
Morgan and Butler, and they have been highly praised 
by all historians. Of their services at Stillwater, 
otherwise Saratoga, Bancroft, in his " History of the 
United States," says,— 

"In concurrence with the advice of Arnold, Gates ordered out Mor- 
gan's riflemen and the light infantry. They put a picket to flight at 
a qua) ter past one, hut retired before the division of Burgoyne. Leading 
his force unmolested through the woods, and securing his light by thick, 
its ami ravines, Morgan next tell unexpectedly upon the left ol the Brit- 
ish centre division. To support him Gates, at two o'clock, sent out three 
New Hampshire battalions, of which that of Scnmmel met the enemy in 
front, that of Cilley took them in Hank. In a warm engagement Mor- 
gan had his horse shot under him, and with his linemen captured a can- 
non, hut could not carry it off." 

Gen. Lee, in his "Memoirs of the Revolutionary 
War in the Southern States," speaks of Col. Richard 
Butler as "the renowned second and rival of Mor- 
gan in the Saratoga encounters." 

Capt. Van Swearingen, First Lieut. Basil Prather, 
and Second Lieut. John Hardin, with their com- 
mands, were also with Morgan, and greatly distin- 



90 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



guished themselves in the series of encounters which 
resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne. Their com- 
mands, as we before have said, consisted of picked 
men out of all the companies of the Eighth Regi- 
ment. 

Van Swearingen, as the editors of the Archives re- 
mark, was probably the most noted captain in the 
Eighth Pennsylvania. On the 9th of September 
(1777) he and a lieutenant and twenty privates were 
captured in a sudden dash that scattered Morgan's 
men. He fell into the hands of the Indians who were 
attached to the British army in this campaign, but was 
rescued by Gen. Fraser's "batman" (one who takes 
care of his officer's horse), who took him before the 
general. The latter interrogated him concerning the 
number of the American army, but got no answer, 
except that it was commanded by Gens. Gates and 
Arnold. He then threatened to hang him. " You 
may, if you please," said Van Swearingen. Fraser 
then rode nil', leaving him in care of Sergt. Dunbar, 
who consigned him to Lieut. Auburey, who ordered 
him to be placed among the other prisoners, with di- 
rections not to be ill treated. Van Swearingen, 
after Burgoyne's army removed to Virginia, made 
especial exertions to have Dunbar and Auburey 
exchanged. 

Immediately, as Gen. Fraser rode on, he was shot by 
Timothy Murphy, a Pennsylvanian from Northum- 
berland County, of Capt. Parr's company, by Col. 
Morgan's express direction. This circumstance in all 
probability saved Van Swearingen's life. 

If we knew all the military career of Van Swear- 
ingen we should probably say that he was one of the 
model soldiers of the Continental army. We know 
that he was brave, fearless, determined, patriotic, had 
the gift "1' continuance ; encouraged by his voice and 
means the cause of independence; one who was as 
much a hero at Valley Forge as at Saratoga. In 
fixing the date of the death of Maj. Morris, which 
otherwise was uncertain, we read this: 

" 1 1 appears from a correspondence in one of the Philadelphia papers 
ol iii, day, describing a performance gotten up at Valley Forge by Van 

Swearingen nnd Bardin, in which their dead comj rs of Stillwater 

were le actors, Mi.it Maj. Morris was killed in some engagement in 

the winter of 1777." 

Van Swearingen was the first sheriff of Washington 
County in 17S1 ; he resided in now Fayette County, 
opposite Greenfield. His daughter became the wife 
of the celebrated Capt. Samuel Brady, also of the 
Eighth Pennsylvania, so conspicuous in the annals 
of Western Pennsylvania. 

Shortly after the battle of Monmouth (June 28, 
1778) a detachment of Morgan's Rifles, commanded 
by Maj. James Parr, was ordered with the Fourth 
Pennsylvania to Schoharie, to defend the borders of 
New York from the Six Nations, where, after making 
connection with Gen. Clinton, they moved to Tioga, 
and took part in Sullivan's campaign to avenge the 
massacre of Wyoming. 



There were, without question, Westmorelanders 
with Morgan in South Carolina, but we cannot desig- 
nate them. 

Lieut. John Hardin, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, 
from Westmoreland, was afterwards the celebrated 
Gen. Hardin, of Kentucky, who was treacherously 
murdered by a party of Indians near Sandusky, 1791. 
He took a distinguished part in the Indian border 
wars of the era of Harmar and St. Clair. When he 
was a lieutenant of the Eighth, with Morgan, he 
shot an Indian courier who had letters from Gen. 
Burgoyne to Gen. Powell, commanding at Ticon- 
deroga. 

STONY POINT. 

It should also be known that certain Westmore- 
landers acted a very important part in the capture of 
Stony Point, one of the most brilliant actions of the 
war. 

Stony Point was a high rocky peninsula, fortified, 
on the Hudson River, opposite another jutting point 
of 1. mil, fortified, called Verplank's Point, which two 
fortified posts guarded the King's Ferry. That the 
Hudson River should be held bythe British forces, 
that thus the New England States should be separated 
from the other States, was the long-cherished and 
darling idea of the ministry and of its military ad- 
visers. Although they had been unsuccessful in their 
occupancy of this line under Burgoyne and Clinton, 
they again determined, in 1779, to renew their efforts, 
and if possible to successfully accomplish this end. 
.\! the dose of May, 1779, Sir Henry Clinton in per- 
son led an expedition into the Hudson Highlands 
with this object. With the assistance of large land 
and river forces he captured these points without 
serious exertion, for each was garrisoned by only a 
handful of men. This was a serious disaster to the 
Americans. The passage at the King's Ferry was 
closed to them, and the passes of the Highlands 
menaced. Perceiving this, Washington took imme- 
diate sleps for the recovery of the points. His army, 
which bad wintered at. Midillebrook, X. J., had early 
in June moved to "The Cove," a fertile valley far 
in the rear of Haverstraw, and late in the month 
he made his headquarters at New Windsor, on the 
Hudson, a lew miles above the Highlands, where he 
perfected plans for an active campaign against the 
invaders. 

Anticipating an attempt to recapture the forts, Sir 
Henry Clinton had placed strong garrisons in therrt, 
and then retiring with his ships and soldiers to New 
York, he sent them in marauding expeditions along 
the New England coasts. 

Washington had a corps of light infantry composed 
of picked men, drafted from the various regiments of 
the Continental army, and organized at that time into 

four regiments. These were under the co uiml of 

Cols. Richard Batler, Meigs, Putnam, and Febiger. 
In the word's of Lossing, the historian, — 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



91 



"Butler was one of a gallant band of four brothers who fonght the 
good lightof American independence from i lie beginning to the end. 
He bad been Wayne's eliief support in bis hard conflict on the plain 
of Monmouth a year before. He »as only twenty-fire yenreof age, but 
traa already distinguished foi military genius, coolness, and valor. . . . 

The corps composed of picked men and cc nanded by these g 1 soldiers 

e>er sidered the elite of the army, and Wash i til: ton rhose them for 

Lis design against stony Point and Verplank's Point. To Anthony 
Wayne Washington gave the command of this corps, July 1, 1779." 

Wayne on the clay after be took command recon- 
noitred the post, accompanied by Col. Butler and 
Maj. Stewart, of the Pennsylvania line, in whose 
command there were, as we have seen, some West- 
morelanders. Stewart, was a brother-in-law of Wayne, 
an Irishman by birth, and was considered the hand- 
somest man in the Continental army. Wayne's 
ardor and confidence were somewhat diminished by 
his observation, and he reported to Washington that 
the British works on the western side of the Point, 
which only they had seen, were too formidable to 
storm with any hope of success. He suggested that a 
surprise might be effected, and at his solicitation 
Washington rode down to his camp, and carefully 
reconnoitred the works on the 6th of July. 

There were many Tories in the neighborhood, and 
the garrison were on the alert. The works at StODy 
Point embraced a series of redoubts on the summit of 
the rocky peninsula. A line of felled trees, their tops 
outward (called in military parlance an abatis), had 
been laid across the Point from north to south, and 
this was defended by four companies of regular in- 
fantry, one of Loyal Americans, and a detachment of 
Royal Artillery. A second row of abatis was formed 
across the peninsula where it slopes towards the cause- 
way on the western side, and was defended by three re- 
doubts manned by two companies of infantry and two 
ofgrenadiers. At five different points pickets were sta- 
tioned, and the batteries commanded every approach. 
They might enfilade any advancing column. The 
whole force was under command of a trusted soldier, 
Lieut.-Col. H. Johnston. They were ready for an at- 
tack from the whole Continental army. 

Alter his reconnoissance, Washington prepared to 
surprise the fort, and from his headquarters sent in- 
structions on the 12th of July, which were more in 
the form of suggestions, but which Wayne entirely 
carried out. After determining to surprise the garri- 
son, he moved from his encampment, about fourteen 
miles from the fort, about noon, July 15, 1779. Three 
of the four regiments, those of Butler, Meigs, ami 
Febiger, were with him, and an additional force of 
light infantry and artillerymen to man the guns when 
captured. Their route was rugged and in some places 
almost impassable. They passed the south side of the 
Donderberg while a heavy thunder-shower was raging 
on its summit and beyond. They delayed until night- 
fall before they came out of the mountain region. 
Every dog found in their way as they approached the 
river was killed to prevent an alarm. At 8 o'clock 
in the evening the whole party rendezvoused about a 



mile and a half below Stony Point. In the gloom 
Wayne arranged his forces for the attack. They were 
in two columns. At the head of the right column, 
and twenty paces from it, 150 men, led by Lieut.-Col. 
De Fleury, were posted, and just in advance of these 
were a " forlorn hope" of 20 men to " remove obstruc- 
tions and secure sentinels," commanded by Lieut. 
Knox, of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. At the 
head of the left, in like manner, was posted an ad- 
vance-guard of 150 picked men, under Maj. Stewart, 
and a forlorn hope of 20 men, led by Lieut. Gibbons, 
of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. Meanwhile 
Wayne had made a final reconnoissance, retired to a 
house to get supper, made his will, wrote a letter to 
his brother-in-law, and intrusted his papers to a mes- 
senger. 

At half-past eleven o'clock the silent march began. 
The sky was dark with clouds. Wayne was at the 
head of the right column. A friendly negro, " Pom- 
pey," guided Knox at the head of the forlorn hope. 
Two stout men were with the negro. This " Pompey" 
brought fruit and eatables to the garrison, and they 
all knew him, and had given him the countersign. 
He approached the sentinel and gave the counter- 
sign. While " Pompey" was talking with him his 
two stout companions sprang from the gloom, seized 
and gagged the soldier. The sentinel at the causeway 
was served in the same way. 

When the tide ebbed so as to allow a passage of 
the causeway the columns divided. Col. Butler's 
regiment passed the causeway in water two feet deep. 
So the tide was not yet down, for Wayne's column 
had to pass through the water of the marsh to gel on 
the beach. It was past midnight. They were dis- 
covered and fired upon by a picket-guard. The gar- 
rison flew to arms. The assailing column was now 
under the walls of the fort. They pressed on in solid 
order in the face of a tempest from muskets and ar- 
tillery. Every ledge of rocks above the ascending 
column was surrounded by British infantry, who 
poured clown an incessant storm of bullets, taunts, 
and imprecations. But the column under Wayne's 
directions advanced slowly but surely, step by step. 
They did not fire a gun. They turned the abatis, 
pushed on towards the breastworks, cut and tore away 
the palisades, and cleared the chevaux </. frise at 
the -ally-port. 

When within the inner abatis the Americans 
dashed forward with fixed bayonets, the main col- 
umn following the advance closely. The ramparts 
were carried. De Fleury, who led the charge, seized 
the colors of the fort with his own hand, and his 
assailing column entered the works in triumph, 
shouting the significant watchword, the countersign 
of the night, " The fort's our own !" De Fleury, Lieut. 
Knox, Sergt. Baker, of the Virginia line (with four 
wounds), Sergt. Spencer, of the same line (with two 
wounds), and Sergt. Dunlap, of the Pennsylvania 
line (also twice wounded), were the first five to enter 



92 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the works and win the reward offered by Wayne, who 
in his order of battle had engaged to reward the five 
men who should first enter the works with promotion, 
honorable mention, and with rewards in money rang- 
ing from the sum of five hundred dollars to one 
hundred dollars. 

Almost at the same moment when De Fleury en- 
tered the fort, Lieut. Gibbons with the assailing party 
of the left, closely followed by Maj. Stewart, burst in 
on the opposite side. The terrified garrison, perceiv- 
ing resistance to be useless, surrendered immediately, 
the men, especially the " Loyal Americans," falling on 
their knees and crying out piteously for mercy. And 
to the lasting honor of the conquerors it is asserted 
that not a man of the garrison was injured after they 
had ceased to resist and begged for quarter. 

Of the substantial fruits of this victory history 
tells. Of this we mention nothing, but much of the 
honor and the glory of that great and singular 
capture we claim belongs to our Westmorelanders. 

SKETCHES OF REVOLUTIONARY OFFICERS. 

Arthur Saint Clair.— Of all the characters 
which Westmoreland sent to the Continental armies, 
or gave to the history of the American Union, by far 
the most prominent is Arthur St. Clair. We do not 
propose here to enter into a notice of his public ca- 
reer, as we have reserved this for a separate sketch, 
and appended it to the narrative. But his services 
and his life are so intimately connected with the his- 
tory of the county that they cannot be disunited. 
The days of his early manhood were passed here; he 
was interested directly or indirectly in every move- 
ment of interest calculated to further the protection 
and happiness of the people ; his last days were passed 
here, like Lear's, 

"A pour olil man, as full of griefs as age," 

and here he was buried, and his bones are with us at 
this day. 

In the early part of the war he was appointed a 
major, and was employed in organizing and forward- 
ing the levies to the general armies till he entered 
into active service himself. His connection with the 
public affairs of our county closes here. But what a 
difference in the circumstances of his leaving West- 
moreland and of his returning! Unfortunately dis- 



accounted to his honor and his military sagacity that 
he suggested the attack on the British at Princeton 
which proved so opportunely fortunate. In 1777 he 
was a major-general, so rapid was his military ad- 
vancement. But a beginning so full of promise was 
soon, unhappily, crossed by misfortune. 

/Eneas Mackay. — We know not the date nor the 
place of birth of .Eneas Mackay. lie first appears 
in authentic history as a citizen of South Carolina. 
On the 10th of June, 1754, Capt. .Eneas Mackay, in 
command of an independent company of "King's 
Soldiers," of one hundred men, from South Carolina, 
joined Washington in the midst of the Great Meadows, 
where he was constructing Fort Necessity, on his march 
from Wills Creek to Fort Duquesne. This was a year 
previous to Braddock's campaign. He being a British 
officer, and holding a king's commission, could not, 
in common with his fellow-officers, brook the idea of 
being the subordinate of a young man like Washing- 
ton, who only held a commission from a province, and 
who was regarded by them as a young and inexpe- 
rienced provincial officer. The question of priority 
of rank was immediately raised. The difficulty was 
only settled in a way honorable to all, when the small 
force of British-Americans were attacked by the much 
superior force of French and Indians, Washington 
then took command, and conducted the capitulation. 
He withdrew his force to Wills Creek, and leaving 
them there in security he^ in company with Mackay, 
proceeded to Williamsport to make their military re- 
port to the Governor. Washington rejoined his regi- 
ment at Alexandria, Va., and Capt. Mackay returned 
to Wills Creek, and was placed with his company 
under command of Col. Lines, who was engaged in 
erecting a fort there, which he called Fort Cumber- 
land, after the Duke of Cumberland. 

We next find him at Fort Ligonier, while the gar- 
rison was yet commanded by officers of the king. 
Here he remained for several years, and, according to 
his family Bible record, here his son Samuel was born 
on the 20th of July, 1766. In this year he was trans- 
ferred to Fort Pitt, of which he was afterwards placed 
in command. While here it is well known he was a 
leading spirit of the Penns in resisting tlie claims of 
Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, and was made one of 
Penn's magistrates. He, with Deveretix Smith and 
Andrew McFarlane, was appointed a king's justice 



tinguished, his example is necessary to complete all for Westmoreland. At the breaking out of the Revo- 
the different shades of character made prominent by lution he took sides with tin- colonies, and received 
the vicissitudes of war. Of the heroes that fell by ! his commission as colonel of the Eighth Pennsylva- 
" swiftly-rolling Simois" at Ilium no two are alike, nia Regiment. He died in the first year of the war, 
in person, in character, or in fortune. So the epic of from a fever contracted from fatigue and exposure 
the Revolution would not be finished without the ! in their march from Fort Pitt to Trenton in mid- 
persons of Morris and St. Clair. But this is not the winter. His remains were taken to Philadelphia, and 



place to review his misfortunes. Now young, tall, 
erect, of a noble bearing, and full of enthusiasm, con- 
scious of the deeds of glory of a long line of ennobled 
ancestry, he ottered his sword to the cause of the colo- 
nies and the liberty of mankind. It has long been 



interred in the First Presbyterian burying-ground 
on the 17th of February, 1777. 

In a notice of his death in the Pennsylvania Evening 
Post of Feb. 18, 1777, and which was evidently 
written by a loving friend, appears the following: 


















WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



93 



"On .Satin ilny la«t Dieil of a putrid fever nt Trenton, New Jersey, in 
the fifty-sixth year of hi< age, Xneaa Slackay, EBqr, Culoue] of tlie 
Eiglitli Regiment of Pennsylvania Continental foroeB; & yesterday his 
remains were interred, with tlie honors of war, in the first Presbyterian 
Burying-Ground of this Lily. Ill him his country has lost a faithful ser- 
vant & good officer, his widow an uncommonly tender A affectionate 
husband, his children an indulgent father, and the world an honest 
man. . . ." 

Col. Mackay's wife was a lady of New York, after- 
wards married to George Adams, Esq., of Pittsburgh. 
His daughter Elizabeth was married to Stephen Bay- 
ard, Esq. 

Col. Stephen Bayard, the son of Samuel Bayard 
and Franseina Maiden, his wile, was born Jan. 23, 
a. ii. 1744, on the Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Md. 
Four necks of land on Bohemia Manor was purchased 
by his great-grandfather, Peter Bayard, in 16S4, a 
portion of which were in Delaware and a portion in 
Cecil County, Md. Bohemia Manor was patented to 
Augustus Herman in 1003 by Cserillius, first absolute 
lord and proprietor of Maryland, and confirmed by 
his son, Lord Baltimore, in \ti*"l. It consisted of 
twenty thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine acres, 
four thousand of which were in the State of Dela- 
ware. 

For a number of years preceding the Revolutionary 
war Stephen Bayard was engaged in mercantile busi- 
ness with iiis cousin, John Bubenheim Bayard, of 
Philadelphia, who was a colonel of cavalry during 
the Revolution, and afterwards, in 1784, Speaker of 
the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania (the Legis- 
lature then consisting of a single house), and in 1785 
was elected a member of the Continental Congress. 

At the breaking out of the war Stephen Bayard 
raised a company in Philadelphia, and was commis- 
sioned captain Jan. 5, 1776, and was assigned to Col. 
Arthur St. Clair's Pennsylvania battalion. 

After serving as major of his regiment, the Third 
Pennsylvania, under Col. Richard Butler, on the 
30th of June, 1779, he received bis commission as 
lieutenant-colonel, to take rank as such from the 
23d day of September, 1777. In the year 1779 the 
Third Pennsylvania Regiment formed a portion of 
Gen. Sullivan's force on his expedition against the 
hostile tribes of Indians — the Cayugas, Oneidas, and 
Onondagas — on the Susquehanna River, and at the 
same time another expedition was fitted out and car- 
ried forward from Pittsburgh up the Allegheny River 
against the equally hostile Mingoes, Muneeys, and 
Senecas. This was the Eighth Pennsylvania Regi- 
ment, of which Daniel Brodhead was the colonel, and 
Stephen Bayard the lieutenant-colonel. This regi- 
ment advanced two hundred miles up the river, and 
destroyed the Indian villages, cornfields, etc., on its 
head branches [vide Marshall's History). In 1781, 
Stephen Bayard was placed in command of this regi- 
ment as colonel commanding at Fort Pitt. 

Col. Bayard served his country faithfully and hon- 
orably from the beginning to the close of the war, 
participated in many of its battles, hardships, and 
7 



privations, and after its termination, and on the dis- 
banding of the army, pleased with the Western 
country, he determined to make it his future home. 
In company with several Revolutionary officers, he 
settled in Pittsburgh in 1783, and in the following 
year formed a partnership with a brother-officer, Maj. 
Isaac Craig, late of Proctor's artillery regiment, in 
the mercantile business, with the intention also of 
dealing in lots and lands. In the year 1784, Craig & 
Bayard purchased from the Penns the first ground 
that was sold within the limits of Pittsburgh : three 
acres upon wdiich old Fort Duquesne stood. The/ 
extended their business also by forming a partner- 
ship with Messrs. William Turnbull, Peter Marmie, 
and John Holkar, merchants of Philadelphia. 

In the year 1787 an act was passed by the Legisla- 
ture incorporating the Presbyterian congregation of 
Pittsburgh. In this act eleven trustees were named, 
six of whom had been officers in the Revolutionary 
army, Stephen Bayard being one. He was a devoted 
member and elder of this branch of the church to 
the date of his death in 1815. In the spring of 1788 
he retired from the mercantile business and settled 
on his laud, of which he had a large tract, on the 
Mouongahela River, fourteen miles above Pittsburgh, 
and immediately proceeded to lay out a town, which 
he named Elizabeth, after his wile Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of Col. iEneas Mackay, mentioned above, who, 
in the year 1754, in command of an independent com- 
pany of king's soldiers from South Carolina, accom- 
panied Washington on his first expedition against 
the French and Indians of Fort Duquesne. Col. 
Bayard desired to make Elizabeth a point for boat 
and ship-building, and to this end brought out from 
Philadelphia a company of skilled workmen, who 
built the first vessel launched on the waters of the 
Monongahela. Her name was the " Mouongahela 
Farmer." Elizabeth continues to be a point where 
many of our best boats and steamers are built for the 
Western rivers. 

Shortly after the declaration of war in 1812, Col. 
Bayard's services were again sought by the govern- 
ment. President Madison tendered him a major- 
general's commission, but advanced age and bodily 
infirmities required that he should decline its accept- 
ance. A zealous patriot and a fervent Christian, he 
devoted the best years of his life to the service of his 
country and his God. He died in Pittsburgh, Dec. 
13, 1815, aged seventy-one years, and was buried in 
the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church. 

George Wilson, the lieutenant-colonel, was a 
native of Augusta County, Virginia. He had, been 
an officer in the French and Indian war of 1755 to 
17<32. He came to the West about 1768 or 1709, 
and settled on the land where New Geneva now is, 
owning the land on the river on both sides of Georges 
Creek. Being from a locality in Augusta County 
called Springhill, he gave that name to the township 
in which he resided. He was a Pennsylvania justice 



04 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



of the peace there while it was a part of Bedford 
County, and his commission was renewed for West- 
moreland. He was also one of the trustees to locate 
a place for the county-seat. During the boundary 
troubles the Province had no more resolute magis- 
trate than he, allowing himself to be taken in irons 
to prison rather than abate the pretensions which he 
thought to be right. He died in the service of his 
country, as we. have seen, at Quibbletown, N. .T., in 
April, 1777. 

Col. Daniel Brodhead was bom about 1725, 
his place of birth being probably Albany, N. Y., but 
as his father made several removals in the early part 
of his married life, this is uncertain. In 1738 his 
father migrated to Pennsylvania, settling in now 
Monroe County. The younger Daniel grew up among 
the rude experiences of a frontier settlement, and 
probably had his first experience of actual war when 
the Indians, alter ravaging all the country between 
the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers north of the Blue 
Mountains, attacked the Brodhead house at Danbury, 
which had been hastily fortified, on the 11th of De- 
cember, 1755. The attack was a fierce one, but it 
was totally unsuccessful, and the repulse the Indians 
met ended for a time the war in that section. In 1771 
he removed to Reading, and soon after was appointed 
deputy surveyor under John Lukens, who was then 
surveyor-general. In July, 1775, he was appointed a 
delegate from Berks County to the Provincial Con- 
vention at Philadelphia. In the beginning of 1776 
he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the rifle regi- 
ment, which was raised in six weeks and given its 
firrst rendezvous at Marcus Plook. After the capture 
of Col. Miles at the battle of Long Island, the com- 
mand of the remainder of the battalion devolved 
upon Brodhead. He was thus early in the war 
brought into contact with Westmorelanders, and was 
more or less in command of a portion of them till the 
close of the war. After the loss of Miles he was the 
senior officer of the remaining part of the Pennsyl- 
vania contingent in the army. Shortly after he went 
home on sick leave, and when he again joined the 
army it was as colonel of the Eighth. With it he 
served from 1778 to 1781 in Western Pennsylvania. 
He made some important treaties with the Indians, 
but the honor of pushing west into the Indian country 
gr< atly to his chagrin, devolved upon Col. Clark, 
a Virginia officer. On the reorganization of the 
army in 1781 he was made colonel of the First Regi- 
ment, his commission dating Sept. 20, 1776, and he 
seems at a later date to have been appointed a brig- 
adier. He served afterward in the General Assembly 
of the State, and in 1789 was appointed surveyor- 
| i ie nil. He held this office eleven years, and died 
at Milford, Pike Co., Nov. 15, 1809. 

Something more than a passing notice should be 
taken of the family of Butler, of which two brought 
such honorable distinction to Westmoreland County. 
The name of the family has been greatly honored in 



its representatives in every section of the Union, and 
in every era of its history. The annals of the military 
history of the nation from the Revolution to the civil 
war could not be written without mention of the 
name and services of some of the members of the 
family. 

Thomas Butler, the father of five " fighting" But- 
lers, was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. 1 Three of his 
sons — Richard, William, and Thomas — were born 
abroad. The eldest, Richard, was, as we know, lieu- 
tenant-colonel of Morgan's rifle regiment, and to 
him it owed much of the high character that gave it 
a fame of its own. He devoted himself to the drill 
of his men, aud the cool disciplined valor which gave 
direction to the rifles of the regiment was derived 
principally from him. As the colonel of a regiment 
he served with Wayne at Stony Point, and took a 
prominent part in the closing scenes at Yorktown. 
In 1700 he was appointed major-general. On the 4th 
of November, 1791, in Gen. St. Clair's battle with the 
Indians, there was such a peculiar interest in his I'ate 
and in the circumstances attending his death, that a 
representation of himself and the group surrounding 
him was exhibited throughout the Union in wax 
figures. The warmest friendship existed between him 
and St. Clair, and indeed between all his family and 
St. Clair. In this battle St. Clair refused to take 
Butler's advice on the eve of the fatal 4th of Novem- 
ber, 1701. " I have some good wine, general ; letus 
eat, drink, and be merry," said Butler, who knew 
more of Indian warfare than his chief, " for to morrow 
we die." 2 

William Butler, the second son, who accompanied 
St. Clair to Canada and Ticonderoga, was an officer 
throughout the Revolutionary war, rose to the rank 
of colonel, and was in many of the severest battles. 
lie was the favorite of the family, and was boasted 
I of by this race of heroes as the coolest and boldest 
man in battle they had ever known. When the army 
was greatly reduced in rank and tile, and there were 
more officers than men, they organized themselves 
into a separate corps, and elected him to the com- 
mand. Washington declined receiving this novel 
corps of commissioned soldiers, but in a proud testi- 
monial did honor to their devoted patriotism. 

Thomas Butler, the third son, was a student of law 
in the office of Judge Wilson, of Philadelphia, when, 
in 1776, he joined the army as a subaltern. He soon 
obtained the command of a company, in which he 
continued to the close of the war. He was in almost 
every battle, fought in the Middle States. At the 
battle of Brandywine he received the thanks of 
Washington, through his aide-de-camp, (ten. Hamil- 
ton, for his conduct in rallying a detachment of re- 

1 s ; of these statements are drawn from Francis P. Blair's Bio- 
graphical Sketch of Gen. W. o. Butler. 

- This anecdote is relate,! by man}' historians, and their, appears t" be 
not the least douht abouf it. i. emu substantially correct, ami it well dis- 
plays the singular bravery ami devotion of that officer. 



WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. 



95 



treating; troops. At the battle of Monmouth he re- 
ceived the thanks of Gen. Wayne for defending a 
defile while Col. Richard Butler's regiment made good 
its retreat. He commanded a battalion under St. 
Clair in 1701 in the battle, in which his brother fell. 
Orders were given by St. Clair to charge with the 
bayonet, and Maj. Butler, though his leg had been 
broken by a ball, yet on horseback led his battalion 
in the charge. It was with difficulty his surviving 
brother, Capt. Edward Butler, removed him from the 
field. He died Sept, 7, 1805. 

Percival Butler, the fourth son, born at Carlisle, 
Pa., entered the army as a lieutenant at the age of 
eighteen ; was with Washington at Valley Forge, 
was in the battle of Monmouth and at the taking of 
Yorktown, being through the whole series of struggles 
in the Middle States with the troops under the com- 
mander-in-chief, except for a short period when he 
was attached to a light corps commanded by La- 
fayette. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1784, and was 
adjutant-general of Kentucky during the war of 1812. 

Edward Butler was too young to join the Revolu- 
tionary army at first, but joined it towards the close, 
lie was a captain in St. Clair's army (1791), and 
adjutant-general of Wayne's army. 

Of these five brothers, four had sons, all of whom, i 
with one exception, were engaged in the military or 
naval service of the country in the war of 1812 or the 
Mexican war. 

Capt. James Butler, of the Pittsburgh Blues, in the 
campaign of the Northwest under Harrison in 1812, 
was a son of Col. Richard Butler. Another son, Wil- 
liam Butler, died a lieutenant in the navy early in 
the same war. Mrs. Meason, of Uniontown, Fayette 
Co., who died but a few years ago at the age of 
ninety-six, was a daughter of Col. Richard. 

It would be too much for us to recount the names 
and services of the different members of the family as 
they relate to the war of 1812 and the Mexican war. 

This glance at the family, as Francis P. Blair re- 
marks in a biographical sketch of W. O. Butler, shows 
the character of the race. An anecdote, derived from 
a letter of an old Pennsylvania friend of the parents, 
wdio transplanted it from Ireland, shows that its mil- 
itary instinct was an inheritance: 

"While the live suns were absent from home in the service of the 
country the old hither took it into his head to e," also. The neighbors 
collected to remonstrate against it, hut his wife said, ' Let him go, I i an 
get along without him, and raise something to Feed the army in the bar- 
gain, and the country wants every man w ho can shoulder a musket. 1 " 

It was doubtless this extraordinary zeal of the But- 
ler family which induced Gen. Washington to give 
the toast "The Butlers and their five sons" at his 
own table, whilst surrounded by a large party of 
officers. This anecdote rests on the authority of the 
late Gen. Findlay, of Cincinnati. A similar tribute 
of respect was paid to this devoted house of soldiers 
by Gen. Lafayette in a letter now extant, and in the 
possession of a lady connected with it by marriage. 



Lafayette says, " When I wanted a thing well done, 1 
ordered a Butler to do it," 
Col. Richard Butler was at Arnold's side when he 

was wounded in the terrific assault upon the camp of 
the Brunswickers. 

His name was brought prominently forward in the 
army at the surrender of Comwallis. In the last 
days, Steuben commanded in the trenches when tin- 
flag came out with proposals of capitulation. La- 
fayette's tour of duty arrived while the negotiations 
were going on, and it was a point of honor who had 
the right to plant our Hag on the captured citadel. 
Lafayette marched with his division to relieve Steu- 
ben, but the latter would not be relieved. Ensign 
Ebenezer Denny, afterwards of Pittsburgh, was de- 
tailed to erect the flag. While he was in the act of 
planting it Steuben galloped up, took Hie flag, and 
planted it himself. Col. Richard Butler resented the 
supposed affront to the Pennsylvania troops, and sent 
a challenge to Steuben, ami it required all the influ- 
ence of Washington on one side and Rochambeau 
on the other to prevent a duel. 

Col. James Smith. — The readers of the history of 
our part of the State and of the West will often meet 
with the name of Col. James Smith. We mention 
him here as one of the defenders of Westmoreland, 
although his reputation is destined some day to be as 
lasting as the annals of the republic, for the future 
historian will, without doubt, draw liberally from his 
narrative, which already within the time allotted for 
canonization has, in the simplicity of its style, the 
purity of the narrative, and the interesting descrip- 
tion of a peculiar people, been regarded second only 
to the master-piece of De Foe. At eighteen years of 
age Smith was taken this side of Bedford by the In- 
dians, in the year 1755. He was at Fort Duquesne 
when the French and Indians defeated Braddock, and 
heard the painted warriors boasting as thej went nil 
to meet the English that they would "shoot him 
down like one pidgen." He was with them, as an 
adopted hunter, to 1760, and it is the narrative of this 
captivity which, in our opinion, is one of the most 
valuable contributions to our literature. When he 
was free again he went to the settlements of Franklin 
County, and remained there for some time. In the 
war of 1763 he was an ensign, and in 1764 a lieuten- 
ant, in the militia of the State. In 1766 he explored 
the Holstein River and the Kentucky country, and 
traveled through the Carolinas. After the opening 
of the land office he purchased some lauds along the 
Youghiogheny and Jacobs Creek. In 1774, the time 
of Dunmore, he was a captain in the Pennsylvania 
line, and with St. Clair and Proctor organized the 
rangers of that date. In 1776 he was a major in the 
association, and it is only to infer liow much he had 
to do with the resolutions of May the 16th, 1775. 
When independence was declared he was elected a 
member from Westmoreland for the Convention, and 
of the Assembly, as he says, as long as he wished to 



96 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



serve. "While attending the Assembly in 1777 he 
saw on the streets of Philadelphia some of his "old 
boys," on their way to the Jerseys, who desired him 
to go along. The House granted him leave of ab- 
sence to lead a scouting-party. He preceded Wash- 
ington's army with Ids " boys," and did service worthy 
of the highest notice. In 1778 he received a colonel's 
commission and returned to the West, where he 
headed an expedition carried on under his own super- 
vision and direction, which we shall notice in its 
proper place. He was a foremost citizen of our own 
and Fayette County till 17.S8, when he removed to 
Bourbon County, Ky. He was a member of the As- 
sembly of that State nearly continuously from a few 
years alter that date to 1709. He died in the State 
of his adoption. 

Col. JoH«r Gibson. — In the notices of these men, 
to whom we are indebted for a share of our independ- 
ence, we cannot pass over the services of Col. John 
Gibson. It is true that during the early part of the 
Revolution he was not on the frontier, but in the 
latter part he was, and his great influence was of 
much advantage at a most critical time. He was a 
man of most tenacious purpose, and although he was 
a Pennsylvanian, horn in Lancaster County, yet he 
took strong sides with Virginia, as we will recollect, 
in the boundary troubles. He had received a good 
education. At the age of eighteen he accompanied 
Forbes' expedition. Settling at Fort Pitt as an In- 
dian trader at the peace, be was subsequently taken 
prisoner by the Indians, and was saved from burning 
at the stake by an aged squaw, who adopted him in 
place of her son, who had been slain in battle. He 
remained with the Indians a number of years. At the 
close of hostilities he again settled at Fort Pitt. In 
1774 he assisted in negotiating the peace which fol- 
lowed 1 >unmure's expedition to the Shawanese towns. 
At the outset of the Revolution he was appointed to 
the command of a Continental regiment, where he 
served with the army in New York and in the retreat 
through the Jerseys. During the latter part of the 
war he was in command along the western frontier. 
A controversy arising between him and Brodhead, 
growing from the claims of each to precedence, was 
finally settled by the government interposing and 
superseding both by Gen. Irvine, 17!~d. Gibson was 
then known as colonel of the Ninth Virginia. He 
was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1790, and subsequently a judge of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of Allegheny County. He commanded a 
regiment in St. Clair's expedition in the West, and 
was major-general of the militia during the Whiskey 
Insurrection. In 1800 he was appointed by Jefferson 
Secretary of Indiana, which office he held until it 
became a Stale, and ill 1811, 181:2, and 1813 was its 
acting Governor. He was the uncle of Chief Justice 
John B. Gibson. 

These lists and rolls which we give in the text and 
in the appendices do not contain the names of all those 



who saw service from our county, either whose homes 
were here during the time of the war, or who stihse- 
quently came into the county. Those wdio fell in the 
battle-fields all over the country are not there. Those 
who dragged their torn limbs home to die in their 
native valleys are not there. The heaths of New 
Jersey from Paramus to Freehold, by a line encircling 
Morristown and Bound Brook, were in the summer 
of 1777 dotted with graves of the Eighth and Twelfth 
Pennsylvania Regiments. An historical note touch- 
ing on this subject says, — 

" These regiments from the frontiers of the State, Westmoreland ami 
Northumberland, was the first of the linn in the field, though they had 

come from the Monongiihela and the hend-waters of the Sil6qtiehiu 

At ltrandyw ine the Penn-j lvunians lost heavily in officers and men, so 
at Gerntantov, n." L 

So there were frontier settlers of Westmoreland 
who could to their children recount the disastrous 
march from Long Island, the glories of Princeton 
and Germantown, and the sufferings of Valley Forge ; 
and there were Westmorelanders as well who had a 
life-long recollection of the sufferings of the Jersey 
prison-ships. 

Such were the men and their services that West- 
moreland furnished to the cause of American inde- 
pendence. But unfortunately the student of our local 
history will have less data to work from when he in- 
quires into the history of the services of those men, 
ami tries to arrange in order their achievements, wdio 
took upon themselves the defense of the cabins and 
posts, the women and children of those others wdio from 
necessity were compelled to remain upon the frontier 
in their homes and abiding-places. No books or 
writings contain a continuous narrative of services, 
or even to any great extent record their names. Their 
services are only to be gathered from the incidents 
which are preserved in our local reminiscences, per- 
sonal recollections, and State archives; and their 
memories have been held sacred and inviolate for the 
most part by traditions and episodic narratives. In 
the treatment of this subject we shall, in another 
place, so far as we tire able, do justice to their patri- 
otism and devotion. In the Appendix- will be found 
some rolls of some of the militia who served on the 
frontier in the early days of the war. 

1 For an example: George Frederick Sheibler,of Hempfield township, 
wiio died Fel.. 28, 1S4S, aged seventy-nine years seven months and one 
day, and who had been a resident of the county for fifty years, had en- 
listed in the Continental army when on'v fifteen years old. He was 
lakfn prisoner by the British at Clint lestown, Mass., and shipped on 
board a British frigate to the We-t indies, lie escaped from tin- vessel 
w hile it was lying at Kingston, Jamaica, but was recaptured; but after 
again escaping, with many adventures be regained the United States. 

S See Appendl*. " M." 



BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS. 



97 



CHAPTER XIX. 

BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS. 

Indians in 1770 and 1777 — Effect of Savage Warfare on the Whites — 
White Renegades ami Deserters : Qirty, Mi Kee, Elliott — Depravity of 
some Whites on the Frontier — Murder <<f Corustalk — List of Com- 

man.lants at Fort Pitt— Mcintosh's Expedition f i I'ort Tilt to 

Beaver — Brodhoad's Expedition to Conewngo — Other Expeditions 
from Western Pennsylvania and the West — Clark's Western Expedi- 
tion and his Westmorelanders— Dates of these Noted Expeditions — 
Nature of the Italian Warfare in the West— Border Settlement of 
Westmoreland most Exposed— The County during; the Troublous 

Times divided, one part North and one part South of the Yonghio- 
gheuy — People alone; the Youghlogheuy at knowledge no Law — Vir- 
ginia estahlishes three Counties in Southwestern IVimis\ Ivania — 
Boundaries and County-feats of MonongaliH, Ohio, and Yobngauia 
Counties — Extracts from Yohogania County Records — Theirfirst Elec- 
tion — Primitive Court-Hoiise and Jail — Curious Fines- ami Sentences — 
When their Jurisdiction ended — Boundaries run and Difficulties set- 
tled — Mason and Dixnn's Line — Limits of the Actual Jurisdicti I 

Westmoreland County throntrh the Revolutionary War — Date of the 
erection of other Counties which have been stricken off from West- 
moreland. 

Owing in part to the showing of force, the general 
Indian war which had been feared by the Congres- 
sional Committee at Pittsburgh in 177li had not as yet 
broken out, and later in the fall this fear appeared to 
be dissipated when some of the neighboring tribes 
offered assurances of friendship at a council held near 
the town. But yet more or less during all the time 
Neville commanded at that point — that is, in 177G 
and 1777 — small parties of Indians and Virginians 
were brought in contact, and these collisions be- 
came more frequent in 1778. ' In 1777 boats were 
built on the Monongahela to transport troops into the 
Indian country, and during this year and the next 
those outlaws continued to harass the frontiers along 
the rivers below Pittsburgh,' 2 and many small parties 
followed each other as tar as theSewickley settlements 
and drove the settlers off or chased them into their 
block-houses. 3 

It is not to be forgotten that during the seven years' 
war the Indians had more assistance than that which 
came direct y from the British. Their strongest allies 
were those debased whites who, leaving the civiliza- 
tion of their own race, like uncaged beasts, ran to the 
wilds, and there associated with wretches more of 
their own instincts. At no other period was this 
anomaly so visible as during this war. Many reasons 
have been given for this, and some, clothing the miser- 
able lives of these abortions with extenuating favor, 
have tried to cover their sins and their shames with the 
gauzy mantle of romance. But whatever causes first 
impelled these men to forsake their color and their 
kin, and to embrace the savagery of the half-naked 
red men at a time when they were debasing their 
own race, and were bringing into contempt all the 
humane traditions of their progenitors, there is one 

1 Craig, " ITistory of Pittsburgh." 

2 Withers' Chronicles. 

3 Reports Supreme Court Pennsylvania. 



thing certain, that they became more savage than the 
veriest savage. To all time will the example of these 
men remain a subject for the moralist ami the phi- 
losopher, and their lives a plausible argument that the 
baseness of man's nature and his innate depravity will 
and do easily and readily assert themselves. The truth 
will appear to be that some left the societyof the whites 
from individual quarrels, some through desertion from 
the American army, and the consequent fear of re- 
turning, but most were drawn to such an invidious 
manner of Hie by the money and the promises of the 
British agents. These men fought with the Indians 
after their mode; they fell into their habits ami spoke 
their language. They became their leaders, and di- 
rected the movements of the squads which they ac- 
companied; they were the first to plan a foray, and 
the most careful in an attack. They could liberate a 
prisoner at the stake when the fagots were already 
set on tire, or they could tie up a refractory warrior 
to a sapling and lash him with a thong till bis skin 
was flayed open. They knew where the colonists 
were weakest, and the points most desirable to attack ; 
when in command they were implicitly obeyed, and 
followed with a recklessness which their own leaders 
could not have commanded. They received the 
bounty offered for scalps, and gave to the Indians in 
return their tire-water or their glass beads. They got 
from the whites the most opprobrious nicknames, and 
their names were held in abhorrence by those whom 
they had deserted, and execrated by the wailing 
households that mourned the death of fathers, or sons, 
or brothers. They were called renegades, deserters, 
white savages, cut-throats, dogs. To these renegades 
the settlers of Westmoreland traced the great source 
of their trouble. 

The three most conspicuous of these renegades were 
Simon ( rirty, Alexander McKee, ami Matthew Elliott. 
Girt} passed his time mostly with the Mingoes, al- 
though he was a privileged character, and wherever 
he went he was allowed to command. He knew the 
western part of Pennsylvania well, having been an 
Indian agent along the Ohio River as early as 1749. 
He bad also been connected with Dunmore's army, 
as the people of these parts knew to their sorrow, he 
being in the regular line of promotion after Connolly. 
He knew all about Hannastown, and it was he who 
got the blacksmith tools and battered down the door 
of the jail when the rabble took possession of the 
public buildings. McKee had also been an Indian 
agent, and had taken up some of the first land about 
Pittsburgh. He was something of a shrewd business 
man, but as a warrior was not to be compared with 
his illustrious brother, the Coriolanus who swore to 
" plow Rome and harrow Italy." In 1779, McKee 
was created agent in the room of Mr. Hays, and 
lived at Detroit.* There were others of lesser light, 

* Letter to Col. Brodhead, June 29, 1770; Archives, vol. iii , N. S., 
page 30G. 



03 



I1TSTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



but these three won a more than ordinary notoriety, 
ami were called the unholy trinity. 

While those who affiliated with the Indians were 
debased, the white settlers, from such intimate con- 
nection with their enemies, were, from force of cir- 
cumstances, themselves aliased, so that during these 
times things were done which have caused their 
children's children to blush deeply with shame. The 
common laws of humanity which immemorially 
have obtained among all people were disregarded. 
The very temples of hospitality were sacrilegiously 
profaned. Red men such as Cornstalk, who pos- 
sessed some of the noblest traits of genuine manhood, 
and who were known friends of the colonists, were de- 
coyed into unsuspected places, and in cold blood, with- 
out passion, by persons calling themselves men, mur- 
dered. 1 The culmination of all was when the Mora- 
vian Indians were massacred in 17S1, for after all the 
sufferings of the people they were shocked at the 
enormity of that deed. When Neville had come 
from Virginia to hoi 1 Pittsburgh against the machin- 
ations of Dunmnre and Connolly, he was allowed to 
remain by the sanction of Congress. He held this 
point till some time in 1777. 

During the Revolutionary war the post of Pitts- 
burgh was commanded, after Neville, by Gen. Hand, 
Gen. Mcintosh, Col. Brodhead, and Gen. Irvine, suc- 
cessively, by Continental authority. Their chief duty 
was to guard the frontiers against the savages, as 
well as to preserve order among those people who 
were frontiersmen, and who had but little respect for 
any kind of legal authority. 



1 Tiir Murder or Cornstalk.— This ever memorable action, which 
helped so much to alienate the Indians of Sonthern Ohio, occurred ill 

Point Pleasant, in the fort erected on the site of limn -v. or rattier 

Lewis' -real hattlti lit the spring of 1777 a company of militia garri- 
soned that post. Tin- celebrated Cornstalk, then in old age, and li.-.l 

Hawk, a warrior of some notoriety anions the powerful Shawm si-, 

ami whose tribe had till then kept aloof from tin- war, visiting the fort 
i-i the interest of peace, wen- under a Bpecious pretext held as hostages. 
While detained in tin- fort, Cornstalk one day heard his son, [Cllinipsico, 
calling to him across the river. Tim young savage, mindful of a nihil 
affection nut wanting in his Mil. I nature, knowing not what detained 
his father, and anxious for him, had come to the fort to find him. Mi- 
liar admitted. It so unfortunately happened on tho next day that two 
of the men uboul the ton goiugout to hunt were killed. Then it was 
that those iii tin: fort, in the vain hope to he revenged, fell upon the 
helpless unarmed Indiana who wero under their keeping, whom they 
attacked, and whom they inhumanly murdered. All those in thefort 

they killed. Even tie- scliool-l ks tell how Elliuipsico, when he saw 

the murderers approach, became agitated, and how his father in his 
death was no less a historically great man than on that day wbeti his 
voice was heard over the noise ol i he hat tie ol the Point. When he had 
seen the iuevitahle, he drew his blanket as a toga about him, and Baid 
to his son, " The Great Spirit has go willed it, and has sent you to the 
end that we should die together: let us submit." His words were to 
this effect; anil when the murderora were coming In- rose to meet them, 
anil received Beveil halls in his body. Ellinipsieo was shot npon the 

seat he occupied when the knowledge of his approaching Heath was fust 
made sure; Red Hawk was shot trying to escape by climbing a chim- 
ney; ami another Indian with them was killed in a most bin batons 

manner. This occurrence drove their tribe into open war against the 
Is of Virginia, and made them forever their enemies, 
\s to scalp bounty, see note to Chap. XXX. ; as to Moravian massacre, 
see Chap. XXV. 



Taken generally, the policy of the commandants at 
Fort Pitt was an offensive policy, but their forces 
were inadequate, and to such extent was the country 
impoverished that no sustained campaign could be 
carried on. Alter each foray or expedition had spent 
its force it fell back again exhausted. The Virginia 
emigrants down the Ohio and along the frontier of 
Kentucky battled bravely against the hordes which 
poured out of the woods of Northern Indiana and 
from about the lakes. To give these and our own 
people some show of public countenance the expe- 
dition under Gen. Mcintosh had been planned. Mc- 
intosh, with portions of the Eighth Pennsylvania and 
Thirteenth Virginia Regiments, left Pittsburgh by 
way of the Big Beaver, built a fort on the present 
site of the town of Beaver, left there a garrison, and 
thus held the tribes in check for a time. Col. Brod- 
head, the successor of Gen. Mcintosh, in 1779 sent a 
party up the Allegheny, from which direction came 
those squads that, crossing the Kiskiininetas, overran 
the country as far down as the Sewickley. In this 
campaign Brodhead destroyed the Indian cornfields 
and the town on the site of Conewago. 

But a more successful campaign was planned and 
carried out by the genius ami foresight of one man. 
George Rogers Clark was a Virginian, and a man 
destined to be favorably remembered by the success 
of those acts which were the result of his intrepid 
boldness, inflexible perseverance, unflinching will, and 
judicious foresight. He was partly assisted by the 
private exertions of prominent men in his State, but 
when he started front Old Redstone on the Mimini- 
gahela he took with him and his Virginia comrades 
some Westmorelanders, who remained with him to 
the last. Then he and his followers, in the great 
wilderness, hundreds of miles from their babes and 
hoines, began ami followed up that series of brilliant 
movements and successful stratagems which after- 
wards crowned their efforts with success and them- 
selves with honor, and which, baffling the cunning of 
the wily Governor, wrenched from Britain her sta- 
tions on the rivers, and gave to the Union the terri- 
tory which now forms half a dozen States in the most 
flourishing part of the Mississippi Valley." 

The most noted of the expeditions into the Indian 
country were made by troops under Mcintosh ; Brod- 
head, 1780; Loch ry, 1782; Crawford, 17N2. By re- 
membering these dates it will assist to recall smaller 
and intermediate expeditions more closely concerning 
us, as we shall only refer to these, as our narrative is 
necessarily connected with them. 

This conflict along the frontier, which may not 
inaptly be called a conflict between the races, and 
which began with the war for independence, continued 
till the war for independence was fully over. And 
of this conflict it is not to be understood that it was 
one grand system of attack and defense. Not at all 

- Vide Bancroft, vol. x. 



BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS. 



90 



times were the same tribes arrayed against the same 
settlers. The animosity between the border settlers 
and the Indians has been notieed more than once, 
and to the Northwestern tribes the general war was 
one long, grand holiday of carnage. They were al- 
lowed, and indeed incited, to kill as many as they 
could, to spare no one, and to claim with cheerfulness 
the price of the scalps brought in, which price the 
agents got hack usually for whiskey. While their war 
at first was directed against the Virginians, the border 
settlers of Westmoreland suffered with them, and the 
only part that escaped was that part behind the rivers, 
now best known to us as Fayette County. Indian ag- 
gression after Braddock's defeat never extended into 
that region with any profit, for those who inhabited 
there were so situated that they always had timely 
warning. But even in the dry decisions of the Su- 
preme Courts, where one would last go to hunt for it, 
we see that the settlers along the Sewickley had, in 
1777 and 1778, to leave their lands and cabins from 
savage inroads evidently directed against their neigh- 
bors. 

The disputed line trouble was at this time an ad- 
vantage not seen nor dreamed of by those who had at 
first so actively urged on the controversy to a fever 
heat, and which was almost the cause of the sword 
being drawn. So peculiarly are mortal affairs mixed 
up with circumstances beyond their control, that what 
at one time is an advantage may at another time be a | 
disadvantage. The line was not adjusted when the 
Revolutionary war broke out, and the people and the 
country were divided into two grand divisions. Owing 
to this separation each part of the old county was 
better enabled to take care of itself. A system of 
mutual protection was more readily and more success- 
fully etl'eeted than could have been possible had the ter- 
ritory of the county remained whole or intact. The 
distance from one extreme to the other was too far for 
concerted and prompt action, and the interests of the 
people too inharmonious to coalesce. There would 
have been rivalries in the command, jealousies in the 
distribution of forces, and bickerings arising from the 
apportionment of supplies and munitions. As it was, 
the elements in each division could more readily har- 
monize and more effectively co-operate; their sense 
of mutual protection was the more keen, and the ties 
of community more closely drawn. To divide was to 
conquer. Those south of the Youghiogheny joined 
the Virginians in their wars, while those north of the 
river, and which is of Westmoreland, during all the 
war sustained the harassing attacks of the savages, and 
repelled them with the force of their own arms and 
courage. Along this imaginary and invisible line 
either fled to the block-houses of the other, and all 
joined together to follow up the trails of the marau- 
ders. They have had the story of their trials told, 
while our settlers have theirs yet to be related. 

Then the legal authority, which at first had promised 
so auspiciously, was now, by reason of the internal 



troubles of which we are familiar, all but powerless. 
While the laws along the southern border wire in 
abeyance, and when the best ami bravest of the peo- 
ple were in the army at a remote distance, a favorable 
pretext was given for a revival of the old question as 
to whether Virginia was in Pennsylvania or whether 
Pennsylvania was in Virginia. It will be remembered 
that when Dunmore laid claim to Southwestern Penn- 
sylvania he embraced the whole of the West in Au- 
gusta County, with Staunton as the county-seat, but 
with the county court sitting sometimes at Staunton 
and sometimes at Pittsburgh. 1 The county courts of 
Virginia, at this time established south of the Youg- 
hiogheny, meted out a kind of irregular justice 
among those along the border, who were nearly al- 
ways at war. Taking advantage of this condition of 
affairs, the inhabitants on either side had early refused 
to perform any public military duty ; a jury could not 
be impaneled, nor a constable be got to serve process. 
Taxes could not be levied nor collected, nor was there 
a purchaser for land to be found. 

Besides the cheapness of land which made these 
settlers favor the claim of Virginia, the condition of 
public affairs were incentives to increase this commo-' 
tion ; and these causes, added to the passiveness of 
Westmoreland, gave Virginia opportunity in 177(i to 
annex that part of Pennsylvania lying west of the 
peninsula region, now aptly known to us as Greene 
County, to the part already in dispute. The more 
perfectly to accomplish this result, she erected, in 
October of that year, all these parts, in connection 
with some of the adjacent territory of what is now 
West Virginia, into three counties, each with its 
county-seat and county jurisdiction. These she named 
Monongalia, Ohio, and Yohogania. 8 What was left 
of Westmoreland County was a defenseless frontier, 
exposed to Canadian-British outlaws, renegades, ami 
savages. While Virginia at home detested Dunmore, 
she did not look with disfavor on his usurpation 
abroad, and what he had done for the king she con- 
sidered as having been done for herself. From 1774 
to 1776 the territory in dispute, extending up the 
Ohio, had been treated by Virginia as of her territory, 
and as such was incorporated, as we have seen, into 
Augusta County, and the courts thereof, upon ad- 
journments from Staunton, were held at Pittsburgh 
till the erection of these other counties. Here, 
under the cover of Virginia jurisdiction, taxes were 
levied and collected, roads, mills, taverns, and ferries 
authorized, lands marked, titles recorded, ministers 
licensed, fees received for marriage certificates, and 
judicial functions exercised in court and at chambers, 
and during this time the only undisputed territory 
under the jurisdiction of our State and county was 
confined to a small region around Haunastown, ex- 

1 Brownsville (Fort Blird) was nut tt county-seat for Augusta County 
as sometimes erroneously reported. 

2 For Monongahela, Ohio, anil Youghiogheuy fas to the variety of 
spellings), see chapter on nomenclature. 



100 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



tending to a line which was probably not more than 
ten or fifteen miles from the Monongahela on this 
side. Anything like an ordinary state of order was 
confined to the vicinage of Fort Dunmore (or Pitts- 
burgh), and in the rest of the usurped jurisdiction it 
was more of a showing of authority than a reality. 
The state of law and morals in the easterly part of 
this region down through the Revolution was worse 
than in any other part. Among the dwellers in the 
Mesopotamian region — that part of the country now 
Washington County — there was no law. 1 

These counties went into operative effect in Decem- 
ber. That part of Monongalia County in Pennsyl- 
vania included in 1776 a small portion of Washing- 
ton County upon the Ten Mile Creek, which flows 
into the Monongahela, about one-third of the south- 
western part of Fayette, and all of Greene. Ohio 
County embraced about one-third of Washington 
County, in the west below Cross Creek. As for Yo- 
hogania, it covered all the other part of the disputed 
as well as the undisputed region north and east of the 
other two in Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, 
and Fayette, and was only bounded by the undefined 
line never adjusted. 

The court-house of Monongalia was at New Geneva; 
that of Ohio at Black's cabin, near West Liberty ; 
and that of Yohogania on the plantation of Robert 
Heath, on the western bank of the Monongahela, 
about where the line of Washington and Allegheny 
Counties strikes that river. The records of the coun- 
ties of Monongalia and Ohio are not extant, but a 
part of those of Yohogania are still preserved, and 
are the only existing monument of its civil existence. 2 

Its courts, according to Judge Veech, did a large and 
varied business, civil, criminal, military, and mixed. 
It had the advantage of a bar of regular lawyers 
who practiced in the county courts of Western Vir- 
ginia. Dorsey Pentecost, a formerly appointed jus- 
tice of the peace for Westmoreland, and the first 
councilor for Washington County, was chief clerk 
of the Yohogania arrangement, and stands in about 
the same relation to that county a,s St, Clair stands to 
Westmoreland. Pentecost was an efficient coadjutor 
of John Connolly when Connolly's favor was pre- 
sumably worth something. His residence was in the 
Forks of the Yough. Dorsey Pentecost, like Thomas 
Scott, redeemed his character for patriotism, but both 
of them, in their capriciousness, were more unstable 
than Connolly himself; for wdiereas Connolly's rab- 
ble were as averse to Virginia government as to Penn- 
sylvania government, and patriotically considered 
that government to be the best which governed least, 

1 "In flie section of country where my father lived there was fur many 
years after the settlenieutof the country neither law nor gospel. During 
a lung period we knew nothing of courts, lawyers, magistrates, sheriffs, 
or constables. Every one was, therefore, at liberty to do whatever was 
right in his own eyes." — Her. Dr. Doddridge, 

- We have heard these were in possession of Judge Veech, now ile 
censed, to whose writings wo are indebted, in great part, for information 
on this subject. 



Connolly as a man was as fixed and as unchanging as 
Girty. To Pentecost it was little difference what was 
the name of the county so he had an office in it, and 
Scott showed his hand when he began inquiring after 
boundary lines at the time of the New State project. 

In the Appendix may be found the names of the 
officers of the county.' 1 Of its sheriffs, representatives, 
and justices, some were of the most prominent and 
useful men in our early history. 

The data following are collected from the records 
of the county courts, and begin December the 23d, 
1770, and end in 1781. 

Their first election came off on a Sunday, which 
among the Virginians was not an unusual thing. 
Several justices, in the first place, refused to serve as 
sheriff because of the uncertainty of the boundary 
lines, being apprehensive of becoming involved in 
trouble. For the first eight months the court seems 
to have sat at Pittsburgh, then for two months at the 
house of Andrew Heath, and thenceforth at the new 
court-house on his plantation. From the specifica- 
tions ordered Aug. 22, 1777, the court-house and jail 
were to be included in one building of round, sound 
oak logs, to be two stories high, twenty-four feet long, 
and sixteen feet wide. The lower story was to be 
eight feet high, partitioned in the middle with square 
hewed logs, the doors and windows to be secured 
with bars and lock. This part was to be the jail. . 
The height of the upper story was to be five feet, 
with convenient seats prepared for the court and bar, 
and a table for the clerk. The covering was to be a 
good cabin roof. This was to remain one room, and 
a pair of stairs to be erected on the outside to ascend 
by. In October the building committee ordered a 
stone chimney to be built in the middle for both the 
court-house and jail, with three fireplaces, two below 
and one above, and also that the building be chunked, 
daubed, and plastered, and a window of four panes, 
of eight by ten, put in each "glebe" of the court- 
house. On April 29, 1778, a pair of stocks, whipping- 
post, and pillory were ordered to be built in the court- 
house yard, and the order was renewed on Nov. 24, 
1778. An addition was also ordered to the building 
of a room sixteen feet square, one story high, of good 
logs, cabin roof, and outside wooden chimney, with 
seats, sheriff's box, and so forth, fur a court-room. 
Every sheriff, as usual, enters his protest against the 
sufficiency of the jail, and there are repeated appoint- 
ments of justices to take lists of tithables in desig- 
nated districts, and to tender the oath of allegiance. 

On June 25, 1777, James Johnston was fined twenty 
shillings for two profane oaths and one curse, and 
this fine, no doubt, making Mr. Johnston curse louder 
and deeper, he was further fined the same day the 
same sum for four oaths. What happened to Robert 
Hamilton on the 26th of August, 1777, while a pris- 
oner in the sheriff's custody, for "disrespectfully in- 

s See Appendix " N." 



BORDER WARFARE AND CIVIL DISSENSIONS. 



101 



suiting the court" in the person of Richard Yates, 

gentleman, "in the grocest and most imperlite man- 
ner," was that the feet of the said Robert were eon- 
fined in the lower rails of the fence for the space of 
five minutes. 

On June 24, 1778, cotton- and wool-cards were 
ordered to be distributed in Col. Cox's and Col. 
Stephenson's battalions according to the number of 
women therein. On Oct. 28, 1777, it was ordered that 
the inhabitants of the county have leave to inoculate 
for the smallpox at their own houses, and at such 
other convenient places as they might think proper. 

As it would be tedious to enter into the details of 
this controversy still further, we may anticipate events 
and state how and when these difficulties were ad- 
justed. 

All attempts made by the Governors of Pennsylva- 
nia with Dunmore to adjust the claims amounted to 
nothing. The question then lay open for five years, 
till 1770, when a movement was made to effect a set- 
tlement. Five prominent men, three from Pennsyl- 
vania and two from Virginia, wore appointed to fix 
upon a boundary. The agreement entered into by 
these gentlemen on the 31st of August, 1779, was to 
the effect that they, the committee named, did, in 
behalf of their respective States, ratify and confirm 
the agreement to extend Mason and Dixon's line due 
west five degrees of longitude from the Delaware for 
the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a 
meridian line drawn from the western terminus of 
this Mason and Dixon's line to the northern limit of 
Pennsylvania should be the western boundary of that 
State forever. This agreement was confirmed and 
ratified by the Legislature of Virginia, upon certain 
conditions, on the 23d of June, 1780, and by a reso- 
lution (only) of the General Assembly of Pennsylva- 
nia on the 23d of September, 1780. The conditions 
upon which Virginia confirmed this agreement were 
that the private property and rights of all persons 
acquired under, founded on, or recognized by the laws 
of either county previous to that date should be 
saved and confirmed to them, although they should 
be found to fall within the limits of the other; and 
that in the decision of disputes thereon preference 
should be given to the older or prior right, whichever 
of the said States the same should have been acquired 
under. These conditions were recognized, and the 
agreement ratified by act of April 1, 1784. And dur- 
ing this year the boundaries were run and marked by 
stones set in the ground. 

This celebrated line of demarkation, by name fam- 
iliarly known, is the parallel of latitude thirty-nine 
degrees forty-three and odd minutes, which first was 



run to separate Pennsylvania from Maryland to settle 
the dispute between those two colonies. It was drawn 
by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who surveyed 
the line between 17G3 and 1767. At the end of every 
fifth mile a stone' was fixed in the ground, on one 
side of which was graved the arms of the Penn 
family, and on the other the arms of Lord Baltimore. 
From the terminus of this line the stones, which 
marked the two territories of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia, had on the northern side the letter P, and on 
the other side the letter V. 

We shall have occasion frequently to notice the 
deplorable state of affairs which existed along this 
debatable region even up to the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war. The pretext for the evasion of the law 
and the shirking of duty was always handy ; as Fal- 
staff would have said, " If the cook helped to make 
the gluttony, the people helped to make the disease." 
Gen. Irvine, writing from Fort Pitt to Washington, 
March 30, 1782, says that the civil authority was by 
no means at that date properly established in this 
country, which the general did not doubt proceeded, 
in some degree, from the inattention in the executives 
of the two States in not running the boundary, which 
was an excuse for neglect of duty of all kinds for a 
great distance on either side. 

And it is seen that the jurisdiction of Westmore- 
land on its southwestern side, dating from the year of 
its existence till its jurisdiction was completely taken 
away by the erection of legitimate counties, was not 
near so extensive as some have casually inferred. 
The first of these legitimate counties w-as the county 
id' Washington, which by act of the Legislature of 
March 28, 1781, took existence, and which was, in 
truth, formed out of territory mostly acquired -from 
Virginia as the outcome of the settlement with her. 
It was bounded on the north by the Ohio River, on 
the east by the Monongahela, and on the south and 
west by Virginia. 2 Prior to the erection of Washing- 
ton County no attempts were made to exercise juris- 
diction west of the Monongahela. Fayette County 
was next taken out of Westmoreland, by act of Sept. 
26, 1783, as to all that part southwest of the Youg- 
hiogheny ; that part northeast of the river having 
been added by act of Feb. 14, 1784. That part of 
Allegheny taken from Westmoreland remained in 
Westmoreland till that county was erected by act of 
Sept. 24, 1788, when it encroached on the western 
side between the two rivers, as shown by the lines 
on the map. 

1 These stones were imported from England. 

-Greene County wjis taken out of Washington Feb. 9, 179G. See 
chapter on political divisions, infra. 



102 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER XX. 

FORTS, BLOCK-HOUSES, AND INCIDENTS OF AVAR- 
FARE. 

Belianre of Westmoreland in her Militia — Her means of defense — Be- 
set iptinn of the Early Stockades, Forts, Block-Houses — Block-Cabins 
ainl Stations— Fort Ligonierand Capt. Shannon and Col. McDowell — 
Hannastown Stockade— Fort Hand— Fort Reed— Fort Crawford— Fort 
Shippen t at Capt. Proctor's— Fort Allen— Bugles Block-House — Kep- 
ple's Block-House — Miller's Block-House and Station — Palmer's Block- 
House— Williams' Fort— Fort Waltour— Fort Wallace— Carnahan's 
Blot k-Honst — Barr's Block-IIonse— Shields' Block-House — Miller's 
Fort on the Sewicklay— McDowell's Block-House— Teague Island Cot 
— Incidents — The Francis Family killed uear Waltour's — Attack on 
Wal tour's Fort and death of the Old Man Waltour— The wounded 
Indian who killed Waltour comes to Fort Pitt — Has his wound 
dressed— Confesses that he shot Waltour — A Company front ahont 
Brush Creek go to the Garrison and demand him, that they may 
ini) islt liitii themselves — He is giveu up to them — lie is taken hack 
to Waltour's Fort to be burned at the stake— White they are hunt- 
ing ti|t a Sheriff and a Jury tit hold a mock trial the Indian escapes — 
He is followed Ninety Miles, ami when last heard of had taken to 
the Allegheny Kiver — Finley's adventure at Fort Wallace. 

While such expeditions as Clark's and even Mc- 
intosh's to the Muskingum diverted the more remote 
tribes and kept them at hay, the dangers to the West- 
moreland frontiers were more to be apprehended from 
those Northern Indians that harbored about the upper 
Allegheny and along the rivers of. Eastern Ohio. It 
is true, likewise, that during all the war a garrison, 
consisting sometimes of Continental troops, ami some- 
times of recruits of militia, was kept up at Pittsburgh. 
At all times, however, the main reliance, both for the 
safety of the post itself and for the protection of the 
inhabitants behind it, was in the volunteer militia of 
our county. Throughout the whole extent of the 
county, with perhaps the exception of that region 
between the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela, 
called the " Mesopotamian" region, the frontier peo- 
ple, from the" time of Dunmore's war in 1774, opened 
their clearings and cultivated their little patches un- 
der the protection of their block-houses land with 
their guns at their sides. It is true that Gibson, 
Brodhead, Crawford, and Lochry led out organized 
bodies and punished their enemy, but if there had 
not been such men as Brownlee, Shannon, Wallace, 
and Brady there would not have been a cabin left 
standing west of Laurel Hill. Even the women of 
that day won a share of the honor for their steadfast- 
ness and bravery, and every little community had its 
heroine, from Experience Bossart, at Dunkard Creek, 
to Massy Harbison, on the Kiskiminetas. These set- 
tlers defended their firesides, fought the British, ap- 
pointed their own military officers when not in the 
regular service, erected their own forts, fed and 
clothed, for the best part, their supplies of troops, 
kept the families of the poor among them, and bore 
almost alone the burden of that contest as it was 
carried on in the West. 

Of these forts and block-houses we shall now say 
something. The name stockade was the name given 
to those structures which were more mechanically 



raised and regularly built than the other defensive 
works, although stockades, forts, block-houses, and 
block-bouse cabins are called such without discrimi- 
nation. The stockades themselves were sometimes 
called forts and sometimes stockade-forts. The two 
most complete and best adapted of the old forts, the 
most important and the best known, were the stoek- 
ade-forts, the one of Ligonier and the other at Han- 
naatown. The system on which these were built was 
followed on the far western frontier as well as in those 
structures erected along the Allegheny and the Mo- 
nongahela. The stockade proper which gave the 
name was built of the poles of large trees, split down 
and cut to the length of ten or twelve feet. These 
were set upright in the ground and fitted closely to- 
gether side by side, with the surfaced or faced side of 
the logs (when they were faced) fronting outward. 
Those on the inside were pinned with long wooden 
pins to stout timbers, while other and longer logs 
fashioned in the same way were firmly fastened 
against these, ruuning horizontally along the whole 
length, and supported from the inside by strong tim- 
ber braces. These perpendicular logs were called 
the palisades, a word signifying originally stakes, or 
posts, and coming to mean fence-like, and applied to 
this arrangement because it somewhat resembled the 
pickets of a fence, and the pieces were indeed some- 
times called pickets. On the outside of the forts of 
this class the earth was thrown up against the walls, 
and in some this was done in the inside also. The 
inclosure was in the instance of these two principal 
forts sufficiently commodious to contain all that ever 
might have occasion to seek their shelter. 

Ligonier Fort was first laid out and built under the 
supervision of the engineers with the army of Forbes 
in 17-j.S. 1 The fort of the Revolutionary times differed 
somewhat from the first plan, as the first plan was 
nol fully carried out in the construction. It was built 
for all the purposes of a fort and a military post in 
the enemy's country, whereas the Hannastown fort 
was built after the country was to a certain extent in- 
habited. Ligonier Fort had cabins erected in the in- 
side of the stockade; and while the colony was under 
the proprietary government, especially after Pontiac's 
war of 1764, a garrison of from eighteen to thirty sol- 
diers were quartered here. The cabins for the soldiers 
were on the outside, about one hundred yards from 
.the fort, and within the walls were the officers' quar- 
ters, the magazines, the munitions and supplies. 
When it was garrisoned by the provincial troops there 
were a couple of howitzers mounted at the angles of 
the bastions and the walls were pierced for musketry. 
A covered way led to a spring on the hillside near to 
the fort. The fort stood on the northern bank of the 
I ,tt\ itlhanna, now within the limits of the present 
borough, between the main street and the creek in 
the upper part of the village. 

1 Plan of Fort Ligonier in Penu. Archives, old series. 



PLA$ 



FORT MCiOXIKU 

with pari ol' Ihr 
RETRENCHMENT. 



(' I'nu 'er Mct/iCtxint 
U S/n/Y //oi/xi.i 
I, Off let /■> ftariwk.v 
/*' Officer.? /tor/.tr.T 
(i I. i/it ft ft ' (jn/f/f/ffiicfrtio/i tri/ft ///i 
in/ 'i in/ ft 1/ fast at' ft ffittr) : 




FORTS, BLOCKHOUSES, AND INCIDENTS OF WARFARE. 



103 



The only way of entrance to the fort was through 
a large and very heavy gate hung on iron hinges, 
which in time of danger was keptelosed and guarded. 
A narrow ditch, left when the earth was thrown against 
the wall on the outside, was not intended merely to 
hold water, although it is said to have been frequently 
tilled with water from a race leading from the creek. 
Il is not to be presumed that this was of much utility 
for either defense or ward. 'When the regular garri- 
son was withdrawn the inhabitants of the valley kept 
the structure from falling into ruin, and occupied it 
during the Revolutionary war. It appears that < 'apt. 
Samuel Shannon, a father-in-law of Col. William 
McDowell, both of them Revolution era, was intrusted 
with the supervision of military affairs at the most 
critical times along from 1777 to 1780. 

The following extracts from authentic documents 
are not only interesting memorials of the early Fort 
Ligonier, but give some account of affairs happening 
in its vicinity which have not found their way into 
any general history of which we have knowledge. 
From Col. Miles' Journal we quote: 

"In the year 1758 the expedition against Fort rtuquesne, now Pitts- 
burgh, was undertaken, and our Battalion joined the British army at 

Carlisle. At this time Ca pt Lloyd h ad I n pro ted to the rallk.of 

Id. Col., hut retai ] 1 1 is . ipany iif which t had t Ik- a mi tin ml as Capt. 

Lieutenant, A was left some time in command ol' the garrison at Ship- 
pensburg. On my marching from thence with a brigade of wagons un- 

uVm- my charge, at Chamber's al t eleven miles from Shippeusburg, the 

men mutinied, & were preparing to march, lint by my reasoning with them 
at the same time threatening them, tho most <>f them consented to re- 
sume their march to Fort Louden, where Lieut. Scott was with eight or 
ti-u i on ti t liV pay. While the at my lay at Ligonier, we were attacked by 
a body of French & Indians, .V I was wounded in the foot by a Bpent 

ball. ... Ill the year 1759, I was stati -d at Ligonier, A hull 25 

men picked out of two battalions under my command, Ac" ' 

The following account of an engagement here during 
the French and Indian war is from a communication 
from Adam Stephen to Brig. -Gen. Stanwix, July 7, 
1759: 2 

" Yesterday (.Inly 6, 1759) nhmit one o'clock the s.-mits ami Hunters 

returned to camp .V icpoited that they had not seen the least sign of the 

enemy about; upon which, in compliance with Majr. Tnllikin'e request, 
Isent Lieut. Blaine with (he Royal Americans to Bedford, and as the 

party was hut small, ordered a sergeant A eighteen chosen woodsmen to 
conduct him through the woods, to the foot of Laurel Mill on the W-st 
Bide, with directions to return to camp without touching the road. 

"About three quart ers of an hour after the detach men t had marched the 
enemy made an attempt to sin prise the post. I cannot as eitain their 
numbers, but am certain they were considerably Bnperior to ours. At 

&HSt 1 imagined the enemy only intended to amuse the garrison whilst 
they were engaged with Lieut. Blaine's party, hot finding the place in- 
vested in an instant, & the enemy rush pretty briskly, I began to enter- 
tain hopes of their safety, A was only anxious for the sergeant & eighteen 
men. 

"The enemy made an efTort from every quarter, but the fire on the 
first redoubt was hottest, and in it Capt. .Tones was killed. 

" We are extremely obliged to T.t. Mitehelson of the Artillery, for his 
vigilance and application. After a few well placed shells & a brisk fire 
from the works, the enemy retired into the skirts of the woods, a con- 
tinued their fire at a distance till night. 

"The Sergeant (Packet, of the Virginians) returned about sunset 
without seeing an enemy until he came within sight of the fort. Tho 



1 Arch., 2d sei ies, 55'i. 



- Archives, vol ri. OSS. 



party behaved well, fought until they had orders to retreat A got in 
without the loss of a man. 

" P. S. — We have only Captn. Jones killed ,fc three men wounded, & 

flatter ourselves that their Ins* i- considerable." 

The fort at Hannastown was built by those neigh- 
bora of Robert Ilanna who lived around him at the 
time of Dunmore's war, 1774, the next year after the 
erection of the county. It was a hastily constructed 
affair, but was strong and durable. A building was first 
raised fashioned after a great double cabin-house of 
two stories, the upper stories almost entirely closed, 
only small holes being left between the logs through 
which the muzzles of the gnus could be pointed. 
There were no windows in it, and the roof was til most 
tint, so that it could not be fired from the outside. 
This upper story was higher than the palisades, wdiicb 
were of the height of about ten feet, and which in- 
closed the cabins within a square. 

Both the forts of Hannastown and of Ligonier were 
made distributing points for the arms and ammuni- 
' tion furnished to the associators, so that there were 
usually at least a few spare arms at either place till 
: towards the end of the war, when Hannastown was at- 
tacked, and at that time the means of defense were 
poorer than at any other time. 

St. Clair, in his memorial to the Pennsylvania As- 
sembly, says that during the time of Dunmore's war, 
before the Revolution, the forts which he supplied 
with arms ami means of defense at bis own expense 
were " Taylor's, Wallace's, Ligonier's, Lochry's, Han- 
nastown, Perry's, Walthour's, Carnahan's, and a num- 
ber of others not now recollected." 

As the word fort is applied indiscriminately, so is 
the word block-house. We therefore make a distinc- 
tion between a regular block-house and a block-house 
cabin. Block-houses were erected mostly in some lo- 
cality easy of approach by those settlers who were too 
far away from forts, and whose cabins of themselves 
were insecure. A block-house was a building made 
of large rough logs, and built after the fashion of a 
square house, but in size much larger than a house. 
The logs were notched into each other at the angles 
of the building, and the height of this square struc- 
ture was from ten to fourteen feet. At this height 
was begun another log story, the logs in which ex- 
tended from four to six feet beyond the square of the 
structure below it. This story was built up to the 
height of about six feet. The upper part had in its 
sides small apertures through which to fire; nor could 
an attack with advantage be made underneath, for 
the space underneath the projection was left open. A 
clapboard roof which terminated in an apex covered 
all. These block-houses were intended for temporary 
places of defense. No more provisions could be taken 
in them than was sufficient for immediate and press- 
ing want. Those wdio Hed thither expected to re- 
main only till the storm had blown over, or until help 
came. 

There was another class of structures built for de- 



104 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



fense on special emergencies, but which structures 
were not used continuously as forts, neither were most 
of them used as cabin-houses, and these we choose 
to consider by themselves. Of this class was Fort 
Crawford, built about 1777, on the Allegheny, about 
seventeen miles up from Pittsburgh, on the south- 
eastern side of the river, a short distance below the 
mouth of Puckety 1 Creek, where there was a shallow 
place used by the Indians fur a fording. This is now 
the site of Logan's Ferry. This fort was built on 
the earnest representations of Col. Crawford, and it 
was called after him. It was erected by militia sent 
out from Pittsburgh, assisted by the neighboring in- 
habitants, who were north of the main road at that 
time, and now in the limits of Burrell township. It 
guarded the crossing-place against the squads that 
came in from the parts west of the river, where 
the thick primeval woods for half a generation 
after the war still harbored small tribes and parts 
of tribes. These defensive posts were, as near as 
we can obtain, merely large structures, built of heavy 
logs, with stout doors, roofs almost fiat, and inside of 
which was a double cabin. At Fort Crawford a com- 
pany of militia was stationed off and on for several 
years, and there were sometimes a few extra arms 
there. 

Of this class was Fort Hand, near the confluence 
of Pine Run witli the Kiskiminetas, nearly twenty 
miles north of Greensburg. It was a block-house, 
and no residence. It was built by the people about 
1778, while Col. Hand commanded at Pittsburgh, and 
was called in his honor. So also was Heed's block- 
house or station, on the Allegheny, four miles below 
the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, and which was a 
place of refuge so late as the troubles of 1792. There 
was at times a company of militia on detailed duty 
here. Block-houses and block-house stations obtained 
more among the settlers along the southern border, 
and notably among those of Greene County, then 
Springhill township, and throughout Western Vir- 
ginia, 

Such also were Fort Shippen, at Col. John Proc- 
tor's, near the Loyalhanna in Unity, then Derry town- 
ship, and Tort Allen in Hempfield township, north 
of Greerjsburg, both built in 1774, and Rugh's block- 
house at Michael Rugh's on Jack's Run, about a mile 
and a half below Greensburg, built somewhat later. 

But the most common defensive structure of all 
were those strongly barricaded cabins sometimes 
called stations, but which are more properly known 
as block-house cabins. Such was the principal house 
at Miller's farm, about three miles southeast of Han- 
nastown, and not far from George Station, on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, east of Greensburg. This 
was a long, double log house, with heavy doors and 
windows which could be closed. There were many 

such, and they were in all parts of the county; and 



1 Indian, Pucketo. 



from the fact that they were so frequently the places 
of refuge they have received the name of fort, which 
wrongly designates them. These in the catalogue do 
go for forts, "as hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, 
spaniels, curs, shoughs, water-rugs, and denii-wolves 
are called all by the name of dogs." 2 

These stations would hold perhaps twenty persons 
when they huddled together on the fear of danger. 
Ride-holes or port-holes were on every side, and the 
light was admitted through narrow cracks in the 
gables, as they were chary of window-openings. 

One of these block-house cabins was Williams' 
block-house, near Donegal, on the Four-Mile Run. 
It stood near the site of that wall of prehistoric times 
which the oldest settlers say was old when they first 
came in. This was the centre of the Donegal settle- 
ment. Hither tied betimes the Gays, the Harmans, 
the Hayses, the Campbells, the Pipers. From the 
neighborhood of this block-house many captives were 
taken, and near it many others were killed. Another 
sheltering-plaee, called Palmer's Fort, opened its 
arms to those who lived down the valley on the 
Laurel Hill side. It was five or six miles from Li- 
gonier in that direction, and near the road from Li- 
gonier to Fairfield. 

Fort Waltour stood between one and two miles west 
of Adamsburg, ami about the same distance south of 
Harrison City village, near the old Pennsylvania road. 
This was one of those block-houses to which the 
people betimes collected, wdiere they stayed at night, 
and whence they went in the day to work in the fields. 
It was erected in very early times, and many stories 
which partake of the marvelous are treasured among 
the descendants of the people of that settlement. This 
was part of the Harrold settlement, a settlement as 
distinctively German as the Hannastovvu settlement 
was distinctively Scotch-Irish. In the history of the 
old block-house, the old church, the old Dutch school- 
house, and the burying-ground of the Harrold congre- 
gation lie hidden mines of wealth of great value to 
the industrious student of local and indigenous his- 
tory. 

Among the recollections of the Revolutionary times 
still preserved about here is the destruction of the 
cabin home of the Francis family, and the death or 
captivity of the inmates, which occurred some time 
previous to the Hannastown affair. This family lived 
about two miles west of Brush Creek. A squad of 
Indians coming suddenly upon them gained admis- 
sion to their cabin. Two of the family were killed, 
and the rest taken prisoners. One of the prisoners 
was a girl, who was afterwards married and lived in 
Hempfield township, where she died. Her brothers 
and sisters were scattered before they reached Canada. 
The Indians at the time of the attack set the cabin on 
fire, and did not remove the bodies of the two dead 
from where they had been scalped, but the bodies 

- Macbeth, Act III., Scene 1. 



FORTS, BLOCK HOUSES, AND INCIDENTS OF WARFARE. 



105 



were found near the burnt cabin the next day, one of 
the bodies lying so near the fire as to be roasted on 
its one side. They were buried by the neighbors at 
the garden fence.' 

There is a peculiar story related of a lame Indian 
which brings Waltonr's Fort into prominence, and 
which preserves the particulars of the death of the 
old man Waltour. We give the substance of it here, 
having taken it in part from a very rare book called 
"Border Life," now out of print. The authenticity 
of the narratives in that work is its claim for a matter 
of fact, and it is believed that the original story came 
from the pen of Judge Brackenridge, who bedecked 
even the rough fields of the law with the posies of 
literature, ami in whose hand the crude ore of fact 
was turned into the refined gold of romance. 

About the year 1786 one of those predatory squads 
coming into Westmoreland made their first demon- 
stration at Waltonr's.- The old man Waltour, his 
daughter, and two sons were at work in the field. 
They had their guns with them, and on the appear- 
ance of the Indians made towards the fort. The 
daughter was taken, but the old man and his two sons 
kept up a fire as they retreated, and had got nearly to 
the fort when the old man, beingshot, fell. An Indian 
ran up and had placed his foot upon him and was 
about taking his scalp when some one in the fort fired. 
The Indian gave a frightful yell, and made off limp- 
ing on one foot. After he had run off a party from 
the fort pursued him, as well as the others of the 
squad. He, however, hid himself in the bushes a 
tew yards from the path upon which his pursuers 
came along. 

The Indian lay quiet in this place among the bushes 
where he had thrown himself, waiting till pursuit was 
over, fearing that he might be tracked and taken. 
For three days he remained here. Then venturing 
out, he crawled along on his hands and one limb till 
he got a pole in the marsh, which he used to hobble 
along with. In the mean time he had lived on ber- 
ries and roots. He thus worked his way around till 
lie came within sight of the post at Turtle Creek, 
where a detachment of soldiers was stationed. Here 
he thought of giving himself up, but lay all day on 
a hill above the place, thinking whether he would or 
not; but seeing that the soldiers were militia and not 
regulars, he did not venture to do so ; for the Indians 
knew the distinction between these, and from the 
militia they expected no quarter. 

This Indian at first, so he said, had attempted to 
cross the Allegheny River at some distance above 
Pittsburgh, but his strength failing him he wished to 
gain the garrison wdiere the regular troops were. He 
had been there before the war, and was known to 
some. 

For thirty-seven clays from the affair at Waltour's 



1 Jacob Detar, father of Simon Detar, Esq., lielpc.l to bury them. 
- Usually written after the German way Walttionr. 



Fort this wretched creature had subsisted on plants 
ami routs, and had made his way on one loot by the 
help of the pole, and then, not knowing what to do 
with himself, came down into the edge of the town, 
ami -at in a porch of one of the houses, where he was 
seen in the twilight. To a girl of the house, who 
first came out, he spoke in broken English, and asked 
for milk. The girl ran in and returned with others 
of the family to see such a strange-looking object. 
If is said that he resembled a walking skeleton, with 
only the semblance of flesh upon his bones. When 
he was questioned he appeared too weak to give an 
account of himself, but still asked for milk. The 
milk was given him, and word was scut to Gen. 
Irvine, the commanding officer of the post, who sent 
a guard, by whom he was taken to the garrison. After 
having had food, and being able to talk, he was ques- 
tioned by the interpreter. At first he said that he had 
.been on the Beaver River trapping, and that he there 
had a difference with a Mingo Indian, who hail shot 
him in the leg, because he had said he wished to 
come to the white people. He was told that this 
Story was not credible, but that he must tell the truth, 
and that in so doing he would fare better. He then 
said that he was one of a party which had struck the 
settlement in the last moon, had attacked a fort, killed 
some, and taken some prisoners; there he had re- 
ceived his wound, and in the end related to the in- 
terpreter what we have already told. 

Alter the raid on the settlement a party from the 
fort had pursued the Indians to the Allegheny River, 
and hail found the body of the Waltour girl who had 
been taken in the field, and who had been toma- 
hawked and left. When this party had come back 
and heard that the Indian was still at the garrison 
they joined with others in a crowd, and with Mrs. 
Waltour, the widow of the man killed and the mother 
of the murdered girl, went to the garrison, and ad- 
dressing themselves to the commanding officer de- 
manded that the Indian should be delivered up, that 
it might be done with him as the widow and mother 
and relations of the deceased should think proper. 
After some deliberation it was thought advisable to 
let the people take him, for it was considered from the 
mode of war carried on by the Indians that they were 
not entitled to protection, and the country people 
were greatly dissatisfied that he was allowed to live 
after his confession, and as there was a loud clamor 
all through the settlement consequent on the death 
of a man so prominent as Waltour, he was delivered 
to the militia of the party who had come to demand 
him. He was put upon a horse and carried off with 
a view of being taken to the fort where the trouble 
had at first occurred. But as they were carrying him 
along his leg, the fracture of which had almost 
healed up by the care of the surgeon, was broken 
again by a fall from the horse, which awkwardly 
happened some way in carrying him. 

The abridged continuation of the story then is that 



10G 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the intention of the people was to summon a jury of 
the country and try him, not only for the sake of 
form, but, as they further alleged, in order to ascertain 
whether he was the identical Indian that had been of 
the party at Waltour's Fort, though it is not very 
probable that he would have had an impartial trial, 
there having been considerable prejudice against 
him. The circumstance of his being an Indian was 
sufficient to have condemned him. The idea was, in 
case of a verdict against him, which seemed morally 
certain, to execute him according to the Indian man- 
ner, by torture and burning. For the fate of Craw- 
ford and others was at that time in the minds of the 
people, and they thought retaliation a principle of 
natural justice. 

But while the jury were collecting some time must 
elapse— that night at least — for he was brought to the 
block-house in the evening. Accordingly a strong 
guard was appointed to take care of him, while in the. 
mean time one who had been deputed sherilf went to 
summon a jury, and others to collect wood and ma- 
terials for the burning, and to fix upon the place, 
which was to be the identical spot where he had re- 
ceived his wound while about to seal]) Waltour, whom 
he had shot in the field, just as he was raising the 
scalp halloo, twisting his hand in the hair of the 
head, and brandishing his scalping-knife. It is to be 
presumed that the guard was " off their guard" some- 
what on account of the lameness of the prisoner and 
the seeming impossibility that he could escape ; for it 
SO turned out that while engaged in conversation on 
the burning that was to take place, or by some other 
cause of inattention, he had been permitted to climb 
up at a remote corner of the block-house, get to the 
joists, from thence upon the wall-plate of the block- 
house, and from thence, as was supposed, to get down 
on the outside between the roof and the wall-plate. 
The block-house was so constructed that the roof over' 
jutted the wall of the house, resting on the ends of the 
joists, which protruded a foot or two beyond the wall, 
so that those within could fire down upon the Indians 
who should approach the house to set fire to it or at- 
tempt the door. But towards morning the Indian 
was missed, and when the jury met there was no In- 
dian to be brought before them. 

Search was made by the guard everywhere; the 
jury joined in the search, and the militia went out in 
all directions in order to follow his track and regain 
him. No discovery could be made, and as a conse- 
quence the guard were blamed for want of vigilance, 
although there were some who thought he was let go 
that they might not be under the necessity of burn- 
ing him. 

The search at length was abandoned ; but three 
days after this, a lad looking for his horses, saw an 
Indian, with a pole or long stick, just getting on one 
of them by help of a log or fallen tree. He had 
made a bridle of bark for the horse's head, and mak- 
ing use of this and a stick in guiding the horse, he 



set off on a smart trot in a direction towards the 
frontier of the settlement. The boy was afraid to 
discover himself or reclaim his horse, but ran home 
and gave the alarm, on which a party, in the course 
of the day, were collected and started in pursuit of 
the Indian again. They tracked the horse until it 
was dark. In the morning they followed the track 
as before, but found the course varied, taking into 
branches of streams to prevent pursuit. By this they 
were greatly delayed, as they lost time in tracing the 
stream to find where the horse had come out; ami 
sometimes the tracks of the horse could not be seen 
when he had taken the hard, dry ridges, and gone in 
a contrary direction so as to deceive them. In this 
manner the Indian had gotten to the Allegheny, 
where they found the horse with the bark bridle, ami 
where it appeared he had been left but a short time 
before. The sweat was scarcely dry upon his sides, 
and the distance he had come was about ninety miles. 
It was presumed the Indian had swam the river into 
uninhabited country, or those parts called the Indian 
country, where it was not safe to pursue him. For 
this reason the pursuit was given up. Others, how- 
ever, came to the conclusion that he never reached 
any of the Indian towns, for they had taken pains to 
inquire, but believed that he was cither drowned in 
the river or had famished in the woods, or that his 
broken limbs in the hot weather had caused his 
death. 

Fort Wallace, on the farm of Peter Wallace, on Mc- 
Gee's Run, near the Iviskiminctas, about two miles 
above Blairsville, was in border times a famous station. 
On the same farm was afterwards a mill known as 
Wallace's mill; the Wallaces being prominent, men 
in that neighborhood, one of them having been re- 
turned to the Assembly. Many stories are told of the. 
men who from time to time defended it ; their strength, 
their agility, and their bravery have been praised to 
the golden stars. One adventure from a good source 
appears to be credible ; we give it as related. 1 

It appears that when the Rev. James Finley, who 
was frequently intrusted by the Supreme Council of 
the Province and the Slate to till special commissions 
for it, was on a visit to Western Pennsylvania in 1772, 
he left his son, Ebenezer Finley, here. This young 
man, about 177o or 1777, had gone from Dunlap's 
Creek on a tour of militia duty along the Kiskimine- 
tas, in the place of another man. While the parly 
were at Fort Wallace, a man on horseback came up 
in ureal speed ami reported that the Indians hail been 
seen a short distance off; that he had left two men 
and a woman on foot trying to reach the fort, and that 
unless they were immediately assisted they would be 
lost. Young Finley, among eighteen or twenty others, 
started right out. About a mile and a half from the 
fort they came upon a considerable body of Indians. 
After a fire occurred a zigzag running fight began. 

1 The adventure is in "Old Redstone," page "JN4. 



FORAYS AND ADVENTURES. 



107 



Some of the party in making their way back to the 
fort were shot or tomahawked. Finley's gun would 
notgooft'. He stopped to pick his Hint and fell behind. 
An Indian was seen leveling his gun at him, but was 
fortunately shot before he could fire. Finley being 
fleet of foot was soon abreast with one of his com- 
panions, and in passing round the root of a tree, by 
a quick motion of his elbow against bis comrade's 
shoulder [Hissed him, and the next moment the com- 
rade fell under the tomahawk. The Indians were 
again gaining on him, when a man named Moor, see- 
ing his danger from having to cross a bridge exposed, 
Stopped, and by a well-directed aim of bis rifle enabled 
him to cross the bridge safely. After many doublings 
and turnings, in which the Indians were sometimes 
in the rear and sometimes in the front of Finley, he 
reached the fort in safety. 1 

Fort Barr was on the farm best known as the Gib- 
son farm, in Derry township, a good mile northwest 
of New Derry. Further mention is made of these 
two forts in the chapter on Derry township. / 

The Carnahan block-house was the cabin house of 
one of the Carnabans, possibly John, and its location 
was a short distance northeast of Perrysville, in Bell 
township. Shields' block-bouse was on the Loyal- 
lianna, about six miles from Greensburg. It was in 
being as early as 1774. 

A Miller's Fort, or block-house, was on the Big 
Bewiekley, on the Stokely farm, and Markle's Station 
was at the mouth of the Sewickley. An old block- 
house that went by the name of McDowell's Fort was 
near the site of Madison, and Teague Island Fort 
about five miles northwest of Greensburg. This series 
of forts was in connecting distance, and was used as 
a line of defense for the Sewickley settlement, the 
people about one warning those about the next. In 
McDowell's Fort James B. Oliver, Esq., 2 late of West 
Newton, was born, June 2, 17S1, while his parents had 
sought the slicker of that covering during that tem- 
pestuous year. Joseph McDowell, the owner of the 
farm upon which the fort was built, had bought the 
original tract, embracing four hundred acres, for a 
rifle gun and a little horse. 

1 Tliis is the narrative. At tiie time of this adventure the father was 
three hundred miles away. On that Jay, he says, lie had a Bti-ange and 
i ccountable impression that his sou was in danger, but mm distinct 

Conception of its nature. He prayed, and at length felt relieved, as 

though tin- danger wua past. lie tad never expel ieuced su< h an extra- 
ordinary sensation before, and so he made a note of it. A tew weeks 

afterward he received from his sun, who had returned to him, an ace t 

of liis nai iuu escape. The time col responded exactly with Mr. fin ley's 
strange experience. 

- rather ot the Hon. Mrs. Cowan. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

FORAYS AND ADVENTURES. 

During- the Early Part of the Revolutionary War— The Volunteers- 
Col. James Smith takes a Detachment up the Allegheny to Wench 
I'nad. or Venango— His Arrangement of the Men while on the 
March and in their Encampments — His Clan of Fighting the Indians 
— Brodhead's Expedition to Cnnewago and Brokenstraw— He cuts 
off a Party of Forty Indians on their way to the Westmoreland Set- 
tlements — Notice of Fort Armstrong, Kittanning— Brodhend soiids 
('apt. Brady into the Seneca Country— Trouble between the Continen- 
tal Officer* and the Militia Officers— Ranging U panics for I 

duijng the War by Direction of the State Officials— They are sta- 
tioned along the Rivers— Their Officers— Their Manner of Fighting— 
'the lleroie Women of Early Westmoreland: Experience Bozarth, 
Massy Harbison, Mrs. Margaret Oliver, Mrs. Matthew Jack. 

Ix this chapter we shall hastily run over the events 
transpiring within and upon the frontiers of the 
county from the commencement of the war to a 
period a few years later. In 1775, and the early part 
of 1776, the inhabitants were not molested to any 
grievous extent, neither did seed-time or harvest tail. 
Hut by the removal of Col. Mackay and his command 
from Kittanning and the adjacent posts the frontiers 
of the county were first laid open and exposed to the 
mercy of the faithless and uncertain savages. The 
militia were called out for short terms, and were 
placed by Col. Lochry at the disposal of Col. Hand, 
the Continental officer in command of the depart- 
ment; for during nearly all the time that officer was 
in command a company of Westmorelaiulers was 
stationed along the Allegheny. It was soon apparent 
that these were insufficient for the object in view. 
They were poorly cared for, and whenever they were 
called upon to leave their posts the savages, taking 
advantage of their weakness, broke over the lines and 
made such a war as they pleased. During 1777 there 
are numerous complaints of their depredations, and 
the President of the Council at recurring intervals 
sympathizes with the people, bids them be of good 
cheer, and promises them that the Council will soon 
furnish supplies. 

The manner of their warfare and of their mutual 
co-operation about this time may be seen in an ac- 
count of one of their expeditions. 

In the year 1778, Col. James Smith, who had just 
returned to the county, raised a body of men to pur- 
sue some Indians who had made an attack upon the 
Sewickley settlement. On the second day they over- 
took and defeated them, taking lour scalps/' and re- 
capturing the horses and plunder stolen. At the time 
of the attack Capt. John Hinkston pursued an In- 
dian, in the excitement not noticing that both their 
guns were empty. After the fray was over Hinkston 
was missing, and while the whites were inquiring 
about him he came walking back carrying the bloody 
scalp of the dead savage with him. He had pursued 
him about a quarter of a mile until he came up with 
hint, when he killed him with his tomahawk. 

3 Smith's narrrative, "Border Warfare." 



10S 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Shortly after this, in 1778, a body was raised from 
the county to go with some of Gen. Mcintosh's com- 
mand up the French or Venango Creek. This force 
was four hundred strong; they were called rifle- 
men, and Col. Smith was placed in command. In 
November they got orders from the general to march. 
From Smith's account, 1 they were poorly equipped, 
and scarce of provisions. They marched, after an 
arrangement of Smith's own, in three columns, forty 
rods from each other; there were flankers on the 
outside of each column ; the men in the columns 
marched in scattered order, and were each one rod 
apart; the volunteers marched abreast in the same 
manner as the flankers, scouring the woods. In case 
of an attack the men were to face out, and take to 
trees. This was to keep the Indians from surrounding 
them, or to have more than one chance at shooting at 
a man without exposing themselves. Their encamp- 
ment was formed in a hollow square, inclosing thirty 
or forty acres. Guards were placed on the outside of 
the square to watch the enemy and keep the cattle 
from going out. Smith's tactics in all cases was to 
keep the Indians from surrounding his party, and he 
argued that every great defeat suffered at their hands 
was effected by them in this way. 

On proceeding to French Creek they found the 
town deserted. Smith went farther than his orders 
called for, hut their provisions being about exhausted, 
they were obliged to return. The only result, there- 
fore, was the keeping the country quiet for some little 
time after the expedition was organized. Out of it, 
however, grew a good deal of recriminating talk be- 
tween Col. Smith and Col. Lochry, the county lieu- 
tenant, and their adherents. On charges against 
Smith, preferred by Lochry in his deposition, he was 
arraigned before a court-martial ; and in a memorial 
to the Executive Council he recites at large the causes 
of the complaint, and professes that he was not derelict 
in his duty. 2 

The campaign of the Continental army of 1779 did 
not open favorably. Money was so depreciated thai 
the hope of the Congress was in the liberality of private 
subscriptions. The credit of the country was so low 
that men could not be induced on that accountto enter 
the service. Notwithstanding this the commander- 
in-chief, to break up the Indian aggressions of the 
Six Nations and their confederates, sent two divisions, 
one from the Susquehanna under Sullivan, and one 
from the north under Clinton, which, after forming a 
junction, were to proceed by the Chemung River to 
the country of the Senecas and Cayugas. 

They fell in with the enemy on the Chemung and 
routed them, and marching farther into their country, 
committed much destruction of property and corn and 
took many prisoners. About the same time Brod- 

1 Smith had been BO long with the Indiana that he was thoroughly 
infatuated with their mode of warfare. See his famous letter to Wash- 
ington, advising him how to conduct his campaigns against them. 

- Pennsylvania Archives, X. S., vol. iii. 328. 



head, leading out a number of Westmoreland volun- 
teers, along with some Continental soldiers under his 
command from about Pittsburgh, went into the Mun- 
sie settlement on the north branch of the Allegheny, 
and destroyed their crops and burnt their villages 
about the mouth of the Brokenstraw and above the 
Conewago. He cut oft" a party of forty hostiles on 
their way to the Westmoreland settlements. Smith 
and Lochry accompanied this expedition. Its result 
was so effective that for a considerable time afterward 
no very extensive body of savages ventured to come 
upon the frontier, but carried on their depredations 
henceforth in a predatory manner. Some trouble 
which originated in this expedition between the com- 
manders of the volunteers and the Continental offi- 
cer- gave occasion for the former to withdraw their 
forces from the latter. This difficulty was the source 
of much complaint and of much subsequent suffering 
which the inhabitants had to sustain. 

From his headquarters at Pittsburgh, on the 24th 
of June, 1779, Col. Brodhead writes to President 
Reed as follows : 3 

"Lieut. -Col Bayard, with otie hundred and twenty, rank and file, is- 
now employed in erecting a stockade fort at K manning, which will mure 
effectually serine the frontiers ol Westmoreland and Bedford Counties, 
provided scoots are employed according to my directions^ The Mulligans 

and Shawiiees have sent me a slung of white Wampum and a speech, re- 
questing me to take pity on them and suffer litem to enjoy the blessings 
of peace. 1 believe I have frightened them by bringing over to our in- 
terest their chief ai lies, the [Itit'ous, [uw-as, Cli ppewas, and Puttawattu- 
mies. By the inclosed letters and speeches your excellency will discover 

the change, ami if 1 had hut a small quantity of Indian g Is, I would 

make them humble the Mingoes and capture many of the fchiglish; hut 

unfortunately I am nut in posse-si m of a single urtii le to pay them with. 

I have now a considerable quantity ol provisions, and * Id make a sue- 

ccsslul campaign up the Allegheny, hut I am not at liberty to do it. It 
would give me pleasure to know what reward might he safely offered for 
I udiiui scalps." 

From the same letter we get, in a short space, a 
rather satisfactory idea of how the Indians committed 
their depredations about this time, and how the 
whites repelled them. In it he relate- these particu- 
lars : 

" Ai" ut a fortnight ago three men whom I had Rent to reconnoitre the 
Seneca country returned from Venango, being chased by a number of 
warriors who were coming down the river in canoes. They oontiuu. d 

their pursuit until tliey came to this side of Kiltimiiiiig, and the white 
men narrowly escaped. A tew days after they returned, Captain Brady, 
with twenty white men and a young Delaware chief (his pet ), all well 
painted, set out towards the Seneca country, and the Indian warriors 

proceeded towards the settlements. They lolled a sohliur between Foit 
Crawford and Fort Hand, and proceeded to the Sewickley settlement, 
where they killed a woman and her four children, aud tuok two child ren 
prisoners. Captain Brady fell in with -even Indians of this party about 

fifteen miles above Kittanning, where the Indians had chosen an advan- 
tageous situation for their camp. He, however, surrounded them, and 
attacked them at the hreak of day. The Indian captain, a notorious 

warrior of the Munsie nation, was killed mi the spot, and several i 

mortally wounded, hut the woods were remarkably thick, and the party 

Could not pursue the tracks after they had stopped their wounds, which 
they always do as soon as possible after receiving them. Captain Brady, 
however, retook six horses, the two prisoners,* the scalps, and all their 

3 Archives, vii. 505. 

4 In a note to the Archives by Hazard, these two children were said to 
be living then, 185:*, one in Westmoreland, and the other in liullei ; L. 
C. Draper having statements from them. 



FORAYS AND ADVENTURES. 



109 



plunder, and took all the Indians' gun*, tomahawks, match coars, moc- 
casins, in fine, everything tliey had except their lneeeh-clouls. Captain 
Brady has great merit, but none has move distinguished merit in this 
enterprise than the young Delaware chief, whose name is Kanowland. 
Before Captain Brady returned, Lieutenant rJardin set out with a party 
"I eleven choice men, ami I am certain he will nut return without 
sealps or prisoners from the Seneca country." 

As Capt. Brady now comes upon the stage, we shall 
relate in a separate chapter some of his adventures as 
they occurred on the frontier border of the county 
during the most trying and darkest period of her 
border war. By so doing we can convey a better 
knowledge of the true state of affairs than by follow- 
ing up an unbroken line of quotations and inferences. 

The militia called out on occasions to serve when 
there was danger of an attack, or to garrison for the 
time some post, were under the direction and control 
of the county lieutenants, unless when in actual ser- 
vice, when they were under the command of the 
officers of the department. This arrangement was a 
cause of much embarrassment, for often when the 
lieutenants needed the men for special duty they 
were, if in service, not allowed to go from the regular 
command. There are several instances in which 
Lochry and Brodhead were brought in contact with 
each other, from which contact the public good was 
not subserved. The most noticeable of these oc- 
curred in 1779, at a time of great apprehension, and 
when the expectation of assistance from the State 
was meagre. There were at that time two companies 
of short-term militia from Westmoreland, stationed 
the one at Fort Armstong, Kittanning, the other at 
Fort Crawford, Puckety. Capt. Thomas Campbell 
commanded one of these, and Capt. Joseph Erwin, 
the father-in-law of Lochry, commanded the other. 
They were then under the control of Brodhead, but 
Lochry, obtaining the permission of the Council, 
ordered them back to the line of the Kiskiminetas. 
When these, therefore, applied to Brodhead for horses 
and provisions they were refused, which was the oc- 
casion of many bitter words and of much complaint 
on both sides to the president and Council. 

Home time in 17S0, Col. Lochry was under the 
necessity of removing the j^ublic records of the 
county from Hannastown to his own house on the 
Twelve-Mile Run, 1 after consulting with the judge of 
the court in whose custody they were, who was of the 
opinion it would be of no prejudice to the inhabitants. 
This was thought necessary, as Hannastown was then 
regarded as very weak and on the frontier. 

in June of 1780 the president of the Council sent 
an additional installment of depreciated currency for 
the use of the people, and also ordered some compa- 
nies from the eastern counties, but it does not appear 
that these came. The Council ordered at one time 
four companies to be raised for the frontiers within 
the county itself. There was not much difficulty in 
raising the men, but the money was so valueless that 

' The Twelve-Mile Run, as we observed, flows into the Fourteen-Mile 
Bun near St. Vincent's monastery. 



they thought best not to scud any commissions, as the 
State was unable to raise good money. President 
Reed in a letter to Col. Proctor, says that the Coun- 
cil thought best to issue a proclamation encouraging 
the young men to turn out in small parties as the 
enemy did, they being convinced that such parties as 
these would do more for the real protection of the 
garrisons and forts than the regular militia. 

It was thus that during this time the salvation of 
the people was in those ranging-parties which the 
young men chose to join in preference to the militia 
or to entering the regular service. Of those who, 
from 1778 to 1780, were prominent in the ranging 
service we mention James Guthrie, Thomas Stokely, 
Matthew Jack, Michael Hutfnagle, James Smith, 
Joseph Erwin, William Cooper, Samuel Shannon, 
Brady, Van Swearingen, the Wallaces, the Barrs, 
Col. Wilson, the Brownlees, the Shaws. 

These ranging companies were formed for the most 
part of the fighting-men who lived nearest to each. 
They were dressed in the homespun of their own 
manufacture, and carried their own rides, knives, and 
hatchets. When word came that they were needed 
they hastened together and put themselves under the 
orders of their officers. It was their duty to alarm 
the settlers when an attack had been made or ws 
apprehended, and they were to help off the women 
and children into some place of safety. These men 
in time became so expert, in this manner of warfare, 
and all their natural senses became so developed by 
usage, that they could travel as well by night as by 
day, could see like a night animal, could distinguish 
sounds of danger which were unheard by others, 
could stand endurance and want of food beyond all 
belief, became agile and swift of foot, dexterous with 
the rifle, and by usage so accustomed to danger and 
adventure that their feats and escapes were net only 
marvelous, but sometimes appeared to be, as they 
were really regarded, miraculous. 

In perpetuating the memory and the acts of the 
men who ought to flourish in the grateful recollection 
of their descendants, we must not lightly pass over a 
notice of the women, who in every sense were hero- 
ines. The knowledge of some of these has conic 
down to us from their having been the subject of 
some noted episode; but it has been the custom to 
pass them over without notice. The innocent suffer- 
ings of Peggy Shaw are, in truth, inseparably con- 
nected with the history of Hannastown, but the un- 
doubted acts of bravery of many others have been 
less fortunately preserved. It has been established 
upon the testimony of accurate observers - that the 
women of the early period were, iu certain respects, 
a stronger minded (or stronger willed, if you please 
class than their daughters. The graces of womanhood, 
it is true, could not flourish in their surroundings; 
and there are well-attested instances where some who 

2 Both physiological and psychological. 



Ill) 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



had been reared in the refined society of Europe, or 
of the cities of the East, coming out to share the hard- 
ships of pioneer life, either drooped away in disease 
or fell into imbecile childhood. 1 But this does not 
detract, but is an illustration of the doctrine of the 
survival of the fittest. And we advert here to that 
class who were raised up in the families of the border 
settlers, and who possessed strong bodies and equally 
strong minds. These were the women who were fit 
companions — the wives, I lie sisters, the, mothers — of 
those men to whom we are indebted for a share of 
the liberty which we now enjoy. 

To illustrate our point we adduce the instances of a 
few, and their example will answer for many others, 
and will serve to reflect the heroism and the hardi- 
hood of all. 

Possibly the most noted instance of hardihood pre- 
served in our annals is that which is related of Mrs. 
Experience Bozarth. She lived on Dunkard Creek, 
now within the limits of Washington County. In 
the spring of 177'.' two or three neighboring families, 
through tear of danger, took up their abode with her 
while the men were in the woods. At this time there 
were two men at the house besides the women and 
children. On a certain day the children out playing 
came running towards the house saying they had seen 
ugly red men. One of the men went to the door. He 
was shot in the breast and fell backward. The Indian 
jumped over the prostrate man and grappled with the 
other. The white man with great strength threw the 
Indian upon a bed and held him while lie called for 
a knife. All the rest of the women were screaming 
and in an anguish of fright. 

Mrs. Bozarth, not finding a knife, seized an axe, and 
with a dash of it sank it into the Indian's brain. At 
that instant another savage who had entered the 
door shot the white man dead who was tussling with 
and >till holding the Indian on the bed. The brave 
woman turned upon this Indian and attacked him 
with the axe. She gave him several ugly gashes, one 
of which let his bowels out. His yells ol pain brought 
Others of the savages from the murder of the children 
to his rescue. When the first one of these thrust his 
head inside the door it was cleft in two by the axe, 
when the body was pulled out by his comrades. Mrs. 
Bozarth then, with the help of the white man who 
hail been first shot, and who had now somewhat re- 
covered, shut the door upon them and fastened it. 
The living thus kept the house garrisoned for several 
da\ s, with the bodies of the dead white and Indian in it. 
During this time the Indians besieged it. They were 
finally relieved by a party sent out for that purpose. 

The remarkable sufferings and final escape of Massy 
Harbison are perhaps so well known that they will 
not beat repetition. We shall not recount the story 
in her words, but that devotion which is so apparent 
in all her trials may, we think, with propriety be re- 

1 See Harriot's Travels in Kortb America. 



ferred to. At the time she was taken by the Indians 
I she lived within sight of a block-house in Westmore- 
land, between Pittsburgh and Puckety. This was in 
May, 1702, after the defeat of St. Clair. A party of 
savages breaking into her house while she was there 
with her children, took her from her bed with an in- 
fant in her arms and made her follow them. Besides 
the babe she had two little boys. One of these cried 
and held back from going along. They killed him by 
taking him by the heels and dashing his head against 
the door-post. They set the mother on a stolen horse. 
When they crossed the Allegheny they murdered 
her other boy, who was still crying for his brother, 
and scalped him. She kept the babe still to her breast. 
They proceeded past the place wdiere Butler now 
stands. She had made up her mind to be killed, and 
to give the Indian who bad her a pretext she refused 
to carry what he put upon her. They, however, only 
beat her along with the bandies of their tomahawks. 
On the third morning, while the Indian who guarded 
her dozed, she got up and started into the woods. 
When she was from their sight she wandered around 
through fear, resting by day and groping in the dark- 
ness, in constant apprehension of being found, for 
three days more before she came to the Allegheny 
where she was taken up by some whites. During this 
time her sufferings were such as are hardly to be 
credited. She lived on berries and roots and soft 
bark; she was exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather; she was followed, and came near being taken 
when her child cried, which brought a warrior, wdio 
stood listening within a few steps of where she lay 
hid ; she was afraid to sleep lest her babe should cry ; 
she traveled at night and rested by day, and that she 
might use one hand to grope her way through the 
thick bushes she carried her babe in her shawl ami 
held the corners of it between her teeth. One stormy 
night, when she thought she would die, she rested 
her forehead against the bark of a tree, and as she 
shielded her little one, received upon her half-covered 
head the peltings of the pitiless storm. Neverthe- 
less she rose again and began her wanderings anew. 
She at last came to a deserted house close by the river, 
and going down to the bank she saw two men on the 
opposite side, who crossed over to her and took her to 
their block-house. When she was taken in to the fire 
she became delirious. Her clothing had been torn 
well-nigh off her back, and her limbs were lacerated 
by briers and filled with thorns ; there were thorns, 
indeed, which reached clear through her bare feet. 
From the good care of the whites and through the 
attention of the physician at Pittsburgh, to where 
she was removed, she in time recovered. The bar- 
barity of the Indians towards her offspring and her 
own sufferings were such that her deposition of the 
facts, as they are substantially contained in her nar- 
rative, was taken before John Wilkins, Esq., father of 
the Hon. William Wilkins, and published, as much 
no doubt to arouse the people of the border to act 



f 



LOWER LIGONIER VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



Ill 



against the savages as for any other purpose. For 
at that time, after a long peace, the inhabitants had 
grown backward in providing men for the defense of 
the frontier settlements, and the hope of the safety of 
these was in the spies and rangers who volunteered. 
AVe doubt whether a more forcible example of a 
mother's love and devotion can be unearthed from 
the mines of ancient or modern history ; and yet she 
was but one of many. 

Of women equally as brave and devoted every 
locality had some. Among these, perhaps, one might 
be more distinguished than the rest, and the example 
of such a one was alone worth many men. For many 
years the recollection of Mrs. Peggy Oliver, the 
mother of the late J. 15. Oliver, Esq., was fresh 
among the old inhabitants of the Sewiekley settle- 
ment. They talked with pride of her whom they had 
seen when she was a young and beautiful woman, 
mounted upon a favorite horse day after day during 
the most distressful time in the middle of the war, 
riding on a gallop between the block-houses and 
cabins which reached from up in Hempfield to Mar- 
kle's, at the mouth of the Sewiekley. She appeared 
to lead a charmed life, for it is said that she ventured 
to convey news and carry instruction on occasions 
when no other could be found to do so. At Hannas- 
town such another woman was Mrs. Matthew Jack, 
whose maiden name was Nancy Wilson. On the day 
of the attack she is said to have helped to carry and 
to have superintended the work of removing the 
records and papers from the court-house to the stock- 
ade. Her husband, at that time sheriff, was, as is 
well known, out giving the alarm among the settlers. 
From these instances sufficient may be gathered to 
form an idea of the spirit of these women. They had 
become so used to war and horrors that it was their 
special province to dress the wounds of those who 
had been hurt ; they knew all the simples which 
cured pains and aches, and in the absence of doctors 
they did all that doctors are usually presumed to do. 
They helped to sustain the defense of their cabins by 
running bullets, cutting patches, and priming the 
pieces. Many a time has the mother, upon a sudden 
attack, started up with her babe, while her husband 
took another child, and each fly to the wood in a differ- 
ent direction. Often they never saw each other again. 
Yea, sometimes has the mother been found dead, 
whilst the babe upon her breast was still alive. All 
could never be told ; but certain it is that the wives, 
mothers, and sisters of these first settlers of West- 
moreland were such women as bring forth strong- 
minded sons and gentle daughters; that they them- 
selves were as boundless in their love and charity as 
the sea that knows no lessening, and that they pos- 
sessed all the matronly virtues which, happily to be 
acknowledged, are everywhere the glory and the 
honor of their sex. 1 



CHAPTER XXII. 



1 Sec Appendix "0.' 



| LOWER LIGOXIER VALLEY DURING THE REVO- 
LUTION. 

I Ligonier Valley a Favorite Ground for the Indians, ami the First Stop- 
ping-Place of the Whiten— Privations ..f the Early Settlers along the 
Fonr-Mile Bun, Mill Creek, the Old Road, and Indian Creek— Murdei 
of tiie Campbell Family, and Captintj of Robert Campbell (with 
curious anecdotes)— He is sold to a British Officer— He is exchanged 
—Killing of tiie old Man Hannan and three of hie Neighbors— James 

Flack taken Prisoner— Escapes from Montreal, 1 comes through 

the Wilderness l.y means of a Compass— Charles Clifford taken i,y In- 
dians in Ambush— His Account of the Manners, II;. I, its, and Ways of 
Living of the Northern Indians— His Muster cures him of a Unit 
Foot— Peter Maliarg taken by the Same Party— Is made to Itun the 
Gauntlet— Clifford taken to Montreal— Is Exchanged alter having 
been with the Indians nearly Three Years— Collies I" the Valley, ami 
Dies at Home — lames Clifford aud his two Dogs, " Whig" and "Tory" 
—His adventure With the Indian, whom he shoots— Indians lying in 
wait attack a Party or Five who go to the Fields back of the Ful I — 
They kill .Miss Means, Young Mean-, ami Young Reed— Col. Mr- 
Dowel I escapes with Miss Reed on his Horse into the Fort— The Bodies 

of the Others buried by the People of the Fort. 

Ligonier Valley takes its name from the old 
Fort Ligonier. The valley itself lies between Laurel 
Hill and Chestnut Ridge, the two westernmost ranges 
of the great Appalachian mountain chain. Xo less 
from its physical distinction than from its historical 
association has it always been a prominent portion of 
the county. In extent it reaches from the dividing- 
ridge between the Conemaugh and Black Lick, in In- 
diana County, to the Youghiogheny River, in Fayette. 
It thus pass s through the whole breadth of West- 
moreland ; in length about sixty miles, and in width 
varying from eight to fourteen miles. Xo other region 
near it has liner springs of living water or more nu- 
merous streams, nor has any locality produced such 
quantities of timber as have been taken from its 
mountain-sides. When it was first peopled by the 
whites it was almost totally overgrown with monster 
trees, the latest remains of that mighty forest which 
scientific men say once hid the light of day from the 
western slopes of the Alleghenies. 

The site of Fort Ligonier was the first stopping. 
place of English-born in Westmoreland, and the sol- 
diers of the garrison and their families and the set- 
tlers that followed in the train of the army were the 
first settlers. This primitive colony and the settle- 
ment succeeding suffered much at all times through 
privation and from Indian aggression, but they man- 
fully battled against all adversities with the ancient 
spirit of Anglo-Saxonism. 

11 Thy spirit, Independence, did they share, 
Lord of the Lion lnart and Eagle eye ; 
Thy steps they followed with their bosoms bare, 
Nor feared the storm that scowled along the skv." 

The slope of the country along the streams and in 
the valley admitted of easy access between those who 
had first squatted at the three forks of the Youghio- 
gheny and the later ones 'about the stockade on the 
Loyalhanna, which answered to the citadel of the 
western province. These two i:i-ii:ie:it settlements 



112 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



approached towards each other, and under the beet- 
ling rocks of the high hills and over devious paths 
coincident with the trails of the old lake warriors 
the white civilization established a line of com- 
munication from sympathy and from wants. For a 
long time the depot of Ligonier supplied all artificial 
needs which it was possible to supply. It was the sta- 
tion where all commodities were bartered for, a desig- 
nated point by the military authorities for the distri- 
bution of supplies; to here the settlers came from the 
Kiskiminetas and from the Monongahela for their 
seed-corn and powder, and for many years after, when 
the word had no meaning, to go to Ligonier was to go 
to the " fort." From the northern or Fairfield side 
they went up the valley, and from the Donegal side it 
was down the valley. 

This region had been always, so far as our knowl- 
edge goes, a favorite ground for the Indians, and 
their trails and foot-paths marked it in every direc- 
tion. But especially was it convenient for those later 
outlaws that harassed the whole northwestern border 
of our State, of which our county was at that time 
the frontier. The lower or northern part of the val- 
ley suffered comparatively the most. The savages on 
their excursions, after taking a prisoner or a scalp, 
burning a cabin or stealing off a horse, could evade 
all pursuit by flying into the unapproachable forests 
of the north. 

The sufferings and trials of the people of the valley 
from the time when Isaac Stimble, "an industrious 
inhabitant of Ligonier," was shot and scalped on the 
road to Bedford (of which Bouquet, in 17H4, com- 
plains i, down to 17! 12, when Mad Anthony had broken 
them up at the Maumee, and stopped their depreda- 
tions forever in these parts, — their sufferings during 
this period, for reasons very apparent, have not been 
given to the world. They did not tell their griefs, 
but knew how noble it was to suffer and grow strong. 
Their fortunes and misfortunes are now but known 
through an indistinct jumble of exaggerated and mis- 
stated local traditions. Out of the crucible of historic 
truth isolated instances are preserved, and from the 
public correspondence and the contemporaneous his- 
tory of adjacent counties we have searched labori- 
ously and compared facts with the stories of the old 
people that we may say a word in this behalf. Of the 
general suffering, the fear, the uncertainty, the toil. 
the poverty, ami the patriotism of these people, along 
with those, in truth, of the whole county, our splendid 
collection of printed archives will always bear testi- 
mony. This, however, is hardly all we want or wish 
for in a local narrative. 

When we pick out a particular time when this gen- 
eral suffering was at the height, we will conclude that 
from 1777 to 1781 the people of this region were wor- 
ried mil'- sorely than at any other; one reason of 
which was that their means of defense were then at 
the weakest and worst. During 177S and 1779 they 
were constantly compelled to seek the shelter of the 



fort or the adjacent block-houses along either end of 
the valley. Most of the people anyways near took up 
their quarters in temporary cabins near the fort, and 
remained there all through the winter. In the sum- 
mer, when they had to go forth, it was only to gather 
their scanty harvests ami again prepare for the winter. 
At those times for weeks together the men only ven- 
tured out, carrying their dinner of cold potatoes and 
hard biscuits with them. In the little meadow patches 
along the Four-Mile Run and Mill Creek, and in the 
deadenings on the hills north of the old road, they 
worked together. At the fort a kind of volunteer 
military discipline was kept up. The guns were kept 
primed, bullets cast picked flints handy, the hinges 
and bolts of the gate in working order, and the store- 
house always with some provisions in it, however 
scarce the last crop. 

Of the captivity of Robert Campbell we have the 
account as given by himself; and the fact of its being 
preserved is no doubt owing to the celebrity of the 
peculiar and fervent man, who, far and wide, was 
known as Elder Robert Campbell, a pious man, and 
in his day amain prop of the Fairfield Church. 

On a day in July, 177(3, while the father of this 
Robert Campbell was from home, a party of Indians 
came suddenly on this son and his brother William 
in the field; and while these were taken some others 
of the Indians ran to the house. The mother, with 
an infant in her arms, trying to escape, received the 
blow on her head, when she, falling down, killed the 
babe in her own arms. They were afterward found 
and huried in one grave. The rest of the children at 
the house, three girls and one boy, were made pris- 
oners with the two boys taken in the field. The two 
youngest of the girls were placed upon horses which 
the Indians had stolen from the farm, each of the 
girls behind an Indian. The younger of these, unable 
to steady herself on the horse, was killed and left on 
the ground about a mile from their home. The In- 
dians carried them off down out of the valley, cross- 
ing somewhere below Saltsburg, and passed on to New 
York State. The children were separated in Canada. 
Thomas, the youngest brother, was sold to an English 
officer and sent to England ; the two sisters, after pass- 
ing four years in captivity, were released, and came 
back to the valley. William also returned about the 
close of the war. After sustaining a captivity of 
about six years, Robert, with another prisoner, suc- 
ceeded in making his escape. He came back again 
to the old homestead, lived to a good old age on the 
farm his father had cleared, and where his mother 
was killed and buried. 1 

Some time later than this was killed the elder Har- 
man, an old inhabitant, who had been of a family set- 
tled on Indian Creek with the Turkey Foot settlers as 
early as 1759, and who lived not far from now Done- 
gal. Harm an and three of his neighbors had been 

1 Further as to Robert Campbell, see township history. 



LOWER LIGOXIER VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



113 



down the valley at a sale, and when they were re- 
turning they were all shot and killed, sitting in their 
saddles, by Indians lying in ambush along the road. 
After they were scalped they were left dying. Their 
bodies, found the next day, were decently buried. 

Among the prisoners taken from time to time was 
James Flaek, whose daughter was married to John 
Woodend, Esq. Flaek was carrried to Montreal, 
from whence he made his escape. He found his 
way through the endless wilderness to the fort by the 
assistance of a pocket compass which Charles Clif- 
ford procured for him when they were prisoners to- 
gether. 

Of the captivity of Charles Clifford we have a con- 
tinuous account, preserved by his descendants, and 
which, arranged by them, has been of assistance to the 
writer. In addition to the narrative to which we have 
had access, we have secured some illustrations from 
old manuscript. 

Charles Clifford, one of the original stock of the Clif- 
fords of Ligonier Valley, resided on Mill Creek, about 
two miles northwest of the fort. During the winter 
they stayed near the fort, and in the spring and sum- 
mer he and his men, like the rest, all went to work at 
the crops. On the 27th of April. 1779, Clifford, with 
two of his sons, went out to his clearing to prepare for 
spring work. When they came to the deadening they 
could not find their horses. The boys were set to 
work, and the father himself went in search of the lost 
animals. He passed up to some waste fields, to the 
place afterward known as McDowell's Mill, where he 
expected to find them, as he had done before. But 
not finding them there, he continued his search over 
the deserted clearings till he came out on the old mil- 
itary road running between Hannastown and the fort. 
From here he concluded to return by the road to the 
fort. After he came on to the road, he had not pro- 
ceeded far till he was fired upou by five Indians lying 
behind a log by the side of the road. One ball passed 
through his coat, another through his hat, and a third 
struck the rifle on his shoulder. The savages with 
fierce yells bounding out, seized him before he could 
offer resistance. They caught him, and wiping away 
the bloou which flowed from his face, caused either 
by a fragment of gun-stock cutting him, or by a bul- 
let itself grazing him, were evidently well pleased 
that he was not injured. One of them, clapping him 
upon the shoulder, muttered, "You good man; you 
now go Xiagra." 

They then stripped him of his hat, coat, vest, and 
shirt, but left his pants and shoes. One of them, in a 
ticklish mood, taking his hat and cutting off the rim 
threw that part away, and put the crown part upon 
his head. Another tore the skirts from his shirt and 
put on what remained; a third put on his vest. The 
coat, however, they gave back to him, and signified 
that he should put it on. He said that he could not 
wear the coat next his skin, and wanted his shirt ; but 
he had to submit, for they shook their heads iu an 



unfriendly way and told him lie must put it on, as I liey 
must go. 

The Indians appear to have treated Clifford with 
all the kindness which their nature would allow. 
They evidently considered him, from the narrow es- 
cape he had made, as a person specially favored. 
Such seeming miraculous escapes as he had just 
passed through invariably moved the superstitious 
instinct in them. So they did not tie his arms as it 
was their custom to do with prisoners ; but at night 
when they lay down they stretched a leather belt across 
his breast, and an Indian on either side lay upon the 
end to draw the belt tightly. As soon as they had 
lain down they were insensible in sleep. When Clif- 
ford was tired lying he gently drew one end of the 
strap from under the Indian by his side and sat up. 
The moon was full. He thought he could easily have 
made his escape had it not been for the Indian sitting 
upon the stump on watch. There he sat, silent it is 
true, and motionless as a statue, but he was wide 
awake; and there the Indian sat all night, not deign- 
ing to move till once the prisoner should offer to es- 
cape. 

This party of Indians joined the main body near 
where now is Fairfield. There were about fifty-seven of 
them in all. The chief, according to Clifford's account, 
had his head and arms covered with silver trinkets. 
Here they tore down the fences to cook their meat, 
it being near the close of the day. After so doing 
they, under the direction of the chief, marched about 
a mile into the woods, there halted, ate their meal, 
and lay down for the night. 

When they had first come together, Clifford had a 
curiosity to see how many prisoners there were, and 
if his sons were among them. They, however, had 
only one other white man, Peter Maharg. Maharg 
was then sitting upon a log much dejected. Clifford 
went to him and said, "Peter, they've got you here 
too." Maharg did not reply, did not even raise up 
his head. He had been taken that morning while he 
was likewise hunting his horses. He might have made 
his escape had it not been for a little dog that accom- 
panied him. He bad seen the Indians before they 
saw him, but bis dog running farther ahead was seen 
by them. The dog ran back to its master, and they 
following it came upon Maharg before he got away. 

The third morning they left the valley for their 
homes about the head-waters of the Allegheny. In 
this incursion they had come more than two hundred 
miles, had spent several weeks in time, and besides 
killing only one or two persons, had secured but two 
prisoners. We have the particulars of their home- 
ward march as preserved by Clifford. They traveled 
during the day, and camped au hour or two before 
sunset. All then but eight or ten of them who stayed 
with the prisoners went hunting. About dusk they 
brought in their game, — venison, turkeys, birds, or 
whatever they could get. After feasting they lay 
down. This method lasted till they had crossed the 



114 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Allegheny River, when it appears that after that 
they could not get so much as even a squirrel. Thence 
they began to suffer much from hunger; at one time 
for three days and three nights they had nothing to 
eat except the rind or under bark of the young chest- 
nut, which they took off the saplings with their toma- 
hawks, and which they themselves ate of, and of which 
they offered their prisoners. Clifford said he could 
not eat it, when the consolatory reply he got was, "Ah, 
you fool ; you die." When they had got to this state 
they sent two runners ahead of the main body, when, 
ou the third day, they were met by a number of Indians, 
both men and squaws, wdio fetched plenty of beans, 
hominy, and dried venison. They gave the prisoners 
as much as they themselves took. 

The Indians then divided into two parties, and 
Clifford was taken to one town and Maharg to an- 
other. Those who took Maharg treated him with the 
greatest cruelty, but this cruelty was no doubt the 
expression of their disgust or contempt for one wdio 
grieved at his captivity, on the same principle that 
wdiite men are always more unkind to the unfortu- 
nate. They made him run the gauntlet, when they all 
but killed him after he had fallen before reaching the 
end of the line. He was so badly beaten that he 
never perfectly recovered from the effects of their 
treatment, and bore their marks on his body when he 
was laid in the grave. 

Clifford fared better. He had been from the first 
under the guardianship of a particular Indian, who 
was called his master. After he had traveled a few 
days without a shirt, his master, opening his heart 
and his sack, gave Clifford a shirt and an old hat. 
The shirt was covered with blood and had two bullet- 
holes in it. The master also showed him a marked 
kindness; for Clifford, before he was taken, had been 
clearing among the bushes and had scratched his in- 
step, and the wound with his traveling had swollen and 
was much inflamed. One evening after camping he 
showed the foot to his master and explained how he 
got it. The Indian listening looked attentively at it, 
and without saying anything took his tomahawk, and 
going to a wild cherry-tree took off some bark, which 
he put into a kettle and of which he made a syrup. 
With the liquid he bathed the foot, and after laying 
the boiled bark upon the wound bound it up. It 
speedily allayed the swelling, and relieved him of the 
pain. 

The Indians kept Clifford about six weeks, when 
they delivered him to the British at Montreal. During 
the time he was with them he had an opportunity 
of seeing how they lived, and of observing closely 
their curious manners ; and being happily gifted with 
the faculty of telling understanding^ of what he had 
perceived, his narrative was of some information. 
One of the most striking sights he witnessed among 
them was that of three or four prisoners running the 
gauntlet, one of whom was killed. At another time, 
when a horse which had kicked a lad was shot by 



the father of the boy, each of the bystanders took a 
piece of the raw meat, which, eating, they called very 
good. When at length Clifford was taken to Montreal 
he shared better than most of the prisoners by getting 
in favor with an ofHcer of the garrison. While he 
was there he met Flack, whom, as related, he fur- 
nished with the pocket compass, by which he traced 
his way back home. 

Clifford remained at Montreal till he was ex- 
changed, about two years and a half after he was 
taken there, the whole time of his captivity being 
very near three years. After he was exchanged he 
returned to his farm in the valley, where he resided 
until his death. He lived to a good old age, and died 
respected by all who knew him. He is buried in the 
Fairfield or Old White Church graveyard, one among 
the oldest burying-grounds in the valley. 

The next incident preserved from the mass of fab- 
ulous and exaggerated stories which we credit suffi- 
ciently to insert as authentic and verified is that of 
James Clifford shooting the Indian. 

James Clifford, a son of Charles Clifford, one morn- 
ing, most likely in 1778, went out from the fort, as 
was his custom, to shoot game. The young man had 
trained up two young dogs, one of whom he called 
Whig, the other Tory. Whig proved good for no- 
thing, but Tory developed wonderful sagacity. It is 
said he had Tory so well trained that he would follow 
at his heels for a whole day and not go off till bidden. 
On this morning Clifford was walking along on a cow- 
path, when his dog Tory, contrary to habit, ran in 
front of his master and began to snarl and whine. 
Clifford knew that something was wrong, but he con- 
tinued to advance in as cool a manner as possible, but 
sharply on the lookout. In front of him in his way 
was a large tree with thick bushes about its stem, be- 
hind which he espied an Indian, who, crouching down, 
was waiting for him to come nearer. ] fe instinctively 
knew that if he ran back he would be shot at. So he 
went forward in an unconcerned kind of way, and as 
he was doing so fetched his rifle down by his side, 
cocking it. When he had got the first glimpse of the 
Indian's body he quickly fired. Then he turned and 
ran, escaping into the fort, while his father and Capt. 
Shannon were talking about the noise of the gun. 
The captain lost no time in starting out with a party 
of fifteen or twenty men to get the body of the Indian 
if he was killed, or to follow his tracks if he had 
made off. They did not find him, but they tracked 
the course he had taken by the blood dropping on the 
ground, and found on the path corks of twisted leaves, 
which had been forced into the wound to stop the flow 
of blood. It was supposed he died within a short 
time, and that his body was carried off by others wdio 
were with him and not far distant at the time. This 
would be confirmed by a reputed conversation some 
time after between some renegade white man ' wdio 

1 This nutii was snid to be Girty. If the man really toll] Knox ho was 
Girty, lie iu nil probability was some one who fcigued that distinguished 



UPPER LIGONIER VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



115 



bad come to the valley and Robert Knox,.Sr., in 

which the stranger asked who it was that killed the 
Indian, when Knox said it was one of the neighbor 
boys. 
The following also is of reliable authenticity : 
On a spring morning in May or June, 1778 or 1779, 
a party of five left the fort for the hill across the 
Loyalhanna. The glorious weather and the time of 
year made the confinement of the fort and the neigh- 
boring cabins tiresome, and they forgot their danger 
in the eagerness with which they climbed t: e hill 
which rises up from the stream, and which was then 
covered with fields of growing flax. The party were 
a brother and sister Means, a brother and sister Reed, 
and Col. William McDowell. The colonel was on 
horseback, and all the men had their rifles with them. 
They were all going together, and had ascended the 
hill, when they were fired upon by some Indians 
lying behind a log. Young Means fell dead, Reed 
was shot, but ran say twenty rods, and then fell dead. 
McDowell and Miss Reed made for the fort with the 
Indians following them. The colonel slackened his 
horse for the girl, wdio as she ran along by the side of 
the horse reached up her hand, which he took, and he 
lifted her up behind him. The Indians overtook Miss 
Means, who was stricken with terror, and her they 
tomahawked and scalped. A rifle-bullet struck the 
stock of McDowell's gun, and from the glancing ball 
he carried a hand-wound all his life. Miss Reed 
alone escaped unhurt. When the whites went from 
the fort to get the bodies they found those who were 
killed lying not far apart, the brother and sister 
Means near together, both of them scalped, but, 
strange to say, Reed was not scalped. 

These instances will, we think, answer our purpose. 
There are innumerable other captivities and murders, 
the account of which, as happening round the fort, 
have been preserved by common report, but we have 
considered them to be of such a character as would 
by the repetition be neither interesting nor illustra- 
tive. The general situation about these times we 
have alluded to before, and will have occasion to al- 
lude to again. Around the old fort and all through 
the valley instances like these were common till the 
end of the Revolution, and in the northern part the 
people were visited by warlike bands even alter the 
defeat of Harmar and of St. Clair. 



personage. After that war Simou set too high a value on his head to 
risk it among the people of Ligonier Valley or of any other part of West- 
rnorelaud. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

UPPER LIGOXIER VALLEY DURING Til): REVOLU- 
TION. 

Tin- Upper Part of T.igonier Valley— Remains of Hie old Indian Fort— 
The Early Settlers here : the Harmnne, Gays, and others — Williams' 
Block-House the Place of aefiiKO for these Early Settlers— Different 
Murders and Captures in this Region— Indians capture Andrew and 
John Harman along the Four-Mile Run— They kill one of a Neigh- 
bor's Horses and take Another — They watch Hie C.ibinaml hear the 

Mother calling the Boys— Carry the Boys towards the North^Jobn 
Hies— After trying to freeze Andy to Death, and Falling in other 
ways to kill lliin, he at last i8 trained ii|i with a chiefs Son — lie 
is adopted by that Tribe, the Senecas — Lives with them some Years 
—Is paiied with for a Bottle of Rum to an English/ Officer— Taken 
to London ns a Servant— After the Peace in 17-:'. enmes Home, after 
they had long thought him Dead— His Account of their Ways of 
Fanning, of Hunting, and of Fighting, with several Anecdotes of his 
relating — Capture of Jacob Nicely by the Complanters — lie is I aisi 
and adopted by theio — Marries a Squaw and Dies among them — His 
Father visits him before his Death. 

In the upper part of the valley the inhabitants, 
from along Indian Creek, about where now is Done- 
gal, and from down the Four-Mile Run, had erected, 
as we have observed, a block-house on the place of a 
man named Williams, which they called Fort Wil- 
liams. This was along the bottom of the Four-Mile, 
and the place is nearly midway between Stahlstown 
and Donegal. During the Revolution this block- 
house was a point to which the settlers gathered, and 
when there appeared to be no more danger they went 
forth again, took down the bars from the low-swung 
doors, gathered their strayed cattle, ami furrowed out 
a little patch for corn or potatoes. 

Among the earliest settlers in that part of the val- 
ley were the Hayses, the Williamses, and the Har- 
mans. Some of the settlers in this part had come in 
in 1707 and 1768, and were of those few who first 
looked upon the remains of that singular structure 
which dates back to a prehistoric age. The remains 
of the Indian fort, as it was called, were still visible 
forty years ago; it was, no doubt, but a burial-place 
of some of that race which, antiquarians say, followed 
or were coetaneous or identical with the. historic 
mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley. The 
chief evidence of the existence of those people here 
is drawn from their mural remains; and the plow- 
share has turned up the bones and buried arms ami 
trinkets from their stone crypts. 

The Harmans were perhaps among those who had 
settled in violation of the laws of the Province, occa- 
sioned by the technical quibble as to the rights of 
property in the ancient lords of the soil. Here among 
rmks and beasts, and half hidden from the savages and 
from the light, the elder Harman, ail emigrant from 
Germany, with his grubbing-hoe and rifle, built a hut 
against a rock, covered it with bark, and began a 
clearing. Some of those who came at that time saw- 
no other white face than belonged to their own family 
for more than a year at a time, and often lived for a 
season on the greens growing in their "stony" gar- 
den, and on berries from the woods. When more 



116 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



settlers came in, the settlements from each end of the 
valley began to meet ; but the times were, if anything, 
growing worse. Then came a time when they were 
continuously watching and fighting. For the greater 
part of several years in the middle of the war the 
helpless children and some of the women were left in 
the lib ck-houses or at stronger cabins away. In the 
winter the homes were deserted, and when a family 
was murdered and a cabin burnt, all flocked into the 
forts, till the hunters, like the dove of the ark, return- 
ing, brought word that the waters were subsiding. 

The old man Harman, with three or four of his 
neighbors, as we have seen, was about 1777 killed 
when coming from the lower part of the valley. 
These were all buried where they fell but one, who, 
after he was shot, threw his arms about his horse's 
neck that the horse might carry him off out of the 
reach of the savages. They did not get thescalp of 
this settler, but he was found dead with his horse 
standing near him. The Indians took the horses of 
the others. The families can point out the graves ot 
these buried men at this day. 

The widow of Harman was left on the clearing of 
her husband, now a beautifully lying bottom-land 
along the creek, where the Laurel Run flows into it, 
on the main road from Greensburg to Somerset by 
way of Stahlstown. Then deadened trees stood 
through the little spots cleared, and stumps and piles 
of rocks were over more than half the ground. She 
bad three boys, — Andrew, the eldest, fourteen years, 
and John and Philip. The widow and her children 
bad been at the block-house, and when the spring 
opened she came back to the cabin with them. One 
morning the widow heard or saw some neighbor's 
horses in the lot down next the curve of the stream, 
and she sent the two oldest boys out to drive them off. 
From behind the upturned roots of a large tree which 
the water had washed and the storm had blown out 
there were three Indians watching. These were but 
a little way off the great Catawba trail running 
through the valley, and they were on their way north- 
ward. They lay in wait watching, and the boys came 
down directly towards them. When these were near 
enough the Indians jumped out and readily captured 
John, but Andy ran back towards the house as fast 
as be could. He was followed by one of the red men, 
and hearing him coming up close, he turned and saw 
the tomahawk as it glistened in the Indian's hand 
over his head. Andy threw his hands across his eyes 
to shut out the sight, expecting on a sudden the tom- 
ahawk in bis head. The Indian secured him without 
hurting, took him back to John, and as they could 
talk a little English, told them not to call or make a 
noise or they would be killed. 

The Indians took the boys, and climbing up the 
steep hill back of the creek, got to a place from 
which they could see the cabin and the mother near 
it, and from where they heard her calling the boys. 
They dared not answer; and the Indians asked them 



if there were any men at the cabin. Andy said there 
were, hut there was not. They would have attacked 
the cabin, pillaged it, and scalped the mother if they 
had known that she was unguarded. At length they 
left, and in a lot upon the hill near came upon a 
horse and mare belonging to a man named Johnson, 
a neighboring settler. They secured the young horse, 
but the mare being heavy with foal, and of no use to 
them, they cut her throat. They loaded the horse 
with some pelfry which they had along, noticeably a 
camp-kettle which they used for boiling their meat 
in when they had any. They began their journey, 
and on the same day killed a doe. Of the entrails 
of the doe they made a soup. Andy said he was 
afraid they would offer some of the broth to him and 
his brother, but, on the contrary, they reserved this 
for themselves, eating every morsel with avidity and 
relish. They cooked over the coals some of the flesh 
of the deer, which they gave the boys. The first 
night they lay out on the Ridge not far from Fort 
Ligonier; they were near enough to hear a noise 
there, to which the Indians cautiously listened. They 
gave the boys a deer-skin to lie down on, and made 
moccasins for their feet out of the same material, for 
they were in their bare feet, and had left their tracks 
with those of the Indians in the sand along the 
creek when they were taken. 

These Indians had with them some things which 
had belonged to the whites, and among these was 
seen a leather wallet. The boys thought they recog- 
nized it. and asked them some questions, or at least 
showed their curiosity. The Indian who had it then 
asked Andy if he knew it, and Andy said be did not. 
The Indian said he got it from a little old Dutchman 
they had killed the last year in the valley. It was 
the pocket-wallet of their father, and one of these, at 
least, was of the party which had waited for the 
whites and killed them. 

When they came to the upper waters of the Sus- 
quehanna, which lay in their way, they had some diffi- 
culty in crossing. They had a canoe, but only one of 
them could work it, and in swimming their horse 
and in the care of the canoe it happened that the 
boys were left on the one side together with the guns. 
Andrew said that they might have shot the Indians 
from where they were then, and perhaps have made 
their escape, if they had had the presence of mind to 
do so, but they did not think of it at the time, and of 
course made no effort. 

They at length got to the town of the Senecas, or 
Cornplanters, as they were called, from the name of a 
prominent chieftain best known to the whites. This 
tribe at an early day had many among them who 
could talk in broken English. They were now under 
the influence of the British, but remaining on lands 
reserved by the Commonwealth to their use, their 
descendants became partly civilized, and Cornplanter, 
then a young chief, lived among them, and died at an 
exceeding great age, a friend of the whites. At that 



UPPER LIGONIER VALLEY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



117 



time there were many white captives among them. 
The following summer John, the younger of the two, 
died of a summer complaint which took off many 
others, both red men and whites. 

Andrew appears to have heen one of the fortunate 
ones. lie was taken by a chieftain or prominent 
man of the nation — some saying by Cornplanter him- 
self — and kept in his family, in which there was 
a young Indian of about his own age, and these be- 
came companions. The Indians, trying to call Andy 
by his English name, called him "Andus," the name 
he went by among them altogether. Being young 
and pliable, and having been brought up hardily, he 
easily fell into the habits and ways of the Indians, 
and was treated by them as of their own. His family 
by adoption and some who liked him would not allow 
him to be ill treated or abused by the selfish ones. 

It was during the second year of his captivity that 
the attack was made upon the villages and cornfields 
of the tribes along the Allegheny by Brodhead and 
others who led out the expeditions of that year from 
Westmoreland. This occurring in the early part of 
a severe season caused that improvident people much 
suffering. At one time, possibly late in the long 
winter of 1780, they were totally without provisions; 
and as the snow was deep and the weather severe, 
they had poor opportunity to get game. " Andus" 
was kept with them, and he was one more mouth to 
feed. They could not well dispose of him at the 
time, and they did not want openly to kill him. But 
his master wanted to get him out of the way in a 
manner unknown and unsuspected. One day, there- 
fore, with this object uppermost, he sent his boy, the 
comrade of Andy, and Andy himself down the river 
on the frozen ice to another Indian town for corn. 
The chief was talking with his boy before they started, 
and Andy heard him say that when they should come 
to a thin place in the ice, or an air-hole, to thrust 
Andus in. Andy asked him what he had said, and 
the chief replied he was telling the boy to put down 
an old dog which they had and which followed them 
about. Andy was on his watch, but the young war- 
rior did not make any attempt to do as he was bidden. 
At another time not far from this he was with his 
master bin. -elf hunting. They were very successful, 
for the man killed three deer and carried them to a 
place together before he quit. He then, towards the. 
night, and at a distance away, gathered up one which 
be had skinned, and took it upon his back to carry it to 
camp, leaving Andus with the others, and telling him 
that he would be back soon. It was bitter cold. And)' 
.wrapped himself in the deer-skins, the deer having 
been placed out of the reach of wolves, and fell 
asleep. He slejit soundly, and in the morning was 
awakened by the master kicking against him, expect- 
ing to find him frozen dead. But under the snow 
Andus was safe. After that, Harman said, he thought 
they bad made up their mind to treat him as them- 
selves, and not to kill him. 



He said likewise that there was one of the Indians 
of that tribe who was something of a gardener, and 
that he always had the earliest squashes and cucum- 
bers "in the market." Squashes, it would appear, 
was this epicure's favorite dish. Andus, too, was fond 
of them, and the early ones would be a change of 
diet. So in the dusk of the evening, when the gar- 
dener was in bed, Andus went to the patch, and 
pulling up a mess brought them to the fire and cov- 
ered them up in the coals. He expected to get up in 
the morning before any of the others and make his 
breakfast on them. But man proposes, and so forth ; 
and while Andus slept a dog scratched out the 
squashes, and being a vegetarian feasted. When 
Andy got awake he saw the rinds lying about among 
the ashes and trampled upon. He picked out wdiat 
he well could to keep them from the sight of the 
Indian. Nothing was said of it. The gardener soon, 
however, called Andus to him, having before the fire 
a nice heap of the forbidden fruit. He asked Andus 
if he liked squashes, who said he did. He told him 
to help him cook them. They were all prepared, the 
fire ready, and they were put on to cook. Andy did 
not suspect anything, but when he was engaged stoop- 
ing about the fire, the squashes nearly done, the Ar- 
cadian jumped upon his back, cudgeled him, grabbed 
him by the throat, and throwing him upon the ground 
choked and beat him so unmercifully that other ones 
interfered. With difficulty Andus got away, but he 
lay for a time almost dead. He said that the resent- 
ment of his master and some of the others was so 
great that if he had died under the beating he be- 
lieves they would have killed the gardener. And 
Andus did not wait for the squashes. 

Andrew being young when he was captured, and 
being surrounded all the time by the red men, the 
knowledge of his home and relatives gradually be- 
came dimmer. He became in speech, in manner, 
and in habit an Indian. With them he feasted, hun- 
gered, fished, hunted. He remained with them for 
somewhat above two years, when he was traded to a 
British officer. The market perhaps being dull, and 
the Indian impecunious, his price was a bottle of 
" lum," the name by which they pronounced rum. 
By this officer he was carried to England, and re- 
mained in London for about two years. Then the 
peace occurring he was exchanged with other pris- 
oners and allowed to go at large. He left the 
vessel at New York and found his way back to Ligo- 
nier Valley. His mother was still living. He en- 
tered her cabin, and a woman wdio happened to be at 
the house of Widow Harman on that day related long 
after the scene which she then witnessed. The old 
mother, after recognizing her long-lost child, her 
eldest born, for whom she had for years given up the 
hope that he was walking among mortals, and who 
now stepped out, as it were, from the dead, seeing, 
she uttered a long shriek and fell into the arms of her 
boy. Her joy, mingled with grief, could not be cou- 



118 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



trolled. In the words of the aged narrator, "she 
might have heen washed iu her tears." The news 
flew fast that little Andy Harman, who had been 
carried off years ago, was now in his mother's house. 
On the next Sunday the lowly cabin was crowded the 
livelong day. From up and down the valley, from 
the cabins built like aeries on the rocks of the hills, 
men and boys and women came. The mother and 
her son, who now took his father's place, lived long 
together. Andrew Harman, following his early habit 
of life, was content to pass most of his time in the 
woods. He was known as one of the best hunters in 
the whole region. He attended the numerous parties 
at wood-choppings and clearings, and it was his de- 
light, and the delight of the boys to have him do so, 
to imitate the wild red men in their war-dances. He 
would tie a blanket about his head, and taking a 
tomahawk in one hand and a butcher-knife in the 
other, would dance and ye.ll and sing to the music of 
the violin, and at every distortion of his body strike 
the hatchet and knife till the sparks flew. He could 
not bear to have the Indians talked badly of. He 
always took their part, and it is said that he even 
longed to escape from civilization and rove a half- 
savage, living as they lived. It is not at all unrea- 
sonable, for all experience teaches that it is easier to 
make an Indian of a white man than a white man of 
an Indian. In his gait, his style in the woods, in his 
idioms and gestures one might discern the effect of 
the habit which makes second nature. These habits 
themselves remained with him till he died. He was, 
off and on, always in the woods till infirmity conse- 
quent on old age compelled him to take his last bed. 
We may also notice that Jacob Nicely, a little child, 
son of Adam Nicely, a resident on the Four-Mile Bun 
not far from the Loyalhanna, was taken by a squad 
of those Seneca Indians, but at a time somewhat later, 
perhaps not earlier than 1791. He was watched by them 
when he was going from the house, where he had got 
a light-cake from his mother, to the other children, 
who were picking berries in the meadow. The chil- 
dren reported of his capture, and the party was fol- 
lowed beyond the Kiskiminctas, but without avail. 
He had been gone so long that his parents and their 
friends never expected even to hear of him. Jakey, as 
the people always spoke of him, was about five years 
old when taken. He was raised by them and adopted 
into the tribe. He forgot almost everything about 
the wdiites, and could not pronounce his own name 
when he hail heard it. Many years after, when all 
was peace, a person from the valley, recognizing a 
similarity between the features and build of this man 
and a brother, made inquiry, and found that he was 
an adopted white, and had been carried from Ligonier 
Valley. This was reported to the father, Adam 
Nicely, who after weeks of preparation started, about 
1828, to see Jakey before lie died, for he was now in 
old age. The mother, too, was still alive. The old 
gentleman made the journey in safety, and met and 



lodged with his boy, now to all intents an Indian. 
He had grown to manhood, had a squaw for a wife, 
was raising a family, and had abundance of horses, 
some land, and plenty of hunting and fishing " tools." 
The old man returned, and "Jakey" promised him 
to come in the following year to see his mother. He 
gave his father a rifle for a keepsake, and accompa- 
nied him for some distance on his way back. Jakey 
did not come in as lie promised, and tiny never heard 
more of him. When, the father spoke of him, "his 
Jakey," tears always filled his eyes. But the motherly 
yearning of the mother ceased for her idol of a boy 
only when they laid her whitened head on its earthly 
pillow to its last and sweetest sleep. 



CHAPTER NXIV. 

CAPTAIN BRADY AND HIS EXPLOITS. 

Capt. Samuel 15r.-i.ly . the Hem of Western Pennsylvania, is stationed at 
Pittsburg]] in Col. Brodhead's Regiment— When his Family is murdered 
lif swears to wage a War against the Indians long as In- lives— lie is 
sent to Sandusky to -,.| Infoi minion for the Commander-in-Chief -He 
gets within sight of tin' Town a ml WHtches the Indiana all Day — On his 
way hark lie kills a Warrior, ami saves Jenny Stupes ami her Child 
— His Companion, the Dutchman Phouts, ami his pet Delaware — lie 
and the Dutchman go up the Allegheny to get some News — They 
follow an Indian Ti ail — They capture an old Indian who tries to 
kill Phouts, but who is killed by him — Brady as Captain of the 
Bangers— Buttle of Brady's Bend— Brady kills the Bald Eagle, who 
hail killed his Relative — Bmdj wait lies in the French Creek Coun- 
try — Me ami hi* Men pursue a Returning Patty of Indians— Brady's 
Leap — lie follows up a Party which hml entered the Sewickley Set" 
tlement — Hi* Men attack a Party ol Warriors ami rout them— His 
Adventures with Wetzel anil the Spies alter the General War, as well 
as all others which have heen substantiated or corroborated by Con- 
current Accounts. 

We come now to take notice of the services of a 
man who attained great reputation for his acts of 
bravery ami heroism, and who during many years was 
regarded as, the guardian of the border of Westmore- 
land on the northwest. When, as the savages seemed 
to increase the more that were killed, when defeat 
followed defeat, when they had been emboldened, with 
the nature of the wolf, by success, then, when the men 
were out on some expedition or serving a term in the 
army, many a woman quieted the fears of the little 
ones by telling them that Capt. Brady and his rangers 
watched the Allegheny River between them and the 
country of the Indians, over which the red men could 
not cross while he was there. Brady was to our fron- 
tier what Boone was to the frontier of Kentucky, and 
what Kit Carson was to the California emigrants in 
the days of the Argonauts. He was the hero of West- 
ern Pennsylvania. 

Samuel Brady was born at Shippensburg in 1758. 
In 1775, during the Revolution, he went from the 
West Fork of the Susquehanna with a company to 
Boston, where he at his young age displayed on sev- 
eral occasions that coolness and decision which carried 
him safely through many adventures, and which 



CAPTAIN BRADY AND HIS EXPLOITS. 



119 



helped him to win a fame as enduring as the annals 
of our Commonwealth, or as the history of the Indian 
race. In 1776 he was appointed lieutenant in a com- 
pany raised in Lancaster County ; and after the battle 
of Monmouth he was promoted to a captaincy, and 
ordered with Gen. Brodhead to the headquarters of 
the West, then Pittsburgh. Brady in the mean time 
was stopping with his father, who himself was a cap- 
tain in the Continental army, and who having been 
wounded at Brandywine was at home. AVhile here 
he heard of the death of one of his brothers at the 
hands of the Indians. He stayed with his father till 
the beginning of 1779, when he joined his regiment 
at Pittsburgh. While here, not long after he came, 
he heard of the death of his father, who had been 
murdered in a horrible massacre by the Indians in 
April, 1779. When the sufferings of his relatives, 
especially the delirium and intense agony of his 
younger brother in dying, came to his knowledge, he 
was so filled with anguish and a longing for revenge 
that, it is said, he raised his hand towards heaven, 
and swore "he would revenge the death of these, and 
never while he lived be at peace with the Indians of 
any tribe." And he never altered his mind. 

In 1780, while Col. Brodhead was in command at 
Fort Pitt, the country north and west of the Ohio and 
Allegheny was in the possession of the Indians, and 
when information came to Gen. Washington concern- 
ing the plans of the British agents and the intentions 
of the Indians, he wrote to Brodhead to select a suit- 
able officer and dispatch him to Sandusky to examine 
the place and ascertain the force of the British and 
Indians assembled there, in order that preparations 
could be made against attacks expected from that 
point. Brodhead sent for Brady, whom he knew, and 
showed him the letter and a draught of the country. 
The appointment was accepted, and in May, 1780, 
Brady, with four Chickasaw Indians as guides and a 
few soldiers, began his march. He was dressed as an 
Indian warrior, and with the utmost secrecy he led his 
band in safety to near the Sandusky towns without 
seeing a hostile savage. 

The night before they came to the towns he saw a 
fire, and approaching found two squaws reposing be- 
side it. He passed them by without harming. Get- 
ting now into intimate connection with the enemy, 
his Chickasaws deserted him, but he proceeded with 
the rest, and went on till he came to the river upon 
which the principal town stood. Here he concealed 
his men, and when this was done he selected one man 
as his companion, and this one remained with him in 
nearly all his future adventures. The two waded the 
river to an island partially concealed, where they re- 
mained till the night. The next morning a heavy fog 
lay over the land till the sun, towards the middle of 
the day, dissipated it, when the first sight observed 
was a vast body of Indians — they say several thou- 
sand — intensely interested in running or racing horses 
which they had captured from the Kentuckians, upon I 



whom they had just made a reprisal. Brady noticed 
particularly a fine gray horse which beat everything 
against him. They kept the diversion up till towards 
evening, the gray still the victor of the turf, till when 

tw unted him at once he was first vanquished in 

the race. 

Brady made all the observations he could during 
the day; at night he crossed from the island, collected 
his men, went to the' Indian camp he had passed on 
his way out, and taking the squaws prisoners began 
bis march back. The distance being longer than he 
had expected, the provisions and ammunition were 
exhausted. Brady shot an otter, but they could not 
cat it. They stopped at an old Indian encampment, 
where they found plenty of strawberries, which they 
ate and satisfied their hunger. They here saw a deer- 
track, and Brady, telling his men that he might get a 
shot at it, followed it. He had gone but a kw yards 
when he saw the deer standing with its side towards 
him. The last load was in his rifle. When he pulled 
the trigger the powder flashed in the pan, and he had 
no more powder. He sat down, picked at the touch- 
hole, and started on. He was on a path which, at a 
short distance, made a bend ; here he saw an Indian 
approaching on horseback, with a child before him 
and its mother behind, and some warriors marching- 
in the rear. He thought of shooting the Indian, but 
as he raised the gun he observed that the child's head 
lolled with the motion of the horse. He saw also 
that it was sleeping and tied to the Indian. He 
stepped behind the roots of a tree, awaiting a chance 
to shoot the Indian without danger to the child or its 
mother. When he had a chance he fired. The In- 
dian fell to the ground, and the child and woman 
with him. Brady at the instant yelled to his men to 
surround the Indians; he himself jumped fur the 
dead Indian's powder-horn, but he could in it pull it 
off'. The woman, from his dress and from his Indian 
yell, taking him for an Indian, said, " Why did you 

^1 1 your brother?" He disentangled the child and 

caught it up as he said, " I am Capt. Brady, Jenny 
Stupes ; follow me." He caught her by the hand, and, 
with the child under his other arm, pulled her along 
into the woods. They were fired at but not harmed, 
and the Indians, fearing the approach of the whites, 
scattered and took to cover. They were, however, in 
no danger from these, for the men, having no ammu- 
nition, on the cry of the captain, themselves fearing 
massacre, ran away, and the squaws whom he had 
brought thus far from their camp near the towns, 
availing themselves of the hubbub, escaped. The 
men came into Fort Mcintosh (Beaver) before the 
captain, who got in with the woman and child the 
next day. 

Brady being desirous to see the savage he had shot, 
the officer in command sent out some men with him, 
and they went to search for the body. They were 
about quitting the place without finding it, when he 
heard the yell of his pet Indian, and following it up 



120 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



they came to the grave of the warrior, which the pet 
had discovered by the withered bushes. For when 
Brady had left, the companions of the shot Indian 
picking the body up, carried it to some distance, and 
laying it in a shallow grave, had neatly replaced sods 
and grasses upon it, and in the fresh earth stuck green 
boughs. They did this to hide the grave, but it led 
to its discovery; for the branches and leaves had 
withered, and it was this which, showing in the little 
glade, caught the sight of the tame Indian. Remov- 
ing the shallow earth, they found the dead brave lying 
with his arms and trinkets ready, to as limited an ex- 
tent as their commissary department would admit, to 
lift the hair lock and slap the bloody scalp of the dar- 
ling babe over the face of the weeping pale-faced 
mother in the eternal dreams of the ghostly spirit land. 
But his arms and ammunition and the foolish trinkets 
were taken from him, the twenty-four hours' buried 
skull was scalped for the trophy, as the boy nails the 
tails of muskrats to a post to keep count, and the body 
was again covered with its kindred earth. 

Another incident connected with this expedition 
appears to be worthy of remembrance, being recorded 
as it was by one who had it, as well as the account of 
most of the other sallies of this Indian knight errant, 
from those who had the best opportunities of know- 
ing. This came from the mouth of Capt. Brady him- 
self. 

After taking the squaws and commencing their 
homeward march, he took advantage of every pre- 
caution to elude pursuit, keeping, for instance, upon 
the dryest ridges, ami walking over logs and rocks 
■wherever he could. However, he discovered that he 
was followed, for at several times he saw in the dis- 
tance an Indian hopping from one tree to another, 
and then disappearing. He concluded that he could 
nut lie followed thus by the sagacity of the Indians 
alone, but that they were led by a dog which tracked 
him and bis party. He told his men then to go on 
while he secreted himself among the roots of a chest- 
nut-tree which had fallen down, after walking on the 
bole of the tree towards the east. He was not long 
there when a little slut came up to the log at the 
farther end; she mounted the log, and came toward 
him, snuffing the track. Not far behind came an In- 
dian. There was a choice now to shoot either the dog 
or the warrior. Brady chose to shoot the first. He 
shot the slut and she rolled over dead, and the warrior 
with a loud whoop sprang into the woods. The party 
was molested no further by these. 

Col. Rrodhead had given up the expectation of 
seeing Capt. Brady again ; for, in the first place, the 
distance was much farther to the towns than it was 
marked on the chart and currently reported, and of 
course more time was required in accomplishing 
the result; and, in the next place, the Chickasaws, 
who hail on going out deserted him, coming back to 
Pittsburgh, reported that the party had been cut off 
by Indians before they got to Sandusky. Brady, 



however, in time came in, and going up the river he 
was received with military honors Minute-guns were 
fired from the time he came in sight till lie landed. 

Not long after Brady had returned from his San- 
dusky expedition and made his report, he was observed 
one evening sitting alone near the barracks in a kind 
of reverie. He was given to such spells, and would 
sit brooding for hours together. His temperament 
cither partook of a melancholy turn, or else the great 
sufferings of unknown and unexpressed passions or 
griefs slumbered within him. There was at this time 
about the garrison a Dutchman by the name of Phouts, 
who was a great Indian-fighter, very brave, something 
of a backwoodsman, and who looked upon a redskin 
much as an inhabitant of the Chestnut Ridge would 
look upon a copperhead. His disposition otherwise 
partook of kindness, and being credulous he was also 
sympathetic. Phouts had a great regard for the cap- 
tain, and noticing him in his dejection, his good heart 
was grieved at the signs of thought and care plainly 
visible in his countenance. Approaching him, in the 
best English of which he was master, he soothingly 
asked the "gabtan" what ailed him. Brady looked 
at Phouts for a short time without speaking; he 
then appeared to be at himself, and said he had been 
thinking about the redskins, and in his opinion there 
were some of them above on the river ; that he had a 
mind to visit them, and in the end asked Phouts 
whether, if he should get the permission of the com- 
mandant, he would go along. This was what Phouts 
above everything else desired, and when Brady was 
done speaking, he raised himself upon his tip-toes, 
and bringing his heels down to the ground together, 
said, "by dunder and lightnin'," he would rather go 
with the captain than to the finest wedding in the 
country. Brady told him to keep quiet about it, not 
to tell anybody, that mine must know of it but the 
colonel, and that he should call at his tent in an 
hour. The captain then went to the colonel's head- 
quarters, and disclosed to him his project. It met 
with the approbation of the commandant, and as any 
information from the troublesome part of the country 
about the Allegheny was always acceptable, the cap- 
tain had his permission to control the actions of the 
man or men whom he should take along. When 
Brady came back to his tent he found his friend there 
talking with a pet Indian. He told him of his suc- 
cess, and said that as it was early in the moon, and 
they must take advantage of the nights before they 
should grow brighter, they would start betimes early 
the next morning. 

They immediately went to work to clean their guns, 
and having prepared ammunition and secured a little 
salt in a bag, they lay down tosleep. Brady awoke first, 
and stirring Phouts they started from the town. This 
was about two hours before daybreak. They were soou 
in a wood never traveled by either of them before. 
They kept along the river till near night, when they 
came to a creek which flowed in on the Pittsburgh side. 



CAPTAIX BRADY AND HIS EXPLOITS. 



121 



They had no provisions along, and concluded first to 
get something and to remain for the night. Phouts 
built a fire; and alter covering it with leaves, they 
started up the creek for game. Xot far up they came 
to a lick. Two deer came in soon after, and Phouts 
shooting one of them, they skinned part of it, and 
took it hack to camp, and during the night jerked 
some of the rest of it for future use. What remained 
with the skin on they hung in the branches of a tree, 
intending to take it on their way home should thej 
get safely hack. 

The next morning they started early and traveled 
all day. In the evening they espied a flock of crows 
hovering above the tree-tops along the river-bunk at 
a distance. Brady said there were either Indians 
about, or else there was a camp near of some com- 
panies which were expected at Pittsburgh from 
about the Susquehanna. Phouts wanted to go and 
see for themselves, hut Brady sail that they would 
wait till night set in, when fires would he made by 
the party, whoever they were. They then hid 
among fallen timber and remained till about ten 
o'clock at night. Seeing no fire, Brady concluded 
that a hill or thick wood intervened between them. 
They decided to- go and ascertain the facts. They 
went cautiously toward the river-bank, ami bad gone 
not more than two hundred yards when they ob- 
served, on their right, a twinkling fire. At first they 
thought that the river there made a short bend, but 
on proceeding they found another stream, which 
flowed into the river, no doubt the Kiskiminetas. 
Brady now wanted to go himself, but Phouts wished 
to go along. With great care they approached the 
fire together. They judged from appearance that it 
was an Indian camp, and much too large for them to 
attack ; but, determined to find out all, they ap- 
proached very near to the fire, and in the low glim- 
mer of the light saw an old Indian sitting beside a 
tree, either mending or making a pair of moccasins. 
Phouts, who never thought of danger or of conse- 
quences, was for shooting the Indian, but Brady pre- 
vented him. After a careful examination the captain 
concluded that although the camr> had been made by 
a large body, yet that most of them were away. In 
the morning they would know more, and taking the 
Dutchman he retired into the woods to await the day. 
When dayligi.t appeared they returned to the camp, 
bn( saw nothing but the old Indian, a dog, and a horse. 

Brady was not satisfied yet, and so he kept at a 
distance from the camp, circled round, and got on the 
bank of the river above it. Here he found the trail 
of a large body of Indians, who had gone up the Al- 
legheny, to his judgment, about two days before. 
He then concluded on going back and capturing the 
Indian there. He determined to seize the old man 
alive, fearing that either he might shoot if disturbed, 
or that if he should himself fire, the report of the 
gun would alarm any Indians in the neighborhood 
and bring them down upon them. This he told to 



his companion, and they again cautiously approached 
the place. When they came near enough to perceive, 
the Indian was lying on his back with his bead to- 
wards them. Phouts was ordered to remain where he 
was, and not to fire unless the dog made an effort to 
assist his master; the rest was left to Brady. The 
plan arranged, Brady dropped his rifle, and taking 
his tomahawk in his hand crept along the ground to- 
wards the Indian. He wormed himself along snake- 
like till he was within a step or two, when lie raised 
himself up ; with a yell he made a spring, ami bail 
the old man fast by the throat. The struggling of 
the Indian did not avail ; Brady had his tomahawk 
over his head; the dog behaved civilly towards the 
strangers ; Phouts came up and they tied the prisoner. 
They found nothing of value in the camp hut some 
powder and lead, which they threw into the river. 
When the Indian was told that they intended to take 
him with them to Pittsburgh he showed them where 
there was a canoe. They got it, and taking the dog 
and captive along, floated down the river. 

They stopped at their camping-place coming up, 
for Brady had left his wiping-rod there. They made 
a fire and went to sleep. At daylight the captain 
started for where they had left their jerk to have 
some to eat, leaving Phouts in charge of the prisoner 
and canoe. These were not long together till the 
Indian complained to the Dutchman that the cords 
on his wrist hurt him. The Dutchman with kindness 
took off the cords, and the Indian appeared to be 
grateful. Phouts had left his gun standing against a 
tree, and soon after was busy doing something about 
the camp. The Indian, seeing his chance when 
Phouts was not looking, sprang for the gun and had 
it clicked in an instant. When the Dutchman looked 
around he saw the muzzle of the gun at bis breast. 
He, in turn, sprang for the Indian with a Dutch 
whoop. The Indian fired, and the bullet took along 
with it part of the belt of his loving comrade's shot- 
pouch. The Dutchman, with one stroke of his toma- 
hawk, almost severed the head from the body. 

Brady, hearing the report of the rifle and the yell 
of Phouts, ran back to the camp, and found the Dutch- 
man sitting upon the body of the dead Indian exam- 
ining the mutilated shot-pouch. Brady, with surprise, 
asked him what he had been doing, when the Dutch- 
man held up his belt with the hole in it and said, 
"Yust look, gabtan, vat dat dam black dog vas 
apout." He related to Brady what had occurred, and 
they then taking the scalp of the Indian and his dog, 
and getting into the canoe, pointed the beak of it 
clown the stream, and arrived at Pittsburgh the fourth 
day after they had left. 

Brodhead had been no long time in command till 
he saw that the only effective way of fighting the 
Indians was in organizing large bodies, which either 
penetrated the wilderness for them, pursued them 
into their haunts, or directed the force of their attacks 
at places off from the settlements. In the expedition 



122 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



under the immediate command of Brodhead him- 
self which about this time went up the river, Capt. 
Brady had command of the advance-guard, which 
was left entirely to his management. This force pro- 
ceeded up the Allegheny, and first arrived at the flat 
land near the mouth of Redbank Creek without see- 
ing an enemy. This place is now known as Brady's 
Bend. Brady kept his men at all times some distance 
in front of the main body of soldiers, acting, as they 
professed, as pioneers or scouts ; and he had under his 
immediate control the men identified with him, all 
Indian hunters and scouts, called rangers, and from 
being their leader, Brady has been called the captain 
of the rangers. These being in front, at some dis- 
tance discovered a war party of Indiaus approaching. 
Brady here displayed some knowledge of tactics. 
Having reliance in the power of the main body of 
the army to beat the Indians back when they should 
come together, and also anticipating that the Indians 
would return on the same route upon which they 
came up, he therefore hastened to secure a narrow 
pass higher up the river, where the perpendicular 
rocks nearly approached the water, and where a few 
determined men, such as his, might hold their place 
against a large force. 

The Indians in a short time encountered the main 
body under Brodhead, and were driven back. They 
in swift retreat ran pell-mell to gain the pass between 
the rocks and the river, through which they had come. 
The pass was occupied by Brady, and when the flying 
warriors came up they were received with a destruc- 
tive fire. They were again broken, and were now 
Forced to take to the river. Many were killed on the 
bank, and many more in the stream. Some got out 
of the reach of the bullets by swimming, among whom 
w as < lomplanter,' then but a young man. 

A ludicrous incident occurred. After the Indians 
were across the river, Brady was standing on the 
bank wiping out his rifle. An Indian on the opposite 
side began a conversation with him, in the course of 
which he called him and his men, in bad English, 
cowards, squaws, and pappooses, and put his body in 
such postures and attitudes and made such grimaces 
as to his notion conveyed the most contempt. When 
the main body of soldiers came up a canoe was 
manned, and Brady with a few others crossed to 
where the Indian had been seen. Finding blood on 
the ground, they followed it up but a short distance, 
when the Indian, lying in their way, jumped up. As 
he did so he struck his breast, saying, " I am a man." 
He was a wounded warrior, and, to be supposed, 
wanted to die game. Brady wanted to take him pris- 
oner without harming him. But the Indian continu- 
ing to repeat, "I am a man," an Irishman who was 
along in the party, saying, "Yes, by the howley 
poker, you're a purthy boy," sunk his tomahawk into 
the Indian's head before Brady could interpose. 

l We believe the correct name of this cliief was Cornplaut, but we 
follow the usnge. 



In this campaign Brady partially avenged the death 
of his relatives, for along the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna, the home of the Bradys, James, the 
younger brother of Samuel, had gone with others to 
the help of a neighbor. They were here attacked by 
Indians, and the young captain, his brother, having 
been scalped was left for dead. As he was thus lying, 
a young boy-warrior in training, at the command of 
the older ones, struck him four times in the head with 
a hatchet, each stroke leaving a deep gash. With all 
this the young scout was taken by a party to the fort. 
Four days he lay delirious; on the fifth his reason re- 
turned, and before he died he described minutely the 
whole affair. From his description of the chiefs it was 
concluded that the leaders of the party were the Bald 
Eagle surely, and likely Cornplanter. The Bald 
Eagle's Nest, as his camp was called, was for a part 
of the year at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek,'- which 
empties into the Susquehanna near Great Island. 
Vengeance was sworn by the sorrowing settlement 
against this chief. But the gratification of destroying 
this curse of the whites was left to Brady himself. 
On that day, at Brady's Bend, the party of Indians 
which Brady allowed to go into the trap was :t body, 
perhaps a hundred, of Senecas on their way to join 
others at the Bald Eagle's Nest. Cornplanter was in 
command, and the Eagle himself was along. Brady 
thought he recognized him that day in the pass, and 
so he fired at him, but with what effect he did not 
know. He had a singular curiosity to see the face of 
every Indian he killed, and what he looked for no one 
could tell. When the battle was over he searched un- 
file body and found it. The ball had done its work 
surely; the Bald Eagle was dead, killed by the man 
whose province it appeared tobetodoso. The place 
of the battle bids fair to be known for many coining 
years by the name of the avenger. 

Brodhead was one of the best Indian-fighters 
stationed at the post at Pittsburgh, and his vigilance 
kept the Indians for a time in a state of forced submis- 
sion or quietness. The effectiveness of the measures 
was owing to the employment of the good frontiersmen 
whom he had constantly about him. Good spies and 
scouts were kept watching ami making report, and be- 
tween regular campaigns this kind of fighting and 
harassing was of as great benefit to the frontiers as 
regularly won battles. Capt. Brady with some of his 
men had at one time the French Creek country as his 
field of operations. It was while on duty here that in 
a foray he came into the region about the Slippery 
Rock Creek, a branch of the Beaver. To here he had 
come without seeing an Indian or any sign of one. 
On the evening, however, he came upon a trail, and 
tliis he followed till it was too dark to go farther without 
coming upon the Indians. But early the next morn- 
ing he pursued and overtook them while they were 



- The lidge in Centre ami Huntingdon Counties is tailed by tliis name 
also. 



CAPTAIN BRADY AND HIS EXPLOITS. 



123 



about their morning meal. While he was following 
lip with so much energy the party before him, there 
was a party of hostile Indians following him with a 
desire as eager. He had, in the first dawn, made his 
arrangements, fixed his men, and just as they fired 
upon the party of Indians eating around their fires, 
he at the same moment was fired upon by the party 
in the rear. The alarm brought them all to their 
feet. He and his men were now between two fires, 
and were far outnumbered. Two of his party fell, 
his tomahawk was shot from his side, and the battle 
yell given by the party in the rear was loudly re- 
sponded to by those in front. There was, therefore, 
no time to contemplate, there could be no hesitation, 
and in their present predicament there was no chance 
for a successful defense. The rangers had to run for 
their lives; each ran for himself, and the Indians 
came in elose pursuit. 

The captain in person was perhaps well known to 
some of the Indians. He made for the creek. See- 
ing him going in that direction they felt sure of tak- 
ing him captive, for they knew the country and he 
did not. They thought and believed he was going 
into a trap from which there was no escape. The 
creek for a considerable distance above and below the 
point to which he was approaching was washed in 
its channel to a great depth. In the expectation of 
catching him there no attention was paid to the other 
scouts, who escaped safely. Throwing away their 
guns that they might keep near the swift runner, and 
drawing their hatchets and knives as they ran, the 
pack pressed forward with eagerness, ready to over- 
power and seize him. Brady comprehended their 
object, and saw at a glance his only chance of escape. 
The Indians were not to take him alive, that was his 
mind; and for coolness and determination he was 
well-nigh stoical. He kept his rifle in his hand. He 
saw the deep waters and the wide gap between the 
banks. He measured it with his eye, and concentra- 
ting his energy and strength in one effort he sprang 
into the air, cleared the creek, and stood on the op- 
posite bank. Then he quickly primed and loaded his 
rifle, and was not done when a large Indian, the fore- 
most in pursuit, came to the bluff opposite, who, 
when he saw Brady, was astonished beyond expression, 
else he would not have said admiringly, as Brady 
averred he did in tolerably good English, " Blady 
made good jump." He did not, however, stay to 
oiler congratulation, or to contemplate the feat of 
agility, and recovering from the sensation of admira- 
tion by seeing the rifle almost loaded, he took to his 
heels, and ran as crooked as a worm fence, sometimes 
leaping high, at others suddenly squatting down. 
He expected every instant a rifle-ball in his back. 
Brady and his men had a place designated at which 
they were to meet in ease they got separated. When 
Brady got there he found the other three. They 
marched back to Pittsburgh, as they said, half de- 
feated. Of the Indians, they had seen three fall at 



their first fire. Brady was at the place afterward, and 
ascertained that his leap was about twenty-three feet, 
and that the water was about twenty feet deep. This 
is the place which in geographies and in adventures is 
still called Brady's Lea]). 1 

It would appear that there were some jealous 
bickerings among the emulous officers about Pitts- 
burgh on account of the notoriety which Capt. Brady, 
from numerous acts, was getting. These complained 
that they were excluded from such honorable service, 
and an effort was made with Brodhead to allow them 
to follow up the Indians after one of their next in- 
cursions after a plan more consonant with the regu- 
lar line of service. The commandant made this 
known to Brady, with whom he was ever on intimate 
terms. Brady, knowing his own efficiency and the 
efficiency of his mode of warfare, acquiesced in the 
proposed change, we may imagine with something 
of complacency. The opportunity for testing both 
plans was soon offered. 

The Indians soon after made one of their accus- 
tomed incursions into the Sewickley settlement, com- 
mitting the most barbarous murders of men, women, 
and children, and destroying such property wherever 
they went as they could not carry away. The alarm 
was brought to Pittsburgh, and a party of soldiers 
under the officers emulous for a chance was sent out 
to follow the invaders. Brady was left out. But he 
must fight somehow, and the day after the detach- 
ment had marched he got permission of the colonel 
to take a small party "on their own hook." At first 
the solicitation was refused, and it was only after 
much persevering that the final consent was obtained. 
He was allowed the command of five men, and to this 
party he added his pet Indian. 

He did not move towards Sewickley, as the detach- 
ment had done, but crossing the Allegheny at Pitts- 
burgh, he proceeded up the river. He conjectured 
that the Indians making the incursion had descended 
the stream in canoes till they were within a conven- 
ient distance to strike tiie settlement, and with this 
view he carefully examined the mouths of the creeks 
coming into the river, and particularly from the south- 
east. At the mouth of Big Mahoning, about six miles 
above Kittanning, the canoes were seen drawn up on 
the western bank. This was enough, and he returned 
down the river and awaited for the night. When it 
was dark he made a raft, and crossed to the Kittan- 
ning side. He proceeded up the creek, and found 
that the Indians in the mean time had crossed the 
creek, as their canoes were seen drawn up on the op- 
posite or upper bank. The country about the mouth 
of the Mahoning on all sides is rough and mountain- 
ous. The stream was then high and rapid. Several 
attempts were made to wade it, and this was at length 
done three or four miles above the canoes. They 
made a fire to dry their clothing, and inspected their 

1 Slippery Eock is iu Cutler Couuly. 



124 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



anus. They then moved for the camp of the Indians, 
which was made on the second bank of the stream. 
Brady placed his men on the lower bank. The In- 
dians having brought a fine horse from Sewickley, he 
wa- fettered and turned to pasture on this Lower bank ; 
and an Indian coming frequently down to him oc- 
casioned the party there much annoying trouble. It 
seemed that the horse, too, wanted to keep their com- 
pany, and they had to be circumspect in avoiding 
each. Brady was so provoked that be bad a mind to 
tomahawk the Indian, but reflecting on the possible 
consequence, his judgment prevailed oxer his temper. 

At length the Indians seemed to be quiet, and 
Brady determined to pay them a closer visit. He and 
his pit Indian by his side wormed themselves along 
the ground till they got quite close to their fires. They 
were lying asleep. The pet here gave his hair a 
pluck, which was a sign to retire, for they did not 
dare to speak to each other. The. captain was regard- 
less of danger in his curiosity, but the Indian retired. 
Having closely inspected the situation, Brady re- 
turned, and after posting his men, awaited in silence 
the approach of day. When the day broke the Indians 
arose and stood round their fires. At a signal given 
seven rifles cracked and five Indians fell dead. Brady's 
war-cry next broke on the air, and his party were 
among the wounded and dying. The guns of the In- 
dians being empty, some were secured without re- 
sistance. The rest id' the Indians tied and disappeared 
in I In' wood. One was followed by the track of blood, 
the flow of which, at some distance, be seemed to have 
stanched. The pet Indian imitating the cry of a young 
wolf was answered by the w : ounded man, and the pur- 
suit was renewed. The wolf cry was given a second 
time and answered, and the pursuit continued into a 
windfall. Here he must have espied bis pursuers, 
for he was answered no more. Brady found bis 
remains three weeks after, being led to the place by 
ravens preying on the carcass. 

The horse was unlettered, the plunder gathered, and 
the party commenced their return to Pittsburgh, some 
of the. u descending in the canoes of the Indians. 
Three days alter their return the first detachment 
came in. They reported that they had followed the 
Indians closely, but that the latter bad got into their 
canoes and made their escape. 

Other adventures he had, but as they were of a 
later date than the Revolution they need not be in- 
serted here. He devoted himself, in accordance with 
bis desire and in fulfillment of his oath, to war with 
the Indians, and the fame of his successful encounters 
no doubt highly exaggerated his reputation as a scout, 
and the fascination in the wild life of the hunter had 
drawn to his command some of the most noted char- 
acters of the frontier, among them the Wetzels ami, 
it is said, Kenton. When the general war was over, 
and when there was no longer a commandant at the 
Pittsburgh post, Brady still kept up his warfare, and 
as he lived on the frontier, always in advance of the 



settlers, some of his later deeds happened in the new 
territory west of the Ohio, where these resolute spies 
guarded the Southwestern Virginia settlements, a 
general name for the settlements which extended to 
the Tennessee River. 

Thus have we recounted what has come under our 
observation touching the life and services of this 
man, accounts which appear to be worthy of remem- 
brance, and which have the stamp of truth and au- 
thenticity. People never, it appears, get tired read- 
ing or hearing of the acts of this brave man, and 
although many of his deeds have been preserved in 
other books, yet we feel justified in recording them 
among the annals of our early history. 

Brady continued to battle for the wdiite settlers long 
after the treaties with them at the close of the great 
war, up to 1793. The Indians, used to war all their 
lives, still continued to harass the settlers in disregard 
of treaties of any kind, and only for Brady and such 
men the West would have borne merely the semblance 
of peace. But after all, Brady, for an attack upon a 
camp of Delawares, in return for numerous murders 
committed by them among the settlers along the Ohio, 
was tried in a court in Allegheny County before the 
chief justice for murder, and, strange to say, was as- 
sisted by the testimony of Kyashuta. For an account 
of this trial we refer to the note marked with this 
chapter. 1 



CHAPTER XXV. 

LOCHRY'S EXPEDITION. 

The Settlements in 177'. I 1780— Ferocity of the Savages, and De- 
pravity of a Class of Whites Some Whites from nbout Hannustuwn Kill 
Friendly Indians— Kirkpatrick's Cabin attacked by Indians, ami there- 
in ol tin- Custom ui' claiming Scales — Brodhead ordered to .semi a De- 
tachment tinder Maj. Craig from Fort Pitt to reinforce Gen. Clark — 
el. nk': Plan of a Western CampaUn -Westmoreland requestud to co- 
operate with Him — Bickeriugs and Jealousies among the Leaders of 
tin' i :iiiii\ ii Lochry,as County Lieutenant, under Instructions 
from tin- Council, raises a force ol Volunteers to join with Clark — The 

Difficulties under which Lochry lai 'd— Clark's LoltertotheOfficeta 

.-I Westmoreland, disclosing liis Plan of Campaign — Lochry T 8 Friends 
volunteer — They rendezvous at Canadian's Block-House — They pro- 
ceed down Hi'' R Ma aftei Clark in unite witlikimal Wheeling— ■ 

Lochry's last Letter— Arriving at Wl ling (Fort Henry), Lochrj 

finds that Clark had g n dowu tin' River -He prepares Boats i " 

folluw — Goes to the Mouth of the Kanawha — Capt. Shannon sent for- 
ward with a Letter to Clark — He ami his Men are captured — The In- 
dians place tlnni mi aii Island as a Decoy for tin 1 other Whites — 
Lochry's Men hunt some distance above On- Island — Upon landing 
they are attacked by a large Force of Indians ami entirely cut off — Me- 
moriul of Two of the Prisoners who were exchanged — Capt Orr, ami 
his Account of this Expedition — Unit. Samuel Craig's Narrative of 
> ti s Captivity— Now Volunteers called out tuwards the end of tin- Vear 
1781. 

What the state of our country west of Laurel Hill 
about the end of 177'J and the beginning of 1780 was 
may well be imagined. It would fill a volume to re- 
peat all the testimony bearing on this one subject at 

1 See notes Xos. 1 ami 2 in Appendix "P." 



LOCnRY'S EXPEDITION. 



125 



this particular time. Some of the inhabitants, where 
it was possible for them to do so, had left, others were 
in real poverty. When the collector of taxes came 
round, lie saw in some districts nothing but deserted 
homes, with rabbits running among the ruins of the 
cabins, and with weeds growing about the fields. At 
many places the graves of those who had formerly 
lived there could be seen near the garden fence, now 
lying down. Those who remained were collected 
near the forts and block-houses, or in clusters of two 
and three families, they barricaded one of their 
cabins for the use of all. Some farther remote 
dared the Fates, and trusted that they were too far off 
to be in the way of danger. At the outer edge of the 
settlements, — that is, along the Kiskiminetas, the Al- 
legheny, and the frontier of Washington, — companies 
of rangers were formed to protect the rest, who at 
the hazard of their lives ventured out to gather their 
scanty crops or to prepare the ground. These were 
continually being driven in, so that many sowed who 
did not reap, and famine often stared them in the 
face. From 1778 to 1782 there was scarcely a com- 
munity that had bread sufficient to do it from the 
harvest to the spring. Every few days word came of 
some depredation. Sometimes it would be a settler 
wdio ventured out. to dig his potatoes, sometimes 
it would be a cabin full of children, sometimes a set- 
tler would be missed, and nothing heard of him for 
months, and even years, and frequently never. 

The never-ending war, and the many causes con- 
curring, led the whites to act worse towards their 
enemies than at any other time previous, and an in- 
centive further was the standing reward for the scalps 
of Indians at war, which, offered early by the State 
authorities to encourage the inhabitants to assist the 
soldiers, was from time to time increased. As a gen- 
eral thing the settlers did not claim these rewards, 
but there were some very influential persons who did, 
and who, to their shame, made it too much of a 
business. Some light is thrown on this traffic in the 
notes to this chapter. 1 Col. Brodhead, writing to Pres- 

1 Scalp BOUNTY. — Rewards and bounties were ottered at different times 
I ij the authorities to stimulate the soldiery and the people. How good tliis 
was to effect is questionable. In 1700, Governor Morris offered fur every 
male Indian enemy above twelve years taken prisoner and delivered 
150 Spanish dollars or pieces-of-eight; for the scalpof every male Indian 
above twelve years, 130 pieces-of-eight; for every female prisoner and 
male prisoner under twelve years, 130 pieces-of-eight ; for the sealp of 
every Indian woman produced as evidence of being killed, 60 pieces-of* 
cight. Tiu-se bounties were payable on delivery at any of the forts gar- 
risoned by troopa in the pay of the Province, or at any of the county 
towns to keepers of the jails there. In 1704, Governor John Penn pro- 
posed as a reward for the capture of every male Indian above ten years 
of age Sljll, or (or his scalp when killed 8134; lor every female or every 
male under ten years of age when capturedSl:}u, or for the scalp of si" I] 
female when killed Soil. [Craig.) About 1782 the standing reward was 
$100 for a dead Indian's scalp, and Slob for an Indian captured alive and 
brought in at the time the reward was claimed. This sum was also al- 
lowed for the capture of every white man like Girty taken prisoner act- 
ing with the Indians. The law is said to have been repealed regarding 
the prisoners, but allowed in force as to the scalps. Col. Samuel Hun- 
ter, of Westmoreland, was authorized by President Reed to offer the 
rewards, as were also Col. Jacob Stroud and others. Col. Hunter about 

9 



ident Reed in 1781, says that forty Delawares had 
come in to join the whites in their frontier war, but 
a party of about forty men from the vicinity of Han- 
nastown attempted to destroy them, and were only 
prevented from doing so by the regular soldiers. He 
says that he could have gotten a hundred if it had 
not been for such open enmity as this towards all the 
Indians alike ; that he was not a little surprised to find 
the late Capts. Irwin and Jack, Lieut. Brownlee and 
Ensign Guthrie concerned in this base attempt ; and 
he supposes that the women and children were to suffer 
an equal carnage with the men. And although Col. 
Brodhead made several campaigns against the Indians 
and succeeded in inflicting punishment upon them, 
and although he used every exertion in his power, 
sometimes creditable and sometimes discreditable, yet 
he has borne testimony that the feelings and acts of 
the whites themselves were in part provocative of 
that fearful ferocity which was developed on the part 
of their red enemies. 

We can, perhaps, from one instance see how this 
connection with the savages changed all the finer in- 
stincts of men wdio, had these same men not been ac- 
customed to such ways as they were, would have 
shuddered at acts which they themselves did without 
any compunction : 

A pious family named Kirkpatrick lived in a cabin 

this time announces to President Reed that be has organized a party to 
go out after scalps, for although they did not make as much out of a dead 
Indian as out of a living one, yet it was less trouble and more agreeable 
to all concerned to shoot him at once. Col. Archibald Lochry, the 
county lieutenant, writes from Twelve-Mile Run, his place of residence, 
that there is no doubt the reward offered will answer a good end. In 
this correspondence he applies for more ammunition, ami adds that for 
the reason mentioned they were to be applied, and at that time was the 
most needed. Col. Hunter had to report the unsuccessful return of a 
party after scalps; and in reply the president told hill] to be of good 
cheer,aLd that perseverance would iu time produce better effects. Many 
scalps were sent in, one after another, ami atone time as high as thirteeu 
with accompanying certificates were invoiced to claim the premium. 
This was in 1781 and 1782 (See CM Becordt.) 

"An incident occurred which led to the repeal of this law before the 
termination uf the war. A party of Indian spies having entered a v. ig- 
wam on French Creek, supposed to be untenanted, discovered, while 
breakfasting, an Indian extended on a piece of bark overhead. They 
took biin prisoner, but reflecting that there was no bounty on prisoners 
they shot him under circumstances which brought the parly into dis- 
grace and the scalp bounty law into disrepute." (Judge Wilkesou, in 
" American Pioneer.") 

The inducement of the bounty led some of the whites to kill friendly 
Indians. 

Col. A. Loclinj to Pretnhut Ilee.l, 1780. 

" Twelve-Mile Rrx (West of Liooxiee). 
"June 1, 1780. 
" Jlfoi/ it pleate your Excellency : 

"In duty to my country I find it absolutely necessary to hire a gen- 
tleman in this county at a very high expense to lay the distressed situa- 
tion of this county before your Excellency and the Council. Since Mi. 
Sloan, our representative, left this county we have had three parties of 
savages amongst us. They have killed and taken five persons two 
miles from Ligonier; burnt a niill belonging to one Laiighlin. They 
killed two men and wounded one near Bushy Run. They likewise 
killed two men on Braddock's road, near Brush Creek. Their striking 
us again iu so many different parts of the county has again drove the 
greatest part of the county on the north of Youghiogheny River into 
garrison." 



126 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



near the fort at Crooked Creek, now in Armstrong 
County. At that time there were some soldiers sta- 
tioned at the fort. Two of these were at Kirkpatrick's 
house of a night along with a neighbor lad. In the 
morning they had had family worship, as was the 
custom of the house, and they had arisen from their 
knees. When Kirkpatrick opened the door an Indian 
sprang to the opening. The white man pushed him 
oil with his hand against his breast, but as he did so 
the gun of the Indian in falling was discharged and 
the ball .-truck a little girl about eight years old, the 
daughter of Kirkpatrick. While the men were en- 
I in securing the doors two of them were mor- 
tally wounded by the Indians. Kirkpatrick himself 
shot one. of the savages, when the three others of the 
party fled. After a time the lad, being let out, goton 
a horse which was in the stable and galloped to the 
fort, and on giving the alarm some other soldiers 
came out. In the mean time the wounded men had 
no water to drink but that which was left from wash- 
ing the dishes. There was no surgeon at the post, 
and both men died that day. When one who had 
come from the fort was requested to scalp the dead 
Indian, he said that Kirkpatrick was the more proper 
person, as the scalp belonged to him who had killed 
him. Accordingly Kirkpatrick lifted it. Afterwards 
a piece of bark was procured, upon which the poor 
suffering child was carried to Shields' Fort, a distance 
of twenty miles, that it might there get attention ; but 
mortification set in and the child died. 

In February, 1781, Brodhead received instruction 
from the commander-in-chief to detach his field- 
piece-, howitzers and train, and also a part of his 
small force then about Pittsburgh, to join Gen. Clark. 
Hi- own force at that post did not then exceed two 
hundred men after other troops from Maryland had 
withdrawn from along the Allegheny. 1 At this time 
all the Pennsylvania troops which could be gotten 
together were sent to join the Southern army under 
Gen. Greene, and at their departure new fears arose 
that the unprotected state of the country might tempt 
tlir British troops at the north to descend, whence all 
the militia of the State were ordered to hold them- 
selves in readiness. 2 

In March, 1781, Gen. Clark disclosed to Governor 
Peed his plan of operations to lay waste the country 
of the Indians and thus protect the frontiers of Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia. This plan had been previously 
submitted to Washington and to Jefferson, and met 
with their approbation. Clark desired tin' assent of 
the President of the Council for the volunteers which 
he -aid 1m could get west of Laurel Hill. 3 The Pres- 
ident in reply said they heartily concurred in his 
proposed campaign, but that they could offer him no 
assistance. They had, however, sent word with the 
member from Westmoreland to encourage the people 

' Craig's History "f Pittahnrgh, 1G0. 
! Bale's History "f I''' ylniiiin, 201. 

i i Vll I, ers < 111] Sl-LUU, Vul. IN , 23. 



here to co-operate with him in all respects touching 
his plan. Christopher Hays was the member of the 
Council, but he, unfortunately, was opposed to the 
expedition, and, with Marshall, Cannon, and Pente- 
cost, was blamed* for taking every step to disappoint 
the good intentions of Col. Lochry, wdio from the first 
encouraged Clark, and who took upon himself to pro- 
mise volunteers. The fear of invasion had not yet 
put a stop to the wrangling among the leaders of our 
people, and these jealousies and bickerings were worse 
at the time when the people were suffering most. This 
cause of shame was often made apparent to them, and 
in many letters from the President to their cries of 
weakness and calls for help their open dissensions 
were called up against them. The letters of Duncan, 
Perry, Cook, Lochry, Marshall, and Hays all give 
evidence of this family quarrel. Every man in a 
public place had his traducer and villifier. It was no 
difficult thing for an unscrupulous man to get a dozen 
of his neighbors to sign a petition in which many vile 
things were said behind a prominent man's hack. 
Brodhead and Duncan were informed on for specu- 
lating with the public money in buying manors and 
mill-seats; Lochry and Perry for speculating in am- 
munition ami whiskey. It was like a dance where no 
two are partners at the same time : Brodhead, Gibson ; 
Lochry, Brodhead; Cook and Gibson, and so on. 
They wrangled as badly as school-boys; yea, if pos- 
sible, as childishly as a pair of toothless barristers, 
i . rail ntis ad legem. 

Somewhat alarmed from the repeated representa- 
tions of the state of our frontier county, and appre- 
hensive that the aid of the militia would be too slow 
and tedious, the Council, in the early part of the year 
1781, directed Col. Lochry to raise a corps of fifty 
volunteers to serve for four months, besides voting 
that a permanent company should be raised for the 
war. These troops were to be disposed of as Lochry 
might direct, and were to he supplied through David 
Duncan, the newly appointed commissioner of sup- 
plies in the stead of James Perry. Perry, it would 
appear, was no better an officer than he might have 
been, and it was alleged that much of the insufficiency 
of the militia called out from time to time was blame- 
able to his negligence. President Peed, in a letter 
to Lochry, 5 after complaining of the trouble they 
had in getting the commissioner- to rep >rl regularly, 
says, " ft is with much concern we hear that when 
troops are raised for your protection they are per- 
mitted to loiter away their time at taverns, or strag- 
gling about the country," and he fears there had been 
some negligence in the officers to wdiose command 
they had been intrusted. At another time he com- 
plains,^ that it does not seem necessary to have the 



* (Ink to President (or Governor) Heed, Aug. 4, 1782, Penn. Arch. 
■"■ Archive*, vul. ix , 18, March IT, 1781, 
6 III , March 26, 1781. 

The following notes from the Archives, confiroilug the text, are pre- 
sentcd : 



L0CH11YS EXPEDITION. 



127 



troops Btaying about Hannastown, and advises the 

colonel to place them where they would be of more 
benefit. 

Col. Lochry, in sending in his report, in April, 1781, 
says that the savages had begun their hostilities, 
having that early struck the western settlements at 
four different places, taking and killing thirteen per- 
sons, two of whom were killed within one mile of 
Hannastown. Besides this they took away a number 
of horses and effects. He avers that the county at 
that time was more depopulated than it had ever 



March 27, 17S1. — Brodhead Informs President Reed that it was impos- 
Bible tor liini to garrison Furt Armstrong and Fort Crawford (Kittanning 
and Puckety, or Logan's Ferry) until tlie commauder-in-chief should 

order him tu evacuate Furt Mcintosh. 

Col. Lochry to President Heed. 

" TwE'.VE-MlLK Rl'N, April '2d, 1781. 
" I am just returned from burying a man killed am! scalped by the 

Indians at Col. 1' y'a house; one Other man is missing, and all Pom- 

roy's effects carried off." 

Gen. William Smith, of Carlisle, to President Heed. 

"April is, 1781. 
" Mr. Smith will doubtless inform your Excellency bow the People uf 
Westmoreland are drove and distressed by the Indians." 

James Perrt/ to President Reed. 

" w i. imoi:ei.am) County, Sewickley, July 2d, 17S1. 
"About three weeks ago one .tames Chambers was taken prisoner 
about two miles from my house; last Friday two young women were 
killed in Ligonier Valley, and this morning a small garrison at Philip 

Clingeusniiih's, ai t eight miles from this and four or live mi lis from 

Ilaniiastown, consisting of between twenty and thirty women and i bii- 
dren, were destroyed, only three making their escape. The particulars I 
cannot well inform you, as the party that was sen l to bury the dead are not 
yet returned, and I wait every moment to bear of or perhaps see them 
st i ike at some other place. That party was suppos si to be about seven- 
i a nil I am apt to think there are Btill more of them in the settle- 
ments. Our frontiers are in a very deplorable situation. . . ." 

Mvautet of a nleelintj in Westmoreland County. 

" Agreeable to Publick notice given by Coll. Hays to the Principal In- 
habitants of the County of Westmoreland to meet at Capt'n John Blc- 
Clelleu's on the 18th Day of June, 1781. 

"And Whereas there was a number of the Principal people met on 

tile 2d hay, I unaini sly chose John Proctor. John I'oinroy, Charles 

t'aniln-11, s.iiul. Moorheail, James Barr, Charles Foreman', Isaac Mason, 
James Smith, and Hugh Mai tain a Committee to Enter into resolv.-s for 
the defence of our frontiers, as they were informed by Christ, llavs, 

Esq , that their] linga would i>e approved of by Council. 

" 1st Resolo'd, that a Campaign ho can ied on with Geul. Clark. 

" Ui/ Besolo'd, that lh- o I Clarke hi' turnislieil with lion nii'ti out of Pom- 

roy's, Beard's, and Davises Battalion. 

"Iillv, Itesolv'd, that Cull. Archd. Lochry gives orders to sd Colls, to 
raise their quota by Volunteers or Draught. 

'Mthly, Uesoie'd, that tie, be advanced to every voluntier that marches 
under the comma in I of Geul. Clai k on the propOB'd Campaign. 

" .'-tit. And for the further Incoui agemeut ol Winn tiers, that grain be 
raised by subscription by tin- Different Companies. 

" in lily, that Cull. Lucbry council with the Officers of Virginia respect- 
ing the manner uf Draughting those that assosiate in that State and 
utliers. 

"7th, Besolced, that Coll. Lochry meet Geul. Clark and other officers, 

and Cull. Crawford, uu the '.idd Inst., tu coufei with them the day of | 
Keudezvouse. 

"Signed by order of Committee, 

"John Proctor, President. 
— Pemi. Archives, vol. ix. p. 559. 

Duncan, as commissary, went through every settlement west of Laurel 
Hill forforage for the expedition, but could not get enough to supply even 
the tioops at Fort l'itt and at the posts, neither would llroilheail let any 
provisions pass duwu the river. — Venn. Archives, vol. ix , UK). 



been, and that if the savages knew the weakness of 
the settlement they could easily drive the people over 
the Youghiogheny. He was doubtful, too, whether 
they could keep the militia long I'm- want of provisions. 
There was no ammunition in the county but what was 
public property, but of which lie had given som OUl 
to the people with which to defend themselves. lie 
had by this time built a magazine protected by a 
block-house for the stores near his own house, bill 
this the president did not favor, and directed the 
stores to be distributed at various posts. 

The plan of Clark met with the approval of the 
commander-in-chief as well as of the president and 
Council, for it was supposed that offensive operations 
would keep the Indians at home, and prove a relief 
more effective to the frontier than that offered by any 
defensive force whatever. Clark disclosed his plan 
of campaign in a letter to the officers of Westmore- 
land, dated the 3d of June, 1781. After stating with 
what pleasure lie heard of the attempt being made 
by the officers of the county to fall on sonic mode of 
distressing the Indians in the coming campaign, either 
by a separate expedition, as talked of, or by giving as- 
sistance to the one he was ordered to execute, he got - 
on to say that his present object was the Shawanese, 
Delaware, and Sandusky towns. The Delawares of 
the Muskingum had removed to the west of the Scioto, 
and those formerly living up the Allegheny to the San- 
dusky. If the expedition from Westmoreland at- 
tacked the Sandusky towns, he might at the same 
time make a diversion on the country of the Shawa- 
nese and Delawares. Both of these armies by forming 
a junction might then make- some effectual movement 
which should put an end to the Indian war. Each 
party might thus facilitate the operations of the other, 
and so divert the attention of the tribes that they 
would fall an easy prey. And he advised them that 
if it was out of their power to get supplies in time 
fur an expedition of such length, it would be advis- 
able to take such measures as would enable the one 
army to execute the project laid out for the two. If 
prejudice were laid aside, and all their strength ex- 
erted, (here was a certainty of peace in the fall. 

So spoke Clark, a brave, cool, resolute man of genius, 
and who had been encouraged by the men wdio had 
the good of the country at heart. The people of 
Westmoreland were, on account of the known ability 
of Clark, expected to assist him, but when the decisive 
time came there were but two men of the prominent 
leaders in all the county who actually offered their 
services to lead the volunteers. There had been three 
hundred promised from the two counties of Washing- 
ion and Westmoreland, and from the encouragement 
there were hopes that nearly this number would be 
raised. 

By July the four-month militia ordered to be raised 
had been mustered in, within three weeks after receiv- 
ing instructions, and the company of volunteers for 
the war under Capt. Thomas Stokely bad above thirty 



128 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



men. At that time the enemy wore almost constantly 
in the country, killing and captivating the inhabitants. 
The subject of the proposed expedition had been much 
talked of, and a meeting of the foremost men of the 
county, presided over by Christopher Hays, gave the 
expression of the people. 1 

But all they gave was their expression, and the most 
of these men in private talk (which really had more 
weight) expressed their fears at leaving their homes 
exposed by going off. Brodhead also, from motives 
of jealousy, retarded the campaign, not only by pro- 
hibiting supplies from leaving Pittsburgh, but by 
giving out that he himself was about organizing an 
expedition for the Sandusky towns, and calling on the 
people to assist him. 

But Lochry had made up his mind, and no doubt 
harassed almost to death, wanted to convince the 
people that he was not what some said he was. Clark 
determined to wait no longer on volunteers from here, 
and taking with him what he had and relying on 
others from Kentucky, he left Fort Pitt down the 
river. 

The whole force of Lochry rendezvoused July 24, 
1781, at Carnahan's block-house, about eleven miles 
northwest of Hannastown. Among them were Capt. 
Robert Orr, one of the most steadfast of Lochry's 
friends, who at that time was a captain in the militia, 
and who, although he had no power to order his men 
out of the county, not only volunteered to be one of 
the party to accompany Lochry, who was so warmly 
entreated by Clark to come, but exerted his influence 
in inducing others to volunteer. Capt. Thomas 
Stokely, who was Lochry's right-hand man, and 
Capt. Samuel Shearer each was at the head of a 
company of rangers, ami Capt. Charles Campbell had 
a company of horse. 

On the next day (July 25, 1781), Lochry in com- 
mand, they set out for Fort Henry, now Wheeling, 
by way of Pittsburgh. On the -1th of August, Clark 
was at Wheeling, and at that time Lochry, with 
Capt. Stokely 's company of rangers, thirty-eight men, 
and about fifty other volunteers, some of them under 
Capt. Shearer, was at Mericle's (Casper Markle) mill 
on his way out. In his letter to the president of the 
Council of this date he says that others who were ex- 
pected to join him had been hindered from going. He 
savs he proposed to join Clark at Fort Henry, on the 
Ohio. This is the last letter of his correspondence. 2 



i Supra. See note. 

- " Tin' .Sioirea/e i:.nr,ilirt' CYuui. i/ ('/ Pixi/si/lruuKi : 

"To nil to whom these presents shall come, know, That whereas we 
have heretofore appointed Archibald Lochry, of Oil- County of West- 
moreland, Ksqnire, t" be Prothonotary oi the said County of Westmore- 
land, and commissioned him accordingly j and, whereas, the said Anlii- 
bald Lochry is suid i" be deceased or made captive by the Indians, we 
have therefore thought proper to supersede the said appointment am] 
commission, aud do hereby supersede and revoke and make null and 
void tin- same, anything in the -aid commission coutuiucd to the con- 
trary here or anywhere notwithstanding. 

"Giveu by order of the Council under the hand of bis Excellency 



The men Lochry took with him were allowed, 
on all sides, to have been of the very best for Indian 
fighting. But they were in a deplorable condition to 
leave home. The company of Capt. Stokely is de- 
scribed as being literally half-naked. An outfit suffi- 
cient for these was sent after them by the president 
through Ensign William Cooper, but it is doubtful 
whether it reached them. The whole number that 
left with Lochry was one hundred and seven. 

The troops sent from Fort Pitt under the direction of 
the general of the army were under Capt. Isaac Craig, 
of the artillery. These proceeded to the Falls of the 
Ohio, whence, from a disappointment arising from 
the failure of the Kentucky troops to unite with Clark 
there, they returned home. Clark was not, therefore, 
able to prosecute his intended plan of operations, as 
all the forces he could collect amounted to but seven 
hundred and fifty men. Lochry was to follow Craig 
down the river, and under instructions from Clark, 
they together were to proceed to the month of the 
Miami River. Clark changing his plans did not go 
that way, but left a small party at the place intended 
for meeting, with instructions for Lochry to follow 
him. 

When Lochry's force arrived at Fort Henry they 
found that Clark hail gone down the river, leaving for 
them some provisions and a traveling boat, with direc- 
tions for them to follow and join his army at a point 
twelve miles below. They were, however, detained 
here some ten days in preparing temporary boats for 
the transportation of their horses and men. 

In time, however, they launched their frail boats 
and passed down the river; but when they arrived at 
this second designated point they found that Clark 
had gone down the river but the day before, leaving 
a few men with one boat under Maj. Craycroft, but no 
provisions or ammunition, both of which they were 
greatly in need of. Clark had promised and left word 
that at the mouth of the Kanawha he would await their 
arrival. When they at length came there they found 
that he, on account of the frequent desertions of his 
men, in order to prevent more had been obliged to 
proceed down the river without them. Here they 
found affixed to a pole a letter from him which di- 
rected them to follow. 

Their situation now was such as to create alarm. 
Their provisions and forage were nearly exhausted, 
there was no source of supply in that country but the 
military stores of themselves in the care of Clark, the 
river was low and uncertain, and as they were inex- 
perienced in piloting and unacquainted with the 
channels they could not hope to overtake him. 
Lochry then dispatched Capt. Shannon in a boat 



William Moore, Esq., President, and the seal of the State, at Philadel- 
phia, 22d of December, 1781. 

" Attest, " Wm. Mookf, ZYeff. 

"J. M \ii.\ok. Sec." 

This revocation id' the commission of Lochry is of record in the re- 
corder's office, vlreeiisburg. 



LOCHRY'S EXPEDITION. 



120 



■with four men, with the hope of overtaking Clark 
and securing the much-needed supplies. Before they 
had proceeded very far they were taken prisoners by 
the Indians. Shannon had been intrusted with a let- 
ter from Lnchry to Clark, in which was detailed the 
situation of Lochry's men. About this time, it is also 
narrated, Lochry waylaid a party of nineteen de- 
serters from Clark's command, and these on being re- 
leased by him joined with the Indians, probably in 
order 1 to avail themselves of an opportunity to escape 
home. Capt. Shearer's company was left in command 
of Lieut. Isaac Anderson. 

The Indians had had knowledge of the expedition, 
but had been in the belief that the forces of Clark and 
of Lochry were acting together. Being under this 
impression they were afraid to attack the main force, 
as Clark had a piece of field artillery with him. But 
now being apprised of the actual state of affairs by 
the capture of Shannon, and learning from the report 
of the deserters the weakness of Lochry's party, they 
speedily sent their runners out in all directions, and 
collected in great numbers at a point designated some 
distance below the mouth of the Miami River where 
it empties into the Ohio, and there awaited for the 
arrival of the whites to destroy them. 

They thereupon placed the prisoners whom they 
had taken in a position on the north side of the river, 
near the upper end of an island, which at this day is 
called " Lochry's Island," ' where they could he readily 
observed by those coming down the river. They prom- 
ised to spare the lives of these prisoners upon the con- 
dition that they should hail their companions as they 
passed and induce them to come to their succor. 
They were to stand like Demas (''gentleman-like") 
at the Hill Lucre, beckoning the pilgrims. 

Lochry's men, however, wearied with their slow 
progress, in evil heart at their disappointments and 
continuous misfortunes, and in despair of reaching 
Clark's army, lauded on the shore of the Ohio at a 
point about three miles on this side of the island 
where their companions were placed as a decoy. The 
split appears to have attracted them by its inviting 
beauty. It was at the inlet of a creek, which since 
that day has been called Lochry's Creek, where it 
empties into the Ohio, between nine and ten miles 
below the mouth of the Miami. 

They drew their boats to the shallow shore, and at 
about ten o'clock in the forenoon of the 24th of August, 
1781, here landed. After landing they removed their 
horses ashore, and turned them loose to graze that they 
might obtain sufficient to keep them alive until they 
should reach the falls of the river (now Louisville), one 
hundred and twenty miles distant. Before long one of 
the men had killed a buffalo, and all the party, except 
a few who were keeping watch over the horses, were 
engaged about the fires which they had kindled pre- 
paring a meal. 

1 Written " Lauglirey's Creek," and " Lauglirey'8 Island." 



The Indians, however, during that time had their 
runners out all along the river-banks, SO that it was 
highly dangerous for a landing to be made at any 
place, fur parties could be collected at any point at 
| the shortest warning. So Lochry's men were scarcely 
well landed on shore when they were attacked. Quick, 
sharp, effective, as was the wont of the savages in their 
attacks, — lightning and thunder together, — into the 
midst of the men from an overhanging bluff came a 
volley of rifle-balls. On this bluff, above the party 
of whites, were large trees. On these trees and be- 
hind them, having the whites down below them and 
at their mercy, like bats and vampires clung the 
savages. 

The men seized their arms and defended themselves 
as long as their ammunition lasted, and as they did 
so attempted to escape to their boats. But the boats 
were unwieldy, the water was low and shoaly, and 
their force much weakened and too unavailable. The 
Indians, seeing their opportunity, closed in from their 
side upon the whole party, who being no longer able 
or iu a condition to resist were compelled to lie taken 
prisoners, some of them, with a hope of mercy, sur- 
rendering. 

The i'ew words with which this disastrous expedition 
in all general histories of the border is dismissed 
agree in this, that the lesser number of the whole 
party escaped death or captivity. All the best au- 
thorities say that none at all escaped except those 
that escaped after they had been taken. Lochry him- 
self was among the first who were killed, falling in 
defending his countrymen, as he was sworn to, even 
in the wilderness of a strange and foreign territory. 

Orr relates that Lochry, with some other of the 
prisoners, immediately after being taken was killed. 
It is probable that an indiscriminate slaughter would 
have taken place had not the chief who commanded 
them, or whom they at least obeyed, came up in time. 
This chief said to the whites that these murders were 
committed by them in retaliation for those Indians 
who were killed after they had been taken, as they 
alleged, by Brodhead on the Muskingum some time 
before. 

Of the one hundred and six or seven of Lochry's 
party at the time of the surrender forty-two were 
killed and sixty-four were taken prisoners. The 
attacking party of Indians was much the larger. 
These were a mixture of various tribes, and among 
these various tribes were the prisoners and booty 
divided in proportion to the number of warriors en- 
gaged. 

The next day the Indians with their prisoners set 
out for the Delaware towns. Before they separated 
they were met by a party of British and Indians 
under a Maj. Caldwell, with (as is reported) the 
Girtys and Alexander McKee in their train, they pro- 
fessing to be on their way to the falls to attack Clark. 
With these the greater number of the Indians who 
had helped to capture Lochry's men returned to the 



130 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Ohio. A few only remained with the prisoners and 
spoils, and these when they separated were taken to 
the various towns to which they had been assigned. 
The prisoners were held in captivity until the next 
year, which brought the Revolutionary war to a close. 
After the preliminary articles of peace were signed, 
late in the fall of 1782, these prisoners were ransomed 
by the British officers in command of the northern 
posts, to be by them exchanged for British prisoners 
in the hands of the Americans. These were sent to 
the St. Lawrence. A few of them taken had pre- 
viously effected their escape, a few deserted from 
Montreal, and the rest of those who were left sailed 
in the spring of 1783 from Quebec to New York, and 
returned home to Westmoreland by way of Phila- 
delphia, these having been absent twenty-two months. 
But more than one-half of those who left Pennsyl- 
vania with Col. Lochry never returned. 

Alter the men left Pittsburgh they were not heard 
of for many weeks. When Capt. Craig returned he 
could not be persuaded but that Lochry himself, 
with his men, had returned home. But the people of 
Westmoreland waited till at last all hope died. We 
see from some of the correspondence how the word 
was at length received, ami how hope almost changed 
Into despair. Brigadier William Irvine had been 
ordered to the command of Fort Pitt on the 24th of 
September, 1781, and in a letter from him of Decem- 
ber 3d to President Moore the result is announced 
in the following words : 

" I tun .sony to inform your Excellency that this country li:*s got a 
severe stroke by the death uf Colonel Lochry and ahout one hundred — 
it is said— of the best men of Westmoreland, including Captain Stokely 
and ins Hangers. Many accounts agree that they were till killed or 
taken at the mouth of t tit- Miami River,— I believe chiefly killed. This 
inisfiirtitut', added to the failure of General Clark's expedition, has 
tilled the people with great dismay. Many talk of returning to the rust 
stile of the mountain in the spring. Indeed there is great reason to 
uppreheud that the savages, and perhaps the British from Detroit, will 
pn si i iis hard in the spring, and I believe there never were posts of a 
country in a worse state of defence." ' 

In reply to this letter, President Moore said that 
the loss of Col. Lochry, with his men, and the dis- 
tressed state of the post and the country round it 
gave them great pain. 

Of those who were carried to Canada were Isaac 
Anderson, of Capt. Shearer's company, and Richard 
Wallace, the quartermaster to Lochry's command. 
In a memorial to the president of the Council they 
represented that they were inhabitants of Westmore- 
land County, who had had the misfortune to be made 
prisoners by the Indians on the 24th of August, the 
day on whidri Lochry was surrounded and defeated ; 
that they had been carried to Montreal, and kept in 
close confinement there till the 22d of May, 1782; 
and that after a long and fatiguing march they had 
got into the city on the day before 2 at three o'clock. 
As they were destitute of money and clothes, and 
could not get home without them, they prayed the 



1 Archives, vol. i.\. p. 458. 



- That was Philadelphia, July 2, 1782. 



president and Council to take their ease into consid- 
eration, and allow them pay from the time they had 
been taken. They said they were under Lochry 
when they were taken, and that they had a list of all, 
officers and privates, of the party who were then pris- 
oners, which information they were ready to give the 
Council. If the list or any other information was 
furnished, we do not know where it can be found. It 
has certainly never been in print. 

The particulars of this campaign were subsequently 
put in print as the narration of Capt. Orr (before re- 
ferred to), who accompanied Lochry. From the 
manner it corroborates official documents, it must be 
allowed a special degree of credence. It is also cor- 
roborated by a manuscript account by Ensign Hun- 
ter, which Mr. Albach, in his "Annals of the West," 
refers to, and who has therein published Orr's ac- 
count. 3 

Capt. Orr was wounded by having his arm broken 
in the engagement. He was carried prisoner to San- 
dusky, where he remained several months. The 
Indians finding that his wound was stubborn, and 
that they could not cure it, at length carried him to 
the military hospital at Detroit. From here in the 
winter he was transferred to Montreal, and at the end 
of the war exchanged with other prisoners. 4 

But the only account of individual suffering and of 
the distress attending the participants in this unfor- 
tunate expedition is the one still retained in the 
family of the Craigs of Derry township. For of 
those of our frontier men who were distinguished 
either for personal bravery or on account of their 
suffering in some way in the interest of the people, 
we may here with propriety recall Samuel Craig the 
younger. Craig was a lieutenant in Capt. Orr's com- 
pany, and was taken prisoner with many others. 
After they hail taken him, and while they were cross- 
ing the river with him, or likely taking him to shore 
from the stream itself, some of the Indians in the 
boat threw him out intending to drown him. They 
kept pushing his head under as it emerged out of the 
water, and as he grasped the sides of the canoe with 
the tenacity and despair of a drowning man they beat 
his hands with their paddles to make him let go. 
Being an expert swimmer he was hard to drown, 
anil seeing this finally, when he was well-nigh ex- 
hausted, one of the Indians claimed him for his 
prisoner and as his property took him into the canoe, 
ami kept him for the time under his own protection. 

With these Indians and some few prisoners with 
them whom they had retained, Craig suffered all the 
punishment which came in a natural way from hun- 
ger and cold upon them all alike. So too he suffered 
from threats and fears of horrible torture. At times 
they were all nearly starved. Once when they were 

3 " Annals of the West," hy Janus R. Albach, Pittsburgh, W.S. Haven, 
1850. 

4 In lS(l. r t he was appointed an associate judge in Armstrong County, 
and he held this othee until his ile.it h in 1 s.i ;, in hi- eighty ninth \ ear. 



CRAWFORD'S EXPEDITION TO SANDUSKY. 



131 



in a famishing condition they by fortune cmne across 
a small patch of potatoes. These they dug up and 
gathered together for a feast. In the night, when the 
others bad fallen asleep, Craig, who was lying between 
two Indians, ami who not yet had the Jiangs of hun- 
ger assuaged, rose up from between them at the risk 
of his life, and getting at the raw potatoes made what 
he declared was the greatest feast of his life. He 
took his place between the Indians without having 
been detected. At another time they were forced of 
necessity to make a meal of a wolf's head which was 
almost carrion when they found it. They boiled it 
into a soup and ate it with avidity. 

This Samuel Craig was possessed of a cheerful 
nature, and could submit to dangers and hardships 
with good grace. He was especially fond of music, 
and was something of a singer. In his captivity he 
frequently sang his homely songs " to strangers in a 
strange land." This singing not only pleased the 
Indians, hut actually was the means of sparing his 
life, for he had not been among them long when all 
the prisoners were taken out and set upon a log side 
by side. Their faces were blackened, which was done 
to indicate the doom of the captives, and the Indians 
grouped themselves in a circle not far round. At 
that terrible moment Craig, it is said, retained his 
self-command; he raised his voice and sang loud and 
clear the most melodious air perhaps he ever sang. 
He alone was saved of his companions. 

He was sold to the British for the usual consider- 
ation, a gallon of whiskey. He was then exchanged 
and returned home. He subsequently married a 
daughter of John Shields, Esq., by whom he left a 
family of five sons and two daughters. He was a 
fuller, and built a fulling-mill on the bank of the 
Loyal hanna near New Alexandria. 1 

During the remaining part of the year 1781 the 
Indians in squads approached from many directions, 
and the county lieutenants received circular letters to 
hold the militia in constant readiness. By an act of 
Assembly calling out some companies for the West- 
moreland and northern frontiers, those who enlisted 
were allowed to be exempt from taxes. The country 
was indeed so impoverished that the troops about Fort 
Pitt (the name by which the post at Pittsburgh still 
went) were sent out to shoot game to keep them from 
hunger. The public good at the same time was sacri- 
ficed, as we have seen, by the bickerings and jealousies 
between Brodhead while he commanded there, and 
Gibson and his Virginia followers, for the reason of 
which Gen. Irvine was sent to that point. That fight 
was theold fight between Virginia and Pennsylvania.-' 

1 Now ttic- property of Mrs. Craig, one of Ms descendants. He died 
of hemorrhage caused by the extraction of a tooth. 

James Kane, Sr., court-crier under Judge Young, and whom the bar 
yet traditionally remembers as "Jimmy Kane,' 1 was one of tlie prisoners 
taken to the Pottowattomies, and who came home from a captivity among 
them. I'e died in Derry townBhip in 1845. 

2 Archihald Locum. — Very little information has been obtained re- 
garding the life of Archibald Lochry, further than is found in the public 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CRAWFORD'S EXPEDITION TO SANDUSKY, 

The Moravian Indians— Their Christian Character and their Former 
History— Theii Efforts at Peace-Making between the "Whites and War- 
ring Indians— Description of their Villages— Their Unfavorable Loca- 
tion—They arc blamed with harboring Hostile Indians — The Whites 
of the Southwestern Putt of Pennsylvania are instigated to Disperse 
them— They raise a Force of Volunteers tor that Purpose— Col. David 
Williamson in comma ml— Their Route of March— They come upon 
tin? Indians hy surprise — Represent themselves as Friends— GH pos- 
session of their Villages, and begin tin- destruction of the Houses, 
ami the murder of the Mm, Women, ami Children— They are taken 
out, one after another, and with Clubs, Mallets, and Hatchets mnr- 
dered while they supplicate for mercy— Their Bodies are then burned 
—Col. Crawford"s Expedition later in 1782 to the Sandusky Towns- 
He is defeated and his Force scattered— He is taken Prisoner and 
burned at the Stakes — Escape of Dr. Knight. 

About this time the whites became involved in 
troubles with the Moravian Indians. Of these we 
shall give some account, sufficient to bring them 
within the range of our narrative and to illustrate 
subsequent details. The Moravian society, which in 

contemporaneous papers which so far have been made public and the 
record Of his official services. 

11 ■ was of North Irish extraction, but was probably horn in the Octo- 
raro settlement, for in 1763 lie was an ensign in the Second Battalion in 
the provincial service (Arch., N. S , vol. ii . 614), ami he was well kno\ n 
to the public when he was appointed one of the justices at the organiza- 
tion of the county, for he had held office along with his brothei in Bed- 
ford, lie took up huge bodies of land, one particularly of great extent, 
whereon lie located himself with some of his neighbors from Bedford, 
This tract lies in Unity township, on the south side of the turnpike going 
from Greensburg to Ligonier, and near St. Xavier's Convent. The land 
is now quite valuable, being underlaid with the thick vein of Con n el I s- 
ville coal, lie dated his official coirespomlvuce at the "Twelve-Mile 
Run," which was the name of the small stream which Hows- into the 
Fourteen-Mile Run before it empties into the Loyalhanna. This name 
Is known only in old records, ami is not known as such now. 

The name is spelled differently in various localities. The creek and 
island along the Ohio River in Indiana are written " LaughreyV Creek, 
etc., and some people of the same name so write their name. Neither 
is there uniformity in the spelling of his name in the, public records. 
We have adopted the spelling used by himself. 

The issue of Archibald Loehiy were two daughters. The first. Eliza- 
beth, married to Nathaniel McBryar, who left issue, three sons and one 
daughter, to wit : David, Watson, John, and Elizabeth, man led to John 
Hull, Esq., of Washington township. The second daughter, Jane, was 
married to Samuel Thompson, and left issue, five sons and six daughters, 
to wit: Alexander, William (father of S. G. Thompson, Esq., of Greeus- 
burg, Pa.}, David, Watson, Samuel, Mary, married to Andrew Gartley ; 
Elizabeth, married to Joseph McQuickeu, Esq., of New Salem; Jane, 
married to Thomas Adair; Nancy, Lucy, and Lydia. 

Archibald Lochry's brother, William Lochry, was one of the county 
justices, and he presided at the October session, 1771. He had auother 
brother, Jeremiah. 

Thefdlowingl" the will of Archibald Lochry and proceedings thereon, 
as found In the office of the register of wills at Greensburg (Will-Book, 
i.p.:Jl): 

" In the name of God, Amen. I Archibald Lochry, of Hannas Town 
in Westmoreland County, Ac. being through the goodness of God in 

sound judgment and memory, therefore Calling to mind the Mortality 
of my Body and that it is appointed for all men once to die, Do make 
this my last will and testament that is to say Principally and first of all 
I give & bequeath my soul to God who gave it Beseeching his most 
Gracious acceptance of it in and through the merits and mediation of 
my most Compassionate Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and my 
Body I give to the earth nothing Doubting but I shall receive the same 
again at the General resurrection, And as touching such worldly estate 
as I am Blessed with in this world it is my will and order that all my 
Just Debts be fully Paid, and that my public accompta may he settled 
with all convenient speed. Also it is my will that all and singular my 



132 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



1769 had established missions among the Indians, 
had not forsaken them, but, under many discourage- 
ments and through many vicissitudes, had kept them 
together, and after several removals had at length 
established them along the Tuscarawas River in 
Ohio. Here these simple-minded Indians, converted 
from savages, lived at peace with all men, and by that 
time had developed into a thriving and thrifty com- 
munity. There were three villages of them, Shoen- 
brun, Gnadenhiitten, and Salem. Gnadenhiitten was 
on the east side of the river, the other two were on 
the west side. Salem and Shoenbrun were about 

Estate Real and Personal shall be equally Divided between my well be- 
luved wile and my only Daughter EL My Land Joining Col. John Proc- 
tor to he rented nnlill uiy said Daughter anive to the age of twenty-one 
yi ;n>, ami the half the rents thereof applied fur her Boarding and School- 
ing, Ihe other half for the use of my Wife, and in ease any or either 
of them should Die before my Daughter conies to age or is married the 
w hole estate is to devolve to Ihe survivor, and all my claims or rights to 
any Lands only the Lands above mentioned I desiie may he sold. And 
1 do hereby constitute and appoint John Proctor whole and sole Execu- 
tor of this my last will and testament to see it duly executed according 
to my true intent and meaning, revoking and disanu ling all former Wills 
Ratifying and confirming this and no other to Lie my last will aud tes- 
t iiiio ut. Witness my hand aud seal the 2iilh Novr. 177*. 

" A. Lot'HRY, 

" Signed sealed Pronounced Declared and Confirmed In the Presence 
oi Jeremiah Lochry, David Philson, James Kinkaid. 

" 'I'h an I, s to (lod I am now in my Pioper senses and Do allow this to he 
my last will and testament except that my Daughter Betsey to receive 
her cqueul lots of my estate. 

" A. Lochry. 

" Attest, Jeremiah Locury, George Henry. " 

" 1 John Proctor the Executor within named Do by these Presence 
absolutely freely and voluntarily resign my right of executorship to the 
within Will. But will for the sake of the Deceased and his relick Join 
in Administration with the Widow. Witness my hand the Eleventh day 
of July, 17s2. 

" John Proctor. 

11 Witness present 

" Wii Jack, 
'•John PuHROY." 

" Proven by Jeremiah Lochry and George Henry the 11th, July 17S2 
before Jas. Kinkaid. " 

II is daughter Jane was born after this will was written. 

L'poii the same page of the record is the will of Theodorus Browers, 
founder of St. Vincent's, ami out of which arose the litigation hereafter 
noted. 

i.ipt Jeremiah Lochry, brother of Archibald, died on the 21st of 
January, 1824, at the house of Samuel Moorhead, in Salem township, in 
the niuety-third year of his age. 

Having settled in this country at a very early period, ho shared 
largely in the toils and hardships and perils to which the pioneers of 
civilization in the Western country were subjected. He was one of the 
lew who escuped the disastrous scenes of Braddock's detent. In the 
year 1777 be acted as adjutant to a detachment of militia who were or- 
dered to New- Jersey from this county, under the command of Col. 
Lochry, his brother. In this situation his merit as an officer soon at- 
tracted the attention of his superiors, and in the fall of the same year 
he was presented with a captain's commission in the regular sen ice. In 
tins capacity he acted dining the whole Revolutionary war, being fre- 
quently engaged with the enemy, and always acquitting himself with 

I' ' ami advantage to the cause of his country. Shortly after the 

close of the war, while engaged with a scouting party oil the Allegl y 

River, a ball was fired at him by an Indian, which glanced from the 
barrel of his gun and lodged in his neck, and was the cause of an enor- 
mous tumor that afterwards grew from the wound.* 



* From the Guzelte, Feb. C, 1824. 



thirteen miles apart, the other was midway be- 
tween, and all three within the present limits of 
Tuscarawas County, Ohio. But unfortunately their 
situation for friendly tribes was most unfavorable, 
for they were just about half-way between the border 
settlements of Pennsylvania on the east and tribes 
of ever-warring Delawares and Wyandots of the San- 
dusky Plains to the west. The whites and Indians 
at war with each other not infrequently took the 
route by the mission stations of the friendly Indians, 
and made this place a half-way stopping-house. The 
enforced hospitality of these Indians, who wanted to 
be at peace with all, brought upon them the suspic- 
ions of both the warring whites and warring Indians, 
and in vain were their kindness and hospitality be- 
stowed upon all alike. The Indians of the Sandusky 
in their incursions against the whites charged them 
with sympathy when they failed to assist them, and 
the frontier people knowing of the acts of hospitality 
extended to their deadly enemies by the Moravian 
Indians, their dishonorable passions were aroused, 
and they were urged to an ill-timed and unhonorable 
revenge. 

In the year previous, that is to say in the summer 
of 1780, Col. Brodhead had made a campaign from 
Wheeling to Coshocton. At that time he marched to 
the Muskingum a little below Salem, the Moravian 
town. On coming there, Brodhead sent a messenger 
to Rev. Heckewelder, informing him of his arrival. 
The Indians sent the men provisions of their own 
free will, and their pastor, Heckewelder, visited the 
colonel in his camp. At that time an attempt was 
made by some unprincipled men with the army to 
fall upon the other towns, but the knowledge of this 
reaching the colonel he took measures to prevent it, 
and told the pastor that nothing would give him 
greater pain than to hear that any of the Moravians 
had been molested by his troops. 

In the latter part of 17S1 the militia of the south- 
western part of the State, which formerly was, in 
name, a portion of Westmoreland, but \yhich was 
now of Washington County, being of the region 
about the rivers, where the people had suffered so 
much, came to the conclusion to break up the Indian 
Moravian villages. Col. David Williamson was the 
leader of this party, who, as they asserted, was to 
induce them to remove, or else to suffer themselves to 
be brought into Fort Pitt. There were some thus 
brought safely in, and afterwards sent back to their 
homes, but most of the people thought at that time 
the Indians ought to have been killed. 

These Indians were, in truth, the most unfortunate 
of creatures. For they- had on many occasions warned 
the whites by their rumors of projected attacks from 
hostile Indians to the West. The hostile Indians 
carrying this to the ears of the British, who under 
the white renegade Tories had control of them, they 
had their settlement at Sandusky broken up in the 
fall of 1781. Their villages were almost totally de- 



CRAWFORD'S EXPEDITION TO SANDUSKY. 



133 



stroyed, and their fields were desolated. Some were 
sent into the wilderness, some robbed, and some taken 
prisoners and sent to Detroit. MeKee, the British 
agent, and Girty, it is said, as all horrible thing's were 
charged to them, instigated this as the only way of 
drawing the Christian Indians into war with the 
Americans. 

But in the early part of the-next year. — that is, in 
February, 1782, — about a hundred and fifty famished 
and worn-out and heart-sick creatures, longing with 
the unseen passion for the light, returned from the 
Sandusky to their homes on the Muskingum. 1 

During this month some murders had been com- 
mitted by hostile Indians farther to the south, and 
the returning of the Moravians was made the pretext 
for charging them with being the guilty party. Ac- 
cordingly it was no trouble to get a crowd to invade 
their country, and besides it is said that the whites 
coveted the horses belonging to these men. For this 
purpose eighty or ninety men were hastily collected. 
These were under command of Col. David William- 
son, of Washington County, and the men were all 
from that section and from below Pittsburgh. They 
encamped the first night on the Mingo Bottom, on 
the west side of the Ohio River, sixty miles below 
Pittsburgh, and the second night within one mile of 
the nearest Moravian town. 

Then by representing to the Indians, whom they 
suddenly came upon, that they were their friends 
and that they had come to take them to the fort from 
the power of their enemies, and by many other de- 
ceptive promises and representations, the Christian 
Indians not doubting them, they got possession of the 
two towns, and secured the men, women, and children 
as prisoners. Nor were the suspicions of these 
aroused until they came upon one who had been mur- 
dered lying in their way. The captives were con- 
fined in two houses. As a squad were hunting the 
fields towards the farthest town a council was held by 
the chief men. Many proposed their death, but the 
officers not being willing to take the odium of such 
an inhuman revenge had the men drawn up in line. 
The question was put to them " whether to take the 
prisoners to Pittsburgh or put them to death." All 
in favor of saving their lives were to stand out in 
front of the line. In answer to this question eighteen 
men came out. The captives were told to prepare for 
death. Those in the guard-houses on hearing this 
began singing hymns and praying. To make their 
offense criminal they were charged with many crimes. 
They were accused of harboring hostile Indians, and 
in reply they reminded these of the benefits they had 
extended to the whites; they were charged with 
having taken the property of the whites, when they 
offered to produce everything they had to show that 
they had taken nothing. They were again told that 
they had not long to live, when they asked for delay 

1 The Mu6kingutu and Tuscarawas are called so indiscriminately. 



that they might prepare for death as became men 
who, in their last moments, talked with their God. 
This was granted them. The time thus allotted them 
they spent in prayer and in asking forgiveness of one 
another, and pardon as became creatures wdio called 
on God to pardon them. Kneeling they prayed with 
each other, and for each other, and kissed in tears 
their friends, hoping in their simple faith for future 
peace. 

While these were so doing the murderers outside 
were consulting as to the manner of their death. 
Some wanted to set fire to the houses, and as they 
were burning to shoot all wdio attempted to get away ; 
others wanted to kill them in such a way as to get 
their scalps. Those of the wdiites who were opposed 
to these things wrung their hands, and called on God 
to witness that they were guiltless of shedding this 
innocent blood. Those withdrew to a distance. The 
others coming up while the Indians were still praying 
asked them if they were ready. 

They were then led out for execution. One of the 
murderers took up a mallet, and wondered how that 
would do the business. He began by hitting one on 
the head, and continued striking those upon their 
knees till he had killed fourteen. Then, as his arm 
was tired, he handed the mallet to another, saying 
that his arm failed, and told him to go on, for he had 
done pretty well. 2 

Of all those who were put in the other house only 
two escaped. These were boys, one of whom was hid 
in the cellar, where he saw the blood flow down the 
walls in streams. The other had' been scalped and 

2 Smacker, " Military Expeditions to the Northwest,' 1 and other au- 
thorities '' too numerous to mention." 

The count; lieutenant. John C ion, was along with the expedition, 

and tradition as>erts with the persuasion of truth that tho man who 
brained fourteen Christians with a cooper's mallet held at the very mo- 
ment he was doing so three commissions in Washington County, viz.: 
our as commissioner of Washington County, one as sub-lieutenant of 
tin- county, and one at justice of the peace for Stral.ane township, same 
county. lie had held an important commission from Perms lvanifl m 
177(i, and he was alter the massacre rewarded as sheriff of the county. 

The rapine robbers of the middle ages, dying like cormorants or vul- 
tures, with the blood of victims dripping out of their gorged cheeks, 
made their peace with the world and with their conscience by donating 
a large portion of their robberies to pious use9. It is not remarkable in 
this view of humanity that so many churches and places of learning 
should be founded with such persons about in great number. Certainly 
no section and no people bad more need of the gospel and of the "hu- 
manities." Therefore it was in good taste that the academy of Cam s- 

burg took its name from Col. John Cannon. But if ever the father of 
his country blushed it was in 1781, when he found to what base uses a 
nam.- may come at last by the attaching of his name, the first in all 
time, to that new-formed county. But to their honor and a fairer fame, 
and to the honor of all Western Pennsylvania, the descendants of these 
men long ago redeemed and relustered a name once tarnished. 

The gang having killed and scalped all within reach, and plundered 
a friendly camp, of Delaware allies of the United States on their way 
back, crossed the river to Pittsburgh, where, boasting of their deeds, they 
sold their ill-gotten plunder at public vendue, and then, before returning 
home, sent Col. Gibson a message that they would "scalp him." lie had 
incurred their displeasure by showing some evidence that he was a 
man. 

We have recounted this affair at length, actuated more by a sense of 
justice to the savages than of reflection upon those who were the actors 
therein. 



131 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



left for dead among the pile of bodies above, but re- 
covering he escaped in the night. Both of them lived 
to be of the witnesses to bear testimony of this un- 
precedented murder. " By the mouth of two witnesses 
shall all things be established." 

Those in the upper and farther town being apprised 
of danger made their escape. But the house out of 
which one lot of the prisoners were taken was filled 
with the dead bodies of old men, women, and chil- 
dren and set on fire and burnt. When the party (if 
murderers came back to Pittsburgh, even on their way 
they fell upon a body of friendly Delawares under 
protection of the government, who were all killed with 
the exception of a few who escaped to the woods. 

It is said that this man Williamson held an office of 
profit and trust afterwards in Washington County, 
but that he died in jail as a debtor without a consoling 
friend. It is also noteworthy that the men wdio com- 
posed this expedition came from that part of the 
county whose earliest and latest boast has been of 
their religious and educational advantages, and the in- 
tellectual superiority of whose early settlers has been 
held up at the expense of their neighbors. 1 

An effort was afterwards made by the authorities to 
ferret out and bring to punishment the leaders in this 
massacre. The best citizens of Washington County, 
as Pentecost and Cannon were called, conferred with 
Gen. Irvine, who writing to William Moore, chief 
magistrate of the State, said that it was impossible to 
get any information as to the ringleaders, as they 
would neither confess nor tell on each other. 

A lier this expedition had returned another one 
under Col. Crawford started out. But the termina- 
tion of this one was different. In May, 1782, four 
hundred and eighty men, finding their own horses, 
equipments, and clothing, mustered at the old Mingo 
town on the west side of the Ohio. All of them 
were from the immediate neighborhood of the country 
and from the Ten-Mile Creek in Washington. They 
were volunteers, and first proceeded to select their 
own officers. Col. William Crawford was declared 
the leader of the expedition by a majority of five 
votes over Williamson, who accompanied the party. 
They marched along the river, passing the destroyed 
towns. A few houses and some of the corn were still 
standing. Two Indians were taken out of camp. 
This was no surprise to the Indian tribes, for they 
had spies out who reported from the time the party 
left the river, and knew their number and destination. 
On the 6th of June they came to the site of the old 
Moravian towns on the Upper Sandusky. But the 
dwellers had been driven to the Scioto. The place 
presented the appearance of desolation; it was over- 
grown with weeds, and high grass was all around the 
deserted huts. They continued their march for the 
towns of the living Indians. The next morning they 



1 Our account of the Moravian massacre has been collected from many, 
but in the narrative w<- have closely followed lioddridge, who himself 
followed Heckewelder. 



entered the Sandusky Plains. In the afternoon they 
weie attacked by Indians and driven together. The 
Indians gained possession of small clusters of woods, 
and the fighting continued till night. Both parties 
kindled large fires, and retired back of these. The 
Indians were seen all around them on the Plains the 
next day, and their numbers seemed to increase. A 
council was held and the men ordered to return. All 
the rest of the day preparations were made for a re- 
treat, and the dried grass was burnt over the slight 
graves of the buried dead. The retreat was to begin 
at nightfall, but the Indians becoming apprised of the 
design, they made an attack about sundown, and 
directed their attacks from all sides, excepting the 
side next to Sandusky. When the retreat commenced 
the guides were therefore compelled to take that 
direction to get out of the Plains. They passed 
through an opening in the Indians' line, and circling 
about gained the trail upon which they had come. 
The main body, consisting of about three hundred, 
was not molested in their retreat during the day. 
They encamped at night in safety, and successfully 
accomplished their march back. 

But when the retreat had at first been decided 
upon there was a difference of opinion as to the 
method of conducting it, some thinking it better to 
go in a body, others thinking it better to go in de- 
tached parties. The latter opinion prevailed. In this 
they were in mistake, for the Indians finding this out, 
instead of pursuing the stronger body, scattered out 
over the country to intercept the small parties aud 
cut oft' the straggled and lost. In this they were suc- 
cessful, for the only one of these detached bodies that 
came safely out was one under Col. Williamson, wdio 
late in the night after the battle, broke through the 
Indians' line, and with about forty men joined the 
main body. Col. Crawford remained at the head of 
this larger party, which was merely what was left of 
the army itself. After they had gone some distance, 
he, missing his son, his son-in-law, and his two 
nephews, imprudently halted till the line had passed, 
ami still not seeing them, called for them without 
finding them. When the army had gone by, he was 
unable to overtake it on account of the weariness of 
his horse. Falling in with Dr. Knight, a surgeon at- 
tached to the command, and two others, they traveled 
together all night, first towards the north and then 
towards the east, directing their courses by the stars. 
The next day they fell in with two other officers. The 
following night they encamped, and about noon the 
next day they struck the trail by which the army had 
advanced. At this they differed in opinion as to the 
best course, some of the party thinking it better to go 
through the woods by unfrequented paths, and Cravf- 
forcl and a few others (for the party was six or seven), 
conjecturing that the pursuit of the main body had 
been discontinued, were following in the track of the 
army. 

They agreed to do this, but had not proceeded 



CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN 1780-81. 



135 



above a mile when several Indians sprang out of the 
bushes, and presenting their guns at Col. Crawford 
and Knight, who were in front, ordered them in Eng- 
lish to stop. These could do nothing but surrender. 
Capt. Biggs and Lieut. Ashley, and a wounded man 
on horseback, by this time coming up were also called 
on, but Biggs tired, and he and his comrades struck 
for the woods. They were killed the next day, and 
the only ones of the party who escaped at this time 
were those in the rear who fled on the first alarm. 

Col. Crawford and Dr. Knight, with nine other 
prisoners, were, on the morning of the 10th of June, 
conducted by seventeen Indians to the old Sandusky 
town, about thirty-three miles from where they had 
first collected. All the prisoners with the exception 
of the two had been painted black to indicate their 
doom. Four of these nine were tomahawked and 
Scalped on the way, and the other five, when they ar- 
rived at the town, were fell upon by boys and squaws 
who tomahawked them, foregoing the pleasure of 
their holiday. For the torture these two, however, 
were reserved. 

We shall not narrate the scene of Crawford roasting 
alive at the stake. You will see it in all the books. 
Those who have occasion to know by report of the 
humanity, the tender nature, and the open hospitality 
of our first presiding justice must ever be moved by 
pity at his death. For three hours he endured the most 
excruciating agonies with the utmost fortitude; then, 
becoming faint and being almost exhausted, he com- 
mended his soul to God, and lay down on his face. 
He was then scalped, and burning coals being laid on 
his head and back by one of the squaws, he again rose 
and attempted to walk, but strength failed him, and 
he sank into the welcome arms of death. His body 
was then thrown into the fire and consumed to ashes. 1 

1 In the miilst of these Bufferings lie begged of the infamous Girty to 
shoot liiin, Girty replied, ' l How can 1? You see I have no gun," unit 
laughed heartily. Dining most of the time Girty sat on a log smoking 

a pipe. 

Simon Girty. — This wretch was so notorious in bis diy, and did so 
much harm to this portion, that his " life and services" demand further 
notice. Girty — 

"The outlawed white man by Ohio's flood, 

Whose vengeance shamed the Indian's thirst for blood, 

Whose hellish art surpassed the red man's far, 

Whose bate enkindled many a bloody war, 

Of which each aged grandame hath a tale 

At which man's bosom burns, and childhood's cheeks grow pale — " 
was a native of one of the middle com ties of Pennsylvania. He was 
an Indian trader in 1T44, and was first brought into prominence in Dun- 
more's war as a spy and hunter. Prior to that time be had been draw- 
in- pay as an Indian agent. From bis connection and residence fur so 
long a time among the Indians he got familiar with them, delighted to 
harangue them, and took peculiar pleaBUre in their scenes of bloodshed, 
as it is related. He is said to have embraced the cause or the Revolution 
on the part of the colonists, but he was soon brought over by Dunmore 

and i' oily. He went in 177S boldly and bodily over to the Indians, 

and was adopted by the Wyandnts. His Indian name was Ka-te-pa-fco- 
nien (Bouquet's Journal, 1764, mentions this ns Girty's adopted name 
then). He soon attained great influence over them, and at one time 
Saved Kenton, and at another burnt Crawford. To the frontier whites 
and the British he went by the assumed name of Simon Butler. He 
talked tlie Indian dialect with tlueucy. He attended the great council 
held by most or the tribes of the Northwest at Old Chlllicothe, celebrated 



It is not likely that the description will ever pass away, 
but for years to come will bear rehearsal to show the 
customs and barbaric rites of that savage race in the 
treatment of their enemies taken in war. Crawford's 
son and son-in-law were also murdered at the towns. 
It was no wonder that the widow and mother sat for 
years lonely in the woods by tlie hank of the Youg- 
hiogheny in speechless sorrow, for his melancholy 
sufferings and death spread a gloom over the counte- 
nances of all who knew him. 

Dr. Knight was doomed to the same torture for the 
pleasure of those at the Shawnee town, which lay 
many miles distant from Sandusky. He was com- 
mitted to the care of only a single Indian. In the 
morning of the first night they were out, the gnats 
being troublesome, Knight asked the Indian to untie 
his hands that he might help make a fire to keep the 
ins.vts off. Tlie Indian did so and got down on his 
hands and knees, and was blowing the fire, when 
Knight struck him on the back of the head with a 
short half-burnt stick. The Indian rolled over, but 
springing to his feet, ran off roaring into the woods. 
Knight snatched the Indian's rifle to shoot at him, 
but pulling the hammer back too violently he broke 
the mainspring of the lock. Knight reached Fort 
Mcintosh (Beaver), on the twenty-second day, in the 
mean time living on berries, roots, and young birds. 

Such are instances of the wanton murders, the suf- 
ferings, and the barbarity on both sides during this 
inhuman war. The murder of Cornstalk at Point 
Pleasant was paralleled by the torture of Crawford, and 
we have of necessity recounted the story of the Mora- 
vian massacre and the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, 
that we may comprehend its parallel in the death of 
Peggy Shaw and Brownlee and the burning of Han- 
nastown. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN 1780-S1. 

Westmoreland County in the Latter Part of the Revolution — Evidences 
from the Court Records and from Acts of Assembly — The Militia 
shitted from Place to Place in expectation of Indian Attacks — The 
Outposts west of Fort Pitt abandoned — Extracts from the Correspond- 
ence of Brodhead, Irvine, and Others hearing on the Affairs of the 
County. 

The condition of affairs within the county during 
the latter part of the Revolution and immediately 

and often mentioned in the annals of the West. He here in a speech 
eloquently set forth the advantages of the campaign against the whites, 
which was soon set on foot against the western frontiers. He beaded a 
portion of the Indian forces ttiat proceeded against Kentucky. His next 
opou battle was at the Pequa towns, where at the bead of three hundred 
warriors he held Clark in check for a time. He led or sent many savage 
parties against the frontiers of Pennsylvania about this time. His name 
became dreaded, and at one time horror followed the mention of it. We 
shall see elsewhere that he bad something to do with the destruction of 
Hannastown. He wnfl with the victora at St. Clair's field, 1791, and at 
the battle of the Fallen Timbers, 1794. After Wayne's treaty be went 
to Canada, where he became a trader, and towards the close of his life 
be gave himself up to intoxicating drinks, and by excesses brought on 
diseases by which lie suffered much before be died. 



136 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



prior to the raid on Hannastown is also evidenced in 
the meagre records of the courts. 

In 1778 and 1779 it appears there were no constables 
for many of the townships. Vacancies were frequently 
noted, and these were at times filled by appointment 
by the county justices. 

At the January sessions, 1780, the constables being 
called, and none attending, the fines, on account of 
the severity of the weather, were remitted. At this 
term there was no grand jury in attendance and no 
business done. 

At the October sessions of 1781 there was only one 
constable present, and he was from Pittsburgh. 

At the January sessions of 1781 here is a jury of 
the vicinage: William Love, John Guthrey, Joseph 
Brownlee, William Jack, William Guthrey, Adam 
Hatfield, Matthew Miller, Samuel Beatty, Lawrence 
Irwin, William Shaw, Conrad Hawk, and William 
Maxwell. One is led to exclaim " Injuns !" 

That persons who were so unfortunate then as to be 
in debt should be harassed would be natural to sup- 
pose, and this is evidenced by the number of execu- 
tions issued. In the July term of 1782, being held 
when the town was raided, there were ninety-two, an 
excessive number. In the January sessions of 1784 is 
the following : 

"The court Iltiving considered the application of David Rankin, lie 
living on the frontiers, excuse him from paying license in the year 1781, 
and at the same time rule tint the several people having sold or continue 
to sell spirituous liquors living on the frontiers, and may lie entitled to 
thefavuurof Ihe Court, are discharged from paying license until July 
Sessions last, agreeable to the directions of the Honorable the Supreme 
Executive Council." 

On the 10th of March, 1780, the Legislature passed 
an act of a temporary nature, empowering the county 
commissioners and assessors to obtain the best estimate 
that they could of the property of such of the inhabit- 
ants as had been driven from their habitations, and 
to exonerate those from taxes who had bona fide suf- 
fered by the incursions of the enemy. 

In the call for troops in 1780 there was none asked 
for from Westmoreland. Neither was there an account 
kept of the supplies from the county, as there was no 
commissioner; David Duncan, the late commissioner, 
not having rendered any account, he being unable to 
purchase anything worth returning. 

This is not much to wonder at, for Col. John Boyn- 
ton, deputy paymaster-general, in a letter to Presi- 
dent Reed the year previous, says that he " has served 
for nearly three years in that remote country [the 
border of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia], and it 
has been wholly impracticable to procure such neces- 
saries as decency requires." 1 

By the act of 3d April, 1781, directing the mode of 
adjusting and settling the payment of debts and con- 
tracts previously entered into, etc., and which fixed 
a scale of depreciation as a rule to determine the 
value of the several debts, contracts, etc., it was en- 

1 Archives, X. S., iii. 300. 



acted that the act entitled an act for limitation of ac- 
tions, which had been passed the 27th day of March, 
1713, " should not run or operate during the time the 
courts of justice were shut in this State, nor during 
the time of any suspension act of this State, in any 
action or distress prohibited to be made or brought by 
such act, under the penalty of taking depreciated 
money in full payment." 2 

These acts of the Assembly indicate the poverty and 
inability of the western country, arising from and due 
to their border sufferings and consequent distress. 

During 1770 the frontier posts west of Fort Pitt, 
which were garrisoned by the forces under the control 
of the commandant of the Western Department, had 
been abandoned by reason of inability to hold them 
by inadequate forces against a much stronger force of 
British and Indians. Of these forts the most im- 
portant were Fort Laurens, in the Ohio country, and 
Fort Mcintosh (Beaver). 

The withdrawal of all forces from the Indian coun- 
try caused great alarm and indignation in the settle- 
ments on the border. Early in 1780 a meeting of 
citizens was held in Westmoreland County, and resolu- 
tions passed requesting the reoccupation of the aban- 
doned forts. 3 Hence the co-operation of Lochry with 
Clark in his expedition before narrated. When ('lark 
was compelled to abandon the expedition the whole 
western frontier was menaced with a British ami In- 
dian invasion front Canada. Fully conversant with 
and appreciating the terrible situation of affairs, both 
military and civil, about this region, the commander- 
in-chief, with great care and concern, and after due 
deliberation, chose Brig.-Gen. William Irvine to take 
command at Fort Pitt, Sept. 24, 1780. Congress re- 
quested the executives of Pennsylvania and Virginia 
to co-operate with him by supplying militia upon his 
requisition. 

Of the complications which arose out of the divided 
authority between the commandant at Fort Pitt and 
the county lieutenant of Westmoreland we have had 
occasion to refer to, and one inquiring further is re- 
ferred to the correspondence relating to Westmore- 
land County, which will be found in the Appendix and 
in various notes in the preceding part of this book. 

The correspondence of Col. Lochry, and his actions 
as lieutenant of the county, evidence the great danger 
constantly threatening the frontier of Westmoreland, 
and also the inability of the people to protect them- 
selves. 

Capt. Thomas Campbell's ranging company, under 
pay of Congress, and subject to Lochry's orders, was 
stationed in December of 1779 about Hannastown. 



- The Courts of Justices were "shut" in Westmoreland during a por- 
tion of the Revolutionary war. 

s Col. Brodhead, in a letter to Maj. Slaughter, May 11, 1780, says, 
"The county of Westmoreland is again infested with the cursed Mill- 
goes. The inhabitants are flying from every quarter, and it will be ne- 
cessary for you to keep a lookout where you are [Slaughter was then 
at a post dowu the Ohio]." — BvodUeinV* Lelter-Booki Archives, xii. p. 232. 



CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN 1780-81. 



137 



This had been allowed by the concurrence of Brod- 
head. This company, shortly after this, was ordered 
by Col. Loehry to Wallace's Fort (near the Cone- 
maugh), but on Campbell's making application to Col. 
Brodhead for horses and provisions needful fur the 
transportation of his men to that post he was refused 
both ; whereupon he wrote a very caustic letter to 
Brodhead, who had him arrested for insubordination.' 

It was during this time, as we have seen, that 
Loehry insisted that the companies of Erwin and 
Campbell should be kept in Westmoreland for the 
protection of the posts here, being more needed here 
than farther on the frontier. 2 

Upon Erwin, who was father-in-law of Loehry, 
refusing to let his company go under Brodhead's or- 
der to join the Eighth Regiment, Brodhead ordered 
him as well as Campbell under arrest, and to be tried 
by a court-martial/' Brodhead said that when these 
two companies had been ordered by Loehry to Han- 
nastown and Wallace's Fort, he had to withdraw 
the garrisons from Fort Armstrong (Kittanning) and 
Fort Crawford. 

Brodhead was certainly not much prepossessed in 
favor of the officers of the militia of the county. The 
duplex system of management was unfortunate and 
led to mischief, which of itself was aggravated when 
a suspicion was enkindled in the breasts of both par- 
ties that the acts of opposition were the result of pre- 
meditated and studied malignity.' 

The correspondence of Col. Brodhead during the 
time he was in command at Pittsburgh, in 17S0 and 
part of 1781, is of much interest to Westmorelanders 
inquiring into the history of that time. In May, 1780, 
he writes to President Reed, " For heaven's sake hurry 
up the companies voted by the Honorable Assembly, 
or Westmoreland County will soon lie a wilderness.""' 

The ranging companies to which we have referred 
were raised by the Assembly at the instance of Con- 
gress, and were enlisted into the Eighth Pennsylvania 
Regiment, whose colonel was Brodhead; but while so 
enlisted and drawing pay in the Continental service, 
they were allowed to be under the direction and com- 
mand of the county lieutenant, as they were pri- 
marily intended for the protection of the county. 
This, we have seen, was the source of much trouble. 

1 Archives, vii , p. 311, O. S. '- Ibid., viii., p. 42, 0. S. 

3 Ibid, p. 79. 

4 Col Daniel Brad/trad to resident Reed, April 27, 17S0. 

" I nm nuicli at a loss to guess the cause of prepossession iu the As- 
sembly to favor former appointments. They must conceive a mean 
opinion of my judgment in regard tu officers if they know my opinion 
of these, and they must be sensible that many excellent officers of the 
State are supernumerary. I will only take the liberty to mention Capt. 
Btofcely,Capt. Hoffhagle, Capt. Swearingen,and Capt. .tack, either Erwin 
or Campbell. But were I at liberty to recommend officers, I should pre- 
fer such who are altogether unconnected with the leading people of the 
counties, anil have neither families nor farms to support or cultivate at an 
expense they do not choose to pay. The late Capt Hoorhead and others 
considered their men as their servants, and employed them to labor upon 
their fai ms instead of the service for which they were intended by the 
public."— Arthurs, viii., p. 210. 

' Archives, Viii. 240. 



Reports from both the Continental and the county 
officers were continually reaching the earaofthe presi- 
dent of the State. In a letter in 1781 from President 
Reed to Col. Loehry he says that the former quarter- 
ing of these rangers about Hannastown did not ex- 
actly meet the concurrence of the Board, but that he, 
Loehry, should use his own discretion in bestowing 
them in the coining campaign. 

The plan agreed upon by the representatives of the 
western counties and Gen. Irvine, held at the conven- 
tion called at his instance, April the 5th, 1781, was 
to keep flying bodies of men constantly on the fron- 
tiers, marching to and from the different places. The 
regular troops were to remain in Fort Pitt and Fort 
Mcintosh, since reoccupied. Westmoreland agreed 
to keep sixty-five men, formed into two companies, 
constantly ranging along the frontier from the Alle- 
gheny to the Laurel Hill. The militia of Washing- 
ton County was formed into four companies; two of 
these were placed so as to patrol the Ohio from Pitts- 
burgh to near Wheeling. Every precaution was taken 
to guard against surprises of the enemy. Neverthe- 
less, it was well understood that a defensive policy, 
with whatever care plans might be laid, would prove 
ineffectual against occasional inroads of the wily, 
prowling savages, who in spite of every precaution 
frequently crossed the Ohio, fell suddenly upon their 
helpless victims, and then quickly recrossed that 
river into the wilderness beyond." 

It was the wide-spread and unarguable opinion of 
the people west of the Laurel Hill that the only way 
of destroying the Indians was to carry the war against 
them. Hence the expedition to the Sandusky towns 
which brought so much additional suffering in its 
unfortunate termination. 

A. Loehry to President Reed, April 17, 1781, writes : 

"The savages have begun their hostilities. Since I came from Phila- 
delphia ihey have Btruck us in four different places, have taken and 
killed thirteen persons with a number of horses and other effects of the 

inhabitants; two of the unhappy \ pie were killed one mile from 

Hannastown. Our country is worse depopulated than ever it has been." 7 

James Perry to President Reed, 1781 : 

"Skwiikikv, .Tuly 2, 1781. 
"Understanding that an express is going to Philadelphia from Col, 

Loehry, I shall just infot m yi n country is in the utmost con fusion at 

present. About three weeks ago one .lames Chambers was taken pris- 
oner about two miles from mv house, last Friday two young women 
were killed in Ligouier Valley, and this morning a small garrison at 
Peter Clingensniith's, about eight miles from this and four or five miles 
from Ilautias Town, ■ »t:>i-t ng of between twenty and thirty women 
ami children, was destroyed ; only three made their escape. The par- 
ticulars 1 cannot well inform you, as the party that was sent to Ion v 
the dead are not yet returned, and I wait every moment to hear of ,.i 
perhaps see them strike at some other place. That party was supposed 
to he about seventeen. "* 

Col. Loehry to President Reed, July 4, 1781 : 

" We have very distressing times here this summer. The enemy are 
almost constantly in our country, killing and captivating the inhabit- 
ants."" 

6"Crawford*a Campaign against Sandusky," Butterfield, p. 8 For 
much information on the subject in hand the special reader is referred 
to the valuable publication nuoted. 

' Arch., vol. ix., 79. B Ibid., 240. » Ibid., 247. 



138 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



In August, 17S1, the detachment of the Seventh 
Maryland Regiment, which had been serving under 
Brodhead, left Fort Pitt, and returned over the moun- 
tains home. 

This season Lochry, the county lieutenant, appre- 
hending an attack ou Hannastown or some untoward 
event, had erected a block-house on his farm on the 
Twelve-Mile Run, now near the convent in Unity 
township, whither he had the records removed for 
safety, and a magazine built for the powder and arms 
supply for the county of which he had charge. .To 
this, however, the Council objected, and upon their 
objection he desisted. Their chief ground of ob- 
jection was that by the collection of war munitions at 
one place the attention of the enemy would be 
drawn to that point, and the interests of a large por- 
tion of the people lie greatly imperiled. 

In his letter to Washington of Dec. 3, 1781, Irvine 
said, — 

"At present the people talk of flying, early in the spring, to the 
eastern side of tin' mountain, and are daily flocking to ma to inquire 
what support they may expect." 

It was very generally believed, and the commander 
himself shared in the opinion, that the failure of 
Clark and Gibson would greatly encourage the sav- 
ages to fall on the frontiers with double fury in the 
coming spring. 

The month of February, 17S2, was one of unusual 
mildness. War-parties of savages front Sandusky 
visited the settlements and committed depredations 
earlier than usual on that account. From the failure 
of the expeditions against the Western Indians iu the 
previous autumn, there had been a continued fear, a 
feverish state of feeling, during the winter all along 
the border; and now that the early melting of the 
snow had brought the savages tit an unwonted season 
to the settlements, a inure than usual excitement 
upon such an occasion prevailed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 

of i ts*2 — The Outposts deserted — Condition of the Hannastown 
Settlement*— The People gather neat tothe Stations and work at Har- 
vest together — A Party go "ut to take off the Harvest of Michael 
Huffnagle, north of Hannastown — One of the Reapers, seeing Indians 
watching from behind Trees, gives the Alarm, ami they flee towards 
the Fort— The Court at Uauna6to\ru adjourns without a Crier — 
Records taken to the Fort—General Jail Delivery— They all gather 
into the Stockade — Scents sent out — Brison ami Sliau* pursued by the 

Indians — Capt. Matthew Jack comes upon the Indians ami escapes 

1 1 ( ,ui them — lie rides round theCc try and alarms the People — lie 

saves tho Love Family— Indians come to the Town— They hold a Con- 
sultation, and •" e Been t" have White Men for Commanders, who are 
dressed like Indians — They plunder the Houses, fire on theStockade, 
ami mock at the Inmate- — They semi out a Party towards Miller's 
Station— The People gather at Allen'.-, at Hugh's, at Unity — Settlers 
gather into the Houses and gel down their Rifles— Indians come on to 
the Mowers in the Meadow at Miller's— The Number and Class of Per- 
sons collected there — Women ami Children gather into the Miller 
House— John Brownlee called back from attacking the Indians by 



his Wife — Hives himself up to the Indians — A Young Man takes 
Browuloe's Child and runs towards George's — Is pursued by a Pack of 
Indians and hides in a Rye-Field — Singular Escape of a Babe left ou 
the Ground at the Mercy of the Savages— She is found Sleeping in her 
own Cot the next Horning — She lives to be Married, and dies in Old 
Age — The Houses at Hannastown burnt down — Captain Jack is too 
late to alarm the People at Millet's — The Renegades secure the Ill- 
ma t,*s of tie* ilniisf — They bnru the Houses and shoot down the Cattle 

— Tie the Hands of the Prisoners and load them with Stolen Goods 
— Drive the Weeping Women into Captivity — Brownlee cat-ties a Load 
On ins hack and has his Little Child on his neck— The Indians recog- 
nize Brownlee — One crashes a Tomahawk into his Head and kills his 
Little B"y, and also a Woman who faints — Affairs about the Fort — 
Peggy Shaw saves a Little Child— A Ball strikes her in tlie B east 
Tile barbarous Medical Treatment she receives while she lingers out 
iter L fe — The Two Bodies of Indians unite and go into Camp In the 
Crabtree Bottom — People collect at the George Farm— At Nightfall a 

Crowd with Scouts go Armed to assist those in the Fort— They come 

to the Smouldering Town — Are let into the Stockade ami Sound an 
Alarm — The Indians, listening, are scaled, thinking Reinforcements 
have utri vi d, and after Midnight they leave for the North — Their 
Route— They are pursued as farosthe Kiskiiniuetas — The People look 
out on Deserted Homes— They bury the Dead where they were found 
— To keep them from Starving the State allows them to draw Rations 

— What became of the Prisoners — Who the Invaders were and where 
thej came from— Gen. Irvine's Letter to Washington — Singular Ac- 
countfrom an Indian after the War of the Party which burnt Han- 
nastown — The Heroes of the " Hannastown War' — The Town after 
its Destruction. 

The darkest and most gloomy period in the history 
of Westmoreland County was from the spring of 1781 
to the spring of 1783. This was the night of dark- 
ness, the tenebrce noeturnum. After the unchristian 
murder of the Moravian Indians disaster followed 
disaster. Crawford walking around the stake in his 
bare feet on the hot cinders, praying to God to have 
mercy, and beseeching Grirty only to kill him ; the 
loss ni' so many brave men who had gone out with 
Lochry from about Hannastown and who never re- 
turned; the frontier in war; the settlers fleeing back 
to the mountains; the desertion of the soldiers who 
were guarding the posts along the Allegheny; the 
unfilled fields, — the memory and knowledge of these 
things haunted them day and night, and tlie shadows 
of death and want were across well-nigh every do >r 
in the land. 

Through the greater part of the year 17S2 some of 
the settlers did not pretend to do anything but watch 
for the others, ready at an instant's warning to go 
wherever needed. Those who slaved about the fields 
anil houses gladly worked fir the rest, and depended 
on the fighters guarding the limits of the settlement. 
Of those in the Hannastown settlement who were 
looked up to as their foremost men were Capt. 
Matthew Jack, Col. Campbell, Capt. Love, Lieut. 
Guthrie, the Brownlees, the Brisons, the Shaws, the 
Wilsons. 

As the times grew darker their sympathies grew 
closer. At no other time did they live as one family, 
in a sort of communism, for the fear of apparent 
death makes all men forget their enmity. Those, in 
such settlements as this, who worked worked in 
common. When a patch of rye or wheat was to be 
cut and gathered in it was a kind of serious frolic. 
This was so in the region bounded by the old military 



DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 



139 



road and the block-houses around the Sewickley set- 
tlement. 

We will remember that besides the regular forts 
and those block-house cabins, such as Fort Waltour 
ami Miller's Station, there were in every locality 
other designated points to flee to which, being the 
most convenient, a crowd would most likely be col- 
lected at soonest. Such were George's cabin, to the 
northeast of Miller's about a mile, and Rugh's block- 
house, near the Beaver Dam on Jack's Run, about a 
mile to the south of now Greensburg. These were 
early settlements, the Miller farm having been in the 
possession of that family from the time it was war- 
ranted. At this time this settlement was rather 
thickly peopled. Large fields had been cleared about 
the house, and stake-and-rider fences kept the cattle 
from trespassing. 

The militia in the service of the State had de 
from the posts, because they were not paid and were in 
rag-, and the safety of the inhabitants was in their own 
exertions. "While the gloom from repeated disasters 
still rested upon the people they gathered into the 
cabins about Hannastown and nearer the block- 
houses and stations. The whole country north of the 
Great Road almost to the rivers northwestward of the 
Dcrry line was, so to speak, deserted. Fears were 
apprehended that the Hannastown settlement would 
he made an objective point, but there was no apparent 
danger mire than a general fear. 

(in Saturday, the 18th of July, 1782, the settlers 
next to Hannastown on the north, and those about 
the fort and the town itself who i ould be spared, went 
out to cut the harvest of Michael Hufinagle. Hu fi- 
nagle was the prothonotary and one of the judges of 
the Common Fleas. He was one of the most active 
ami best known of the inhabitants. He had been an 
officer in tin- Westmoreland regiment, the Eighth in 
the Continental line, had seen service in the cam- 
paign in the Jerseys, and in one of the battles of the 
Revolution had been wounded in the leg. The wound 
allowed him to be exempt from military duty, hut on 
his return he had entered actively into the civil ser- 
vice, and had gained much influence. He had a farm 
about a mile and a half north of the town, and while 
he was engaged in the duties of his office his neigh- 
bors took their turn at his fields. At this time court 
was being held at the old house, first built by Robert 
Hanna and used by him. By the records of the Com- 
mon Fleas and Quarter Sessions it appears that the 
July term commenced on the second Tuesday of July, 
1782, before Edward Cook and his associates, Cook 
holding these courts in Westmoreland under a special 
commission. 

From an imperfect narrative and from many con- 
flicting accounts we have collated the facts which can 
be taken as authentic, and which we believe arc sub- 
stantially correct. 

The reaping-partyhad cut down one field and were 
about finishing it, after they had eaten their din- 



ner in the shade, when one of the reapers crossed 
over to the farther side next the wood. As he neared 
the opposite edge of the field where the wood leath- 
ered in he espied some Indians watching the party 
from behind trees as the party were coming out to 
take their [daces. The man ran back and gave the 
alarm that the Indians were coining. The party hur- 
ried from the field with all speed, some going towards 
the place where they had at first collected, others 
through the woods to alarm the settlers and to reach 
their homes, hut most ran direct for the fort and 
town. When they came running into the town all 
was confusion. One, using a familiar form of ex- 
pression, says that the sudden inroad of the savages 
that afternoon was like a clap of thunder from a clear 
sky. The records were taken from the court-house to 
the stockade; the door of the round-logged jail was 
opened, and the prisoners confined were allowed to go 
at large ; and while some were running about helping 
the women and children and decrepit old people, 
others themselves were hurrying into the fort and 
making ready to close the big gate cut in the pali- 
sades. The suddenness of the onslaught can be imag- 
ined when that none made an effort to secure their 
household treasures, their clothing, or movable stuff. 
Before the Indians had yet made their appearance 
about the town itself, and soon after the news reached 
there, a kind of a consultation was informally held by 
some of the men to decide on a plan of action. The 
people who had remained at the town were now 
within the shelter of the stockade. There chanced to 
be about the town then some who would rather have 
fought Indians than eat dinner, and who would not 
have slept knowing that any of the settlers were in 
danger and the woods full of such vermin. Some of 
these, it is said, volunteered to go out in the direction 
of the fields, that they might see where the Indians 
were collected, to get their strength and to report 
their objective movements. James Brison and David 
Shaw were of this party. But before these left, and 
among the first to go out, was ('apt. Matthew Jack, 
who on his good horse, took a circling route to recon- 
noitre to find something of the intention of the sav- 
ages, and to alarm the settlements nearest the town. 
Capt. Jack, although going in a way not directly to- 
wards the fields from the fort, was the first to come 
upon the place where they were collected, not far from 
where the reapers had left. They were then apparently 
consulting and agreeing upon a plan of attack. His 
quick perception took in the whole situation at once. 
The instant he reined his horse in he was seen. He 
turned his horse and fled, and they followed. < !om- 
ing hack he met the young men wdio had started out 
after he had. He yelled to them to run for their lives, 
that he would circle round before going to the fort, 
expecting by the speed of his horse and his knowl- 
edge of the land to get back before they should ar- 
rive there, or in case of pursuit to evade them, for 
there was no one ever thought that fear of the In- 



140 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



dians ever once possessed him, being by nature fear- 
less and excitable, and having had much experience 
in the troubles of the frontier. The captain from here 
kept in a southerly course to the right of the fort, and 
in the direction of Miller's, although not to Miller's. 
On his way lie came to where the Love family lived, 
somewhat above a mile from the fort. These he as- 
sisted off, taking Mrs. Love and her small babe on 
the horse behind him, and carrying them, if not to 
the fort, to some place of safety. Of the day's work 
of this gallant chevalier this incident is proven in the 
accounts and we'll preserved in the traditions of the 
Hannastown descendants. 

The young men whom we have mentioned of, on 
meeting Capt. Jack, took his word and hurried back 
towards the town. The Indians caught sight of Shaw 
and his companions, and no doubt hoping to reach 
the town before they were expected, came running at 
full speed after the scouts ; for they were surely under 
the impression that news had not yet reached the vil- 
lage, that they would capture the scouts by running 
them down, or at least that they would make their 
attack before the people could have time to get away. 
Then began the old-fashioned race for life. The 
scouts were good woodsmen and swift runners, and 
they knew the ground well ; every path, every hollow, 
every jutting rock was familiar. If they could reach 
the Crabtree Run, which marked its way through 
the rough ravine, they might then i'eel safe, for the 
Indians would hardly pursue them under cover of the 
houses. By the time they reached the Creek they 
could hear the footfalls of their pursuers, and 
glancing back over their shoulders see through the 
foliage the sun glistening on the naked backs, and 
the tufts of hair swinging in the brushing wind. The 
Indians, not sure of their prey, and evidently not 
to alarm the town, did not fire. Shaw, on reaching 
the brow of the hill upon which the town was built, 
ran to his father's house again to see if the family were 
out. From here he turned towards the stockade. By 
this time the foremost of the savages had emerged from 
the wood, and were showing themselves in the open 
space between the crown of the hill and the houses. 
Shaw here stopped, and drawing up his long-barreled, 
six foot rifle, with unerring aim dropped one of the 
wretches in his tracks. He entered through the door- 
gate of the fort, which was closed behind him. 

Thus, luckily, by the time the Indians and rene- 
gades came up the inhabitants of Hannastown were 
safely within the palisades of their stockade. Then, 
on the testimony of Huffnagle, at about two o'clock 
in the afternoon, the town, consisting of about thirty 
cabins and houses, was attacked by above a hundred 
Indians and white renegades called Tories acting 
with them. 

When the crew saw how that they had been cheated 
out of a rare butchery they gave utterance to one of 
those indescribable yells which so closely resembled 
the cry of a brute iu torture, the recollection of which 



long after chilled the blood of those who escaped. 
Then dispersing they fell to pillaging the cabins, 
throwing the goods out and scattering them about. 
Some of them in view of the fort danced about in 
derision, brandishing their tomahawks and knives. 
They were exasperated that the whites should escape, 
for their very expedition had been specially directed 
against this place. 

When it appeared to the Indians that they had 
been baffled, they were called together by their leaders, 
about whom they grouped together to the side of the 
town and not far from the stockade. Here they pow- 
wowed in some sort of consultation, evidently con- 
sidering about attacking the fort. Their language 
was loud, and their gestures were wild and impulsive; 
but they seemed to be well under the control of their 
leaders, who could be recognized as white men dressed 
in Indian fashion. It is stated with the utmost show- 
ing of authority that during this time they might 
have been fired upon with effect from the fort. The 
whites, however, although by insult and injury driven 
almost to desperation, did not choose to begin the fight, 
being evidently advised in this, for by so doing the 
wdiole force would have been brought down upon 
them. The Indians, as was afterwards ascertained, 
had concluded not to make an attack till the follow- 
ing morning; and the hope of salvation in this 
matter for the whites was in waiting till assistance 
should come. 

When the consultation was ended, a body of In- 
dians and renegades started off in the direction of 
Miller's. The number of this pack is variously 
estimated, some placing it at forty or fifty, and it is 
not probable that it was less than the first number. 
But for those that remained at the town there was 
still some occasion for gratification left, and running 
up and down with a concerted action at the same 
time, they set fire to the town at a number of places. 
No obstacle was in the way of the fire, and the favor- 
ing wind made by the fire itself was so propitious 
that the cluster of houses was soon ablaze, and in a 
short time the town was reduced to ashes, with the 
exception of the fort and two houses nearest to it 
and covered by it. One of these houses was 
Hanna's. 

As the flames burst up through the dry clapboard 
roofs and the logs crackled in the heat, the savages 
now drunken with whiskey and mail with rage, danced 
around in the open space between the houses and the 
fort, not mindless, however, of keeping at a respectful 
distance out of the range of the guns. But from 
where they were they mocked in an insulting way 
those who were pent up, and held up in their view 
the articles which they had stolen from the houses. 
One noble warrior had appropriated to his particular 
self a brilliant military coat which he had found in 
ransacking a house. He had put it on, and so pea- 
cocked out strutted back and forth in rather too 
close range of the fort, for some one within, drawing 



\ 



DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 



141 



a true bead upon him, fired, when the warrior leaped 
in the air, and thus sacrificed his life to his vanity. 

Communication with the outside of the fort was 
now entirely cut off. The scouts who had not re- 
turned could not now get in, and when they heard 
the noise about the town did not make an effort to do 
so, hut kept alarming the country. The stockade, 
although a good place of defense, was at this time so 
poorly manned with all the needful men and muni- 
tions that the ultimate safety of these rested more 
with their friends on the outside than upon their own 
exertions. That no attack had been previously made 
upon the settlement was owing to the existence of 
the fort. Its inmates now for the most part were 
decrepit old people and women and children. 

The incursion had been so sudden that no unusual 
means had been brought into use for perfecting its 
capability to withstand a two-days' siege. No muni- 
tions were kept here, as what could be spared were 
sent farther to the front, and the young men who had 
gone out on the frontiers with the expeditions of the 
season previous had taken their best rifles with 
them. A few old, half-worn-out muskets, which had 
passed through the hands of the county lieutenants, 
and which were unfit to arm the regulars or the 
militia with, had found their way hither, and these, 
with the arms carried in by the people from the town, 
were all they had. The number of those imprisoned 
during that day and night has been differently given. 
Most of the accounts give it by mere conjecture. 
Perhaps the number of all — men, women, and chil- 
dren — was between forty and fifty, of whom about 
twenty were fighting-men. Huflhagle says they had 
only nine guns ; of these it is certain they did not 
have enough to arm all who could have used them. 

At Miller's, about two and a half miles southeast 
of the village through the woods, were collected per- 
haps twoscore souls.' The cabin block-house here 
was the mansion-house of Capt. Samuel Miller, of 
the old Eighth Regiment in the service of the Conti- 
nent, but who had now been dead some four years. 
The rest of the Miller family, with his widow, now 
married to one Andrew Cruickshanks, and her family, 
still lived on the farm. The Mi ler house was an 
old landmark; and while the captain was alive he 
was one of the leaders to whom the neighbors looked 
as to a father. As it was, the cabin-house was still 
open to all who came. Here before these times the 
neighbors had come for years to cut down the har- 
vest, as they were doing now, and here on the smooth 
puncheon floor of the lower story of the double cabin, 

1 Tlie uld Miller house was Dear tin' site of the barn on the farm now 
owneil by William Russell, Esq., of Greensburg, on the right side of the 
railroad going westward. The same spring that supplies the present 
house then supplied the old house and the cabins about it. The attack 
was in all probability from the northeast side, along that part of the hill 
and sloping valley (or rather depression of ground) which lies in that 
direction. Alter leaving the station the Indians passed up along the 
hillside and uear where the barn on the hill back of the present farm- ! 
house now stands. 



on many an evening the young lads and girls danced 
corn-rows and cut the pigeon-wing to the music of the 
scratching fiddle. There had been at this time of great 
distress some three or four other cabins temporarily 
erected near the main one for shelter of those who had 
come to the station. At the beginning of this harvest 
t here were, perhaps, above a dozen families represented 
at the farm. It has long been credited that a marriage 
festival was being celebrated at Miller's on that par- 
ticular day of the incursion, and that some of the party 
collected there were brought together by this occasion. 
There seems, indeed, to be good authority for this, 
but yet with very attentive research and after some 
exertion in this particular we must conclude that 
there still remains a doubt on this narration. Some 
of the best informed had never heard anything about 
it only from the printed account; others, who late iu 
life read only the printed version, totally denied it, 
and those who in green old age still preserve the 
hearsay, and are conversant with no other source of 
information, can throw no light upon this side of the 
question. Such a version might readily have arisen 
and circulated from the fact of the number of people 
collected together there at that time. There were 
some there on that occasion from the town itself, 
among them the two daughters of Robert Hanna, 
both of whom were taken, and one of whom (Jennet 
Hanna) married a British officer when they were in 
Canada. 

But these represented the families of the neighbor- 
ing settlers and farmers, and they had been drawn 
together from various causes. Some of them were 
the wives and children of soldiers who, being in ser- 
vice for the rest, had left the protection of their help- 
less ones to their neighbors ; some, indeed, were widows 
and orphans ; some from a distance beyond the main 
road had gathered hither and taken up their abode, 
waiting for better times ; some to help during the 
harvest the Millers, the Georges, the Rughs, the Jacks, 
and any who needed it. Among them were two or 
three of those hardy backwoodsmen who had seen 
service of the roughest sort, who were as brave as the 
bravest, noble as the noblest, brusque in manner and 
rough in address. Of these we identify John Brown- 
lee, who was known as Capt. Brownlee, a soldier in 
Capt. Joseph Erwin's company of the Eighth Reg- 
iment, under whom lie had seen some service in the 
Jerseys. From the time he was out of the regular 
service he was a prominent fighter on the frontier, 
and went out with many parties from that region of 
country. He was a muscular, stoutish man, and the 
hero of a chosen circle. To the Indians he was as 
they, savage, inexorable, and bloodthirsty, sharing to 
the fullest that peculiar loathsome feeling towards 
them which appears to be common in those who are 
brought in contact with them on the outskirts of the 
West at this day. He regarded an Indian as a " var- 
mint," the lowest thing of God's creation, and on 
more than one occasion had led parties to intercept 



142 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and destroy those who, to say all that could belaid, 
were only suspicious. These thought, like Shaw, that 
a man was in duty bound to shoot an Indian whenever 
he saw one. 1 Yet in his contact during so many try- 
ing and weary months with those objects of his ab- 
horrence he had not lost that exquisite sensitiveness 
for his own race and kin which so strongly marks the 
highest civilization. To the women he was a true 
man, courteous and respectful ; to his wife the beau 
ideal of a husband ; and towards the children whom 
he loved he had that happy faculty of expression 
which wins and allures by the spontaneous disclosure 
of the passions and feelings of the heart. During 
the dark times of 1781 and 1782 we hear of the 
Brownlees often, the name being well known in fron- 
tier times, and it stands yet in old records and peti- 
tions, and in the list of that band of immortals who 
suffered at Valley Forge. Our Brownlee lived when 
at home on a farm to the northeast of Miller's, better 
known latterly as the Cope farm. 

With all the excitement incident to the sudden 
appearance of the savages, and with the active exer- 
tions of the scouts, the crew were, as we have seen, 
about the town, and must have been on their way to 
the station at Miller's before word reached there. In 
all probability the noise about the fort gave the men 
in the field the first intimation of danger, for some- 
how the air was full of forebodings. Away down 
near Unity Church, where was being held prepara- 
tory service to communion, the word was carried that 
afternoon, and the congregation dispersed homeward, 
while their pastor, the Rev. Power, who lived long 
to relate it, hastened towards his home near Mount 
Pleasant; and the solitary men working in the fields 
heard on the sultry afternoon the echoes of the guns, 
and leaving their sickles, suspicious of coming evil, 
hastened to their cabins, got down their pouches, ran 
bullets, called their little ones in, and barred the 
doors. Those near Allen's block-house gathered there. 
Across the country, at a little block-house, the re- 
mains of which are still to be seen about a mile and 
a half north of Greensburg on the Salem road, lived 
Kepple, a brother-in-law of Michael Rugh. Kepple 
was in the field with his team, his dog running towards 
him, frisking and barking with all signs of fear, and 
the sound of the far-off crack of the guns made him 
on the instant strip the gears from his horses and 
hasten back to the house, built for war and peace, 
and barricade the openings. A couple of families 
were sheltered here till the danger was over. 

At Miller's the first that were alarmed were the 
men mowing in a meadow, and to these the noise of 
the guns brought the first intimation. The men, list- 
ening, knew the sounds came from the direction of the 
fort. They threw down their scythes and ran towards 
the houses; but before they reached there they heard 
the war-whoop, and some shots were fired by the fore- 

1 Taking tho Irishman's motto at Dounybrook Fair, — "Whenever you 
see a head, hit it." 



most Indians, who emerged from the wood and came 
into the fields and along the fences as the men were 
going out. No correct portraiture of the scene at 
the cabins can be given. The people ran about in 
the utmost distraction. Some, intent only on their 
own escape, got off, and among these were a few 
women and children. A little girl, who died an old 
woman, much beloved and respected, hid herself 
among the blackberry bushes till the favoring night 
came down with its kind darkness. 

At the Miller house itself were most of the women 
and children collected. These were irresolute through 
fear, which the poets say is contagious ; and indeed 
the cries of the helpless increased the panic which 
had been created by the sudden appearance of danger, 
the desertion of the men, and the horrid whooping of 
the red brood yelling their cries of doom. But al- 
though it is too true that some men, cowardly at 
heart, left at the first alarm, yet that instinct of human 
nature, happily for our kind not to be crushed out or 
wholly smothered under adversity and in trouble, was 
forcibly awakened and displayed, to the lasting honor 
of that hardy race. Could a man, at such a time, 
leave his wife, his child, his mother, or sister? Nay, 
we have instances of some not joined by ties of blood 
or affinity losing their life in the effort to save those 
who could only be called their friends. Those who 
started in time made their way over the hills to the 
Peter George farm. Some escaped to Rugh's block- <■ 
house, and some by hiding in the fields until night. 
But there were timid ones who could not be prevailed 
to put themselves under the protection of the men, 
and by leaving the roofs for the woods and fields risk 
the chances of escaping by flight rather than put 
themselves on the mercy of the savages. 

When the alarm was first given, or soon after, 
Brownlee, as is reported, was in the house. He 
snatched his rifle and ran to the door, and there see- 
ing a couple of Indians entering the gate, he made 
at them on a run. It was believed that he could 
have made his escape, and in all probability would 
have done so, and not with a selfish motive, well 
knowing that a chief object of the Indians was booty 
and prisoners, and resting assured that he and the 
other whites could recapture their friends. Such a 
termination would not have been a remarkable event 
in the frontier annals. But this intent was on the 
instant changed, for above the confusion and excite- 
ment the voice of his wife pierced his ear crying for 
help, — " Jack, are you going to leave me ?" The cry 
unnerved the man, who, facing half a dozen wild 
barbarians, by their sudden war-cry would not have 
been so unnerved. He returned backward with his 
face towards the Indians, and beside the door gave 
himself up to their pleasure. 

The Indians by this time, coming up in different 
directions, had surrounded the house, so that its in- 
mates were secured as prisoners, while the scattered 
fugitives were chased My others close in pursuit. One 






DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 



143 



young man, who on the first alarm ran to the house 
to warn them and give assistance, snatched up a child 
which is said chanced to be one of Brownlee's. He 
had not gone far with it when he saw himself followed 
by three or four of the Indians. The young man was 
a swift runner, and his strength, had he not been en- 
cumbered with the child, would have enabled him to 
gain upon them. But as it was now it was a question 
with him whether he could even keep up the distance 
between them. Such suspicions ran through his mind, 
and still he ran on for a distance desperately, looking 
not in any particular direction, but by his strength 
gaining on the upland which rises towards the old 
George place, till suddenly before him rose a thick 
copse of low growth ; beyond that was a rye-field not 
yet cut down. He reached the thicket, passed through, 
and for a few moments was lost to their view by the 
intervening foliage. On the side of the field next the 
thicket was a worm stake-and-rider fence. Coming to 
this he climbed it, and jumped out far into the rye. 
Where he alighted upon his feet he lay down with 
the child. Then the savages came running up. They 
looked over the field, leaped over the fence, and ran 
along the edge of the field on past him where he lay. 
They had lost sight of their game, and the thicket 
for an instant had deluded them. The young man 
heard them coming back. The child lay quiet. With 
slow steps they repassed within a few steps of the two, 
muttering expressions of disappointment. 

One of the most singularly remarkable incidents of 
that day is one which has in it more of romance than 
of the common occurrences of real life. This is the 
seemingly miraculous escape, or rather preservation, 
of a small child, almost a babe. The common story 
which has long obtained, partly from the honorable 
judge's account, 1 and partly from exaggerated state- 
ments bordering upon the marvelous — a clothing in 
which many common people, are but too apt to vest 
everything out of the ordinary way — deserves correc- 
tion. It is that of a man who, carrying off his child 
and assisting his mother, saw the Indians gaining 
upon him and certain death to all if he did not run 
the risk of sacrificing one by leaving it and escaping 
with the other, — that is, either his child or his mother. 
Then, as the story goes, on the instant he dropped 
the child, and by helping his mother they both made 
their escape, and, strange to say, the child the next 
morning was found safe iu its former home. This 
has been the commonly accepted version. We have 
taken more than usual pains to trace the story up to 
its source, and fortunately have been more successful 
in so doing than in many other instances. The sin- 
gular deliverance of the child, in which centres the 
chief interest, was in all narratives the same. The 
truthfulness of the occurrence is assured. We have 
traced the version through the family iu which the 
incident occurred ; it has been repeated on the testi- 

1 Judge Cuulton's account, published iu Penn. Argw, 1836. 



mony of several distinct persons, who are fully en- 
titled to be heard. It has been related by one, a 
gentleman of good judgment and veracity, himself a 
descendant of one of the principal actors in that 
scene, whose assertions are entitled to credence, in 
that it robs the part which tends to the romantic of 
its tinsel fringe, and clothes it with the reality of 
every-day life and passions and fears, and chiefly is 
it the version that came from the child thus saved 
in her ripe old age, as she had learned it from voices 
long since silent. 

Among those, then, who made an effort to escape 
was Mrs. Cruickshanks, who had been Mrs. Miller. 
She had with her her young child, and she was par- 
tially assisted by her brother. The woman seeing 
they were pursued by a single Indian, and being un- 
able from fright to proceed farther without help, ex- 
claimed to her brother that unless he shot the Indian 
she would be killed. Cruickshanks then turned and 
fired, but as he did so the Indian "clamped" a tree, 
as they called it, that is, threw his arms around it 
and stuck to it like bark itself. He did not stop to 
see whether he had killed the Indian, nor did his 
sister know ; but while they escaped the babe was left 
on the ground. Mrs. Cruickshanks escaped into one 
of the neighboring block-houses, to where that night 
her son, and the only surviving son of Capt. Miller, 
then a lad, also came. 2 

Whether the Indian was shot, or whether he was 
afraid to pursue, being somewhat detached from the 
rest, cannot be told. He certainly did not pursue 
them farther. The greatest subject of wonder then is 
what the child did during this time and subsequently ; 
for the next morning, when the whites ventured to 
inspect the cabins, the child was found in the only 
cabin left standing, in its own cot, sleeping the sleep 
of innocent childhood, and all around desolation and 
death. The simple folk regarded it as a miracle, and 
loved to dwell upon it to their children, pointing out 
with simple devotion the providence of God to their 
fathers in the olden time. The infant grew to woman- 
hood, married a man of the name of Campbell, and 
died at an advanced age almost a generation after 
those hardy men who experienced the excitement of 
that memorable day were food for worms. As to 
what the Indians had to do with the saving of the 
child it is, of course, all conjecture. It is reasonable 
to infer that the Indian when fired at gave up the' 
pursuit, if, indeed, he was not killed. It is more 
than probable that the child lay undisturbed and un- 
noticed till the savages had passed away, and that 
then, finding its way back in the dusk to its own 
cabin, wearied out, it lay down in its bed and fell 
asleep. It is nut at all probable that it at any time 
fell to the mercies of those unrelenting savages, who, 
goaded on by reuegades worse than savages them- 
selves, and filled with the memories of wrongs, were 

"- See biographical sketch of Mr. Samuel Miller, in this book. 



144 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



seldom known to have compassion on human woes, 
and who did not distinguish between the scalp-lock 
of a tender girl and that of a* bronzed and grizzled 
fighter. 

With the utmost haste, and at nearly the same 
time, were these things transpiring. While some of 
the Indians had scattered about, and were pursuing 
the fugitive whites, the most of them had surrounded 
the house. No defense whatever was offered. Capt. 
Jack, true to his promise, and in his devotedness to 
the unwarned inhabitants, was too late to give the 
word of alarm to the people here. He had started for 
Miller's, and just as Brownlee rested by the door the 
captain dashed up the lane towards the house. He 
had been too late, and seeing the Indians about the 
yard he turned his horse. As he did so their bullets 
cut his bridle and whistled about his head. He es- 
caped unhurt, and turning his horse about he rode 
over fences and logs and through the woods and fields 
on his rare good beast, and fetched up at George's, 
where were collecting those who escaped that way 
and the men from the farms. 

The Indians, after securing the prisoners, tied the 
hands of the men behind their backs, huddled them 
out before the cabin-fort together, and after getting 
out of the cabins whatever they wanted, set the 
houses on fire. The chief house, Miller's, was con- 
sumed, but it would appear that not all the other 
sheds or cabins were. The horses and cattle, hogs, 
sheep, and dogs were shot down where they stood or 
as they. ran about. This is attested by Huffnagle and 
Duncan, who places the number of cattle so de- 
stroyed at about one hundred. Of their prisoners the 
greater number were women and children. Of the 
men, Brownlee was the most conspicuous. 

The captives were laden with the plunder and 
goods which themselves had been robbed of. The 
sobbing women and crying children were driven in a 
flock before the marauders into a captivity worse 
than exile. The burdens upon their backs were light 
to the load upon their hearts. All ties of kindred, of 
home, of fields familiar indeed in sorrow, but now 
doubly dear, all were torn asunder. They thought 
they had seen these for the last time. Some there 
were who kept up, or seemed to keep up, courage, 
evidently looking for help from their neighbors. The 
calm, heroic, and changeless appearance of such as 
Brownlee among them was a relief to such as these. 
There was one woman especially who could not help 
expressing her feelings. Looking through her tears 
to Brownlee, she said, " I am glad, Capt. Brownlee, 
thai we have got you along with us." These were 
unfortunate words. Some say that the renegades had 
recognized Brownlee and knew him all the time. 
This does not appear reasonable. They knew him by 
name and by report, but it is not likely they recog- 
nized him in person. Brownlee's plan to deceive was 
perfect. He gave himself up without offering resist- 
ance where resistance would have availed nothing, 



and which show of resistance would, in all probabil- 
ity, have been the certain destruction of the helpless 
ones. He kept silent during all the time they were 
about him, while they tied his hands, and while they 
piled their trumpery upon his back. 

There is no doubt that during this time he wished 
to keep off suspicion, and to disguise his identity by 
acting with the implicit submission of a coward. 
Nothing could make the settlers believe but that he 
contemplated making his escape at the first opportu- 
nity, perhaps that night; that he would have found 
out their strength, and thus told the whites how to 
attack to the best advantage ; that he would have re- 
turned upon them, and liberating the rest of the 
captives, have had more than retributive justice. It 
is almost certain, then, that they did not know him 
till about the time the remark was made by the woman, 
and when it was apparent he was the centre of the 
band of unfortunates. But so it was that from that 
instant his fate was sealed. On the mention of his 
name hasty glances were cast from one to the other 
of the savages and back upon the prisoner. A couple 
of them in guttural growlings were seen to consult 
together, and then evidently they determined upon 
what was afterwards done. Brownlee trudged on, 
the centre of a weeping group. He was heavily 
laden with luggage, and in addition carried upon his 
back one of his smallest children. At a descending 
ground he stooped to adjust his child upon his shoul- 
ders, drawing its tiny arms more closely about his 
neck. As he was so doing one of the Indians that 
had eyed him so closely sneaked up behind him and 
dashed the hatchet into his head. Brownlee fell 
headlong, and the child rolled over him. The next 
instant the child was killed by the same savage with 
the same hatchet which had laid open the skull of 
the gentle and tender-hearted father. The wife of 
Brownlee, full of horror, witnessed the death of her 
husband and child. Another woman shrieked out as 
she fell swooning to the ground. And she met the 
same fate, the Indians, as was supposed, taking her 
to be the real wife of the dead man. 

The band of Indians that had these prisoners in 
charge moved round and rejoined the company whom 
they tad left about the fort. In the closing twilight 
the body together left the destroyed place, and re- 
moved towards the northeastward of the town, and 
fixed their camp in the hollow through which flows 
the Crabtree. They here regaled themselves on what 
they had stolen, and while some in the darksome 
shadows were left to watch, the rest were concerting 
on future action. 

The Indians during the afternoon had not made a 
concerted attack upon the fort ; they were evidently 
afraid to do so. The suspense which those cooped up 
there during that time sustained may with effort be 
imagined. Hope, the only medicine for the miser- 
able, was about all left them. If their neighbors 
should not come to their help during the night, they 



DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 



145 



could expect nothing but captivity if the next morn- 
ing thej' should surrender, and if they resisted and 
fought, possibly a frightful death. The terror of the 
women part was heightened by the fate of young 
Peggy Shaw, who lay in agony on a cot in the cabin 
of the stockade. 

The death of this maiden was long the centre of 
interest in the incursion, and whenever and wherever 
Hannastown has been talked about among the de- 
scendants of these people this episode has been talked 
of with it. It is not then to be wondered at that more 
than ordinary interest attaches to the narrative, nor 
that strange and exaggerated stories should have been 
coined and passed for current. The story has been 
told in many ways, but the most simple and truthful 
way is enough to make her character beautiful, her ac- 
tions heroic, her life romantic, and her death full of 
glory. 

Margaret Shaw was the sister of David Shaw and 
Alexander Shaw. Alexander Shaw was the last man 
to go into the fort on that day, and David was a hunter I 
and scout widely known, one of those rough back- 
woodsmen who, raised in the wilderness and on the 
verge of war, knew only the duty of defending the 
outposts and killing Indians, who could not to his 
dying day brook the conventionalisms of civilization, 
and who, in short, belonged to that class who had 
made a law unto themselves. He had gone, when of 
age, into the army as a substitute for his father. His 
term of service being over he was now at home, and 
almost as much in war as he could have been any- 
where, and as much in his element as a wolf in the 
forest. All knew and remembered how quick he had 
been to apprehend the danger, and all admired his 
sonly devotion in seeing that his old father was in the 
fort before he himself went in. His sister was of the 
same blood. She was young at that time, only twelve 
or thirteen years, but for her age was large and mus- 
cular. 

After they had gone into the fort, and while yet all 
was confusion, and each one appearing to be inter- 
ested in his own personal safety, a little child had 
crept unnoticed towards the picketing of the stockade. 
Peggy Shaw seeing it ran to fetch it back. This was 
under the random fire kept up by the savages. As 
she stooped to gather it into her arms a bullet struck 
her in the right breast and penetrated her lung. She 
did not die suddenly, as is supposed, but lingered for 
some two weeks. This fortnight must have been one 
of intense suffering. Instead of having good clinical 
treatment, she was submitted to the barbarous manip- 
ulations of unskilled backwoods surgery. A silk 
handkerchief was drawn through the incision, and 
allowed to be continually drawn back and forth as 
long as any greenish discharge followed. A bullet- 
wound, from a half-superstitious belief, was thought 
to be poisonous, and the presence of the poison was 
taken to be denoted by the pus which exuded from 
the suppurating sore. In her lingering her body 



wasted to a mere frame. Her remains were laid to 
rest in the burying-ground of the old Middle Presby- 
terian Church, two miles northeast of Mount Pleasant. 
It was then not to be wondered at that the act was 
talked of with admiration, and she in her death re- 
membered with pity. Truly she died, as one long ago 
expressed it, a victim to her kindness of heart. 

It is said that the child she saved by her own death 
lived and grew to womanhood, but the identity is 
lost in the number who have been so designated. 

While these things were going on the country all 
around was being alarmed. There seems to have been 
a great noise from the shouting of the Indians and 
the cracking of guns kept up all the afternoon about the 
fort. Some say that when the men came together at 
George's many guns were fired in a volley to arouse 
the neighborhood. The greatest crowd which col- 
lected together at any one place was here. By the 
evening there were gathered well-nigh forty men, al- 
though some by exaggeration say more. Perhaps the 
force here was stronger than that at the fort. It was 
decided to make an effort to assist those. Scouts re- 
ported that the renegades were remaining together 
after the two parties had joined. 

The long July twilight had gone out, and darkness, 
with favoring rain-clouds, was gathering over the 
sombre woods when a party of about thirty, as it is 
said, left George's for Hannastown. Some of them 
were on horseback, and all were well armed with 
rifles. In after-years the suspicion of cowardice was 
imputed to some who lived thereabout, but the in- 
stances were few and hard to be authenticated. For 
one to skulk off then when the neighbors were crying 
for help and almost in the clutches of the savages was 
to incur an odium which would remain and attach to 
him as long as he lived, and which would taint his 
memory to his children's children. Their resolution 
was, therefore, fixed. The scouts reported to the main 
body as they advanced ; those, who had volunteered 
for that purpose, and who were accustomed to tread 
the woods like a cat, had given word where the Indians 
and renegades were encamped. Cautiously advancing 
the party came within sight of the town, and saw at a 
distance the dim outline of the stockade. As they ap- 
proached closer they could see by the fitful gleams of 
the burning logs, which yet occasionally crackled up 
in flickering sparks and cast sombre shadows against 
the dark line of trees, the white-washed walls of the 
palisades. No Indians were about the piles of ashes 
or upon the open place next the fort. As they came 
from the farther side they made themselves known to 
the inmates, when the gate was thrown open, and at 
length all were safely within. 

The Rev. Richard Lee, a Presbyterian minister, 
stopping about the vicinity of Hannastown a number 
of years ago, while some of the persons who had been 
eye-witnesses to the destruction of the place were still 
living, and while the memory of those who were the 
immediate descendants of others who had participated 



146 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



was still green, gathered a number of reminiscences 
and published them in a Pittsburgh paper. While 
there are many things in his article which are ultra 
authentic, there are some statements which, sup- 
ported by corroborative testimony, are worthy to be 
remembered. The part which we thus retain was 
mainly derived through Mrs. Elizabeth Craig from 
Miss Freeman, one of the persons mentioned, and 
from Mrs. Alexander Craig, a daughter of James 
Clark, one of the defenders' of the fort. 

When the Indians retired at night into the woods 
to divide their plunder and prisoners they lighted 
fires and began a distribution. The warriors in their 
new costumes presented a ludicrous appearance: some 
of them had shawls tied around their waists, and 
others had on bonnets and petticoats. One of these, 
like his cousin, the dark-visaged Othello, " perplex'd 
in the extreme," was puzzled in trying to encase him- 
self in a silk dress, for the sleeve being very tight, 
after the fashion, and he trying to force his big foot 
into it, after the manner of drawing on a stocking or 
breech-clout, could get his heel no further than the 
elbow of it. He was thereupon so amazingly pleased, 
and he made such a laughable appearance as he 
frisked about on one foot, that, gathering a crowd of 
companions around him, he got them into right good 
humor, which jjossibly inured to the benefit of the 
captives. 

About midnight, upon hearing the noise at thestock- 
ade, they held a council, and at the conclusion they 
seized upon one of their captives, and painting his 
body with black stripes, tied him to a tree. He had 
been assigned to torture. The savages, armed with 
sticks and tomahawks, ranged themselves into two 
lines, between which some of the other prisoners were 
to run the gauntlet. The men were put through first, 
and of these some were badly beaten. Then came the 
women. Among these were the two daughters of 
Hanna. From the first Jane, the younger of these, 
had got the good favor of the warriors. She had, with 
great tact, extended her hand to the Indian who took 
her, and greeted him as " brother." She had laughed 
out at the antic caperings of the warrior trying on the 
dress, which she recognized, and he no doubt, in a 
sudden fit of good humor, tried to be worthy. These 
two young women, on the relation of Miss Freeman, 
escaped unhurt; the Indian who had taken them and 
the other who created the sport showing them mate- 
rial aid, but Miss Freeman herself, having red hair, 
which was a color much disliked by those fastidious 
gentlemen (of the " boir" monde), was nearly killed. 
She, however, escaped with her life, and many years 
after she returned, Dr. Posthlewaite attended her when 
suffering from the blows she had then received upon 
her skull with the butt end of a tomahawk. They did 
not have the satisfaction which they had anticipated 
in torturing the prisoner, for the noise of drums and 
the clamor in the fort increasing, they tomahawked 
him at once, and soon after began their retreat. 



It was on the part of the whites believed on all 
sides that an attack would be made in the morning, 
and so a plan was agreed upon by those in the fort 
to make the presence of those who had come in dur- 
ing the early night-time known. A couple of old 
drums found in the fort were braced up, and while 
the gate was left open the horsemen galloped back 
and forth over the corduroy bridge across the run at 
the foot of the hill to the beating of the drums. This 
was to make believe that reinforcements from Fort 
Ligonier and from the country had come in in great 
numbers. The stratagem had the desired effect. The 
renegades listened with something of apprehension, 
and they could not but observe the marked change in 
the acclamations of the inmates. On the ghostly 
night-air, laden with desolation and fears, these were 
sounds of doom. They called in all their gang with 
the sounds of the whippoorwill and the screech-owl. 
In the after-part of the night they fled, carrying with 
them whatever booty they could well take on their 
own backs and on the backs of their prisoners. The 
number of these captives which they took along was 
about twenty, and the most of them were women and 
children. Under the shadows of the morning they 
trotted along on the dividing path between Congruity 
Church and Harvey's Five Points, and crossed the 
Kiskiminetas about the site of Apollo. 

The gray morning came in before it was known 
that the band had left the purlieus of the settlement. 
A party of well-armed men then took up their trail 
and followed them to the crossing of the river. The 
river was swollen at the crossings, it is said, and 
further pursuit was discontinued. This may be a 
sufficient reason, but not a plausible one. The force 
of the whites must have been comparatively weak 
with that of the retreating party. The invaders went 
out unmolested, and reaching Canada traded their 
scalps and prisoners with the British for trinkets, 
beads, powder, and rum. 

The remaining settlers now looked out over their 
fields desolated, their cabins burned, and the few 
household goods collected through necessity de- 
stroyed or stolen ; some houses deserted for good ; their 
little town in ashes ; the carcasses of their cattle 
eaten by crows, and those not killed strayed off; their 
friends or their kin either dead or in uncertain cap- 
tivity as much to be dreaded as death. Worried in 
heart and in body they first paid their duties to the 
dead. The bodies of Brownlee, his child, and the 
murdered woman were found. They were buried, as 
was an old custom, where they fell, and their graves 
were till lately by tradition pointed out in a field 
known best as Mechling's field. 

All then gathered in closer to the little fort and to 
the stations ; and the crops were allowed to rot in the 
fields. As the fall approached the greatest danger of 
starvation was apprehended, and as the means of get- 
ting food became more limited their fears heightened. 
The State, from a knowledge of their pitiable condi- 



DESTRUCTION OF HANNASTOWN. 



147 



tion, gave orders that supplies in limited allowance 
might be distributed to this handful of shelterless, 
distressed and weary creatures, with the understand- 
ing that the men were to enroll themselves under com- 
mand of Capt. Brice, and draw rations for two months 
upon their making every exertion in their power to 
keep the line of the frontier. 1 

The prisoners were exchanged by the terms of the 
treaty between Great Britain and the colonies, and 
most of them returned to their homes in Westmore- 
land. A few never came back, and it is said that one 
of the captives, Robert Hanna's daughter, married a 
British officer at Niagara. 

We have not been able to find who was the leader 
of the Indians and renegades in this invasion, and 
the true story will perhaps never be found out. 
Nearly every general historian, who barely notices 
this incident, says that Simon Girty commanded ; a 
few say that they were under direction of Kyashuta, 
the war-chief of the Seneeas, and the old enemy of 
the whites. Most agree that they were under the 
control of white leaders, but we have not facts enough 
to warrant us that Girty was along ; for shortly after 
this time Girty is found counseling with the Indians 
in their attacks on the border settlements of Kentucky, 
and we believe that during the latter part of the 
month of July Girty was among those. There is 
more reason to think that Connolly, as the British 
agent, instigated the attack, he well knowing the 
state of the settlement, and harboring a rancorous 
hate for the round-logged jail where St. Clair had him 
confined, and also that Kyashuta was with his war- 
riors there. The Indians were for the most part of 
the Munsies, a tribe which about that time inhabited 
that part of Pennsylvania now within the limits of 
Forest County. This tribe was famous for its system 
of warfare, and had in it some of the most depraved 
characters of the race at the time of its utmost de- 
pravity. The short-lived improvement made upon 
them by the Moravian missionaries before the Revo- 
lution had not changed their brutal instincts. Those 
of them who had been Christian'zed left their tribe, 
ami the rest of them, to whom the outlaws of various 
other tribes and devilish whites resorted, lived as ban- 
ditti in the almost impenetrable forests of that region 
in close connection with the British outposts. In- 
deed, it is said that the fusion of so many ill charac- 
ters into one tribe was a thing peculiar to that one. 

Gen. William Irvine, still in command at Fort Pitt, 2 
writing to Washington in 1788, some six years after 
the destruction of the town, gives an account of some 
curious information he had received from a chief of 
the Seneca tribe, as well as from a Virginian named 
Matthews who had been taken prisoner at Kanawha 
in 1777, and who had resided since that time with the 
Indians. This man was employed as an interpreter, 



1 Col. Edward Cook's correspondence, Col. Rec. 
" Craig 1 !* History of Pittsburgh. 



and appeared to be well informed of the country and of 
the movements of the Indians. The Indian related, 
through the interpreter, to the general that when the 
French first established their post at Fort Pitt he was 
about fourteen years old; that he was with his uncle 
at that time, who was under the French ; that they 
embarked at Lake Chatauqua, and that they went to 
Fort Pitt without any obstruction, and that they made 
the French Creek the medium of their communica- 
tion'from the headquarters of the French in Canada. 
He further said he was employed under the British in 
the late war; that in 1782 a detachment of three hun- 
dred British and five hundred Indians left on Lake 
Chatauqua with twelve pieces of artillery to attack 
Fort Pitt ; that the expedition was laid aside from 
reports having been received of the strength of the 
garrison ; and that they then contented themselves 
with the usual mode of warfare, namely, by sending 
out small parties on the frontiers, one of which burnt 
Hannastown. And this the general corroborates by 
other evidence, the testimony of which fell under his 
own observation. 

Capt. Matthew Jack and David Shaw long re- 
mained the heroes of the " Hannastown war," as they 
called it. In the phrase of the zealous women, they 
were of the anointed and led charmed lives. Capt. 
Jack was one of that class of rough backwoodsmen 
of which Western Pennsylvania was at that time pro- 
lific, and although he could swag oft' daily his joram 
and in vehement expression could go beyond. the 
rules prescribed by the Committee of Safety in 
their regulations for the associators, yet his breast 
contained the heart of a noble man. In 1782 he was 
high sheriff of the county, and perhaps was busier 
that day in " serving executions" than on any term- 
day he ever saw. Long as he lived he was the centre 
of a crowd at the militia musters, on court week, or at 
barn-raisings. He was called familiarly Capt. Jack, 
for the rule is " once a captain always a captain." 
But sometimes the records style him " honorable," 
he having been a county judge, and afterwards "gen- 
eral," in deference to his being one of the superior 
military officers in the county about the time of the 
Whiskey Insurrection. Many curious anecdotes are 
related of him, and at reviews held about the country 
he would show his dexterity and suppleness by placing 
his hat upon the ground, and lifting it up as he rode 
by on a gallop ; and to show how he rode on the 
Hannastown day, he would leap his horse over fences 
and gullies, which, to his admiring applauders, seemed 
the very height of recklessness. 

The burning of Hannastown divides the history of 
the county into two eras, and closes the account of the 
place where were held the first courts. Many cities 
have risen and fallen to decay without leaving so 
glorious a record as this collection of mud-plastered 
huts scattered along the old military road among the 
trees of the primeval forest. Its name only lives in 
the history of Western Pennsylvania, and the site 



148 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



of those scenes of war and peace is covered with 
clover blossoms and waving wheat. Over the spot 
which was their graveyard the weeds and briers crawl 
among wild flowers. 

" There sleep the brave who Bank to rest 
With all their country's wishes hlest. 
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 
By fairy hands their knell is rung, • 

By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
And Freedom shall a while repair, 
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there." 

Its claim for remembrance is in this, that it was 
the first place in all the United States west of the 
Appalachian mountain chain where justice in the 
legal forms, sacred in the traditions of the English- 
speaking people, was first dispensed ; this was the cap- 
ital of Western Pennsylvania, with its rude temple, 
in which betimes sat the living oracles of English 
colonial law ; in this, that here the backwoodsmen, 
descendants of a patriotic British ancestry, first 
raised their voice against ministerial tyranny ; in 
this, that here dwelt the race which, standing a bar- 
rier, as a wall of fire, between civilization and bar- 
barism, defended their homes through years of an in- 
cessant war with the fiercest enemy ever opposed to the 
whites. To one given to speculation, the destruction 
of this place is a subject for reflection. In a certain 
sense, here was the first place where a public pro- 
test was made against the action of Parliament in 
binding closer the unbreakable chains which they 
sought to rivet upon their own flesh and blood, and 
here was the last place in the colonies where the 
Indians and refugee Tories, under pay of the mother- 
country, executed their purposes in concert. Nor 
would it be scrutinizing too finely in observing that 
the destruction of Haunastown was the price paid 
for the protest of May, 1775. The penalty of the 
destruction of the Moravian towns, and the penalty 
for her disloyalty, were fully exacted and amply paid. 
For these alike it was well in the sequel of historic 
narration that Hannastown should lie in ashes. Yea, 
for us and for all men. 1 

1 The following extracts and observations will illustrate the subject- 
matter given in the body of this chapter: 

Michael Iluf,t,:,jlt to Praidmt Moore, 1782. 

"Fort Keep, July, 17S2. 
"Sir, — I am sorry to inform your Excellency, that last Saturday at 
two o'clock in tin' afternoon, Ilanna's Town was attack'd by about one I 
hundred Whites and Blacks. We found several Jackets, the buttons 
marked with the King's eighth Regiment. At the same time this Town 
was attack'd, another party attack'd Fort Miller, about four Miles from 
this Place. Hanna's Town and Fort Miller in a short time were reduced 
to Ashes, about twenty of the Inhabitants kill'd and taken, about one 
hundred head of Cattle, a number of horses and hogs killed. Such 
wanton destruction I never beheld, burning and destroying as they 
went. The People of this Place behaved brave, retired to the Fort, left 
their all a prey to the Enemy, and with twenty men only, and nine guns 
in good order, we Bi I the attack till dark. At first some of the Enemy 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

LAST DAYS OF HANNASTOWN— EXECUTION OF 
MAMACHTAGA. 

End of the Revolution— Formation of new Counties, Washington and 
Fayette — New State Project — Who were at the head of it — Causes of 
its Inception — Its Prospective Limits — It fails — Act of Congress rela- 
tive thereto— 1783-84— The Last Days of Hannastown— Trial of 
Mamachtaga, an Indian, for Murder — And also of some other Prison- 
ers at the same Court — He is defended by Brackenridge — The Indian's 
Deportment — His Opinion of the Court — His Trial — Is found Guilty of 
Murder, and wishes to be Shot instead of Hanged — The Prisoners in 
the Jail want him to kill another Prisoner under Sentence of Death — 
He refuses to do so — The Jailer's Child takes Sick, when Mamachtaga 
goes out and gets Herbs to cure it — He returns to the Jail, and goes 
into Voluntary Confinement — The Day of the Execution arrives — A 
great Crowd of People assemble — The White Man hung, and then 
Mamachtaga hung — He dies like a Warrior, after having first painted 
himself for the Occasion. 

At length the war was over. The definite treaty 
of peace with England was ratified by Congress on 
the 14th of January, 1784, and on the 22d of that 
month a proclamation to that effect was published. 

came close to the Pickets, but were soon obliged to retire farther off. I 
cannot iuform you what Number of the Enemy may be killed, as we 
see them from the fort carrying off severals. 

" The situation of the Inhabitants is deplorable, a number of them not 
having a Blanket to lye on, nor a Second suit to put on their Backs. 
Affairs are strangely managed here; where the fault lies I will not pre- 
sume to say. This Place being of the greatest consequence to the Fron- 
tiers, to he left destitute of Men, Arms, and ammunition is surprising to 
me, although frequent applications have been made. Your Excellency, 
I hope, will not be offended my mentioning that I think it would not 
be amiss that proper inquiry should be made about the management of 
the Public affairs in this County, and also to recommend to the Legisla- 
tive Body to have some provision made for the Poor distressed People 
here. Tour known humanity convinces me that you will do everything 
in your power to assist us in our distress'd situation. 
" I have the Honor to be your Excellency's 

"Most obt. Hble. Servt., 

" Mich. Huffnagle." 

Indorsed, July 30, 1782. — Ptmna, Arch., vol. IX. 

This event was narrated in a letter* writteu by Ephraim Douglass to 
Gen. James Irvine, dated July 2ti, 1782, as follows: 

" My last contained some account of the destruction of Hanna's Town, 
but it was an imperfect one; the damage was greater than we then 
knew, and attended with circumstances different from my representation 
of them. There were nine killed and twelve carried off prisoners, and 
instead of some of the houses without the fort being defended by our 
people, they all retired within the miserable stockade, and the runny 
possea&ed themselves of the forsaken houses, from whence they kept up 
a continual fire upon the fort from about twelve o'clock till night with- 
out doing any other damage than wounding one little girl within the 
walls. They carried away a great number of horses and everything of 
value in the deserted houses, destroyed all the cattle, hogs, and poultry 
within their reach, and burned all the houses in the village except two; 
these they also set fire to, but fortunately it did not extend itself so far 
as to consume them ; several houses round the country were destroyed 
in the same manner, and a number of unhappy families either murdered 
or carried off captives; some have since suffered a similar fate in differ- 
ent parts; hardly a day but they have been discovered in some quarter 
of the country, and the poor inhabitants struck witli terror through the 
whole extent of our frontier. Where this part; set out from is not cer- 
tainly known ; several circumstances induce the belief of their coming 
from the head of the Allegheny, or towards Niagara, rather than from 
Sandusky or the neighborhood of Lake Erie. The great number of 
whites, known by their language to have been in tin 1 party, the direc- 
tion of their retreat when they left the country, which was towards the 



* Now in existence, with the "Irvine Papers," in possession of the 
Pennsylvania Historical Society. 



LAST DAYS OF HANNASTOWN— EXECUTION OF MAMACHTAGA. 



149 



The people of our parts and all west of the moun- 
tains were then left to rebuild their homes and start 
out from a new position, somewhat, it is true, in ad- 
vance of the early colonists. By this time, when the 
smoke of battle had rolled away, Westmoreland was 

Kittamiing, and no appearance of their tracks either coming or going 
having been discovered by the officer and party which the general* 
ordered on that service beyond the river, all conspire to support this be- 
lief, and I think it is sincerely to be wished, on account of the unfortu- 
nate captives who have fallen into their hands, that it may be true, for 
the enraged Delawares renounce the idea of taking any prisoners but 
for cruel purposes of torture." 

"The express," wrote Irvine to Moore on the 16th of July, 1782, 
"sent by Mr. Hoofnagle, through timidity and other misconduct, did not 
arrive here until this moment (Tuesday, lu o'clock), though he left Han- 
nastown Sunday evening, which I fear will put it out of my power to 
come up with the enemy, they "ill have got so far away. However, I 
have sent several reconnoitering parties to try to discover whether they 
have left the settlements, and what route they have taken. I fear," he 
continues, " this stroke will intimidate the inhabitants so much that it 
will not be possible to rally them or persuade them to make a stand." 

Gen. Win. Irvine to President Moore. 

" Fort Pitt, July 25, 1782. 
"The destruction of Hannastown put the people generally into great 
confusion for some days. The alarm is partly over, and some who fled 
are returning again to their places; others went entirely off. I have 
got the lieutenant of the county and others prevailed on to encourage 
Borne of the inhabitants to reoccupy Hannas Town, by keeping a post 
or small guard there." — Penn. Arch., vol. x. 

David Duncan to Mr. Cumnngham, Member of Council from Lancaster, 
1782. 

" Pittsburgh, July 30, 1782. 
" Dear Sir: 

"I have taken the Liberty of Writing you the Situation of our Un- 
happy Country at present. In the first place I make no doubt But yon 
have heard of the Bad success of our Campaign against the Indian Towns, 
and the Late Stroke the savages have gave to Hannastown, which was 
all Reduced to ashes except two Houses, exclusive of a small fort, 
which happily saved all that were so fortunate to get to it. There were 
upwards of twenty killed and taken, the most of whom were Women 
& Children. At the same time a small fort four miles from thence was 
taken, supposed to be by a detachment of the same Party. I assure 
you that the situation of the frontiers of our County is truly alarming 
at present, and worthy our most serious Consideration. . . ." — Penn. 
Arch., vol. ix., 606. 

The following letter from Gen. Washington to President Reed is of 
some significance in this connection : 



'Sir: 



" Headquarters, New Windsor, April 25, 1781. 



" Since my letter of the 14th to your Excellency on the subject of an 
immediate supply of provision for Fort Pitt, I have received the follow- 
ing intelligence through a good channel which makes the measure more 
indispensably necessary. 'Col. Connolly with his corps to proceed to 
Quebec as soon as possible, to be joined in Canada by Sir John Johnson, 
with a number of Tories and Indians said to amount to three thousand. 
This route to be by Buck Island, Lake Ontario, and Venango. And his 
object is Fort Pitt and all the adjacent posts. Connolly takes with him 
a number of Commissions for persons now residing at Pittsburgh, and 
several hundred men at that place have agreed to join to make pris- 
oners of Col. Brodhead and all friends of America. His great influence 
in that country will, it is said, enable him to prevail upon the Indians 
and inhabitants to assist the British in any measure.' The latter part 
of this intelligence agrees exactly with a discovery which Col. Brodhead 
has lately made of a correspondence between prisoners at Fort Pitt 
and the Commandant at Detroit, some of whom have been seized by 
him. . . ." 

Chatauqua Lake, in New York, had been long before the harboring- 
place for hostile Indians. As early as 1752 the French Governor of Can- 
ada had begun the erection of a fort there, which Mas to be the rendez- 
vous fur the French and the Indians in their excursions against the en- 



* Gen. Irvine. 



circumscribed in its limits and impoverished in purse. 
From March 28, 1781, the county of Washington had 
been in successful operation, and from the 17th of 
February, 1784, the county of Fayette took care 
of the people as far up as her limits at Jacobs Creek. 

croachment of the British along the Allegheny River, then claimed by 
the French. They then changed their location to one farther to the 
southwest, viz., Presque Isle, and here they built a permanent fort of 
large dimensions and great strength, but in 17. r >:t they finished the fort 
at Chatauqua. The portage road which the French cut from Chatau- 
qua to Presque Isle (Erie) was one of the earliest works of civilization 
in the West, made more than twenty years before the battle of Lex- 
ington. 

He who would write a full history of (he destruction of Hannastown 
and incorporate therein all the traditions and memorabilia of that war 
would fill a book much larger than this, for the destruction of Hannas- 
town was to the inhabitants of that section what Noah's flood was to the 
inhabitants of the ancient world. If all reports were to be credited 
touching the individual claims of those whose ancestors were reported 
to have been in the fort when the town was burnt, the number would 
reach such a magnitude that it would cease to be credible. 

Of the Shaw family, some members of which bore such a conspicuous 
part there, much has been preserved and much related. Moses Shaw and 
Margaret, his wife, had there three sons — David, a young man perhaps 
twenty years old, Alexander, about eight years, and John, quite young, 
notabove one year — and two daughters, Sarah, about sixteen, and Marga- 
ret, or Peggy, about fourteen, who was wounded in the fort and who died 
about two weeks thereafter. John Shaw was the father of David Shaw 
Atkinson, Esq., of the Greensburg bar. The family have preserved among 
themselves the incidents which we now relate. On the day in which 
Hannastown was burnt, Sarah Shaw, whose descendants now reside be- 
low Trees' Mill, on Beaver Run, was washing, and when the attack was 
made she fled with her parents and the other children into the fort, leav- 
ing the pot full of clothes on the fire and the smoothing-iron before the 
fire. Although the house was burnt, the pot and the iron withstood the 
fire and are yet in the possession of the Shaw family. 

They say also that it was Mrs. Moore's child that Margaret Shaw was 
carrying when she was shot. Mr. Moore's presence as a child at the 
Fort has been noticed before, of which fact there can be no doubt. 

Charles Sterret was killed on the Shaw farm, in Salem township, now 
owned by a Mr. Longsdorf. David Shaw and William Hays buried him. 
His grave is pointed out at this day. The graves of two men of the 
Curry family, who were buried on their own farm, now owned by Mr. 
John Kepple, in Salem township, may also be seen, and they are reported 
to have been killed on that day by the Indians. 

It would be very natural for the descendants of the old settlers about 
the Hannastown region, and even farther away, to connect their ances- 
tors of that date in some particular with the Hannastown era, the sub- 
ject of;conversation about the fireside of two generations in the days oi 
profound peace. To make mention of all the reputed facts touching this 
subject which have come to our ears would be too much of a work ; to 
profess to believe all would be exhibiting too much credulity. 

Of those who took part in the pursuit of the Indians on the next day 
or the day subsequent to that were doubtless the Craigs, the Sloans, and 
others from the neighborhood of the fort, and Capt. David Kilgore, with 
two of his sons, and some of their neighbors from the Upper Sewiekley 
settlement (near Pleasant Unity). These, of course, by name are in ad- 
dition to tliose whom we have before mentioned as taking a more early 
and active part. 

Of those within the fort at the time of the incursion and not mentioned 
was Capt. Ourry. So also was James Moore, of Salem township, who 
died in 1846, aged seventy-three years. He was a mere child, and was 
at Hannastown with his widowed mother, who lived there, Their bouse 
with all its contents was burnt. His father had died a short time before 
by disease brought on by hardship and exposure on the frontiers. 

At the time the attack was made on " Miller's Station," one of the 
children of Capt. Samuel Miller, then deceased, was taken captive and 
detained by the Indians some time. This was the daughter, Dorcas, 
She at that time was about eight years old, and was at the time of the 
fray on the hills back of the station gathering berries with her younger 
brother, Isaac. She heard the noise ami saw the Indians depart from 
the station up over the hill for Hanuastown, but did not suspect them to 
be warful Indians, for instead of hiding herself and her brother she 
went back towards the station, and the Indians seeing her at a distance 



150 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The Commonwealth did not claim for the purposes of 
settlement any territory north and west of the Ohio 
and Allegheny Rivers, nor from her line of the pur- 
chase of 1768, which ran from above Kittanning to 
the southwest corner of Clearfield County, as we have 
the map, thence through the middle of Clearfield in 
a meandering line nearly at right angles to the limit 
of the State at Bradford County. This remaining 
part 1 was secured by the last treaty at Fort Stanwix 
with the Indians on October the 23d, 1784. This is 
what is called distinctly, and being the latest is now 
officially thus designated, the New Purchase, out of 
which have been formed the northwestern counties, 
ranging from Beaver to Tioga. 

No material opposition being offered by the people, 
now under control of the civil power, the line mark- 
ing the western divisions of the two States of Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia was finally fixed. Another 
question which had been a source of commotion for 
some time previous was also summarily disposed of. 
During the latter days of the war there was a project 
on foot which created no little apprehension. Of 
this we may say something, so intimately connected 
is it with some subsequent matters in the history of 
Southwestern Pennsylvania. About 1780 and 1781 
among the people of these parts arose what was called 
the New State project. This was a plan gotten up 
by a few ambitious and ill-contented men of some in- 
fluence, taking advantage of the time and imposing 
upon the credulity of the distressed inhabitants, to 
form a more perfect State government for themselves 
out of the territory for which Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia had been so long contending, as well as more 
undefined territory presumed to belong to neither. It 
is doubtful whether such a project could have been 
realized or accomplished, but being stimulated by se- 
ditious men in the heat of the war, it became a mat- 
ter of great consequence. Many causes have been 
given for the dissatisfaction of these people as evi- 
denced, and for the movement itself, but none of 



motioned for her to come, and going toward tier took her and her 
brother captive. The boy was killed that night, but Dorcas was carried 
to the vicinity of Niagara, where nearly three years afterward she was 
recognized and ransomed by Col Butler, a British officer, who had been 
acquainted with her father. After her restoration to her family she 
resided, until a few years before her death, upon the farm from which 
she had been dragged to the horrors of a captivity among savages. She 
was married to Joseph Russell, and became the mother of a large family, 

some of which have been of our UlOSt highly- esteemed citizens. She died 
in Greensburg on the 15th of March, 1851, in the seventy-seventh year 
of her age. She was one of the few who could reconut to persons yet 
living the recollections of one who had witnessed and felt the anguish 
of that fearful day and night. She was spared to exchange the priva- 
tions and toils of the early settler's life for the ease and comfort of a 
rapidly advancing civilization, and surrounded by her children's chil- 
dren, after the vicissitudes of a checkered existence, to sink peacefully 
in the arms of death.* 

1 Except the Erie Purchase. 



them of themselves entirely satisfactory. It came 
perhaps from many causes, and those who favored it 
were led by different interests. 

There were two obvious reasons patent to all : first, 
I the uncertainty and inequality of land purchases not 
j yet determined ; and next, the abolition of slavery. 
Of the matter of the first we are conversant ; as to 
the other there were some, indeed a good number 
of persons of means in the southwestern part of the 
State, whose chief investment was in human chattels. 

In 1780 Pennsylvania abolished slavery within her 
territory. This was one cause of the emigration at 
that time into Kentucky. Col. Brodhead wrote on 
Sept. 23, 1780, from Pittsburgh, that at that time 
emigration to the new country of Kentucky was in- 
credible. This he lays to the disaffection of the people 
towards the country here at large, and considers it the 
remaining dregs of the loyalty to the king. We are 
not inclined to take this assertion in so broad a sense 
when we recall the fact that this was the time when 
Col. Brodhead and Col. Gibson were at variance. For 
it was to the interest of Col. Brodhead that the cause 
of this trouble should be credited to the loyalty of the 
people for the king while Col. Gibson rested under 
the imputation of disloyalty himself. There were, it 
is true, many who were proven traitors, and some 
within our coilnty whose property was confiscated 
after they themselves had sought safety in flight. The 
people who entertained the notion of a new com- 
monwealth were identical with the rabble of Con- 
nolly, with the murders of the Moravian Indians, 
and with the boys of the Whiskey war, and cared as 
little for the king of England as for the Jack of Clubs, 
and acknowledged at times no government but their 
own lawlessness.'- 

It is said by some that the project was much older 
than of the time we notice it, and that it was in the 
plan of Dunmore and Connolly to first make the new 
territorial government, with Pittsburgh as the metrop- 
olis and seat of empire. Be this as it may, it has 
nothing to do with the civil affair, which was bol- 
stered up by another class of men. 

Another occurrence favored the plan after it had 



* I have got much corroborative information as well as some original 
facts incorporate. 1 into the subject from the descend/nils of Mrs. Russell, 
who obtained the facts from her. I am indebted to Win. Russell, Esq., 
especially for original and collected papers. 



-James Marshall to President Reed, 

" Washington County, June 5, 1781. 
"Sir, — Since my arrival in this county I have been making what 
progress 1 can in organizing the militia, although as yetdeprivedof the 
assistance "t the Bub-lieutenants by the indefatigable opposition of a 
certain Mr. Pentecost and a few of his adherents, the old enemies of this 
government, who immediately on my arrival got together at their court- 
house in what they call Ybughagana County, whii h is wholly involved 
in tlii* mill Westmoreland Counties, and to which the government of 
Virginia has sent no orders for some considerable time past. Notwith- 
standing they have resolved to go on with the jurisdiction of Virginia, 
both civil and military, until the line is actually run. Whereupon the 
said Pent. 'cost swore into an old commission of county lieutenant that 
In. pretended to have by him for a long lime, and thereupon assumed 
the command of the militia. Mr. Cannon (a civil officer under the gov- 
ernment of Virginia), on.- of cur sub-lieutenants, publicly declares that 
government have infringed upon the rights of the people in appointing 
officers for them before they were represented, ami instead of assisting 

me in organizing the militia, is using all bis influence to prevent it. . . ." 



LAST DAYS OF HANNASTOWN— EXECUTION OF MAMACMTAGA. 



151 



been agitated. New York State proposed (1780) to 
surrender to the general government some of her 
western territory, and requested the other States that 
had any to do so also, and out of this new territory 
to make, or cause to be made, new States in the con- 
federation. 

Col. Thomas Scott, a former councilman for West- 
moreland, and after the Constitution a member of 
Congress for Washington, in a letter to President 
Reed, a little later, talking of this subject, says that 
the movement met with great countenance ; and, 
alluding to a memorial sent to the Assembly, says 
"that should that memorial be unsuccessful, he does 
not think there would be ten men on this side of the 
mountains that would not lift arms against the 
State." 

Gen. Irvine, writing from Pittsburgh in April, 
1782, to Governor Harrison, of Virginia, says that 
an expedition was much talked of to emigrate and 
set up a new State. A day had been appointed for 
those so inclined to meet for that purpose. He says 
that a man by the name of Johnston, who had been 
to England since the commencement of the war, was 
at the head of this emigrating party. He says that 
everything in the way of forming a new government 
was in readiness ; and, so far as he could find out, the 
seat of government was to be in the Muskingum. 
Some time during this year he had occasion to be ab- 
sent from the post, and when he went he directed 
Maj. Craig to keep an eye on the safety of the place, 
as there were men inclined to this scheme who were 
not too good to get possession of it. In 1782 the most 
active in the scheme were Col. Pentecost and Col. 
Cannon. 

When first broached in 1780, the limits of the new 
State were to take in as much east of the Monongahela 
as it could get, and all northwest of it to the Ohio 
River; to reach southward into Virginia as far as the 
Kanawha, and westward to the Scioto and Muskingum 
Rivers. The bounds of the new State were, in truth, 
never disclosed. One thing is certain, however, the 
people of Pittsburgh and east of it above the Youg- 
hiogheny did not ever take much stock in it ; it is said 
they even shunned its embraces. 

In December of 17.82, Congress passed an act de- 
claring that every attempt to set up a new State, in 
whole or in part, upon the territory of Pennsylvania 
should be treason. The Rev. James Finley, who had 
frequently been intrusted with missions from the 
State, was sent out by the authorities in 1783 among 
these people. He was armed with one hundred copies 
of the act, and of the proclamation, embodying the 
decision of the tribunal which adjusted the Connec- 
ticut claims, which led to the act. In his report he 
says that, finding the inhabitants east of the Youg- 
hiogheny mostly opposed to the new State, he passed 
them by. He found a considerable number between 
that river and the Monongahela in favor of it, but they 
were led by a few aspiring and ill-designing men. 



The project thenceforth, under the advice of the 
clergy, by the silencing of the partisans, and by the 
determination of the government to preserve order, 
gradually passed off from the tongues of the people, 
and was a thing of the past, and the uprising of the 
turbulent people of that region was delayed for some 
years. It was remarked that the new people who 
came in and purchased the land which the emigrants 
left were of a better sort. 1 

Notwithstanding the village of Hannastown was de- 
stroyed, yet the courts still continued to sit at the house 
of Robert Hanna, and the writs were tested as at the 
shire-town. One of the most remarkable criminal 
cases that ever was tried in Western Pennsylvania 
came off here. As it illustrates the ancient method 
of procedure under the old penal code, as well as be- 
cause it is a notable case in itself, we may recount it. 
To Judge Brackenridge, who was of counsel for the 
defense, we owe the preservation of the incidents of 
the trial and execution of the first person who suffered 
capital punishment in the county under the forms of 
law. The date of the execution is not accurately 
fixed, althougb it took place some time in the latter 
part of 1785. 2 Vln our collection we choose to preserve 
this account for the sake of the many curious cir- 
cumstances connected with it. 

This Mamachtaga, 3 the first person hungat Hannas- 
town, was an Indian of the Delawares. While his 
tribe under Killbuck had for the most part remained 
friendly to the Americans, this Indian and a few more 
were known to have been engaged in war against the 

1 Brodbead's letter of Sept. 23, 1780. 

= The Indian Mamaughtaquie killed John Smith, 11th May, 1785. 
(Hnffnagle to Gen. Armstrong.) — Arch., x., 464. 
The following has been unearthed among the records : 

" Accompt of the Gaol Keeper of Westmoreland County. 

"Dr. The County of Westmoreland to John Hanen, gaoler. 

" To my sustaining the Prisoner Joseph Ross 306 days at 6<i. 

per day £7 13 9 

*' To my sustaining the Prisoner Mamaghtaguin, an Indian, 

30 days 18 9 

" To Gaol Fees for the ahove 5 

"To Bolting and Unbolting tlie Indian 7 6 

" Sworn Jan'y, 1780, > 

before John Moore." J 

The following letter would indicate a disposition to hang " Hurricane" 
first and try him afterwards: 

Robert Galbraith to Prest. Dickinson, from Pittsburgh, May 25, 1785, 
Bays, "The Indian who is now confined in the garrison at this place is 
anxious to be tried as Speedily as may be, and receive the doom he so 
justly deserves. The Militia of Washington County Have made two 
attempts to break the Dungeon where he is confined and Tomniihawk 
him." 

[He then relates of two different attempts as having been made to get 
at the prisoner, which were frustrated by the coming of officers and 
some of the people, and then finishes as follows :] 

" In this situation I earnestly request your Excellency to Commis- 
sionate two more Gentlemen of this place to try the Indian without 
delay, anil if your Excellency and the Honorable Council would think 
proper to send his Death warrant at the same time by way of Dispatch, 
it would sooner ease the minds of the people. There can be no doubt 
of his conviction. I was one of the Inquest held upon the Body of 
John Smith, and heard all the evidence. The Indian's name is Ma- 
nuichtagwin, in English the Hurricane, the most violent and Bloody 
Catiff of the Delaware Tribe." — Archives, vol. x., 467. 

3 This name is also sometimes called and spelled " Mamaghtaguin." 



152 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 



settlements. At the termination of the war and after 
the peace these Indians came back, and were stopping 
at Killbuck's Island, under the guns of the fort. 
While they were here some men, one of them named 
Smith, went over to the Indians one night, and while 
three of the men were in the cabin where the murder 
occurred, Mamachtaga, in liquor, ran in without 
warning, stabbed Smith so that he died, and fell upon 
another man named Evans, whom he also stabbed, 
but who catching him and struggling made a kind of 
mel'ee, in which he also was killed, and the third 
wounded before the drunken man could be secured. 

The Indian, Mamachtaga, made no attempt to es- 
cape, but being sober, gave himself up to the guard, 
affecting not to know what had occurred. Killbuck 
himself sat upon a log silent, and appeared cast down 
on the next morning at the time of the visit. The 
prisoner, on account of the insecurity of the jail or 
lock-up at Pittsburgh, was taken to the guard-house 
till the next Court of Oyer and Terminer should be 
holden at Hannastown for the county. 

Brackenridge, then a young attorney, moved by 
the novelty of having an Indian for a client, was re- 
tained as his counsel, under the promise of receiving 
some beaver-skin for his fee. The account he has 
left of the whole business transaction is the one we 
follow. When the Indian gave him an order on 
another, who held some furs of his, which order he 
signed with his mark in the shape of a turkey-foot, 
he was under the notion that it was a kind of satis- 
faction for his crime, and could not understand how 
that he should say he was not guilty of the killing of 
the white man. When Brackenridge had seen the 
squalid appearance of the wretched man, as he was 
confined in the black hole, he exchanged the beaver- 
skin for blankets and food, which he gave the man. 
But being of a curious and inquiring turn of mind, 
and always fond of novelties, he got an Indian woman 
to interpret for him while he questioned the Indian, 
trying to observe the analogy between the sentiment 
of a savage and that of a civilized person, or, as he 
chose to express it, the force of opinion over pain. 
The woman was loth to broach the subject of death ; 
she was, however, prevailed on, and when at last he 
was asked what death he preferred, he said he would 
rather be shot than tomahawked. 

The habit of taking the law in their own hands to 
punish those who had offended had so completely per- 
vaded and possessed the minds of the people that a 
party, fearing that he possibly might escape, either from 
bonds or through the finesse of the young attorney 
and the crooks and quirks of the law, came with their : 
guns into the garrison, and demanded that the pris- 
oner should be given up to them to be shot, and that 
the attorney should take an oath not to defend him. 
The officer would not allow this, but prevailed on 
them to go back, and leave the Indian to the civil | 
authorities. 

This Indian was, indeed, when in liquor a bad ' 



man, and had forfeited the good will of his tribe by 
having killed several of them. He had the appear- 
ance of great ferocity, but, like all men in the state 
of nature, his passions were in the extreme ; for in 
and by civilization only are the passions harmonized. 
He was tall, rough in feature, and of fierce aspect. 
His name in their language signified "Trees-blown- 
across," a name given him from the nature of his 
ungovernable passion. 

At the court holden at Hannastown for the county 
of Westmoreland, McKean, C. J., and Bryan, J., Ma- 
machtaga was brought to trial. The usual formali- 
ties were observed, and an interpreter stood by to 
translate into the Delaware tongue the words of the 
indictment, the meaning of it, and to explain to him 
the privilege he had of denying the charge by plead- 
ing " not guilty." He could not comprehend the 
idea in saying he was not guilty, because by this he 
was telling a lie, a thing unbecoming a warrior. He 
did not like to say that he had not killed the men, 
but only that he was drunk, and did not know what 
he had done ; but he " supposed he would know when 
he was under the ground." The court directed the 
plea to be entered for him, and he was put upon his 
trial. 

He was then called upon to make his challenge, 
which was explained to him by the interpreter. 
This right he exercised by comparing the counte- 
nances of the jurymen, and challenging according to 
the sourness or cheerfulness of their countenances. 
The jury called to the book, being told in the usual 
form, " Prisoner, look upon the juror ; juror, look 
upon the prisoner at the bar: are you related to the 
prisoner?" one of them, a German, the first called, 
did not take the question aright, and thinking it was 
a reflection, said, " How in ter teivel might he pe re- 
lated to ter Hingin?" thinking it a very uncivil way 
of treating decent people, as if he, being a Dutchman, 
could be a brother or cousin of an Indian. But the 
matter was explained to him by another German, and 
he, being satisfied, was sworn. 

The only defense of the attorney was that the 
prisoner, at the time of committing the offense, was 
in liquor, but this was overruled by the court, as the 
fact of drunkenness would not excuse murder. The 
Indian said that he hoped the Good Man above 
would excuse it. The jury gave their verdict of 
guilty without leaving the box, and the prisoner was 
remanded to jail. 

Near the ending of the court the prisoners were 
brought up to receive sentence. When the Indian 
was asked by the interpreter what he had to say why 
sentence of death should not be passed upon him he 
said that he would rather "run awhile," meaning by 
this that he ought to be allowed to go free to get some 
compensation for the man he had killed by way of 
satisfaction to the relatives of the dead man, as was a 
custom in his tribe. On the sentence of death being 
passed upon him he said he would rather be shot. 



THE PIONEERS— THEIR HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC. 



153 



A man of the name of John Bradly, at the same 
court, was tried for homicide, and found guilty of 
manslaughter. He was allowed, as under the old 
law, his benefit of clergy, but being a simple man did 
not understand the technical nicety resulting from 
the pleading of it, and when the first part of the 
sentence was read, and the hanging part mentioned, 
he expressed the most abject terror in his looks and 
voice as he begged for mercy. But when it was ex- 
plained to him, and the benefit by the common law 
allowed him, he seemed more composed. Sentence 
of burning in the hand was then pronounced against 
him, and the sheriff was sent out for the tools. 

It so happened that the sentence of this prisoner 
occurred before that of the Indian, and the Indian 
was saying to the court that if it didn't make any 
difference to them he would rather be shot, when the 
sheriff came in with the branding-iron and a bed- 
cord to tie up the hand of the convict for man- 
slaughter, the better to put on the hateful letter. 
The Indian getting a side glance of the sheriff com- 
ing in imagined that he was coming at that instant 
to enforce the law on his behalf. The idea of horror 
aud the dread of instant death which the savage ex- 
pressed must have been frightful, and the narrator 
likens the distortion of his features, black with un- 
speakable fear and anguish, to the effect of cold water 
suddenly poured on the human back. 

When he saw what the sheriff was about to do he 
became somewhat calm again. Before he was taken 
from the bar he wished to say that his trial had been 
fair, and that he did not desire his tribe to revenge 
his death or go to war on his account. As the sheriff 
was taking him back to jail some of those about him 
asked him whom he thought the judges to be. These 
sate, as was then the official custom in the trial of 
capital crimes, in scarlet robes. The Indian said that 
he thought one was God and the other the Saviour of 
men, which notion or idea he no doubt got from the 
Moravians who had had missionary services among 
the Delawares. 

During the time he lay in jail under sentence a 
child of the jailer had taken sick with a fever. The 
Indian said he could cure it if he could get some 
roots from the woods. The jailer made him promise 
that he would not attempt to make his escape, saying 
that if he got off, himself would be taken and suffer 
in his stead. The Indian promised him, and the 
jailer, taking the irons from his feet, went with him 
to the woods, where he got the roots whicli were used 
in the curing of the child. 

All the prisoners were confined in the one room of 
the jail. Besides these there was a young man who 
was convicted of larceny, but who being respectably 
connected was recommended to pardon by the jury 
who convicted him and by many others. Yet he 
appears to have been a bad boy. There was also 
another convicted of an unspeakable crime. This 
was an extremely simple-minded creature. The young 



fellow insisted on this creature to allow the Indian to 
kill him, as he had only to die once, and to die this 
way would be better than to die on the scaffold. The 
poor creature, being at last prevailed upon, agreed to 
do this. The young one had prepared a knife, but when 
he offered it to the Indian the Indian would not take 
it, although he was offered whiskey and insisted on 
still more. He said he had killed white men enough. 

The warrant for the execution of the Indian and 
this white man came together. On the morning of 
the day set for the hanging the Indian wished to go 
to the woods to gather roots to paint himself and die 
as a warrior. The jailer allowed him and went with 
him. When they returned he painted his face red. 

The gallows was made of two stout logs and a cross- 
piece at the top. The rope hung in the middle, and 
a ladder rested against the top piece. The prisoner 
to be hung was taken up the ladder, the rope was 
adjusted, and he was swung off. The hands were 
tied that they could not grasp at the ladder. The 
white man was hanged first. This was done success- 
fully, but when they came to hang the Indian the 
rope broke when they shook him off and he fell to 
the ground. He swooned somewhat from the violent 
change in the circulation of his blood, but rose with 
a kind of smile. Another rope was procured, and 
this one with the other was put about his neck, 
making two, when he went up again. The strength 
of the ropes supported his body, and, being strangled, 
he was literally hanged to death. 

On the day of the execution a great crowd of set- 
tlers had congregated at Hannastown. It was a big 
day, but the remembrance of it has long ago been 
dispelled. Men seldom boast of having seen an exe- 
cution. These men were the first and the last hung at 
Hannastown. The unhappy, misshapen creature 
who suffered with the Indian under the inspiration 
of mediaeval superstition, preserved in black letter as 
part of the common law, ought to have been sent to 
an asylum for the insane. And for an Indian who 
got his notion of white men from such as Wetzel it 
turns tragedy into farce to strangle him like a tooth- 
less dog to vindicate the majesty of outraged law. 



CHAPTER XXX. 
THE PIONEERS— THEIR HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC. 

The Pioneers — How the Early Settlers came in — Their Object in Emi- 
grating and in Removing — First Settlers near the Forts — How they 
Built their Mouses — House-Raisings — Appearance of their Cabins out- 
side — How they were Furnished — Home-Made Furniture — Description 
of Ancient Hannastown— The First Frame and Stone Houses in differ- 
ent parts of the County — Dr. Schoepf 's visit to Western Pennsylvania 
after the War. 

It is now time that we should notice the manner of 
life of the early settlers as it is seen in their customs, 
their manners, their amusements; give a description 
of their furniture and apparel, and make such other 



154 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



observations as distinguish them in their habits and 
in their intercourse, for they sometimes differ so much 
from us that they appear a different people altogether. 
There is, however, one great difficulty in the way, 
and this, with us, is in our trouble to discriminate 
times and places. We cannot get at any particular 
time more than by a passing glimpse, so fast in our 
country have changes followed each other. But 
sometimes even such a glimpse may give us a correct 
idea. We shall, therefore, not attempt to restrict our 
wandering remarks to any particular era, nor confine 
them to a set order. And as nearly all the early set- 
tlers throughout this region of country lived com- 
monly alike, we have, in pursuance of our plan, col- 
lected some of our description from the hasty notes of 
those men who noticed it from their own observation 
and experiences, but we have relied chiefly on the 
testimony of the oldest inhabitants and on the testi- 
mony of their descendants. 

Our early settlers were, in the true sense, pioneers. 
And when a pioneer, invited by the boundless ex- 
panse of a rich territory in prospect, took a notion to 
migrate, he was generally young or in middle age. 
The early settler came into a new country not encum- 
bered by his aged parents or by a numerous family of 
young and dependent children. If he was unmarried, 
he first came to inspect the country and to locate some 
spot to which he removed after going back to the set- 
tlement to marry. Then when all things were ready 
he set out. He mostly had a horse of a poor and un- 
developed breed, upon which he set his wife and such 
household goods as he wished to carry with him into 
the wilderness. Along each side of the pack-saddle, 
curiously hung on frames of wicker-work, were a few 
pots and pans, a rasher of bacon, a small quantity of 
garden tea, and a few simples which answered for a 
dispensary, in which were curatives for all ailments, 
for a griping colic and a cut leg. Every man had a 
rifle and the accompanying ammunition. In the bul- 
let-pouch a few hard-baked biscuit of wheat or rye- 
flour, or a johnny-cake 1 of corn-meal, were for his fare 
till he reached the outposts at some block-house, or 
till he came in contiguity with some foremost settler; 
for nearly all the settlements were commenced either 
in colonies of a few families, or near some post where 
the government watched over its territory with a 
small detachment of soldiers. These block-houses or 
forts, such as Bedford and Ligonier, were made to 
answer the purposes of the government at first, but 
were also the places of resort and the citadel of de- 
fense for the people in time of danger. Few of these 
pioneers in such troublous times were hardy enough 
to venture far away to places almost inaccessible, and 
far from contact with kindred men. The really iso- 
lated ones were those who were isolated in every re- 
spect, and those were impelled by far different motives 
than were those men who loved an embryo civiliza- 

1 " Johnny-cake" is a corruption from "journey-cake." 



tion. Our colonists did not come to trade and higgle 
with the Indians, or to follow the wild and daring 
ambition of roving undisturbed through dangers in- 
numerable, in slaying beasts of the forest and skulk- 
ing through the woods for red men. They were not 
impelled by the strange instinct which moved Daniel 
Boone, Byron's "great backwoodsman, hero of Ken- 
tucky," and Samuel Brady, and Simon Kenton, and 
such to fly, as it were, from the company of other 
men to pass a life of continual excitement and adven- 
ture merely for its own pleasure. They had other 
ties which bound them to the place they had fixed 
upon, and to change the rifle for the axe ; for when a 
settler came in he came with the intention of staying. 
He had left, figuratively, servitude for liberty ; he had 
come from where he could not get along with becom- 
ing case to where he might, in time, have abundance. 
Here, henceforth, was to be his home. Naturally 
from this fact he made a virtue of necessity, and grew 
to love his spot of land with a love not less sincere 
and intense than the Mantuan loved his hut of hur- 
dles, or the Rhinelander loves his cottage by the river. 
He was sensitive to one of the finest feelings which 
ennoble human nature, the feeling when, looking out 
on a tract of land, however barren and unfruitful, 
of knowing that it was his own, that it was secured, 
for the greatest part, by the earliest and most simple 
of titles, that of occupancy, and that all he possessed 
or might acquire was owing to his energy and his 
strong arm. Hence were all his feelings and his pred- 
ilections of a local nature. The longer he stayed, 
the older he became, the more intensely local did 
those feelings become. 

So near to the forts were the very earliest settle- 
ments made, that when a settler began to rear a house 
he rested at night under the shadow of their walls. 
In the day he worked with his gun near him, leaning 
against a tree; at noon, sitting down beside it, he ate 
his cold dinner. If he was far off, and alone, he made 
his bed of leaves under rocks or against fallen logs. 
Then his shelter was the labor of his own hands, but 
if he had neighbors within three or four hiiles he 
could count on them. When his trees were down the 
neighbors helped to raise it. Often, if circumstances 
were favorable, the neighbors, meeting together, felled 
the trees, and raised and finished the skeleton of the 
house from sunrise to sunset. Such was no uncom- 
mon occurrence, and after the settlements were well 
advanced the building a house was no such difficult 
affair as to those earlier, for to work hard by day, and 
sleep hard indeed by night, with no covering over him 
and only a log on either side, was such an undertaking 
as but few can now appreciate, and which not many 
even then but cared to forego. 

Their houses being such as were demanded by ne- 
cessity were surely rude. But few tools were used 
in their construction. With the axe the trees were 
felled, when the side intended for the inside of the 
house was hewed smooth. Thev were then notched at 



THE PIONEERS— THEIR HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC. 



155 



each end to let the cross-log lie firmly. When enough 
logs had lieen so prepared a day was given out for the 
raising. Then all the neighbors collected together, 
expecting a holiday, and such days were enjoyed as 
much and perhaps better than such conventional 
holidays as leave but few pleasurable recollections. 
Such occasions as house-raisings had njore than a few 
attractions. Here the old men generally got their 
whiskey, an article from the earliest records indispen- 
sable in every community, and something better than 
common to eat. Here the young men might show 
their strength, and ogle and romp with the young 
women. The very boisterousuess of the rough men, 
half hunters, half farmers, had, to those of a milder 
nature, something of allurement. 1 And such up- 
roariousness continued from when the first log was 
laid upon the ground till the whole structure was 
raised. Soon as the crowd gathered they were divided 
into two parties, each one of which chose its captain. 
Thence began an emulation as to which side might 
excel, an emulation in which strength and determi- 
nation were as forcibly displayed as emulation has 
been displayed on the field of battle. These were 
little Balaklavas and little Waterloos. Every log was 
pushed up the two long slides and landed home to its 
place with a cheer ; and no sooner was it there than 
another one was rolling off the hand-spikes of the stal- 
wart young men below, who, directed by the voice 
and gestures of the captain on the outer wall, were 
made to work in system and in regular order. No 
sooner was the house raised to its square, which was 
from eight to ten feet from the ground, than a shout 
re-echoed through the woods. Soon the saplings, an- 
swering for the rafters, were being laid up. Instead 
of following the invariable fashion of the houses of 
the peasantry of Europe in the making of a high and 
steep roof, the roofs were, on the contrary, made with 
a low water-shed. One curious to discern the tendency 
of habit in a people might observe in this a connec- 
tion with the low huts, covered with bark, built thus 
in haste and from necessity and without architectural 
design, which, in the wilds of New England and along 
the Chesapeake, sheltered the heads of their ancestors 
a hundred years earlier. 

It is, indeed, difficult for us to form an intelligible 
idea of the appearance of the habitations of our an- 
cestors. There are, perhaps, not a dozen of these 
ancient cabins now standing within the limits of our 
county, and these few are inaccessible to the great 
majority of the people. Along the rugged hillsides 



1 All public amusements, celebrations, militia musters, or elections 
were occasions of much noise. Hallow-eve was celebrated everywhere 
with Bacchanalian revelry and pandemnnian deviltry, ami the noise 
arising from the racket that old and young made when they "shot oil" 
the old year 1 ' resounded from one farm-house to another all over the 
land. One old custom long kept up was that of Bring guns and all 
manner of explosive instruments at weddings, which being the lesser 
image of war has given tise to the observation that this no doubt was 
originally instituted to remind the nuptial party that the battle of life 
had then begun. 



of the most unfrequented of our mountain ranges they 
are most likely to be met with. They bear, at a dis- 
tance, the uninviting appearance of a mud-plastered 
hovel, with a clap-board roof and a huge clay, turret- 
shaped chimney at one end. Sometimes the chimney 
is in the middle of the building, in which instances 
the houses, being larger, were sometimes occupied by 
two families. They are dimly lighted by apertures 
between the logs, which are not infrequently covered 
with greased paper. In midwinter or on a rainy day 
objects in them are scarcely discernible. They are 
such as but few of the common laborers would occupy, 
and yet they were the castles of our forefathers, a race 
not wanting in moral, in physical, or in me.ntal quali- 
fications. 

The most of the early houses were intended for only 
one room, and an apartment atop of it called a cock- 
loft. Sometimes there was no loft, and the whole in- 
terior was in one room. On the smoky rafters were 
hung gammons of meat and small, greasy bags of 
seeds. The one end, for the height of several feet, was 
left unclosed till a chimney was built. This was built 
so that a vacant space large enough to hold a tolerably 
good-sized saw-log could be dragged up to it and so 
pried through for a back-log for the fire. The outside 
wall of the chimney was thus a full step from the end 
of the house. The openings between the back wall 
of the chimney and the house were then closed by 
large flat stones, which could be removed at pleasure. 
The chimney itself was built of mud and nigger-head 
stones, and from the point of the roof carried up by 
mud and fagots. The interstices were filled up with 
mud, cobble-stones, chips, or straw. The whole of the 
building on the outside was daubed with mud. In 
these buildings there was sometimes'no wooden floor, 
but from the abundance of good timber, and the handi- 
ness of the axemen, to put a floor down was the work 
of little time. The floor so made was of split logs, 
which, smoothed on .their broadest side, were called 
puncheons. These, fitted closely together and so laid 
upon the ground, made a firm and durable floor, 
which from dint of scrubbing and sanding, and from 
the incessant wear of the feet, became in time toler- 
ably even and smooth, and glistened with a polish like 
varnished oak. The roof and the upper floor were of 
clap-boards, — broad pieces of timber split with a frow, 
and sometimes smoothed with a draw-knife. Some- 
times the roofs were thatched. The one room served 
for all family purposes. The door was hung on 
wooden hinges, and no improvement had been made 
in latches since the days of Little Red Riding-hood, 
who, it will be remembered, on the occasion of the visit 
to her grandmother was instructed by the wolf to pull 
the bobbin and the door would open. The doors were 
nearly always made double, one above and one below, 
like our stable-doors. The single long window was cov- 
ered with some translucent material, usually greased 
paper. Glass was used only by the best off, and was 
brought in from the East. The bedstead, and nearly all 



156 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the furniture, was home-made. A few poles laid upon 
cross rails, resting in auger-holes in the walls and in 
the notches of an upright post in one end of the room, 
was the frame upon which were laid the straw and the 
scanty bedclothes. Their stools were square or round 
blocks of wood resting on pins for legs. A couple of 
clap-boards resting on pins driven in the wall was the 
table. The rifle and pouches and powder-horn were 
hung over the fireplace or on a rafter, either on 
wooden pins or on the wide antlers of a mountain 
deer. To such a memento of the chase was usually 
attached a long story, which served to beguile the 
time of the long winter evenings, when a neighbor, 
perchance, rested beneath the roof. The one side of 
the room, that next the bed, was reserved for the ward- 
robe. Here hung the dress to be worn when the preacher 
came once in a year to preach to the settlement, or 
when a young neighbor was married. Whatever 
else was bright in color, or curious for being scarce, 
whatever might convey the idea of the possessor being 
in good circumstances in respect to worldly goods, or 
whatever could feed the vanity of the women part 
was here displayed. A faded ribbon, a silk hand- 
kerchief, a spare patchwork quilt, a miserable daub 
of a soldier or bunch of unnatural dahlias were ar- 
ticles of vertu. Next the fireplace, on shelves, were 
the pans, pots, skillets, pails, tin cups, tin and wooden 
plates, cooking-ware, rustically carved dippers of 
gourd, grubbing-hoes, harness, pieces of log-chains, 
indeed, nearly all the appurtenances and heredita- 
ments. If the house was so fortunate as to possess a 
small looking-glass, it hung beside the door or opposite 
it. Environed in rings and wreaths made of colored 
bird's-eggs and bright red peppers strung on woolen 
strings, and overtopped by sprigs of green from the 
garden or the woods, the looking-glass was, to the 
children of less fortunate neighbors, what the pocket 
compass of Capt. Smith was to the painted warriors of 
Powhatan. 

We may form a more correct idea of the appearance 
of the early Hannastown by grouping a couple dozen 
of such cabins along the narrow cartway of the old 
military road, their huge chimney-tops reaching up 
among the trees which overarched the highway, 
leaving the sunlight in in patches. A house of square 
logs, larger than the others, by itself, and back of it 
another somewhat stronger, might be recognized as 
the court-house and jail. The stockade on a gentle 
rise within a stone's throw of the jail and in the edge 
of the village. One cabin with a clap-board porch, 
where, after the old fashion, the idlers drank their 
toddy or gin under a swinging wooden sign, would 
be known as the tavern. Among the stumps, with trees 
for hitching-posts, you would observe the blacksmith- 
shops, from one of which Connolly's crew, after forc- 
ing open, took the smith's hammer to break down the 
doors of the jail. And this was the ancient capital of 
Western Pennsylvania, and here was the temple 
where, betimes, was the visibly enthroned oracle of 



the English law. Pittsburgh at that date was but 
little better, only there was more activity there and 
possibly more sunshine. But in 1774 there was only 
one shingled house in the town, and that house was 
long pointed out as an evidence that the arts of en- 
lightenment had at that early day taken up their 
abode in the far West. 

The description given by Dr. McMillen of his early 
experience in this regard will here bear to be re- 
called : 

" When I came to this country (in 17S8) the cabin in which I was to 
live was raised, but there was no roof to it, nor any chimney or floor. 
We had neither bedstead, nor table, nor stool, nor chair, nor bucket. 
We plfl ' <l two boxes, "lie on the other, which served us for a table, and 
two kega served us for setts, and having committed ourselves to God in 
family worship, we spread a bed on the floor and slept soundly till morn- 
ing. Sometimes, indeed, we had no bread for weeks together, but we 
had plenty of pumpkins and potatoos and all the necessaries of life; 
as for luxuries, we were not much concerned about them." 

Following the two-story log houses built of hewed 
timbers came the old stone houses. The abundance 
of good building material was an early inducement 
to erect structures of a more durable kind. Accord- 
ingly almost every locality can point out either the 
first square-hewed log house or the first stone house. 
The history of Old Redstone states that the first 
squared house in Fayette County was known far and 
wide, and long after other houses towered above it 
and the name had no meaning, as the High House. 
Dr. Power states that for many years after he was 
settled in the West there was not a stone or frame 
house within the limits of his congregation, which 
embraced the best portion of our Westmoreland. 
This, in a general way, may be correct when it applies 
to residences merely, or the houses of the common 
people ; but a stone store-house had been built at Red- 
stone by the Ohio Company before 17. r )4. Brick houses 
were unknown for many years ; the first and only one 
till perhaps after the Revolution was the small brick 
building still standing near the point in Pittsburgh, 
built by Bouquet in 1764 of brick sent from England. 
Dr. Schoepf states that the first stone house in Pitts- 
burgh was built during his visit in the summer of 
1783. 

David Bradford, one of the first attorneys at the 
Washington and at the Westmoreland bar, and the fa- 
mous leader in the Whiskey Insurrection, built the first 
stone house at Little Washington. This was, perhaps, 
later than 1783, and it was considered an indication 
of enterprise. However, by the close of the century 
there were many stone houses, some of them having 
been built by the more enterprising class who came 
in upon the lands left by the settlers who emigrated 
westward after the close of the war. The stone house 
built by Thomas Culbertson, near St. Clair Station, 
was among the first in Derry township. John Irwin, 
Sr., the uncle of the founder of Irwintown, built on 
his plantation, which included several of the neigh- 
boring modern farms, a stone house, which, with its 
wide hall and high eaves, was long regarded as the 



PRIMITIVE HOUSEKEEPING AND FARMING. 



157 



marvel of the times, and had a reputation as wide as 
Philip Reagan's brick house, built about 1800, after 
the alleged destruction of his first one by the Whiskey 
Boys. Many of these houses, erected between 1785 
and 1812, are still standing, and some of them in re- 
mote places. Some of them may be seen on the sum- 
mit of the Ridge, built upon farms then considered 
for all purposes the best, and which were the most 
valuable. 

The houses built in the towns were usually of two 
stories, but the stories were low in height, poorly ven- 
tilated, and miserably lighted. The best house erected 
in Greensburg before 1812 is far from possessing, even 
with later alterations, the conveniences of many of 
our modern farm-houses. But some of the old taverns 
and some gentlemen's seats erected before 1812 are 
still standing. Of these some have spacious rooms, 
lofty ceilings, wide entries, are surrounded with broad 
porches, lighted by wide and tall windows, and have 
dormer-windows in the roofs over the attics. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PRIMITIVE HOUSEKEEPING AND FARMING. 

How to commence Housekeeping — Split-Brooms and Gourds — The 
Spinning-Wheel and Cradle — The Cock-Loft and Stable — Clearing the 
Forest — Getting to Farming — Resorts and Devices of the Farmer — 
Wheat Lands — Common Crops — Gardening — Eye Coffee — Mrs. St. 
Clair's Tea-Parties — The Raising of Flax, and a Description of the 
Process of its Manufacture — Spinning — Tow in Poetry and in Law — 
Wool-Carding — The First Carding-Machines — The old case of Mc- 
Ginnis versus Giger, in the matter of wrongly Dyeing the Linsey- 
Woolsey — Dress of the Common Peoph — Going to Church — Nineteen 
Grooms married in one Blue Coat at different times — Dress of the 
Fashionable People— Calico. 

Such were the houses and furniture of the majority 
of our forefathers ; and while there were some who 
had brought with them from the east of the mountains 
more of the necessaries of civilization, there were 
others who possessed not so many. There have been 
instances of newly-married couples commencing 
housekeeping with only such paraphernalia as their 
own labor had got together. In one noticeable in- 
stance the husband and wife set out for their roughly- 
raised cabin, which was about a mile from his father's, 
he with a grubbing-hoe and an iron kettle, and she 
with a bundle of clothes and a split-broom, upon 
which, tied by their legs, were a couple of pairs of 
chickens. 

One of the most common utensils about a house, 
and a common one because it was a necessary one, 
was the spinning-wheel. The distaff and the knit- 
ting-needles were to the women what the rifle and 
the axe were to the men. The spinning-wheel was, 
in a newly-formed family, a less indispensable article ' 
than the cradle. For the cradle there were many 
substitutes. Few children were rocked in a more ele- 
gant rocker than a trough, which answered alternately ( 
11 



for the calves and the babes. Many who became 
famous among their fellow-men as legislators and di- 
vines, who became illustrious in the pages of history 
and in the reports of law, were hushed to sleep in such 
a bed, the mother rocking and singing the simple air 
of " Barbara Allen," or the "Infant in a Manger." 
Few men have attained to greater eminence in the 
jurisprudence of their country, in diplomacy, and in 
oratory which controls senates and attracts the world 
than Daniel Webster ; and the infant head of Daniel 
Webster rested in a cradle which had answered for a 
sugar-trough. Thus the rising generation were raised 
from the very outset in a manner tending to make 
them rugged, and inuring them to hardship from 
their earliest years. From such cradles as the shield 
of the Spartan matrons and the rough bark of the 
forest-trees of the American mothers went forth such 
men as Lycurgus and Andrew Jackson. 

The maxim of the common law that " every man's 
house is his castle" obtained in the times when the 
houses of the Britons were more scantily furnished 
than the houses of the American pioneers, and before 
the time when the American pioneer had barely the 
necessaries of life, but which necessaries would have 
been reckoned luxuries to the lords of the marshes. 
But the cabin of the early settler was, in truth, his 
castle. It surely contained all his availabilities. 
When a stranger passed over the threshold, his bed 
for the night was made on the floor before the blazing 
fire, or in the cock-loft into which he ascended by the 
never-ending pins driven in the wall, which answered 
for a ladder. There, among the chickens and the hung- 
up bacon, the keg of rancid fat and bunches of herbs, 
— the leaves that bore healing for the nations, — under 
the low roof, and beside a pile of corn, was made his 
bed. In fact, what could not be put into this miser- 
able place was left either in the lower room or in the 
horse-stall. The stalls or stables for the stunted and 
scraggy brutes of such as were able to starve one or 
more bore as distant a relationship with the stables 
and barns of our day as did the houses of that day 
with the houses of this day. These were made of 
chestnut saplings, built to the height of a man, the 
interstices or openings between them being left open, 
and the top thatched with rye-straw or buckwheat- 
straw or wilding weeds ; the thatch held to its place 
against storms by the weight of other saplings tied or 
pinned down, and large stones all over. Yet often 
the sides were intertilled with straw and leaves, and 
the low opening for the door closed. This was done 
by provident settlers to protect their cattle not only 
from the terribly long and severe winters in this cli- 
mate, but also to secure their helpless stock from the 
hunger of the bears and wolves. 

This portion of country, when the first settlers came 
in, was completely covered with a dense forest. The 
emigrant, of course, seated himself in the woods. 
Soon as his cabin was finished over his head he com- 
menced to clear the land. He began next his house, 



158 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and worked his way outward. He chopped the large 
trees down, split some into rails, and the rest, rolling 
them in heaps and piling on top the loose and dead- 
ened branches, he set on fire and burnt up. He 
likewise, after selecting a patch which might be more 
fertile by offering better promise, deadened the stand- 
ing trees. This was done by cutting a ring around 
the tree, — " girding" it, as it was called, — to obstruct 
the flow of the sap, whence the tree, losing its vital 
property, naturally withered away in decay. In a 
couple of days a good axeman could so prepare the 
trees which, in a few years toppling down, left an 
opening in the forest for a new field. A forester thus 
calling nature to his help could in a few years de- 
stroy an incredible amount of timber. What would 
now be considered worthless destruction was from the 
nature of the case not so then. 

There are many now living who can remember 
when a fine old tree would be cut down to make from 
its roots a pair of hames ; another old oak destroyed 
to get a crotch for a pack-saddle ; or three or four 
chopped down of a night to get a vagrant coon. But 
the chief difficulty was to remove the huge boles of 
the trees now lying upon the ground. To do this 
when he had no horse, or but poor help, his recourse 
was to his neighbors. Their assistance would be re- 
paid by his own labor, and perhaps in the next week. 
Of this day's labor, in the piping times of peace, was 
made another holiday. Again were feats of strength 
displayed ; again all were made happy, so far as hap- 
piness could be enjoyed under such circumstances. It 
is to be remarked that the very assembling of these 
people, separated sometimes for weeks, had upon all 
parties an exhilarating effect. A log-rolling, a house- 
raising became to the second generation of these set- 
tlers as the volunteer parades and the fox-hunts were 
to the generation following. On these occasions the 
bottle was again produced to make them feel good in 
general, and to prevent, they said, the effect of snake- 
bites in particular. Times change, and what then 
allayed the fear of snakes is now the most active agent 
in raising this fear. But hence, from the common 
way of preserving quaint and curious analogies of 
language in idioms, the mountaineer from Chestnut 
Ridge, to this day, when he sees a fellow-creature so 
limber that he cannot stand erect, and hears him ut- 
tering expressions becoming a madman, will express 
his opinion by remarking that the fellow is either 
snake-bitten or poisoned. 

The land being thus by degrees cleared, and the 
stones piled in heaps in the curtilage round his cabin, 
a portion was next fenced in to keep the calves and 
the few sheep from straying, while the cattle and 
horses, when not needed, were allowed to wander at 
large to nibble the grass by the brooks and browse 
on the tender boughs of the birch and maple. Bells 
were hung on the necks of the animals so that they 
could be found when wanted. From this the Indians 
before and during the Revolution devised a decoy to 



kidnap the children and shoot the men by taking the 
bells off the animals and squatting in ambush behind 
the thick clusters of bushes or in a dark ravine. 
But the whites became wary, and such devices in a 
single community were not practiced often in succes- 
sion. In more tranquil times afterwards the sound 
of the bells kept off the wild beasts and the trouble- 
some " varmints," as they called the mischievous 
smaller beasts. It also warned the children when the 
cattle were encroaching on the cornfield, or on the 
little meadow inclosed by a rickety fence of brush, 
for the cornfield was the chief reliance of the family 
for their winter's breadstuff. But little wheat was 
grown till the land was more advanced in cultivation. 
One reason the oldest settlers had for not improving 
the lowlands, now our richest and most prolific por- 
tion, was that they could not produce wheat upon it. 
This will, in part, account for the fact which appears 
to us so unreasonable, the fact that the mountainous 
lands were the first settled, and settled in preference 
to that vast body which we now see covered with 
luxuriant harvests, and which are rich in mineral 
deposits. At the latter end of the last century a 
wheat-farm was the most desirable, and the one which 
the new immigrant tried to get. It was said that the 
wheat raised upon what are now our best wheat-farms 
was what they called sick wheat, a wheat which, they 
said, invariably produced sickness ; that the wheat 
drew this property from the soil, which was yet rank 
with poisonous vegetation. The end of the wheat- 
corn was black, and when made into bread and taken 
into the stomach it produced cramps and vomiting. 
Nor was it fit for feed. It was not till such land had 
been reclaimed that it was safe to raise wheat. Their 
best wheat-lands were along the hills, noticeably the 
western sides of Chestnut Ridge. Seventy and eighty 
years ago the farms which would have sold for the 
most money, and which were regarded the most val- 
uable for wheat-growing, were those which we now 
regard as of the poorest, and on which the tenants 
at present live by irregular work and by continuous 
toil. Rye, therefore, was used in preference to buck- 
wheat, and as a secondary crop to maize or Indian 
corn. Nor is this to be wondered at, for the prolific 
yield of corn in such an abundant ratio, its adapta- 
bility to the soil, the little trouble needed in its cul- 
tivation were early noted by the red men, who pos- 
sessed no ideas of agriculture hut tin- must primitive. 
Not only is this observable in the cultivation of it, 
but it is also to be noticed that it possesses more 
nutriment than any of the other of the ordinary 
cereals, and that as food a given quantity will go 
much farther for both man and beast. Those used 
to it affirm that a man can work longer on a meal of 
baked corn than even, as some contend, on meat. 
Whether this is born out by analysis is not known, 
but it is certain that old hunters and those exposed 
to inclemencies preferred corn as nourishment above 
rye and above boiled flesh. Neither was the process 



PRIMITIVE HOUSEKEEPING AND FARMING. 



159 



of making corn into food so intricate as the process 
by which wheat is converted into bread and cakes. 
Corn-meal could easily be baked into bread, pone, 
johnny-cake (journey cake), or made into mush, 
which, with milk, was a standing dish for at least 
one meal a day regularly the whole year round. 
And with corn were early cultivated potatoes and 
beans, yet no more than was needful for the sub- 
sistence of the family till the next year. But the 
planting of fruit-trees is coetaneous with the erection 
of some of the first buildings in the county. 

Gardening, you may be sure, was not carried on to 
perfection till long afterwards. Special attention was, 
however, given to the nurture of sage, which was 
made into tea, and served as a substitute for imported 
tea. For from necessity they could not, and from 
patriotism they would not, pay the exorbitant tax laid 
upon it, which was one of the immediate causes of 
the war. When Gen. St. Clair removed his family 
into Ligonier Valley, Madam St. Clair brought with 
her a chest of the invigorating leaves. It was talked 
of far and wide. She was remembered as one of the 
first who brought it into common use, and the fame 
of her tea-parties was part of the gossip of the 
country. Many to whom its properties were totally, or 
in part, unknown, walked a great distance to see the 
strange article, and to be cheered by its invigorating 
qualities. The root of the sassafras, mint, and spice- 
wood among some, in their season, were also substi- 
tuted, for coffee was not drank, only once a week, on 
Sunday. In lieu of this a kind of decoction produced 
from roasted chestnuts and rye was drank. Genuine 
coffee was considered a beverage exclusively for the 
women part of the household. Nor was it coveted 
by the men, for in this, as in all unnatural wants, it 
holds true that " use doth breed a habit in the man." 

The first of wants to be supplied then, as it always 
has been from the time our more remote ancestors 
made their apparel of fig-leaves, was the want of 
clothing for the body. This was made variously of 
linen, of linen and wool mixed, and of the dressed 
and undressed skins of deer. But the great want was 
met chiefly by the raising and working of flax, and 
this served when made up for the hunting-shirts of 
the men and for the gowns of the women, for the 
coverlet of the bed and for the tapestry of the room. 
Tow linen was used for the clothing of the living and 
for the shroud of the dead, and the manufacturing 
of it was one of the earliest of the mechanical arts 
practiced by men and women in common. 

If you are curious to know of the process by which 
it was manufactured, we shall briefly relate it. Flax 
is a fibrous plant which grows prolific in almost any 
kind of soil, especially if the soil be moist and 
shaley. The seeds being small and the growth sponta- 
neous, a small quantity of seed is sufficient for sowing 
an ordinary patch. Not more was raised in early 
times than was needed for the family's use, for it was 
not an article of commerce. The seed was sown in 



the spring, and the flax was pulled in the autumn 
before the frost. A patch or field of flax in blossom 
looked beautiful, as the flower was of pale blue, and 
the top of the stalk itself of a lightish color. The 
flax, having been first pulled up by the roots, was 
laid along on the ground in windrows that it might 
be thoroughly dried by the sun and weather, while 
care was taken to keep it from getting wet, as the 
dampness rotted the stems and made it unfit for use. 
When suitably dried it was tied into bundles, gathered 
in, and thrashed with flails till the seeds were removed, 
when it was ready to be broken in a rude breaking- 
machine. The first part of this work was mostly done 
by the women and girls, especially if the harvest season 
was late. A long trough-like box set upon four legs 
held a lever fastened at one end by a movable pin, and 
the lever extending the length of the box was fastened 
to a heavy block something like a mallet. The face 
of this block was indented with two deep furrows and 
ridges, which fitted exactly into other furrows and 
ridges in the bottom of the box. This block, when 
the lever was raised up and forced down upon the 
flax under it, " braked/' as it was termed, the flax, 
and loosed the outer covering of the straw, which on 
account of its coarseness was unfit for use. The flax be- 
ing thus broken was next " scutched." The machinery 
of the scutching-machine was not intricate, nor its 
mechanism difficult. A pointed clap-board was driven 
in the ground and allowed to extend upward three 
or four feet. The upward edge of this board was 
dressed sharp. A wooden beetle, called a knife, and 
bearing in shape some resemblance to a knife, was 
used by the person holding it in one hand and the 
flax in the other, and striking over the edge of the 
board, under which beating the fibres of the straw 
were loosened and separated from the thread of 
the grass more effectively, and the body of the flax 
still further mutilated and broken. The fibres thus 
loosened and strewn in piles wanted only to be ridded 
of all useless particles, when it was ready for the spin- 
ning-wheel. To effect this it was taken in small hand- 
fuls and drawn rapidly through a hackle, which was 
a board or block with numerous sharp points of iron 
from three to five inches in length fastened into it, so 
that when the fine substance of the flax was drawn 
quickly over it the chaff, the remaining seeds, and all 
extraneous substances theretofore adhering were com- 
pletely removed. Only the tow was then left, which 
was ready to be spinned. 

As to spinning, it was not only a light labor but an 
amusement. The ideas connected with spinning have 
given expression to many of the most beautiful sen- 
timents in Hebrew, in Grecian, and in Latin poetry. 
Hence we learn its antiquity, and gather that spin- 
ning, with weaving, was the fine accomplishment of 
the matrons in the citadel of Priam and in the house 
of the Tarquins, from those who came out of Egypt 
and in the wilderness spinned the flax for the linen 
of the Tabernacle to the princesses of Europe in the 



k;o 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



last century. Homer compares the life of the race of 
men in its fleetness to the swiftly-flying shuttle, and 
Virgil metaphorically says that the "slender thread 
of life was drawn out from the spindles of the Fates." 
Milton, in that mournfulest pastoral in English litera- 
ture, in which he embalms the memory of the shep- 
herd Lycidas, compares life to the finest and slen- 
derest of threads ; for when hard-won fame thinks to 
break out into sudden blaze, alas ! 

" Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears 
And slits the thin spun life." 

The allusion to flax in some of the processes of its 
faeture runs, in fact, all through our English world 
of letters ; it is mixed with the dry nomenclature of 
the law, in the statutes and in the Institutes. Fal- 
staff's men at Coventry stole all the linen off the 
hedges ; and who can forget the melody of Shake- 
speare in his happiest mood, — 

" When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, 
And merry larks are plowmen's clocks, 
When turtles call, and rooks, and daws, 

And maidens bleach their summer smocks." 

Franklin preferred the sound of the spinning-wheel 
to any music he knew of; thousands call its droning 
sound from the "empty halls of memory," for in 
these things all are alike, 'the prince and the peasant. 

" Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound ; 
All at her work the village maiden sings, 
Nor as she turns the giddy wheel around, 
Revolves the sad vicissitude of things." 1 

Perhaps the organ sounds better outside the church 
than in it; at any rate, with us spinning is well-nigh 
a lost art, and the famous music of the wheel might 
grate on our ears like wretched scrannel pipes, " like 

1 So in "The Courtship of Miles Staudish" we recollect of Priscilla, 
" the beautiful Puritan maiden," and John Alden, he holding the skein 
while she untangles it, and in so doing touches his hands, "sending 
electrical thrills through every nerve of his body." 

So also in " Kvangeline" is it a frequent subject. One of the most 
beautiful pictures in that greatest of American poems is that of the 
Acadian village in the summer evenings, — 

"There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset 
Lighted the village street and gilded the vaues on the chimneys, 
Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles 
Si arl.'t and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden 
Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors 
Miii-bd Tli'ii sound with the whirr of the wheels and the songs of the 
maidens." 

Touching the antiquity of this subject it is now established that it 
was cultivated before history was written. Dr. Oswald Heer. the emi- 
nent botanist, and one who has devoted much attention to the structure 
and history of fossil plants, has lately published an article upon tlax and 
its culture among the ancients, especially the prehistoric races of 
Europe. The substance of his memoir may he summarized as follows: 
First, flax was cultivated in Egypt and in Asia Minor at least five thou- 
sand years ago, and in Greece in the prehistoric period. Second, it is also 
met with in the oldest Swiss lacustrine villages, while at the same time 
no hemp nor fabrics manufactured from wool are there to he found. As 
the sheep was one of the oldest domestic animals, this is considered re- 
markable. Third, the lake-dwellers probably received their flax from 
Southern Europe. The original home of the cultivated flax was there- 
fore along the shores of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians probably 
cultivated it, and from them its use was doubtless disseminated. 



sweet bells jangled out of tune." But the grand- 
mothers of the best families of the Republic were 
taught in their day to spin and weave, to knit and 
sew, as they were taught to bake and cook. You will 
remember of the mother and of the wife of Wash- 
ington. 

But when the tow was spun into threads, the fine- 
ness of the thread determined the quality of the 
cloth. The cloth was woven on looms. Not every 
family possessed a loom, and it was not until the 
country was well settled, and till the wants increased, 
that weaving was followed as a regular business. So 
the hanks of tow and the cuts of wool were carried by 
the good man to the neighbor who was prepared to 
work it. The weaver generally took his pay in toll, 
keeping a part for his labor. The cloth made from 
flax was more durable than that made from wool, but 
was not so warm, to remedy which a mixture of tow 
and wool was made for winter wear, from whence we 
have the odd name of linsey-woolsey. The manufac- 
turing of wool was of a simpler process, and with it we 
are perhaps more familiar. The producing of wool 
was early attended to, although under great and many 
disadvantages. The chief trouble was to-protect the 
sheep from wolves and bears, and the young lambs 
from foxes. But with all this they, persevering under 
untold difficulties, at last saw themselves more com- 
fortably fixed when, at the beginning of winter, they 
had a large bale of washed and combed wool stowed 
in a corner of the mystical cock-loft. 

Wool-cards were at one time so scarce, especially 
during the heat of the war, that they were furnished 
in some localities at the expense of the State. But 
later the wool was sent to the carding-machine to be 
converted into rolls. The rolls were spun, colored, 
and woven into lye-colored or blue and red cross- 
bars for the women's wear, or into white or colored 
cloths for blankets and men's wear. 2 The fulling- 
mills were cheap, rude affairs set on some stream. 
Here the blankets were scoured and made soft, and 
the cloth was fulled and colored. Dyeing cloth was 
afterwards a trade by itself. 3 The first machines for 
converting wool into rolls were about Greensburg, 
and at as early a date there was one at Jones' Mill. 
In 1807 there were two of these improved machines 
at the county town, and the importance of the manu- 
facture was made apparent, and the superior advan- 
tages of machine-carding set forth in a series of stand- 
ing advertisements in the Farmer's Register of that 
date. The price for carding wool inco rolls was ten 
cents per pound ; for mixing different colors, twelve 
and one-half; for breaking, five cents. About the 
same time a mill was erected in North Huntingdon 
township on Robinson's Creek. Whilst almost every 

- A cheap dye-stuff was made of new-mown hay and of onion-peels, 
or of walnut-hulls. 

8 There was a conspicuous advertisement in the obi papers by which 
the dyers announced their business, viz.: "All trades must live, and 
some must dye." 






PRIMITIVE HOUSEKEEPING AND FARMING. 



161 



farmer's house had a spinning-wheel and reel, every 
third or fourth house had a loom. 

Modern machinery has done away with the primi- 
tive method of working up the wool and flax. In- 
stead of the lonely matron plying her endless task by 
the nickering tallow-dip throughout the misty winter 
nights, now a thousand hooks and fingers grasp the 
flying threads and weave them in endless sheets of 
handsome textile fabrics. The combing, the carding, 
the fulling, the dyeing are all done by silent, dumb 
hands. While the manufacture of flax has been 
revolutionized, the manufacture of wool has been 
developed and perfected. 

There is a short saying sprung from the days of 
homespun clothing, which saying yet obtains among 
quite a number of the common people of Chestnut 
Ridge and through the Valley, and which indeed has 
not been confined to only this locality, but has ex- 
tended out and found its way into the slang vocabu- 
lary of polite society and even into print. Although 
the idea had existed in different shape, and now exists 
in different shape, yet the origin of this expression 
has been so definitely fixed, and it is so plainly trace- 
able to a particular occasion, and on such good au- 
thority that we cannot forbear mentioning of it here. , 
Then, in the days when spinsters were truly spinsters, [ 
when those virgins that lived in single blessedness to 
good old age, and beguiled their leisure, not like 
" Mariana in the moated grange," but rather like vir- 
tuous Queen Catherine at the wheel, there lived at 
the foot of Laurel Hill, in Ligonier Valley, one Betsy \ 
Geiger, who did the spinning and weaving, as far as i 
she was able, for the whole neighborhood. Among 
her customers was a man named McGinnis, who 
brought to her his quota of wool and flax with orders 
to have the stripes of the cloth diversified in a pattern 
peculiar to a fancy of his own. The cloth was duly 
made in alternate checkers of copperas-colored wool 
and "snow-white under-linen," after the commonly 
received pattern and fashion. When McGinnis called 
for the stuff' and saw it he would not take it. He ex- 
pected, no doubt, as it was supposed, on some such 
frivolous excuse to get it at a loss to the spinster. 
But an action was forthwith instituted before a justice 
of the peace to recover justice for the piece, and that l 
the complainant might have peace. Brought face to j 
face before the squire, the magistrate demanded of 
the defendant, "What is your reason for not taking 
this stuff' off the hands of this honest woman, the 
plaintiff?" His reply, addressed to the plaintiff, — we 
may presume with some Dogberry in it, — was ready 
and quick, " It isn't the right stripe, Betty, it isn't the 
right stripe." The word, taken up and carried from 
mouth to mouth, is now used chiefly to describe the 
character of such a man as he who involuntarily 
brought it into use. 

The dress and costumes of the early settlers were 
am admixture of a civilized and a half-civilized de- 
scription. The Indians approached the whites, and 



the whites met them half-way. The Indians gained 
all, and the whites lost a part. The hunting-shirt of 
the men, the most universal dress for a long time, was 
a frockish coat which fitted tightly about the waist 
and shoulders, while the skirt was allowed to reach to 
the knees. The sleeves were large and roomy, and the 
lappels on the front were allowed to extend almost the 
distance of a foot on either side, and were made to 
button. A heavy cape hung down the back, and all 
the borders were decorated with a fringe of ravellings 
of different colors. The material was linsey-wool- 
sey, a name which the early people gave, as we have 
said, to an admixture of stuff whose component parts 
were tow or flax and wool ; that is, linen-woolen. 
Often, however, this hunting-shirt was of doeskin, 
which, if well tanned, would last almost a lifetime. 
In the bosom of. the coat were carried bread, jerk, or 
tow. The tomahawk or hatchet was fastened to the 
belt on the right side, and the knife in a sheath to the 
left. Breeches were the universal dress for the legs, 
and these mostly were made of buckskin. Yellow (or 
the natural color) and black were the favorite colors, 
and these were worn by ministers, attorneys, militia 
colonels, such indeed as assumed to the quality class. 
These wore shoes with buckles in the summer, and in 
the winter high-topped boots, sometimes of raw-hide, 
and sometimes faced with high-colored cloth. The 
common people had nothing but moccasins, which 
were made of a single piece of leather or untanned 
deerskin. The seam was along the top, and they 
reached above the ankle. 

When at length it became fashionable for men to 
dress in cloth, the people being poor many inconven- 
iences were suffered. It might be called pride, but 
we do not know whether it exactly is pride. This, 
however, is a fact of history : When the first court 
opened at Catfish, — that is, Washington, — in 1781, a 
citizen, who as a magistrate was compelled to attend, 
had to borrow a pair of leather breeches from a re- 
spectable neighbor, who himself had been summoned 
as a grand juror, but who from this interposition had 
to stay at home. 1 As many as nineteen grooms are 
known to have been married in the same blue coat 
with brass buttons ; and this for hire, or generous 
loan.' - ' Such an addition was a striking feature, and 
on the same principle a very old gentleman, in de- 
scribing the appearance of Col. Christopher Truby, 
said that he had " red-topped boots, and wore his hair 
in a black silk bag." 

We have the description of the dress of the gentle- 
man of a later period from a fortunate circumstance. 
It is old, but we trust it will bear repetition here. 
President Dunlap, of Cannonsburg Academy, had a 
son called Joe, who was on intimate terms with old 
"Cardinal" McMillan. The doctor, meeting the 
young scapegrace, said, " Joe, can you tell me the dif- 
ference between you and the devil ?" Joe answered, 



l Old Redstone. 



- Centenary Memorial. 



162 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



in reply, that the devil wears a cocked hat, a low 
flapped doublet, a coat of Continental cut, breeches 
and shoes with knee- and shoe-buckles, and I wear 
pantaloons and clothing of modern style: he de- 
scribed the doctor. The old gentleman was loth to 
change in anything, in even his dress, and he wore 
his cocked hat and shoe-buckles long after others had 
laid theirs away. Innovations were harsh to him. 
He insulted Colonel Morgan because his family rode to 
church in a kind of cariole, and seeing a woman who 
first used the convenience of an umbrella during a 
rain, asked what that woman was doing with her pet- 
ticoat on a stick. He, however, was not alone in liis 
ignorance of the use of, to us, such an indispensable 
article, for when Alexander Craig was one day car- 
rying an umbrella, which had been presented to his 
mother by a gentleman of Philadelphia, to meeting at 
Congruity Church, a good old elder, after vainly sur- 
mising what the queer thing could be, accosted Craig 
with, " Es that the thing ye survey the Ian' wi' 1" 

The head-dress of the men was usually a beaver or 
wool hat. These were made by hand, and were so 
lasting that the heir was never out of the hope of a 
small share, at least, of his father's personal estate. 

We presume that no fashion-writer in a lady's mag- 
azine would attempt to describe the attire of a lady 
under, say two pages octavo, nonpareil, while perhaps 
twenty lines would be sufficient in which to describe 
the dress of a gentleman. We shall be compelled, 
from our dearth of words and sparsity of ideas, to re- 
verse the order without apology. 

The universal dress of the women of our early 
times was a short gown and a petticoat; the material 
was linsey-woolsey in summer and all wool in winter. 
Their head-dress was, especially when they traveled 
or went to town, the same as the men's, that is, a 
beaver or wool hat. Sometimes a colored handker- 
chief was curiously tied over the head. A smaller 
home-made linen handkerchief, tied so that the one 
point came down from the neck between the shoul- 
ders, was a quite common extravagance of vanity at 
parties or at church. Perhaps the majority of the 
ancient matrons went barefoot in summer; in win- 
ter they wore moccasins, overshoes, or shoe-packs. 
The better-oft' sort, who brought their goods with them 
or had them sent from the East, sometimes wore silk 
stockings. Among the articles stolen by the Indians 
from one of the houses at Hannastown at the time of 
its destruction was a silk dress. 1 Forty years after the 
first settlements of the county, silk, among the ladies 
of the gentry, was the dress. Dimity was highly in 
favor with those who were able, and of it were made 
gowns, aprons, and caps. The fashionable ladies of 
the town of Greensburg between 1800 and 1812, when 
they danced in the ball-rooms of the public-houses or 
helped to make the audience before the graduating 
class of the academy, wore silk gowns fitted tightly 

1 See notes to chapter on the Destruction of Haunastown. 



to the body and arms, the sleeves buttoned to the el- 
bows, had high-heeled shoes, had their hair powdered, 
and their faces stuck over with black square bits of 
court-plaster. 

It was not, relatively, until a late period that calico 
became a common or every-day dress for women. 
For many years after the date which corresponds 
with our first settlements calico was regarded as an 
expensive fabric. The manufacture of calico by a 
system qf hand-spinning had originated in England 
not more than a hundred years before that, and there, 
during our Revolution, the only place it was manu- 
factured, it was so heavily taxed that it was out of the 
reach of the poor. At the close of the century in 
Europe it was neither cheap nor common. It was 
not till some time after the invention of the spinning- 
jenny by Arkwright that it came into use at all among 
the common people. In our county at one time after 
the war of Eighteen-Twelve calico was one dollar a 
yard, then, about 1S25, it fell to thirty and forty cents, 
and later rose to fifty. When it took fifty pounds of 
butter and two barrels of eggs to get a chintz-pattern 
wrapper, it was_ nothing to hide away, and we can 
pardon the vanity which hung such articles of apparel 
up to public inspection at the head of the bed, not far 
from the horse-gears. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

BEARS, DEER, WOLVES, ETC. 

Fruits and Berries — Game — Maple-Sugarand Molasses — Depredations of 
the Bears — How they were trapped and killed — Mitchell shoots a Beat- 
on a Sunday — Wolves, and Adventures with them — Moorliead and 
Kelly — Christian Shocker attacked at Night by Wolves, climbs a Tree 
and awaits till Morning — Premium for W r olf-Scalps — Deer-Hunting — 
Venison used instead of Beef — Squirrels — Birds and Wild Fowl — Pests 
of the Farmer — Game Laws, and Premiuuis offered by Law at Different 
Times for destroying Animals and Birds — Farming the Chief Depend- 
ence and Occupation of the People — How Farming in General was 
carried on. 

The woods at that time produced many fruits 
which are now known to us but as luxuries. Besides 
blackberries and whortleberries, which attained to 
double the size we now see them and of a correspond- 
ing lusciousness, there grew wild plums and haws in 
such quantities that the ground in places lay covered 
with them. The peach, sheltered from the frost by 
the protecting forests, found a kindly soil, and on the 
new land produced regularly a good crop, in like 
manner the cherry and the hardier species of apple ; 
while of fox-grapes and chicken-grapes a large quan- 
tity was allowed to waste yearly for want of using. 
The sugar-tree, a species of maple indigenous to our 
soil, grew thickly on the eastern slopes of the hills 
and in the valleys. To secure the sap of the tree and 
render it into sugar and syrup was an easy matter, for 
the Indians themselves, knowing the saccharine quali- 
ties of this fluid, could, with the use of pails to carry 
it, and of kettles to boil it, manufacture their sugary 



BEARS, DEER, WOLVES, ETC. 



163 



molasses, into which they dipped their pieces of bear- 
meat and venison. 

In the early spring when the sap was beginning to 
ascend from the roots, the tree was tapped by chop- 
ping into its trunk with a hatchet or by boring a hole 
into it with an auger. Under the vents were fixed 
long and hollow reeds, through which, as the sun 
warmed the bark of the tree, the sap dropped, trick- 
ling to the bark troughs or hollow vessels beneath. 
When the vessels were filled they were carried to the 
kettles, which during the sugar-making season were 
kept boiling day and night. The sugar-water boiled 
to a certain consistence was the syrup; boiled till it 
lost all fluid properties and dried it was the sugar. 
In after-years, within our recollection, it has become 
an article of commerce, and at this day, in some dis- 
tricts, its manufacture is pursued as one of the most 
remunerative branches of husbandry, and as a com- 
modity in the trade of a great commercial and manu- 
facturing people, has proved a profitable one for 
labor and invested capital. But until the facilities 
of transportation were enlarged it was known only as 
a necessary article of food and not as a delicacy. 

It was not only on the scanty product of the fields 
that the settler depended for subsistence and support. 
It was nothing unusual for him to be out of corn 
or rye-bread for days together. Simple and as neces- 
sary as meal bread is in civilization to both the rich 
and poor, to the merchant and the mechanic, yet bread 
has a very different standard in enlightened and far- 
advanced societies than it has in a sparsely-settled 
community, in a new country abounding in game 
and prolific in the spontaneous production of the 
woods. It is therefore true that bread might not be 
absolutely needful to grown-up men and rugged boys 
used to many hardships, and these could do without 
it, to let the little they had, in trying times, go as far 
as it would for the younger children and for more 
delicate women in a watchful state. If the little stock 
of meal had dwindled down before the snow fell, 
blockading all the paths to the settlement, the rest 
was cherished and used more as a precious medicine 
than as a great staple necessary for the nourishment 
of the body. 

But at times the chief source of dependence for the 
family was in the trusty rifle of the father. Every 
man was presumed to know how to use a gun. Every 
boy looked forward to the time when he would be the 
owner of a brand-new one. The rifle was to the am- 
bitious young man of the early settlements what the 
fast scrub was to his grandsons. To the father it was 
that which above all things helped to supplement the 
labor of his hands. The country was overrun with 
game. This to the Indians had not been a kindly 
hunting-ground. They could, in passing through it, 
get enough wild meat to subsist on, and by going 
more to the northward secure sufficient to do them well 
through the winter; but the great and prolific fields 
where elk, bear, and buffalo abounded, and where 



deer came in droves to the salt-licks, were farther to- 
wards the setting sun. The game common to the 
western parts and native to the clime was therefore 
allowed to increase undisturbed till the forests re- 
maining became filled. Of these animals the black 
and brown bear were common, and especially so 
along the chain of ridges in the southern part of 
Westmoreland and in the valley and hills betwixt 
Somerset and Fayette. These were indeed so numer- 
ous, and' that within the recollection of persons still 
living, that in the severity of the winter season they 
would approach the cabin, and from the pens and 
stables drag off the sheep and calves. Charles Mit- 
chell, who had located upon the right bank of the 
Loyalhanna, eight miles from Ligonier, saw, in the 
early time, a bear of enormous size seize a well-grown 
hog in the field near his house, carry it otf, swim the 
creek with it, and deposit it behind a rock, over which 
he scraped leaves. The bear was not killed because 
that it was the Sabbath-day, a day which he, follow- 
ing the teaching of his church, held sacred from 
things of a secular nature. All the settlements till 
the close of the century suffered from depredations 
such as this. Stray bears coming into Ligonier Val- 
ley, drawn down by hunger, were killed as late as 
1837. Up to 1820 and 1825, in the mountain ranges 
'• next to Fayette, many small farmers subsisted through 
the winter on bear-meat, allowed to be preferable to 
venison. It is said to be jucier, and many considered 
it better than beef. It is certain that bear-meat was, 
with deer-meat, one of the necessaries. The bears 
were usually hunted with dogs. On being closely 
pursued they climbed a tree, from which they were 
shot. Sometimes they were caught in steel traps, and 
sometimes secured in pens made of stout logs and 
closed by a dead-fall. But so great is their restless- 
ness under confinement that it is averred they often 
regained their liberty before the hunter got around 
by gnawing their paws loose" from the jaws of the 
steel trap. It was not unusual to tame the cubs and 
rear them about the house. 

Besides this it was no trouble at any time to kill 
deer. These animals were so plentiful that to know 
their regular paths and the country over which they 
crossed was enough knowledge of hunting for a good 
marksman to get at least a few during the season. 
But deer-meat was not prepared for winter use as 
bear-meat was, for bear-meat, when salt could be pro- 
cured, was mostly put up like pork in pickle, but deer- 
meat was first frozen by exposure in the air and then 
dried, whence, after undergoing this process or its 
equivalent, being dried over a slow fire, it was called 
"jerk," that is, dried meat. 

As to smaller animals used for food, there were rac- 
coons, ground-hogs, rabbits, and squirrels in abun- 
dance. Seldom, unless for a change, were these 
hunted; and if ammunition was scarce they were looked 
upon as unprofitable. Squirrels especially were so 
numerous they were a pest to the farmer, and a stand- 



164 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ing bounty was set upon their scalps to encourage 
their destruction. All these were more usually caught 
in traps by the boys, or hunted with dogs. The num- 
ber of squirrels killed in earlier times was amazing. 
When hunts were gotten up with the intention of bag- 
ging these there were often above a hundred killed in a 
single day by one good marksman. The shooting of 
them in great numbers was therefore more as a trial 
of skill than as a profitable day's work. The hunter, 
after securing a favorable place, waited for the squir- 
rels to pass along, aud without removing he generally 
shot as many as he wished. Rifles were used, and the 
game was either shot in the head or barked, as they 
called it, which was when the ball passed between the 
squirrel and the bark of the limb upon which it was 
lying. Wild turkeys of large size fed in droves, and 
pheasants (orgrouse),partridges,and wild pigeons that 
came in innumerable flocks from the warm South, 
might all have been designated as domestic fowl. 

But it was often that the hunter had other use for 
his gun. The greatest scourge of the farmer in early 
times was the wolf. When met singly the wolf is a 
great coward, and as a species they are so averse to 
mankind that they recede before the appearance of 
civilization in all directions. The wolf common to 
Pennsylvania is said to be of a browner color than 
the species found elsewhere. He hunts by scent, after 
the manner of the dog; is shy, wary, and cunning. 
But when the wants of hunger press, gathering to- 
gether in packs, as they raise their noses from the 
ground over their heads, they begin a long, continuous 
howl, the most desolate and terror-striking of sounds 
to the mountaineer. Becoming bolder they emerge 
from their retreats in the thick woods along the moun- 
tain-sides and in droves rush along the edges of the 
forests. At such times, coming in the wintry season, 
the hunter and the family in the cabin heard the 
sounds with such terror as only the war-whoop of the 
red men aroused. Nothing living was safe from their 
fangs. A loose horse or a solitary man benighted, if 
in their way, was certain to be attacked by the brutes 
now grown bold. Their long paws, gaunt and sinewy, 
dragged the prey to the ground in their midst, when 
their ragged jaws soon tore the flesh in pieces, and 
while the unsatisfied ones were crunching at the bones 
and licking their chops, the ravenous herd, now frantic 
with the taste and smell of blood, with voraciousness 
fell upon each other. 

It is related of Joseph Moorhead and James Kelly, 
two among the first who attempted to settle within 
the present limits of Indiana County, about 1772, that 
one morning after they had erected their cabins, not 
far from where now is the town of Indiana, Moor- 
head went over to see Kelly and was astonished 
at not finding him at the cabin, but seeing near 
it traces of blood and tufts of human hair, Moor- 
head believed his neighbor had been killed by the 
wolves, which with rattlesnakes abounded in that 
region. In looking for his mangled body he found 



him sitting by a spring washing the blood from his 
hair. He had lain down in his cabin at night, and, 
being asleep, a wolf reached its paws through the 
cracks between the logs and seized him by the head. 
The disadvantage under which the wolf labored saved 
Kelly, for he had time to get awake before the wolf had 
seriously injured him, but not before he had snatched 
him partly bald-headed. In our own county, Christian 
Shockey, an early settler on the Chestnut Ridge in Unity 
township, at one time about the close of the century 
was benighted on his way home from hunting. The 
wolves getting upon his track and surrounding him 
he had recourse to a large tree which he climbed. 
The night was bitter cold, and he was all but frozen. 
The wolves stayed at the foot of the tree, and in their 
desperation leaped over each other, and with their 
teeth snapped the tree till its bark long after bore 
their marks. In the morning they skulked back to 
their burrows among the rocks. This old settler 
trapped scores of wolves at a spring not far from his 
house, which to this day is known by the name of the 
" Wolf Spring," and was till lately, perhaps, the largest 
and finest spring of fresh water in the country. Be- 
fore the spring was disturbed it was near thirty feet 
across, and is not known to have ever been frozen 
over. In winter the vapor exhales off its surface ; in 
the summer the water is limpid and icy cold. 1 

There is, therefore, no doubt that wolves in great 
numbers infested all this country when it was yet a 
wilderness, but as it is their nature to live in a kind 
of society together, being a gregarious animal, their 
roving limits were always subject to be changed. 
With all the war of extermination waged upon 
them they existed in great numbers about the Laurel 
Hill at the beginning of the century. There was a 
standing reward offered by law, which from time to 
time was increased and diminished, sometimes taken 
off and again renewed. In 1782 the offer was twenty- 
five shillings for the scalp or skin of a puppy or whelp, 
and fifteen dollars for the scalp or skin of a full-grown 
wolf. This was of course on the standard of the de- 
preciated currency, and so in 1806, to encourage the 
killing of these, eight dollars was allowed for every 
wolf killed, and this, by a subsequent law, was further 

1 The following anecdote of the hero of this adventure is " founded on 
fact :" 

Christian Shockey, whose futher, hy the way, was a Bevolutioner, and 
who was wounded at Brandywiii'-, went, about the year 1807, down to 
Hageratown with his two horses laden with pelts and ginseng. When 
in Hageratown he, of course, inquired for Mrs. Gruher's Hagerstowu Al- 
manack, — the almanac which was currently believed to in some way 
control the weather. He, having an eye to a business speculation, pro- 
posed to get as many as would supply the neighborhood, and as they 
were offered at a price considerably below the regular price the invest- 
ment offered profit. He got such a large quantity at such a small figure 
that he himself was astonished. He thereupon invested a large share of 
the proceeds of his supplies in almanacs, half of them German and half 
English. He, however, was more aBtoniehed when, on arriving at home 
and opening his package, he discovered the contents to be the almanacs 
for the current year, which was then last waning. He had neglected to 
bargain for the year approaching, and as the transaction was made, as a 
matter of course, he could blame no one but himself. 



BEARS, DEER, WOLVES, ETC. 



165 



increased to twelve dollars. In addition to all this 
there were some localities in which, it being more at 
their mercy, the inhabitants subscribed to a separate 
fund, or by districts allowed an extra assessment. Thus 
it was that in some counties the premium was higher 
than in others; for instance, in Westmoreland the re- 
ward was somewhat higher than it was at the same 
time in Somerset, and the wolves were plentier across 
the line in Somerset than on this side. This gave 
occasion to some of the old hunters of the valley to 
play a game on the wolves and on the commissioners. 
They would draw the former to this side by baiting 
them, and one old hand at the business by the name 
of Dumbold is said to have secured ten wolves drawn 
to the carrion of a worthless old horse. Besides the 
scalp-bounty he got one dollar each for the skins. 1 

Great inconvenience was suffered by the husband- 
man from squirrels and crows. When the country 
was almost a dense wilderness these mischievous pests 
gathered around the patches of corn and rye and fat- 
tened on the labor of the farmer. Numerous devices 
were conceived of to ward the birds off, and a price 
was put upon the heads of each of these offenders. 
By one law Westmoreland and Fayette were allowed 
to assess any sum not exceeding three hundred dollars 
in each county to be applied to the squirrel fund. By 
one of the laws the premium was one cent and a half, 
which by another act was raised to two cents for the 
scalp of a squirrel, and three cents for each crow's 



1 Tlie diversion of a later generation in their famous fox-hunts was 
nearly akin to the hunting and trapping of wolves by their grandfathers. 
Something of this diversion deserves to he recorded, however much out 
of place here, as it is one so foreign to any of the diversions of the present 
day. Hunting has well been called the image of war, and a knowledge 
of the old-time fox-hunts will assuredly lead to a discovery of many 
points of similarity between it as a diversion and the militia trainings 
as a diversion. 

These circular hunts were a source of much amusement during the 
long winter months, and in great part answered to the militia musters 
in summer, and were to that generation what the county fair and the 
camp-meeting are to this generation. 

When a fox-hunt was projected a meeting was called in the neighbor- 
hood, at which the principal inhabitants— men and boys— usually at- 
tended. An organization was had, certain resolutions were passed, and 
Committees for sundry purposes appointed. The duties of these com- 
mittees were to select a suitable region of country over which to scour 
for foxes, to nominate certain of the foremost men from various locali- 
ties to lead in the chase, and to prescribe the rules by which all par- 
ticipants were to be governed in the hunt. There are, for example, in 
the county papers of 1846 notices of a fox-hunt, the lines of which began 
at Greensburg and ran along the road to Weaver's old stand, through 
Pleasant Unity to Peter Walters' ; thence along the Ridge road to Youngs- 
town ; thence down the Nine-Mile Run to the Loyalhanna, along the 
Loyal lianna to Brady's mill, and on to New Alexandria; thence along 
the old road to George Dickie's, and from Dickie's along the road to 
Greensburg. 

For every one of these, sections or divisions were marked off, and cap- 
tains appointed by name to the number of twelve or fifteen, and mar- 
shals eight or ten. These were of the very foremost men in their neigh- 
borhood, and indeed of the county. A committee was appointed to 
stake off the grounds the day previous to the hunt. The marshals had 
power to supply vacancies wdieu they occurred. Persons taking dogs 
were to lead them until the ring was formed, when the signal was given 
to let them loose. The marshals wore badges on their arms. No fire- 
arms were to be carried, except pistols by the marshals. The line was 
to move at nine o'clock in the forenoon of Saturday, the 14th of Feb- 
ruary. Horn to sound from Peter Walters. 



scalp, which were to be delivered before the 1st of 
November yearly. 

In the early annals of the Province, according to 
Kalm, who has written on the subject, the common 
blackbirds of Pennsylvania were so plentiful that in 
order to somewhat lessen their number a bounty was 
put up for their destruction. The inducement of 
three pence per dozen was so effective in its result 
that the birds here were nearly entirely destroyed. 
This, however, was when only the eastern part of the 
Province was settled. But it is narrated that, owing 
to their almost total extermination, the summer of 
the succeeding year being unusually dry, the insects 
and grubs so ravaged the growing crops that in some 
portions the inhabitants were well-nigh starving, — no 
grass, no grain, no fruit. The law was then allowed 
to be repealed, and the birds came back again. For 
years after that the blackbirds as well as the crows, 
who bobbed in slyly under the credit of their brothers, 
were allowed to be the friends of man, till they in- 
creasing again became a nuisance, and another law 
was passed which again allowed a small amount per 
capita for the crows as well as for the squirrels. 

At the time when ammunition was scarce and high 
in price it did not pay to expend powder and shot 
upon them for the premium. Thence scarecrows 
of hideous proportions were erected on the stumps 
about the gardens, pieces of glass or tin were hung 
on bended sticks, so that when the wind disturbed 
them they made a gingling noise, the ravelled thread 
of a woolen stocking was stretched from one stake of 
the fence to another around the field, while the tat- 
tered boys kept up a racket all the days. So that 
from one cause or the other, or from many or all, 
they managed to save their garden stuff and the little 
corn which was to do them through the winter. 

Farming, or the working of the fields, was the busi- 
ness upon which all relied, upon which all leaned for 
support. But how different was the culture of the 
fields then compared with now. Every branch of the 
business (if it was susceptible of being divided into 
branches) was carried on after the most primitive 
fashion. What they were after was a living, and 
thus — and it seems almost incredible — the vast body 
of these lands could scarcely maintain the few in- 
habitants. The land was merely scratched over, and 
around the stumps, the deadened trees, the piles of 
brush and heaps of stones, the scattered grains grew 
and were cut and harvested by the hardest of manual 
labor. Grass was cut with scythes and hooks, and 
wheat, rye, and buckwheat with sickles. The girls 
helped in the fields. When grain-cradles were intro- 
duced they were as great a curiosity and met with as 
unfavorable a reception as the McCormick reaper 
afterwards. They were in use for years in cutting 
buckwheat before the most advanced farmers allowed 
them to enter their wheat-fields. Their farming im- 
plements were mostly home-made. The irons for the 
plow, the grubbing-hoes, the tines of the manure 



166 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



forks were made by the bungling blacksmith; the 
beams for the plow, axles for the wagon, hoe and fork 
handles, yokes and double-trees were made by the 
farmer himself. 

A man who worked a farm must of necessity under- 
stand how to handle the axe and the draw-knife ; nor 
need he be sparing of timber. Means were resorted 
to to hasten the destruction of the forest. Monster 
trees of the finest varieties were burnt in order that 
their ashes might enrich the ground, which modern 
science says is fallacious; and this wantonness and 
carelessness continued down to our own time, in 
which valuable trees were thoughtlessly destroyed 
and hundreds of acres but half tilled. But in the 
first settlers it was not reprehensible. To them it 
was not the golden age when the husbandman had 
merely to scatter abroad the grains and at his leisure 
take the harvest in under favoring skies. Taking 
care of the harvest was indeed often the greatest toil. 
The hay and grain when cut were brought in on sleds 
and by drags of long grapevines. Nor was the labor 
at any time undivided, for women made their hand in 
the field at all times, and helped to do the labor now 
done entirely by men. The product — corn, grass, and 
sheaves — was piled in stacks about the log stables, for 
there were then no such barns to house it in as there 
are now. The thrashing was done with flails, and 
this began in the fall after the harvest, and lasted 
through the winter season. A day's work at all 
kinds of farm-work was from the time the stars shone 
in the morning till they shone in the evening. Day's 
work were seldom charged for among those of the 
farming community according to set prices or wages. 
When a neighbor wanted help he was at no loss to 
get it, provided always he had neighbors, and any one 
living within three or four miles was considered a 
neighbor. No account was kept of odd days, for the 
work was usually given and repaid when needed. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES. 

Some of their Chief Wants— Suit— First brought from the Kast, then 
from Big Beaver, Kentucky, Onondaga— Prices— Methods of bringing 
it over the Mountains— Its Discovery on the Sewickley and on the 
Conemaugh— Process of its First Manufacture— Reduction in Price- 
Scarceness of Money— The Rates as fixed by some of the Early Courts 
—Prices of other Commodities— Cheapness of Land— Paying their 
Preachers and Taxes— Rates allowed per Bushel [or Wheat, Rye, and 
Oats— Whiskey-Stills— Manufacture of Whiskey— What they kept in 
their Stores or Shops— Manner of doing Business— Whiskey the Me- 
dium of Exchange— Its Universal Use— Exported and Imported— Tub 
and Grist-Mills— List of First Mills in tho County— Iron— Tiirnhull 
& Marmie's Foundry and Furnace— The Westmoreland Furnace- 
Gen. St. Clair builds Hermitage Furnace— Mount Hope and Boss 
Furnaces— John Henry Hopkins— The Baldwin Furnace— Other Fur- 
naces — Axe and Nail Manufacture, etc. 

Foremost of the wants was the want of stilt. The 
want arising from the scarceness of this needful com- 



modity, a necessary ingredient as it is in the living of 
civilized people, has been the prolific subject of much 
comment; and a want so generally felt, and so often 
commented on, could not but have been of the highest 
consequence. In early times it was so scarce, even in 
the marketable districts, and these districts were so 
remote, and the means of getting to and returning 
from them so filled with dangers, that there were times 
when whole communities were without any at all. 

The scarcity of salt made it at all times of a high 
merchantable value, subject to change in proportion to 
itsavailableness. In general transactions a bushel of 
salt was an integer of value, and had its nominal pur- 
chasing power, just as at other times a whiskey-still, 
a rifle, or a flask of powder, and as at the present day 
along the Ridge a cord of bark or a dozen of axe- 
handles. Col. Brodhead, about the year 1780, writ- 
ing to President Reed, 1 states that salt will buy meat 
when money will not, and in the same letter he tells 
him that he cannot send too much salt. At this time 
salt was very high, for in the midst of the complicated 
troubles of Western Pennsylvania the people drove 
their cattle to the mountains, and meat was so scarce 
that the soldiers of the garrison at Pittsburgh were 
sent out to kill game, and the wild meat was stilted 
down for winter use. Ten years later, in the Youghio- 
gheny region, twenty bushels of wheat was not thought 
an unfair exchange for one bushel of salt.' 2 In the 
earliest times, and at all times when salt was carried 
on the backs of pack-horses, it was brought in bags, 
and the first knowledge we have of its being brought 
in barrels or in bulk was about the beginning of the 
century, when Kentucky salt was brought to Pitts- 
burgh in boats, and from thence carried in wagons. 
These barrels in size were about one-third larger than 
our common barrels. The price about 1806 was 
about fourteen dollars per barrel, net, of which two 
dollars went to the wagon-carriage. It retailed at 
twelve and a half cents to eighteen cents the quart. 
But still, from the times of the earliest date down 
until it was manufactured along the Sewickley and the 
Conemaugh, salt, as well as iron and merchandise, was 
brought from the vicinity of Hagerstown and from 
Winchester and Chambersburg. From the deer-licks 
along the Big Beaver a deposit of salt was known to 
exist, and as early as 1779 an effort was made to get 
enough to supply the wants of those about Pittsburgh 
and the frontier settlements along the rivers. The re- 
sult was successful only in part, for, the location being 
on the hostile border, there was not sufficient pro- 
duced to in anywise relieve the general want, or to 
effect a rivalry with the distant market. During the 
Revolution the salt from the Beaver Springs was not 
known to our eastern settlers, and when the war was 
over the means of getting it across the mountains 
were greatly improved, and there a better market was 
opened for furs, for ginseng, and for snake-root. 



1 Craig, " History of Pittsburgh.' 



•'Old Bedstone. 



SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES. 



167 



There are many instances all through the old 
records of the State, and even among the archives of 
Congress during the Revolution, of the consideration 
of this subject by the various executive and legisla- 
tive bodies. Measures calculated to give relief to the 
people were passed by the Assembly of the State, by 
the Committee of Safety, and by Congress. 

In 1776 (September 2d), in the distribution of salt 
taken as confiscated property from the Tories, in com- 
pliance with the resolves of the Council sitting at 
Philadelphia, Westmoreland was given two hundred 
and thirty-six bushels of' fine and eighty-three 
bushels of coarse salt. 

About 1778, owing to the scarcity of salt, the Con- 
tinental Congress passed a resolution directing against 
the monopoly of salt, and the Committee of Safety 
for Pennsylvania purchased a quantity for distribu- 
tion through the State. Congress even established 
works in New Jersey, but for some time these works 
were not remunerative. 

In 1779 a "Committee of Salt" was appointed by 
the authorities of the State to regulate the price and 
to enforce its distribution out of the hands of the 
monopolists and from those who wrongfully and with 
mercenary objects held it. In a "Memorial of Mer- 
chants" relative to the seizure of salt (Philadelphia, 
23d October, 1779), it is stated by them that they had 
lately refused two hundred dollars a bushel, delivered, 
but that they, the memorialists, having consented to 
deliver it to the public account, complained that they 
got only thirty pounds per bushel for it, a very in- 
adequate compensation. 1 

It was proposed by President Reed, July 24, 1779, 
to order a quantity of salt and distribute it among 
the counties in proportion to the flour received from 
them.'- 

When whiskey became an article of home manu- 
facture and it was found profitable to export, a market 
was ready for it in both the East and Southwest. 
Ventures were sent down the rivers to the Spanish 
settlements, and in return salt from the exhaustless 
springs of Kentucky was brought back. During the 
last decade of the past century and up to the war of 
1812, Kentucky salt was sold through Western Penn- 
sylvania. But its high price did not do away with 
the first mode of securing it. Even at that late day 
it was customary for two or three neighbors in the fall 
to each take a spare horse and go for their yearly 
supply, down, as they said, into Egypt. As late as 
1820 farmers sent their boys and horses in a crowd. 
Their provisions and feed were carried with them, 
ami as they went down a part of this was left on the 
mountains to supply them when coming back. These 
crowds were sometimes of a score of men and boys, 
and just as many horses and nags as could be gotten 
together. On each horse was a pack-saddle, and their 
rate of speed was restricted, on the average, to from 



1 Archives, iii. 327. 



= Ibid., 316. 



twenty to thirty miles a day. Some of the men 
carried their rifles with them, but for a lad to get with 
a crowd going to Hagerstown was as much as for a 
young man in the days of steamboating to take pas- 
sage on a coal-raft for New Orleans. Such an one 
was the local newspaper for a twelve-month. 

Along about 1796, James O'Harra, quartermaster- 
general of the United States army, found that salt 
from the Onondaga Works in New York could be 
brought to the Ohio cheaper than from Baltimore. 
Salt was thus brought down by way of Lake Erie 
and Le Breuf and sold at Pittsburgh. In 1810 salt 
from the Kanawha began to come in competition, and 
the war of Eighteen-Twelve cut off the supply from 
the north, never after restored. 

It was about the beginning of the century when 
the discovery of salt water was made along the Con- 
emaugh. 3 Great interest was consequently awakened 
in that locality, and an enterprising citizen named 
William Johnston was among the first to engage in 
its manufacture. He built a house and grist-mill at 
the confluence of the two rivers and located a vil- 
lage. This was then called Point Johnson, and by 
this name it was long known. The place became of 
some importance, but with the decline of property 
after the war with Britain, and the subsequent open- 
ing of flat-boat navigation, the prospective town 
drooped, .and about 1816 vanished away, while a town 
under more favorable auspices began on the opposite 
side of the river. This was the beginning of Salts- 
burg, a name the place received from its proximity 
to the salt-works then in operation. 

Johnston at the depth of two hundred and eighty- 
seven feet found an abundance of salt water. The 
boring was done by tramp or treadle, the poles being 
connected with open mortice and tongue, fastened 
with little bolts. The salt was manufactured by 
boiling the water in large kettles or "graimes," using 
wood for fuel. It is said that from the opening of 
new and additional wells some fifty or sixty acres of 



8 The discovery of salt iu the Conemaugll Valley is traceable to an 
old lady, who discovered au oozing of salt at low-water mark of that 
river on the Indiana County Bide, about two miles above the present 
town of Saltsbnrg. This was about 1812 or 1813. With some of this 
water she made mush which was found to be quite palatable. About 
1813, William Johnston, who was a young man of considerable enterprise, 
a native of Franklin County, commenced boring at the spot where Mrs. 
Deemer, the lady mentioned, had first discovered the water. 

Since writing the text wehave comeonan interesting article relative 
to the manufacture of salt in the early times in Western Pennsylvania 
in Hazard's Register for Dec. 10, 1831. It does not differ materially from 
our compilation, derived mostly from inquiry. Johnston made, after bor- 
ing and tubing his well, about thirty bushels a day. It sold readily at a 
high price, whence others were induced to venture capital aud energy, 
and being successful the competition reduced the price so rapidly that 
atone time it sold for a dollar a barrel at the works. This was too low, 
and some abandoned their works and others broke up. A reaction took 
place, salt advanced, and the business then became profitable. We also 
find that after the pumps were inserted they were sometimes worked by 
horse-power. About thirty gallons were usually evaporated to make 
one bushel of salt. 

We have heard said that in times of great scarceness a sprinkling of 
hickory ashes was used in lieu of salt. 



168 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



woodland had been consumed for this purpose. The 
pumping was originally done by blind horses, and the 
salt sold, as the books show, sometimes at five dollars 
per bushel, retail, but as the wells multiplied the price 
fell very considerably. With the increase of trade 
came new machinery and new appliances for the man- 
ufacture. The unwieldy kettles were dispensed with, 
and large pans of half-inch iron, some twenty feet 
long, ten to eleven feet wide, and eight inches deep, 
were used. The blind horses staggered into obscurity, 
and the steam-engine was henceforth used for boring 
and pumping. The place was called the Great Con- 
emaugh Salt-Works, and a post-office was soon estab- 
lished there. Four miles on the western side of the 
river are the James McLanahan and Andrew Boggs 
well, a well which is one of the oldest, and which 
produced a great deal of salt down to 1858, when it 
was abandoned ; next the Samuel Reed well ; the M. 
Johnston and A. Stewart ; next the Nathan M. D. 
Sterrett and David Mitchell wells, both of them good, 
the last named not abandoned till 1855 ; the Deep 
Hollow, Pete Hanmer well, forty rods from the river, 
rather new, and not considered to be profitable, was 
abandoned ; the Walter Skelton well made a great 
quantity of salt while in blast; the Winings & Morri- 
son works are of recent date, and produce a small 
amount of good salt. Of these only two are in blast, 
— the Waddle group, owned by Samuel Waddle, and 
the Winings, owned by Winings. The wells enu- 
merated are named after their original owners. The 
seven wells along the river on the western side were 
all put down prior to 1822 or 1820, and from that date 
till 1830 the group of hills on both sides of the river 
was like a great bee-hive. . . But it is strange that 
very few men engaged originally in the production and 
manufacture of salt attained to affluent circumstances. 
Most of them died poor. The expenses of production 
in many instances exceeded the income. The coal 
and machinery had to be hauled from Pittsburgh by 
wagon, or brought by the river in keel boats. These 
means of transportation were too expensive. 

The brackishness of the water and the licks along 
I Jacobs Creek, at one time called " Salt Creek," and 
in the swamps of the Sewickley were early known to 
the settlers. The properties were never developed, 
and it was not till 1808 or 1809 that salt may be said 
to have been first discovered along the Sewickley. 
William Beck was the first operator. Its presence 
there was evinced by the deer-lick and by the 
gases, which in escaping from the recesses of the 
earth disturbed the waters of the creek. The first 
well sunk there was bored by hand. Eight men lifted 
by force of their arms the boring tools, and letting 
them drop, these by their own weight bore slowly 
down towards the deposit. This lies five hundred 
feet below the surface, and the men working were 
three years in reaching it. 'This plan was improved 
upon by the application of the spring-pole and tread- 
board and wooden pole-tools. This method continued 



for twenty-five years before the rope was thought of 
and used. A well of five hundred feet can now be 
bored in thirty days. The first well was only two 
inches at the bottom, now the hole is five and a 
half inches at the top and four inches at the bottom. 
The salt at first was boiled down in large kettles, and 
these continued in use for a number of years, till Col. 
Israel Painter, the proprietor of the most extensive 
of these works, with his accustomed sagacity, brought 
into use the large and shallow pans in which it is now 
manufactured. 

There was of course very little money in circula- 
tion among the first settlers. Money was not needed, 
only for the payment of taxes and for the purchase 
of a very few of the necessaries, such as salt and 
powder. The currency legalized during the Revolu- 
tion was fluctuating in value, aud towards 1779 and 
1780 had scarcely any purchasing power. From the 
order-book of the Ohio County Court — one of the 
three Virginia courts in Pennsylvania — for 1780 it is 
seen that an order was issued to the ordinary keepers 
in the county to sell at appended rates, which were 
as follows: half a pint of whiskey, six dollars; break- 
fast and supper, four dollars; lodgings, with clean 
sheets, three dollars; or a horse and hay overnight, 
three dollars ; one gallon of whiskey, six dollars. 1 
For the same time in 1780 whiskey was eight dollars 
and a half per pint. This was of course in Conti- 
nental money. But this may give an idea of the 
unstable valuation put upon everything the value of 
which was regulated by money. In 1779, all things 
in the way of provisions being scarce, the flour and 
meat for the garrison at Pittsburgh had to be brought 
across the mouutains. Bacon there was worth one 
dollar a pound, and deer was bought for the use of 
the army.' 2 At this time, and the year previous, 1778, 
flour was worth sixteen dollars a barrel. The money 
to purchase these things was paid by Congress. Com- 
mercial restrictions were tried, and combinations and 
promises entered into among the officers and business 
men to make the money go at a stated valuation, but 
with a useless result. This trouble in the currency 
and in the worthless value of the money, or what 
purported to be the money, was as severely felt after 
the war as during it. The soldiers who had been in 
the service and the contracts made for the army were 
paid oft' in this currency. The people were, in 1783 
and 1784, nearly destitute of cash in gold or silver. 
In good money, in 1785, salt was worth five dollars a 
barrel, aud it was, indeed, no uncommon thing for 
the price of a bushel of salt to be equivalent to a 
cow and calf; so five or seven dollars probably in 
cash would purchase a cow. 

These following illustrations are given to show the 
equivalent of merchantable things with each other 
and their value in money. Pennsylvania currency 
was always variable in value. In 1780, in West- 



l For Juue G, 1780. 



- Craig's History of Pittsburgh. 



SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES. 



169 



moreland County, in the settlement of the commis- 
sioners of that year, confirmed by the court upon the 
report of the auditors, thirty dollars were said to be 
equal to three shillings sixpence in specie. Paper 
money, or the money of legislation, was worth little 
compared with specie at any time down till after the 
end of the Revolution. From the changeable prices 
an idea will be got of the scarceness and consequently 
of the dearness of money. 

The terms offered by Franklin for wagons, horses, 
and wagoners for Braddock's army in 1755 were for 
each wagon with four good horses and driver fifteen 
shillings per day, for each able horse with pack-sad- 
dle or other saddle and furniture two shillings per 
day, for each able horse without a saddle eighteen 
pence per day. 1 

President Reed, June 9, 1781, in a letter to David 
Duncan, the commissioner, etc., writes as follows : 

"Sir, — Being appointed a commissioner of purchases for the county 
of Westmoreland, you are to proceed in that duty with all despatch so 
as to supply the garrison at Fort Pitt and such troops as may be drawn 
forth under the authority of Council for the defence of the frontiers. 
The amount ol your yearly purchases is to be limited to S16 barrels 
flour, 5000 gallons of whiskey, 200,000 pounds beef or pork, 1000 bushels 
of corn or 2000 bushels of oats, which you will purchase with as much 
economy as possible, and at such periods as will be most necessary and 
convenient. Until next harvest you are not to exceed the following 
prices, viz., flour, 30s. per cwt. ; wheat, per bushel, 10s. ; Indian corn, 5s. ; 
whiskey, 78. (shillings) 6d. (pence) per gall., etc." 

David Duncan then in a letter to President Reed, 
June 9, 1781, says, — 

" I have bought stall-fed beef at one shilling per pound, State money. 
I have bought whiskey at six, and from that to seven shillings per gal- 
lon, and have it delivered in the store, and wheat at one dollar, and de- 
livered in the mills. I had men last week in the glades trying to pur- 
chase beef, but not one would sell without hard money." 

The depreciation of paper currency or Continental 
money had become towards the latter end of the Rev- 
olution a very serious burden to the people all over 
the country, and great ingenuity was exercised to 
discover a remedy. Embargoes, commercial restric- 
tions, tender laws, and limitations of prices were all 
tried, but in vain. Prices still sank. " I had money 
enough some time ago," said an anonymous writer, 
"to buy a hogshead of sugar. I sold it again, and 
got a great deal more money than it cost me ; yet 
when I went into the market again the money would 
only get me a tierce. I sold that too at great profit, 
yet the money received would only buy a barrel. I 
have now more money than ever, yet I am not so 
rich as when I had less." 2 

The store-book of William Johnston, Saltsburg, 
date of 1794, etc., contains some things not uninter- 
esting. Out of a long list of articles, with the current 
prices, we take the following. The account is kept in 
pounds, shillings, and pence : 

1 "Western Pennsylvania," Appendix, 97. 

- As to the system of regulations adopted by the offices, etc., at Pitts- 
burgh, 1779, to control speculators, etc., see Craig's " Pittsburgh," p. 146, 
et seq. 



Wool Hat lis. 

Bandana Hdkf lis. 

1 .. lb Cut Si Dry Is. 

1 Skill, t 12s. 

'y th lead 

1 , Bush. Salt 6s. 

X' . lbs Uncoil 8s. 

1 It. Coffee 3«. 

2 bd. Tacks S.s. 

1 hd. Quills 8s. 

1 Paper Pins 3s. 



3d. 

:>,d. 
6<i. 



1 Pr. Mocksins 

l .j qr. Paper 

2 pipes 

}4 lb Gunpowder... 

2~yds. Calico 

1 lb lead.. 



11' ,'■(. 
6}Ad. 

fid. 214 yds. Muslin 
6rf. l'/| yds. Calico.. 

9d. 47 lbs. Iron £1 19s. '2d. 

Whiskey, from 6 to 15 shillings per 
gallon. 



9d. 

6d. 

Hi). 

7',,/. 

7s. 

Is. loUd. 

9«. 4Ua. 

9s. 



5s, 



i'Ad. 



In 1797, on five consecutive pages, there is counted 
sixty-nine separate and distinct charges for whiskey. 

On Dec. 26, 1798, Charles Campbell (General) is 
credited with 1 barrel of salt, seven pounds and ten 
shillings. 

During this time wheat was allowed for at 1 shil- 
ling; per bushel ; corn, 6 pence; rye, 1 shilling; buck- 
wheat, 1 shilling; oats, 6 pence; tallow, 2 pence; 
lard, 2 pence; pork, 4 shillings per hundred weight; 
beef, 1 to 2 pence per pound. 

" Prices of Provisions as Approved by Gen. Lee for the Use of the Army 
during the Whiskey Insurrection. 

"November 1st, 1794. 
"We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the counties of Washington, 
Allegheny, and Westmoreland, requested by the Commander-in-chief of 
the army now in and near the said counties to declare the prices of sun- 
dry articles necessary for the army, are of the opinion that the prices 
undermentioned are sufficient for the following articles, being as much 
as they usually command in the country : 3 
3/0 



Rye, per bushel 

Oats (i.e., 2 shillings 6 

pence) 

Corn 

Indian Meal 

Flour, common 

Ditto, fine 

Ditto, superfine 

Hay, per ton 

Cabbage, per 100 10/0 to 16/6 

Fowls, each 0/6 

Onions, per bushel 6/6 to 9/6 

Cyder, per barrel 30/0 



Whiskey, per gallon 3/0 to 3/6 

Straw 

2/6 1 Mutton, per ft- 01314 

2/6 1 Fresh Pork, per lb 0/3 

2/6 I Bacon 0/8 

22/6 Potatoes, per bushel 2/0 

25/0 Turnips, per bushel 0/9 to 0/10 



27/6 

.,{111 



Turkeys, each 2/6 to 3/9 

Ducks, per head 

Geese, per head 2 6 

Butter, per lb 0/8 to 0/9 

Cheese 08 to 0/9 



" The price of transportation of oats, hay, corn, whiskey, flour, and 
meal is not considered, and must depend on distance ; milk not being 
usually sold, the price is difficult to ascertain ; two pence a quart will, 
however, be an ample price. 

"David Redick, 
"Thomas Morton, 
" Wm. Findi.ey." 

The people had a great time paying their preachers 
after they had promised and subscribed for their 
salary. Sometimes it was impossible, and in the 
stead of money, to remedy it, they came forward and 
delivered their farm produce at a rate fixed upon by 
themselves. From a subscription paper of the con- 
gregation of Fairfield in 1789, the subscriptions were 
to be paid in money or grain, at the rate of, wheat at 
four shillings per bushel, rye or corn at two shillings 
and sixpence per bushel. These sums were due quar- 
terly, and to be sued for as lawful debts. From a 
similar paper of the Sewickley congregation of August, 
1792, by which one-half of the subscription was to be 
paid in cash, and the other half in produce, at these 
rates, to wit: wheat at four shillings per bushel, rye 
at three shillings per bushel, and corn at two shillings 
and sixpence per bushel. The rye here was higher 
than the corn, for this was in a region where about 
this time their surplus rye was worked into spirit, and 



a The figures in the price-list represent shillings and pence. 



170 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



sold in a diluted form as whiskey, in which it fetched 
a higher price. 1 

A good brother in Israel, a Father Laban, has been 
canonized for a shrewd speculation. Under Rev. 
Joseph Smith's pastorate at Cross Creek and Upper 
Buffalo, the congregation getting behind in their 
salary and no prospect of catching up, this shrewd old 
elder proposed to take their wheat down the river to 
the New Orleans market. The wheat at home was 
worth twelve and a half cents. The venture was suc- 
cessful, and the wheat, ground into flour and sold in 
that market, fetched twenty-seven dollars the barrel. 
The elder received three hundred dollars, each of the 
young men who accompanied him one hundred dol- 
lars apiece, the back salary of the minister as well as 
the salary for the coming year was paid off, and thus 
the congregation was relieved of its burden. 

When the manufacture of whiskey began to be 
profitably carried on, say 1787 to 1792, a whiskey- 
still became an article of some value. In 1785 a good 
still of one hundred gallons might purchase two hun- 
dred acres of land, and that even within ten miles of 
Pittsburgh. - 

Land itself was very cheap. The stories told of 
the purchase and sale of valuable lands are so 
marvelous that sometimes they are not credible. But 
any one who goes to the trouble to look over the old 
records will see by the transfers that in many in- 
stances the consideration was merely nominal. A 
still, a horse, a rifle has been known to be the price 
paid for farms which now are of the most valuable in 
our whole county. 3 

At the time of the Whiskey Insurrection and for 
some years previous thereto iron and steel cost from 
fifteen to twenty-five cents a pound, the cost of trans- 
portation being from five to ten dollars per hundred- 
weight. 4 At that time wheat was so plenty and of so 
little value that it was the custom to grind the best 
quality and feed it to the cattle, and as for rye, corn, 
and barley, it would bring no price for man or beast. 
The only way, therefore, for the inhabitants to obtain 
a little money to carry on their farming and to pur- 
chase a few needful commodities was by distilling 
the grain and sending it down the river or over the 
mountains. 

The inns of the old turnpike were called " hotels," 
and the shops "stores." The stores did a business 
which extended around for many miles. The store- 
keeper laid in his stock once, or, latterly, twice in the 
year. This consisted in general of common grocery 
and the most common fabrics. They had little of 

l Old Redstone. 
- Ibid. 

3 It was no uncommon thing fur parents, in theii wills, to bequeath to 
their children in proportionate shares, for the full extent of their shares 
as devises, to he delivered by the son or daughter getting the hinds, so 
much wheat, rye, oats, or corn. These in some instances were payable 
annually until a certain quantity had been made up. These bequests 
were in lieu of pecuniary ones. 

4 Rev. Dr. Caruahan, in " American Pioneer." 



anything and a little of everything on their shelves. 
The goods were sold at an advance averaging, in 
most cases, an hundred per cent. This was, indeed, 
a question more of necessity than of conscience, for 
at even this profit it took all and more than all the 
money that a shop-keeper would take in from spring 
to fall to replenish his stock. He was compelled to 
take for his pay anything which could be traded for, — 
bacon, flour, beef, wool, butter, and eggs. One old- 
time store-keeper once wittingly told us that in the 
winter his customers traded him their bacon and flour 
for cloth and groceries, and in the summer they ex- 
changed their wool and butter for bacon and flour 
back again to see them to the fall. In this matter 
of exchange each community had a specialty. Ligo- 
nier Valley, in the earliest times, furnished nearly all 
the seed potatoes, for which settlers sometimes went a 
journey of two and three days, 5 and in later times its 
staple was maple-sugar. On the western side of the 
Ridge corn and oats were raised. It was, therefore, 
at one time customary to exchange the spring pro- 
duction of sugar and molasses for corn and oats. 6 

Up to the end of the century Pennsylvania was the 
only State with any surplus grain-produciug territory 
west of the mountains. To convert this grain into 
money was the reasonable object. As a consequence 
we have the origin of the whiskey manufacture 
through Western Pennsylvania, which at one time 
obtained such extensive proportions and the taxing 
of which, as is well known, led almost to domestic 
war. 

Before and during the Revolution whiskey was a 
staple article of trade; and in 17*4, after the close of 
the war, Turnbull, Marmie & Co., ironmongers of 
Philadelphia, sent an invoice of stills to Craig, Bay- 
ard & Co., merchants of Pittsburgh. At about the 
same time, in a letter from an agent of the latter house 
at their salt-works at Beaver, the writer advises them 
to send him three barrels of whiskey and one of rum, 
and complains that for his want of these his neighbor 
gets all the skins and furs. The Philadelphia firm fur- 
nished, perhaps, the majority of stills for the western 
counties, and finding their general business so profit- 
able here they were induced to come out and begin 
the iron business first in these parts. When coin was 
almost unknown and paper-money valueless, as it was 
for some years after the peace, a whiskey-still was as 
necessary as a mill. If there was no money to buy 
one, a farm or a part of a farm was traded for one. 
The net proceeds from a good still before the laying 



6 Idem. 

''' Maple- (or home-made) sugar was trucked out on horses. We may 
thus come to the origin of a common saying, still used, although not fre- 
quently, in some paits. H is to be observed that some horses, particu- 
larly those raised iu a thinly-settled district, have a iiabit of stopping at 
every house along the roadside. A horse doing so in the thicker-settled 
parts was called a " sugar horse," by which it was inferred lie was from 
that region which produced sugar, and was habituated to stop at every 
door. When we first heard such a usage of the word it had, we confess, 
uo meaning. 



SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES. 



171 



of the excise was, as we have seen, considerably more 
than of most farms. There were then still-houses 
literally anywhere, nearly every fifth or sixth farm 
having a copper still. Judge Veech states that at 
one time there were five hundred and seventy-two 
stills in the western counties. The farmer who had 
one manufactured the whiskey for his neighbor who 
had none, on the shares. So much grain was left, and 
so much whiskey returned. These still-houses were 
small affairs, sometimes of only one little still, but 
oftener of two, the one for singliugs and the. other for 
doublings. The stills were set up in the cellar, in the 
upper part of the spring-house, or in a near out-house. 
As a consequence the use of whiskey was universal. 
The quality was good, the taste pleasant, its effect 
agreeable. Store-keepers kept liquor on their coun- 
ters and sold it in their stores, and the women custo- 
mers used it as well as the men. Farmers kept bar- 
rels of it in their cellars. It was sometimes drank 
with tansy, mint, or maple-sugar, but mostly taken 
straight. It was good for fevers, it was good for 
a decline, it was good for ague, it was good for 
snake-bites. There was nothing named in the materia 
medica but old whiskey possessed some of its cura- 
tive properties. On the testimony of Col. Crockett, 
it made one warm in winter and cool in summer. 
It was used at all gatherings. 1 Bottles of it were set 
out on the table at christenings and at wakes. At 
funerals in the winter season huge coffee-boilers and 
buckets of warm whiskey-punch were passed around 
and the people invited to drink, and tin-cups were 
filled and carried from time to time to the bearers. 
Ministers drank it. The biographers of Rev. McMil- 
lan, who ascribe all virtues to his character, relate the 
following incident. When on his way to Presbytery 
in company with the Rev. Joseph Patterson they 
stopped to water their horses at a public-house, when 
to compensate the landlord for his courtesy they 
stopped to take a drink. When the whiskey was 
poured into the glass Mr. Patterson proposed to ask a 
blessing before they drank. This was not objected to 
by the doctor, but as the grace was protracted he not 
only drank his own glass off but reached for Mr. Pat- 
terson's and drank his too. When his brother looked 
blankly after he had finished, the "cardinal" said to 
him that he must not henceforth forget to watch as 
well as pray. On an occasion when Bishop Onder- 
donk came to Greensburg to administer confirmation, 
before going to church he went into the bar-room of 
Rhorer's hotel in full canonicals and called for and 
drank off a tumbler of strong brandy without giving 
offense to the faithful. Rev. Father McGirr's drink 
was whiskey- punch, of which it is said he could 
drink with any of his day without giving scandal. 

1 In Hn account of the Fourth of July celehratiou at Washington 
Furnace in 1811, printed at length in the Register, it says, " After partak- 
ing of a handsome and wholesome repast, ami drinking some whiskey 
mixed with pute water," etc. Delicately put, but " tempo™, 
mores /" 



These examples are cited merely for the object of 
illustrating how wide-spread was the custom of using 
stimulants. 

As a consequence whiskey was used by nearly all. 
The government gave regular rations of it to the sol- 
diers, and these rations were increased at the time of 
the insurrection, a bait thrown out to the people to 
do their distilling in accordance with the law. At a 
time much later than the era of the Revolution, when 
money was scarce and labor plenty, it is said that 
many farmers could have the services of laboring 
men during the whole of the winter season for their 
bed and board. They went to work with a dram of 
whiskey and tansy and a piece of bread and butter. 
On this they worked till breakfast. At every meal 
the bottle was taken by the neck ; for whiskey was 
all that whiskey is now and coffee, tea, and beer be- 
sides. 

We may go even farther than we have gone in pro- 
ducing examples to show how wide-spread the habit 
of using domestic liquors had grown among those 
people. It was a habit easily acquired, because the 
use of the spirit was general, its quality attractive, 
and its constituent substances pure and unadulterated. 
The heavy overhung skies of their long, dreary win- 
ters, their exposed occupations, and the scarceness of 
attractive or agreeable diversions are sufficient causes 
for its usage, which although general was not inordi- 
nate. In addition to these reasons which are apparent 
to us they had others of their own. The aptness of 
quite a majority of these people at quoting Scripture 
texts, particularly those found in the Hebrew writings, 
is well known. Some of these texts they had at their 
tongue's end, and could refer to them on any and every 
occasion. They therefore doubtless cited the sixth and 
seventh verses of the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, 
" Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, 
and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him 
drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his mis- 
ery no more." This text, by the way, was a familiar 
one to the Scotch of the time of Burns, and as many 
of them were familiar with his songs, they no doubt 
had by heart the one dedicated to Scotch drink : 

" Thou clears the head o' doited Lear, 
Thou cheers the heart o' droopin' Care, 
Thou strings the nerves o' Labor sair 

At's weary toil ; 
Thou ever brightens daik Despair 
Wi' gloomy smile." 

There was a time in the early history of South- 
western Pennsylvania when whiskey was the one com- 
modity that had a standard value, and all the medi- 
ums of barter and exchange, such as corn, salt, tobacco, 
and so forth, were valued in accordance with the 
amount of whiskey they would fetch. " Old rye" was 
exchanged at the grocery for tea, coffee, household 
utensils, and farming implements. At all public gath- 
erings it gurgled copiously from all sorts of jugs, and 
was guzzled by all sorts of men, women, and children. 



172 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



It bought farms, as now it frequently loses them, and 
the consideration which passed for many a tract of 
laud now of great value was chiefly made up in whis- 
key and whiskey-stills. A great proportion of the 
very foremost men of the early settlements were en- 
gaged in its manufacture, of which we shall have oc- 
casion to say something in our relation of the Whiskey 
Insurrection. But this is not all : the contributions 
to the support of some of the early ministers were paid 
to church committees, in some instances, in spirits of 
domestic manufacture, and in the district beyond the 
Youghiogheny, in that district where churches were 
more plentiful, they recall instances where it paid the 
debts of the church. 

Its manufacture was in the earliest times immedi- 
ately under the control of the courts, although an 
excise law was enacted in Pennsylvania in very early 
times, as farther on we shall see. But these excise 
laws were not in force, for upon a prosecution and 
conviction the State usually remitted the penalties, 
and during the times of the Revolution the justices 
from time to time allowed those engaged in the traffic 
on the frontier to do so without paying the fines 
which were imposed. 1 

The courts, we have seen, licensed the keepers of 
public-houses, fixed their number, and regulated the 
price of the several liquors and the price of lodging. 
It would be a curious diversion to follow up the prices 
put upon whiskey by the gill from 1773 to the begin- 
ning of our century. It would be the " indicator" 
for all marketable products. Without going over the 
whole ground, we observe that of the rates fixed at the 
July sessions of 1783 " diet and meal was one shilling 
sixpence ; oats per quart, two and one-half pence ; I 
hay, twenty-four hours, one shilling three pence;" 
while in 1802 the court fixed whiskey at three pence 
per gill, oats at two pence by the quart, and hay for 
a horse by the night one shilling. - 

At March sessions in 1795 we see that " the court 
proceeded to regulate the uumber of tavern-keepers 
for the county for the year ensuing." They then al- 



1 In the Quarter Sessions there is the record of several informations 
niade against Edward Cook, Esq., one of the justices, for distilling spirits. 

i I were generally quashed by the court or thrown out by the jury. 

Set* July session, 1779. 

(Record) July session, 1784: 

" Phila., Sat. June 19, 1784. . . . Certain persons convicted of selling 
spirituous liquors. ... It was ordered that in consideration of the pe- 
culiar distresses to which the Inhabitants on the frontiers have been re- 
duced during the late war, the several it respective fines as judged to iie 
[laid t" tlie use of the State by Persons before mentioned be remitted. 

"Extract from tin- Minutes. 

"James Trimblf. for John Armstrong, Junior, Treasurer. 

" Copied August 9, 1784, by James Brison." 

A justice could not keep an inn or tavern, but their relatives might. 
Hanna had his daughter, Jean Hauiia, recommended to sell spirituous 
liquors at more than one of the sessions. 

- These are the rates for 1783 in full : 



Diet and meal 1/3 

Spirit toddy and bowl 1/6 

"West India rum and bowl.... 1/3 

Whiskey per half pint 10(7. 

Whisky toddey and howl 1/3 



Hay, 24 bouts 1(3 

Oats per quart SSJ A. 

Pasture, 24 hours 8u\ 

Strong beer per quart S'/. 

Cyder per quart 1 '. 



lowed eight for the town of Greensburg ; for the 
Glade road, inclusive, and south of it, eight ; between 
the Pittsburgh road (the old State road) and the 
Glade road, six ; between the Pittsburgh road, inclu- 
sive, and the north, twelve; in all, thirty-four. The 
number fixed in March, 1796, for the county was 
forty. 3 

We do not know whether it arose from observation, 
experience, or an intimate knowledge of the peculiar 
connection between our judicial system and our great 
staple which impelled Achilles Murat, when a visitor 
here, to say in jest that " whiskey was the best part of 
the American government." At one time it certainly 
was a very important element in the government. 
As a factor in politics, and as a lubricator to assist 
the civil machinery to run easier, its importance was 
long recognized. Among the traditions of the bar 
one still remains how the old-time lawyer kept a 
bottle in his office, and how, when the attorneys met 
together in the prothouotary's office to make up the 
trial-list, there were always a bottle of whiskey set on 
the table and a hundred toby cigars. The same was 
invariably done when the sheriff held his inquisition 
for the extension or partition of real estate, and the 
whiskey and cigars were all the pay the jurors received, 
and all they expected to receive. After a time the 
whiskey was discarded, and they were restricted to 
dinner and cigars. The only fee the constable looked 
for in keeping the window on election-day was 
enough whiskey for himself and for his friends to 
drink at the expense of the standing candidates; 
and, indeed, about the only proper expense the can- 
didate was put to was to supply the electors with the 
stimulant. 

That the change in sentiment respecting the use of 
intoxicating drink has been great, and that the change 
has been for the better is an averment which perhaps 
will not be gainsaid. At one time it was here con- 
sidered to the detriment of a man in public business 
to be an avowed temperance man. Half the best 
farms now owned by men who are prohibitionists 
were once purchased by the proceeds of the whiskey- 
still. He was an exceptionally prominent man of the 
neighborhood who did not either manufacture or sell 
whiskey. The very great proportion of people used 
whiskey as a beverage without compunction of con- 
science; and those who had compunction of con- 
science evidenced a wonderful liability to be bitten by 
snakes. The frequency of snake-bites was indeed a 
matter of unexplainable curiosity for a later and more 
pious generation. But great as are the evils of in- 
temperance at this day, there is no better evidence 
needed to measure the opinion and the sentiment of 
the ruling element in that particular than to observe 
who compose the class now addicted to public intem- 
perance and compare it with the drinking class of 
fifty and eighty years ago. 



3 John M. St. Clair had order issued in June, 1797, for license. 



SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS. AND FURNACES. 



173 



Grist-mills were few compared with whiskey-stills, 
but there were some of these erected by the earliest 
settlers. Several were known at points in 1771, but it 
was not for many years that these mills ground any- 
thing like the full amount of grain raised. There 
were many small hand-mills, which, being movable 
affairs, were carried about from one part of the coun- 
try to another. The grist-mills themselves were but 
one-horse concerns, and truly in some places, where 
tin- water-power was not enduring, the wheels were 
turned by the machinery attached to the tread-wheel. 
The first mills were called tub-mills, taking the name 
from the tub-shaped hopper into which the grain was 
put, and from which we have the names of Tub Run 
and Tub Creek, given to various streams. 

Among the reasons advanced by the petitioners in 
some of the first petitions for roads was the necessity 
of having them to get to mill. It is recited in one of 
these that the inhabitants had to go twenty miles to 
Henry Beeson's mill, and in all probability they would 
ever have to do so. This mill was a tub-mill, and the 
pit of it is still visible in Uniontown. Beeson was a 
blacksmith, and made his customers dig at the race 
while they waited till their plow-irons were sharpened. 
This mill was said to have been the second one in the 
region now of the county of Fayette, Philip Shute's 
mill on Shute's Run being the first. These were before 
1773. 

St. Clair had a mill on Mill Creek, in Ligonier 
Valley, running about this time. A notice of St. 
Clair's mill may be seen in the Quarter Sessions' 
docket for 1774. St. Clair bad built a mill some time 
before that in Cumberland County. About this time 
William Bracken built a mill on Black Lick, and 
about 1773, Samuel Moorhead commenced building a 
mill on Stony Run, on the other side of the Kiski- 
minetas, but before it was completed the settlers 
thereabout were driven off" by the hostiles. The next 
year they returned and finished it. 

There were several mills about this time along the 
streams which empty into the Ohio on the south side, 
and not far from the Point. Saw-Mill Run was known 
by that name prior to 1771. Among the other mills 
within our own county or immediately near were 
Cherry's mill, afterwards Lobingier's, on Jacobs 
Creek; Machlin's mill, on the Youghiogheny ; Den- 
niston's mill and Soxman's mill, both of these on the 
Loyalhanna, the former on the site of New Alex- 
andria, and the latter below Latrobe; Jones' mill, on 
Indian Creek ; Wallace's mill, on the Conemaugh ; 
Perrv's mill, either upon or near to the Kiskiminetas; 
and Irwin's mill, on Brush Creek. Perhaps not one 
of these had stone burrs. Judge Addison in his 
charge to the grand jury of Allegheny County on 
-Sept. 1, 1794, remarking the unprecedented growth 
and development of the country for some few years, 
says that three years before, or about 1791, there was 
hardly a burr mill-stone in this whole country, and 
then there were perhaps a dozen. 



When the boy took his grist to mill he usually 
waited till it was ground, and sometimes the miller 
would keep him overnight. The rule was to take a 
day going to mill. The mention made in the petition 
quoted of going twenty miles to mill may appear un- 
usual, but it was not unusual, and even fifty years 
later than the date of that paper a neighbor was 
thought to be favorably situated who lived within five 
miles of a mill. 

The water-mills could not, on an average, work 
more than six months in the year. The only intima- 
tion we have yet met with of a wind- mill for grinding 
is in a letter dated at Pittsburgh, July 25, 1784, from 
Maj Craig, in which he says he is convinced their 
best plan is to build a wind-mill at the junction of 
the rivers instead of a horse-mill to do the grinding 
for their distillery, and at other times for the in- 
habitants. At that point there was always a breeze 
up or down the rivers.' 

The pioneer firm in the iron industry of Western 
Pennsylvania was Tnrnbull, Marmie & Co., who had 
been extensively engaged in the metal and hollow- 
ware business in Philadelphia previously, and who 
for a time carried on their two establishments in con- 
junction. Among the first and most enterprising 
mercantile houses in Pittsburgh was the firm of 
Craig & Bayard. Soon after the Revolution these 
formed a copartnership with Turnbull, Marmie & 
Co., and in addition to putting the stills and mill 
castings of this latter firm on the market, erected a 
distillery, built a saw-mill, and controlled the salt- 
works on the Big Beaver. The marked success which 
the firm met with in this new region of country in- 
duced them to try the venture of a furnace west of the 
mountains. Accordingly, about 1790, the works of 
this firm were in process of erection upon Jacobs 
Creek, four miles from its mouth on the Fayette side, 
near Garhart's mill-seat. This was the first furnace 
in the West. It went into blast Nov. 1, 1790. In 
1792 they filled an order for four hundred six-pound 

1 In these mills that went by hurse-power the farmer hail sometimes 
to furnish the horses as well as pay the toll. Gradually in some parts the 
mills came to do as much business as the taverns. In some instances 
they were converted into taverns. 

Paul Frowman had a mill near the Monongahela, probably on Char- 
tiers Creek, as appears from the appointment of road viewers, January 
sessions, 1774. John Cavett's mill is mentioned as early as 1773. It 
was between .Eneas Mackay's plantation (" Dirty Camp") and the Vir- 
ginia (Braddock's) road, as so styled in petition, — i.e., on Brush Creek. 

One of the Perrys had a mill on the east side of the Monongahela 
quite early, and William Perry's mill was on the Loyalhanna, and the 
mill-seat and a saw-mill were on a very old improvement. This was 
afterwards owned by John Kirkpatrick, who purchased it at sheriff's 
sale in 1702. 

Samuel Moorhead commenced building a mill on Stony Creek, as be- 
fore mentioned [beyond the Conemaugh), in 1773, "where Andrew 
Dixon's mill was afterwards situated, but before it was completed the 
settlers were driven off by the Indians. They fled to what was called 
the Sewickley Settlement." (History of Dauphin County.) Gen. 
Charles Campbell in 1792 had a mill on Black Lick Creek, now in In- 
diana County. 

Before grain was ground in mills turned by horse- or water-power it 
was ground in hand-mills or broken in a mortar. 



12 



174 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



shot for Maj. Craig, for the use of the garrison at 
Pittsburgh. 1 

For some years the furnace did a large busi- 
ness. It was, of course, the centre of capital and 
labor for that whole region, — a region which, in part, 
at this day is rugged and uninviting, and which had 
not from the first attracted to it a community noted 
for thrift or energy. It controlled the price of labor 
for the whole locality, and furnished employment for 
many hands. But the firm went under, for what rea- 
son, outside of indiscreet management, is not known, 
and at this day the half-crumbled-away stone stack, 
with weeds and hazels and vines growing about it, is 
as picturesque a sight as one meets with in that coun- 
try. Connected with it is the romantic story of Mar- 
mie, the sporting Frenchman, who committed suicide 
by jumping into the open mouth of the burning fur- 
nace, after driving in his dogs of the chase before him. 
Shamed in living, and broken in hope, desire, and 
fortune, he met the fate of the unfortunate, dying by 
his own hand. Many stories may be gathered from 
credulous persons in the neighborhood, who have 
heard them by the winter fires, about the strange 
sights which have been seen, and the strange noises 
heard by nights propitious for them in the haunted 
and abandoned place. Here they will tell you, if not 
in the language yet in the spirit, how, in the foggy 
moonlight, 

" The spectre huntsman of Onesti's line, 
The hell dogs, and their chase," 2 

" shadowed their mind's eye." So abhorred and so 
secluded became the place that — so it is credibly as- 
serted — for a long time a gang of counterfeiters pur- 
sued their calling unmolested and unwatched among 
its ruins. 

Between the erection of this furnace and the close 
of the century there were other furnaces erected in 
Fayette County, the Oliphants indeed claiming the 
first one blown in, but we think without sufficient 
authority. 3 Perhaps the first one, after Turnbull & 
Marmie's, within our county was the Westmoreland 
Furnace, near Laughlinstown, in Ligonier Valley, on 

1 From a petition at the April session of 17!)0 it appears that the iron- 
works at Jacohs Creek were " then erecting," and were known as " Al- 
liance Furnace." 

The firm was then composed of Messrs.* Hal ker, Turner, and Marmie, 
and the ruins of it, as stated, are to be seen at this day. The two former 
were Philadelphia merchants, and the latter a Frenchman, who came to 
America during the Revolntion as the private secretary of Lafayette, 
who liked the country and remained in it. The iron manufactured was 
known as the cold short iron, the only grade then produced from our 
native ores. 

2 Don Juan. 

For much information on the subject of iron industry we are in- 
debted to James M. Swank, Esq.'s very interesting and instructive 
" History of Iron-Making and Coal-Mining in Western Pennsylvania," 
wherein the subject is treated to its full extent. 

Mr. Swank, on local misinformation, locates Westmoreland Furnace on 
the Four-Mile Run. 

Col. John McFarland, a prominent contractor in his earlier days, but 
now retired and residing in Ligonier, reported that he used irou made 
at the Westmoreland. 



Laurel Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, which was 
built about 1792 by John Probst, who also built a 
small forge about the same time. Neither the furnace 
nor the forge was long in operation, both probably 
ceasing to make iron about 1810. On the 1st of 
August, 1795, George Anshutz, manager of West- 
moreland Furnace, advertised stoves and castings for 
sale. 

Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who prior to that time had 
engaged in the iron business east of the mountains, 
built Hermitage Furnace, on Mill Creek, two miles 
northeast of Ligonier, on the road to Johnstown. 
The date of the erection of this furnace is not accu- 
rately known, but it may be fixed between 1803 and 
1806, for the reason that at the first date St. Clair 
ceased to be Governor of the Northwestern Territory, 
and in 1806 the furnace was in blast, as is witnessed 
by an advertisement in the Farmer's Register of Nov. 
21,1806. The advertisement was headed "Hermitage 
Furnace in Blast," and was signed by Henry Weaver 
& Son, who were general merchants in Greensburgat 
that time. It read as follows : 

11 Tin- subscribers, being appointed agents by Gen. A. St. Clair for the 
sale o( his castings generally, and for the borough of Greensburg ex- 
clusively, give notice that they will contract with any person or persons 
for the delivery of castings and stoveB for any number of tons on good 
terms. Samples of the castings and stoves to be seen at their store in 
Greensburg any time after the 20th instant." 

The ruins of the stack are still lying about the site. 
They are but a few hundred yards from the former 
residence of the general, whence he dated his cor- 
respondence still preserved in the "Archives." It 
was by the side of the old military road to Hannas- 
town, and not far off the track of the highway may 
be discovered along the hillside. 

In 1810, in the storm that wrecked the worldly for- 
tunes of this illustrious citizen, Hermitage Furnace 
passed out of the hands of Gen. St. Clair, and for some 
time thereafter it stood idle. In 1S16 it was again 
started by O'Harra & Scully, under the management of 
John Henry Hopkins. 4 In October, 1817, Mr. Hopkins 



4 John Henry Hopkins was subsequently the bishop of Vermont, and 
president bishop of the Episcopal Church in America. He was justly 
distinguished in his day for learning and piety. He created a great 
sensation about the breaking out of our civil war by the publication of a 
work giving a scriptural view of slavery. He was a memberof the Pan- 
Anglican Council at Lambeth Palace, and was created a doctor of civil 
law by the University of Oxford. In his life by his son there is narrated 
his experience as clerk and manager at Hermitage Furnace, and a 
graphic account of his trip from Ligonier to Youngstowu, in which their 
coach broke down in the night, and the party were compelled to walk a 
distance down the Ridge to the shelter of the village inn. 

Axes. — The early axes were rude and clumsy affairs to those which 
we now have. They were two, three, and four times as large. The first 
imported ones were the Yankee axe, from about 1 812 to 1820. They were 
sold at from six to ten dollars. They were single-bitt, and the double-bitt 
did not come into use till ten years after. 

Nails.— Shortly after the beginning of the century there were in dif- 
ferent parts of the county regular " nailers" engaged in the manufac- 
turing of nails for house-work. etc. In 1S17 nails were cut in Indiana 
borough. Here are some of the prices: 2-inch shingling miils. 37% 
oentsper pound; clap-board, 25 cents per pound; brads, 18 cents per 
pound. 



SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES. 



175 



left the furnace, himself a bankrupt, and it has never 
since been in operation. 

Mount Hope Furnace was built in 1810 in Donegal 
township, by Trevor & McClurg. Washington Fur- 
nace, near Laughlinstown, was built about 1809 by 
Johnston, McClurg & Co. It was abandoned in 1826, 
and rebuilt in 1848 by John Bell & Co. It was in 
blast as late as 1854, and in 1859 was owned by L. C. 
Hall. Jonathan Maybury & Co. owned Fountain 
Furnace before 1812. The firm was dissolved Aug. 
19, 1812. Kingston Forge, erected in 1811 on Loyal- 
hanna Creek by Alexander Johnston & Co., went 
in operation early in 1812. Kingston is about two 
miles northeast of Youngstown on the turnpike, and 
about three miles east of Latrobe on the Ligonier 
Valley Railroad. 

Ross Furnace, on Tub-Mill Creek, in Fairfield 
township, was built in 1815 by James Paull, Jr., Col. 
J. D. Mathiot, and Isaac Meason, Jr., and abandoned 
about 1850. It made pig-iron stoves, sugar-kettles, 
pots, ovens, skillets, etc. Another furnace in Fair- 
field township was built a short distance below Ross 
Furnace, on Tub-Mill Creek, by John Benninger 
about 1810. He also built a small forge on the same 
stream where the borough of Bolivar now stands. 
Both the furnace and forge ceased to make iron soon 
after they were built, the forge running until about 
1816. When short of pig iron it sometimes made 
bar iron direct from the ore, which was obtained near 
by. In 1S34 a manufactory of axes and sickles was 
established at Covodesville, on Tub-Mill Creek, above 
Bolivar, by William Updegraff. The business was 
continued for eight years by Mr. Updegraff. 

Baldwin Furnace, on Laurel Run, near Ross Fur- 
nace, is said to have been built by James Stewart about 
1810. It ran but a short time. It was named after 
Henry Baldwin, afterwards a judge of the United 
States Supreme Court, but then a leading lawyer of 
Pittsburgh. He may have helped to build the fur- 
nace. 

Goldon, in his "Gazetteer of the State of Penn- 
sylvania," states that in 1832 there were in operation 
in Westmoreland County one furnace, Ross, operated 
by Col. Mathiot, and one forge, Kingston, operated by 
Alexander Johnston, Esq. These early furnaces 
before named shipped pig iron by boats or arks on 
the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburgh, 
much of which found its way down the Ohio River to 
Cincinnati and Louisville. 

Other furnaces in Westmoreland County were 
Mount Pleasant, a very early furnace; California, 



built by Col. J. D. Mathiot and S. Cummins about 
1852, on Furnace Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, 
about a mile above the mouth of the run ; Oak Grove, 
built in 1854 by Col^ John Clifford, near Ligonier, 
and owned in 1857 by James Tanner, of Pittsburgh ; 
Valley Furnace, at Hillsview, nine miles south of 
New Florence and about five miles north of Ligonier, 
built by L. C. Hall & Co. in 1855 ; Laurel Hill, about 
three miles below Baldwin Furnace, on Laurel Run, 
after its junction with Powder-Mill Run, commenced 
in 1845 or 1846 by Hezekiah Reed, and finished about 
1849 by Judge J. T. Hall, of Centre County, and sub- 
sequently owned by various parties ; Conemaugh, on 
the stream of that name, about eight miles west of 
Johnstown, built in 1847 by John C. Magill, Hon. 
Henry D. Foster, and Hon. Thomas White, and sub- 
sequently operated by George Rhey; Lockport, built 
in 1844 by William D. and Thomas McKernan, 
brothers, at the town of that name, twenty miles west 
of Johnstown, subsequently owned by William Mc- 
Kinney, of Lockport, and finally falling into the 
hands of Dr. Peter Shoenberger ; Ramsey, built in 
1847, on the Kiskiminetas, about four miles west of 
Saltsburg, Indiana Co., by Frederick Overman, for 
| Dr. J. R. Speer, of Pittsburgh, its owner. 

These early furnaces made principally all kinds of 
hollow-ware, such as skillets, pots, kettles, Dutch 
ovens, stoves, sugar-kettles, as well as grates, andirons, 
and plow-castings. The high price of iron conse- 
quent on the war with Great Britain in 1811 and 1812 
led to the erection of those which were put up at that 
time. The pig from some of these was sent to Pitts- 
burgh to be forged, but others forged their own. The 
return of peace, and the more advantageous facilities 
offered by other furnaces near cheap water portage, 
depressed the industry here. Under more favorable 
auspices it recovered, but again was the business 
utterly prostrated, and the first indication of the iron 
revival within our county was when the Southwest 
Railway was located and under way of construc- 
tion. 

All the above furnaces have been abandoned. 
There is only one furnace in the county now in 
operation, Charlotte, built by Everson, Knapp &Co., 
at Scottdale, in 1873, where the firm of Everson, Ma- 
crura & Co. built a rolling-mill in the same year. 

This subject has been brought down to a later time 
than we have been treating of, but we thought it 
better to follow this arrangement and elsewhere treat 
of the iron industry since its revival in more modern 
times. 



176 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

PRIMITIVE ROADS AND METHODS OF TRANSPOR- 
TATION. 

Something on Roads in Great Britain, and of Indian Trails in America — 
Knowledge displayed by the Indians in their Selection of Routes— 
Their Manner of Traveling— Of their Trails East and West, North 
and South— The Routes of the First Whites westward of the Moun- 
tains—Indian Remains alongthese Routes in Weslmoreland, and Me- 
morials of their Presence in NameB of Streams, Hills, etc.— Nemaco- 
lin's Path— The Catawba War Trail— The Kittanning and Juniata 
Paths— The different Termini of the Aboriginal Paths— Of the Indian 
Villages and Abiding-Places here— The Ohio Company's Road— Brad- 
dock's Road— Burd's Road— The National Road— Forbes' Road— Old 
State Road— Chartered Turnpike— Old Military Roads— Method of 
Transportation used in the Armies— Want of Roads to the First Set- 
tlers—First Road Petitions, ! 773— Difficulty in getting to Mill— Im- 
portance of keeping the Tublic Roads in Repair— Manner of Travel 
and Method of transporting Merchandise on these Roads— Pack- 
Horses and Pack-Saddles— What a Pack-Saddle is— Rates for carrying 
— RemarkB on one of the " Lost Arts"— How they went to War, to the 
Assembly, to the East for Goods, and a-Courting. 

We know of no better means of getting a correct 
notion of the different stages or eras into which the 
history of our country has been divided from time to 
time than by having a knowledge of the different 
roads and highways. In noticing this subject of roads 
we will be led into the consideration of such other 
subjects as are connected with it, or are evolved out 
of it, such as the methods first used in transportation, 
the facilities for supplying the wants of the carrying 
trade, the prices of such carrying, and in general the 
changes which may be attributed to the roads. 

In a community which is constantly undergoing 
change we can, careful as we may be, scarcely avoid 
conflicting ideas and associating times and places 
with other times and places. But in the history of 
our county we observe one thing, which is this, that 
from the first settlements to 1775, the beginning of 
the Revolution, is a distinctly marked era ; from that 
time to the destruction of Hannastown is another 
era; and from that time to the ending of the Whis- 
key Insurrection in 1794 another ; and so on. And 
these eras are marked, as it were, by the history of 
the very roads, and whether we argue that the roads 
in their changes were but the termination of one 
stage of improvement or the beginning of another 
it is but the same. In the early days we have the 
pack-horse tracks and military roads, coming down 
to 1784, then the State highways, then the turnpike 
with its changed travel and traffic, which in turn was 
followed by the canal and the railroad. 

The world has been slow to acknowledge the utility 
of good, safe, and speedy methods of travel, of the 
advantages in overcoming distance and time, and in 
thus adding to the wealth of the people, the advance- 
ment of civil society and the revenue of the State. 
When the Highlands of Scotland and Berkshire were 
a fortnight's journey from Edinburgh and London, 
a stranger's life was not safe in those regions. Walter 



Scott relates that in the reign of George III. 1 trav- 
elers were waylaid, robbed, and murdered not a hun- 
dred miles from the capital of Scotland. True it is 
in our own country no such acts in a regular and sys- 
tematic manner were perpetrated. If we have no 
remains of Gothic and Noric castles overhanging the 
fastnesses of our mountain parts, so likewise we have 
no romantic stories of plumed bandits shooting from 
behind rocks at passers-by, or dancing minuets with 
fair prisoners on the greensward of the valley. Iso- 
lated instances of highway robbery and of murder 
for money are scarce, and it is notorious that the per- 
petrators seldom for any long time defied the author- 
ities with impunity, and seldom, indeed, escaped. 
The causes of this may be satisfactorily explained 
with various reasons. There was, it is true, no dis- 
trict in Pennsylvania in which there was a surplusage 
of population, a part of which might have been driven 
to commit crimes for a livelihood, nor was there such 
alluring booty as would turn a romantic lad into a 
freebooter, after the manner of Robin Hood. There 
might possibly be a Dave Lewis, but there could not 
be a Claude Duval. But no reason can be advanced 
with so much force as this, that while the country 
was increasing in population and in wealth the roads 
were getting safer, better, and, of need, more con- 
stantly occupied. As it is a subject which may in- 
terest us and will interest those who follow, it is our 
province to consider it. 

The red men, following the instinct of nature and 
traveling with the sun and the rotary motion of the 
earth, had marked foot-paths and trails which led 
from hunting- and fishing-grounds to their more per- 
manent homes, to other tribes, to council-places in 
the East, to outposts, and to traders' posts. These 
paths were chosen, when it could be so done, along 
streams and otherwise along the hillsides or moun- 
tain slopes, to keep out of the lowlands. Often, when 
necessary, an undeviatiug straight line, which took 
advantage of the unfrequented localities, and which 
was directed by the unerring sun or by unchanging 
landmarks, was picked out and followed ; for in tra- 
versing the country they followed each after the other 
in a row in a way aptly designated " Indian fashion." 
They had a singular swinging walk ; they did not 
walk erect as our typical Indian, but with the instinct 
of the beast predominant, carried their head low, 
with their shoulders stooped, and their toes turned 
inward, and when on business, whether in peace or in 
war, had a peculiar gait, somewhat faster than a walk, 
but not so rapid as a run, and this gait they tirelessly 
kept up all day. 

There were three principal trails east and west, 
which the Indians, in connection with each other 
and with the whites, had made, and were, even after 
the first settlements in Western Pennsylvania, much 
traveled by them. One of these led from the Alle- 

1 Introduction to Rob Roy. 



PRIMITIVE ROADS AND METHODS OF TRANSPORTATION. 



177 



gheny River by way of the Kiskiminetas along the 

Juniata to the Susquehanna; the second was the 
path from the Allegheny across Laurel Hill, or at 
least to the great north-and-south trail along Ligonier 
Valley. This path from here eastward was not so 
much frequented by the traders as the northern trail, 
but when the army first made a road here it'was seen 
to be a more direct course to the Forks of the Ohio. 
The third was the one from the Ohio through South- 
western Pennsylvania, called Nemaeolin's path. It 
got this name from the Indian, Nemacolin, who 
piloted Washington when, at the instance of the Ohio 
Company, he first went to the forks of the river. Ne- 
macolin was a friendly Delaware ; his cabin was at 
Dunlap's Creek, Fayette. In 1753 this passage-way 
was a good pack-horse road. Washington made his 
road over this path previous to Braddock, who im- 
proved it and continued it to the river crossing, 
making what was called the " Braddock road." On 
this road was Gist's plantation and settlement, and 
the other settlements of the Ohio Company's first 
emigrants. The first or northern route usually went 
by the name of the Kittanning path, and it led past 
the Indian towns of Conemaugh, Kittanning, and 
Shanopin's to Logstown, the town built on the Ohio 
for the Mingoes by the French. On this route the 
whites, either Indian agents, commissioners, or traders, 
as Crogan and Frazer, first penetrated to the West, and 
following on it, Col. Armstrong, when he dashed up 
from Fort Shirley to the destruction of Capt. Jacobs, 
in 1756, led the vanguard of soldiers across the hills 
west of the mountains. " All the roads lead to Rome," 
and all the Indian trails of Southwestern Pennsyl- 
vania led to the forks of the rivers, whence the west- 
ern trails diverged in all directions. There were many 
other east-and-west trails bisecting and intersecting 
each other or the main trails, some of which were 
known to the whites, and some were almost obliterated 
when the whites passed into these parts. On the first 
of these Post came out on his first mission, and in 
175S, passing Forbes, then at Ligonier, he followed 
partly the track of the second trail. 

These Indian trails are noticeable for the peculiarity 
that they were, as it seemed, the great highways of the 
Indians, and because over these trails were opened 
the roads which first became the highways of the 
whites. The paths which extended north and south 
were not so well known. Emigration and traffic go 
east and west. The star of empire, in both the poli- 
tical and intellectual horizon, rising in the east, makes 
its way after the constellation which nightly sinks 
into the great western ocean. There was one chief 
trail, however, which passed through Westmoreland, 
and this was one of the most noted and prominent 
trails the Indians had in this part of the continent. 
This path was formed in Fayette County, by our 
bounds now, where two other trails came together; 
one of these branches coming from Florida through 
the Carolinas and Virginia, and the other through 



Tennessee and Kentucky, united at the State line, at 
the mouth of Grassy Run, then northward by a well- 
defined line past Uniontown, over the Youghiogheny 
where Braddock crossed at Stewart's Crossing ; thence 
along the side of Chestnut Ridge, through Ligonier 
Valley, over the Conemaugh and the head-waters of 
the Susquehanna to the council-fires of the Six Na- 
tions in Western New York. This was the Catawba, 
or Six Nation trail, and it was used by the Indians 
down to 1792. By such trails intercommunion and a 
connection were kept up between the stronger tribes 
and their remote dependent auxiliaries. Along this 
trail, during the Revolution and later, detached bodies 
of Indians belonging to many nations traveled at in- 
tervals, visiting and revisiting each other. The many 
captures in the valley were endured mostly from the 
Indians on this route, who, after hushing the cries of 
a stolen child, struck into the deep forests of North- 
ern Pennsylvania, into what was called the Indian 
country, and there evaded all pursuit. The first set- 
tlers frequently saw squads of them trotting briskly 
along over the tops of the hills, darting in and out 
among the bushes, apparently unconscious of any- 
thing when they were going with some object in 
view. Afterwards, along this route, the ashes of the 
log cabin and the mutilated remains of the scalped 
settler marked the direction of this via principia. 
You can trace its location, too, in some places by the 
Indian graves and burying-places, and by the marks 
of more permanent habitations and camping-grounds, 
which have been found in greater number along it 
than in any other part of this region between the 
mountains and the Ohio. The first names used by 
the whites to distinguish and localize particular places 
have been preserved to our own time. We have In- 
dian Creek, Indian Fort, Indian Camp Run, Scalp 
Rock, Indian Spring, and numerous old Indian bury- 
ing-grounds. Curious remains of pottery, and imple- 
ments of stone used in the first stages of agriculture 
as practiced by this nomadic people, weapons of war 
and of hunting, such as club-heads, arrow-heads, 
darts, and spear-headed flints, all evidently of abo- 
riginal invention, manufacture, and use, have been 
picked up, and are now regarded as curious relics in 
many houses along the hills. This would all tend to 
the conclusion that there was an intercourse among 
the various tribes in an age which, although not so 
remote, may well be regarded as prehistoric. 

The Indians inhabiting Westmoreland, including 
that part north of the Conemaugh and south of the 
Youghiogheny, were the Delawares and Shawanese. 
It is supposed that the most of these, especially those 
of the northern portion, between the Conemaugh 
and Kittanning, and between the Allegheny River 
and the Chestnut Ridge, or even to the Susquehanna, 
settled there after they removed from Standing Stone 
and from along the Juniata after Forbes' expedition, 
1758. 

Among the principal points east of the hills whither 



178 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the Indians were attracted either in times of war or 
in times of peace, were the first settlements of the 
whites or the traders' posts, such as Standing Stone, 
Frankstown, and Harris' Ferry. 

The Standing Stone stood in the borough of Hunt- 
ingdon, and was described by John Harris in 1754 as 
being fourteen feet high and about six inches square. 
It was erected by the Indians, a branch of the Six 
Nations, and was covered with their hieroglyphics. 1 

1 The natives, who seem to have regarded this stone with great vener- 
ation, after the treaty of 1754, by which their title to the lands of the 
valley of the Juniata was relinquished, migrated, and, as it is generally 
supposed, carried this stone with them. Another atone, soon after erected 
by the whites, was covered with the names of traders, residents, and 
colonial officials. It was broken by a carelessly thrown " long bullet." 

Distance* on the Paths Westward, According to John Harris. 
John Han is, who had been westward prior to 1754, notices the follow- 
ing points, witli the intermediate distances. " From my ferry (near pres- 
ent site of Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna) to George Croghad's (Crogan), 5 
miles; to Kitlatinny Mountain, 9 miles; Thomas Mitchell's sleeping- 
place, 3 miles; Tuscarora, 14 miles; Cove Spring, 10 miles; Shadow of 
Death, 8 miles; Black Log,3 miles; 66 miles to this point, the road forks 
to Raystown {Bedford); to the Three Springs, 10 mileB; Sideling Hill 
Gap, 8 miles; Juniata Hill, 8 miles; Crossings at Juniata, 8 miles; Snake's 
Spring, 8 miles; Raystown, 4 miles; Shawana Cabins, 8 miles; Allegheny 
Hill, G miles; Edmund's Swamp. 8 miles; Stoney Creek, 6 miles; Kiche- 
ney Paulin's house (Indian site of Johnstown), 6 miles; Clearfields (The 
WJieatlields, now East Wheat field township mid r'uinity, Indiana < 'iniiilij |, 7 
miles; to the other side of Laurel Hill, 5 miles; Loyal Haning, 6 miles; 
Big Bottom, 8 miles; Chestnut Ridge, 8 miles; to the parting of the 
roads, 4 miles ; thence one road leads to Shannopin's Town (near the site 
of Pittsburgh, on Allegheny River, Thirty-second Street), the other to Kis- 
comeuettas Old Town {not far from the Kiskiminetas at Leechburg), to Big 
Lick, 3 miles; to Beaver Dams, 6 miles; James Duuning's sleeping-place, 
8 miles; Cockeye's cabin, 8 miles ; Four-Mile Run, 11 miles; Shannopin- 
town, on Allegheny River, 4 miles; to Logstown, down the river, 18 
miles ; distance down the old road, 246 miles." 

Along the Frankstown Road. 
" Now beginning at the Black Log, — Frankstown Road to Aughwick, 
6; J;n:k Armstrong's Narrows (so called from his being murdered there, 
now know/ as ' Jack's Narrows'), 8; Standing Stone (<d.ont 11 feet hi.jii ami 
6 inches square), 10. At each of the last places we crossed Juniata, the 
next and last crossing of Juniata, 8; Branch of Juniata, 10; Big Lick, 
10; Frank's (Stephen's) Town, 5; Beaver Dams, 10; Allegheny Hill, 4 ; 
Clearfields, 6; John Hart's Sleeping-Place, 12; Shawanese Cabins (near 
Cherrytree, Cause Township, Indiana Co.), 24 ; Shaver's Sleeping-Place at 
two large licks {Two Licks, at or near the forks of the Two Licks, in Greene 
Township, Indiana County), 12; Eighteen-Mile Run, 12; Ten-Mile Lick, 
6; to Kiscomenettas (Leechburg, Armstrong Co.) town, mi the creek which 
runs into the Allegheny river six miles down, almost as large as Schuyl- 
kill, 10; Chartiers landing on the Allegheny, 8," etc. — From " History of 
I Cumberland < tounta" Hupp. 

HarCs Sleeping -Place. 

"The man Hart, whose name is perpetuated, in connection with his 
log, by the valley we have spoken of, was an old German, who followed 
the occupation of trading among the Indians. He was probably the first 
permanent white settler along the Juniata west of the Standing Stone, 
and long before be settled he crossed and recrossed the Allegheny Moun- 
tains by the old war-path with bis pack-horses. 

"John Hart's Sleeping-Place is mentioned in 1756, by John Harris, in 
making an estimnte of the distance between the rivers Susquehanna and 
Allegheny. Hart's Sleeping-Place i» about twelve miles from the junc- 
tion of the Burgoon and Kit tanning Runs, and still retains its name. 
When he took up his residence along the river be hewed down an im- 
mense tree and turned it into a trough, out of which he fed his horses 
and cattle, hence the name Hart's Log." — Jones 1 " History of the Juniata 
Valley." 

Most of the old maps, especially those made before the Revolution, 
are not reliable when it comes to details. From point to point these 
trails were usually located by hearsay and an imperfect topographical 
knowledge. They answer the purpose, however, by giving, approxi- 



Frankstown was on the Juniata River. It was the 
seat of an Indian town. The common opinion long 
was that it was named after an old Indian chief called 
Capt. Frank, but the truth is that it was named after 
an old German Indian trader named Stephen Franks, 
whose post was at this town and who lived contem- 
poraneously with old man Hart, who had a lodging- 
place now within Indiana County. The Indian name 
was " Assunepachla." As the Indians could not pro- 
nounce or articulate the letter "r," no name unless of 
English origin with that letter in it appears in their 
vocabulary. 

Frankstown took in a large district of country of 
which it was the centre. Hence the prominence of 
the point and its importance. John Harrises, or 
Harris' Ferry, is now Harrisburg. 

One of the principal Indian paths was that one 
which ran from the Kittanning town across the region 
now of Indiana County to Cherrytree, and thence to 
the Juniata. Upon this path John Armstrong led 
his expedition against Kittanning in 1756. This path 
was crossed at Indiana town by the trail from Cush- 
cheoting to the East. This Kittanning path, which 
passed through Indiana town, ran northeastward into 
the trail which came down from Venango. These 
two united, now in Greene township, Indiana Co. The 
continuation of the Venango and Kittanning path 
then passed a little below Cherrytree. At the forks 
of this trail Armstrong encamped on the night of 
Sept. 7, 1756. 

The trail from Cushcheoting (Coshocton?) to Ligo- 
nier came into Indiana County near the northwest 
corner, ran through the site of Indiana Town, passed 
through the township of West Wheatfield, and crossed 
the Conemaugh between New Florence and Nineveh, 
and thence up the valley. 

There were, besides those of which we have memo- 
rials, many other trails over the region of our county, 
but knowledge of these is obscure. Thus one of the 
chief trails was from Shannopin's Town, on the Alle- 
gheny River two miles above the Forks of the Ohio, to 
Ligonier, where, as we have said, many trails met and 
crossed. This trail from Ligonier in all probability 
came westward on the north side of the Loyalhanna 
through Derry township, until it crossed the creek 
again a short distance above where the Nine-Mile 
Run Mows into it. It then continued down the west 
side of the creek, at some distance from the stream, 
probably trending towards the northwest, for a dis- 
tance of about five miles, where it forked. One of the 
branches then went to Shannopin's, and the other to 
the Kiskiminetas. 2 

mately, routes. In this respect the map of the State Historical Society 
id in some instances notoriously incorrect and needs revision. Of the 
old maps, both those designed by the French and the English, as well as 
by our State authorities, scarcely any two of them agree. 

- Extract from Christian Post's Journal, 1758. 

Nov. 9, 1785. . . . "We waited till almost noon for the writing of the 

general [Forbes, at Ligonier Stockade, whither the army then lay, on their way 



PRIMITIVE ROADS AND METHODS OF TRANSPORTATION. 



179 



The Indians had various villages and abiding- 
places throughout this region west of the mountains. 
but none of them was of any magnitude, and they 
were of such a character that the inhabitants could 
remove on short notice and without inconvenience. 
The natives never occupied their villages after the 
treaty of 1768, nor after the whites came near them. 

One of these villages or stopping-places was " Kick- 
enapawling's Old Town," two hundred and seventy- 
six miles from Philadelphia. It was at the junction 
of Stony Creek with the Conemaugh, and on its site 
is to-day the city of Johnstown, which took its name 
from one Joseph Johns, a very early settler there, of 
German nativity. So was " Punxsutawney," on the 
Big Mahoning, in Jefferson County, and so also was 
" Kiskemeneco" (now Kiskiminetas), a Shawanese 
town near the site of Leechburg, as above mentioned. 
According to Post there was a " Keckkeknepolin," 
a village of the Shawanese, along the Kiskiminetas 
path, east of " Kiskemeneco." 

The Indian villages west of Laurel Hill, such as 
they are known to the whites, were situated along 
streams, and most of them along the larger tributa- 
ries of Allegheny and the Monongahela. Although the 
archaeologist shall discover vestiges of the presence of 
these natives in places inland, even in Ligonier Val- 
ley, no memorial of them exists. 

These were the principal Indian trails in our early 
county, but into them, like cow-paths, others ran for 
the use of tribes less numerous. The route of the 
east-and-west trails may at this day be fixed, but it 
would be almost impossible to trace the north-and- 
south trail by landmarks other than those which 
nature has left. 1 

It cannot now but be noticed how the great centres 
of travel were afterwards, by the whites, fixed nearly 
over these Indian paths, as the first pack-horse roads 
of the whites, taking immediate advantage of them, 
marked them out. The road which was cut over the 



to Fort Diopiesne], We were escorted by an hundred men, rank and file 
Commanded by Capt. Haselet ; we passed through a tract of good land, 
about six miles on the old trading path, and came to the creek [Loyal- 
haimo] agayl, where there is a large fine bottom, well timbered ; from 
thence we came upon a hill, to an advanced breastwork, about ten miles 
from the camp, well situated for strength, etc. [See Note 2, page 28], 
Within five miles from the breastwork we departed from Capt. Haselet ; 
he kept the old trading path to the Ohio. . . . We went the path that 
leads along the Loyal Hanning Creek. . . . 11th. — We started early, and 
came to the old Shawanese town, called Keckkeknepolin, grown up thick 
with weeds, briers, and brushes that we could scarcely get through. 
Piquetomen (an Indian guide) led us upon a steep hill, that our horses 
could hardly get up; and Thomas Hickman's horse tumbled, and rolled 
down the hill like a wheel ; on which he (supposed to be Hickman) grew 
augry, and would go no farther with us, and said he would go by him- 
self. It happened we found a path .on the top of the hill. At three 
o'clock we came to Kiskemeneco, an old Indian town, a rich bottom, 
well timbered," etc. 

1 The number of such paths was greatly increased after Braddock's 
defeat. Indeed, it is said that the country about us was almost over- 
run with Indian tpails and devious winding paths. From the time of 
Braddock to Forbes the French and Indians as well as the Americans iu 
scouting parties made many inroads over the western part of the State, 
extending east as far as Conococheague, Huntingdon Co. 



path of the friendly Delaware from the Turkey Foot 
to the Monongahela quite nearly marked the great 
international turnpike road from Cumberland to 
Wheeling, and the road opened by the vanguard of 
Forbes' army, and known as the Forbes' or Hannas- 
town road, but called by general historians the Penn- 
sylvania road, to distinguish it from the Virginia or 
Braddock road, after being long used as the only 
thoroughfare through the middle of the State, relin- 
quished its monopoly to the Pennsylvania State road, 
which utilized part of its road-bed, and which in its 
turn was in many places but the bed of the western 
end of the famous Philadelphia and Pittsburgh turn- 
pike. 

What the Appian Way was to the inhabitants of 
Central Italy, so was the Braddock road to the people 
of the southern tier of counties, and so was the Forbes 
road to our county. 2 

Nc roads could conveniently be made along the 
path which touched the Conemaugh and Juniata and 
hugged the steep, overhanging mountains ; but it was 
the natural route for the canal, and not far from the 
marks of the feet that now are silent another high- 
way was laid out for men of another race to pass and 
repass by methods never dreamed of by those. Can 
you get a more comprehensive idea of what is com- 
pressed within a century than from this, that Webster 
and Dickens followed Weiser and Crogan over the 
same route that Jacobs and Shingass trotted along 
with their belts full of bloody scalp-locks? 

When the military roads were first opened by the 
army they were cleared wide enough to allow the pas- 

- The Braddock road was first opened by the Ohio Company in their 
purpose to divert the Indian trade from the West. It was used to travel 
on as an Indian path in 1748, and before Forbes' time it was preferred 
by the Pennsylvania traders themselves, who came up the valley to the 
mouth of the Conococheague, and thence up the river to Wills Creek 
(Cumberland). The company opened the road in 1753. Troops under 
Washington in 1754 repaired it to Gist's ; in 1755 it was opened and 
widened by Braddock to within eight or ten miles of Fort DuqueBne. A 
branch of the road went from Gist's to Brownsville. This was opened 
by Col. James Burd in 1759. Hence you have Fort Burd, another name 
for Brownsville, otherwise Redstone. From the close of Pontiac's war 
it became a highway for trade, and nearly all the early settlers in South- 
ern Westmoreland from 1765 to 1770 came on this road from Maryland 
and Virginia. 

Before the Ohio Company adopted this road it was well known by the 
name of Nemacolin's path, from the fact that the company employed 
Col. Thomas Cresap, of Obi Town, Md., to mark the road, and the colo- 
nel hired a well-known Delaware Indian named Nemacolin, who lived 
at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, to select the best route. Itwas known 
to the Indians many years before that, and was used by the traders as 
early as 174(1. It led from the mouth of Wills Creek to the Forks of the 
Ohio. The Ohio Company marked it in 1750 by blazing the trees, and 
clearing away the underbrush, and removing the old dead and fallen 
timber. In 1753 they improved and enlarged it at a considerable ex- 
pense. It was improved by Washington, as we said, in 1754, in his cam- 
paign, and by Braddock in 1755, who left it in good condition as far as 
the mouth of Turtle Creek. 

It should be remembered that Braddock in 1755 did not follow the In- 
dian path or the road cut by Washington on it the whole length of his 
route. He left it to the right before he crossed Jacobs Creek, although 
afterwards the whole lower road, both the part Braddock opened to the 
place of divergence and the road from there on to Redstone, which was, 
as we said, opened by Col. Burd in 1759, was commonly known aa Brad- 
dock's road. 



180 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



sage of the cannon and heavy army-wagons, but the 
undergrowth of the forest spontaneously springing up, 
and the wash of the mountains, with their periodical 
floods, choked the ravines with debris, and left at re- 
curring intervals large bodies of logs and stones in the 
road-beds. With the exception of these two main 
roads, the first passage-ways were not made for 
wheeled vehicles. The first vehicles were those used, 
at times apart, by the government. The common 
roads, so called, were single narrow paths under the 
foliage of the trees, with the heavier and lower limbs 
lopped off, and the stumps left standing, around which 
the path turned. For many years the great roads 
were in a barely passable condition, and all of them 
so much later than 1775. Bouquet, in 17(>4, had to 
leave his wagons and heavy baggage at Ligonier on 
account of the state of the road, and in 1774 Dun- 
more's army for the same reason had to transport their 
war materials to the frontier of Western Virginia on 
horses and mules. One of the first petitions presented 
to the court in April, 1773, was from the inhabitants 
along the Great road, who represented that, from the 
fallen timber and the deep morasses, the road was 
almost impassable, and they prayed the court to ap- 
point viewers to report ; and at several successive ses- 
sions viewers were appointed and rates laid. Among 
other petitions in the matter of roads was one by the 
inhabitants of Springhill township, west of the Mo- 
nongahela, for a road from opposite the mouth of 
Fish-Pot Run (half-way between Ten-Mile and Red- 
stone) to the forks of Dunlap's path and Gen. Brad- 
dock's road on the top of Laurel Hill. In the next 
year the inhabitants of Tyrone, Menallen, and Spring- 
hill asked for a road from near Redstone Old Fort to 
Henry Beeson's mill (Uniontown), and thence to 
intersect Braddock's road near the forks of Dunlap's 
road and said road On the top of Laurel Hill ; giving 
as a reason that " We, who at present live on the west 
side of the Monongahela, are obliged frequently to 
carry our corn twenty miles to the mill of Henry 
Beeson, near Laurel Hill, and in all probability at 
some seasons of the year will ever have to do so." 

From the difficulty of making roads in a new 
country, aud one whose surface was so unfavorable, 
and from the few people there were to make them, it 
was not possible that good roads could be made and 
kept in repair. The rates and the labor were not 
adequate to make them anything like passable from 
early in the fall to late in the spring. There was no 
ballast in the bottom of the roads, and movable tim- 
ber washed in the widening ruts. In the winter they 
were deep with mire. There were no culverts, and 
nothing like a respectable bridge. A corduroy affair 
was thrown over marshy and open places, but all the 
large streams were forded. There were no fences 
along the road, but the deep forest came up to the 
very verge, and the traveler not unfrequently saw 
crossing his path before him a wild cat with her kit- 
tens or a bear with her cubs. In the warmth of 



spring rank vegetation covered the road-bed in the 
lower bottoms. Before wagoning, and even after 
wagons were in use on it, the old road was worse than 
the worst roads in the mountains now which have 
been temporarily made to get out bark and ties. 

In this stage of the public roads travel by vehicle 
was to a great extent, of course, unknown. Vehicles 
did not come into general use till after the State road 
was made in 1785, although as early as 1782 there was 
complaint that the old road was not fit for wagon 
travel. But you may say that wagons were not used 
till villages had sprung up all along it, and till the 
country justified the necessity. All travel for both busi- 
ness and pleasure was on horseback, and this method, 
for its conveniency and speed, remained a favorite 
method long after it had ceased to be the only one. As 
the chief part of the carrying trade was accomplished 
by the same means, the superintending of such trans- 
portation became a business. And making allowance 
for the limited amount of merchandise which could 
be so transported, it was, withal, we may judge, a 
profitable business. We are told that about 1784 the 
rates for carrying from Philadelphia and Baltimore 
to Pittsburgh was forty-five shillings per hundred-, 
weight. In 178(5 the price of carriage to Philadelphia! 
was sixpence per pound. In 1796 it is marked at the 
same. In the relative value of money we may then 
say that in round numbers it would cost now at 
such rates from twelve to fifteen dollars to carry a 
barrel of flour the length of the Pennsylvania Kail- 
road. 1 

These packers went and came in trains. A train 
consisted of from five to ten, and even more, horses 
tethered by a hitching-rope one behind the other. 
Sometimes the horses were so well trained that they 
followed the leader alone. The master of the train 
rode before or behind the horses, and directed their 
movements by his voice. A train could travel fifteen 
or twenty miles day by day, and each horse could 
probably carry two hundred-weight.- The furniture 



I 



1 The charge for hauling when wagons first went over the southern 
route from Hagerstown to Brownsville was three dollars a hundred 
weight, or sixty dollars a ton. 

" The operations on the lakes during the war of 1812 called attention 
again to the cost of transportation, and in 1818 the House directed the 
Secretaries of War and of the Treasury to report at the next session a 
list of the internal improvements in progress, and plans for aiding them 
by appropriations. In the discussion upon thia motion it was stated thai 
the expense for the transportation of each barrel of Hour to Detroit 
was not less than sixty dollars, while for every pound of ammunition 
and other material it Mas not less than fifty ceuts." — Hazard's Register. 

- Hear what Pistol shoots off: 

" Shall pa< k-1 seB, 

And hollow pampered jades of Asia, 
Which cannot go but thirty miles a day, 
Compare with Caesars, and with Cannibals, 
And Trojan Greeks?" 

King Henry /!'., Second Part, Act II., Scene i. (The thirty miles wen the 

roads of England.) 

At .Tii iie sessions, 1785, appears the following record: 

" May 30, 17S3, Received of George Hixon A Philip Bradly six pounds 

for Breaking Sunday by following their ordinary employ men t of 'hiving 



TURNPIKES— CONKSTOG A WAGONS— PIONEER INNS. 



181 



of the horse was a pack-saddle and a halter ; and the 
lead horse had in addition a circling band of iron 
over his withers from the sides of the saddle, to which 
were hung the jingling bells, whose interminable tink- 
ling relieved in a kind of way the monotony of the 
long journeys and kept the other horses from going 
astray, and called the young tow-heads with their 
mother to the door of the cabin when they came 
within hearing. 

The pack-saddle then in use was such a piece 
of workmanship as any man used to handling ordi- 
nary tools could with a little ingenuity and applica- 
tion make. To describe it minutely in the interest of 
those who have never seen one of those caparisons of 
a past age : it was made of four pieces of wood, two 
of these being notched limbs; the crotches fit along 
the horse's back, the front part resting upon the horse's 
withers; the other two were flat pieces, about the 
length and breadth of a lap-shingle, say eighteen 
inches by five, and were to extend along the sides 
fastened to the ends of the notched pieces. It thus 
bore some resemblance to a cavalry saddle. The 
making of pack-saddles was a regular business, and 
very early there was a saddle-tree maker in Pittsburgh 
and one at Greensburg. A veritable pack-saddle is 
now almost as great a curiosity as Mambrino's helmet 
would be. 

When these saddles were used for riding, stirrups 
were fastened to the sides, and the saddle was held to 
the horse by a rope, or girth, extending clean around. 
Pieces of cloth and worn-out blankets were habitu- 
ally put under the saddle to keep it from chafing the 
skin. Upon these saddles were packed in divers shapes 
by curious arrangement all kinds of general mer- 
chandise. Bars of iron bent in the middle were hung 
across, large creels of wicker-work contained babies, 
bed-clothes, and farming tools ; and kegs of powder, 
caddies of domestic spice, bags of salt, rolls of calico, 
sacks of charcoal, and boxes of glass were thus fetched 
across the mountains for the use of the settlers, and 
pelts and roots and whiskey, when whiskey was manu- 
factured, were sent in return. Shop-keepers from the 
West went down to Philadelphia and Baltimore in 

pack-horses through HannasTown on Sunday loaded, for the use of the 
poor. 

" £6. 0. 0. " Mic'h Huffnagle." 

(N. B. The presumption is violent, that it was fhefine that was for the 
" use of the poor," not the load upon the pack-horses.) 

We cannot reetat the opportunity to recall the quaint words of Smollett, 
who has better preserved the customs of Great Britain in his novels 
than in his history : 

" There is no such convenience as a waggon in this couutrey, and my 
finances were too weak to support the expense of hireing a horse; I de- 
termined, therefore, to set out with the carriers, who transport goods 
from one place to another on horseback, and this scheme I accordingly 
put in execution on the first day of September, 1739, sitting upon a pack- 
saddle between two baskets, one of which contained niy goods in a knap- 
sack. But by the time we arrived at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I was so 
fatigued with the tediousness of the carriage, and benumbed with the 
coldness of the weather, that I resolved to travel the rest of the journey 
on foot rather than proceed in such a disagreeable manner." — Tl« . M<> n- 
lures of Roderick fiandont, chap. viii. 



squads of six, ten, or a dozen to lay in their yearly 
stock of goods. Members of the Assembly and mem- 
bers of Congress, agents, and militia officers thus 
traveled to the seat of government. Young men went 
a-courting on expeditions as dangerous as young 
Lochinvar's, and on such a saddle as graced the back 
of Petruchio's steed when he went to wed with the 
Shrew, or with accoutrements similar to those of 
Sancho Panza's placid and meek Dapple. Ordin- 
arily riding-saddles were but pack-saddles covered 
with a leather covering. 

William Findley, our member of Congress from 
1791, with some intermission, down to 1817, per- 
formed his journey to the seat of government on a 
horse which he used for the greater part of his long 
term. For a couple of weeks before his departure 
his family were busy preparing his wardrobe and ar- 
ranging his outfit. Lawyers and judges passed from 
one county-seat to another on such saddles covered 
with a tow or worn-out blanket decoration, which 
answered for housing, cushion, and flap. The change 
of apparel and the money in silver specie were stowed 
in the ends of the saddle-bags, or rolled into a wallet 
and tied behind the furniture of the horse. 

This mode of travel continued until the State, 
taking the management of public roads in hand, com- 
pletely revolutionized travel and traffic. For it was 
only when the roads, then bad in comparison with 
what they are now, but good as to what they had been 
before, it was only in their improved condition that 
wagon and stage conveyance completely altered the 
facilities for transportation, and made intercourse be- 
tween the East and West safer and easier, and better 
adapted to the growing necls. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



TURNPIKES- 



■CONESTOGA WAGONS— PIONEER 
INNS. 



The State assists in making Roads — The Old Pennsylvania State Road — 
Its Course through the County — The Villages built along it — (.'ones- 
toga Wagons and Hacks — First Load of Merchandise hauled across 
the Mountains — How long they were in bringingit — Cost of carrying 
— First Mails from Pittsburgh East and West — How Papers and the 
Mails were delivered — First Carriages and Carioles — The Pleasure of 
Traveling in these Contrivances — The Felgar Road — The Jones' Mill 
Road — The Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company incor- 
porated — The Northern Turnpike— The State appropriates Money to 
the Southern Route — Progress of the Undertaking — Its completion — 
Public-Houses — Their Great Number along the Turnpikes and in the 
Villages — They become Famous in their way — The Old Class of Inn- 
keepers — The Good Cheer and the Solid Comforts they offered Trav- 
elers — Homer gives some Hints as to their Signs — The Sceptre de- 
parted from Israel — Regrets of a Certain Class that Railroads have 
ever been built. 

Up to the time of the burning of Hannastown, 
17S2, many roads had been made through Westmore- 
land. At almost every Quarter Sessions petitions for 
new roads were presented and others passed on. A 



182 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 



list of these is inserted in the notes. 1 These roads 
were, of course, for the convenience of different 
neighborhoods, and one or two influential men could 
have a road from their plantation or ferry to run to 
some mill, to the county town, or to one of the rivers. 
Some two prominent points were made the termini, 
and one of these points was usually Col. So-and-so's 
house. Perhaps of all the most needful requirements 
in this line was the necessity of getting a shorter 
route to a mill when those were few, and when to go 
and return was the journey of a day. But outside of 
these local roads there were some roads supported by 
the county rates which were used for general traffic. 
We think that the road which in part became the old 
State road was in some places used previous to its 
authorization by the act of Assembly, and is the road 
mentioned in old papers as the road " south of the 
Main Road." The Forbes road was, however, still 
the chief road, and remained so for some years later. 
There were some houses in what was afterwards 
Greensburg before the State road was located. 

1 Petitions for roads and returns, etc., commencing at January term, 
1789, and ending at September sessions, 1795, taken from the Minute 
Book, Common Pleas, from 1775 to 1804 : 

Index for Return of fioads. 
Return of a road from Patrick Cowan's pa6t Hughes' old place,* March 

7, 1789. 
Return from Greensburg to the north of Puckety. 

" Kelly's Fording to Greensburg. 

" J. Miller's to Sloan's Mill, thence to Greensburg. 

" A. Sharp's to tile Frankstown Road. 

" Owens' Mill to James Stewart's. 

" Peterson's to Castner's Ferry. 

" Greensburg to Simerel's Ferry (West Newton). 

" Gallagher's Ford to Greensburg. 

" Laurel Hill to Lovinguire's Mill. 

. " Elder's to Crooked Creek 

" Saw-Mill Run to John Wright's (private). 

" C. Hank's to J. Silvace'a. 

" Iron-Works f to Pittsburgh road. 

" J. Macklin's to intercept Archibald road. 

" Roaring Run to Denniston's Mill. 

" Greensburg to Jacobs Creek, opposite J. Masou's. 

" Hays' Ferry to Budd's road. 

" Bliddle Gap to George Arnfredt's. 

" Campbell's Mill to intersect Elder's road at Thomas Ander- 
son's. 
Craig's Mill to Greensburg. 

" Denniston's road to Shoemaker's Mill. 

" From Greensburg to the Broad Fording. 

" William Todd's to Denniston's Mill. 

" Lochrey's to Asa Cook's. 

" Newport to Philip Freeman's. 

" Miracle's Mill to intersect the road to Washington. 

" Old Place to Old Pennsylvania Road. 

" Congruity Meeting-House to Poke Run Meeting-House. 

" Light's Lane to Hays' Ferry. 

" Greensburg to Old Town on the Kiskiminetas River. 

The return of a road from Crooked Creek to Col. Charles Campbell's 
mill on Blacklick was headed " To the Worshipful Bench at Greens- 
burg." June 20, 1789. 

Another Petition is for a road " beginning at a 'May-pole,' in the 
centre of Greensburg." April Session, 1789. 

In another petition Greensburg is styled the " Metropolis." 



Tin- road began at Cowan's house, on Budd road, and passed Ne- 
hemiah Stokely's. Width of all these roads to be twenty-five feet, 
t Turnbull & Marmie's works on Jacobs Creek. 



On the 25th of September, 1785, the Assembly passed 
the act which made the old State road, the road which 
so long monopolized the through travel, and which in 
its turn gave way to the chartered turnpike. This 
act appropriated two thousand dollars of the public 
money to lay out and make a highway from the 
western part of Cumberland County to Pittsburgh, 
and authorized the president in Council to appoint 
commissioners to lay it out. The road was to be made 
in as straight and direct a manner as the circum- 
stances would admit, to be of the breadth of sixty 
feet, and was to remain, for all intents and purposes, 
the State highway between these designated points.'- 
The Council had the power to direct reviews and to 
finally determine the course and direction of the 
road. This road being surveyed and partly laid out, 
was confirmed in Council on the 24th of November, 
1787. 

The part so confirmed was from the Widow Miller's 
spring, in Cumberland County, through Shippensburg 
to Bedford, but a review was ordered of that part 
from Bedford to Pittsburgh. By a resolution of the 
General Assembly of the 21st November, 1788, the 
executive was authorized to draw the amount of the 
expenses to be incurred in making the review, and by 
an order of the Council of the 14th March, 1789, the 
surveyors were appointed, who, on the 26th of May, 
1790, presented their report. 

The wants of the West demanded the road, and 
where it came along the current of the new emigration 
from the Eastern and Middle States to the new terri- 
tories drifted along its sides. Most of the villages 
which became business towns of the turnpike were 
started at a tavern stand along the old road. The 
most noticeable change, however, as the effect of new 
emigration, was that after the settlement of the 
troubles arising from the Whiskey Insurrection. 

As cities are usually built on large rivers, so towns 
and villages naturally spring up along highways, 
whether turnpike roads, canals, or railroads. The 
courses of this road being very nearly identical with 
the turnpike, it is known with tolerable precision to 
most. It entered the county on the east over Laurel 
Hill beyond the village of Laughlinstown, and pass- 
ing through the villages, as we have them now, of 
Ligonier, Youngstown, Greensburg, Adamsburg, and 
south of Irwin, passed out of the county at Turtle 
Creek. None of these places of the old road age bad 
any pretension to the name of town except Greens- 
burg. The rest were collections of from half a dozen 
to a score of log-cabin houses. 

It was cm this road that pack-horses, strong wagons, 
and mail-hacks first ran with anything like regularity. 
We cannot note the change as we would desire, but, 
thanks to some one who anticipated the curiosity of 
the coming race, there has been preserved some in- 
formation which, although not expressly throwing 

- The old Forbes road was sometimes called the King's highway. 



TURNPIKES— CONESTOGA WAGONS— PIONEER INNS. 



183 



light upon our road, will partly explain the state of 
travel. Such an innovation was considered worthy to 
be remembered. For although there were in 1785 
five stores in Pittsburgh, and a couple in Brownsville, 
yet the merchandise was still brought from the East I 
in the usual way by packers. The first load of mer- 
chandise unloaded at Brownsville from a wagon 
which had been loaded beyond the mountains was 
the event which, with good judgment, has been 
thought worthy of historical notice ; an event, by the 
way, more worthy to be commemorated than hun- 
dreds of other events which go to make up the early 
histories. 

John Hayden, the wagoner, brought out a load of 
about two thousand pounds' weight, with four horses 
from Hagerstown, for Jacob Bowman, merchant. The 
distance was one hundred and forty miles, and the 
teamster was nearly a month on the way. The route 
was the Braddock road. This was in 1789. At this 
time the Northern or Forbes road was described as 
being in some places so steep that great boughs of trees 
had to be tied as drags to the wagons, which acted on 
the principle of the rudder to a ship. 

Until some time after the Revolution all correspond- 
ence was carried on by express-riders or by casual 
travelers. About 178G, Mr. James Brison was ordered 
by the authorities at New York to establish a post 
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and from Winchester 
to Bedford. In July, 1784, a project had been started 
by private subscription for a post-rider, but the pro- 
ject fell through. 

The next mail spoken of from Pittsburgh was from 
there to Fort Limestone and Fort Washington, Cin- 
cinnati. This was in July, 1794, when a line of 
steamboats was established to run from Limestone to 
Wheeling and back once every three weeks. From 
Wheeling to Pittsburgh it was to be carried on horse- 
back. The men on the boats were armed with mus- 
kets. 

In the Greensburg and Indiana Register of Nov. 12, 
1812, the information is given that a post-route had 
lately been established from Bedford to Greensburg. 
The post left Greensburg every Saturday morning, 
passed through Youngstown, Laughlinstown, and 
Stoystown, and arrived at Bedford on Sunday evening. 
Subscribers on that route then were first served with 
their papers by mail. To that time and much later 
the paper oft' the authorized mail-route was carried 
to designated points at the expense of the subscribers, 
and from these points distributed around. 

It is said that the first of the old-fashioned carriages 
used on our side of the mountains was one belonging 
to Col. Morgan, the agent appointed by Congress for 
Indian affairs. This must have been in the early 
part of the Revolution. He brought his family out 
in it, and for years the remembrance of it was vivid 
among the members of the Chartiers congregation. 
The honor of having first crossed the mountains in 
a carriage is, however, contested by Dr. Schoepf in 



the memorandum he has left of a visit to Pittsburgh. 
This Dr. Schoepf was a physician and naturalist, and 
having been employed as surgeon to the German 
troops in America, he remained in the country some 
two years after the war was over. He has left an in- 
teresting account of this visit in his travels, published 
at Erlangen in 1788, and since translated into Eng- 
lish. 

He came to Pittsburgh in 1783, and on arriving in 
the town his vehicle was the chief object of interest 
to the "many well-dressed gentlemen and highly- 
adorned ladies" whom he encountered at the tavern. 1 
He says that as his " karriol" drove past lonely houses 
in the wilderness, its appearance created intense ex- 
citement, mothers showing their children something 
they had never seen before. And ask any of your 
oldest citizens who is native to the county, and he 
will tell that he recollects when there were only two 
or three carriages to be seen at the largest congrega- 
tions at church, and when a dead body was carried 
to the burying-ground in a four-horse wagon, not for 
ceremony, but of necessity, which became formal. 

The wagons and hacks, called mail-wagons, used on 
these roads were clumsy structures to those used on 
the later turnpike. Every part of it had to be built on 
the principle of the wonderful " one-hoss shay," each 
part the strongest. The tires on the wheels were at 
first put on in pieces of about the length of a felloe, 
and the bed rested on huge square bolsters. Indeed, 
nothing else could have stood the roughness and the 
jolting. The old road in the valleys ran over swamps 
and marshes ; in the mountains over logs, stumps, and 
rocks, along the sides of the hills, and up and down 
the walls of precipitous ravines. Sometimes the 
wheels would fall perpendicularly two to three 
feet over a rock ; again they would swing sideways 
over the washed-out shale more than fifty yards down 
a precipitous hill. From the fall to the spring the 
roads did not have any bottom. In some of the cuts 
there was not room enough for two wagons to pass 
each other, then sometimes there was a fight. At 
other places the driver or the wagoner had to 
walk on the bank above his team, so narrow was the 
passage-way. Sticking in the mud was a common 
amusement. A wagoner had often to spend three 
nights, one after the other, at the same house, being 
no nearer it after a day's drive than he was to the 
next house towards which he journeyed. So bad were 
the roads frequently that old persons recollect of 
teams having to be stabled while making the ascent 
of the "hogback," upon which Greensburg is built, 
then a miry, narrow way, now known as West Otto- 
man Street, but which in the first days of the town 
was far worse than most of the township roads now. 

On this road from Philadelphia and the East came 
those trains of emigrants who proceeded westward to 
the newly-opened Territories in their own convey- 

1 Suppose it was Ormsby'ft taveri). 



184 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ances, and with their arrangements previously made 
to establish little colonies. Land speculators and 
business men also made an important element in the 
travel at this time. 

About 1804 a through line of coaches from Phila- 
delphia to Pittsburgh, by way of Lancaster, Harris- 
burg, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Bedford, Somerset, and 
Greensburg was established, and the time occupied in 
going the entire distance, when it was in successful 
operation, was about seven days not counting the 
nights. 

In the beginning of May, 1805, the first stage-coach 
started from Pittsburgh for Chambersburg. Quite a 
crowd of curiously-inclined idlers had collected to 
see it roll out from the front of the tavern stand, and 
under the crack of the whip swing, like a miniature 
ship, for the East. 

After the turnpike was made, and in good condi- 
tion, the time was wonderfully shortened. Within 
one generation as much progress was made in the ex- 
peditiousness of travel as was made in the next gen- 
eration which saw the railroad. For some time before 
1830 the time occupied by the coach lines in going 
from one of those cities to the other at either end of 
the road \v;is from three and a half to four days and 
nights. The times had brought the necessity for the 
innovation, and enterprise had made travel by night 
safe and feasible. There were relays of horses and 
drivers at convenient distances, mostly not farther 
apart than about ten miles. About this time the price 
of passage in one of these coaches from one end of 
the road to the other was from eighteen and twenty 
dollars to twenty-two and twenty-three dollars. The 
freight charges in Conestoga wagons for the full length 
of the line were from three to five cents per pound. 

Then came a new want. The increasing numbers 
engaged in the carrying business and the augmenting 
squads of travelers must have frequent places to stop. 
Hence the wayside inns which were so prominent, not 
only in the villages, which were usually started by a 
public-house, but in the favoring points between. .On 
the old State road did St. Clair, an old man, broken 
with the storms of state, and suffering from the un- 
kindness of his fellow-men, to supply the few wants 
of age for a few more short years, open a tavern on 
the most desolate part of Chestnut Ridge, between 
Youngstown and Ligonier, where he lodged teamsters 
and travelers. These public-houses did not, as a rule, 
however, bear any similarity to the spacious and well- 
attended taverns which a generation later were the 
boast of Western Pennsylvania. 

From the accelerated progress of settlement, es- 
pecially after the domestic troubles of 1794, when the 
people, in consequence of the new invasion, were 
spreading out on all sides, the State was called upon 
to further assist by appropriating money and locating 
other roads. In 1805, on the representation that a 
road was needed from Somerset to Greensburg, and 
that, owing to the mountainous route, and to the 



sparsity of people in the region through which the 
road must pass, the road could not be opened by the 
usual way, an act was passed appropriating eight 
hundred dollars, and authorizing the Governor to ap- 
point three persons to locate the road in the most 
practicable route between these points. 1 This road 
when finished was largely traveled. From the top 
of Laurel Hill to Greensburg it was known as the Fel- 

I gar road, taking this name from a family who kept 

; public-house on the summit of the Hill. Another 
well-traveled road from 1809 was the Jones' Mill road, 

j which led from Somerset to Mount Pleasant and Con- 
nellsville. About 1811 fifteen hundred dollars was 

l appropriated for the road from the White House 
tavern, Somerset County, to the " Federal or National 
road" by way of Connellsville. 

But the great road of modern times in Westmore- 
land was the turnpike which runs through it along 
the line of the old villages, nearly through the mid- 
dle of the county east and west. This is the road 
known latterly as the Greensburg and Stoystown 
turnpike from Greensburg eastward, and the Pitts- 
burgh and Greensburg turnpike from Greensburg 
westward. 

Much as we would now depreciate such works of 
internal improvement or talk slightingly of them 
when placed in comparison with the magnificent rail- 
ways, suspension bridges, and viaducts, we underrate 
them as works of utility. The turnpike, in a mechan- 
ical view, was as far from the old military road as the 
Pennsylvania Railroad is from the turnpike. The 
construction of the turnpike was, in its day, as great 
and as successful an undertaking as was the railroad 
in the middle of this century. For we must bring 
into account the notions then existing in reference to 
works of public advantage, the knowledge of engineer- 
ing skill to devise, the mechanical force to execute, 
and the capital necessary to carry it on. Through 
the mountains it had deep cuts and sideings, exten- 
sive fills across ravines, arched culverts over the wild 



1 A committee appointed Hy the Legislature at their session of 1790 
made a long and valuahle report on 19th of February, 1791, and addi- 
tional reports later ic the session, in which the resolutions of prior ex- 
aminations and reports were embodied. The members were of opinion, 
among other tilings, that a great and general system of internal improve- 
ment should be begun and carried on by the State, and, among other*, 
that a turnpike should be made from Philadelphia through Lancaster to 
the Susquehanna, as well as other roads and canals throughout the 
State then and there mentioned. This Bysteni of internal improvement 
began under the administration of Governor Miftlin. the hist Governor 
elected by the people, and it held the State in debt Jul a long time. 

From a petition at the April sessions, 1782, for viewers to locate a road 
from the summit of Laurel Hill (which road had been partly open and 
in use at that time), " Beginning at Lant's Road, thence extending down 
the west side of the Laurel Hill to Captain Richard Williams 1 [near Don- 
egal], thence over the Chestnut Ridge to intersect the Great Road lead- 
in- from Ilaimastowii to BrOHtlford on the Youghiogheny, at or uear 
Machliii's Mill, 11 that the load was '• t lien already opened to the west side 
ol the CheBtnut Ridge, nod had been found by experience to be of great 
utility not only to the Petitioners, but to those persons who had occasion 
to travel on the Communication from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt, either 
with wagons or single horses, and was calonlated to be of great advan- 
tage to the inhabitants id" Bedford and Wot relaud Counties. 1 ' 



TURNPIKES— CONESTOGA WAGONS— PIONEER INNS. 



185 



streams, and wooden bridges over all the creeks and 
runs. The body of the road was macadamized with 
hard stone, and there were water tables along the sides. 
The history of the road begins on the 24th of 
February, 1806, when the Assembly authorized the 
Governor to incorporate a company for making an 
artificial road from the bank of the river Susque- 
hanna, opposite Harrisburg, to Pittsburgh. The 
style of the company was to be " The President and 
Managers of the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Turn- 
pike Company." By a supplement to this act passed 
the 31st of March, 1807, a number of separate com- 
panies were to be incorporated in the several counties 
through which the road was to pass, and the route 
was fixed through Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambers- 
burg, McConnellstown, Bedford, Somerset, Greens- 
burg, to Pittsburgh. When the road should be com- 
pleted the separate charters were to be surrendered 
and the companies to be consolidated into one, agree- 
able to the first act. 

Another road of much importance was the old 
Frankstown road, which extended from Frankstown, 
on the North Branch of the Juniata, to Pittsburgh. 

By act of Assembly 20th of March, 1787, " to es- 
tablish a road between the navigable waters of the 
Frankstown branch of the river Juniata and the 
river Conemaugh," commissioners were appointed to 
lay out a State highway between those two points, 
and the route was surveyed. It ran from Armagh to 
New Port, west of Blairsville, on the Indiana County 
side, and then it crossed the river into the Westmore- 
land side. The road was entered and confirmed by 
Council 18th December, 1787. 1 

Early in 1800 the road was somewhat changed in 
its courses, after a turnpike company had been char- 
tered, called the Harrisburg, Lewistown, Huntingdon, 
and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company. This was more 
familiarly known as the "Northern Turnpike," in 
distinction from the Greensburg turnpike. Its course 
was nearly over the old Frankstown road. In West- 
moreland it ran from the Conemaugh through New 
Alexandria, New Salem, Newlansburg, and Murrays- 
ville. 

But the successful completion of both of these roads 
was impossible by an act of the Assembly which 
brought them in contact with each other. This act, 2 
" for the construction of certain great and leading 
roads," authorized the Governor, as soon as one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars should be subscribed 
to the route which should be determined on, to sub- 
scribe three hundred thousand dollars in the stock of 
the company. Four commissioners appointed by the 
Governor, of whom Wilson McCandless and Adam- 
son Tannehill, of Pittsburgh, were two, were to go 
over the route and make their report in favor of 
either the northern or southern route. The commis- 



1 Fur all these authorities see acts of Assembly and minutes of Council. 
- Act of April 2, 1S11. 



sioners reported in favor of the southern route, and 
the time for commencing the construction of the road 
was extended to three years from the 2d of April, 
1811. An advertisement appeared in the Greensburg 
Register May 20, 1812, signed by commissioners ap- 
pointed for that purpose, giving notice that the books 
for subscription to the stock would be opened at the 
house of Simon Drum, Sr., on Monday, June 3d, at 
ten o'clock. In March, 1816, an additional adver- 
tisement appeared, signed by the manager of the 
Greensburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company, offer- 
ing contracts of some of the sections. The install- 
ments subscribed were then being paid in. 

This great work, which promised so much to those 
who subscribed to the capital stock, never paid them 
any dividend. It was ultimately put in sequestration, 
and since that time has been managed and controlled 
by a few who in each division hold the balance of 
power by having a majority of shares gathered to- 
gether at a nominal valuation. The road never filled 
its original corporate destiny. 

Having said so much on the subject of roads, we 
shall touch upon one in every respect more agreeable, 
namely (as the scholastic would say), inns or taverns. 
The public-houses on the old Pennsylvania road, as 
adverted to, could lay no claim to superior comfort, 
nor could they offer extra inducements beyond what 
might be offered in many private houses. But as the 
roads became more and more traveled, and as the 
population along them increased, the public-houses 
became continually better. In all the bigger towns 
large hostelries were opened, and wherever it might 
be profitable commodious houses were built. The 
reason of this is apparent. There was a class of men 
who lived the better part of their time at public- 
houses, and this class was mostly made up of those 
engaged in the carrying business. The number of 
these was, in the winter season, augmented by the sons 
of the farmers, who, rigging out a team of horses, 
themselves took to the road. These usually at home 
loaded with flour or whiskey, and returned from 
Philadelphia or Baltimore with merchandise. They, 
as a set, were jovial fellows, and being free born de- 
manded good victual for their money. But it was of 
necessity that the tavern should be the home for at least 
six days in the week of that class which was made up 
of professional wagoners and coach-drivers. And it 
was from this that they enjoyed here as much con- 
venience and every comfort that any house could at 
that day afford. Nor was there much distinction then 
as to the parties served. The distinction often spoken 
of originated between the teamsters and the coach- 
drivers. The coaches got to stopping at houses which 
were furnished in better style and which charged 
higher prices. The wagon-houses adhered to the old 
homely style, in which abundance made up for deli- 
racy, and common manners for conventional urbanity. 
This greatest distinction was observed, perhaps, from 
1825 to 1845, and during this time everything per- 



186 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



taining to roads and houses had undergone great 
changes for the better. The low two-storied cabin- 
house with its four rooms and thatched sheds had 
given place to the large, rough stone, brick, or frame 
tavern, each with its suite of eight or a dozen rooms, 
its bar-room, sitting-room, dining-room, and large 
stables, barns, and wagon-yards attached. The scene 
then of a summer evening was like a picture, and 
truly American. The big Conestoga wagons on com- 
ing in took their places along the village street and 
in the yards. The long troughs w+iich through the ( 
day hung at the end of the bed were then placed on 
the pole of the wagon for the horses to eat their feed 
from. The wagoners themselves were busied ungear- 
ing, currying the horses, carrying bundles of hay or 
armfuls of straw, while the dogs chased the cattle 
from the purlieus of the wagons. The scene was not 
unusually enlivened by a rough-and-tumble, heels- 
over-head fight at fisticuffs, in which the whole com- 
munity would abet. In the noise of the feeding 
horses, and in the long summer twilight, on benches 
outside sat the resting teamsters, while the scratching 
fiddle in the dining-room or bar-room was the prelude 
to the evening's fun. 

There were places which had become famous as 
stopping-places, and where one could have plenty to 
eat and lots of amusement and enjoyment all night 
if wanted Such a place, and one of the most con- 
spicuous, was Youngstown in its pristine days, where 
the situation of the village made it a natural stopping- 
place, and the hospitality of its inhabitants an agree- 
able one. Its good cheer has been made famous by 
pens that glided more smoothly than our own blunt 
quill. Our marginal reference is to Bishop Hop- 
.kins, D.C.L., Oxon., and to the historiographer of 
Prof. Donaldson. 1 But it is a fact that wagoners 
would drive after-night to reach their old stand, and 
if a wheel was lost it was not considered inconvenient 
to trudge a mile or so to one of its first-rate inns. 

The improvements which have been noticed were, 
as all improvements are, gradual, 2 but at all times, 
dating back to the beginning of the century, the 
reputation of the public-houses was good. The far- 
mers found a ready sale for their fruits, vegetables, 
and fowls to the tavern-keeper, who usually paid for 
them in ready cash. In some districts the bulk of 
the money in circulation went through the hands of 



1 We refer to the " Biography of Right Rev. John Hopkins," and to 
the newspaper accounts of the "balloon excursion" from Pittsburgh by 
Prof. Donaldson in the interest of Barnaul's Hippodrome exhibition. 

2 The remarkB of Hon. Alexander Ogle are so applicable here as re- 
flecting popular sentiment at that day in the matter of public improve- 
ment that we give them in part. They are from Alexander Ogle's 
4th of July speech. 1834, at Somerset. Pa., as reported by Dr. Elder in a 
little work named " Periscopics," published in Philadelphia in L854 : 

"Your grandmothers can tell you what a rumpus the same ninnies 
raised around the first wagon-road made over the mountains to Pitts- 
burgh. It would break up the pack-horse men forsooth, and the tavern- 
keepers and horse-breeders would be ruined when one wagon could 
carry as much salt, bar iron, and brandy from Baltimore as a whole 
caravan of half-starved mountain ponies. But I told them then that of 
all people in the world fools have the least sense." 



the landlord. As the product was abundant the table 
depended on the enterprise of the host. A good table 
was, therefore, the best thing to advertise by. Here 
roasted the ham and smoked the biscuit, and waffles 
in the morning swam in maple syrup. Here the way- 
farer got a big glass of old Monongahela or apple- 
jack for three cents ; or if he took a meal for a levy, 
he got a dram to wash it down and a toby cigar. 
Here were fiddlers always ready to play for a corn- 
row, and servant-girls ready to dance in a French 
four ; here were large bar-rooms with big grate-fires, 
such as Johnson and Dryden loved ; long low kitchens, 
with its ten-plated stoves, smoky rafters, as one sees 
in old German pictures, and small parlors, with the 
black-framed pictures decorated with ferns, and the 
fireplace in summer filled with evergreens and furze, 
in the fashion of the England of the early Georges, 
celebrated in the verse of Oliver Goldsmith and in 
the prose of Joseph Addison. 

These taverns were known by some peculiar sign 
which designated them, sometimes by the name of 
the landlord himself, who gave reputation to the 
house. These signs which once graced the waysides 
of the public roads were peculiarities truly in them- 
selves. You may count on your fingers all the old- 
fashioned signs now in the county. These were of 
wood, and in size about four feet by six, and hung in 
a stout frame, and swung in every wind. On a 
weather-beaten one you might make out a daub once 
intended for a bear, a bull, a white horse, or a black 
ox. Like the signs of London made classic in the 
Spectator, there were green cows and blue stars, red 
lions couchant and yellow lions rampant, all the signs 
of the zodiac, — 

"The he-goat, 
And the man with the watering-pot." 

There were animals not classified by Buffon, and 
owls and fowls whose species would have puzzled 
Audubon. There was the black duck, the golden 
swan, the spread eagle, the cross-keys. There the 
painter had painted all the constellations which the 
sooty Vulcan had moulded in the forges of the im- 
mortals for the shield of Thetis' son, godlike 
Achilles, — 

" There he wrought Earth, Sea, and Heaven, 

There he set the unwearying Sun, 
And the waxing Moon, and stars that 

Crown the blue vault every one, — 
Pleiads, Hyades, strong Orion, 

Arctos, high to hoot the Wain; 
He upon OrJou waiting, 

Only he of all the train, 
Shunning still the baths of Ocean, 

Wheels and wheels his round again. 

There were Washington and Lafayette, Greene and 
Putnam, Indian chiefs and shaggy buffaloes. Some 
taverns were known by the name of the town, some 
by the name of the county, and many by the name of 
the host. If the host was a professional landlord and 
had a good reputation, he found this a capital adver- 
tisement and a good way of drawing custom. It was 



THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 



187 



money in a man's pocket to have a name that sounded 
well on a sign-board. Frederick Rhorer, Sr., inn- 
keeper from Hagerstowu, was the first of a reputable 
family whose praises have been told by many, and the 
Drums, the Markers, and the Lamars had names 
which were as well adapted to designate a house as 
that of YVillard or Leland, being, as it were, like Gov- 
ernor Panza to the island, born to it. 1 

Around these wayside taverns of the old turupike 
centred the interest and the excitement of the com- 
munity. Here daily either some of the coaches or 
some of the teams stopped for a meal or to change 
horses, and about the yards at night were the high 
white-canvassed wagons filled with merchandise. The 
wagoners were a class by themselves distinct, and 
had several marked characteristics. In winter the 
rooms of the inns were warmed by coal-fire in large 
open grates, and the kitchen by either open fireplaces 
or those huge stoves which burnt wood by the cord. 
Sometimes the kitchen and dining-room were in one. 
If this was so the room was spacious, and was the 
room of the most attraction. For the tired traveler, 
the coachman, or the teamster, exposed from four 
o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock at night to the 
biting cold, the mud and snow of our wintry hills, 
nothing could equal the comfort of this room. The 
fires leaped gayly and cheerily up the broad chimney ; 
the stout cooks, the landlord's daughters, and the 
hearty daughters of the small farmers round were 
busied in every preparation that could increase the 
inclination or satisfy the taste of the hungry. A 
poor tavern it was in which food was not furnished 
in abundance, and where the landlord and the land- 
lady did not show an obliging disposition. The 
house soon fell in repute and was deserted, and the 
more enterprising landlord carried business away. 
While the domestic arrangements were directly 
uuder the management of the women, the landlord 
himself was either enthroned in glory in the tap-room 
or carrying his portly body about the wagon-yard. 
From night to morn, from morn to dewy eve, was the 
door of the tap-room open. The common custom of 
drinking and the habit of association always drew a 
share of people to this part of the house with ever- 
increasing desires. Here collected songsters, and even 



1 The following opinion of this worthy class of citizens was passed by 
a contemporary. It is from H. M. Brackenridge's " Recollections of the 
West:" 

"I should he guilty of a glaring omission, even in this unshaded out- 
line of by-gone days, if I were to pass in silence that portion of my 
townsmen who possess so much influence in a land of equality and free- 
dom. I allude to that class who furnish us with militia colonels and 
generals, and members of Congress, or who contribute most to make 
them, who do the honors of the town and keep up its reputation for 
hospitality, although not quite disinterested. I allude to the publicans 
and sinners. The landlords or tavern-keepers are, in reality, the only 
lords we have in Pennsylvania; they possess a degree of intelligence 
and respectability of character which justly gives them an influence 
dan* In chose pvblique, which very little corresponds with that of mine 
host in the country of John Bull, which may account for the good jokes 
of British travelers on our keepers of public-houses, in respect to their 
political and military importance." 



poetasters, braggarts, bullies, and loafers. How po- 
tent the effect of these places and their influence we 
have abundance of testimony. The epigrams, the 
flashes of wit and merriment that were wont to set 
the table in a roar, the jests, the songs of the hard 
cider and coon campaigns, the tales of the wayside 
inn are all now things of the past, and are a part and 
parcel of Vanity Fair. 

Before the advent of railroads and speedy travel, 
which knelled out the old inn system, taverns were 
recognized as being the most desirable place to while 
away idle time and enjoy comfort. " Can I not take 
mine ease in my inn ?" was the indignant question 
not admitting of answer of the ingenuous old boy Fal- 
staff, and no less were the ponderous Samuel and the 
dainty Pope frequenters of the London coffee-rooms. 
And to those old persons who constantly take advan- 
tage of the present by comparing it with the past, and 
who will never be happy till the old-fashioned stage- 
coach be again on the road and the cars are entirely 
done away with, to those it is a source of the utmost 
satisfaction to recall the times when these villages of 
the old turnpike were in their early glory; when, as 
they declare, labor and pleasure went hand in hand ; 
when every town had one place of amusement for 
both the stranger and the countryman ; when fiddling 
was an accomplishment; when everybody danced; 
where the story-teller had the best seat nearest the 
fire ; where even the scullions and stable-boys came 
in for a share of the fun, and were bountifully fed 
and well clothed ; when, in short, in the language of 
a great historian, the rich did not grind the faces of 
the poor, and when the poor did not envy the splen- 
dor of the rich. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 

New Boundaries of the Purchase of 1784— Emigration of Westmore- 
landers— Harlnur's Campaign— His Defeat — St. Clair, Governor of the 
Northwest Territory — His Campaign and Defeat — Indians attack Fron- 
tier Settlers of Pennsylvania — Condition and Extent of the Frontier 
of Westmoreland and Allegheny — Unprepared state of the Inhabit- 
ants — Westmoreland Militia — The Prominent Men of that Period 

The State organizes Rifle Ranges — Appropriations for the Western 
Counties by Act of Assembly — Government of the United States called 
on for help — It responds and enlists Men — Correspondence from and 
between Officers and Military Men relative to the state of Affairs, and 
giving Statements at length of Indian Depredations— Particular Inci- 
dents — Capture of Charles Mitchell, murder of his Mother, and an 
account of his Captivity with tin- Cornplanters— The Episode of Capt. 
Sloan, Wallace. Hunt, and Knott, in their Tour of Observation irt the 
Western County — Sloan in command of Fort Hamilton— His able and 
successful Defense of that Post — Presque Isle — The laying out of the 
Town and of the Road along the Allegheny River resisted by the 
Indians at the instance of the British in Canada — The State takes 
Active Measures to enforce the Laws — Militia called out from West- 
moreland and the other Counties for this Service — Last of the Indian 
Troubles in Westmoreland. 

Since the treaty of 1768 the boundary line of the 
Indian purchases in the western part of Pennsyl- 



188 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



vania ran from the West Branch of the Susquehanna 
River to its source, thence in a straight line to Kit- 
tanning, thence down the Ohio to the limits of the 
State. 

The last treaty held with the Indians at Fort Stan- 
wix took place in October, 1784. The commissioners 
at this treaty purchased the residue of the Indian 
lands within the limits of the State, and the deed i 
signed by the chiefs of the Sis Nations is dated Oct. 
23. 1784. Thus was the whole right of the Indians to 
the soil of Pennsylvania extinguished. 

This last accession of land, as we reminded you, was 
called by the whites the " New Purchase." When 
the land office was opened in 1785 settlers rapidly 
flocked up the West Branch. 

On the 8th of April, 1785, the previous boundary 
line between Westmoreland and Northumberland j 
was definitely ascertained, which until that time had 
been uncertain, owing to a misconstruction of the 
Indian names mentioned as points in the description 
of the ceded lands in the former purchase. 

The emigration, which had begun towards the close 
of the Revolutionary war, was now onward acceler- 
ated. One cause of the great migration which took 
place during the closing years of the war, and for 
some years succeeding, was, first, the obvious inten- 
tion of those who were tired of war to escape from 
military service, and, second, to be exempt from the 
payment of taxes, which were now becoming a bur- 
den, and for the payment of which money was uncer- 
tain and dear. 

In these times many families left Western Penn- 
sylvania for the new territory opening up along the 
Ohio. Others, who had borne the brunt of the frontier 
times here, headed the colonies or belonged to them 
which went up the rivers in the region of the " New 
Purchase" and there settled. Thus in that section 
are sometimes to be found descendants of men whose 
names are frequently met with in our early history, 
but whose connection with our history entirely ceased 
with that era. In Eastern Ohio especially are the 
descendants and the connections of many Westmore- 
landers. 

From the very nature of the early American settle- 
ments and colonies, the foremost of these settlers were 
in continual contact with the savages. The line of 
the frontier likewise from time to time became thus 
changed, for as these settlers were now collecting 
along the rivers of the new territory in the contiguous 
west, that part of Pennsylvania which lies north and 
west of the Allegheny and the Ohio had very few 
occupants prior to 1792 or 1793. It was somewhat 
different on the eastern side of the Allegheny, but at 
the date designated the settlements even there did not 
extend far back into the wilderness, and not far north 
of the Kiskiminetas. The cracking of the rifle of the 
pioneer was therefore heard in the far West, but our 
own frontier north and west of the Kiskiminetas was 
in 1791 and 1792 (the time of Harmar and St. Clair), 



almost as much of a hostile frontier as it was at any 
time during the border wars of the Revolution. 

We would not be justified in taking notice of these 
border wars (as they are seemingly local) but for the 
fact that our own people were at that time forming 
colonies and making settlements to the northwest of 
our county limits like bees building to the hive. In- 
deed, our county did directly feel the misery of that 
time as well, as we shall see. 

To have a conception of the sufferings of these 
people, not only during the Revolutionary war but 
later, and to understand how these affairs culminated 
in their final deliverance, one must study local 
events and the general history together. To preserve 
anything like a consistent narrative we must con- 
stantly follow up the course of public affairs, and in 
doing so advert to the share Westmoreland had in 
them, reading as we would a text-book, with con- 
stant reference to marginal notes. For instance, the 
troubles of 1774 would be uninteresting to us if we 
were in ignorance of the battle of Point Pleasant; 
Connolly would not be a noteworthy personage had it 
not been for his connection with Dunmore ; Clarke's 
expedition would have no relation to our history only 
in this, that Lochryand his men died in the far West 
trying to join him to protect the lonesome women and 
their crying children along the Sewickley and the 
Loyalhanna; nor would we be justified in dwelling 
upon the horrid murder of the Moravian Indians 
but that the sequel of that slaughter is to be seen in 
the burnt houses, the waste fields, and the weeping 
captives that went out at the burning of Hannas- 
town. 

Soon after the close of the Revolution a number of 
circumstances combined to largely augment the set- 
tlement of the western parts of Virginia and Ken- 
tucky, as well as those adjoining the Ohio River. 
But notwithstanding this the depredations of the In- 
dians continued. They failed to obey treaties made 
with them, particularly the treaties of 1786 and 1787, 
and they made incessant attacks upon the emigrants 
into those regions. 

In 1787 the Secretary of War ordered detachments 
of troops to be stationed at different points for the 
protection of the people within that region, which 
was now governed directly as a Territory of the United 
States. In 1789 a block-house called Fort Washing- 
ton was erected and garrisoned by United States 
troops on the site of Cincinnati, where a few settlers 
had erected cabins in the year previous. It seemed 
to be an important point, and towards the close of the 
year Gen. Harmar, of the regular army, arrived with 
300 more regulars, and with them occupied the post. 
This was the point at which the Indians from the 
Northwest crossed the Ohio to ascend the Licking 
River, whence they made their attacks upon the out- 
skirts of Kentucky. " The old war path" from the 
British garrison at Detroit along the Maumee and 
the Miamis to the Indians in the south passed here, 



THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 



189 



and into this Indian highway other paths entered from 
all directions. 

Harmar established forts in various directions 
through the territory of Ohio, and with his small 
force, frequently reinforced by the militia of the 
frontier, carried on an ineffectual war. But the dep- 
redations of these continuing, the government deter- 
mined to triHe no longer, but to put such a force 
under Harmar and give him such authority in the 
premises, that by one effective campaign the power 
of the Indians should be broken and the tribes scat- 
tered. 

In 1790 a call from Harmar brought to his standard 
1133 militia with competent officers from Kentucky, 
— that is, from the western territory below the Ohio 
River. His force in all amounted to 1443 men. His 
campaign was directed towards the Indian villages 
about the head-waters of the Little Miami. From 
the towns there he struck across the woods for the 
Great Miami, where Piqua now stands, and marching 
forward came to where Fort Laramie was afterwards 
erected, a location about seventy miles southeast of 
Fort Wayne. 

At this point many Indians were discovered early 
in the morning viewing his camp. They did not 
attack, but it was evident they were on the watch for 
a favorable opportunity of doing so. 

Among his effective forces there was a battalion of 
militia from Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania, and 
Virginia, under command of Col. Hardin and Maj. 
James Paul. From here Hardin and Paul with six 
hundred volunteers preceded Harmar and the rest of 
the army to some Indian villages a distance ahead. 
They arrived here on the second day out, and found 
the town deserted, and the traders' houses and the 
wigwams in ashes. Four days afterwards Harmar 
came up. As it was apparent that the Indians had 
but recently left, Hardin with two hundred and ten 
men was sent out to overtake them. At a distance of 
six miles the Indians lay in ambush along a defile. 
When the whites had well entered this defile, the In- 
dians rose up and so successfully made their attack 
that the troops who remained to fight were completely 
surrounded, effectually cut off, and either killed or 
captured. That night the savages held a war-dance 
of exultation over the glory and success of the day, 
and rejoiced greatly in the misery and sufferings of 
their prisoners. 

Harmar had concluded to return to Fort Washing- 
ton, and had actually begun his march, but on re- 
ceiving word that the Indians had again taken pos- 
session of the town, he ordered a halt, and directed 
Hardin and Maj. Wylls with three hundred and sixty 
men to find out the enemy and fight them. They re- 
turned to the site of the principal town, and expect- 
ing to fight them openly, regarded their forces as suffi- 
cient. Soon a small body of Indians appeared, and 
the volunteers by alert motions fired upon them, when 
they broke into smaller parties and scattered in differ- 
13 



ent directions. They were pursued by the volunteers, 
who also broke into small parties. By this stratagem, 
a large part of the volunteers were delayed in a vain 
pursuit, and the regulars were left alone. At this point 
the Indians, the main body of whom were concealed 
in a favorable position, rose from their hiding-place 
and with their hand- weapons fell upon the regulars. 
These fought well and met death bravely, but in the 
end the Indians were masters of the field. Nor could 
they be attacked after with any advantage, which 
Harmar knowing, marched the army back to Fort 
Washington. 

He had left the fort on the 30th of September, and 
arrived there on the 3d of November, 1790. He had 
lost nearly two hundred men and half his horses. 
The army was disconcerted, and the people were dis- 
satisfied, and although as a matter of history there 
has been no reprehensible blame attached to the com- 
mander, who deserved a more fortunate fame, yet his 
disastrous expedition has since that time to this day 
been known as " Harmar's Defeat." 

Among those who were with Harmar in 1790 with 
the Pennsylvania Volunteers, and who is favorably 
mentioned by Harmar iu his official report, was Col. 
Christopher Truby, who was in command of the 
Pennsylvania militia. He owned a portion of the 
land upon which Greensburg was laid out. He lived 
long after this campaign to take an active part in 
civil concerns. His body lies in the old German 
burying-ground at Greensburg. 

But the unfortunate defeat of Harmar was followed 
by the more unfortunate one of St. Clair, on a tribu- 
tary of the Wabash, whither he had led a large force 
with the expectation of utterly destroying the savages. 
This defeat was suffered on the 4th of November, 
1791. 

For a more extended account of the history of the 
Northwestern Territory during the time it was gov- 
erned by Arthur St. Clair, which time embraces the 
history of his expedition against the Miami Indians, 
we shall, for the present, refer to our sketch of the 
life and services of that personage, wherein, as more 
proper, we shall recall some mention of those West- 
morelanders who there fell. 

From the time of Harmar's defeat till the hostiles 
were finally silenced by Gen. Anthony Wayne in 
1794, our northern frontier was exposed to frequent 
incursions, and was the scene of repeated raids and 
of some bloody massacres. Wayne's victory led to 
the Greenville treaty of 1795, when the Indians re- 
moved farther to the West. 

As to our own county proper, there did, prior to 
this, not appear to be anything in the public state of 
the frontier to create alarm or apprehension. Six or 
seven years of peace, such as the people of the inte- 
rior portion of our county experienced from 1783 to 
1789, had dispelled all thought of extra precaution 
for defense, as it had taken away all the visible neces- 
sity for it. So when the outbreak of the savages oc- 



190 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



curred as the natural result of their successful battles 
over greatly superior forces, and the result as well of 
an active combination and a new confederation of 
tribes, our settlers north of the Kiskiminetas and 
northwest of the Allegheny were left without a reg- 
ular body of organized militia, and without any places 
of refuge or defense worth mentioning. 

When the result of Harmar's campaign became 
known, some of the most observant of our leaders 
gave warning; but the people had got used to alarms 
and rested in apathy. The State government was 
even appealed to, but the men like Campbell and 
Guthrie, who continually spoke out, were called 
bawlers, such as yell loudly at fires and do not help 
to put them out. Campbell was our county lieuten- 
ant at that time, and in 1791 he had called out a com- 
pany of militia for the defense, which company was 
taken along with St. Clair. Findley complains that 
the people were convinced they had nothing to ex- 
pect from him, either by way of his industry or at- 
tention, but Findley and Campbell were not on the 
best of terms. 

John Irwin, acting for the county lieutenant of 
Allegheny, who at that time was in the East, says 1 
that the gentlemen of Westmoreland were unneces- 
sarily alarmed, as that up to the middle of 1791 only 
three murders had been committed within our bor- 
ders, although fourteen persons had certainly been 
killed in Allegheny. But it was not long till Findley 
himself was alarmed as well as the gentlemen from 
about Pittsburgh. The truth is that those from that 
post made application to the Secretary of War for 
extra arms and ammunition, and they had less 
thought about the unprotected settlers up in the 
Armstrong region than about themselves. 

But it was considered unsafe to attempt an imme- 
diate settlement beyond the Allegheny, in a country 
exposed to the inroads of a subtle and vindictive 
enemy, whose mode of warfare was peculiar, and 
whose approach was often in secret and could not be 
guarded against by common precautions. In the year 
1792 only two persons, Charles Phillips and Neal Mc- 
Glaughlin, are known to have resided on the north- 
east side of the Ohio with the intention of making 
settlements. 2 In 1794 no settlements were made 
across the Ohio and Allegheny. Early in March, 

1795, a few individuals removed with their families 
to the vicinity of Fort Franklin, Cussewago, and 
Craig's Station, but none settled at a distance or de- ] 
tached from the garrison. It was totally unsafe to 
remove families into the interior of the country till 

1796, when settlements in general took place. 3 

By an act of the Assembly of March 17, 1791, the 
sum of four thousand pounds was appropriated for 
the defense of the western frontiers of the common- 
wealth. In 1792 the government was empowered to 

1 Penn. Archives, Second Series, vol. iv., 668. 
- Reports Supreme Court, Fourth Dallas, 221. 
3 Ibid., 209. 



engage three companies of riflemen for the protection 
of the posts, and a further appropriation was made 
for that purpose. Some time later three more infantry 
companies were authorized to be raised and stationed 
for the protection of Westmoreland, Washington, and 
Allegheny. In 1796 it was unsafe for families to cross 
the rivers iuto the lands purchased by the State in 
1784. 4 

* FROM "PAPERS RELATING TO THE DEFENSE OF THE 
FRONTIERS" FROM 1790 TO 1791 (PENN. ARCHIVES). 

From Col. John Wilkins to Governor Mifflin. 

"Pittsburgh, 31 March, 1791. 
"... The Indians have committed considerable depredations on the 
people living on the west side of the Allegheney River, which has caused 
our frontier people, for an extent of fifty miles, to fly. They have aban- 
doned their farms, their stock, ami their furniture, and fled with the 
utmost precipitation. The Indians have killed one man and carried off 
three people prisoners within five miles of this town, and they have 
killed nine persons within twelve miles. . . ." — Penn. Arch., Seed. Series, 
vi. 655. 

Lient. Ern'st, of the Federal Artillery, to the Secretary of War. 

" Font Pitt, loth April, 1791. 

"... Mr. Jeffries informed me . . . the contractor's boat having been 
stopped on its passage to Fort Franklin by the militia of Westmoreland 
County, on account of there being friendly Indians on board who as- 
sisted in navigating her up the Allegheny. These Indians were part of 
Cornplanter's party who had with them the presents they received from 
Congress and State of Pennsylvania, which was taken from them and 
exposed at public sale. The party that did this mischief was under the 
command of Maj. Guthrie, of Westmoreland." — Penn. Arch., Seed. Series, 
vi. 659. 

[All of which gives rise to the observation that the militia of West- 
moreland might have been better employed at that particular time.] 

From William Findley to Secretary Dallas. 

" April 29, 1791. 

"Dear Sir, — I have just time to inform you by post that yesterday 
morning the Indians attacked the house of James Kilpatrick, on Crooked 
Creek, and killed two men and broke a child's leg, etc. ; the people, how. 
ever, supported the house. There were six militiamen stationed at the 
house, and nine, I understand, at a house in the neighborhood." — Idem, 
660. 

[See elsewhere this matter recounted at length, and prominence given 
it for the zeal of Mr. Kilpatrick in scalping the dead Indian for the 
bounty, the same that was at the killing of the child (for it died). 
Crooked Creek is near Kittanuing]. 

John Scull to Governor Mifflin. 
" Pittsburgh, May 12, 1791. ... I take the liberty of inclosing you a 
Pittsburgh Gazette, which contains some account of the depredations of 
the Indians, and since publishing which I have received an authentic 
account that two men were taken on Sunday last about six miles from 
the Allegheny, in Westmoreland County, and about twenty miles from 
this place." — Idem, 663. 

From Maj. John Iririn to Col. Clement Biddle. 
"PITTSBURGH, May 12, 1791. . . . Your letter of the 8th April, by 
Mr. Dnnwoodie, with an inclosed Invoice of Military Stores. A certain 
Mr. William Todd, of Westmoreland County, ten miles from Greens- 
burg, has taken the liberty in the name of the County Lieutenant to 
take possession of the whole ; how he is to account to Government Cor 
his conduct the Governor may judge. . . . [This William Todd was col- 
league of Findley in the Constitutional Contention of 1790-91, and u:as his 
neighbor. . . .] We have got perfectly easy on the subject of Tomahawk- 
ing and Scalping, as it happens every two or three days." — Idem, 663. 

Estimate for Defente of Frontiers. 

"Aug. 0,1791. 
"Estimate of expenditures for defense under act of Assembly, .fee., 
1791, April. Sent to Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Washington, 40 
quarter-casks powder, bags, etc. ; 88 muskets and accoutrements, flints, 
&c. ; 42 rifles; 5 cwt. lead." 



THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 



191 



The active forces of Westmoreland during this 
frontier trouble were embodied in militia companies ' 
at first, and subsequently in rifle rangers, which 
were stationed most of the time at the forts and block- 
houses along the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas. The 
officers mentioned are John Guthrie, William Cooper, 
Samuel Murphy, John Sloan, William Jack, George ' 
Smith, Alexander Craig, and AVilliam McDowell. 
The assaults of the Indians were, however, not carried I 
on in bodies, but they made innumerable incursions 
from many directions. Many were murdered and 
many taken captive. The inhabitants finally were 
compelled to resort to the old method of Indian fight- 
ing, and these, forming themselves in companies 
under the command of their most noted scouts, made 
tnemselves feared by their enemies. Hence it is that 
we cannot convey much of an idea of the state of the 
county at this conjuncture, only by taking it in detail. 
We preserve a few of the most noteworthy instances 
of captivity and of bravery, upon which the opinion 
of the reader can be formed, after having seen the ex- 
tracts which we give from the correspondence of the 
day. 

But, as we said, we should not be misled in antici- 
pating the settlements which were afterwards of West- 
moreland to the north. With the exception of the 
few families that were within sight of the block- 
houses along the Armstrong side of the Allegheny, 
there were very few north of the Kiskiminetas. The 
best authority for this is the opinion of the justices 
of the Supreme Court in their adjudication of complex 
land claims. 

Capt. Torrence to Governor Miflin. 
" Fatette County, Aug. 10, 1791. . . . Since my last General Rich- 
aril Butler called the County Lieutenants of Ohio, Washington, Alle- 
gheny, Westmoreland, aud Fayette to a consultation for the protection 
of the frontiers in the absence of the Federal troops, which was to be 
drawn off the 5th instant. We agreed that 300 militia should he kept 
up. . . ." 

Col. Campbell to Governor Mifflin. 

" Greensburg, August 13, 1791. In Consequence of your Letter to 
me directed, of the Nineteenth of May, 1791, I Ordered, by Draught, a 
full Company of Militia of this County to guard the froonteers untill 
such Time as the General Government would Grant them Protection, 
and as soon as a part of Coll. Gibson's New Levies was sent on our 
Froonteers, I went to Major John Clark of the New Levies, who Had 
the command of the Troops in our County, and Wished to have the 
whole of the Militia of the County discharged. But as the men under 
His Command was not sufficient to guard sutch an Extensive Froonteer, 
He Wished Me to Continue fifty of the men. ... I then Agreed with 
the Lieutenants of Washington, Fayette, and Alegany Couuties to fur- 
nish for my Quota to guard the Froonteers seventy-five men to give 
Protection To the froonteers of Westmoreland county, whitch I ex- 
pected would have been Sufficient, But upon finding the Enemy to be so 
Mutch On Our froonteers, and so Constantly a stealing of Horses, But 
Hath not yet Done Other Damage, But often seen ; and as I found one 
Company of Men was not Sufficient to give Protection to so Extensive a 
froonteer, I Ordered to their Assislance one L't and twenty-five men, 
and with The Whole of them it is as mutch as I cau Get the froonteers 
Inhabitants Not to Break up. I will do Everything in My Power to 
give Sattisfaction to the froonteers and Not to let them Move from their 
Stattions. I Have appointed John Denislon Contractor for the West- 
moreland County Millitia, and is to see him Paid Eight Pence Pr Ration 
on the account of the Stations being so small. I expect you will order 
the Expenses to be Paid to William Findley, Esq'r, as my Character Is 
At Stake for the Punctual Payment of the men and provisions. . . ." 



But not only was the government of Pennsylvania 
appealed to for assistance by the foremost men of the 
western counties of the State, but the government of 
the United States as well. On the 10th of March 
1791, the Secretary of War, Gen. Knox, inclosed a 
letter from his department to the lieutenants of Wash- 
ington, Allegheny, and Westmoreland Counties, in 
which he informed them that the President of the 
United States authorized them to embody, at the ex- 
pense of the United States, as many of the militia as 
was necessary for the defensive protection of the re- 
spective counties. The rangers to be called into ser- 
vice in pursuance of that authority were to be upon 
the same establishment of pay and rations as the 
troops of the United States. 

In December of 1791 the inhabitants of Westmore- 
land, Washington, Fayette, and Allegheny Counties, 
through their regularly appointed committees, pre- 
sented a memorial to the Governor of the State, Col. 
Charles Campbell, and John Young, Esq., signing on 
behalf of the county of Westmoreland. In this paper 
they laid before the Governor an extended statement 
of the condition of these frontiers, and stated what 
occurred to them to be the most speedy and effectual 
mode of preparation for any emergency. They con- 
ceived that eight hundred efficient men, under experi- 
enced officers, good partisans, and armed with rifles, 
were not too many when the extent of the frontier 
was considered. They also asked for a quantity of 
arms and ammunition to be distributed among the 
county lieutenants. 1 

As it was not possible to get enough men to volun- 
teer, either in the service of the State or of the 
United States, to go beyond the confines of their 
own immediate settlement, the draft was enforced 
under the act of Assembly, and those drafted during 
the summer and fall of 1791 were put to garrison 
duty in the block-houses and stations along the Alle- 
gheny River. The rangers, or the militia of the 
State in service and under pay, were changed from 
time to time, but these for the most part were inside 
the lines of the more remote frontier, which was 
guarded, as we said, by the drafted militia. 

The outpost duty forced upon the Westmorelanders 
was not at all attractive, and their officers found many 
reasons to offer the authorities of the State on the 
side of the county as against those who thought the 
frontier of the State able to take care of itself. 
Col. Charles Campbell, in his uncouth manner of 
expression, spoke out in language which, although 
not classically elegant, or even strictly grammatical, 
was filled with good common sense. In a letter to 
Governor Mifflin, in January, 1792, he says, — 

"So I have still to Keep out some men to Guard, Whitch is Very Dis- 
tressing to Our County to Guard It self aud Stand As a Barrier for the 
Interior Parts of the State, when we Were Always Willing to give Our 
Assistance when required. In the time of the Late War With England 
our Militia Marched into the State of the Jersey to Assist Our fellow 



1 Pa. Arch., Second Serie6, IT. 67^. 



192 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Citizens when In distress, And I would be Of the Opinion We have the 
Same Undoubted Right from those of Our Own State At least/ 1 1 

Under the act to provide for the immediate defense 
of the frontier, the general militia law in some re- 
spects was suspended, and instead of drafting in 
classes from the militia, experienced and active rifle- 
men, wherever they could be obtained, were enlisted, 
and the officers to command them were appointed 
immediately by the Governor. They were enlisted 
for six months instead of two, and the pay was liber- 
ally estimated by the price of labor, and not by the 
military allowance established for the troops of the 
Federal government as theretofore. 

The tiraeof this service began on the 1st of March, 
1772. Three companies of these ranging riflemen 
were engaged, each company consisting of seventy- 
six men. Of these the third company was stationed 
at Kittanning, and was under the inspection and man- 
agement of Col. Clement Biddle. John Guthrie was 
captain, William Cooper, lieutenant, Samuel Murphy, 
ensign, all of Westmoreland. 

Maj. George McCully, in a letter to Col. Biddle, 
dated at Greensburg, 31st of March, 1792, says, — 

" Capt. Paul, with a beautiful company, marched from Pittsburgh on 
Wednesday, the 28th, to cover the Bouthwest frontier of Washington 
County. 

" Capt. Smith with his company (wanting six privates) are over the 
Alleganey, scouting with as many as are armed. I cannot send them 
to their stations until the camp equipage arrives. Ensign Murphy 
marched on Thursday, 29th, with twenty-eight men of Capt. Guthrie's 
company, completely armed, to join some who had been sent out before 
to cover the frontiers of Westmoreland County. 

" I am now at Greensburg, on my way to the frontiers of Westmore- 
land, and shall hurry Capt. Guthrie out with the remainder of his com- 
pany, with all possible haste." 

In the summer of 1792 these troops, regularly offi- 
cered and under the appointment of the State, were 
divided into eight parties or stations, and placed at 
proper distances on the frontier. A garrison was 
kept up at Fort Crawford, at the mouth of Fuckety 
Creek, and part of Capt. Guthrie's men were there. 

In May a party of Indians, about forty in number, 
attacked Reed's Station, on the Allegheny River, 
about four miles below the Kiskimiuetas. They 
killed one man and a child, wounded a soldier of 
McCully's corps, and took a woman ami some chil- 
dren prisoners. Ensign Murphy was stationed near 
that spot. 2 

On the 22d of May a party came upon William 
Cooper's station, near the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, 
and attacked it. They killed one man and wounded 
one. They did not stay any longer than to take or 
murder a family within about three hundred yards of 
the block-house. They then penetrated into the set- 
tlement about fifteen miles and killed, wounded, and 
took prisoners about eleven persons, took about thirty 
horses, and burned a number of houses. They stayed 
in the settlement five or six days. 11 

1 Penn. Arch,, Second Series, iv. 689. 

2 Presley Neville to Governor Mifflin. — Archives, iv. 720. 

3 Col. Campbell to Governor Mifflin. 



It was in this raid that the Harbison family were 
taken. These Indians kept the course of the Kis- 
kiminetas, separating into small squads of five and 
seven. Many narrow escapes were made from them. 
At one plantation as far up as above the mouth of 
the Loyalhanna, they went boldly to the stable and 
fields and took out horses, killing one which proved 
unruly, and took off the rest without disturbing the 
family, who were trembling within.* 

William Findley, in a letter to Secretary Dallas at 
that time, says, — 

" Hannastown is now the frontier, and they have erected block-houses 
at Greensburg. Denison's (New Alexandria) is the frontier. You will 
perceive by the map that Westmoreland is now desolate to near the 
centre, and the rest much disturbed." 

In a letter of a few days later date, he says that 

"Col. Pomeroy, one of the best and trustiest officers on this side of the 
mountain, is now out with six companies of militia. The Indians have 
improved in the art of eluding pursuit; they always separate after 
doing mischief, and go two-and-two in every direction, keeping gener- 
ally to the dry ridges, and at this Beason the woods are very close, and 
the country is very broken. A few mornings since the beds of two were 
found in a meadow near Loyalhanna, the dew not being off; they were 
trailed to a dry ridge. I am just now informed that a child is found 
scalped and a number of horses missing six or eight miles within the 
settlement, north of Conemaugh." 

Enough has been produced from the records and 
from responsible individuals to make a presentation 
of the times to the reader. These things occurred be- 
tween the time of St. Clair's defeat and the successful 
expedition of Gen. Wayne. The government of the 
United States, with the co-operation and assistance 
of the militia forces of Kentucky and the Northwest- 
ern Territory, were busily arranging for this campaign, 
and when Wayne began his operations the Indians, 
partly through necessity and partly by the concen- 
trated and well-organized force which danger had 
succeeded in establishing and made effectual, were 
compelled to desert the borders of Pennsylvania, and 
gather to the villages of the confederate tribes in 
Northern Ohio. After Wayne's victory they were 
heard of no more in Westmoreland. 

Here belongs a few narratives, the last of the " ad- 
venturous age" of American history, with which we 
close the individual incidents of Indian warfare with 
our settlers of Westmoreland. 

About the year 1792 a party of Cornplanters which 
had penetrated into the settlement past the outposts 
while most of the frontiersmen were out and had left 
their homes unguarded, came down as far as the lower 
part of Derry township next to the Loyalhanna. It 
was long currently reported in that neighborhood 
among the descendants of the old settlers that this 
party first came to a man by the name of Cleckhorn ; 
that Cleckhorn, in order to save his own life, told 
them of the defenseless family of Mitchell ; that he 
saved his life by so doing ; and that afterwards, when 
this thing came to be known to the others, he lived 
a miserable life amongst them, and finally was com- 

* William Findley to Secretary Dallas, June 1, 1792. 



THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 



19?. 



pelled to sell his place and remove from there to the 
West, where he died. We pass over this charge and 
will relate what is known as a matter of fact concern- 
ing the escape of Susan Mitchell, the captivity of 
Charles, and the death of their mother. 

The Mitchell family lived on the bank of the Loy- 
alhanna, neighbors to Capt. John Sloan and the Al- 
lisons. Their clearing was about two miles east of 
now Latrobe, and on the Ligonier Valley Railroad. 
The family were among the first settlers, having taken 
up their laud before 1773. The father of the house 
was dead, and the mother with her two children still 
lived on the farm. On the morning the party of In- 
dians came in the boy and girl were in the stable- 
loft together. The 'Indians were attracted to them, 
but the young ones somehow had knowledge of their 
coming soon after they were in sight, for the boy at- 
tempted to escape. He ran from the stable towards 
the creek in order to cross it. The lad was about sev- 
enteen years of age. The Indians, of whom there 
were possibly three or four, all ran after him and 
caught him. While they were in pursuit of him 
Susan, the sister, who remained in the stable, came 
down out of the loft, got into the horse-stall, and hid 
herself by crawling under a large trough used for 
feeding the horses in. She lay very still, and although 
the Indians searched for her they did not find her. 
They went to the house where Mrs. Mitchell was and 
took her along. 

They began their journey back, such being their 
way when a party like this one had secured a couple 
of prisoners or scalps at a dash. They had not trav- 
eled any great distance and before night set in until 
they found that Mrs. Mitchell was unable to keep up 
with them, and scarcely fit to travel in their way at 
all over the rough ground. They could not leave her 
alive, that was plain ; so a couple of them fell back 
with her, and the rest went on with Charles. The 
party ahead soon after this stopped for the evening 
and kindled a fire. While they were here the others 
who had loitered behind came up, and one of them 
had with him the scalp of the murdered woman. He 
proceeded to stretch it out on a bow made for the pur- 
pose, and to dry it over the fire in the presence of the 
boy, but without discovering any sign of concern. 
The party together proceeded northward, and nothing 
worthy of notice occurred till they came to the Ma- 
honing Creek in Armstrong County, where they struck 
the tracks of two white men at where their course led 
across a low, wet swampy piece of ground. The tracks 
of the men before them led off to one side on a ridge. 
Charles Mitchell and the Indian who was with him 
saw the two men at a distance, and the boy recognized 
them. The one was Capt. John Sloan, and the other 
was Harry Hill, both of them from the same neigh- 
borhood he was from. There was at the time light, 
sticky snow on the ground, and Capt. Sloan, who was 
a large man, left a big track with his moccasins. It 
was, indeed, so big that it was a matter of astonish- 



ment for the natives. One of them pulled out his 
ramrod and measured it in length and in width, and 
when he had done so he exclaimed, with a broad grin 
on his heroic countenance, "Great sawarick ! great sa- 
warick !" by which we suppose he meant something 
like " great warrior." " Yes," said Mitchell, " that is 
the big Capt. Sloan, the great Indian-fighter." The 
crafty and cowardly wretches were by this prevented 
from making an attempt to capture these or to fight 
with them, for they avoided the tracks and did not 
follow them along the hillside. When Sloan and 
Hill themselves came down off the ridge to the river, 
they in their turn came upon the tracks of the party 
which preceded them, and saw among them the tracks 
of the white boy, their prisoner. They talked over 
the prospect of success if they should get to the front 
of the gang and waylay them, as they were unsus- 
pected. They would have attempted this had it been 
only a matter of safety to themselves, but they were 
apprehensive of the fate of the captive should their 
attack be unsuccessful. 

Mitchell was taken to the town of the Cornplanters, 
and was adopted among them by a squaw, who took 
him in place of her son lost in the war. This woman 
he called mother, and following their customs from 
necessity, he obeyed her. He remained with them and 
subject to her order for some three years. He helped 
the squaws to do their work, which specially was to 
hoe the corn and gather it in. He afterwards com- 
plained that they sometimes worked too late, fre- 
quently after nightfall ; and although they all did so, 
his adopted mother always made him hoe one more 
row before he quit. At the end of his three years' ap- 
prenticeship he was either exchanged or liberated, 
when he returned to his home, settled on the old farm, 
married, and raised a respectable family. Although he 
endured great hardships and saw many horrid things 
among them, and especially the dreadful death of his 
mother, which never possibly could have passed from 
his mind, yet he, like Harman, could never be pre- 
vailed upon to speak ill-favoredly of them, nor could 
he tolerate any one else in so doing. 1 

The captivity and the incidental sufferings of 
Massy Harbison, who was taken prisoner after St. 
Clair's defeat, and who resided at that time within 
the county, was so popular with those who danced 
our infancy upon their knees that almost every one 
versed in the Indian lore of the West recollects some- 
thing of it. Some information regarding the condi- 
tion of the outer settlers, the location and the instincts 
of the Indians who infested our northern woods at 
that time, may be gotten from her account, which we 
have elsewhere given. 

l Mitchell used to relate, among other things, of the novel manner 
the Indians had of crossing the Susquehanna when they came to it and 
found it uncomfortably or dangerously high. They got a long pole or 
sapling, and this they vested upon their shoulders and held to it with 
their hands. Two of their strongest, and presumably their surest-footed, 
were at the two cuds; and it is readily seen that the common safety 
would thus be reasonably assured. 



194 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



To this time, too, are referable some instances of 
murders and captivities in Ligonier Valley, and in 
the region of the Black Lick, in Indiana County, pre- 
served among their lares and penates. 

As applicable at this place we may bring in the 
adventures of some Westmorelanders in the far West. 
Both instances show of what mettle the men were of, 
and both instances are as fully authentic as the best 
attested ones of their class. 

In the fall of 1795, Capt. John Sloan, his nephew, 
John Wallace, and two others, named Hunt and 
Knott, all hardy young men and fond of adventure, 
formed themselves into a company to explore part of 
the western country, and to make a tour of observa- 
tion. They were neighbors, as it went then, and lived 
near the Loyalhanna, in Derry township. They set 
out after some preparation, taking with them t.wo 
horses and some provisions ; and when their store of 
provisions became lighter, they walked and rode time 
about. They had a strong desire to see the Miami 
country, of which there was so much talk, and went 
direct for Fort Washington, the site of Cincinnati. 
That region from this point was a journey of some days 
farther to the northwest. They proceeded, however, 
and encamped at night on the banks of the Big Mau- 
mee. The next morning they continued on. As they 
took their turn at riding, it was now Knott and Sloan's 
time to ride. These were upon the horses when they 
were fired upon by a large party of Indians who were 
hid in the path. Knott fell from his horse dead. 
Sloan was shot through the left side, a ball also going 
through his shot-pouch. Hunt and Wallace ran for 
their lives, but Hunt was taken by them without get- 
ting off. Wallace was pursued by the pack, but he 
kept ahead of them till, running at full speed, he 
tripped on a root and fell headlong, when his gun 
slipped from his grasp. Sloan had secured the horse 
from which Knott fell, and notwithstanding his 
severe wound, still kept upon his own. When Wal- 
lace regained his feet he called to his uncle not to 
leave him. Sloan waited on him. When he came 
up he tried to get up on the horse's back, but was 
so exhausted that he fell back. His uncle, Sloan, 
then took his gun, and holding it and the horse's 
head, waited till Wallace climbed up. By this the 
Indians were close upon them. The horses under 
the excitement galloped off on the trail, and soon left 
the Indians behind. Then, after they were on their 
way, Sloan, " like another Lancelot," noticed the 
blood trickling from his wound down his horse's side. 
They headed for Fort Washington, which they wished 
by all means to reach, but they knew of Fort Hamil- 
ton, which was somewhat off their way, but between 
them and the former. Besides this, Sloan said they 
felt in duty bound to stop there and warn the garri- 
son. They directed their way thither, and in no long 
time entered this fort. There they stayed that night 
and related their adventure. 

But they were especially anxious to get to Fort 



Washington, where medical assistance could be ob- 
tained for Sloan. The next morning they were to 
start, but on opening the gates they saw that the fort 
was surrounded by Indians. There were said to be 
many hundreds of them there. At that time there 
was but a very small and inefficient garrison at this 
post, there being in all only twenty men, women, and 
children, while their commandant was a young and 
inexperienced officer. The Indians, knowing the 
feeble state of the garrison, and presuming that no 
defense could be successfully made, demanded their 
surrender. The officer in command said to Sloan 
that he could not hold the fort, and told Sloan that if 
he thought he could make a defense to take command 
and do what he thought best. 

Sloan then, having thus been empowered to talk on 
the subject, went up to the top of the fort ami engaged 
in a conversation with their leader. He talked by the 
medium of an interpreter. Close beside the interpre- 
ter stood Hunt, the companion of Sloan, who had been 
taken the day before, and he, too, pleaded with Sloan 
to give up the fort, for the reason understood that if 
the Indians did not accomplish their object their 
prisoner would be tortured. But Sloan told them a 
nice story of how they had plenty of provisions and 
ammunition, and how they would soon have a rein- 
forcement to join them, assuring them at the end 
that they did not propose to surrender at all, but to 
fight. Then he stepped down. 

The next moment they all fired, and the Indians 
set up their war-whoop, a sign of no quarter. The 
firing continued all day, but without any effect, for the 
Indians kept at a good distance, and the whites were 
well protected. At night an attempt was made to 
fire the fort, but it was not successful. There was a 
stable at some distance, where the horses were kept and 
near which the cattle were fed. During the siege an 
Indian took Sloan's horse from here, and putting on 
his head the cocked hat which Sloan had lost the day 
before he rode in a circle around the fort far enough 
away to be out of danger, and when the Indians went 
of!' they took all the horses with them, and what cattle 
they had not killed and eaten they shot and left lying. 

During the fight an Indian got pretty close to the 
fort by keeping under the shelter of a corn-crib, where, 
remaining under cover, he kept up a vigorous fire when- 
ever he saw anything to shoot at. Sloan watched 
this one attentively. He himself had taken a posi- 
tion near a port-hole, and as his side was troublesome 
he had a man to load the gun and pass it to him as 
he needed it. It was at length apparent that the In- 
dian wanted to retire. To accomplish this he pushed 
betimes the muzzle of his gun beyond the covering, 
that some one expecting him to show himself would 
fire at him. Sloan fired ; the Indian, as it was ex- 
pected he would, jumped out, but by this time Sloan 
had his other gun ready which he also fired, when the 
Indian fell over dead. This one was too close to the 
fort to be taken away by the rest, and he was left 



THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS. 



195 



lying there. All the hostiles finally withdrew, either 
fearful of reinforcements coming up from the other 
posts or led away with some other object in view. 
When they had gone Capt. Sloan went to the Indian 
whom he had shot, and finding in his belt a scalping- 
knife he lifted the Indian's scalp. His hair was 
strung full of beads. Hunt, their companion, was 
never heard of. Sloan and Wallace, after remaining 
at Fort Washington, whither they went, for a time, 
returned home. 1 

PRESQUE ISLE. 

On the 28th of February, 1794, the Legislature 
passed an act for raising soldiers for the defense of 
the river Delaware and of the western frontiers. At 
the same time efforts were made towards the laying 
out of a town at Presque Isle, in order to facilitate and 
promote the settlement with the commonwealth, and 
to afford additional security to the frontiers. 

Prior to this Governor Mifflin had sent to Capt. 
Ebenezer Denny a commission, giving him the com- 
mand of the Allegheny company ordered to protect 
William Irvine, Andrew Ellicott, and Albert Galla- 
tin, who had been appointed commissioners to lay 
out the town ; for the same object a post had been es- 
tablished at Le Bceuf. But the English were fixed 
in their opposition to the opening of the road to 
Presque Isle, and instigated the Indians to resist the 
attempt. 

On the 24th of May, Governor Mifflin applied to 
the President to order out one thousand militia from 
the western brigades, raised for the frontier defense, 
to support the commissioners who were authorized to 
lay out the towns. The brigade inspectors of AVest- 
morelaud, Washington, Allegheny, and Fayette ac- 
cordingly made a draft for that number to co-operate 
with Capt. Denny's detachment under command of 
Gen. Wilkins. 

Although active preparations were made for carry- 
ing out the intentions of the Legislature, an act was 
subsequently passed to suspend the laying out of a 
town at Presque Isle, and it was not until the 18th of 
April, 1795, that all difficulties removed, the same 
body authorized the laying out of the towns at Le 
Bceuf, at the mouth of the Conewago Creek, at the 
mouth of the French Creek, and at Presque Isle. 

The Indians having taken up the hatchet again, 
made some dashes upon the exposed settlers along the 
rivers. We have in the notes attached given sufficient 
data for this matter, and need not further advert to 
the subject here. 2 

1 This is from the account given by Capt. Sloan's son, John Sloan, Jr., 
to Rev. Sharrad, of Steuhenville, Ohio, in 1871. Capt. Sloan did not re- 
main in tho WeBt, but came back, and was subsequently elected sheriff 
of this county. He suffered from his wound till he died. He produced 
this scalp on many public occasions, and I have seen persons who saw 
it on such occasions. (See local history of Derry township.) 

2 Charles Campbell to Governor Mifflin. 

" Geeensburg, June 5, 1794. 
" Sir, — I Received your Letter of the 24th of May, in Regards of stop- 
ping of the draught for the Support of Prcsqu'Isle Station, whitch 



These Indian troubles were the last in which the 
frontier settlers of our county were engaged; and 
these were borne mostly by those along our northern 
I line, or of that part which is of Armstrong and North- 
ern Indiana. Along the Ohio below Pittsburgh, and 
along the Allegheny County line, the people in this 

secnieth mulch to alarm the fruouteors of our county, as it discovers to 
the Indians that we are not able to Maintain that Post. 'Die thirtieth 
of May the Indians tired on A Cannoe in the Allegany River between 
the Mouth of Kiscumenitus River and the Cattanian: Killed one man 
and wounded Two. The evening of the same day, they fired on A Boat 
that Left my Place to go to Keaintuckey, about Two Miles Below the 
falls of the Kiscumenitus, Killed three Persons and wounded one, whitch 
was all the men that was in the Boat. Tin* Boat then Drifted Down the 
River till About Twelve Miles above Pittsburgh with the wounded man 
ami the women and Children, when they were seen By some Persons who 
went to their assistance, and Took the Boat to Pittsburgh. The froon- 
teers seemed to be Mutch Allarmed at Sutch unexpected News and the 
Signs of Indians seen on the froonteers. I Consulted with General Jack, 
and we Agreed to Order Captain Elliot, of the Rifle Company, on the 
froonteers, until Sutch Times as I could get Au Account from you, to 
Enow if would meet with your aprebation, as it will Be Impossible to 
keep the froonteers from Breaking unless Being well suported; and if 
once the one that now makes the Stand BreakeB, I Believe it will be 
Hard to get Any other to stand as well, as it will give so much En- 
couragement to the enemy, ast it Caunot Bo Expected that the friend- 
ship of the Six Nations will now be Confided in. I Could wish to do 
Everything in my power for the Benefit of the Publick and the safety 
of the froonteers. I Remain your Obedient Humble SeiVt, 

"Chas. Campbell." 

Gen, William Jack to Governor Mifflin. 

" Green^burg, June 6, 1794. 

" s IR) — i beg leave to lay before you a statement of the information I 
have received of the hostile disposition manifested by the Indians on 
our Frontiers. 

"On Friday last, in the morning of the same day, a canoe was fired 
on above the mouth of Kiskiminetas, in the Allegheny River, by which 
one man was killed and two wounded. On the same day, in the even- 
ing, Capt. Sharp's Boat was attacked iu the Kiskeminetas River, near 
to Chamber's Station (having just set off for Kentucky), by a party of 
Iudians, supposed to be twelve iu number. There was but three men 
and one boy with the boat when Attacked, and the savages kept up a 
constant fire on the boat while she kept drifting down the river. It 
appears that one man and a boy was killed, one made his escape, and 
Capt. Sharp supposed to be mortally wounded. The boat, with some 
women and a number of children, miraculously got to Pittsburgh. By a 
letter just received from Colonel Charles Campbell, he informs me that 
the Spies had made a discovery of a large trail of Indians on Pine Creek, 
above the Kittanning, who appear'd by the track to he making for the 
settlement. By another discovery of the Spies, it appears that three 
Canoes, with six or seven Indians in each, has crossed the Allegheny 
River at the mouth of Puckety, in consequence of which the settlement 
of Pine Run is broken up, And a very general alarm excited on -the 
frontiers. 

"Several parties have turned out voluntarily to intercept the enemy 
if possible, and for the security of the frontiers, but as these are not 
regular Drafts, it is not to be expected they will remain out more than 
a few days. There is great reason to believe the Indians are ot the Six 
Nations, and that the frontiers will of course continue to be constantly 
harrassed. By the best information, it appears that many, even of the 
frontier Inhabitants are destitute both of Arms and Ammunition, and 
that a supply at this place would prove extremely useful for the use of 
such as turn out on occasional Scouts. 

"Waiting your pleasure and Direction in the premises, I remain your 

Excellency's 

"Very Humble Servt. 

" Wm. Jack. 

" His Excellency Thomas Mifflin, Esquire." 

For the Westmoreland Company to operate with Capt. Denny, John 
Sloan was captain, John Craig lieutenant, and James McComb ensign, 
by commission from the Governor. James McComb resigned, and Ste- 
phen Mehaffy was commissioned in his stead, on the recommendation of 
Charles Campbell, then brigade inspector of Westmoreland. 



196 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



latter disturbance as in the former war were in great 
affliction and dread. There were some reprisals made, 
prisoners were taken, and children kidnapped even in 
the extreme lower end of Ligonier Valley, but such 
things were only possible at a time when they were 
not looked for. The inhabitants of Central and South- 
ern Westmoreland were comparatively safe, and were 
at peace sufficiently to countenance those who in Wash- 
ington and Fayette about this time were evading the 
payment of the excise on whiskey, and banding to- 
gether to tar and feather the collectors of the revenue. 
This civil commotion will be the subject of some suc- 
ceeding remarks. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

Excise — Hatred of the Scotch and Irish for the Law — Inequality of the 
Tax— Effort made hy the State to Collect the State Excise in 1785— 
"The Devil" conies for Collector Graham at Greensburg — Act of 
Congress levying a Tax on Distilled Spirits — Regulations made for its 
Collection — First Meeting in Opposition to the Law — Johnson, the 
Collector for Allegheny and Washington, tarred and feathered — No 
Place for Officers to he had in Westmoreland and Washington in 1792 
— Office opened at Greensburg and abandoned — Meeting held at Pitts- 
burgh in 1792 — President Washington issues a Proclamation — Wells, 
Collector for Fayette and Westmoreland, attacked in his House — He 
opens an Office in Philip Reagan's House in 1794 — His Son and Reagan 
fortify the Premises — They are besieged by a Large Party — They capit- 
ulate — Capt. Webster, Excise Officer for Somerset, taken and com- 
pelled to give up his Commission — Government Officers serve Process 
upon Delinquent Distillers — Neville and the Marshal driven away 
after serving the Writ on one Miller, near Peters Creek — A Party de- 
mand the surrender of Neville's Papers — Neville's House defended by j 
a Party of United States Soldiers, who Fire upon the Mob — Their 
Commander, Macfarlane, is killed — The Excitement increases — Gather- 
ing of the Rabble and Militia at Braddock's Field — They want to attack 
and burn out tbe Government Officers and the Friends of Law — Brack- 
enridge prevails upon them to cross the River — The next Day they 
disperse — Volunteers and Regulars called out by the President — Com- 
missioners appointed to go to the Scene of the Trouble — The Army at 
Carlisle— Commissioners appointed by the Delegates at Parkinson's 
Ferry confer with the President — Commissioners on both sides hold a 
Conference — Committees meet at Redstone — The Committee pass a re- 
solve to take the sense of the People on the question of submission to 
the Laws upon the Terms proposed by the United States Commis- 
sioners — The Returns Unsatisfactory — The President orders the Army ' 
over the Mountains — Change in the Sentiments of the People — Meet- 
ings held all over the Country— Report of the Meeting held at Greens- 
burg — Resolutions — The People subscribe anew to the Tests — The 
Army withdrawn — Trial of the Offenders— Effects of the Insurrection 
on Westmoreland — Biographical Sketches of Participants and Docu- 
ments hearing on the Insurrection. 

The sedition known in history as the Whiskey In- 
surrection, in the four western counties is of such a 
universal character as to be precluded, in itself, from 
a local history, and the only business we have in con- 
sidering it is to localize it, touching upon the con- 
nection the people of Westmoreland had therewith. 
In attempting, however, to do so we must outline it, 
and notice its origin, its character, and its termina- 
tion. Of the four counties in which this sedition 
held its sway, the one which was the last in it, and 
was perhaps ultimately benefited the most, was ours. I 



Excise, so odious to the English people both on the 
islands and in America, differs from any other species 
of raising tax-money or revenue in this, that while 
direct tax is upon land and landed property, and 
tariff' is an import duty exacted on foreign importa- 
tions, the excise is a specific form of taxation levied 
upon the products of domestic manufacture, and col- 
lected either at the place where the product is pro- 
duced or where it is first exposed on sale. Thus from 
necessity its collection demands a system of surveil- 
lance and of espionage on the labor and industries of 
the people, and it was considered among the peasantry 
of Scotland, long before the time of Burns, that to 
kill an exciseman was such a noble deed as would 
cover a multitude of sins. 1 

If the Scotch and Irish brought anything with 
them to this country, it was a hatred of the excise 
system of England. Brackenridge, under the guise 
of satire, has pointedly presented the cause of some 
of the political troubles which, towards the close of 
the last century, agitated Western Pennsylvania. He 
has summarized many instances where the antipathy 
against institutions of the mother-country are to be 
traced to their source in Britain herself. Thus the 
prejudice against the excise tax was a prejudice which 
had been engendered in Ireland and in Scotland, and 
which, through many causes, not only from oppres- 
sion, but from bigotry, ignorance, and obstinacy, 
drew the people along openly to resist the collection 
of the revenue. 

This region, as we have noted, was specially 
adapted to the production of grain, and there was at 
that time nothing produced which was marketable 
but ginseng, beeswax, snake-root, and whiskey. It is 
true that some trappers on the Laurel Hill could, by 
living on mush and milk and bear-meat, get some- 
thing of a revenue from wolf-scalps, but what was 
marketable had to be taken over the mountains or 
two thousand miles down the rivers. The inequality 
of this excise tax was apparent. Judge Veech puts 
it thus : that while improved land in Westmoreland 
could be assessed at five dollars per acre, and in Lan- 
caster at fifty dollars per acre, a percentage of taxa- 
tion might be fair, but a tax of seven cents per gallon 
on whiskey made on Chartiers was one-fourth its 
value, while if made on the banks of the Brandywine 
it was perhaps less than one-eighth its value. Wil- 
liam Findley, a man of eminent sagacity, in a letter 
to Governor Mifflin in November, 1792, says plainly 
that the injustice of being obliged to pay as much 
excise out of two shillings, with difficulty procured, 
as other citizens better situated have to pay out of 
perhaps three times that sum, much easier obtained, 
comes home to the understanding of those who can- 
not comprehend theories. 

Under the confederation the appropriation of Penn- 
sylvania for the allowance to the army, under an act 

1 See Burns' poem, "The deil danced away wi' the Exciseman." 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



197 



of Congress of 1780, remaining unpaid, an effort was 
made about 1785 to collect some of the fund still re- 
maining unpaid out of her excise law of 1772. The 
execution of such laws had met with violent combi- 
nations among the inhabitants of neighboring States, 
and the Pennsylvania law met with great opposition, 
especially west of the Alleghenies, and there is no 
evidence that the excise law was ever paid in that 
section. The excise tax not being collected, gave 
occasion to the eastern part to grumble, for in June, 
1785, a collector by the name of Graham was sent out. 
With much trouble he collected some in Fayette 
County, and a little in Westmoreland. But when he 
was in his hotel at Greensburg, in the darkness of the 
night, he was called to the door by a man in disguise, 
who stated to him that he was " Beelzebub, the Prince 
of Devils," and that he had called for him to hand 
him over to a legion of lesser devils who were outside 
awaiting. With some assistance he managed to es- 
cape their clutches. He tried to prosecute a man of 
the town, in whom he thought he recognized the 
" devil," but the man proved an alibi. Thence he 
passed over into Washington County, where he fared 
worse. His pistols were taken and broken in pieces 
before his face, his commission and papers were 
thrown in the mud and trampled upon, and he him- 
self forced to tread upon them. They clipped off the 
hair from the one side of his head, cut off the cockade 
of his hat, reversed it, shaved his horse's tail, and 
thus, in the midst of an increasing crowd, started him 
towards the county line. As they proceeded they 
called on all the still-houses by the way and treated 
him gratis. On the border of Westmoreland he was 
allowed to go free, with many threats if he returned. 
This State law was repealed, and the people scarcely 
looked for it again, but in 1791, Congress passed a 
law levying a tax of four pence per gallon on all dis- 
tilled spirits. The members from Western Pennsyl- 
vania — Smiley, from Fayette, and Findley, from 
Westmoreland — stoutly opposed it. They knew the 
feelings of their constituents in this matter. With 
them they had consulted, and they but expressed the 
unanimous sentiments of their people, and upon their 
return were heartily indorsed. Albert Gallatin, who 
was evidently impressed with the grievance, also op- 
posed it with all his influence. After the law was 
passed it was with some difficulty that any one could 
be found willing to accept the office of inspector in 
the western district, the measure was so unpopular. 1 

But suitable regulations were made to secure the 
collection of the revenue. The districts were appor- 
tioned, and inspectors appointed for each. The dis- 
tiller was to furnish at the nearest office a description 
of his buildings, which were always subject to exami- 
nation for the purpose of official visitation. 
The first public meeting in opposition to the en- 



1 Act 3d March, 1791. The tax was reduced, and the terms consider- 
ably modified by the law to take effect with the fiscal year of 1794. 



forceinent of the excise law was held at Redstone, 
July 27, 1791. Then and there it was agreed that 
county committees should meet at the county-seats of 
the four counties of Fayette, Allegheny, Westmore- 
land, and Washington. On the 23d of August the 
committee of Washington County passed some reso- 
lutions and published them in the Pittsburgh Gazette 
to the effect that 

" Any person who had accepted or might accept an office under Con- 
gress, in order to carry the law into effect, should be considered inimical 
to the interests of the country." 

It also recommended to the citizens of Washington 
County to treat every person accepting such office 
with contempt, and absolutely to refuse all kind of 
communication or intercourse with him, and to with- 
hold from him all aid, support, or comfort. 

Delegates from the four counties met at Pittsburgh 
on the 7th of September, 1791, and passed severe reso- 
lutions against the law. The character of the men 
who countenanced these measures and who were at. 
the head encouraged the rest, and from this mu- 
tual co-operation the uprising was spontaneous and 
general. 

Benjamin Wells, of Fayette County, was the col- 
lector for the counties of Westmoreland and Fayette, 
and Robert Johnson, of Allegheny, for Washington 
and Allegheny. There was no inspector for either 
Westmoreland or Washington. Wells, according to 
the character given him by Addison, was a contempti- 
ble and unworthy man, whom the people of the county 
would not wish to see in any office of trust. Johnson 
was said to be an honest man, of inoffensive manner 
and good nature. Johnson's office was about nine 
miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Wells' office was at 
his residence, nearly opposite Connellsville, on the 
southern bank of the Youghiogheny. These were the 
only two offices prior to June, 1792. 

On the 6th of September, 1791, a party armed and 
disguised waylaid Johnson near Pigeon Creek, in 
Washington County, tarred and feathered him, cut 
off his hair, and took away his horse, leaving him to 
travel on foot in that condition. The man sent by the 
marshal with process against the presumed offenders 
was seized, whipped, tarred, and feathered, his money 
and horse were taken from him, and he was blind- 
folded and tied in the woods, where he remained five 
hours. 

In May, 1792, some material modification was made 
in the law. The rates were lowered a little, and dis- 
tillers were allowed to take and pay for monthly in- 
stead of yearly licenses, but the penalty for non-entry 
was raised from one hundred to two hundred and fifty 
dollars. 

All efforts to get places for offices during the year 
1792 in Westmoreland and Washington were unsuc- 
cessful. Wells undertook, in June, 1792, to have an 
office at Greensburg, and another at Uniontown. 
The one at Greensburg was soon abandoned, without 
much business having been done at it. Neither did 



198 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



he attend at Uniontown, so the distillers, presuming 
that he did not mean business, after waiting for him, 
went home. For a while all was quiet in the " sur- 
vey," the name by which the district was known to 
the internal revenue department. Some distillers 
near the designated places for entering had of their 
own free will entered their stills, and some quit the 
business. But there being no offices in two of the 
largest counties of the survey, perhaps two-thirds of 
the distilleries were exempt from taxation. The 
people of the Washington County region who chose 
not to return their stills shipped their product off by 
way of the Ohio, but the Youghiogheny and Monon- 
gahela borders were under surveillance. 1 

On the 21st of August, 1792, a meeting composed 
of some of the most influential men of that day in all 
Western Pennsylvania was held at Pittsburgh, in 
which were passed resolutions in which they ex- 
pressed it to be their duty to persist in their remon- 
• strance to Congress, and in any other legal measure 
to obstruct the operation of the law, and a committee 
of correspondence was appointed to correspond with 
otber committees all through the different counties. 
On Sept. 15, 1792, President Washington issued his 
proclamation exhorting and admonishing all to de- 
sist and refrain from all unlawful combinations and 
proceedings tending to obstruct the laws. 

The time for entering the stills was fixed for the 
mouth of June of each year. The month of entry 
for 1793 was approaching, and the question was to 
get offices and officers. The inspector gave notice on 
the 1st of June in the Gazette that offices for entries 
were opened at his own house; at the house of John- 
son, in Allegheny ; at Benjamin Wells' house, in 
Fayette; and at Philip Reagan's house, in West- 
moreland. Secretary Hamilton, in his report, which 
has been the text for many historians, says that he 
was unable up to 1794 to establish any office in West- 
moreland and Washington, and it is to be inferred 
that Philip Reagan's house was not used till the time 
the officer sat there to enter the stills in the following 
year, 1794. 

This man Wells stuck to his collectorship with as 
much pertinacity as the gentleman of the same name 
stuck to the destiny of the returning board down in 
Louisiana. He was publicly insulted and abused 
whenever he made his appearance, and even at times, 
while he was away from home, his family were an- 
noyed and exposed to bodily fear. In April, 1792, a 
party in disguise attacked his house in the night, he 
being away, and threatened, terrified, and abused his 
family. On the 22d of November they again at- 
tacked his house in the night, compelled him to sur- 
render his commission and books, and required him 
to publish a resignation of his office in the papers 
within two weeks, under penalty of having his house 
burned. 



1 Veech, Sec. History. 



In June, 1794, John Wells, a son of Benjamin Wells, 
and deputy collector for Westmoreland, opened an 
office at a private house which he had secured pre- 
viously. This office was in the half-part of a double 
log house owned by Philip Reagan near the Big 
Sewickley. Wells put this branch office under the 
care of this son, John Wells, and Philip Reagan 
himself. These men appear to have been of some 
courage, and they knew full well the feeling of the 
community, and what might be expected. They there- 
fore converted the house into an old-time block-house, 
with port-holes and door and windows which could 
be closed. They also secured a number of men and 
a supply of arms. During the month of June they 
withstood several night attacks, one from a very 
numerous body of armed people. The party outside 
fired upon the house for some time, and the firing was 
vigorously returned from those inside. It is not 
known that any injury was done on either side. The 
besieging party then set fire to Reagan's barn, which 
they burned, and then they withdrew. In the course 
of a day or two one hundred and fifty men returned 
to renew the attack. The two parties parleyed for a 
while, when Reagan proposed to capitulate provided 
they gave him honorable terms and assurances that 
they would not molest his person or destroy his prop- 
erty. He promised to give up his commission and 
never again to act as exciseman. These stipulations 
were agreed to and put in writing. Reagan then 
came out and treated them with a keg of whiskey. 
After some of them had got drunk they said that he 
had got off too easily, and that he should be set up 
as a target and shot at. Others were for giving him 
a coat of tar and feathers; but others saying that he 
should be allowed to go unmolested because he had 
behaved as a man, gave occasion for a fight which 
took place among themselves. After this it was 
proposed and carried that Reagan should be court- 
martialed, and that they should go right away to 
Benjamin Wells' office, in Fayette County, and catch 
him and try him and Reagan together. They then 
set out to accomplish what had been proposed, but 
when they arrived at Wells' house he was not there. 
They set fire to it and burned it to the ground with 
all its contents. They left a party to watch in am- 
bush till Wells returned, and then to capture him. 
During the night Reagan escaped, and Wells being 
very submissive and the potent effects of their de- 
bauch having passed away, they let him off. 

The next attack was made on Capt. Webster, the 
excise officer for Somerset County, by a company of 
about one hundred and fifty men from Westmoreland. 
They took his commission from him, and made him 
promise never to act again as collector of excise. 
Taking him with them for a few miles, during which 
time he was submissive in the extreme, they made 
him, before releasing him, mount a stump and hur- 
rah three times for " Tom the Tinker." This term, 
Tom the Tinker, had come into popular use to desig- 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



199 



nate opposition to the excise, and it was assumed by 
the insurgents themselves. Braekenridge traces its 
origin to a certain John Holcroft, who made the first 
application of it at the attack on William Cough ran, 
whose still was cut to pieces. This was called mend- 
ing the still ; the menders were tinkers, and the name 
in a collective sense became Tom the Tinker. Ad- 
vertisements threatening prominent individuals, ad- 
monishing or commanding them, and signed by Tom 
the Tinker, were put upon trees and in conspicuous 
places, and menacing letters were sent over the same 
signature to the Gazette, with threats against the per- 
son of the editors if they dared refuse to publish 
them. At Braddock's Field the exclamations were, 
"Are you a Tom the Tinker's man?" and " Hurrah 
for Tom the Tinker." 

The flame of this uprising spread with an infatua- 
tion almost incredible. For a time the voice of rea- 
son could not be heard, nor dared scarce be uttered. 1 
The minister was only orthodox who took the side of 
the people, the lawyer was only popular who de- 
fended the rabble when accused, and no man of prop- 
erty felt himself safe if he knew of the least suspicion 
against him. The populace at first were instigated 
by such men as Gallatin, Findley, Smiley, Bracken- 
ridge, Cook, Young, Cannon, and Ross, and then led 
by such as Bradford and Holcroft. 

In June, 1794, the excise law was amended by Con- 
gress. The people, however, desired its absolute re- 
peal, and indeed demanded nothing short of it. It 
was therefore high time that the government should 
meet the sedition with some opposition. Indictments 
were found against a few as rioters, but they had the 
ablest lawyers at the bar of the Western circuit to 
defend them, and a jury who could not agree. At the 
same time process issued against a number of non- 
complying distillers in Fayette and Allegheny. The 
processes requiring the delinquent distillers to appear 
in court arrived in the West in mid-harvest. The Dis- 
trict Court was held at Philadelphia. The marshal 
executed his process in Fayette, and in Allegheny he 
had served all but the last. In the company of Gen. 
Neville he went, on the 15th of July, 1794, to serve 
this writ on a distiller named Miller, near Peters 
Creek. This gave occasion for the first general out- 
break. The appearance of Neville, whose official 
position had made him particularly obnoxious, in- 
censed the men about the fields to such a degree that 
they, with arms in their hands, pursued the two men 
for a distance. One gun was fired, but with what 
intent is not known. 

On the day when this occurred there was a military 
meeting at Mingo Creek for the purpose of drafting 
men to go against the Indians. This place was seven 
miles from the inspector's house. The report of the 
attack on the marshal and the inspector was carried 
to this meeting, and on the following day about thirty 

1 Findley's letter to Secretary Dallns. 



men appeared before the marshal's house and de- 
manded the surrender of his papers. This was re- 
fused, and firing commenced. On a general discharge 
of guns from the negro quarters about the house, 
for they were all armed, some five or six of the in- 
surgents were wounded, one of them mortally. Upon 
this the news spread that the blood of a citizen had 
been shed in the cause of the people, and a call was 
made on all who valued their lives or their liberty to 
assemble at the Mingo Creek meeting-house. There- 
upon a large number assembled there. Three men 
among them were appointed to direct the expedition, 
and Maj. Macfarlane, an old Revolutionary officer, 
was chosen to command the armed force. A squad 
of United States soldiers had been sent out to protect 
Neville's house. The insurgents surrounded the 
house. Then a parley took place. They again de- 
manded the surrender of Neville and his commis- 
sions. But Neville was not there. The women and 
children were allowed to withdraw from the house, 
and when this was done the firing began on both 
sides. When they had fired promiscuously for some 
time, Macfarlane, the commander of the insurgents, 
stepped out from behind a tree to confer with Maj. 
Kirkpatrick, who was in command of the regulars. 
He had no sooner done so than a ball struck him. 
He died immediately. The barn and the outhouses 
were set on fire, and Kirkpatrick and his men were 
allowed to retire. 

The death of Macfarlane increased the excitement. 
The rabble could not go backward. The post-boy, 
carrying the United States mail, was waylaid by two 
men within a mile of Greensburg. The mail-bag was 
broken open and rifled of its contents. From the 
headquarters of the insurgents Bradford and others 
issued circular letters to the colonels of the several reg- 
iments, requesting them to assemble their commands 
at their place of rendezvous, fully equipped with arms, 
accoutrements, and provisions for four days. From 
here they were to march to Braddock's Field, so as to 
arrive there on Friday, the 1st of August. In many 
instances the order was promptly obeyed. Within 
three days a vast and excited crowd, numbering not 
far, as it is well reported, from sixteen thousand, was 
brought together. Many of the companies had arms. 
Some were there through inclination, some through 
fear and from necessity, some from curiosity. Brad- 
ford was chosen commander-in-chief, Edward Cook 
was one of the generals, and Col. Blakenay officer of 
the day. Bradford proposed to march for Pittsburgh, 
to take possession of the town, and wreak their ven- 
geance upon such of their enemies as Neville, Gibson, 
Brison. and Kirkpatrick. When it was seen that it 
would be useless to oppose such leadership, Cook 
and Braekenridge (who was along) assented, and 
urged them to go there by all means. The rabble 
could not well resist the directions of Braekenridge; 
he was possessed of wonderful tact and volubility, was 
one of the first lawvers in the State, and had defended 



200 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the ringleaders when they were arrested, without 
money and without charge. "Yes," said he, " let us 
go there by all means, if for nothing else just to show 
them that the strictest order can be observed by us ; 
that we are not the rabble they take us for, but the 
people ; that we are asserting our rights. We will do 
them no danger nor put them in fear. We will march 
through the town, take a turn, come out again upon 
the fields by the bank of the river, and after drinking 
a little whiskey with the inhabitants, who will gladly 
receive us, the troops will cross over to the other side 
of the river." A number of people met them before 
they came to the town, who treated them to drink, and 
soon after, by good management, the best part of the 
rabble were gotten across the river without going 
through the streets. But those that remained were 
still excited, and wanted to burn the houses of at least 
Neville and Gibson and a few others. Had this been 
done, there can be no doubt but that the whole of the 
town would have lain in ashes, and that blood would 
have flown as freely as whiskey. Cook, Marshall, and 
others in command exerted themselves in urging the 
men to retire, using persuasion and promises big in 
the eyes of men drunk and capricious. In the day no 
harm was done, but at night the barn of Maj. Kirk- 
patrick was burnt. The people of the town passed a 
night of uneasiness, but the next day the men were 
scattering off, and the danger was over. 

Thus the sedition ripened into insurrection. We 
shall now follow up the course of the general govern- 
ment in its effort to maintain the law. When an ac- 
count of these tumultuous proceedings reached the 
authorities of the nation and of the State, they were 
promptly considered by a mutual conference. Gov- 
ernor Mifflin on the 6th of August, 1794, appointed 
Chief Justice McKean and Gen. William Irvine to 
proceed to the West and ascertain the facts, and to 
present the will of the authorities as to those in oppo- 
sition. On the 7th President Washington issued a 
proclamation commanding all persons being insur- 
gents, on or before the first day of September, to dis- 
perse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. 
He at the same time directed troops to be raised to be 
ready to march into the disaffected part at a moment's 
warning. The number of volunteers thus called out 
was fixed at twelve thousand nine hundred and fifty, 
apportioned among the States of Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. On the same day 
Governor Mifflin issued two proclamations, one di- 
recting the Slate quota to be speedily equipped and 
armed, and another calling the Assembly together in 
a special session. On the Sth of August the President 
appointed James Ross, Jasper Yates, and William 
Bradford to go forthwith into the Western District 
with full instructions and ample power to confer with 
such individuals or bodies as were approved or desig- 
nated to represent those in revolt. 

Of the army of volunteer militia and regulars raised 
under the proclamation of the President, Governor 



Henry Lee, of Virginia, was put in command, while 
the Governors of the other States commanded the 
volunteers from their respective States. 1 The Presi- 
dent, accompanied by the Secretary of War, 2 the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and Judge Peters, of the 
United States District Court for Pennsylvania, set out 
for Western Pennsylvania on the 1st of October. He 
joined the main body of the army at Carlisle. While 
here he held the conference with Redick and Findley, 
who reported to the meeting which they called together 
upon their return, and who, with the addition of 
Ephraim Douglass and Thomas Morton, were reap- 
i pointed to confer with the President at Bedford. The 
President left Carlisle on the 11th of October ; reached 
Chambersburg on the same day, and Williamsport on 
the 13th. From here he went to Fort Cumberland to 
review the left division of the army, consisting of the 
Maryland and Virginia volunteers. On the 19th of 
October he reached Bedford, where he remained two 
or three days. He came not farther west than Bedford, 
as has been erroneously reported, but from here re- 
turned to the capital, which he reached on the 28th. 
A knowledge of the proceedings in the East had 
not yet reached the West when the meeting of the 
14th of August, 1794, was called for at Parkinson's 
Ferry. This assemblage was composed of two hun- 
dred and sixty delegates from the western counties. 
Edward Cook was chairman, and Albert Gallatin, 
secretary. The meeting, after, as usual, protesting 
against the excise law and the enormity of taking 
inhabitants from their vicinage for trial, appointed 
committees with instructions as from the people. It 
was alleged soon after — and subsequent events appear 
to confirm the assertion — that many of these delegates 
had been sent with a view to counteract the seditious 
intentions of the tumultuous mob, and to gain by 
covert management what could not be accomplished 
by open opposition. Gallatin, Brackenridge, and 
James Edgar, an influential elder of the Presbyterian 
Church in Fayette County, took a prominent part in 
the discussions. The organic force of the insurrec- 
tion was condensed into a committee of one from 
each township, sixty in all ; and this committee was 
again represented by a standing committee of twelve. 3 
The committee of sixty was to meet at Redstone on 

1 From Judge Lobiugier's Lecture before the Temperance Society at 
Mount Pleasant, 1842: 

"The Pennsylvania and Jersey troops came up through Somerset and 
halted in three divisions on ibis Bide of the Chestnut Ridge. The ad- 
vance came on to where this town [Mount Pleasant | now stands; the 
second division encamped on Col. Bennett's farm, and the rear division 
remained at Lobiugier's Mills. They remained in their encampments 
for the space of about eight days, during -which tune the cavalry, con- 
ducted by the excise officers, were out scouring the country in search of 
Whiskey Boys. But chiefly all those who had taken an active part in 
the late insurrectionary movements had either lied or secreted them- 
Belves, so thai few could be found; I believe not more than one or two. 
'['bat part of the ai my which lay in this neighborhood then struck their 
tints and marched to the Forks of Yough. Whilst there a few more of 
the insurgents were taken." 

- Henry Knox and Alexander Hamilton. 

J See note, infra. 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



201 



the 2d of September, and the standing committee was 
to meet any committee that had been or might be 
appointed by the government, and to report the result 
of their conference. During the sitting of this meet- 
ing the United States commissioners had arrived at 
Pittsburgh. 

The commissioners for the State of Pennsylvania 
had also arrived at Pittsburgh on the 17th of August. 
On the 20th these, with the commissioners on the part 
of the general government, met the committee ap- 
pointed at Parkinson's. At this conference it was 
concurrently advanced by both bodies of the legally 
authorized commissioners that the exercise of the 
powers vested in them to suspend prosecutions, to 
engage for a general pardon and oblivion of crimes, 
must be preceded by a full and satisfactory assurance 
of a sincere determination in the people to obey the 
laws of the United States. The committee, on the 
part of the people, presented their grievances, dwell- 
ing at this time principally upon the disadvantages 
of being sued in a remote court, before judges and 
jurors who were strangers, beyond the mountains, 
three hundred miles away from their homes and 
countrymen. But besides this every argument was 
advanced against the excise law. 

The conference adjourned on the 28th of August to 
meet the committee at Redstone. There, after a two 
days' session, the propositions of the commissioners 
were finally recommended for acceptance by the 
people. Gallatin and Brackenridge spoke long and 
eloquently for law and order. Bradford spoke against 
both, but the votes were against him. Such was the 
fear of the popular frenzy, however, that it was diffi- 
cult to get a vote at this meeting. No one would vote 
by standing up. They would not write yea or nay for 
fear the handwriting might be discovered. At last an 
expedient was devised. The words " yea" and " nay" 
were written by the secretary on the same piece of 
paper, and the pieces of paper were distributed among 
the members. Each of the members could thus chew 
up or destroy the part he had torn otf, while he put 
the other in the box. This resulted in the appoint- 
ment of another committee to confer with the com- 
missioners, and who were also empowered throughout 
the several counties to make known the day upon 
which the sense of the people was expected to be 
taken upon the question, " Whether the people would 
submit to the laws of the United States upon the 
terms proposed by the commissioners of the United 
States ?" 

This test of submission was to be signed individ- 
ually by the citizens throughout the western counties 
on or before the 11th of September. Till that time 
it was only ten days. Four of the days passed before 
the terms were printed, and but six days were left to 
circulate the information over a region larger than 
the State of New Jersey. 

All the commissioners had returned to Philadelphia 
before the day appointed for the signing except James 



Ross. He remained to carry the report. In many 
places the people did not meet to sign. At a few 
places the polls were broken up. At other places they 
had not heard of it in time to give their assent. 
Bradford and Marshall both signed on the day ap- 
pointed. Bradford even harangued the people to 
submit. The report of the commissioners, as a con- 
sequence, was so unfavorable that the President de- 
termined to send over the mountains the forces he 
had collected at Carlisle and in the East. 

The delegates from the townships which had been 
appointed by the meeting of the 14th of August as- 
sembled at Parkinson's Ferry on the 2d of October. 
From the resolutions they made public it appeared to 
be the unanimous opinion of the meeting that if the 
signatures to the submission were not universal, it was 
not owing so much to any disposition to oppose the 
laws as to a want of time and information to get the 
correct sentiment. They also resolved to submit to the 
authorities, and to no further oppose and resist the 
revenue laws. They appointed William Findley, of 
Westmoreland, and David Redick, of Washington, 
commissioners to wait on the President and the < rov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania with a copy of the resolutions, 
and empowered them to explain to the government 
the present state of the country, and to detail such 
circumstances as might enable the President to judge 
whether an armed force would be necessary to sup- 
port the civil authorities. 

These commissioners met the President at Carlisle 
on the 10th of October, where they had several inter- 
views. They represented that the great body of the 
people remained quietly at home attending to their 
business ; that they had assurances from all parts of the 
disaffected region ; that the people were everywhere 
organizing for the suppression of disorder and for the 
preservation of order ; and that, in their opinion, if 
violence were used it would ruin the country. The 
President listened to their complaints with attention, 
but decided that, inasmuch as the army was under 
marching orders, and had actually started on its way 
to the disaffected part, the orders would not be coun- 
termanded. He assured the. delegates that no violence 
would be used, and that all that was desired was to 
have the people come back to their allegiance. 

It was said that the people of Westmoreland made 
choice of the most violent men to represent them at 
the meeting of delegates. These men were John 
Kirkpatrick, George Smith, and John Powers. It is 
certain that the common people were easily worked 
upon. To such an extent was the indignation aroused 
that it was in this county the United States mail was 
broken open and robbed, and persons who were 
known to be with the party of law openly attacked 
in broad daylight, Col. Gibson, who remained on 
the side of the government, was, on his arrival at 
Greensburg from Pittsburgh, at the time when the 
people were meeting to instruct their delegates to the 
second meeting at Parkinson's, on alighting at the 



202 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



tavern surrounded by a number of persons, who or- 
dered bim to quit the town within half an hour. He 
took refuge in the house of Gen. William Jack. 1 
And by the return of the judges of the general elec- 
tion held in the several townships for the purpose of 
ascertaining certain assurances required of the citi- 
zens by the commissioners on the part of the govern- 
ment, as late as the 11th of September, 1794, it was 
certified that, in their opinion, it would not be safe 
to immediately establish an office of inspection 
therein, as ill-disposed persons could suddenly as- 
semble and offer violence. 2 

But a change in the sentiments of the people was 
taking place. They had had enough of mob law. 
Men who had anything at stake were now moved by 
all means to have peace, and were for the assertion 
of the supremacy of the laws. With these it was a 
matter to reconcile themselves with both sides. The 
rabble were yet in the ascendant, and had the power 
in their hands, but there was no doubt that the gov- 
ernment would soon assert its authority. Of the re- 
sult of a conflict between the militia and the regulars 
there could be but one opinion. 

When the two commissioners, Findley and Redick, 
returned from their visit to the President, they called 
another meeting of the Committee of Safety at the 
Ferry for the 24th of October to make report. In the 
mean time numerous meetings were held to give the 
delegates assurances of the submission of the inhabit- 
ants, and to express their desire for the restoration 
of order before the commander-in-chief and the 
soldiers would be among them. We have the record 
of one of these meetings, held at Greensburg two days 
before the committee was to sit. This record we give 
here: 3 

"At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of 
Greensburgh and township of Hempfield, in the 
county of Westmoreland, on Wednesday, the 22d 
day of October, 1794, convened for the purpose of 
giving to the deputies who are to meet at Parkinson's 
Ferry on the 24th inst. such unequivocal assurances 
of their disposition for submission to the laws as 
would enable them to propose and adopt such meas- 
ures on their behalf as would be decisive in manifest- 
ing their sincere regret for and abhorrence of the late 
violent measures, and of their firm determination to 
support and yield obedience to the constitutional laws 
of their country, the following resolutions were pro- 
posed and adopted : 

" 1. Ii'jsnlvecl, As the sense of this meeting, that it is the duty of every 
good citizen to yield ohedience to the existing laws of his country. 

"2. That we discountenance all illegal acts of violence, from what* 
ever motive, and that for redress of grievances the privilege and right 
of the citizen is to petition and remonstrate if necessary. 

"3. That we will support the civil authority and all officers in the 
lawful exercise of their respective duties, and assist in securing for legal 
trial all offenders against the laws when called upon. 

1 Penna. Arch., vol. iv. p. 157. 

= Ibid., 298. 

3 See also GeD. Gibson's letter, Penna. Arch., New Series, vol. iv., 157. 



"4. That the citizens of this town and township will give no opposition 
to the opening an office of inspection therein, should the same be con- 
templated by the government, and that we will use our endeavors to 
remove improper prejudices, and recommend a peaceable and general 
submission. 

"5. That a copy of the preceding resolutions be given to one or more 
of the deputies for the town or township who are to meet at Parkinson'B 
Ferry on Friday, the 24th inst., together with a copy of the assurance 
paper, signed by the citizens of this meeting, in order that the same 
may be laid before the members of the said committee, and that another 
copy be made out for publication in the Pittsburgh Gazette, and that the 
same be attested by the chairman and clerk of this meeting." 

This preamble and the resolutions were signed by 
David Marchand as chairman, and attested by Thomas 
Hamilton, the clerk of the meeting. The certificate 
or paper of assurance which was submitted at the 
same time to the people was signed in the course of 
the evening by four hundred and twenty citizens. In 
a note to this assurance it was said that the same or 
something similar would be entered into and sub- 
scribed in the other townships of the county ; in some 
parts a similar assurance had been given, and in all 
parts it was expected a compliance would take place 
immediately. 

The two commissioners appointed by the Parkin- 
son committee, on their return, as we have said, called 
another meeting to which to make report. These 
were reappointed, and two others with them, to con- 
vey to the President the much more favorable outlook 
of affairs. They expected to find the President at 
Bedford, but learning that he had left that place and 
returned to the capital, they proceeded at once to 
Uniontown to confer with Gen. Lee, who by this time 
had established his headquarters there, and who had 
all power to treat with those who were authoritatively 
delegated. He received them with courtesy, and as- 
sured them that no exertion would be wanting on his 
part to prevent injury to persons or property. He 
told them to quiet the minds of the people upon that 
score, and to urge upon them to be as active in re- 
storing order as they had been in bringing about dis- 
order. The report of this conference was printed 
and widely circulated. Besides this the general pub- 
lished an address to the people of the four western 
counties recommending them to subscribe to an oath 
to support the Constitution and obey the laws, and to 
enter an assurance to aid the officers of the govern- 
ment in their duties. Books were opened at the offices 
of all the justices of the peace, and notices given that 
they would receive the tests or oaths of allegiance of 
all good citizens. Notices were given at the same' 
time for the entering of all stills. The people at 
once attended to all their obligations. On the 17th 
of November general orders were issued for the re- 
turn of all troops, except a detachment under Gen. 
Morgan, which was directed to remain for the winter 
about Pittsburgh. A squad of these was stationed at 
Uniontown and another quartered at Greensburg. 

Information was made against many for overt acts 
of treason, and a formal investigation was held by 
Judge Peters. Most of these had been guilty, as it 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



203 



was ruled, of no offense against the government. A 
number were arrested and carried to Pittsburgh. 
Some of these were released by influential friends, 
while those who were not were sent to Philadelphia 
for trial. These were kept in confinement for nearly 
a year. In the end several were finally tried, and 
two were convicted, one for arson and the other for 
robbing the United States mail. Not one was con- 
victed of treason, though the insurgents were in open 
armed resistance to the laws for nearly two months. 

Passing over the charges which would increase their 
criminality and the claims which might extenuate 
their ill-advised and hasty procedure, we notice that 
that part of the county which had been in open re- 
sistance was ultimately profited by the accession of a 
large body of new inhabitants, the enhanced value of 
all real property, and by new facilities and new mar- 
kets by which they more readily got rid of their sur- 
plus manufacture. Possibly our own county was 
benefited more than any of the others. Many volun- 
teers who had come in the army seeing a better pros- 
pect here than in the East removed within a year or 
two. Young men just entering in the professions of 
law and medicine chose to cast their lot in a section 
which bade fair to rapidly advance in population and 
in wealth. They became identified with all the in- 
terests of the county-town and the county, and with 
few exceptions they became the substantial citizens 
of a later period. So rapidly did the number of the 
inhabitants increase and the business interests of the 
county improve within ten years from this date, that 
more than a dozen of the old villages and towns once 
the centre of their respective localities first received 
their names and began a quasi corporate existence. 

P>rief notices are herewith given of some of the per- 
sonages who took an active part in the affair of the 
Whiskey Insurrection: 

John Neville was born on the head-waters of the Occoquan, Virginia, 
in the year 1731. He was an officer in the Virginia troops under the 
ill-fated Braddock. In 1774 he was a delegate to the Provincial Con- 
vention of Virginia He was colonel of the Fourth Virginia Regiment 
in the Revolution, serving with distinction at Trenton, Princeton, Ger- 
mantowu, and Monmouth. After the war he settled in Pennsylvania, 
and was elected a member of the Supreme Executive Council. He was 
subsequently appointed by the President of the United States inspector 
of revenue for the western counties. It was his residence which was 
destroyed by the opponents of the excise. He was a gallant soldier and a 
dutiful citizen. He died at Montour's Island, near Pittsburgh, July 29, 
1803. 

Presley Neville, son of Gen. John Neville, was born about the year 
1756. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he 
graduated in 1775. He served in the Revolution as aide to Gen. Lafayette, 
and at the capture of Charleston was made prisoner. He was afterwards 
brigade inspector of the militia for Allegheny County. He was a mem- 
ber of the Assembly. Col. Neville married a daughter of Gen. Daniel 
Morgan, who, according to Brackenridge, "blessed him with an off- 
spring as numerous and as beautiful as the children of Niobe;" was 
a prominent merchant of Pittsburgh for twenty-five years. He died 
at Fairview, Ohio, on the 1st of December, 1818. 

Capt. James McFarlane. — The following epitaph was lately copied 
from the tombstone in the Mingo Creek graveyard: 

" Here lies the body of Capt. James McFarlaud, of Washington County, 
Pa., who departed this life the 17th of July, 1794, aged 43 years. 

"He served during the war with undaunted courage in defense of 



American independence against the lawless and despotic encroachments 
of Great Britain. He fell at last by the hands of an unprincipled villain 
in the support of what he supposed tu he the rights uf his country, much 
lamented by a numerous and respectable circle of acquaintance." 

Col. John Marshall " had been an early settler in the western coun- 
ties and a useful citizen during the late war with Britain and the terri- 
torial controversy with Virginia. He was successively register, high 
sheriff, member of the Ratifying Convention (of the Federal Constitu- 
tion), of the Legislature, county lieutenant, and again register in Wash- 
ington Comity, and was respectable for the discretion he displayed in 
the discharge of the duties of the respective offices he filled. In the 
Ratifying Convention he voted in favor of amendments previous to rati- 
fication, but refused to sign the reasons of the minority. Moderation 
was thought to have been a leading trait in his character. He was an 
industrious man, and had amassed considerable property. From these 
circumstances the part he took in the insurrection was surprising. He 
had come from the north of Ireland in his youth." — (Findley's History, 
etc., p. 94.) 

Benjamin Parkinpon, a Pennsylvanian by birth, had always resided 
in that State. He also was a Federalist, and had supported Gen. Neville's 
interest formerly; was reputed a good citizen, a man of influence in his 
neighborhood ; had been a justice of the peace before the revisiun of the 
constitution of the State, was president of the Mingo Creek Association, 
and one of the committee who superintended the operations in the 
attack on Neville's house. — (Findley's History, etc.) 

John Canon (or Cannon)" was from Chester County, Pa., and had long 
been a respectable [we pardon you, Hon. William Findk-y, for the 1 respec- 
table,' for you did not know to what estent Mr. Cannon was concerned in the 
murder of the Mono-inn Indians] citizen south of the Moilongahela, lived 
in the town called by his name, had attached himself to the government 
of Virginia, and favored the idea of a new State. He was afterwards a 
member of the Legislature, and was an early advocate of the Federal 
Constitution, and a supporter of Gen. Neville's interest in the country." 
— (Findley's History.) 

David Bradford, a native of Maryland, was a prominent lawyer in 
after-years in Washington County. He became extensively known, and 
wielded an immeuse influence. He was admitted, as we have seen, in 
1782, and the year after was appointed district attorney. He was one of 
the commissioners for the laying out and sale of lots at Fort Mcintosh, 
now Beaver, in 1792-93. At the time of the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion he was a zealous Federalist. When the convention of the four 
western counties met at Pittsburgh, Sept. 7, 1791, Bradford was one of 
the three representatives from Washington County. He was one of the 
committee calling the people to rendezvous at Braddock's Field, Aug. 1, 
1794. There he was unanimously elected the major-general to command 
the forces of the insurrectionists. When government issued the amnesty 
proclamation, all the citizens were included except Bradford. He fled 
to Bayou Sara, in Louisiana territory, then in possession of Spain, and 
died there about 1809. He erected the first 6tone house of the county. 

He was respectably connected, being a brother-in-law of Judge James 
Allisou, the grandfather of John Allison, late Register of the Treasury 
of the United States. In Louisiana he became a successful planter, and 
won his way to wealth and a fair social position (Veech). A grand- 
daughter became the wife of Richard Brodhead, United States senator 
from Pennsylvania, 1851-57, and a son is said to have married a sister of 
Jefferson Davis. 

Edward Cook, whose name we will often meet with somewhat later 
in the history of Southwestern Pennsylvania, was a native of the State, 
and one of the early inhabitants of Westmoreland. He was a member of 
the Committee of Conference which sat at Carpenter's Hall, June, 1776, 
and of the Constitutional Convention of that year. He took an active 
part in the defense of the frontier from 1779 to 1782, being a sub-lieutenant 
in 1781, and lieutenant of the county in 1782. being appointed successor to 
Lochry. He was in actual command of some of the rangers. He, however 
took more interest and was more distinguished in civil than in military 
affairs. He was a leading county justice under the old system, and al- 
though he resided outside the boundary of our county after Washington 
and Fayette were erected, yet he held Bpecial commissions covering our 
county's jurisdiction for some time after, and presided at the court sitting 
at Hanuastown when it was attacked and burnt by the Indians and Tories. 
These commissions were from time to time renewed. In 1791 he was 
associate judge of Fayette under the constitutional regulations of 1790. 
From 1796 to 1798 he was treasurer of Westmoreland. He took a for- 
ward part in the troubles of the Whiskey Insurrection, beiug recognized 
then as a man of much influence with the people, so much so indeed 
that he was chosen chairman of the Mingo Creek meeting. 

"Fulton was from Maryland; he was not only a Federalist, but an 



204 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



open advocate of the excise law ; indeed, the most openly so of any I 
have met with in the western counties, and was an avowed friend of the 
inspector (Neville). He kept a large distillery, and expected hy the 
operations of the excise to have considerable advantage over the small 
distillers. He had also erected a brewery. I have never been able to 
account for the inconsistency of his conduct."— (Findley's History.) 

Albert Gallatin was a native of Geneva, in Switzerland. He was 
of a good family, had received an excellent education, and came in early 
youth to the United States; that is, during the Revolutionary war, in 
which he took a part. He was not bred to any particular profession. 
His talent for public speaking was developed by circumstances. He at 
first opposed the Federal Constitution, and it is believed that his mind 
was cramped by the narrow confederacy in which he was born. In con- 
sequence of this, and the reasons it germinated, he was rather opposed 
to the extension or our territory. His brilliant political career belongs 
to our national history. 

David Redick was a native of Ireland and a lawyer by profession; 
admitted to practice in Washington County in 1782, one year after its 
organization. In 1786 he was elected a member of the Supreme Execu- 
tive Council, and in 1788 chosen vice-president of Pennsylvania, the 
duties "I which office he continued to exercise until January the 19th, 
1789. In October, 1787, he was appointed the agent of the State for 
communicating to the Governor of New York intelligence respecting 
Connecticut claims. In 1791, Mr. Itedick was appointed prothonotary 
of Washington County, and the following year clerk of the courts. As 
a business man be was active and energetic, and we find him exercising 
the duties of a surveyor, having been appointed to survey the ten,islands 
in the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and divide the several tracts of land 
opposite Pittsburgh into building or towu and outlots. At the time of 
the Whiskey Insurrection he took a prominent part in defense of law, 
order, and the constitution, and, with Mr. Findley, was appointed, Oct. 
2, 1794, to wait upon President Washington and Governor Mifflin to 
explain the state of affairs in the Western counties. The result of their 
commission is narrated in the text and the accompanying papers. Mr. 
Redick died at Washington, Sept. 28, 1805, and was buried with Masonic 
honors. 

William Irvine, who commanded at Fort Pitt duriDg the latter days 
of the Revolution, and who took such an active part in the civil affairs 
later,and who has relatives yet residing in Westmoreland County, being 
uncle to the late Alexander Johnston, of Kingston House, deserves Borne 
special notice from Westmorelanders. We meet with his name so fre- 
quently in the early history of Western Pennsylvania and of Westinore- 
Inud i lounty that we or the reader of our annals must long before this 
period have of necessity become familiar with his name, to say tin' 
least. He was born at Fermanagh, Ireland, Nov. 3, 1741. Educated 

at the University of Dublin, be studied medicine, and was s > time 

Burgeon in the English navy. After the peace of 1763 he removed to 
Pennsylvania, and settled at Carlisle. He was a member from Cumber- 
land County of the convention which met at Philadelphia on the 15th 
of July, 1774, and recommended a General Congress. He was a repre- 
sentative in the succeeding conferences of the Province. In 1776 he 
raised and commanded the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, and was cap- 
tured at TroiB Rivieres, Canada. On the 3d of August was released on 
parole; exchanged May 6, 1778. The same year he was appointed col- 
onel of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, and the 12th of May, 1779, 
a brigadier-general. He served under Wayue during that and the fol- 
lowing year. In the autumn of 1781 he was stationed at Fort Pitt, in- 
trusted with the defense of the Northwestern frontier. In 1784 he 
served as a member of the Couucil of Censors. In 1785 he was ap- 
pointed by the President of Pennsylvania an agent to examine the pub- 
lic lands uf the State, and suggested the purchase of the " Triangle," 
thus giving t.i Pennsylvania au outlet on Lake Erie. He was a member 
of the old Congress of 178G-88, and of the Constitutional Convention of 
1790. In 1794, Governor Mifflin appointed him, with Chief Justice Mc- 
Kean, a commissioner to go to the western counties. He served as mem- 
ber of Congress from 1793 to 1795. He was president of the Pennsylva- 
nia Society of the Cincinnati. He died at Philadelphia on the 29lh of 
July, 1804. 

The following extracts are from correspondence, 
contemporaneous histories, official reports, and from 
" The Papers Relating to the Whiskey Insurrection," 
Penn. Archives, with observations thereon, etc., as 
the same especially refers to Westmoreland County : 

From William Findley 's letter to Governor Mifflin : 



"Nov. 21st, 1792. 
" When I returned among my constituents I discovered that not only 
those who had been wavering in their opinion, hut those also who had 
first thought that they could avail themselves of the law to advantage, 
by running down the occupiers of small stills in disadvantageous situa- 
tions, and even those who had originally advocated the law, were be- 
come unanimous against it; for the more accurately they examine the 
law, with application to their own local cin umstances, they are the 
more determined and unanimous in their wishes for its repeal." 

At a meeting held at Pittsburgh, Sept. 7, 1791, the 
following gentlemen appeared from the counties of 
Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, and Allegheny 
to take into consideration, etc., namely : 

For Westmoreland County, Nehemiah Stokely and 
John Young, Esquires. 

For Washington County, Col. James Marshall, Rev. 
David Phillips, and David Bradford, Esquires. 

For Fayette County, Edward Cook, Nathaniel 
Bradly, and John Oliphant, Esquires. 

For Allegheny County, Col. Thomas Morton, John 
Woods, Esquire, and William Plummer, Esquire. 

Edward Cook, Esquire, was voted in the chair, and 
John Young appointed secretary. 

The following persons were present at the meeting 
held at Pittsburgh on the 21st of August, 1792 : Pres- 
ent, John Cannon, William Wallace, Shesbazer Bent- 
ley, Bazel Bowel, Benjamin Parkinson, John Huey, 
John Badollet, John Hamilton, John McClellan, 
Nral Gillespie, David Bradford, Thomas Gaddes, 
Rev. David Phillips, Albert Gallatin, .Matthew Jami- 
son, James Marshall, James Robinson, James Stew- 
art, John Smilie, Robert McClure, Peter Lisle, Alex- 
ander Long, Samuel Wilson, and Edward Cook. 

Col. John Cannon was placed in the chair, and 
Albert Gallatin appointed clerk. 

Among their resolutions were these : 

" Resolved, That David Bradford, James Marshall, Albert Gallatin, 
Peter Lisle, and David Philips be appointed for the purpose of drawing 
a remonstrance to Congress, stating our objections against the law that 
i in puses a duty upon spirituous liquors distilled within the United States, 
and praying tor a repeal of the same, etc. 

" .1 >nl iikereas, Some men may be found amongst us so far lost to every 
sense of virtue and feeling for the distresses of this country as to accept 
offices for the collection of the duty, 

" Resolved therefore, That in future we will consider such persons as 
unworthy of our friendship, have no intercourse or dealings with them, 
withdraw from them every assistance, and withhold all the comforts of 
life which depend upon those duties that as men and fellow-citizens we 
owe to each other,and upon all occasions treat them with that contempt 
they deserve, and that it be, and it is, hereby most earnestly recom- 
mended to the people at large to follow the same line of conduct to- 
wards them." 

Extract from letter of Judge Addison to Governor 
Mifflin: 

" Wasiiin., 12th May, 1794. 

"There are, so far as I have understood, hut two Collectors of Excise 
in the four Counties of Pennsyl. on this side of the mountains. Benja- 
min Wells, of Fayette County, is collector for the Counties of Westmore- 
land and Fayette. Robert Johnston, of Allegheny County, is collector 
tor the counties of Washington and Allegheny. 

" Robert Johnston, so far as I have learnt of him, is an honest man 
of good character, but more remarkable for simplicity, good nature, and 
inoffensive manners than for those qualities of spirit, understanding, 
skill, and address which are necessary for carrying into execution a law 
odious and opposed where he is charged with its execution. 

" Benjamin Wells, so far as I have heard him spoken of, is a contempt!- 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



205 



ble and unworthy man, whom, I believe, the people of this country would 
never wish to ace in any office or trust with an object of any import- 
ance.* 1 

The inhabitants of Westmoreland to Gen. William 
Jack : 

*' Sin, — As attempts have been made to raise an armed force to disturb 
the peace of this County and prevent the due Execution of the Laws, 
and an attack has been premeditated to be made on the Town of Greens- 
burg, we have thought proper to address you as the Commanding Of- 
ficer of the Militia on a subject so distressing to the minds of all well 
. disposed Citizens. If such proceedings are not checked in their first Ca- 
reer, it is more easy to image than to point out the Calamities which may 
be the Consequence. We would be happy to have it in our power to say 
that the disposition to submit to the Laws was so prevalent that any ex- 
traordinary exertion of Government for that purpose and protecting 
well-disposed Citizens in the Enjoyment of their Rights and Liberties 
was unnecessary. Recent examples convince us to the Contrary. Until 
that protection can be afforded, we are of opinion that besides Voluntary 
Associations among such as are well inclined, a small Corps of Militia 
Volunteers, embodied by your direction, to be kept in service so long as 
you shall judge the exigency of the case may require, will Essentially 
contribute to maintain the peace, and under the Civil authority to assist 
in Suppressing Riots and traitorous designs. From the tenor and senti- 
ments manifested by the Executive, we make no doubt that your conduct 
in calling such a body of men into service for a short time will meet with 
the most unequivocal approbation, and the Expense be Defrayed out of 
the public Treasury. We add this our personal assurance of your being 
reimbursed any expense which may be incurred by you as to the pay 
and Rations of the officers and men whom you may think proper to call 
out for the Salutary purposes above mentioned. 

" We are, Sir, your Humble Serv'ts, 



"William Findley. 
Samuel Porter. 
William Todd. 
Thomas Hamilton. 
James Guthre. 
James McKellip. 
John Hutcheaon. 
Peter Tittle. 
John Denniston. 
George Smith. 
Robert Bole. 
John Brandon, 
David Beans. 
Conrad Colmer. 
James Hill. - 



Timothy Buell. 
John Parker. 
Peter Classon. 
John Contz. 
John Kirkpatrick. 
Christopher Truby. 
Robert Williams. 
Robert Taylor. / 
Simeon Hovey. 
James Perry. 
William Magher. 
Frederick Roher. 
Terrence Campbell. 
Joseph Cook. 
Nathan Williams.'' 



(A majority of these were the personal friends and 
some of them neighbors of Findley. It was no doubt 
presented at his instance.) 

" Tom the Tinker's" notice to John Reed : 

" Mr. Scull" [Editor and one of the Proprietors of the Pittsburgh Gazette] : 
"I am under the necessity of requesting you to put the following in 
your next paper. It was found pasted on a tree near my distillery. 

"John Reed. 

"July 23, 1794. 

"'ADVERTISEMENT. 

"'In taking a survey of the troops under my direction in the late ex- 
pedition against that insolent exciseman, John Nevill, I find there were 
a great many delinquents, even among those who carry on distilling' 
It will therefore be observed that I, Tom the Tinker, will not suffer 
aay certain class or set of men to be excluded the service of this my dis- 
trict when notified to attend on any expedition carried on in order to 
obstruct the execution of the excise law and obtain a repeal thereof. 

'"And I do declare on my solemn word, that if such delinquents do not 
come forth on the next alarm, with equipments, and give their assist- 
ance as much as in them lies, in opposing the execution and obtaining a 
repeal of the excise law, he or they will be deemed as enemies, and 
stand opposed to virtuous principles uf republican liberty, and shall re- 
ceive punishment according to the nature of the offense. 

"'And whereas a certain John Reed, now resident in Washington, and 
being at his place near Pittsburgh, called Reedsbvirg, and having a set 
of stills employed at said Reedsburg, entered on the excise docket, con- 
14 



trafj to the will and good pleasure of his fellow-citizens, and came not 
forth to assist in the suppression of the execution of said law, by aiding 
and assisting in the late expedition, have, by delinquency, manifested 
his approbation to the execution of the aforesaid law, is hereby charged 
forthwith to cause the contents of this paper, without adding or dimin- 
ishing, to be published in the Pittsburgh Gazette the ensuing week, un- 
der the do less penalty than the consumption of his distillery. 

"'Given under my hand, this 19th day of July, one thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-four. 

"'Tom the Tinker.'" 

Extract from letter of the Secretary of the Treasury 
to President Washington: 

"Treasury Department, Philadelphia, August 5, 1794. 

" Nor were the outrages perpetrated confined to the officers; they ex- 
tended to private citizens who only dared to show their respect for the 
laws of their country. 

"Some time in October, 1791, an unhappy man of the name of WilBOn, 
a stranger in the county, and manifestly disordered in his intellect, im- 
agining himself to be a collector of the revenue, or invested with some 
trust in relation to it, was so unlucky as to make inquiries concerning 
distillers win. had entered their stills, giving out that he was to travel 
through the United States to ascertain and report to Congress the num- 
ber of stills, etc. This man was pursued by a party in disguise, taken 
out of his bed, carried about five miles back to a smith's shop, stripped 
of his clothes, which were afterwards burnt, and having been himself in- 
humanly burnt in several places with a heated iron, was tarred and 
feathered, and about daylight dismissed, naked, wounded, and otherwise 
in a very suffering condition. , . . The unhappy sufferer displayed the 
heroic fortitude of a man who conceived himself to be a martyr to the 
discharge of some important duty." 

Gen. Gibson to Governor Mifflin: 

"Carlisle, Aug. 14, 1794. 

" I arrived here last uight, having met on my way down to this place 
Judge Yeate* and Mr. Bradford, ten miles east of Bedford, on Tuesday 
last in the morning, and Judge McKean and Gen. Irwin near to Little- 
ton the same day, in the evening. On my arrival at Greensburg I found 
a number of people assembled to choose delegates to attend the general 
meeting to be held this day. On my alighting at a tavern they sur- 
rounded the house, and ordered me to quit the town in half an hour or 
I must abide the consequences. I then came to Gen. Jack's, and re- 
mained the remainder of the day with him. I am much afraid from 
the present disposition of the people nothing good will result from the 
present meeting. Gen. Jack assures me in the county of Westmoreland 
the people have made choice of the most violent men to represent them 
at the general meeting, and that nothing less than the repeal of the 
excise law will satisfy them. I wish they may even treat the commis- 
sioners with common decency. I shall remain here until the return of 
the next post from Pittsburgh, as I have left Mrs. Gibson and the family 
there. Should any violent measures be adopted by the general meeting 
she will leave that place, and I shall return to meet her. Inclosed is the 
resolves of the committee and their passport to me. 

" Should anything offer in which lean serve my country at the risque 
of my life and my fortune, I hope your Excellency will command me. 

" I have honor to be your Excellency's most obedient humble ser- 
vant. 

" Jos. Gibson." 

Representatives present at the first conference at 
Parkinson's ferry on the 14th of August, 1794, to confer 
on the subject of the late opposition to the laws, etc. : 

" On the part of the Executive Union : William Bradford, attorney-gen- 
eral of the United States ; Jasper Yeates, associate judge of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania; James Ross, senator in the Congress of the 
United States. 

" On the part of the Executive of Pennsylvania.— -Thomas McKean, Chief 
Justice of the State of Pennsylvania; William Irvine, Representative in 
the Congress of the United State*. 

" Committee of Conference. — Westmoreland County, John Kirkpatrick 
George Smith, John Powers ; Fayette County, Edward Cook, Albert Gal- 
latin, James Lang; Washington County, David Bradford, John Mar- 
shall, James Edgar; Allegheny County, Thomas Morton, John Lucas, 
H. H. Brackenridge; Ohio County (Virginia), William M. Kinley, Wil- 
liam Sutherland, John Stevenson." 



206 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



" We, the subscribers, judges of a general election held in the several 
townships of the county of Westmoreland for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing certain assurances required of the citizens by the commissioners on 
the part of the government, and agreed to on the part of the delegates, 
having met this day and taken into consideration the returns from said 
townships (true copies of which have been returned to one of the com- 
missioners), and finding that some gave only general assurances of their 
submission and disposition for peace, without individually signing the 
same, and others, in numbers according to the returns by them respec- 
tively made, do certify that in our opinion as ill-disposed, lawless persons 
could suddenly assemble and offer violence, it would not be safe in im- 
mediately establishing an office of inspection therein. 

"Given under our hands at the court-house in Greensburg this 13th 
day of September, 1794. 

"James McLean.. ' John Denniston. 

Ebenezer Brady. Christopher Finley. 

Clements Burleigh. John Kirkpathck. _ 

Hugh Martin. John Young. 

James Caldwell. John Findley. 

James Irwin. Jeremiah Murray. 

James Brady. George Anient.'' 

John Anderson. 

Letter from Gen. William Jack to Governor Mtffitn. 

'• Greenshurg, Sept. '22, 1794. 

"Sir,— I think it my duty to transmit your Excellency an account of 
the situation of this county at the present crisis, and the motives which 
induced me to call into service a small corps of militia to assist in pre- 
serving peace and warding off any attack on the county town, where 
the public records are kept, and in which the adjoining counties are in- 
terested as well as this. 

"Until the disturbances took place, soon after the arrival of the federal 
marshal, the people of this county, altho' generally averse to the duty 
on spirits, thought very little about it, and I have reason to presume 
many of the principal distillers would have entered rather than sub- 
jected themselves to a prosecution. The flame was soon communicated, 
and many from different views rather encouraged opposition than other- 
Wise, whilst those who failed of other reasons made use of threats to ac- 
complish their views. The inclosed paper, sent to a distiller in this 
county, shows the mode of invitation from Washington; but there is 
reason to suppose that open as well as disguised menaces of burning, 
&c, had the greatest effect in collecting the small number that went 
from Westmoreland to Braddock's field. 

" The vigorous measures proposed by Government, as well as the just 
fears of all good citizens, and the danger to persons and property, all 
had their effect in allaying the ferment. The people, however, revolted 
at the idea of submitting to the law complained of, as settled with the 
commissioners met at Pittsburgh. Considerable pains were used at this 
place to procure the signing required, and, I firmly believe, bnt for the 
steady countenance and determination of a few among us no signing at 
all would have taken phuc The Germans, who are thick settled in 
this neighborhood, being from ignorance of our language more easily 
imposed upon, were extremely unwilling, and even showed a disposition 
which I did not expect from those habits of industry to which they are 
used. 

" On the 11th instant, the day fixed, only about eighty came forward 
to sign out of several hundred met; frequent attempts were made by 
some to intimidate and create mischief; at length some of the ringlead- 
ers attempted to snatch the papers, in order to destroy them, but were 
prevented. Those who were known to have signed have been more or 
less threatened ever since by a set of worthless fellows. 

" An association was set on foot in the town, the 13th instant, for pro- 
tection and mutual safety, and was generally agreed to, even by some 
of those who did not like the declaration to submit to the laws. On the 
16th, being assured of an attempt set on foot by Lient. Straw to raise a 
part} i" come to town with the pretense of getting the papers, I thought 
it must ;nl\ isable to issue a warrant and committed him to gaol. 

" Being joined by a number of friends to peace from the country, I 
went with a party of about fifty men to a house where the said Straw's 
party was to collect, about a mile from town, where we found about 
thirty persons who declared in favor of peace, and not finding some of 
those among them who had been the must active, we thought it best to 
be satisfied with their assurances. 

"To put a check to further combinations of this kind, it was deter- 
mined expedient (on a consultation among the citizens of the town, and 
some who had come from the country, particularly Mr. Findley and 
Mr. Porter [Revd]), to have a party raised to be ready on any emergency. 



In consequence I have given instructions for calling out a lieutenant 
and thirty volunteers, militia, to rendezvous here this week, the num- 
ber to he augmented if occasion requires; hut I hope this will not be 
necessary, the more especially as the troops ordered by the Executive 
are now supposed to be on their march. 

" For your Excellency's satisfaction I transmit you a copy of the Let- 
ter from the Citizens to me, and at the same time request your sanction 
to the measure I have undertaken. 

" I am, sir, your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant, 

" William Jack." 

From notes of the march of the army from Sept. 
30th to Oct. 29, 1794: 

"Jones' Mill, Oct 29, 1794. 
"lam distressed at the ridiculous accounts sometimes published in 
our papers. I aBsure you that there has not been a single shot fired at 
our troops to my knowledge. The whole country trembles. The most 
turbulent characters as we advance turn out to assist us, supply forage, 
cattle, &c. From Washington we hear of little but fear and flight. . . . 
Our march to Berlin (Somerset County) was one of the severest kind. 
The ascent of a mountain in fine weather to a single traveler must be 
laborious, judge then what it must prove in a heavy rain to an army, 
with all their train of artillery and wagons, each private soldier carry- 
ing his arms and knapsack, yet no discontent appeared, and a double 
allowance of whiskey made them us happy as could be, the only diffi- 
culty we have found with them, in relation to the main object, was to re- 
strain them from eagerly apprehending those who were pointed out as 
Whiskey Boys." 

Route of tub Army on thecr Return. 
"The army will make a short movement from Pittsburgh on Tuesday, 
the 18th. The line of march to be taken up the next day. The follow- 
ing are the stations allntted for each day's march : 

Miles. 

1st "lay's march to Hellman's, from Pittsburgh 15 

2d, to Dutchman's, two miles west of Greensburg 14 

3d, to Nine-Mile Run (Youngstown) 11 

4th, two miles east of Ligonier 11 

5th, Wells' r., foot Laurel ri 9 

6th, Stony Creek, two miles E 11 

7th, R van's... 15 

8th, Bedford 24 

9th. Crossings of the Ravstowu Branch of the Juniata... 14 

10th, E. side 1 ' of Sideling* Hill 20 

11th, Burd's, Fort Lyttleton. 12 

12th, Stradsburg 17 

13th, Shippensburg 11 

14th, Carlisle 21 

List of persons excepted from pardon by terms of 
Governor Lee's proclamation, 29th November, 1794: 



Benjamin Parkinson. 
John Holcroft. 
Thomas Lapsley. 
Edward Cook. 
Richard Holcroft. 
John Mitchell. 
Thomas Spiers. 
George Parker. 
Edward Magner, Jr. 
David -Lock. 
Peter Lyle. 
William Hay. 
Thomas Patton . 
Arthur Gardner. 



Daniel Hamilton. 
William Millar. 
Edward Wright. 
David Bradford. 
Alexander Fulton. 
William Bradford. 
William Uanna. 
Thomas Hughes. 
Ebenezer Gallagher. 
John Shi. bis. 
William McElhenny. 
Stephenson Jack. 
Patrick Jack. 
a ndrew Highlands. 



Of the State of Pennsylvania. 
William Sutherland, Robert Stephenson. 

William McKinley. John Moore. 

John McCormiek. 

Of Ohio County, in the State of Virginia. 

" As the army returned through Westmoreland two arrests were made 
in the southern extremity of that country and one in the neighboring 
parts of Fayette ; they were taken to Philadelphia. . . . One of 
the two prisoners from Westmoreland was found guilty of setting fire 
to the house of Wells, the collector, and condemued to be hanged, but 
w:is afterwards reprieved and then pardoned by the President. He was 
a very ignorant man, said to be of an outrageous temper, and subject to 
occasional fits of insanity." — Brackenrid-jt:''* History of the Insurrection. 



WILLIAM FINDLEY. 



201 



John Mitchell was the man who robbed the Pitts- 
burgh mail, and who was convicted and sentenced to 
be hanged. He was also reprieved and pardoned by 
the Presideut. 

It is a curious circumstance that the two persons 
who were regularly tried and sentenced to death, the 
one for arson and the other for robbing the mail and 
murder, should have both committed the crimes with- 
in the county of Westmoreland. It was right that 
they should be pardoned from their punishment when 
we consider the enormity of the offenses, their mag- 
nitude, and their number, which for a full season 
were perpetrated without punishment in the other 
portions of the official survey, growing out of the 
same occasion. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

WILLIAM FINDLEY. 

William Findley, the First Member of Congress from Westmoreland — 
His Colleague in the Commission to the President of the United States 
at the Time of the Whiskey Insurrection, David Redick — His Account 
of his Early Life and his Motives in settling in Pennsylvania — His Set- 
tlement in the Octorara Settlement and bis Efforts to remove the Obli- 
gations of the Scotch Covenanters in Matters Civil — His Early Advan- 
tages — His Opinions on Slavery — Elected Member of the Assembly, of 
the Council of Censors, Member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1790, and Member of Congress — "Modern Chivalry" and Findley 
Caricatured — His Views on the Federal Constitution — His Answer to 
Rev. Samuel B. Wylie's Strictures on the American Constitutions — 
His Account of the Publication and Statements of his " History of the 
Insurrection" — Antagonism of Brackenridge and Findley— Their Po- 
litical Opposition and Personal Dislikes uf each other — Findley's Con- 
tributions to the Register — His Shrewdness and Sagacity as a Poli- 
tician — Debasement of the Politics of that Day — Instances of Personal 
and Party Abuse — Other work of Findley — His Industry — His Resi- 
dence — Its Location — His Death and Grave — His Appearance and 
Dress — His Neighbors — His Family — His identification with the Whis- 
key Insurrection, and the important part be acted in it. 

Of the Westmorelanders who were identified with 
the insurrection, William Findley is the most con- 
spicuous. He was at that time the member of Con- 
gress from this district, and his influence and stand- 
ing are evident from the fact that he with Redick 
was sent after the meeting at Parkinson's to explain 
to the President the state of affairs in the western 
counties, and to arrange a plan by which, if possible, 
there could be a mutual understanding without the 
intervention of the army. David Redick, the col- 
league of Findley, was a native of Ireland, and was 
by profession a lawyer. He was admitted to the 
Washington County bar in 1782. In 1786 he was 
elected a member of the Supreme Executive Council, 
and in 1788 was chosen vice-president of Pennsyl- 
vania. He held other offices of trust, and at the time 
of the insurrection took an active and prominent part 
in defense of law, order, and the constitution. 

William Findley was born in the north of Ireland 
in 1741 or 1742, and came to Pennsylvania in 1763. 
He was a descendant of one of the old signers of the 
Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland, and another 



of his ancestors bore a prominent part in the memor- 
able siege of Derry in Ireland. The family was thus 
Scotch-Irish, and sprang from among those whom the 
persecutions in Scotland under James the Second 
impelled to seek shelter elsewhere. It was his first 
intention to go to Carolina, whither many of his 
father's countrymen had gone, but he changed his 
mind, and coming to Pennsylvania a mere lad, made 
one of that famous Octorara settlement, whose his- 
tory appears to be the pride of all those who in any 
way are connected with it. He here early brought 
himself to notice among these "new American cove- 
nanters." He says that the motives which impelled 
him to come to Pennsylvania in preference to going 
to Carolina were those which arose out of the ques- 
tion of slavery. He had some scruples of the con- 
science about this matter, and even at that young 
age considered both the moral and political effects of 
slavery on the country. He therefore chose to hold 
his own plow and reap his own grain here rather than 
raise a family where slavery prevailed. He deter- 
mined to have no slaves, and never had any ; but he 
protests that he ever once thought of consigning to 
perdition, on moral or political grounds, those patri- 
archs and patriots who held slaves. He defended 
the course the government of the United Slates took 
with regard to the evil, and was apprehensive, as late 
as 1812, that total abolition in this country would lead 
to the same results which manumission had led to in 
Santo Domingo. 1 In this religious community he 

1 Findley's views on slavery appear to be paradoxical, but they may be 
reconciled. In his remarkable essay, " Observations, etc.," ho says, 
" Before I had a house of my own, I resided in some families, and very 
pious families too, who held a number of slaves, and was very intimate 
in others; and I was myself then opposed to slavery, as I have been ever 
since; but I did not, like the author [L)r. Wylie\ oppose it with slander 
and declamation, but with such views as I had of expediency, and of the 
moral law and the gospel. I was, however, powerfully combatted with 
the judicial law, the examples of the patriarchs, and of the ancient civil- 
ized nations ; nor was the curse on Cain forgotten" (p. 236). This whole 
chapter from which we have taken the above extract is an apology for 
the institution of slavery as it existed in Pennsylvania. One other ex- 
tract is pertinent: "But the author [Br. Wylie] mentions a certain 
'portion of them [sAocs] being doomed to hopeless bondage.' I deny the 
charge; at least, as far ;us it relates to Pennsylvania, it is an infamous 
Blander. No low of the State has doomed any man or class of men to 
hopeless bondage. There were, indeed, slaves in Pennsylvania under 
the English government. Those being already by law the property of 
their owners, the Legislature could not interfere more than they could 
do with real estates. Such interference would have been an ex post/ado 
law,— a law made after the act was done. The principle is abhorrent 
both to the laws of God and man." 

Mr. Findley's notions, however, would seem to have undergone a change 
if the record is any evidence thereof: 

" August Sessions, 1817. 
" Ann Findley.— On the petition of Matthew Jack, of the County of 
Westmoreland, stating that by Indenture duly executed and bearing 
date the 9th day of March, a.d. 1799, Ann Findley, a female negro, was 
indue form bound as a servant to William Findley, Esquire, to serve 
the said William Findley, his oxecutors, or assigns from the date of the 
said Indenture for and during the term of nineteen years then next en- 
suing. And the Baid William Findley by assignment executed the 2nd 
day of April, A.D. 181G, did assign and transfer all his right, title, and 
claim to the said Ann Findley unto the petitioner agreeably to the said 
Indenture. That the said Ann Findley being a single woman during 
the time of her servitude did commit fornication, and was pregnant 



208 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



advanced more liberal ideas than had been advanced 
or even entertained before, and he refused to answer 
in public, questions of a secular and temporal nature 
which were interspersed with questions of a religious 
or spiritual nature, and which he, as a lay officer of the 
church, was necessitated to answer and to propound. 
He helped by this and other reasonable innovations to 
break the traditional obligations which some wanted 
to make as binding in America as in Scotland. 

While he was under his father's roof, he had the 
advantage of a larger library of books on church his- 
tory and divinity than was possessed by most of his 
neighbors. He says that he had also been taught to 
read the Bible, and that he had inclined to some books 
on ancient history. 1 The evidence of his application 
and taste is seen in his subsequent productions, be- 
cause it was not possible for him, for a length of time 
after he came to America, to devote himself studiously 
to literary pursuits. 

When the Revolution commenced he took sides 
with his adopted country and served in the army. 
He rose to the rank of captain, and he is so desig- 
nated in some of the old records. About the close of 
the war, 1782, he came into Westmoreland, and 
bought the farm upon which he resided until his 
death. He could not pay for his farm at once, but he 
was strong-armed, young, and willing to work. His 
farm, now a beautiful and valuable tract between 
Latrobe and St. Vincent's, through which the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad passes, had then been just opened 
out, and more than four-fifths of it was covered with 
bushes, briers, and swamp-growth. He was a weaver 
by trade, and he set up his loom in one of the low 
rooms of his first log cabin, and it remained there till 
the house was demolished. The community around 
him was, in religious preference, Presbyterian, and in 
no long time he was one of the chief members of the 
church body, a prominent layman, and for many 
years an elder. Nor was he less prominent in politi- 
cal affairs. He was a born leader, and had from the 
first not only the confidence of the most substantial 
citizens of his district, but obtained and held an as- 
cendency over the common people which was relaxed 
only with his death. He was, before he had been 
here any length of time, elected to the Assembly, and 
■was a colleague of Brackeuridge there. He was one 
of the Council of Censors during all the sittings of 
the board. In this body he voted invariably against 

with and delivered of three baBtard children within the time of hor said 
servitude, one of whom within the period of her servitude with the said 
petitioner. By reason whereof lie has sustained great loss and damage, 
and praying the Court to order and direct that tlie said Ann Findley 
Berve the said petitioner such further time beyond the term in the afore- 
said Indenture mentioned as the Court might think lit and sufficient to 
compensate the petitioner for the loss and damage which he sustained as 
aforesaid. The Court upon due proof and consideration of the premises 
do adjudge and order that the said Ann Findley do serve the said peti- 
tioner, Matthew Jack, for the term of eighteen months from and after 
the expiration of the term of nineteen years in the said petitin u- 

ti'ilO'd." 

1 " Observations, etc.," p. 234. 



the party which professed Federalism, and his vote at 
all times is found upon the opposite list from St. 
Clair's, who sat as a censor from Philadelphia. This 
board sat from November the 10th, 1783, until the 
Constitution of 1790 was adopted. Findley, with 
William Todd as his colleague, represented West- 
moreland in the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90. 
In the Convention he introduced a resolution, which, 
he hoped to become a law under the Constitution, to 
educate the poor gratis. 

In 1791 he was elected to Congress from the West- 
moreland district, and he sat in the House until 1799, 
and then, after an interval of two terms, from 1803 to 
1817. Some of his old friends say that he would have 
been returned to this time had he lived. In Congress 
his political enemies said he was inconsistent, but 
such was his tact that his constituents never forsook 
him. He always managed to come out on the side of 
the people, not only in the matter of his opposition to 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution, but in the 
far more serious matter to hiin and to them of the 
Whiskey Insurrection, and in the handling of the 
causes which brought about the war of 1812. He was 
something of a fluent talker, but not much of a public 
speaker ; his strength lay in the power with which he 
controlled the people, by going to them while they 
were at work in the field, treating them to a glass of 
grog, and giving a push at a house-raising. He sel- 
dom, indeed, spoke at public meetings, but none could 
plan a public meeting or control the ends of one 
better than he, whence Brackenridge fails not to call 
him a demagogue, one wdio temporized with the pop- 
ulace, and who would descend to anything for the 
sake of the " sweet voices of the people." Party lines 
were not drawn so finely then as they were somewhat 
later, and although after the adoption of the Consti- 
tution he and Brackenridge were of the same political 
cast in all essentials, yet neither of them was of the 
material to follow the other; each of them must be a 
leader. We can coolly appreciate the feeling with 
which a man of the temperament, the learning, and 
the aspiration of Brackenridge, who lately adorned the 
Supreme Bench with his legal acumen and his phi- 
losophy, could look upon a man like Findley, who was 
self-educated, and used all his life to associate with 
the commonest kind of common people. In the volu- 
bility of li is language and the keenness of his wit 
Brackenridge had the advantage. He has told us in 
" Modern Chivalry" the kind of popularity Findley 
longed for and sought after. The character of " Mr. 
Traddle" at the cross-roads, where the people were 
collected to fill an occasional vacancy, is intended for 
Findley. He has a sling at him all through the book. 
Among the reasons which Capt. Farrago gives for not 
voting for Traddle, the popular candidate, is this, that 
he does not object to him " because he is a weaver, 
but because he is nothing else but a weaver." ' 

- As a curiosity in literature, and lest no other opportunity should 
offer to give an extract from this rare hook," Modern Chivalry," to con- 



WILLIAM FINDLEY. 



209 



The use of the word demagogue is in our day used 
interchangeably with the word politician. It is thus 
that it is sometimes hard to discriminate, and admit- 
ting the distinction we cannot sometimes see the dif- 
ference. Findley was a consummate politician, and 
something more than a mere puller of threads and a 
disentangler of skeins. He helped to shape political 
opinion here as much possibly as any other man in 
Western Pennsylvania in his day, and as a politician 
was more effective out of Congress than in it. He 
had a large personal acquaintance, and his manners 
were such as to make him a favorite in a democracy. 
Besides this, he had the sympathy and the influence 
of the strongest church organization in the country at 
that day. The Scotch-Irish swore by Findley. 

The parties of Federal and anti-Federal, strictly 
speaking, ended with the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, although the name itself which distin- 
guished them was used long after there was any 
necessity for the distinction which brought it into 
use, and when in truth the distinction was on account 
of different causes altogether from those which gave 
rise to that party appellation. The original elements 



vey an idea of the satire therein to those to whom it is not accessible, 
we give the following, which is near the close of the book, the char- 
acter of " Traddle" itself being introduced very early therein : 

"On the third day, renewing their journey, the conversation between 
the captain and his servant turned on the character and history of the 
present revenue officer, the late Teague O'Reagan. The captain gave 
Duncan a relation of what had happened in the case of the attempt to 
draw him oft" to the Philosophical Society, to induce him to preach, and 
even to take a seat in the Legislature of the United States; that had it 
not been fora certain Traddle, a weaver, whom they had been fortunate 
enough to substitute for him, the people would most undoubtedly have 
elected Teague and sent him to Congress. 

'"Guid deliver us!" said Duncan; 'do they make Parliament men o' 
weavers P this kintra? In Scotland it maun be a duke or a laird that 
can hae a seat there." 

'"This is a republic, Duncan,' said the captain, 'and the rights of 
man are understood and exercised by the people. 1 

"'And if he could be i' the Congress, why did you let him be a 
ganger?' said Duncan. 

'"This is all the prejudice of education, Duncan,' said the captain. 
'An appointment in the revenue, or any other under the executive of 
the United States, ought not to have disgrace attached to it in the pop- 
ular opinion, not even in the case of the hangman, for it is a necessary, 
and might to be held a sacred, duty.' 

" ' I dinna ken bow it is,' said Duncan, 'but I see they hae everything 
tail foremost in this kintra to what they hae in Scotland, — a gaugcr a 
gentleman, weavers in the Legislature, and even the hangman re- 
spectit.' 

"Just at this instant was heard by the wayside the gingling of a loom 
in a small cabin with a window towards the road. It entered the head 
of Duncan rather indiscreetly to expostulate with the weaver, and to 
know why it was that he also did not attain a seat in some public body. 
Advancing to the orifice, as it might be called, he applied bis mouth 
and bespoke him as he sat upon the loom thus: 'Traddle,' said he, 
giving him the same name that tin- captain had given the other, ' why 
is it that ye sit here, treading these twa stecks, and playing wp your 
elbows as you throw the thread, when there is one o' your occupation 

not far off that is now a member of the bouse o' lords, or conin s. in 

America, and is gane to the Congress o' the United States? Ol a 

you get yoursel elected? or is it because ye dinna offer that ye are left 
behind in this maimer'' Ye should be striving, man, while guid posts 
are gaeing, and no be sitting there wp your hurdies on a beam. Dinna 
your neighbours ^ie ye a vote? Ye should get a cbapill o' whiskey, 
man, and drink till them, and gar them vote, or, ye should gae out and 
talk politics arid mak speeches.'" 



of these parties became commingled after having been 
disturbed, and some of the most violent opponents of 
the Constitution before it was adopted took their 
stand in support of it when it was adopted, while 
such as Madison and Brackenridge united with Gal- 
latin and Findley in condemning some of the most 
prominent measures of the first administration. The 
feelings which actuated this opposition (which ap- 
pears to have been the strongest from those who were 
born outside of America), was the fear that that in- 
strument was too republican in its nature ; that the 
people would have so much liberty that in a little 
time through anarchy they would have none, and 
that a constitution less democratic, and modeled 
closer after that of England, would be more durable . 
and less liable to be broken. Findley even published 
a work in which he vindicated the American consti- 
tutions. This work, called "Observations on the 
Two Sons of Oil," was an answer to the illiberal 
strictures of the Rev. Samuel B. Wylie, who, in his 
holy zeal in a work under that title, took occasion to 
propagate the false doctrine that the written consti- 
tutions of these States did not prohibit the viola- 
tion of the laws of God, and who asserted that be- 
cause the Church and the State were not united the 
people were' not answerable to the moral law, and 
that the nation was a nation of infidels, in which, in 
short, he grossly misrepresented the government of 
the State and of the United States, while professing 
his " slippery titled" book to be a commentary on 
the symbolical vision of the prophecy of Zechariah. 
Findley, being a prominent churchman, was picked 
upon as the person to answer the charges of the rev- 
erend gentleman. He applied himself laboriously to 
the task, and brought to bear all his polemical as well 
as his political knowledge. He took the position that 
the Church and the State were separate institutions ; 
the one divine and the other human. His answer 
swelled out to a volume of nearly four hundred pages. 
He is somewhat prolix, and at times a little stupid, 
but he goes through a wide range, and supports his 
assertions and statements by numerous quotations 
from, and references to, the writers of church history, 
both modern and patristic, and by texts from the 
Scriptures. 

Findley's " History of the Insurrection" has been 
quoted by nearly every general and local historian 
who has written upon that subject. But his treatise, 
on the whole, was written but to give a partial view 
of the matter, and as an apology for his own share in 
it, as was Brackenridge's account, who thought it 
worth while to recount the affair at large to illustrate 
and explain his own peculiar course. Findley's ac- 
count was not in all particulars correct, so his con- 
temporaries said, and he himself afterwards acknowl- 
edged that in some matters he had been misinformed, 
and in others he had relied on vague reports. In 
writing^that history he delayed the work for a year 
after he had commenced it, in order, as he says, to 



210 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



obtain correct information, and having in the mean 
time consulted Addison, Hamilton, Redick, Irvine, 
and others, yet after it was published he found that it 
was in detail not correct as he intended it should be. 
A new editor was proposed for a new and corrected 
edition. Hamilton Rowan, a respectable Irish refu- 
gee, while in this country proposed to have it printed 
in Ireland, where it could be done cheaper at that 
time than in this country.' The author, in revising 
it, found that his informers had been mistaken or 
misinformed in some things, and that he must make 
considerable alteration respecting the conduct of par- 
ticular persons, such as Addison and Ross. The cor- 
rections were sent with the copy, but the ship was 
taken at sea and both lost, and he himself lost the 
notes of revision. There was only one edition of the 
" History" printed, and copies are now scarce, the few 
extant being in the possession of various historical 
societies, of bibliopolists, or in the State library. 

This work is undoubtedly the most substautial and 
important one he wrote, and treating as it did of a 
political subject, and giving the views of one of the 
most active participants in that great civil disturb- 
ance, it could not but be a work to which the atten- 
tion of many should be directed. It has been quoted 
and drawn upon by eminent legal and historical 
writers, such as Wharton and Hildreth ; while, on the 
other hand, it has been assailed with virulence by the 
political opponents of the author, and ridiculed by 
the New England Federalists. " Shall we match 
Joel Barlow," exclaimed Fisher Ames, indignantly, 
"against Homer and Hesiod? Can Thomas Paine 
contend against Plato? or could Findley's history of 
his own (Whiskey) insurrection vie with Sallust's 
narrative of Catiline 1" 

Touching the criticisms and the attacks his book 
received, all of his adversaries are free to admit that 
in the statement of facts he would not knowingly 
deviate from truth, but they assert that his prejudices 
were strong, and that his personal enmity biased his 
judgment.' 

Findley and Brackenridge were very bitterly op- 
posed to each other. In the matter of substantial 
gain and advantage, Findley probably had the best 
of Brackenridge ; but now that they and their gen- 



1 The authority for tliie is Findley himself, in a letter in the Register. 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan was a noted Irish patriot who had heen 

imprisoned in his own country on account of his efforts as an agitator. 
In 17'.J7 he established himself as a calico-printer and dyer on the banks 
of the Brandywine. Subsequent to this he went to Ireland. (See Harper's 
Monthly Magazine, January, 1881, article on "Calico-Printing." 

Rowan is mentioned in " The Irish Bar," chap. ix. He there figures 
as a friend of Simon Butler, a barrister, who, for publishing a libel against 
the House of Lords (Ireland), was Bentenced and fined by the Lord 
Chancellor. In the course of the sentence word, were used which were 
construed as a personal insult, and Rowan for his friend waited on the 
Lord Chancellor, John Fitssgibbon, Earl of Clare, who had been some- 
thing of a duelist. Mr. Rowan is here called " a well-known Irish gen- 
tleman." 

2 Even the editor of Bracken ridge's "Whiskey Insurrection" allows 
the above admission. 



eration have passed, Brackenridge still gets the ear of 
the people in his inimitable satire in which Findley 
is caricatured. 

These two politicians first came into contact in the 
Assembly. Brackenridge was elected at the instance 
of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh and that region 
about, for the avowed object of securing the erection 
of a new county. Findley then was a member for 
Westmoreland. Here they came into collision fre- 
quently, and especially on the subject of a loan-office, 
a measure for which the people of the West were 
clamorous. Findley supported the bill ; Bracken- 
ridge opposed it. Brackenridge cared little for the 
opinion of the people on questions upon which he 
regarded them unable to judge intelligently, and he 
frequently gave expression to his contempt for them. 
" What do they know about such things," said he, 
indignantly. These expressions and the speech on 
this occasion were reported against him, and much use 
was made, of them. A long paper war then followed 
between him and Findley, and from the recrimination 
which passed between them, aggravated by their per- 
sonal dislikes, was laid the foundation of their per- 
sonal and political enmity. 

In a five-column letter in the Farmer's Register for 
Nov. 18, 1808, Findley acknowledges himself to be 
the author of many articles which had been pub- 
lished in that paper for more than three years past 
under the nom deplume of "Sidney." 

He had indeed, from the establishing of the ll^jia- 
ter in 1798, furnished circular letters from time to 
time during the whole term of his official career. 
The paper was pledged to the support of the Demo- 
cratic-Republican ticket, and it was a powerful in- 
strument in his hands and in the hands of his friends. 
I( was the only paper within the county, and the 
source of all public news and information. The mild- 
ness of its editorial articles did not make it offensive 
to the general reader, and its political course and 
preferences were to be gathered from the department 
of news, from the resolutions of the local meetings, 
and from the leaders which were disguised under the 
signature of professedly disinterested correspond- 
ents. 

Of Findley's articles many appeared between 1805 
and 1808. Some of these articles were lengthy and 
prolix, extending to two numbers of the paper, and 
filling as many as ten closely printed columns of mat- 
ter. While there undoubtedly was a censorship ex- 
ercised over the paper by the editors, there appeared 
to be a show of fairness in the offer that its columns 
were open to any one who felt disposed to take excep- 
tions at anything that appeared in it. Probably there 
was nothing Findley so much counted on as on an 
outspoken adversary.- This offer, it is true, was some- 
times taken advantage of, but never without the con- 
troversial article being answered, and repaid with full 
interest in kind. The result in every event was that 
Findley always carried the election, ami this notwith- 



WILLIAM FINDLEY. 



21 



standing open charges of time-serving and of appa- 
rent changes of principles and measures. 1 | 

The most noted of these changes was from his 
opposition to his support of James Ross, one of the 
foremost leaders of the Republican-Democratic party 
in the West, in his candidacy for Governor. Through- 
out this region Ross was very popular, and was early 
acknowledged as a representative man. Findley was 
charged for supporting McKean for the Governorship 
as against Ross in 1799, and then for supporting Ross 
in 1808. In 1799, Findley had been one of a com- 
mittee which was made up of politicians over all the 
State to select one who would be the most acceptable 
candidate for that office. He says that, finding Mc- 
Kean to be without doubt the one, he gave him his 
support. This change in 1808 opened out many bat- 
teries. If the speeches, the resolutions, the publica- 
tions which passed in that campaign in Western 
Pennsylvania were before us we should be amused, 
and then astonished. There has probably been none 
other like it since that day. Politics had then one 
element in it which is now, so far as an element that 
makes results is concerned, totally absent. It was 
the day when the infidelity of the French encyclopae- 
dists and politicians had taken possession of those 
Americans who professed deism, or downright athe- 
ism. We have seen attacks and replies as glibly ar- 
ranged and far more scurrilous than those of the pop- 
ular haranguers and writers of the " Free Thought 
School" of our own day. To repeat these would be 
to shock the moral sensibilities of any free-thinker or 
rationalist with whom we are acquainted, and who 
carries the memory of a Christian father or mother. 
But in such a controversy, and in such a conflict, it 
could not be otherwise than that Findley should be 
the gainer. In the Begister, one writer who styles 
himself the " Friend of Truth," attacked Findley for 
opposing Ross on religious grounds, ostensibly be- 
cause Ross had not subscribed to the religious test, 
and because he, on a current report, had somewhere 
in Westmoreland County given the sacrament to his 
dog, in contempt and derision of the most sacred or- 
dinance of Christians. Then Findley gathering his 
arrows, shot them in showers at Tom Paine and the 
infidels who attempted to overthrow the Christian re- 
ligion and to change the Constitution. What argu- 
ment could resist the political defense that covered 
itself behind texts from the Scriptures? 

In 1812, Findley was opposed in the election for 
congressman by Thomas Pollock. The announce- 
ment of Pollock was in the form of an advertisement, 
which said that Pollock " was descended from a family 
well known on the frontiers in times of danger." He 
had been county commissioner, a justice of the peace, 



1 A writer in the Gazette so late as 1823 (August 15th) has this to say : 
" In 1817 we were required to vote, but were denied the right of choice ; 
we had freedom of thought, speech, and action, but were forbidden to 
' favour opposition to William Findley.' " 



and a member of the Assembly three successive times. 
Pollock made a strong run, but as the result in the 
thirteen election districts which made up the con- 
gressional district of Westmoreland, Indiana, Jeffer- 
son, and Armstrong, Findley had 1260 votes, and 
Pollock, 1116. 

Jt was indeed a time of vituperation and abuse in 
politics, and this vituperation and abuse was not con- 
fined to the hustings. The evidence of most of this 
being made public in political speeches and in the 
common newspapers, is not at present accessible to 
us. That which found its way into more permanent 
literature has been in part preserved. The individual 
and political character of no public man of his day 
was more bitterly and acrimoniously attacked than 
that of Findley. 

In addition to his ''History of the Insurrection of 
Western Pennsylvania," published in 1796, and " Ob- 
servations," vindicating religious liberty, published 
in 1812, he had published previously (1794) " A'Re- 
view of the Funding System." Upon the question 
of the Federal Constitution, Findley took sides with 
Gallatin, and Gallatin was to Jefferson what Hamil- 
ton was to Washington. He attacked Hamilton se- 
verely in his " History of the Insurrection," and their 
respective statements sometimes do not coincide. He 
did not agree with some of the acts of the first Federal 
administration, but this disagreement was more on 
the construction of powers than in opposition to their 
ends. When the vote on Jay's treaty was taken in 
the House, to avoid giving his vote he left the House, 
and was brought up by the sergeant-at-arms. 

But from the records it is very apparent that Find- 
ley was no idler. Besides these productions which 
we have mentioned there were other contributions of 
his which appeared in the papers printed in the East. 
These would indicate that he was a very assiduous 
and a laborious worker. He was present at every 
session of Congress. When at home he superintended 
his farm and overlooked the interests of his children, 
who were married and who lived near him. He took 
a very active interest in the affairs of his church, 
Unity, of which he was for many years an active 
elder. In the councils of the congregation his voice 
was all potent. 

Findley's residence was in Unity township, and the 
site of his first house is very nearly indicated by the lo- 
cation of the ovens of the "Monastery Coke- Works" 
along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. That 
house was lately burnt down. It was built of hewed 
logs, was two stories in height, and for its day must 
have been a very credible building. In this house 
he lived till he became old and infirm, when he took 
up his abode in the house of his daughter, Mrs. Car- 
others, which was on a farm taken off the original 
tract, and was located on the left side of the road 
going from the monastery to Latrobe, and nearly op- 
posite the residence of John George, Esq. In this 
house he died. His body was buried in the grave- 



212 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



yard of Unity Church, and over it is a plain gray 
tombstone with the following inscription : 

The 

Venerable 

William Findley 

DEPARTED THIS LIFE 

April 5,1821 

In the 80th year 

Of His Age 

In size Mr. Findley was a large man ; his com- 
plexion was florid ; he wore no beard, and was very 
tidy and tasteful in his dress. When at home he 
dressed in homespun, but on going out in fair weather 
wore a complete suit of white, with white hat having 
a broad rim, silk stockings, and cue. In the cold 
season his dress was the conventional shad-belly coat, 
long waistcoat, dark knee-breeches, long boots, but 
always the broad-rimmed white beaver hat. His 
manners, as one would infer, were agreeable and 
plain, although when he was busied at work writing 
upon a subject that kept his attention for days at a 
time he did not like it when he was disturbed, and 
when one came even on business he soon dismissed 
him. He had many visitors. Of his neighbors those 
who were near and who had taken a more or less 
active part in public concerns were William Todd, 
his colleague in the Constitutional Convention of 
1789-90 ; Gen. St. Clair, who usually met Findley at 
the village of Youngstown, which was intermediate 
between the two; George Smith, Esq., a noticeable 
man in the Whiskey Insurrection on the side of law, 
ami afterwards an officer in the War of Eighteen- 
Twelve ; the Sloans and the Craigs, who lived farther 
down the Loyalhanna ; and the Proctors and Lochrys, 
who lived towards St. Xavier's Convent from his 
place. 

An old lady who passed her childhood in the family 
of Findley, and to whom we acknowledge indebted- 
ness for items of a personal nature, has said that the 
periodical occasion of his going to Congress was one 
of the greatest magnitude not only in the family but 
in the neighborhood. He went of course on horse- 
back, and on a horse which he used for that purpose 
only. For weeks before he started arrangements 
were making, his horse was well housed and well 
cared for, and none was allowed to use him, and an 
abundance of the finest white linen was prepared for 
the use of the congressman until he should get home. 
On the day which had been fixed for his departure 
all the neighbors round came to see him off", to lift 
their hats and say good-by. The women part of the 
household would always be in commotion, for the 
journey at that day was great, the distance long, and 
the goodman would be away so long. 

Findley was twice married. His second wife was 
a widow Carothers, a very beautiful woman, and much 
younger than he. By his first wife he had three chil- 
dren, — David, an officer in the regular army ; Nellie, 
who married a Carothers, a -mi of FinTrrey's second 
wife by her former husband; and Mary, who was 



married to John Black. If he has any descendants 
within our own county it is not generally known. 

Findley's identification with the Whiskey Insur- 
rection is such that he must ever be regarded oue of 
the principal characters figuring in it. That he ac- 
credited himself with honor and as a patriot none 
at this day would deny. That he was indiscreet, and 
at first inactive, something of a time-server, and gave 
the seditious some occasion to think he was for open 
rebellion and resistance, will likewise not be denied. 
But in this he went not so far as either Brackenridge, 
Gallatin, or Cook. From his local habitation and 
from the situation of his district he was at the outer 
edge of that whirlpool. He came to his senses quicker 
than most of the rest, and when he did he, with the 
greatest tact and with a display of knowledge of hu- 
man nature rarely exceeded, used all his influence 
for the establishing of "law, order, and the constitu- 
tion." In this he was eminently successful, for he had 
the confidence of Washington probably to almost as 
great an extent as any man of his day in Western 
Pennsylvania, and certainly more of the confidence 
of his constituents than any other man in it. In his 
plan of settlement he displayed what Macaulav says is 
the highest statesmanship, the statesmanship that uses 
every available means for a successful compromise. 1 

One extract from his correspondence extending 
throughout this period will probably give his views 
on the subject quite as well as the whole of his corre- 
spondence together. In a letter written to Governor 
Mifflin as early as Nov. 21, 1792, 2 he says, — 

"Though Congress is fully vested with the Power of levying Excises, 
yet the necessity, the time, the subjects of excise, and the People's 
prejudices respecting it are questions of serious importance to gov- 
ernment. For my part, from a consideration of those things, I thought 
that power was about to be exercised prematurely, and with an honest 
zeal for the success of the government, exerted myself in my station to 
prevent it ; but being once made and its effects not experienced I did not 
move last session for a repeal, but endeavoured to procure such altera- 
tions as I conceived would have had a tendency to give it effect. The 
industry and zeal with which, in all my correB] lence, I have endeav- 
oured to promote a regular line of conduct among the people has been 
such as will never occasion me to blush ; but that t should, in the present 
Bituation of 1 bines, undertake to advise the people to go on with distill- 
ing and pay the excise would be lest labour. Thus far, however, I freely 
declare that I shall certainly continue to use what influence I have to 
direct the opposition into a regular and orderly channel. And this, I 
pi eBume, is all that is contemplated by the mass of the People." 

1 Since this sketch of William Findley was written, an autobiograph- 
ical sketch has appeared in the "Pennsylvania Magaziue of History." 
From this article we give these additional details: 

Purposing to go to the frontier of Pennsylvania as early as Bouquet's 
time, ho was prevented by the Indian wars, and taught school in the 
Octorara settlement for several years, until the office was opened for the 
sale of western lands. In 1760 he married, and purchased laud in now 
Franklin County. Was elected County Commissioner for two terms of 

11 years each. Came to Westmoreland County about 1781. Shortly 

alter his arrival here : cfused to he sent to the Assembly, tint was sent as 
one of the Council of Censors. From that time until 1812 (so be writes), 
he had never been but one whole winter with his family, aiel that wars 
when he declined serving in Congress. He was then successively elected 
a member of the Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution; a 
member of the Supreme Executive Council; a member of the first State 

Legislature under the Constitution of 1790; a member of the Second 
Congress; and a niemher of the Stab- Senate. 
'- Papers relating to 'ho Whiskey Insurrection, " Penn. Arch.," New 

Series, vol. iv , 49. 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



213 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

Nativity and Birth — History of his Family in Scotland — Is Bent to Col- 
lege, nnd thenco to London to study Medicine— Enters the British 
Army as an Ensign — Comes to America in the French and Indian War 
— Serves under Wolfe in Canada — Marries in Boston — Appears in 
WeBtern Pennsylvania— Commands at Fort Ligonier — Appointed to 
Office in Bedford County under the Proprietary Government and in 
Westmoreland County — Takes an active part in the Border Troubles 
with Virginia, and in Dunmore's War — Agent of the Penns — Accom- 
panies the Congressional Committee to Fort Pitt, 1775 — Resolutions of 
May 16, 1775, at Hannastown — The Associators — Plan to go against 
Detroit — Takes part with the Colbuies in the Revolutionary War — Ap- 
pointed and Commissioned Colonel in Pennsylvania Service — Sent to 
Canada — At Three Rivers — Services in Canada — Joins Washington 
— His Services in the Jersey Campaign of 1776 — Is sent to Command 
at Ticonderoga— Campaign of 1777 — Burgoyne's Advance — Surrender 
of Ticonderoga — Court of Inquiry — St. Clair at Yorktown — And with 
Greene — Enters Civil Life — Member of the Council of Censors- 
Member of Continental Congress — Elected its President — Erection 
and Organization of the North we-, tern Territory — Appointed its Gov- j 
ernor — Euters upon his Duties as Governor — Indian War — Made Ma- : 
jor-Geueral and Commander-in-Chief of the American Army — Expe- 
dition against the Miami Indians — Account of the Battle and Defeat 
— His Politics — His Duties as Governor — Is Removed from Office — Re- ' 
turns to Ligonier Valley — His Residence — His Financial Embarrass- | 
ment — Its Causes — Treatment of the Government in regard to these 
Claims — Is sold out by the Sheriff — Removes from his Home — His 
Last Days — His Death, Funeral, and Monument — Chattering over his 
Grave — Observations on bis Character and Misfortunes. 

Arthur. St. Clair is a historic character, and as 
such a great part of his public career belongs*to the 
history of the republic. But as he was so intimately 
connected with the formation of our county, it is nat- j 
ural that any one who inquires into our early history 
should be interested in the particulars of the life of 
this man, whose name is met with so often, and who 
is so inseparably connected with it. 

St. Clair was by birth a Scot, and was of a family of i 
early note in their native country, they taking their 
name itself back in the middle centuries. Arthur 
was born in 1734, 1 at Thurso Castle, in the county of 
Caithness, and was the son of William St. Clair, of 
the same stock as the then Earl of Caithness, from a 
common ancestry, 2 The deeds of the ancient family 



1 The day or month is not known. 

2 A gentleman with a taste for research has thus traced the family of 
St. Clair down from very early times: 

"The St. Clairs of Scotland are descended from a Norman family. 
Walderne de St. Clair, a Norman knight, married Margaret, daughter of 
Richard, Duke of Normandy. William de St. Clair, their second son, a 
brave and adventurous knight, settled in Scotland in Che reign of Mal- 
coni Can more, and obtained from that monarch large giants of land. In 
the wars about the crown of Scotland between Baliol and Bruce the St. 
Clairs adhered to the side i>f Bruce, and on his final success participated 
in his good fortune by an increase of their domains John de St. Clair 
was a member of the first Parliament summoned by Bruce. The chief 
of the St. Clairs married a Douglass, whose mother was daughter of 
Robert Bruce. William St. Clair married Elizabeth, daughter of Malice 
Spar, Earl of Orkney and Stratherne, in whose right their son was cre- 
ated Earl of Orkney by Haco, King of Norway, to which country the 
Orkney Islands then belonged. Tin- title remained with the family of 
St. Clair until 1471, when it was annexed to the crown of Scotland by 
BCt of Parliament. In exchange for the Orkney Islands and title of 
their earl, the domains of Ravenscraig were bestowed upon William St. 
Clair, who was entitled Karl of Caithness. The St. Clairs built the castle 
of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, and also the castles of Ravenscraig and 
Boslin, on the mainland. 



were sung to the harp by many of the border minstrels, 
and the last and sweetest of them all, the " Wizard of 
the North," in u The Song of Harold," tells of the 
"storm-swept Orcades, where once St. Clairs held 
princely away." 3 

But through the vicissitudes of fortune the family 
had lost their once high position, and their ancestral 
estates, situate mostly in the cold and barren Orkneys, 
no longer yielded a revenue after the abolition of the 
feudal tenures, and, like other of the most ancient 
families of that part of the island, they were of no 
influence in their native land. The St. Clairs, with 



"About 1450 the St. Clairs were at the height of their power an 1 opu- 
lence. At that tinie William St. Clair, the head of the family, was Prince 
of the Orkneys, Earl of Caithness and Stratherne, Baron of Roslin and 
Pentland, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Warden of the Marches, and High 
Chancellor of Scotland. When the chief St. Clair visited the royal 
court he traveled in great state, with more than a thousand gentlemen 
in his train, all of w bom were his vassals and retainers. 

" At length things changed, and Oliver St. Clair, the unworthy favor- 
ite of James V., lost by bad conduct the battle of Solway Moss, and so 
broke the heart of that monarch. From the civil war of 1642, between 
king and Parliament, in the Scottish lebellion in 1715, the St. Clairs 
adhered loyally to the house of Stuart, and hence suffered by defeat 
banishment and confiscation," 

Mr. William H. Smith (see "Life and Public Services of Arthur St. 
Clair") says that the generally accepted opiuiou that St. Clair was a 
grandson of the then Earl of Roslin is erroneous, but they were descend- 
ants of a common ancestor. 

The brief memoir which we contribute was written before the publi- 
cation of "The St. Clair Papers," published 1882 (Cincinnati B. Clarke 
& Co.). We are of opinion that it would not have detracted from the in- 
trinsic worth of that excellent memoir — the most complete yet pub- 
lished, and which we anxiously looked for — if the compiler had expressed 
his indebtedness to some gentlemen of our own cou nty whose woi k and 
labor he has appropriated to such good advantage; who dug out, so to 
speak, the ore which he cast into the crucible of history. 

The title of Karl of Caithness, we may further remark, in the Scottish 
peerage extends back to 1455, when the family were raised to the nobility 
by James II. of Scotland, Henry VI. being the king of England. This 
did not entitle those bearing the name to sit in Parliament, but in June, 
1SGG, the late earl was created Baron Barrowgill, and thus became a 
member of the House of Lords. This late earl, who died on the 10th of 
March, 1881, in the city of New Y"ik, where he had but just landed in- 
tending to make a tour of the United States for pleasure and health, was 
James Sinclair (the family having long since Anglicized their name), 
F.R.S.,Earl of Caithness and Lord Berriedale in the peerage of Scotland, 
Baron Barrowgill, of Barrowgill Castle, in that of the United Kingdom, 
and Baronet of Nova Scotia. He was born Dec. 16, 1S21 ; succeeded his 
Vat her as fourteenth earl Dec. 24, 1855, and was created Baron Barrowgill 
June 12, 18G6. Like his father, he became Lord Lieutenant of Caithneas- 
shire. Caithness is a maritime county in the extreme north of Scot- 
land , on the west side is a spot of green turf known to all school-boys 
as John 0*6roat's Bouse, one of the extreme ends of Great Britain. 
Barrowgill Castle, the present home of the family, is in Caithness, and is 
over six hundred years old, and the possessions include six continuous 
miles of sea-coast. The other country seats are Tister House, Caithness- 
shire, and Stagenhoe Park, in Welwyn, and there is a London residence 
besides. Jam Satis. 

8" Then from his seal, with lofty air, 

Rose Harold, hard of brave St. Clair; 

St. Clair, who, feasting with Lord Home, 

Had with that lord to battle come. 

Harold was born where restless seas 

How] round the storm-Bwept Orcades ; 

Where once St. Clai r held princely sway 

O'er isle and islet, strait and bay : 

Still nods their palace to its fall, 

Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall." 
See also note in "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto VI.; and also 
Capt. Weddei hum's courtship, "English and Scottish Ballad-," vol. 
viii. 



214 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



their numerous retainers, remained loyal to the Stu- 
arts during the rebellion, and they were recompensed 
with banishment and the confiscation of their estates. 
At length an effort was made to restore in the learned 
professions some of that honor which had passed to 
other hands, which distinction was partly theirs when 
the sword was mightier than the pen, and the dignity 
of the gown was confined to the yew-tree shade of the 
cloister. 

As Arthur could not inherit any of the landed 
property entailed in the direct line of primogeniture, 
being the son of a younger son, he made choice of the 
medical profession, and to secure his education en- 
tered the University of Edinburgh, famous at that day 
for its prominent, schools in that department. After 
the death of his father he removed to London for the 
benefits afforded by the clinical practice at the great 
hospitals of the metropolis, and was there indentured 
to the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. But the noise 
of arms then shaking the world, he chose to relinquish 
his scientific calling and to follow the vocation of the 
soldier. When he came into the great heart of the 
world it was throbbing with the anticipation of future 
glorious actions. The rattling of drums, the blare of 
bugles, and the measured tramp of the files of soldiers 
echoed round the street corners of the capital day and 
night. War had been declared between Great Britain 
and France, 1 and under the new life infused into the na- 
tion by Pitt the young men were everywhere forsaking 
the pursuits of peace and enlisting. Arthur, with the 
help of his family, purchased an ensign's commission 
in the army, 2 and soon after, in 1758, came to America 
with the corps of Gen. Amherst, in the fleet under 
Admiral Boscawen. This was at the commencement 
of the French and Indian war, which, after enduring 
for seven years, resulted in the acquisition of the Cana- 
dian Provinces, then under the French, by the Brit- 
ish to the American appendages of the crown. While 
in this army he learned the military science under such 
leaders as Murray, Monckton, and Wolfe, the com- 
mander of this expedition. Under Wolfe he served in 
the campaign against Quebec, and was with that hero 
when he fell in the moment of victory, after the esca- 
lading of Mount Abraham. 

After remaining some time at the garrisoned fort- 
ress of Quebec, St. Clair went with a part of his regi- 
ment to Boston, then the capital town of the North- 
east. 

In May, 1760, he was married to Miss Phoebe 
Bayard, in Trinity Church, Boston, by the rector, the 

i 1756. 

2 His mother, upou whom had rested the care of his training, died in 
the winter of 1756-57. HiB regiment was the Sixtieth, or Royal Amer- 
ican Regiment of Foot. Date of his eusignry, 3d May, 1757. His regi- 
ment was projected hy the Duke of Cumberland. It consisted of four 
battalious of one thousand men each. The first battalion was com- 
manded by Monckton, the secondby Lawrence. St. Clair belonged to the 
second battalion. It was organized under act of Parliament, 29 George 
II., c v. Col. Bouquet belonged to this regiment. — Penn. Magazine, etc., 
No. "J, vol. iii. 



Rev. William Hooper. Mrs. St. Clair was born in 
1743, and survived her husband some six or seven 
years. She was the daughter of Balthazer Bayard and 
Mary Bowdoin, a half-sister of Governor James Bow- 
doin, of Massachusetts Bay. 3 With his wife he got 
much money. 

In 1759 he had been commissioned a lieutenant; 
this he resigned in April, 1762. 4 It is very likely 
that for a few years after his marriage he remained at 
Boston or Philadelphia, and that he took no further 
part in the French and Indian war, which terminated 
in 1764. But shortly after this time he manifestly 
was in Western Pennsylvania, as he had a parcel of 
the ground about Fort Pitt, which was granted him 
by Gen. Gage, 3 and we believe that from 1765 until 
1771 all his attention and time were centred in this 
region, either in watching his own pecuniary interests 
or in a supervisory capacity, under the commander- 
in-chief of the British army in America, with whom 
he was related, or latterly, and especially after the 
treaty of 1768, as an agent of the proprietors of the 
Province. The documentary evidence which we refer 
to shows that he had charge of Fort Ligonier, then 
one of His Majesty's forts, and that he was authorized 
to and did grant permits the same as a regular officer, 
before the Penns passed titles. 6 Immediately after 
the opening of the land office, in 1769, he is identi- 

3 She married Balthazer Bayard (or Byard, as they wrote it) in 1727. 
Died 17SO. 

4 For dates see chronological table at end of this chapter. 

From the date of his resignation in the British army, that is 1762, to 
1767 there is a hiatus which has not been satisfactorily filled. The copy 
of the permit to Frederick Bhorer, which we give in the note to Chapter 
VII., and which has not before this time been made public, but which 
fixes a part of the disputed facts, shows that in April, 1767, Arthur St. 
Clair, "late lieutenant in his Majesty's Sixtieth Begimentof Foot, having 
the care of his Majesty's fort of Legonier," was employed in these parts. 
But the dates of his commissions and his resignation correspond with the 
official records of the British army, from which they were taken. A copy 
of the " British Army Lists' "is in the library of the New York Historical 
Society, and these exactly agree with those furnished from the British 
War Office. Many writers say that afterthe close of the French and In- 
dian war (1764) Gen. Gage (who was a relative, and who afterwards com- 
manded the British at Boston) appointed him to take command of the 
forts in Western Pennsylvania, and have the military stores contained in 
those forts removed to the headquarters of the&rmy at New York. (See 
sketch in National Intelligencer, quoted in Life and Public Sercices, etc. ; 
also report of Committee of Claims, etc , Senate of the United States, Mr. 
Brodbead, Chairman, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session; also Day's 
" Historical Collections, 1 ' pp. 686 and 6S7, and Rupp's " History of West- 
ern Pennsylvania," p. 281). We cannot be led to believe, from tie' evi- 
dence within reach, that he served with Bouquet in 1763-64. There was 
a Capt. St. Clair with Bouquet, hut not Arthur. 

5 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. x.p.483. St. Clairto president of Penn- 
sylvania, 1785. 

6 Fort Ligonier was garrisoned part of the time after Pontiac's war, 
1764, by provincial troops, commissioned by the Province. (See Col. 
Miles' Journal, elsewhere referred to, and in Penn. Arch., Second Series, 
vol. ii. (i. 560.) " In the year 1759 I was stationed at Ligonier, and had 
twenty-five men, picked out of the two battalions, under my command." 
At present we are not prepared to say that the Province garrisoned these 
forts in Western Pennsylvania prior to the purchase of 1768, but think 
it did not; but that they were garrisoned or at least under command 
of regular officers. 

" His Majesty, the kingof Great Britain, having conquered the I'n-nch 
in this country, all the forts and settlements the French had is now be- 
come the property of the king of England." — Orogan't Journal, 176"». 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



215 



fied with some transactions as their agent. He then, 
with his brother-in-law, Capt. Bayard, took up large 
bodies of land in Ligonier Valley. In the descrip- 
tion of boundary lands in old title papers he is some- 
times designated as captain and sometimes as lieuten- 
ant, but always by a military title. 

In May, 1770, he, with Crawford, Thomas Gist, and 
Pentecost, was among the justices of the peace ap- 
pointed by the proprietary government for Cumber- 
land County. In March, 1771, he was reappointed 
for Bedford County, and made prothonotary and chief 
clerk of the courts when that county was erected at 
that time. He earnestly advocated the erection of a 
new county to the west of Laurel Hill, and when 
Westmoreland was formed in 1773 he was appointed 
by Richard Penn to the same offices he had held in 
Bedford. From this time till the beginning of the 
Revolutionary war he was the outspoken agent of the 
proprietaries. During 1774 his efficiency is made 
apparent by the records of the Province. He was in 
constant communication with those in authority, he 
advised with them, and the entire management of 
local affairs was left to him. In the exercise of his 
trust he became especially obnoxious to Dunmore, 
the Governor of Virginia, who demanded of the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania that St. Clair be delivered over 
to him, but the demand was refused, and met with 
the intimation that the proprietaries were responsible 
for the official acts of their magistrates. During the 
excitement of 1774 he was the foremost one in the 
sight of the people ; he rode day and night, and pic- 
vailed on the inhabitants not to leave, as they were 
about to do. But he made them take up arms in their 
defense; the government could not assist them, so 
they must assist themselves. He organized a per- 
manent militia, and promised the rangers pay, which 
was guaranteed by his own obligation. Under his 
direction and supervision the chain of block-houses 
along the rivers and the old military road was estab- 
lished. He advised the Penns to open a road for 
military purposes from Kittanning to Ligonier, and 
to erect a fort at that point, to be garrisoned by the 
soldiers of the Province. This point had been pointed 
out by Forbes as early as 1758 as important in a mili- 
tary view, and was the site of Fort Armstrong. 1 

The preservation of the Westmoreland settlements 
in 1774 is as much to be attributed to St. Clair's in- 
fluence over the Indian tribes as to any other cause. 
He spoke to them in manly and plain words, and they 
had the utmost confidence in him. In one of their 
conferences when he was not present they called him 
their friend and the Pennsylvanians their brothers. 
Afterwards when the agents appointed by Congress 
came out to visit the tribes about Fort Pitt and to 
secure their alliance they stopped with St. Clair on 
their way, and prevailed with him to accompany 
them. 

1 For a full account of these affairs see Penn. Archives, vol. iv. 



There is no doubt that St. Clair watched atten- 
tively the struggle between the colonies and the 
crown, and there is likewise no doubt that from the 
first his mind was made up. With all the traditions of 
the Scotch uppermost it was not in his strong' nature 
to give in to the latest of the tyrannical rulers of his 
native country, which the Scotch allowed was at that 
day held by the tenure of usurpation. And although 
the war of the Revolution found him busied in do- 
mestic relations, yet he was recognized from the first 
as the friend of the colonies, and was in correspond- 
ence with the patriots in the East. That he was in- 
strumental in calling the meeting at Hannastown of 
May 16, 1775, and that he secured the passage of the 
remarkable resolutions that day adopted there can be 
no reasonable doubt. 5 

DURING TIIK REVOLUTION. 

In that pathetic and heart-moving letter which he 
wrote in his old age to the Congressional Committee 
he says that his first connection with the United States 
began in the year 1775. Congress had appointed com- 
missioners to repair to Fort Pitt to treat with the In- 
dians. On their way they called upon St. Clair, and 
requested him to accompany them and act as their 
secretary. He did so, and in the course of the nego- 
tiations formed the project of a volunteer expedition 
to surprise Detroit, which he thought practicable. 
The commissioners entered into the project warmly, 
and in a very short time he engaged between four and 
five hundred young men, who were to furnish their 
own horses, forage, and provisions. The measure 
being referred to Congress by the commissioners, was 
disapproved, for the reason that Gen. Arnold was at 
that time before Quebec, and its fall was considered 
certain. But Arnold failed. St. Clair was called to 
Philadelphia, and, resigning his office, he went t<> that 
city for instructions. 

We can, in the absence of any memoir, partially 
trace his career through the war. He first assisted to 
perfect the Associators in 1775, and on Jan. 1, 1776, 
in the "Account of the Rules and Regulations" for 
the Associators sent to the committees of the different 
counties, there is a memorandum that those for West- 
moreland were sent by Col. St. Clair. In the early 



2 With the extreme modesty and DnObtrusiveQess which always were 
characteristic in him, he says in tiis letter to Governor Penn, May 25, 
1775, "I got a clause added, by which they hind themselves to assist 
the civil magistrates in the execution of the laws they have been accus- 
tomed to he governed by." This clause was the fourth, and began, " That 
we do not wish or advise any innovations," etc. But that he drafted 
this paper I have little doubt. In his letter to Lieut.-Col. Allen, nearly 
a year and a half alter this (Ticonderoga, Sept. 1, 1776), he says. " If I 
remember rightly, there were two points on which we were perfectly 
agreed: First, that independence was not the interest of America if the 
liberties of America could be otherwise secured ; Secondly, if foreign 
troops were employed to reduce America to absolute submission, that 
independence or any other mode was justifiable." This letter is a most 
noble one. Here is the substance of the third aDd fifth clauses, and part 
of the conditions for which the colonies went to war. Who else here 
was likely to talk of a " licentious soldiery" in the same seti^" t- he* 
from a personal knowledge? 



21 G 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



part of 1776 he was commissioned colonel by Congress 
in the Continental service, and was stationed in the 
eastern part of the State, where he was engaged in 
different capacities in organizing, recruiting, supply- 
ing, and provisioning the volunteers. 1 He advanced 
money to his own detriment in this service, some of 
which he did not get reimbursed for till many years 
after the war was over. As fast as the troops could 
be furnished for campaigning he forwarded them, 
and being himself ordered with other contingents to 
cover the retreat of the American army from Canada 
under Arnold, he recruited and equipped for his own 
command six full companies without expense to the 
State, and marched them by the 1st of May to the 
vicinity of Quebec. 2 

This campaign had been planned by Gen. Mont- 
gomery, but it came to an unfortunate termination. 
Montgomery was killed before Quebec, and Arnold, 
the next in command, who himself was wounded, 
conducted the retreat. St. Clair served with Wayne 
under Gen. Thompson, the successor of Arnold, but 
who dying soon after he came to the command was 
succeeded by Gen. Sullivan. Here his former mili- 
tary knowledge was of much advantage, for he it was 
who suggested to Gen. Thompson, who was then in 
command, the practicability of taking post at the 
village of Three Rivers to prevent the British trans- 
ports from passing up the river. The plan was ap- 
proved, and St. Clair was sent to take up a position. 
Sullivan now having arrived and taken command of 
the army, detached Thompson with reinforcements to 
support St. Clair and to take the command. But being 
overpowered and pushed back, and Thompson having 
been killed, the command fell to St. Clair, who carried 
the broken detachment back through the midst of a 
constantly increasing enemy to the headquarters at 
Sorel. 

The American army now withdrew from Canada 
in as masterful a manner as it had marched thither. 
The army went into quarters at Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga, and there St. Clair remained during the 
summer in camp duty. On Sunday, the 28th of July, 
to the soldiers drawn up in long lines, he read the 
Declaration of Independence which had been adopted 
by the Congress, when they threw their caps in air 
and cheered for the cause of the United Colonies. 

In August of this year, 1776, he was made a briga- 
dier, and joined Washington, who was then retreat- 
ing across the Jerseys before the elated British army 
under Howe. He fought under the eves of the com- 



1 The Council of Safety mi the IStli of July, 1775, recommended the 
enrollment of all able-bodied men into regiments or battalions. The 
militia of Westmoreland were enrolled, and St. Clair wa8 elected colonel. 
See Memorandum Book of the Committee and Council of Safety for 
1776 and 1777, Pa. Arch., Second Series, vol. i., for services in the colony 
and State. He was commissioned colonel of the Second Ratlalion Jan. 
3, 1776. He with Cols, Sine, Wayne, and Magaw were in command of 
the four battalions of Pennsylvania troops to be raised for the Continental 
Service. For history of the Second Battalion, see CtlAp^ \V11I. 

2 For bis services and the campaign iu Canada, see Chapter Will. 



mander-in-chief in the closing battles of this cam- 
paign, at White Plains, at Trenton, and at Princeton, 3 
and all informed writers agree that he suggested to 
Washington that ruse of war by which the Hessians 
were surprised at Princeton. 

The campaign of 1777 opened with favor to the 
British. The fearful retreat from Long Island, and 
the miserable condition of the Continental army, 
encouraged the British to push this campaign with 
energy, and thus speedily crush out this rising sedi- 
tion. 

The plan of the British generals was to divide the 
colonies by the line of Hudson River, Lake George, 
and Lake Champlain. Clinton was to go up the river, 
and above Albany to unite with Burgoyne, who was 
to come down from Canada. The success of this 
plan would have been well-nigh fatal to the prospect 
of American independence. Between Lake Cham- 
plain and Lake George was situated the strong for- 
tress of Ticonderoga, the same which Col. Ethan 
Allen had taken by the authority of the great Jeho- 
vah and the Continental Congress. This fortress 
commanded the lakes and the passage of the isthmus. 
While it was held it debarred Burgoyne from effect- 
ing the junction. To hold this point was, therefore, 
of the utmost importance. St. Clair, who enjoyed 
the confidence of the commander-in-chief, was raised 
to the rank of major-general, and superseding Gen. 
Schuyler, was sent with three thousand men to take 
command of the post, and at all hazards to hold it. 

Burgoyne, passing Lake Champlain, took Crown 
Point and advanced against Ticonderoga. Gen. 
Schuyler, before he was transferred, had put the for- 
tress in good order. On the 19th of June, 1777, 
operations were commenced against the post. On the 
20th of July the soldiers of Burgoyne took possession 
of Mount Defiance, a point on the right of the Amer- 
icans. This position adjoined and overlooked the 
fortress, but being deemed inaccessible, it had re- 
mained unoccupied by the Continentals. By the use 
of tackle, cannon were hoisted up its side by the 
enemy until the arms and the force there were suffi- 
cient to dislodge the garrison. 

St. Clair called a council of officers, and among 
them it was unanimously agreed that the hills which 

= Respectively, Oct. 28, 177C, Dec. 25, 177i;. and January, 1777. Ban- 
croft goes to extra pains to prove that St. Clair did not advise Washing- 
toll in this successful engagement, and be labors hard to support a 
contrary position, but in this be is at issue with numerous authorities. 
Sic Wilkinson's "Memoirs," G. w. Greene's "'Life of Gen. Nathaniel 
Greene," and St. Clair's ■'Narrative." It is not, however, questioned 
that be directed the details of the march and the incidental prepara- 
tion i lb yant's " Popular History of the United States," chap, xxi., 532). 
"Soon after midnight the troops quietly withdrew by detachments, and 

marching by the right moved upon Princeton. St. Clair's brigade of 

New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts troops, with two six- 
pounders, marched at the head of the column, with which Gen. Wash- 
ington rode." — " Life and Public Services," etc., vol. i. p. 37, as quoting 
Wilkinson. 

This campaign made him ii major-general. In March, 1777, on the 
resignation of Col. Keed, St. I 'lair was detailed by Washington as adju- 
tant-general. 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



217 



commanded the fort ought to have been previously 
fortified ; that it was too late for them now to be for- 
tified ; that if fortified it would require fully ten thou- 
sand men to man and hold them ; and that the force 
at the disposal of the general was not in any way 
adequate to meet the enemy. It was determined, 
therefore, to abandon the post. 

But the withdrawing the army now was a retreat. 
The American force retired under cover to Hubbards- 
town and thence to Castleton, about thirty miles 
from Ticonderoga, where a stand was made. The 
British and German light troops had been sent in 
pursuit, and on the 7th of August overtook the rear- 
guard under Col. Warner at Castleton. The attack 
was sharp and bloody, and the British at first were 
routed, but the Americans not being supported by 
their comrades, the British and mercenaries renewed 
their attack, and with the bayonet dispersed the 
whole force of the rear-guard, with the loss to us of 
three hundred men. Col. Warner came in with the 
rest of his troops at Fort Ann. Altogether the loss 
of the Americans in this, one of the most disastrous 
retreats of the war, was about one thousand men, 
killed, wounded, and prisoners. 

Of course a clamor was raised. Reasons plenty as 
blackberries were given why St. Clair should not be 
shot, hung and quartered, banished. Some said he 
was incompetent, some cowardly, some treacherous. 
He said little, but demanded of right an inquiry iu 
due form into his conduct and the circumstances of 
the surrender. After waiting for a long time a court 
of inquiry at last was formed, which was composed 
of some of the best officers in the army, which after 
sitting and considering the whole affair critically and 
with deliberation exculpated him from guilt; and some 
then said that although he lost a fortress he saved a 
State. Burgoyne was forced to give his sword to 
Gates at Saratoga, and the two British armies were 
not, after all, joined together, notwithstanding their 
sanguine anticipations. 1 

1 From the surrender of Ticonderoga and the retreat a prejudice was 
raised against St. Clair which he never could get rid of, and which his 
enemies uever ceased to make capital of. Good military men say that 
no better generalship was displayed throughout the war than that dis- 
played by him in withdrawing his army and saving it from capture. The 
Unit, 't Stiih s Gu-etle, a high authority in the army, has said on this sub- 
ject in a sketch of St. Clair, iu speaking of his defense before the court 
of inquiry, "His defense on that occasion is still extant, and exhibits 
a sample of profound generalship. Whilst the English language shall 
be admired, it will continue to he an example of martial eloquence." 

Facts dispel illusions. Gen. Burgoyne's army numbered 7*6:3 men, 
including 200 Canadians and 400 Indians ; St. Clair bad 2200 men. Bur- 
goyne's artillery numbered 142 guns, and his was the best equipped 
army for an offensive campaign in the field. The American works were 
equipped with 100 cannon of indifferent calibre and a small force of in- 
experienced artillerymen to serve them. — Life and Public Services, etc., 
p. 60. 

St. Clair left the Northern Department on the 20th of August (1777), 
in obedience to the orders of Congress, to report at headquarters and I 
await an inquiry into his management at the North. Washington still 
remained faithful to him and never lost confidence in him. He, after 
St. Clair demanded it, urged the court of inquiry to he held. In Sep- 
tember, 1778. a court-martial, of which Maj.-Gen. Lincoln was presi- 



During the time which intervened from the sur- 
render till the board of inquiry had finished their 
sittings he was suspended from any command. He 
was, however, with the army, and at Brandywine 
fought as a volunteer, and had a horse shot from 
under him during the engagement. He was with the 
army at headquarters at Valley Forge. The court of 
inquiry not censuring him he was reinstated in public 
confidence, and was intrusted with the very arduous 
duties of organizing the levies of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey and sending them out to the armies 
in the field when needed. After the treason of 
Arnold, St. Clair was detailed by Washington to 
hold West Point, and he succeeded Gates in command 
at Philadelphia. On September the 29th, 1780, he sat 
with Lafayette, Parsons, Clinton, Knox, Huntingdon, 
and others, all well known for their uprightness, on 
the trial of Maj. Andre, adjutant-general of the British 
army, who made their unanimous report that Andre 
ought to be considered as a spy from the enemy and 
sutler death. 

When the last campaign was closing in the South, 
St. Clair with Wayne, who together were using all 
their ingenuity in converting three old long-tailed 
coats into two short ones, and two old hats into one 
infantry cap, so that the men would bear some simi- 
larity with each other, was assigued with reinforce- 
ments to the Southern department, where the war was 
then raging. When the combined American and 
French armies circled around the British at York- 
town, St. Clair was there. Having arrived some time 
before the surrender, he was with that galaxy of il- 
lustrious men who stood in the trenches when the 
cause of the colonies was decided. He was then sent 
to reinforce Greene with the Pennsylvania troops, and 
they formed a junction in the beginning of 1782. 2 

IN CIVIL LIFE. 

St. Clair came out of the Revolutionary conflict, 
not with the glory of some, but with the confidence 
of his great commander, and with the undiminished 
respect and esteem of his fellow-officers. He imme- 
diately entered into civil affairs. In 1783 he was 
elected a member of the Executive Council of Penn- 
sylvania, this department of the State government 

dent, was organized, and after a thorough hearing concluded their find- 
ing in the following words: 

" The Court having duly considered the charges against Major-General 
St. Clair and the evidence, are unanimously of opinion that he is not 
guilty of either the charges preferred against him, and do unanimously 
acquit him of all and every of them with the highest honor." 

2 In 178:1, at the solicitation of Congress, then in Philadelphia, he 
went to the new levies (who had marched from Lancaster to the Con- 
gress to demand their pay, having refused to accept their discharge until 
they were paid), and succeeded by his personal influence, together with 
Lafayette as bis colleague, in quieting their mutiuous spirit and sending 
them back to Lancaster. 

Feb. 24, 1784, he was made auctioneer of the city of Philadelphia by 
a resolution of the General Assembly. He got into much trouble from 
this, as will be seen further on, he having appropriated some of the 
money he collected to pay individual debts, — bail money. The office 
was lucrative. On the 13th of April, 1787, he was relieved of the office. 



218 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



reposing in a Council of Censors. He was returned 
for the county of Philadelphia, with Frederick A. 
Muhlenberg as his colleague. He made Philadelphia 
his home, and his family had resided there while he 
was in the army. He attended all the sittings of the 
Council. In its proceedings, and in the proceedings 
incident to the calling of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1791, we have the first visible line between the 
old political parties whose hostility to each other be- 
came so great. St. Clair invariably took sides with 
that party which afterwards was known as the Fed- 
eral party, and which, under the leadership of Ham- 
ilton, antagonized the administration of Jefferson. 

In 1785, St. Clair was elected to Congress, the 
members of that body being returned by the vote of 
the Assembly. In 1787 he was chosen president of 
that body. In 1790 he was the Federalist candidate 
for Governor of the State, but was defeated by Gen. 
Mifflin. This was at the first election for a chief 
magistrate under the constitutional form. Mifflin 
was not only a popular man, but he belonged to the 
party which was the popular party of the State. But 
although St. Clair was unfortunate for his own ad- 
vantage in falling in with the destinies of that party, 
no one that knows his character would be bold enough 
to say that he belonged to it without principle. No 
man could separate principle from consequences 
better than he. 

Under the act of Congress of July 13, 1787, St. 
Clair was appointed by President Washington and 
confirmed by Congress Governor of the Northwestern 
Territory, the Territory embracing all the region of 
country lying north and west of the Ohio River. 1 On 
July the 9th, 1788, he arrived at Fort Harmar, now 
Marietta. At this place, as the seat of the territorial 
government, he resided with his family. 2 On the 15th 
of July he published the order of Congress for the 
government, and soon after appointed judges and 
other officers. On January the 2d, 1791, when he 
arrived at Fort Washington, the site of Cincinnati, 
previous to his military expedition, he organized 
Hamilton County, which name he gave it after Alex- 
ander Hamilton, the Secretary of the United States 
Treasury, and the beau ideal of the Federalists. Cin- 
cinnati was called in compliment to the Society of 
the Cincinnati, organized by officers who had seen 
actual service in the armies of the continent, and of 
which society St. Clair was an active member. 

The Indians being still hostile to the settlers in the 
western country where these were unable to resist 



1 The Congress of which he was president passed the ordinance. 

- The citizens of Marietta gave special attention to the preparation of 
a residence for Governor St. Clair, and in the winter of 1790 his son 
Arthur, twenty-one years of age, and three daughters, Louisa, Jane, and 
Margaret, with a middle-aged, sensible colored woman, who acted as 
cook and housekeeper, took possession. Mrs. St. Clair still remained 1 in 
the East. — (Life and Public Services, etc., p. 160.) 

For a description of Louisa St. Clair, the eldest of these daughters, and 
of the brilliance of her intellectual accomplishments, etc, see Hildreth's 
" Pioneer History," quoted in " Life and Public Services," etc., p. 160. 



them under their strange confederation and the new 
leaders who had risen among them, Gen. Harmar was 
sent out with a body of regulars and militia to sub- 
due them and to destroy their towns. But Harmar 
was defeated with terrible slaughter among his ranks, 
and his army was so crippled that a new one had to 
be organized for further operations. In the following 
year, 1791, St. Clair, on the recommendation of Presi- 
dent Washington, was appointed commander-in-chief 
of the army, and vested with powers almost dicta- 
torial within his territory. He had a force of two 
thousand regulars placed at his disposal, and was em- 
powered to call out such reinforcements of militia as 
might be necessary. In September, 1791, an army 
the largest and most efficient in officers, in numbers, 
and in equipage of any yet seen in the West was as- 
sembled at Fort Washington, the site of Cincinnati. 
This was under command of St. Clair. There were 
three complete regiments of United States infantry, 
two companies of artillery, and one company of cav- 
alry. There were six hundred militia to join him 
there, but most of these came up after he had left. 
They commenced their march on the 17th of Septem- 
ber. They cut a road through the wilderness and 
erected Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami, some 
distance above Fort Washington. On the 4th of 
October they marched twenty miles farther, and built 
Fort Jefferson. A garrison was left at both posts. 
On the 24th of October they marched from the latter 
post. Shortly after they had left one of the militia 
regiments deserted, as these not infrequently did when 
about to meet the enemy, not being under regular 
discipline, called out only for a short time in an emer- 
gency, and commanded by officers who disliked supe- 
rior authority. The First Regiment of regulars was 
detached in pursuit of these, so that the army was 
now weakened and did not number above fourteen 
hundred men. The main body, however, moved for- 
ward to where Fort Recovery was afterwards erected 
by Gen. Wayne, now within the limits of Mercer 
County, Ohio. 

The villages of the Miami Indians were supposed 
to be only about twelve miles in distance from here. 
At this place, it being the head-waters of the Wabash 
River, where a number of small creeks flowed in from 
various directions, the army encamped. The general 
had it in view to throw up some earthworks in order 
to hold a secure position, and to protect his baggage 
and artillery till the other regiment should come up, 
before advancing farther in the hostile country. This 
was on the 3d of November. Late that afternoon, 
and in the evening, the general was engaged with the 
engineers in planning the proposed works. At night 
the sentries were posted, and everything appeared 
quiet. The army was encamped in two lines. The 
front of the first line was covered by a creek, the one 
side by the river, while a creek protected the flank of 
the second line. During the night there was no alarm 
whatever, and consequently no suspicion of danger. 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



219 



Some few hours before daybreak, under the expecta- 
tion of an attack, or at least to have the men in a 
state of readiness, the general had the reveille beaten 
and the troops paraded under arms. They thus stood 
watchful till daybreak, when they were dismissed to 
their tents to get some further rest. But the men had 
scarcely lain down when a rifle fired from some of the 
militiamen in front was followed by a sharp irregular 
volley in the same direction. The drums beat, the 
officers formed the men, the militia came pouring in 
from the front, and in a few minutes all was stir and 
confusion. The militia coming in, pursued by swarms 
of Indians, broke over the ranks of the regulars, and 
bore down all before them. The Indians themselves 
penetrated beyond the first ranks, and tomahawked 
some of the wounded officers who had been carried 
back to have their wounds dressed. In no long time 
the whole body of the army was encompassed by a 
livid stream of fire on all sides round. St. Clair 
was suffering from a fever, and was unable to mount 
a horse, but part of the time during the battle was 
carried from place to place on a litter. False allega- 
tions of cowardice were imputed to him ; but there is 
nothing to warrant this. He was not in respect to his 
person a coward, but the reverse is the truth. During 
this engagement he had eight bullet-shots through 
his clothes, and he was among the last to leave the 
field of battle. He directed the men to carry him to 
the place where the firing was the heaviest, and where 
the men were falling on all sides. Here the brave 
Col. Darke, an officer of Revolutionary distinction, 
was trying his utmost to allay the consternation of 
the men and to hold the lines steady. When St. 
Clair came up he directed the colonel and his men to 
make a sudden and rapid charge with the bayonet. 
The charge was made and with some effect, for swarms 
of the red-backed creatures rose up before the lines 
of infantry out of the high grass and fled before them. 
But as the soldiers could not overtake them, they re- 
covered their courage, and soon after from behind 
every kind of shelter poured such a fire upon the sol- 
diers that they in turn were driven back. A second 
time was the charge with the bayonet made and fol- 
lowed with the same result. When the artillery was 
brought up the horses and the men were destroyed 
before they could do any service. 

But we cannot recount the battle at length. It is 
enough to say that the whites resisted bravely, but 
were borne back through the wild lands. Discipline 
availed little. The panic spread to all the troops. 
Behind every tree was an Indian, and with the bul- 
lets came flights of arrows, whose murderous wounds 
made the men shriek out. It is said the savages 
never showed more bravery. They ran in screaming, 
and tomahawked the men in the ranks or among 
their comrades. The men were sometimes huddled 
together like sheep, whence the slaughter, in respect 
of the number engaged, was prodigious. The ranks 
could not be formed in military order, and the field- 



pieces of the regulars were of no use. These were 
finally captured by the Indians, with the exception 
of two which were thrown into one of the streams. 
Many died heroically. Acts of daring and of hero- 
ism which have delighted two generations of readers 
are recorded in the various tales of the border. It 
was long reported, and it is yet historically asserted, 
that the water of the creek to the front was reddened 
with blood. The men at last gave way, and the re- 
treat became a panic. A part of the army reached 
Fort Washington. Few of the munitions were saved, 
for the men threw away even their arms. When the 
second army of Kentucky volunteers which after- 
wards came out took possession of the battle-field, 
the found within a little space three hundred skull- 
bones, and for miles the road was strewn with the 
remains of the army. From the official lists of 
the adjutant-general, five hundred and ninety-three 
were reported 1 dead and two hundred and fourteen 
wounded. 

The chief of the hostiles in this battle was Mishi- 
kinakwa, or Little Turtle, a son of a Miami chief by 
a Mohican woman. He was the chief leader of the 
warriors of all the tribes in that country. He died in 
1812, and his grave is shown to the whites near Fort 
Wayne. His portrait may be seen in the War Office 
at Washington. 

He has been described by one who saw him at 
Montreal soon after the defeat. He was at that time 
a little over forty-five years of age, was six feet high, 
of a very sour and morose countenance, and appar- 



l Echoes of the Battle.— "On the day of battle Gen. St. Clair was not 
in bis uniform, but wore a coarse catfo coat and a three-cornered hat. 
He had a long cue and large locks flowing beneath his heaver. Early 
in the action, when near the artillery, a hall grazed the side of his face 
and cut off a* portion of one of his locks. During the action eight balls 
passed through his clothes and hat. After his horses were killed he 
exerted himself on foot for a considerable time during the action with 
a degree of alertness that surprised everybody who saw him. After 
being on foot for some time, and when nearly exhausted, a pack-horse 
was brought to him. This he rode during the remainder of the day, 
although lie could scarcely prick him out of a walk." lie had two 
horses killed, one after the other, iu the act of mounting them. 

Narrative of the Campaign, 

The great Mohawk chief, Tha-yen-da-ne-ge-a (Joseph Brant, alias 
Capt. Brant), was, so well-informed historians say, in this battle, al- 
though not Buspected on account of the professions of friendship for the 
Americans. This calls to mind the "legend of Louisa St. Clair," in 
which tlie story is that young Brant, the son of the great chief, and 
who was in love with Louisa St. Clair, was there, and that he ordered 
his warriors to shoot St. Clair's horses but not him. To this was ac- 
connted the noteworthy reason of his having so many horses killed 
about him and himself escaping unhurt. This " legend," being nothing 
but a romantic love story, was once very popular in the Northwest ami 
is yet to be not with in republications. — See " Life and Public Services," 
etc., quoted above. 

from ilf Congressional Committers Report Appointed to Inquire into 
the Defeat. 
"The committee conceive it but justice to the commander-in-chief to 
say that in their opinion the failure of the late expedition can in no 
respect be imputed to his conduct, either at any time before or during 
the action, but that as his conduct in all the preparatory arrangements 
was marked with peculiar ability and zeal, so his conduct during tlie 
action furnishes strong testimonies of his coolness and intrepidity." 



220 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ently very crafty and subtile. His dress was Indian 
moccasins, a blue petticoat that came half-way down 
his thighs, a European surtout and waistcoat. His 
head was bound by an Indian cap, which hung half- 
way down his back, and almost entirely covered with 
plain silver brooches, to the number of more than two 
hundred. He had two ear-rings to each ear. The upper 
part of each of these was formed by three medals 
about the size of a dollar; the lower part was formed 
of quarter-dollars, and fell more than twelve inches 
from his ears, one from each ear over his breast, the 
other over his back. He had three very large nose 
jewels of silver, which were curiously plaited. 

St. Clair held the commission of Governor of the 
Northwestern Territory from 1787 to 1802, a period 
of fifteen years, when he was removed by President 
Jefferson. Fault has been found with Jefferson for 
this act, and those who take exception assert that it 
was done with a spiteful political spirit. St. Clair 
was a strong Federalist, an adorer of the political 
doctrines of Hamilton. He had been indiscreet in 
his expressions of favor for the unpopular adminis- 
tration of John Adams, who brought contempt and 
opprobrium upon his party by the countenance he 
gave the notorious and justly obnoxious alien and 
sedition laws. But, taken on the whole, we are of 
opinion it would necessitate a misconstruction of mo- 
tives and facts and require yet undiscovered testi- 
mony to establish authoritatively the assertion that 
St. Clair's removal was instigated by the malevolence 
of Jefferson. 1 

As Governor of that Territory which now exists as 
five independent States and includes millions of the 
foremost citizens of the Republic, his duties were ar- 
duous, his toil unceasing, and the results marvelous. 

1 The truth is great opposition had grown up against St. Clair as Gov- 
ernor on account of antagonism to the formation of a State out of a 
portion of the Territory, which was the nearly unanimous wish and 
desire of the inhabitants of Ohio, and also on accouDt of his avowed op- 
position to the new State's constitution, and of his disagreement with a 
majority of the Legislature of the Territory. His biographer, the Hon. 
W. H. Smith, who certainly has not countenanced the action of Jeffer- 
son in removing St. Clair, says, "It is known that Mr. Jefferson's friend- 
ship for St Clair influenced him, and that it was only after it was re- 
ported to him some months later, upon what seemed to be reliable 
authority, that Governor St. Clair had spoken against Democratic gov- 
ernment that he issued the order of removal." — Life and Public Services, 
etc., vol. i., 240. 

"He even entered the lists in a public discussion, and printed a 
pamphlet in defense of the administration after the blunder of the 
alien and sedition law, and Bent it to Mr. Adams with his compli- 
ments." — Ibid., 234. 

Announcement of Bemoval, 
" Department of State, Washington, Nov. 22, 1802. 
" Arthur St. Clair, Es';. : 

"Sir,— Tlie President observing in an address lately delivered by you 
to the Convention held at Cuillicothe an intemperance and indecorum 
of language towards the Legislature of the United States, and a disor. 
ganiziug spirit and tendency of very evil example, and grossly violating 
the rules of conduct enjoined by your public station, determines that 
your commission as Governor of the Northwestern Territory shall cease 
on receipt of this notification. 

" I am, etc., 

"James Madison." 



For an idea of the duties incumbent on him and the 
large discretionary power vested in him, one should 
examine the. ordinances and the laws of Congress 
relative to the subject. By these he was made not only 
the executive but the law-giver of that vast extent of 
country, as he and his judges in council had the 
power not only to enforce but to make the laws for 
its government. But he devoted himself here, as he 
did elsewhere, wdiolly to the duties of his trust. The 
early records of the State of Ohio attest his labors. 
Although his salary was not adequate to cover even 
his traveling expenses, he never once relaxed his ex- 
ertions. He seems to have been well aware of the 
importance and the magnitude of the trust reposed in 
him. He established laws, erected counties, selected 
officers, fixed titles, held treaties with the Indians, 
and saw that justice was administered in due form of 
law. He refers to this subject in the answer to the 
ladies of New York, who in his latter days had pre- 
sented him with a small sum of money : 

" I had fondly hoped," says he, " that my military services had been of 
benefit to my country ; but let that pass. Besides these services, which 
you have so kindly eulogized, I, at my own expense in a great measure, 
raised up a colony to the United Slates from thirty men to sixty thou- 
sand ; amalgamated the most heterogeneous mass of population; carried 
law, religion, and manners to the extreme bounds of the Territory; made 
the people happy, and laid the foundation for the continuance of that 
happiness to millionsyet unborn, in the accomplishment of which every 
faculty of mind and body were unceasingly employed." 

And in this he evidences the prescient wisdom of 
prophecy. 

HIS LAST DAYS. 

Upon his removal from the governorship St. Clair 
came back to Ligonier Valley. Here, in the midst of 
a large tract of land, he had in the latter part of his 
official career erected a house in anticipation of the 
time when he should be relieved of public duties ; 
here part of his family resided before he came back, 
and here he fondly hoped to pass the remainder of 
his life in the agreeable ease and rest which the sol- 
dier in the camp and the statesman in the council- 
room always anticipates. The building was regarded 
as a sumptuous aud well-apportioned mansion-house 
for the time. It was handsomely painted and papered, 
and besides ordinary apartments had a suite of bed- 
rooms. It was situated about two miles northwest of 
Ligonier, near Mill Creek. Nothing now remains of 
the original structure intact except the room which 
he left with its quaintly-carved mantel-piece and 
wainscoting. The painting over the fireplace has 
been destroyed. Here he settled down with his fam- 
ily, and began to build up in his old clays his broken 
fortune. He erected a furnace, and for a time carried 
on the manufacture of castings, but after a few years 
leased the works to James Hamilton & Co', at a rental 
of three thousand dollars per annum. He also got 
his mill in running order, and continued actively 
engaged in business until he was crippled by the 
executions of his creditors. 

The history of his financial embarrassment is not 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



221 



devoid of interest. The blind goddess in this as in 
all things treated him rudely. He got with his wife 
fourteen thousand pounds (equivalent to seventy 
thousand dollars). Besides this he had large dona- 
tions of land from the king, from the Penns, from 
the State, and from Congress. His investments in 
real estate, so far as the investments went, were judi- 
cious, but these all in bis sinister fortune melted away 
like snow in the sunshine. He drew salaries and 
was in the possession of emoluments and perquisites 
during all his public life, but these scarcely reached 
from one accounting day to the next. He was always 
in a position to invest and speculate in remunerative 
and safe enterprises, but he never tainted his hands 
with bribes or touched what bore the semblance of 
peculation. In a letter to his friend, the Hon. Wil- 
liam B. Giles, he says that the office of Governor of 
the Northwestern Territory was forced on him by his 
friends, who thought it would be an opportunity of 
replenishing his finances ; but it proved otherwise, 
for he " had neither the taste nor the genius for spec- 
ulation in land, nor did he consider it consistent with 
his office " So when he retired here, after his removal 
from office, he was hopelessly in debt, and some years 
later was sold out by the sheriff. 

It is perhaps true that some of his losses were 
caused by negligence, and might not have happened 
had he been more provident, but nearly all his finan- 
cial embarrassment is chargeable to the zeal with 
which be served his country, and were debts due and 
owing by the people of the republic, in whose ser- 
vice he was employed all his life. When he went to 
the Revolutionary army he left his mill — the first one 
erected in the West — to his neighbors for their use 
while he was gone. When he took possession of it 
on his return he found it a pile of rubbish. In one \ 
of his memorials he states that when he went to the 
army he could not leave his young wife, born and 
bred in the city of Boston, of the first connections 
there, and accustomed to the most fashionable circles, 
on a frontier so hostile, and was thus compelled to 
dispose of his principal farm, on which he had ex- 
pended a large amount of money, at great sacrifice. 
He sold it for £2000, payable in installments, but so 
rapid was the depreciation of the Continental cur- 
rency that of this amount be lost £1900. He then 
had to jmrchase a house in the East for his family 
while he was in the service. This he sold at the end 
of the war ; one-half of the price he lost by the bank- 
ruptcy and suicide of the purchaser. He indorsed 
for his friends and fellow-officers, and by this lost 
large sums, which be paid upon demand so far as he 
was able. 

From 1803 to 1813, at various times, St. Clair pre- 
sented memorials to Congress and to the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania for relief. In these memorials he him- 
self gives the cause or occasion which induced him to 
present them. To the Assembly he says that as early 
as 1774 he supplied nearly all the forts and block- 
15 



houses in Westmoreland County with arms and the 
means of defense at his own expense. When, in the 
darkest days of the Revolution, Washington, seeing 
bis army melting away like snow, appealed to him to 
save to him the Pennsylvania line, the flower of the 
army, St. Clair immediately responded by advancing 
the money for recruiting and for bounty, and by St. 
Clair's and Col. William Butler's individual exer- 
tions and influence their object was accomplished. 
To part of this claim the government afterwards 
pleaded the statute of limitations. He was shut out 
on this statute by substantially the following argu- 
ment : " True it is, we, the government of the United 
States, do justly owe you so and so much, but because 
you have never asked to be repaid until now the pre- 
sumption of the law is that you have been repaid." 
But the indebtedness which was the direct cause of 
his losing his real property had been contracted 
during his governorship. During his incumbency of 
this office he acted as superintendent of Indian affairs 
in the Territory, and in that capacity negotiated sev- 
eral treaties of importance, in the transaction of 
which to a successful termination it was apparent 
that the appropriation by Congress was inadequate, 
whence he was compelled to advance funds out of his 
own pocket to consummate bis ends. In negotiating 
one of these treaties he expended about $16,000, and 
for which only $8000 bad been appropriated. When 
the army for the campaign of 1791 had collected 
together, and it was found that the sum authorized 
by Congress for the purpose was too small for the exi- 
gencies of the project, he personally guaranteed to 
the quartermaster-general, James O'Harra, the re- 
payment of a large sum in order that the army might 
lie victualed and supplied. When he presented his 
account in 1799 for payment, he was informed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury that there " were no moneys 
appropriated by the Legislature to pay such further 
disbursements." On this subject St. Clair says that he 
became personally liable to the contractor, O'Harra, 
to whom he gave his bond for .$7042, on the express 
promise of the Secretary of the Treasury that it 
should be repaid with interest. This bond remain- 
ing unpaid, suit was brought, and judgment obtained 
against St. Clair by bis own confession for $10,632.17, 
debt and interest. Upon this judgment execution 
was from time to time issued, and upon it the entire 
remaining part unsold, which included all bis real 
estate, was sold. The time of sale could not have 
happened at a more inopportune time. The embargo 
had driven money out of the country. The valua- 
tion of that part of his real estate levied upon under 
these executions has been fixed at $50,000 ; but it did 
not fetch more than paid the debt and accrued inter- 
est upon this one judgment. James O'Harra, by his 
lawyer, bought all the property. 

Judgment was confessed upon the O'Harra bond 
in August, 1803, and the sheriff, Alexander Johnston, 
Esq., soon after, by the orders of O'Harra through 



222 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Mr. Ross, his attorney, levied upon all the property, 
but no sales were made until June, 1808. The tract 
of land, upon which were the mansion-house, grixt- 
mill, and furnace, was sold for four thousand dollars, 
although at the time it was rented out at three thou- 
sand dollars per annum. The last tract was sold Oct. 
15, 1810. 

Previous to this a nameless, heartless wretch — a 
Shylock of a neighbor — had bought up all his due- 
bills, brought suit upon each one separately, and on 
them sold all his goods and chattels. They took 
everything from him they could get, and left him only 
one bed and bedding, a few books of his English and 
classical library (among which was his favorite 
Horace), and a bust of John Paul Jones, which had 
been sent to him by Jones himself from Paris, and 
which he prized highly. - 

In his days of adversity the Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania pensioned him with a small amount, which in 
1817, the year before his death, was increased to fifty 
dollars a month. Congress, the year of his death, 
passed an act allowing him sixty dollars a month, 
and dated it back one year. Of this he got not one 
cent, for greedy creditors were watching, and it was 
attached before it left the fingers of the treasurer. 
Had it not been for the little he got from the State of ' 
Pennsylvania, and what he received through charity, 
he would not have had enough to relieve the pangs 
of hunger. 




INTERIOR OF ST. CLAIR S HOUSE. 

The last period of his life is a period not pleasing 
to contemplate. After he was turned out of house 
and home he removed to the summit of Chestnut 
Ridge, and there lived in a log house alongside the 
old State road. The cabin stood on a barren and 
rocky piece of land which his son Daniel, who had 
saved some little money, bought as an asylum for his 
old father and family. Here, to nurse life a little 
longer, to keep his family together, to care for his 
wife, now hurt in intellect, and to' get coarse bread for 
his dependent flock of children and grandchildren, 



he kept tavern for the entertainment of the traveling 
public. 1 His hereditary disease (the gout) afflicted 
him greatly, so that his declining days were as full 
of misery as of grief. 

But the lack of bread was of all his ills the least. 2 
Poverty of itself is no disgrace, and to>men like him 
who had given all for others, and who found no one 
to give him anything, it is a crown of glory though 
of thorns, around which rests an aureola of never- 
ending radiance. There is a text in the Holy Scrip- 
tures which reads, " At two things my heart is grieved : 
a man of war fainting through poverty; and a man 
of sense despised." 3 There were those who mocked 
and jeered at the Samson now shorn of his locks, — 
these were the asses who came and kicked their heels 
into the face of the dying lion, — mean, brainless, in- 
sulting men, who in their cups sang ditties within his 
hearing which charged him with the death of those 
who had fallen in battle, and still more worthless curs 
who charged him to his face with cowardice. 4 But 
no one who was capable of appreciating nobleness, 
and who could instinctively recognize true manhood, 
ever stepped beneath his lowly roof without recog- 
nizing himself to be in the presence of a gentleman, 
a scholar, a soldier, a statesman, a patriot. 5 Nowhere 



1 Arthur St. Clair was recommended for tavern licenses, Jan. 24, 
1814. 

We may say here, in passing, the Westmoreland court records Bhow 
among other things that in 1793 (June 11th), St. Clair gave his recogni- 
zance for the appearance of some defendants in court. Aug. 30, 1793, 
his name is at the head of a petition for a road, which being granted the 
order was lifted in September, 1794, by " Gen. St. Clair." These show 
that he was in Westmoreland at th06e dates. 

"In his justly admired letter of thanks to the ladies of New York, who 
had sent him four hundred dollars, which letter is dated "Chestnut 
Ridge, 4th March, 1813," is this paragraph : " To soothe affliction ifl 
certainly a happy privilege, and it is the appropriate privilege of the 
fair sex, and nobly have the ladies uf New York exercised it; and 
though I feel all I can feel for the relief brought to myself, their at- 
tention to my daughters touches me the most. Had I not met with 
distress I should not have, perhaps, known their worth. Though all 
their prospects in life (and they were once very flattering) have been 
blasted, not a sigh, not a murmur has been allowed to escape them in 
my presence, and all their pains have been directed to rendering my re- 
verses less affecting to me, and yet I can truly testify that it is entirely 
on their account that my situation e\er gave me one moment's pain." 

3 Ecclesiastical, xxvi., 25, 26. — Doiuuj Edition. 

4 The ballad of St. Clair's defeat was in the early part of this century 
very popular in Western Pennsylvania. I have heard from old persons 
that there were some drunken, abandoned creatures who took especial 
delight in singing at it when St. Clair was in Youngstown or in Ligo- 
nier. One verse was this : 

"'Twason the fourth day of November in the year of ninety-one, 
We had a sore engagement near to Fort Jefferson ; 
St. Clair was our commander, which may well remembered be, 
For we lost nine hundred men in the Western Ter-ri-to-ree." 

Several versions of this ballad si ill exist, and there are two preserved 
in Dr. Frank Cowan's " Poems and Ballads," etc. 

■"• The biographer of Gen. Lewis Cass, quoted in " Life and Public Ser- 
vices," etc., p. 252, refers to Cass' acquaintance with St. Clair, and thus 
describes him : " Gen. St. Clair was a most interesting relic of the Revo- 
lutionary period; tall, erect, though advanced in years, well educated, 
gentlemanly, thoroughly acquainted with the world, and abounding iu 
anecdotes descriptive of the men and scenes he had encountered in his 
eventful career. Lewis Cass saw him for the last time some years before 
his death in a rude cabin, supporting himself by selling supplies to the 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



223 



and at no time and under no circumstance did the 
superior manhood of the man appear to better ad- 
vantage. Here he forgot that the country had taken 
from him the best years of his life, and after having 
taken and appropriated his services and his money 
when it was needy and helpless, refused to recom- 
pense him now that it was able and strong. He 
even forgot himself, and of all those whose names 
were subscribed to the institution of the Orderof the 
Cincinnati, of which lie was president for the State 
of Pennsylvania, none could so appropriate the motto 
which encircled the medallion on the breast of the 
eagle of their decoration, " Omnia relinquit servare 
rempublicam," 

At length this life, of which want, neglect, con- 
tumely, ingratitude and injustice, domestic inquietude 
and disease so largely made a part, drew to a close. On 
the 30th of August, ISIS, as he was coming down the 
road from his home to Youngstown, at the foot of the 
ridge, driving his pony in a rough, jolting wagon, by 
some means he fell or was thrown out on the ground. 
The road was rough and very abrupt, and as the turn- 
pike had lately been opened this road was suffered to 
fall into neglect. When he was found he was insen- 
sible. His pony had moved no great distance. He 
was taken home and cared for; but he never gained 
consciousness, and on the next day the great soul, 
overladen with unutterable woe and misery, was at 
rest for evermore. 1 

From a copy of the Register which contains the 



wagoners who traveled the road, one of the most striking instances of 
the mutations which chequer life." 

The following reminiscence is taken from the celehrated letter of 
Hou. Elisha Whittlesey to Hon. Richard Brodhead, chairman of the 
Committee of Claims United States Senate. Mr. Whittlesey, by the way, 
was the first representative of the Ashtabula District in Ohio in Cou- 
gress, the Garfield district. Until Mr. Garfield ceased to represent that 
district it had but three representatives, Mr. Whittlesey, Mr. Joshua Gid- 
dings, and Mr. Garfield. 

He says, "In 1815 three persons and myself performed a journey from 
Ohio to Connecticut on horseback in the month of May. Having under- 
deratood that Gen. St. Clair kept a small tavern on Chestnut Ridge, 
eight miles east of Greensburg, or the distance may have been greater, 
I proposed that we stop at his house and spend the night. He had no 
grain for our horses, and after spending an hour with him in the most 
agreeable and interesting conversation respecting his early knowledge 
of the Northwestern Territory, we took our leave of him with deep 
regret. 

"I never was in the presence of a man that caused me to feel the 
same degree of veneratiou and esteem. He wore a citizen's dress of 
black of the Revolution; his hair clubbed and powdered. When we 
entered he arose with dignity and received us most courteously. His 
dwelling was a common double log house of the western country, that 
a neighborhood would roll up in an afternoon. Chestnut Ridge was 
bleak and barren. There lived the friend and confidant of Washington, 
the ex-Governor of the fairest portion of creation. It was in the neigh- 
borhood, if not in the view, of a large estate at Ligonier that ho owned 
at the commencement of the Revolution, and which, as I have at times 
understood, was sacrificed to promote the success of the Revolution. 
Poverty did not cause him to lose self-respect ; and were he now living 
his personal appearance would command universal admiration." 

This reminiscence was written May 16, 185G. 

1 When I was quite a boy I often spuke with the old lady who found 
him on the roadside. She, with another woman, were going out fur 
berries when they came upon him. Her name was Susan Steinbarger. 



proceedings of the meetings at Greensburg we obtain 
the following: 2 

"When, therefore, the news of the death of the 
general reached Greensburg, the inhabitants of the 
town, who held his services and his character in high 
regard, met in a public meeting at the court-house; 
James Brady, Esq., was called to preside, and Richard 
Coulter, Esq., was selected as secretary. At the 
meeting the following resolutions were unanimously 
adopted : 

" Resolved, That the wishes of the corporation and citizens of Greens- 
burg that the remains of the late Maj.-Geu. Arthur Saint (Hair may be 
interred in the burying-ground in said place be respectfully communi- 
cated to the family of the deceased. 

" Resolved, That the following gentlemen be a committee of arrange- 
ment to superintend the funeral, if the family of the deceased consent 
to the removal of the remains. Dr. James Postlewaithe, A. W. Foster, 
John Reed, Simon Drum, Jr., John H fc Wise, George Armstrong, Daniel 
Maclean, and Richard Coulter. 

"James Brady, Chairnwn. 
" Richard Coulter, Sec." 

The following letter was sent to Mrs. Louisa Robb, 
the eldest daughter of the general : 

" Greensburg, August 31st, 1818. 
" Madam : 

"In obedience to the resolution of the corporation and citizens of 
Greensburg, we beg leave respectfully to present to the family of Geu. 
St. Clair their condolence at the melancholy event of his death. Desi- 
rous to express some small token of respect for the memory of a man 
whose name is conspicuous on the page of our history as one of the 
heroes who achieved our independence, we are directed to obtain per- 
mission from the family that the body of our lamented friend may be 
deposited near us. 

'* Mr. Drum will have all necessary arrangements made at Youngstown, 
in unison with those which are preparing here, to do honor for the occa- 
sion. 

"We are, Madam, respectfully 
(signed by the Committee of Arrangement). 

" Mrs. Louisa Robb." 

In addition to the prompt action taken by the citi- 
zens of the borough, arrangements had also been 
made both at Ligonier and at Unity burying-ground, 
with the expectation that the remains would be laid 
at one or the other of these places, 3 but the consent 
of the family was finally obtained to have them rest 
in the graveyard of the Presbyterian congregation at 
Greensburg. 

The committee went to the home of the deceased 
and accompanied the remains. The funeral was re- 
ceived about a mile from town by the Greensburg 
Volunteers, commanded by Col. Ely Coulter, and the 
Masonic lodge joined the procession on the road 
about half a mile out. The procession halted in the 

- The article, iu addition to this, gives a biographical sketch of St. 
Clair, which, we may remark, has furnished the substantial material for 
every sketch which we have yet met with. That part of it was copied 
entire and submitted as an original contribution to Morris & Willis' New 
York Mirror, under the heading of "American Biography," and from 
thence copied extensively into other periodicals. Although the article 
is scholarly and elegant, yet in some essentials it is defective, and in 
some statements, as later research has shown, not exact. 

3 Hamlet. " It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, 
and those that would make mouths at him while my father lived give 
twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. 
'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy 
could find it out."— HamUL Act III. S. 2. 



224 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



square in the middle of the town, where the family 
were assisted out of their conveyances, and from here 
all on foot walked to the grave in the following order: 
military, by the left, with arms and its colors reversed 
and drums muffled ; citizens generally; committee of 
arrangement; judges; clergy; coffin containing the 
remains, with six pall-bearers on each side; relations; 
officers of the Revolutionary army ; corporation of 
the borough. The body was interred with the rites 
of the Masonic brotherhood. The monument over 




MONUMENT OF ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

his grave was erected some years later by the same 
fraternity, and the inscription upon it is perhaps the 
most appropriate one ever yet carved upon granite 
over any servant of the republic. 1 

1 The inscription on the north side: 

"This Stone 

is erected 

over the hones of their 

DEPARTED BROTHER, 

by memhers of the 

MASONIC SOCIETY, 

resilient in this vicinity." 



Thus much of the public life and services of this 
distinguished citizen. It has been truly said that the 
afflicting spectacle of his last days melts the heart 
with sorrow. Perhaps there was not a prominent 
character of the Revolutionary period, with the ex- 
ception of Morris, that gave so much of his life and 
service and means to the cause of America as did St. 
Clair, and there was none, with that exception, who 
was so«poorly and so meanly recompensed. It is true 
that he died poor, but in such poverty there was no 
shame. " It is true, it is a pity, and pity 'tis 'tis 
true." A man with a superior education and the in- 
stincts of a gentleman, a companion and associate of 
Lafayette, of Steuben, of Hamilton, and of Washing- 
ton, and a sharer of their glory, a general-in-chief of 
the army and a president of Congress, closing his life 
in neglected solitude ! The commencement of the 
Revolution found him in affluent circumstances, in 
the vigor of manhood, rising with the destiny of the 
young Commonwealth, and when his race was run, 
his course finished, he found himself old and poor, an 
outcast, at the mercy of men more heartless than 
wolves, on the summit of the ridge as cold and as 
desolating as the gratitude of his country, within 
sight of his former home, — his home? — his home no 
more, for it too was sold over his head to pay the debt 
incurred for the liberty of the States. He spoke know- 
ingly who, seeing him as he passed by, was reminded 
of the Roman exile's reply, " Tell the citizens of Rome 
that you saw Caius Marius sitting among the ruins of 
Carthage." 

In his social life, before it was saddened, he is said 
to have felt the tender sympathies of our nature to 
the fullest extent. His conversation was instructive 
and interesting, enlivened by wit and embellished with 
science. His manners never underwent a change, 
and although age had its power over his body, it 
could not disturb the high breeding or change the 
habit of his manners. On meeting a person, as old 
ones remember, he would bow low in his saddle, and 
always raise his hat on passing a woman. In his lat- 
ter days he was given to reflection, to which his exile 
and loneliness were in a measure conducive. He was 
often seen walking with his hands behind his back, a. 
posture natural to the great Napoleon when at St. 
Helena, and to Themistocles when at Argos. He 



The inscription on the south side: 

"THE 

Earthly Remains 

of 

Major-General 

ARTHUR St. CLAIR 

are deposited 

heneath this humble monument, 

which is 

Erected to supply the place 

of a nobler one 

due from his country. 

He died August 31st, 

1818, 

in the S4th year of his age." 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



225 



would sit for hours together at the table of the back 
room of the village tavern, absent in thought, appar- 
ently lost to the present, and seeing only the past or 
into the future. He came down almost daily to the 
village, which was but a few miles from his house. 
Here he frequently met Findley, the member of 
Congress from our district, and the most popular pol- 
itician of his day, and these would talk together, 
having a time over their glass of punch in the low 
bar-room of Skyle's tavern. He usually rode upon a 
small gray horse, but sometimes in a heavy, low- 
wheeled, wooden-axled carriage. He is described by 
persons who recollect him as being a tall man, square 
shouldered, cleanly shaved, his cheek-bones very 
prominent, and with a certain dignity of carriage and 
address. He was no longer erect, but there was no 
mistaking the military bearing of the man. 

As an officer he must have been fine-looking and 
commanding. As ensign he is described as tall, 
graceful, dignified, with chesnut hair, handsome blue 
eyes, and blond complexion, master of all the accom- 
plishments of the drawing-room, including the art of 
entertaining conversation. His portrait in oil, taken 
at a late date, in the Continental uniform, may now 
be seen in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 

In considering the character of St. Clair there are 
two incidents which recur to us and illustrate a 
phase of his character better perhaps than an array 
of words. When Robert Hanna was using his influ- 
ence to have his settlement made the abiding-place of 
justice for the new county, he stopped on his way to 
the East at St. Clair's house. St. Clair, then the 
agent of the Penns, taking the opportunity offered to 
send a communication to the Council, wrote a letter 
to President Shippen, wherein he stated that it was 
owing to Hanna's influence and personal interests 
that he controlled the other trustees to fix on his set- 
tlement as the county-seat. " I beg you will excuse 
inaccuracies," so he writes, " as I write, in the greatest 
hurry, Mr. Hanna holding his horse while I write." 

The next incident occurred long after. St. Clair 
and Findley met together once when the former was 
well-nigh shelterless and the latter one of the most 
prominent men of his day. Findley inadvertently, 
and perhaps through sympathy, said, " I pity your 
case, general, and heartily sympathize with you;" 
whereupon the old warrior straightening himself up, 
with his eyes flashing the fire they were wont to when 
the bugles blared and the men fell into line, replied, 
" I am sorry, sir, that I cannot appreciate your sym- 
pathy." 

The death of St. Clair, surrounded as it was by so 
many circumstances of neglect, was a fit occasion for 
writers of the old school to dwell on the romanticism 
of solitude and exile, and to write essays on the pro- 
verbial aphorism respecting the ingratitude of repub- 
lics. He has been described as the recluse of the Al- 
leghenies, as a hermit, as a philosopher in exile, as a 
sage in rags. One romancist, who wrote to satisfy 



the taste of the metropolis, describes his death as oc- 
curring in a miserable hut on the mountain top, in 
the midnight of winter, during such a storm as howls 
through the Alps, or as that which swept over Eng- 
land and carried off the soul of the great Oliver Crom- 
well. But there was no romance in his latter end. It 
is true that the tourist can at this day, standing near 
his old home, look out upon as fair and romantic a 
scene as he will see anywhere in America. Perhaps 
nowhere else could the shade of the dead see a land- 
scape so nearly resembling those which he himself 
saw when a boy in his own Scotland. On the one 
side you may take in view the broad Ligonier Valley, 
with the long-lapping hills losing themselves in the 
horizon in the far distance. On the other side you 
shall see the valley which lies between the western 
slope of the Ridge and the Whortleberry Hills. To 
the right, within a half-amphitheatre, "green-walled 
by the hills," is the brisk town of Latrobe, the Ligo- 
nier Valley Railroad winding along the basin of the 
Loyalhanna, which, breaking through the Ridge after 
devious windings through marshes and around shelv- 
ing banks, loses itself behind the knolls to the north. 
You can trace the Pennsylvania Railroad by its bur- 
nished rails where it crosses the valley. Down be- 
neath you, you will see the roofs and the long, single 
street of the old-time village of Youngstown, and trace 
the gray turnpike as it crawls over the hills eight 
miles beyond. On an upland, against a background 
of woods, are the college and cloisters of the Benedic- 
tine Monastery of St. Vincent's ; to the left the slated 
roofs, the bay-windows, and red chapel of the Con- 
vent of St. Xavier's ; innumerable tasty farm-houses 
and orchards, white barns, square school-houses, and 
broad expanses of meadow all along alternate as far 
as you can see, while the abruptness of the broken 
hills ceases, and their blue tops vanish in an unde- 
finable line into the south, as do the sloping lands 
which extend far on into the rich heart of the west. 
It was all different when he stood there. He might 
have seen when he came there a few poorly-built 
houses, forming a hamlet on one side, and the same 
on the other. Here and there the smoke rising above 
the trees from the cabins of the first settlers, and an 
almost unbroken forest on all sides, and known a 
people struggling for a living, — a people who to him 
were neither kind, nor with sympathy such as he 
needed, and even without respect. A little cleared 
patch with its stony soil and deadened trees that 
stood like giants to sentinel enchanted land, was 
about his door. The wild animals might yet be heard 
at night, and the lonesome birds of evil croaked in 
broad day around the edge of the clearing. Even 
the mossy rocks covered with ferns and rhododen- 
drons as they sheltered venomous snakes, could not 
appear to him as they appear to those drawn thither 
through pleasure or by curiosity. To a place of such 
surroundings as these it was that the old man, broken 
with the storms of state, had come to lay his weary 



226 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



bones among us. With him it is all over: he sleeps 
his last sleep, he lias fought his last battle; no sound 
can awake him to glory again, — 

" He now is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; 
Trenson lias done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 
Can touch him further." 1 

1 Memorandum of lands taken by St. Clair in Western Pennsylvania: 

The within is taken from the records of the land-office, and can be 
relied on as correct. 

The lands are divided into three kinds, application, warrant, and dona- 
tion lands, according to the designation of the original title. 

By application dated 23d Nov., 1767, St. Clair got 317 acres, situate one- 
half mile below the Fraukstown road, Bedford County. They were pat- 
ented Sept. 0, 1785, to Bartholomew Boucher, on the Frankstown road, 
inclusive of Yellow Springs. 

By application dated 3d April, 1769, he got 412 acres, 57 perches, situ- 
ate four miles above Ligonier, at the great bend of the Loyalbauna. 
This is now Donegal township, Westmoreland. 

By application in right of John Grant, dated 7th April, 1769, he got 
270 acres, 80 perches, also in Donegal township. They were patented Oct. 
17, 1788. Three hundred and seventy-two perches along Loyalbanna were 
patented to Daniel St. Clair. 

By application dated 23d June, 1769, he got 339 acres. They were pat- 
ented Oct. 17, 1788. Ninety-two perches along the Loyalhanna Creek 
were patented to Daniel St. Clair. 

By warrant dated 23d Nov., 1773, he obtained 592 acres, situate in 
Ligonier township, Westmoreland County, being an octagon Burvey of 
different dates. It says that he was commandant at the post of Fort 
Ligonier in April, 1769. 

By warrant dated 24th Sept., 1783, lie obtained 6219 acres and 35 
perches, situated on Chestnut Bidge and Loyalhanna Creek. The tract 
was patented 22d July, 1794, and got by resolution of the General As- 
sembly. 

By warrant dated 16th Nov., 1787, he got 81 acres, situated in the forks 
of Mill and Loyalhanna Creeks and adjoining the octagon tract. 

By warrant dated 19th July, 179J, he got 394'^ acres, situated in 
Southampton township, Somerset County. They were patented June 22, 
1870, to John, Henry, and. Matthias Bailsman. 

By warrant dated Apiil 30, 1791, he got 256 acres, situated in Fairfield 
township, Westmoreland Countv, adjoining his other land6. They were 
patented 7th May, 1870, to Eliza Denny. 

By donation dated Februaay, 1786, Maj. -Gen. Arthur St. Clair obtained 
from the State of Pennsylvania 2000 acres. There were 1000 acres of thid 
in Crawford County, divided into two tracts ; there were 500 in Erie and 
500 acres in Lawrence. St. Clair owned 10,881 acres in all, and of these 
8270 acres were situated in Westmoreland County. 

Chronological Table of Events, etc , in the Career of Gen, St, < lair. 
Born, 1734. 

Ensign 60th Regt. (Royal Americans) of Foot, May 13, 1757. 
With Amherst at Louisburg, Canada, May 28, 1758. 
Lieutenant, April 17, 1759. 
Capture of Quebec, Sept. 13, 1759. 
Married at Boston, May 14, 1760. 
Resigned his commission, April 16, 1762. 
On special service in a civil capacity in Western Pennsylvania, having 

charge of Fort Ligonier. 1767-69. 
Appointed surveyor for the District of Cumberland by Penn, April 5, 

1770. 
Appointed county justice and member of the Proprietary Council for 

Cumberland County, 23d May, 1770. 
Appointed justice of the Court (Ded. Pot.), prothonotary, register, and 

recorder for Bedford County, 11th— 12th March, 1771. 
Appointed to same offices for Westmoreland County, Feb. 27, 1773. 
Resolutions at Hannastown, 16th May, 1775. 
Colonel under Council of Safety, 1775. 
Colonel in the Continental service, 3d Jan., 1776. 
Before Quebec, 11th May, 1776. 
Brigadier-general, 9th August, 1776. 
Major-general, 19th Feb , 1777. 
Detailed as adjutant-general, March, 1777. 
Member of Council of Censors, 1783. 



CHAPTER XL. 
WAR OF EIGHTEEN TWELVE. 

Causes of the War— Congress declares War with Great Britain— Gov- 
ernor Snyder issues a Proclamation, and directs the Organization of 
the Pennsylvania Militia — Officers and Arrangement of the West- 
moreland Militia under this Plan — British and Indians appear in force 
on opposite side of Lake Erie — Fears of an Invasion of Northwestern 
Pennsylvania from Canada— Militia from Western parts of the State 
ordered to Assemble at Erie— Oliver Hazard Perry — Capt. Bird and his 
Ballad — Condition of Affairs on the Northwestern Frontiers at the 
Breaking out of the War — Troubles with the Indians — Gen. Hull, 
Governor of Michigan Territory, invades Canada — Surrender of De- 
troit — The whole West in Arms — Army of the Northwest organized 
under Gen. Harrison— John B. Alexander and the Rifle Company of 
Westmoreland — Correspondence between Alexander and the Military 
Authorities — The Rifles offer their Services to the Government of the 
United States — They are accepted and Ordered to March — List of Offi- 
cers and Men — Capt. Joseph Markle's Company of Horse — Muster- 
Roll of Capt. Markle's Company — These Volunteers attached to the 
Detachment sent to the MiBsissinewa Towns — Object of the Expedition 
— Its entire Success, and the Gallantry of the Westmorelanders — Capt. 
Alexander detailed on Special Duty — Promoted to rank of Major — Win- 
ter Campaign of 1813 — Fort Meigs— Gallant Conduct of Maj. Alexander 
and the Pennsylvania Volunteers at Fort Meigs — Opposed to Tecumseh 
— Termination of the Siege — Conduct of the Westmorelanders men- 
tioned by Gen. Harrison in General Orders to the whole Army — Maj. 
Crogan at Upper Sandusky — Orders discharging the Rifles, and Com- 
mendatory thanks of the General. 

Along with the assumption of many peculiar 
privileges not known to other nations, and to their 
exercise by the government of Great Britain towards 
the government of the United States, was particularly 
the unwarranted power which England assumed in 
the right to search American vessels for suspected 
deserters from the British navy. Under cover of the 
exercise of this privilege the grossest outrages were 
committed upon American commerce from British 
privateers and cruisers. These depredations contin- 
uing produced among the people the most intense 
excitement. 

In the beginning of this unwarranted demand and 
its exercise the government of the United States had 
earnestly protested against the right of search, and 
as early as 1807 preparations were made by the gov- 
ernment for defense in the expectation of a rupture 
by reason of the illegal restrictions exacted on our 
commerce by Great Britain, as well as on this issue, 
and appropriations were made for war purposes. 

In 1811 Congress was convened a month earlier. 
That body seconded the measures which had been 
adopted by President Madison in declaring offensive 
measures and calling for troops. 

Auctioneer of Philadelphia, 24th Feb., 1784. 

Member of Congress (elected), 11th Nov., 1785. 

Took his seat, 20th Feb., 1786. 

President of Congress, 2d Feb., 1787. 

Governor qf the Northwestern Territory, chosen by Congress, 5th Oct., 

1787. 
Candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, 1790. 
Commander-in-chief of the army, 1791. 
Battle of the Wabash, Nov. 4, 1791. 
Resigns his generalship, 1792. 
Removed from government of Northwestern Territory by Jefferson, 

Nov. 22, 1802. 
Died Aug. 31, 1818. 



WAR OF EIGHTEEN-TWELVE. 



227 



On the 5th of June, 1812, President Madison laid 
before Congress the- correspondence between Mr. 
Monroe, Secretary of State, and the British minister 
near our government. The correspondence seemed to 
preclude all hopes of adjusting the two principal 
points at issue, the orders of Council against our 
commerce and the impressment of our seamen. Pres- 
ident Madison sent a message to Congress, in which 
our complaints against Great Britain were enumerated 
with great vigor and force. The Committee on For- 
eign Relations concurred with the President in recom- 
mending war. On the 18th of June (1812), Congress, 
sitting with closed doors, declared war against Great 
Britain. On the same day the resolution received 
the sanction of the President, and on the next day 
war was publicly proclaimed. Congress authorized 
the increase of the regular army to thirty-five thou- 
sand men, and authorized the raising of a large vol- 
unteer force for one year. 

Simon Snyder, the Governor of Pennsylvania, a 
patriotic man of the Revolutionary period, was fully 
in accord with the executive of the Union and the 
people. On the 12th of May, 1812, he issued a gen- 
eral order as commander-in-chief of the militia of 
Pennsylvania, directing their organization on a war 
basis. The quota of the State was fixed at 14,000 
militia, officers and privates, to be formed into two 
divisions, four brigades, and twenty-two regiments. 

The militia was purely the State military force, and 
they of course are not to be mistaken for the vol- 
unteers, who were sworn into the service of the gov- 
ernment of the United States, and who did service out- 
side the limits of the State under regular officers. 

In this arrangement the militia of Westmoreland 
was included in the Thirteenth Division of the six- 
teen in all the State. Of this division David Mer- 
chant (Marchand), of Westmoreland, was major-gen- 
eral from 1812 to 1814; Thomas Mason, of Fayette, 
was brigadier-general ; George Armstrong, of West- 
moreland, and Uriah Springer, of Fayette, were bri- 
gade inspectors in 1812 ; John Kirkpatrick, of West- 
moreland, and George Death, of Fayette, were brigade 
inspectors in 1814. 

The quotas of these divisions were formed into two 
divisions for service. The quotas of the divisions up 
to the Eighth Division formed the First Division for 
active service ; those from the Eighth inclusive to the 
Sixteenth formed the Second Division for service, 
under command of Gen. Adamson Tannehill, with a 
brigadier from the Second Division, and a brigadier- 
general from the Fourth Division of the State. 

In July, 1813, the British with an Indian force ap- 
pearing on the opposite side of Lake Erie, created the 
greatest alarm in the town and vicinity of Erie Town, 
and the apprehension was general that there would 
be an invasion of Pennsylvania by the enemy from 
Canada. A military division was immediately organ- 
ized under Gen. John Kelso, and the militia of the 
western parts were ordered to speedily assemble there. 



Hither many of the organized Westmorelanders were 
speedily sent; but the services there were confined to 
the brilliant naval exploits and the victory which 
has made famous the name of Oliver Hazard Perry. 

When Perry came to Lake Erie he had first to 
build and launch a navy, but he and his gallant 
officers were prepared to make some resistance even 
before the vessels were built. But his main protec- 

i tion was from the militia of Northwestern Pennsyl- 
vania, which was constantly held in readiness to repel 

! any attack that might be made. Even when his ships 
were ready for sailing, his crew was made up in great 
part of drafts and volunteers from the militia. While 
this is a fact of history it appears to be sanctified in 
romance and in poetry, for one of the purest ballads 
per se in all American border minstrelsy is that of 
" James Bird," which, sung to the tune of " The 
Tempest." was a generation ago one of the most 
popular ballads in Western Pennsylvania. It has in 
it all the elements of those master-pieces of lyrical 

| poetry which are yet the flower of the early English 
romance ; it echoes love, paternal respect, maternal 
affection, devotion to country, and a noble type of 
manhood which confesses his wrong and his way- 
wardness, and who admits that the sentence that con- 
victs him is right and deserved : 

" Hull, you know, Iris troops surrendered. 

And defenseless left the West; 
Tlieu our forces quick assembled, 

The invader to resist. 
"Amongst the troops that marched to Erie 

Were the Kington volunteers ; 
Captain Thomas then commanded, 

To protect our West frontiers. 11 

And so on for twenty-two stanzas in language and 
meter which Macaulay would not have attempted to 
criticise, and which any man who never saw a horn- 
book can understand without explanation. 1 

1 In recalling the circumstance of the execution of Bird and the popu- 
lar ballad which grew out of his execution we do not claim sympathy 
for the unfortunate man. Bird was a sergeant in Gapt. Thomas 1 com- 
pany, raised in the valleys of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, 
called the Kingston Volunteers, and although he had command of a 
guard whose duty it was to protect and watch over a government ware- 
house, he and the guard deserted their post after having done duty, it is 
true, in the service under Perry. Bird and a private, the guard named 
Rankin, and also aseaman named Davis were arrested on the charge of 
desertion, handed over to the military authorities, kept on hoard the 
" Niagara,' 1 tried by a court-martial while at Detroit, found guilty of the 
charges, and recommended fur mercy. But it was deemed necessary by 
the government authorities that the sentence should be carried out. 
The execution of the three men took place on board the " Niagara, 11 in 
Erie Harbor, October, 1814. Bird and Rankin were shot, and at the 
same niouieut Davis was hung at the yard-arm. Their bodies were 
buried in the sand on the beach, and all traces of their graves have long 
since been washed away from the receding shore. 

These men were undoubtedly punished to be made examples of. Many 
others were guilty of excesses in drunkenness, neglect of duty, aud 
grave military offenses. It probably would not be just to say that they 
did not deserve the fate they met, but it is the general opinion that many 
more deserved a similar fate. They were regarded as martyrs because 
they had to hear the punishment deserved by many others. They have 
always been the objects of pity, rather because they were the only ones 
who were punished than because they did not deserve their punishment- 
It seldom happens, however, that a person who has met such an igno- 
minious death h:is been the subject of such posthumous honors. 



228 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



From time to time the regiments which had been 
raised in Western Pennsylvania were kept filled by 
drafts. Some of these drafts were made to reinforce 
the army about Baltimore and in Maryland, which 
was counted upon to resist the advance of that British 
army which under Gen. Ross sacked the capital of the 
United States, and at one time seriously threatened 
to invade Pennsylvania. These did not see much ser- 
vice. Most of the drafts, however, were for the army 
stationed at Erie, and some were for the army of the 
Northwest under Harrison. 

Of these we give the lists, so far as we have been 
able to gather them, in the subjoined notes to this 
chapter, which, with the correspondence and other 
contemporaneous papers annexed, may be of use to 
those who are inclined to scrutinize more closely the 
progress of the war viewed from a local stand-point. 
In some instances, indeed, with fuller details the par- 
ticulars might not be so agreeable to contemplate, for 
it has been remarked that of all the wars in which 
the Americans have been engaged the War of Eigh- 
teen-Twelve has a lengthier list of deserters in re- 
spect to the number of soldiers enrolled than any 
other, and it must be owned that of these Westmore- 
land fell not very far behind in her quota. 

But the organized soldiery from Westmoreland who 
garnered the glory of that war, and probably because 
they had more and better opportunities of doing so, 
were the detachments which were connected with 
Gen. Harrison's army of the Northwest. 

At the breaking out of the war, and for some time 
previous thereto, there were several regularly organ- 
ized companies in Westmoreland. One of these com- 
panies was the Rifles of Greensburg, of which John 
B. Alexander was captain. This company was among 
the first to offer its services to the government of the 
United States. We can probably do no greater ser- 
vice to their memory than to literally transcribe the 
orders and the correspondence, taken from the origi- 
nals, which particularly refer to the active service of 
this company. 

It may, however, be proper to first recall the fact 
that at the very time of the breaking out of this war 
the western portion of the United States was at war 
with the Indians, who were assisted and instigated not 
only by the money and the weapons of the British, 
but in many instances were under the direction and 
command of their regular officers. The battle of 
Tippecanoe had raised William Henry Harrison, Gov- 
ernor of the Northwestern Territory, to the highest 
point in the estimation of the people of that section 
as an active and efficient man of military ability and 
genius. 

The disgraceful surrender of Gen. Hull, Governor 
of Michigan Territory, who, at the head of a large 
force of volunteers raised for service against the In- 
dians, upon hearing of the declaration of war, impru- 
dently, and with a zeal beyond his ability to perform, 
led them across the river into Canada, thus invading 



the country of the enemy. But the British, very 
adroitly and with sagacity, sent out detachments of 
effective men, and surprised and captured the very 
important fort of Michilimackinac, called the Gib- 
raltar of the Lakes, and Fort Chicago, which, by 
order of Hull directing the forces there to retreat to 
Fort Detroit, then in great danger, was abandoned. 
After some successful skirmishes between the de- 
tached bodies of the volunteers and the British and 
Indians of Canada, the Americans were compelled to 
withdraw from that line, and to fall back to the near 
vicinity of Detroit. The British soon took up a posi- 
tion opposite that fortification, and began to erect 
works for its investment. In the mean time a large 
proportion of the American forces were under orders 
to convey the provisions and material hither. Gen. 
Brock commanded the British ; Hull commanded the 
fort. On the 15th of August (1812) a demand was 
made for the surrender of the post, but the demand 
was refused. The British opened fire, and throughout 
the next night threw shells from their batteries. In 
the morning the British, under cover of their ships, 
landed on the American shore, and as soon as they 
were in position advanced towards the fort. But 
while the Americans were waiting with eagerness for 
orders to begin firing, and thus to open an offensive 
battle, a white flag was displayed from the advance 
posts of the Americans, and a British officer with an 
escort were seen to advance towards it. It was a flag 
of truce, under which the commandant and general 
of the forces, Hull, proposed to surrender. This he 
did without firing a shot. Seventeen hundred Amer- 
icans were handed over under the terms of the sur- 
render to a weak force of about seven hundred British 
and Canadian militia and six hundred Indians. The 
detachments yet out were also surrendered by these 
terms, and the enemy came into possession of great 
quantities of material and provisions which had been 
gathered there. 

Nothing, however, could have so aroused the people 
of the West to a sense of honor and devotion as this 
dishonorable and un-American surrender did. All 
throughout our whole western region rang the cry of 
war. In many places civil pursuits were for the time 
abandoned. Western Pennsylvania, with Western 
Virginia and Ohio, were filled with the greatest 
enthusiasm. Many of the volunteers could not be 
accepted, as they appeared too late to be received 
after the quotas had been made up. Gen. Crooks 
commanded the troops from Pennsylvania, who. were 
sent out to reinforce the army of Gen. Harrison. 

The following documents will give some informa- 
tion respecting the organization of the " Rifles" and 
their progress in joining the army under Harrison : 

On the 3d of August, 1807, a commission was issued 
to John B. Alexander by Thomas McKean, Governor 
of Pennsylvania, as captain of the " Rifle Company 
attached to the First Battalion of the Nineteenth 
Regiment of the Militia" for the term of four years. 



WAR OF EIGHTEEN-TWELVE. 



229 



On the 3d of August, 1811, a similar commission 
issued to the same person as captain of the Rifle 
Company, by Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

When the war broke out the services of the com- 
pany were tendered and accepted, as appears by the 
following correspondence: 

"To Honorahle William Eustis, Secretary of War, Washington City. 

"Greensrurg, 6th June, 1812. 

" Sir, — In conformity with a resolution of the Company of Riflemen 
under my command, I have the honor to make the tender of their ser- 
vices to the President of the United States as volunteers, and to ask the 
acceptance of this offer under the late Act of Congress. 

"By an Inspection Keturn of the company, made on the third of this 
month, it appears we muster 1 Captain, 2 Lieutenants, i Sargents, 2 Cor- 
porals, 2 Musicians, and 4o Rank and file, all uniformed and equipped 
for service. 

"I would heg leave to observe to you, Sir, that altho' the Company 
under my command is well armed with dries, such a 4 ) are ordinarily used 
by the inhabitants of the Western country, yet those rifles do not appear 
to be calculated for actual warfare; they are various in appearance, 
length, weight, and calibre. 

"If the President of the United States would arm such Volunteer 
Corps of Riflemen as may be called into service with the arms of the 
United States, it would no doubt obviate the inconveniences necessarily 
to arise from the objections made to the arms now in use. 
" I am, Sir, with respect, 

" Tour obedient Servant, 

"J. B. Alexander. 

" Capt. Rifle Company, attached to 19th Regiment Penna. Militia." 

Indorsed — "Sent copy to Secy., enclosed to Wm. Fiudley, Esq," 

"Inspector-General's Office, 
"July 14, 1812. 
"Sir, — The pleasing duty devolves on me of informing you that the 
patriotic tender of your services is accepted. 

"Be pleased to organize your company, arm and fully equipyourselves 
for duty, and expect orders to march ; od receipt of which your pay and 
emoluments will commence. 

" With perfect respect, 

"Your most Obedient, 

"Alexander Smythe, 
" Brigadier- and Inspector-General. 
"To Captain J. B. Alexander, Greensburg." 

" Pittsburgh, Sept. 5, 1812. 
"Sir, — The situation of the frontier of the State of Ohio and the Ter- 
ritories adjoining since the capture of General Hull's army will make it 
necessary that your company should join Capt. Collins and Capt. Phil- 
ips, also Capt. Markle and Capt. McClelland, two troops of horse, and be 
in readiness to march at the shortest notice in order to move toward 
those frontiers, if you should be so ordered by the Secretary at War, and 
which is expected by the next mail from Washington. 
"I am, Sir, Vour Ob't Servant, 

"Joseph Wheaton, Capt., A. D. Q, M, 
"Capt. Alexander." 

" Pittsburgh, 11th Sept., 1812. 
" To Capt. John B. Alexander : 

"You will please to assemble and march your company of volunteers, 

with all convenient dispatch, to Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, or 

wherever else the North Western Army shall have rendezvoused, and 

on your arrival to report yourself to the commanding officer. 

" Amos Stoddard, Maj. 1st Begt, U. 8, Artillery."' 1 

"MUSTER-ROLL OF COMPANY MUSTERED ON THE 16TH 
SEPTEMBER, 1812: 
No. Names. 

1. John B. Alexander, captain. 

2. Christian Drum, lieutenant. 

3. Peter Pram, eusign. 

4. Richard Hardin, 1st sergeant 

5. John Jameson, 2d sergeant. 



No. Names. 

6. Peter Fleeger, 3d sergeant. 

7. Henry Hawkin. 4th sergeant. 

8. Adam Kettering, corporal. 

9. William Richards, corporal. 
10. Jacob Gusneit, drummer. 



1 For route of the Rifle Company and the Pittsburgh Blues see " Pent- 
land 1 :* Journal," Appendix "Q." 



Privates. 

11. Samuel Singer. 28. William Cassiday. 

12. Leonard Miller. 29. James Thompson. 

13. Henry Miller. 30. John Rice. 

14. Daniel Miller. 31. Edward Shelletto, 

15. Jacob Sickafoos. 32. John Collins. 

16. George Sickafoos. 33. Jonas Kueemier. 

17. George Myers. 34. James Taylor. 

18. Adam Williams. 35. Jacob Wingart. 

19. Henry Barton. 36. Solomon Behaven. 
2U. Robert Thompson^ 37. George Sheftler. 

21. Isaac Keck. 38. Benj. Jameson. 

22. John Wingart. 39. William Kernes. 

23. Jacob Rupert. 40. William Singer. 

24. Frederick Stewart. 41. John Mitchel. 

25. Jonas Keel. , 42. Daniel Rugh. 

26. Abraham Weaver. 43. John Shuey. 

27. Samuel McLean. 44. Peter Walter. 

45. William Vandyke." 2 

The first steps taken by Harrison were to relieve 
the frontier posts. Several expeditions organized 
under competent officers were sent out with this ob- 
ject, and their actions have given the greatest interest 
to the military movements of that campaign. In 
these they were uniformly successful, although their 
success was at the expense of brave men and much 
suffering. 

Just prior to one of the most noted of these expe- 
ditions the following order was issued to Capt. Alex- 
ander : 

"Camp at Franklint<>n, 
"24 November, 1812. 
"Sib, — You will please to be prepared to march to-morrow morning 
with your Company at nine o'clock, at which time the whole detach- 
ment under my command will move. 

" Respectfully, 

"John B. Campbell, 

" Lt.-Col. 19(A U. S. Regt. 
"Capt. Alexander." 

This was the official order which directed Capt. 
Alexander to accompany the detachment of six hun- 
dred men which Harrison, on the 25th of November, 
1812, ordered from his headquarters at Franklinton 
to march into the Indian country and destroy their 
towns on the Mississinewa River. This river is one 
of the tributaries of the Wabash. 

• See Appendix "Q" for official roll of the " Rifles" from War Depart- 
ment. 

The Greensburgh and Indiana Register for Thursday, September 17, 
1812, has the following; 

"MILITARY MOVEMENTS. 
"The Greensburg Riflemen, commanded by Capt. John B.Alexander, 
marched from this place on Wednesday last to join the Northwestern 
Army under the command of Governor Harrison. They were as fine a 
set of men as ever handled a rifle, and we are satisfied will do their 
duty. The best wishes of their fellow-townsmen and country accompany 
them." 

" Heaoquarters, Franklinton, 
" Oct. 22, 1812, 
" Gentlemen,— You will proceed with your companies to this place 
immediately, and remain here until you receive further orders. 
"Very respectfully, 

" Yr. H'bl Servant, 

"Wm. Henry Harrison. 
" p.S. — Your proper route will be through Lebanon, Zenia, and 
Springfield. 



"W.H. H. 



' Capts. Alexander and Butler, Pittsburgh.' 



230 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The company of cavalry which served in the same 
army under Capt. Joseph Markle, and which was 
raised for the most part in the southwestern part of 
the county, and particularly about the Sewickley and 
the Youghiogheny, was early in the field. We have 
not the original orders as they were issued to this 
company, nor can we enter into details regarding its 
history such as we can in the company of the Rifles. 

The following list, obtained from the War Depart- 
ment, is the earliest roll of Capt, Markle's company 
which we have been able to get. 1 

Muster-roll of a Troop of United States Volunteer Cavalry, under the Com- 
wind of Capt. Joseph Marlle, in the Squadron Commanded by UfaJ. 
James V. Ball, and now in the Service of the United States, from the Com- 
mencement of their Service to the Thirty-first Day of October, 1812, 
inclusive : 






No. 



Dates of Ap- To what 
1 pointment Time En- 
or Enlist- gaged orEn- 
nient. listed. 



Joseph Markle Captain. 

Humphrey Fullerton 1st Lieut. 

Daniel Waltz 2d Lieut. 

Jacob Markle Cornet. 

John C. Pliimer 1st Sergt. 

Samuel Miller 2d Sergt. 

Samuel II. Dailey 3d Sergt. 

John Marshall 4th Sergt. 

William Skelly 1st Corp. 

Robert Skelly ] 2d Corp. 

James Sloan 3d Corp. 

Henry Breneman 4th Corp. 

William Craig Trumpeter. 

James Smith Saddler. 

George Fregs Farrier. 

John Bennett ' Private. 

Peter Broadsword " 

John Beckett " 

Isaiab Bnrgan " 

Robert Campbell I " 

James Conner I " 

Findley Carnahan 

Robert Cooper j " 

Joseph Chambers , " 

Samuel Davis " 

Daniel Fleming " 

Samuel Hamilton " 

Stephen Lowry " 

James McGuffy , " 

John Milligan " 

William Miller " 

Findley McGrew A " 

John McCammont > " 

Robert McGuftin " 

John McClain " 

Nathiin McGrew.^ I " 

John Morrison | " 

Jonathan McClintock , " 

William McClurg " 

William Logne j " 

William Robison | " 

John Robison " 

Jonathan Robison " 

CharlesSholl 

Samuel Stoflett. " 

James Selby " 

John Stone " 

Samuel Simpler " 

William Thompson " 

Matthew Thompson.. " 

Jacob Weaver., ... " 

, James Alexander ; " 

James Guffy ' " 

Thompson Carnahan I " 

Thomas McGrew ' " 

1 Stephen Rowan " 

Samuel Montgomery " 



Sept. 12, 1812 Sept. 






12,1813 



In the Greensburg and Indiana Register for Oct. 1, 
1812, is the following: 

"On Tuesday evening hist the drafted militia for the First Brigade, 
Thirteenth Division, marched from this place to Pittsburgh." 

1 See additional lists in Appendix "Q." 



Elsewhere is the following extract from a letter 
dated at Pittsburgh, Sept. 24, 1812, in which we have 
notice of the company ; 

"Yesterday the 'Pittsburgh Blues,' commanded by Captain Butler, 
and the ' Greensburg Rifle Company,* Captain J. B. Alexander, left this 
on their way tu join General Harrison. They embarked on board boats, 
anil will proceed by water nearly to Cincinnati. On Tuesday the West- 
moreland troop of cavalry, Captain Markle, also left this on the march 
to Urbanna."2 

This company of cavalry was regarded by Gen. 
Harrison, an account of their orderly behavior and 
military appearance, as the first troop of United 
States volunteer cavalry in the Northwestern Army. 
They were connected with the squadron of Maj. James 
V. Ball, and throughout the entire campaign are fre- 
quently mentioned, and never without approbation 
and honor. 

The detachment sent to the Mississinewa towns 
consisted of Col. Simeral's regiment of Kentucky 
Volunteers; Maj. James Ball's squadron of United 
States Dragoons; Capt. John B. Alexander's com- 
pany of riflemen from Westmoreland ; Capt. Joseph 
Markle's troop of horse, also from Westmoreland ; 
Capt. James Butler's light infantry company of 
Pittsburgh Blues, and of several other companies 
and squadrons from Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio. 

These troops were commanded by Lieut.-Col. John 
B. Campbell, of the Nineteenth United States Regi- 
ment. The season of the year was an inclement one, 
and the route of march was through a wilderness. 
They, however, about the middle of December reached 
the Mississinewa. They followed this stream towards 
its mouth, and when they were within about twenty 
miles of the first Indian town, Col. Campbell, in a 
council, asked the advice of his officers. They advised 
to march all night and take the enemy by surprise. 
This was agreed to ; but when they reached the town 
one of the Kentucky volunteers giving a war-whoop 
precluded the intended and expected surprise con- 
templated by giving warning to the Indians. But 
notwithstanding this eight of their warriors were 
killed, and forty-two men, women, and children were 
taken prisoners. 

The detachment then pressed on, and destroyed 
three other Indian towns farther down. They then 
returned to the site of the first one. 

At this place on the 18th of December they were 
attacked by several hundred Indians. These were 

- In the Greeuslninj and Indiuna liei/isler for Sept. 12, 1812, is the fol- 
lowing: 

"COMMUNICATION. 

" Robbstown, Sept. 3, 1812. 

"In con sequence of the expected march of Capt. Markle and his 
troop, the citizens of this place and vicinity met, and agreed to treat the 
troop to a dinner. Against 3 o'clock they had an Ox of 4 or 500 weight 
roiisted whole, when the troop marched up in order, attended by about 
400 citizens, and partook of the good cheer provided. After dinner the 
following toa-sts were drank, with many others, amidst the acclamations 
of the largest concourse of citizens ever seen in this place." 

In the issue of the same paper for Oct. 1, 1812, it appears that eleven 
had deserted from Capt. Markle's company, as he offers a reward therein 

for their apprehension. 



WAR OF EIGHTEEN-TWELVE. 



231 



concealed in the edge of the forest, behind fallen 
trees, and opened lire upon the whites before they 
were discovered. But a charge was made upon them, 
and from the advantage the whites had in their squad- 
ron of horse, the Indians were dislodged and driven 
out from their hiding-places and before the troops. 
Forty dead warriors were left on the field, and the 
rest were driven off. Twelve of the Americans were 
killed and about thirty wounded. Among the killed 
was Lieut. Waltz, of Capt, Markle's troop. The 
action of this troop, and particularly of Lieut. Waltz, 
was described as gallant. 

The chief object of this expedition was to prevent 
the Indians from having a harboring-place of safety 
from which they could issue and intercept the inter- 
course between the settlements and Fort Wayne, then 
occupied by our troops, and to drive them towards 
the St. Joseph's, in Michigan, so that they could 
not waylay the parties passing and repassing, and 
that they might not concentrate, as they had been in 
the habit of doing, on the Maumee. The object in a 
great measure was accomplished. 

The detachment then returned back to the main 
army, and in their march they suffered intensely from 
cold, hunger, and fatigue. No less than one hundred 
and eighty men had their limbs frozen. But the loss 
of the Indians was terrible, and the success of the 
campaign prevented them from attempting attacks on 
the settlements. It has been pronounced on all 
hands to have been one of the best conducted cam- 
paigns of 1812. 

The following general order, issued Jan. 9, 1813, 
especially refers to Capt. Alexander: 

" Headquarters N. W. Army, ) 
Fkankmnton, 9th Jan., 1813.1 
"General Orders. 
" As Capt. Bradford's Company is much reduced, the Detachment 
under the command of Lieut. Percival will continue to do duty with it. 

" Capt. Alexander, of the U. S. 12 Months Volunteers, as senior Cap- 
tain, will take command of the Battalion composed of his own and 
Capt. Butler and McRais' companies. Lt.-Col. Campbell will march 
the Detachment of Regular Troops from his place to Upper Sandusky 
as soon as that part of it which served on the late expedition to Missis- 
sinaway are able to perform that duty. 

"Capt Alexander will receive further orders from the General with 
regard to the marching of the volunteers. 

" L. HA8KILL, 
'Ms. Dy. Adjl. General" 

On the 1st of February, 1813, Capt. Alexander was 
promoted to major of infantry volunteers, and a com- 
mission issued to him signed by James Madison, 
President. 

Harrison, in 1813, having determined upon a winter 
campaign for the recovery of Detroit and the Michi- 
gan Territory, determined to occupy a line of forts 
from Fort Wayne to the foot of the Rapids. Gen. 
Winchester was to move towards the latter point, 
erect block-houses, and make arrangements to hold 
that region. After an advance and a contemplated 
engagement with Gen. Proctor of the British forces 
by a force preceding the army, reinforced by other 



troops, the plan laid out by Winchester was to a cer- 
tain extent frustrated, so that he was compelled to 
erect a strong fortification at the Rapids, and there to 
organize an army to make that a base for supplies for 
the campaign in the spring. A fortress was here 
built called Fort Meigs. It was situated on the south- 
east side of the River Maumee, and near to the battle- 
ground where Gen. Wayne defeated the Indians in 
1794. The fort was situated on a rising ground, sur- 
rounded by a prairie for the distance of a hundred 
and fifty yards, then by a piece of woods, beyond 
which was another prairie. 

Fori Meigs was left in command of Gen. Leftwitch, 
with his Virginia troops, and about two hundred and 
fifty Pennsylvanians. Col. Wood, of the regular 
army, had charge of the engineering. Gen. Harrison 
went to Cincinnati to urge forward reinforcements. 

Towards the beginning of April, 1813, the enemy 
were collecting in considerable numbers for the pur- 
pose of laying siege to Fort Meigs. Gen. Leftwitch, 
with his Virginians, left the fort, for what cause is 
not definitely known ; but the Pennsylvania troops, 
although their term of service had expired, volun- 
teered for its defense. Harrison, on the knowledge 
of these affairs, and knowing that the post was in 
danger from a siege on the side of the greatly superior 
forces of the British and Indians, hastened forward, 
and on the 11th of April, 1813, arrived at the fort 
with reinforcements for the relief of the Pennsylva- 
nians, who now composed the garrison. Preparations 
were made for the approaching siege. The force 
there now amounted to twelve hundred, and under 
the directions of the engineers they labored day and 
night in constructing defenses. On the 28th of April, 
1813, the British army appeared in Maumee Bay. 
Orders were sent out to hasten the arrival of Gen. 
Greene Clay, who was advancing with twelve hun- 
dred Kentucky volunteers. The British landed and, 
bestowing their Indian allies, began to invest the 
place. The garrison was ordered on active duty, and 
while the British were erecting their batteries the 
Americans were raising their defenses. Skirmishes 
frequently took place. On the morning of the 1st of 
May the British were ready to open their batteries. 
The Americans, removing their tents from the plain 
outside of the fort, exposed to view a long breast- 
work which had been erected behind them. On the 
3d of May an additional battery from another point 
was opened upon the fort, and on the 4th another 
battery was discovered in a position to do much 
injury. About the middle of that night an officer 
arrived at the post, and reported that Gen. Clay waB 
at the Rapids, and moving down in open boats with 
twelve or fifteen hundred men, and that he would be 
at the fort between three and four o'clock in the 
morning. 

Gen. Harrison saw his opportunity, and determined 
to raise the siege by defeating the enemy. He .sent a 
message to Clay, ordering him to land a sufficient 



232 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. 



force on the bank of the river as became down, which 
was to attack the. enemy's batteries, spike their cannon, 
and after destroying their carriages and disabling 
them, to take to boat, cross the Maumee, and enter 
the fort. The rest of the reinforcements were to land 
on the side next the river on which was the fort, and 
to enter it. He at the same time determined to attack 
the enemy's batteries on that side of the river, while 
Clay would attack them on the other side. 

About eight o'clock the next morning (May 5, 1813), 
Clay having been delayed, the boats with Clay and 
that portion of the forces ordered to enter the fort 
were on landing assailed by a host of savages. Maj. 
John B. Alexander, with the Pennsylvania and 
Petersburg Volunteers, were ordered to protect them 
at the landing. The Indians increased in number, 
and Maj. Alexander and Col. Boswell charged them 
■with effect, and under cover of their fire Clay and his 
troops fought their way into the fort, driving the In- 
dians before them for half a mile at the point of the 
bayonet. 

In the mean time, Col. Dudley, who had been or- 
dered to land and attack the British encampment on 
the other side of the river, marched fearlessly and 
furiously up to the enemy's cannon. The four bat- 
teries were all carried in an instant, and the enemy 
put to flight. The guns were spiked, the carriages 
cut in pieces, and the poles bearing the red flag of St. 
George pulled down, when the victorious soldiery 
gave way to a real frolic. Dudley ordered a retreat, 
according to orders, for he had done what he was sent 
to do. But his men would not retreat, but pushed 
forward with great impetuosity and recklessness, with 
loud cries to avenge the slaughtered men at the River 
Raisin. The enemy had concentrated themselves 
beyond the sight and hearing of the American officer. 
Then, while a few Indians drew the attention of the 
Americans towards them, a much larger force of Brit- 
ish and Indians approached the batteries, and after a 
desperate battle killed about fifty of the Kentuckians, 
wounded more than seventy, and took five hundred 
and fifty prisoners. About one hundred and fifty 
escaped to the boats and reached Fort Meigs. Col. 
Dudley attempted to cut his way through to the river, 
but was killed, having himself slain an Indian after 
he was mortally wounded. The savages then com- 
menced a massacre of the prisoners, unopposed by the 
British general, Proctor ; and this horrid work was 
continued until the arrival of that magnificent Indian 
warrior, Tecumpseh, from the batteries on the other 
side of the river, who stayed his wild men in their 
work of carnage, declaring it to be a shame to kill 
defenseless prisoners. 

At the moment Col. Dudley began his attack on the 
enemy's batteries, Gen. Harrison ordered a sortie 
against them on the southeast side of the river. The 
force detailed for this sortie was under command of 
Col. John Miller of the regulars. The whole force 
numbered three hundred and fifty men, and was com- 



posed of regulars and the battalion of Maj. Alexander, 
who had just before distinguished itself in assisting 
the debarkation of Gen. Clay's forces. These were 
the Pittsburgh Blues, the Petersburg Rifles, and Lieut. 
Drum's detachment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
There were five companies of regular British troops 
here, and the Indians were under direct command of the 
Prophet, the brother of Tecumpseh, and Tecumpseh, 
who, like a great general, as he was, was everywhere 
on the battle-field where his presence was needed. 
They charged the motley foe, three times their su- 
perior in numbers, and drove them in confusion into 
the woods. The Indians fought desperately, insti- 
gated by their great leaders. The Americans lost 
several of their men, but the object of the sortie was 
accomplished, and the victors returned to the fort 
with forty-three prisoners. 

After this sortie Gen. Proctor sent a British officer 
with a flag of truce, demanding a surrender. He was 
indignantly sent back to the other side of the river. 

The British general now found himself in a crippled 
condition and unfit to carry on the siege. His artil- 
lery was rendered useless, and he had lost in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners more than the besieged. He 
therefore agreed to exchange prisoners, and to ac- 
count for the difference. On the 9th of May, under 
an incessant discharge of artillery from the fort and 
the American batteries, the British and their allies 
moved off with their whole force. 

On the same day, May 9, 1813, Gen. Harrison issued 
a general order from "Headquarters Fort Meigs," and 
in this order, which was read to the whole army and 
thence publicly given to the world, the gallant con- 
duct of these three hundred and fifty men is men- 
tioned. 1 

Thus terminated the siege of Fort Meigs, one of 
the most brilliant and memorable actions in Ameri- 
can history. To its successful termination how far 
the volunteer soldiery from Westmoreland contributed 
let the world judge. 

AT FORT SANDUSKY. 

On the site of Lower Sandusky there was a stockade 
fort, then under command of Maj. George Crogan, 
and hither were transferred some of the Pittsburgh 
Blues, the Petersburg Volunteers, and some from the 
different Westmoreland detachments. In all there 
were one hundred and sixty privates there and some 
half-dozen officers. Crogan himself was a mere boy 
just of age. On the 1st of August (1813) the fort was 
surrounded by five hundred British soldiers under 

l The siege of Fort Meigs continued thirteen days. Had the attach- 
ment under Col. Dudley obeyed orders, the eventB of the 5th of May 
would have been among the brightest in the annals of our country. As 
it was, it resulted gloriously to the American arms. The loss of the 
Americans during the siege was eighty-oue killed and one hundred aud 
eighty-nine wounded. Sixty-four were killed in the sorties, and one 
hundred aud twenty-four wounded; the rest were killed or wounded in 
the fort. This does not include the killed and wounded under Col. 
Dudley. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



233 



Proctor and eight hundred Indians, and besides these 
Teeumta was placed in an ambuscade with a large 
Indian force to intercept reinforcements directed 
thither from Seneca Old Town and Fort Meigs. After 
a disposition had been made of the forces, Proctor 
sent a flag of truce, demanding the surrender of the 
fort, and this was accompanied with threats of 
butchery and massacre if the garrison should hold 
out. But Maj. Crogiui finding out that his com- 
panions, mostly young men like himself, would sup- 
port him to the last, returned the answer that " when 
the fort should be taken there would be none left to 
massacre, as it would not be given up while a man was 
able to fight." During the night a brisk fire was 
opened on the fort from the artillery in the boats. 
Crogan discovered that the enemy aimed his guns at 
one angle of the fort. He ordered Capt. Hunter to 
place their only cannon in such a position that it 
would rake the ditch should they attempt to scale the 
walls. Sergt. Weaver and six privates of the "Pitts- 
burgh Blues" had charge of this gun. The enemy 
kept up their fire all the next clay, but the garrison 
placed bags of flour and sand on the walls of the angle 
at which the fire was directed, and thus protected the 
walls itself. About four o'clock in the evening the 
enemy concentrated all their guns upon this angle, 
and under cover of the fire and the smoke they pro- 
ceeded to make the assault. Two feints were made 
on the lines at that angle, and three hundred and 
fifty British soldiers advanced to within sixty feet of 
the walls. A severe fire of musketry from the fort 
put them in confusion for a moment, but the enemy 
under a brave officer were urged forward, and he call- 
ing upon them to follow leaped into the ditch. The 
masked port-hole was now opened, and the six- 
pounder within thirty feet of the assailants was fired. 
Lieut.-Col. Short, their commander, and fifty others 
were instantly killed or wounded. At the same mo- 
ment Capt. Hunter's troops opened a terrible and effec- 
tive discharge of rifles upon the other portions of the 
assailants. They were compelled to retire. It was 
now dark. The wounded in the ditch were in a des- 
perate condition. They begged for water and their 
friends could not assist them, but Maj. Crogan and 
his men handed them water over the pickets, and 
opened a hole underneath, and encouraged as many 
as were able po come into the fort. 

At three o'clock in the night Proctor and his men 
made a shameful retreat down the bay, and in their 
hurry and confusion they left a boat full of valuable 
materials. They left around the fort seventy stand of 
arms and several braces of pistols. The Americans 
lost one killed and seven very slightly wounded. 
That of the enemy could not have been less than one 
hundred and fifty ; upwards of fifty were found in and 
about the ditch. 

The rifle company was discharged at Seneca upon 
the expiration of their term of service, as appears by 
the following : 



" Headquarters, Seneca Town, 
Aug. 28, 1813. 
(" After General Orders.) 

"The Pittsburgh Volunteers, commanded by Capt. Butler I those of 

Greenshurg, by Lieut. Drum, or Maj. Alexander's battalion, having per- 
formed their services, the general hereby presents them an honorable 
discharge. 

" The general has ever considered this corps as the first in the North 
Western Army. Equal in point of bravery and subordination, it ex- 
celled in every other of those attainments which form complete and 
efficient soldiers. In battle, in catup, and on the march their conduct 
has done honor to themselves and their country. 

"A. II. Holmes, 

" Ass/. Adj. General." 

For additional information touching the part sus- 
tained by Westmoreland in this war, see the contem- 
poraneous documents cited and copied in Appendix. 1 



CHAPTER XLI. 

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The Presbyterian Church— Reformed Church— Greenshurg Seminary — 
Evangelical Lutheran Church— Ministers of the Early Lutheran 
Church — United Presbyterian Church — Methodists — Early Methodism 
in Greensbnrg and Vicinity — United Brethren — The Mennonites and 
their Early Settlement — Baptist Church — Moitnt Pleasant Institute — 
1 1 .iii Catholic Church — Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania. 

As preparatory to the ecclesiastical history of our 
county, which we propose to consider in this chapter, 
the following extract we apprehend to be pertinent, 
throwing light as it does upon the polity of the pro- 
prietors of the Province in this regard. 

The religious system of Pennsylvania, says .Air. 
Lodge in " The History of the English Colonies in 
America," was peculiar to that Province, and was the 
most remarkable feature of her public policy, for it 
was the system of Pennsylvania which received the 
sanction of the Revolutionary Congress and of the 
Convention of 1789, and which now prevails through- 
out the United States. There was, with one trifling 
exception due to secular causes, genuine religious 
freedom from the beginning. The oppression of New 
England and Virginia, of Congregationalist and 
Episcopalian, was unknown, and toleration did not 
rest on the narrow foundation of expediency, to 

1 We deem it but proper to say that we have consulted many works 
for the subject matter of this chapter, and that we have followed no par- 
ticular one, but have lopped oft with an unsparing hand the superfluity 
of each from which we have made extracts, ltupp's account is un- 
doubtedly a very correct one, considering the materials he then had ac- 
cess to. Where our figures dift'er from his is where his differs from the 
official reports, for we have followed the figures as they are recorded in 
the records of the War Department at Washington, for which our thanks 
are due to Gen. R. C. Drum, adjutant-general United States army. 

We may here make the observation that there were and yet are among 
us many survivors of the War of Eighteen-Twelve whose names do not 
appear in the lists we submit. But the reason is obvious. Many who 
had served from other parts of the State afterwards removed into West- 
moreland and became identified and recognized as citizens of the county. 
On the other hand, there were many native Westmorelanders who en- 
listed in companies from neighboring counties and saw effective service. 
It is apparent that both these classes must of necessity be omitted in the 
consideration of the services performed by those who were truly the 
representatives of Westmoreland. For further lists see Penn. Archives, 
Second Series, vol. xii. 



234 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



which it owed its early adoption in Maryland. The 
Quakers in power were true to the tenets which they 
had preached when persecuted. Penn's followers 
were, however, a religious people, and although they 
promised to all Christians perfect toleration, a strong 
tone of religion pervades the " nervous proclamation 
against vice" 1 and the early laws of the same char- 
acter. Yet there was little Sabbatarian legislation, 
such as we find upon the statute-books of both Vir- 
ginia and Massachusetts, although an unfortunate 
barber was presented by the grand jury of an early 
period for " trimming on the first day." There is, 
however, no indication that Sunday was less observed, 
or that the morals of the people were worse on this 
account, and the same may be said in regard to the 
recognition of marriages solemnized in any religious 
society whatever. The generous toleration thus af- 
forded attracted all forms and creeds to Pennsylvania, 
and at the time of the Revolution the facts especially 
noticed by all observers are the universal toleration 
and the number and mixture of sects. One writer 
asserts that religious indifference was a characteristic 
of the people, owing to this mingling of sects, and his 
opinion would seem to be borne out by the religious 
laxity indicated by the prevalence of church lotteries. 
The forms were certainly less rigid than elsewhere, 
but the piety was as genuine and religion as whole- 
some and wide-spread as in any colony. 

In the early days of the colony the Quakers were 
of course much stronger than any other single sect, 
although they speedily sank from controlling num- 
bers to a minority of the whole population. They 
had much more religious energy than any other de- 
nomination, more fondness for their forms, and main- 
tained with greater solicitude their connection with 
the parent societies. 

The oldest church in the Province was that founded 
by the first settlers, who were Swedish Lutherans, and 
this sect maintained itself for more than a century, 
forming the only connecting link between the wor- 
shipers and their mother-country. The ministers 
were sent from Sweden until the year 1786, when a 
petition for their discontinuance was sent, because 
their speech was no longer intelligible. But though 
the distinctions of race were effaced, the creed sur- 
vived, was adopted by the Dutch, and extended by 
the German emigrants of like faith. 

The most important sects next to the Quakers were 
the Lutherans and Presbyterians, the latter supported 
by the Irish and Scotch settlers, and with an active, 
able, and energetic ministry, who spread their doc- 
trines through the Province. There were also respect- 
able bodies of Dutch Calvinists, Baptists, Anabaptists, 
and Moravians. There were also among them many 
of the strange sects and mystical societies whose 
members had come from Germany to find peace and 

1 Hist. Coll., ix. 12. Peuu to Logan, " Prepare a nervous proclamation 
against vice." 



quiet here. Of these there were the Dunkards and 
Mennouists. The Roman Catholics were the latest 
to come, and in the early days were a small body, 
principally composed of Irish and Germans. 

The only instance of religious persecution, the 
record of which stains the pages of our colonial his- 
tory, happened in 1755. It is briefly told. The few 
Roman Catholics at that time in the Province would 
have remained contented and unmolested but for the 
coming of the hapless Acadians, the destruction of 
whose homes and whose dispersion and exile is told 
in the beautiful poem of " Evangeline." Many of 
these came to Philadelphia, where the good Quakers 
received them kindly. They were French Canadians, 
and closely following their settlement here came on 
the French and Indian war. Then the danger of In- 
dian inroads conducted by Frenchmen was enough 
to rouse the strongest hatred of which a man of Eng- 
lish race was at that time capable. In the year 1755 
three Frenchmen were arrested for poisoning wells, 
and the excitement was at its height. The Acadians, 
by the interposition of certain Huguenot Quakers, 
were provided for by the Assembly ; but they were 
dispersed among the counties, and. broken by mis- 
fortune, sank into poverty and rapidly disappeared. 
From wild and injurious reports, and because it was 
said that the Irish were instigated to join the French, 
the professed adherents of this church were disarmed 
and their houses searched ; they were exempt from 
the militia and compelled to pay fines. Their num- 
ber in Philadelphia was not at this time over two 
thousand, and they were the poorest of the popula- 
tion. Their persecution was, however, only passing, 
and was due, not to religious bigotry, but to the wave 
of fear which swept over the English colonies when 
France let loose the savages upon their borders. With 
this single exception, the religious system of Penn- 
sylvania was one of perfect toleration, and the con- 
dition of religious affairs differed in no essential 
respect, either social or political, from that which is 
common to all the United States to-day. With this 
simple policy of toleration to all, religion in Pennsyl- 
vania plays no conspicuous part in her history. There 
was in the early times, as it has been remarked, little 
ostentation connected with the varied worships. The 
churches or meeting-houses were, as a rule, small 
and plain but neat buildings, and the clergy a re- 
spected and respectable class, honored in their calling, 
but neither a picturesque body, as in Virginia, nor 
one of great social and political influence, as in Mas- 
sachusetts. 

The first religious services of the English-speaking 
people west of the mountains were held when Chris- 
! topher Gist, surveyor and agent for the Ohio Com- 
pany, on Christmas-day, 1750, read prayers from the 
prayer-book of the Established Church to the Indians 
of the Wyandot town of Coshocton, which were in- 
terpreted to the natives by Andrew Montour. 

During the occupancy of Fort Duquesne by the 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



235 



French, religious services were held at the post in ac- 
cordance with the Roman Catholic ritual. Here were 
chanted the same rogations which the faithful heard 
at Notre Dame, and here was observed the time-hon- 
ored devotion at the sacrament of the mass. Here was 
kept the chrism for sacramental purposes, and here the 
priest performed the last office for the dead, which at 
this day are denoted in the breviary. A registry was 
kept of the births, baptisms, and deaths of the in- 
mates of the fort for the years 1753, 1754, and 1755. 
These are still preserved, and are now among the 
archives in Canada. What strikes us the most inter- 
esting of these records is the account of the death and 
burial of Beaujeu, the commander of the forces that 
went out to meet Braddock, and who himself was 
killed as well as his rival. It reads as follows: "Mr. 
Leonard (Daniel), Esq., Sieur de Beaujeu, captain of 
infantry, commander of Fort Duquesne, and of the 
army, on the 9th day of July, in the year 1755, and 
in the forty-fifth year of his age. The same day, after 
having confessed and said his devotions, he was killed 
in battle with the English. His body was interred on 
the twelfth of the same month, in the cemetery of 
the Fort Duquesne, at the beautiful river, under the 
title of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, and also 
with all the usual ceremonies by us, Priest Francis- 
can, Chaplain of the King, and of the above men- 
tioned fort. In testimony of which we have signed. 
Fr. Denys Baeon, P. F. Chaplain." 

In the heart of the wilderness, on the upper Alle- 
gheny, near the present Tionesta in Forest County, 
at Goschoschunk, a village of the Munsies though in 
the Seneca country, David Zeizberger preached to 
the Indians in the fall of 1767. In the summer of the 
next year a log mission-house of considerable dimen- 
sions was erected, and on June 30, 1768, dedicated. 
The meetings were attended by great numbers of the 
Indians, arrayed in their best garments, with their 
faces painted black and vermilion, and heads deco- 
rated with fox-tails. The missionaries removed three 
miles above, on the north side of the river, and with 
their converts established a little village of log huts 
in 1769, named Lamunhanneck. There, on Septem- 
ber 1st, they began to build a chapel and dwelling- 
house, which they occupied before the winter, and by 
this time they had consecrated the chapel in which 
was hung a bell sent from Bethlehem, 1 and for the 
first time the valley of the Allegheny echoed the 
sound of the church-going bell. 2 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

The first settlers, however, of Western Pennsylvania 
were, as is well known, of the Presbyterian faith. 
These belonged to a church which had an effective 
missionary arrangement, and which bred among her 
own people a class of men who were adapted beyond 

1 One of the Moravian settlement in the eastern part of the State. 

2 See the article hy William M. Darlington, Esq., in the "Centenary 
Memorial." 



all others to be the pastors of this people. It was 
such men as the Rev. John Steele, of Carlisle, who, 
in the spring of 1768, was sent by Governor John 
Penn to expostulate with the settlers at Redstone, and 
induce them to remove, as they had violated the law 
which regulated the settling on lands not purchased 
of the Indians. As there were some members of that 
church settled in the West previous to that, Revs. 
Beatty and Duffield were appointed by the Synod of 
New York and Philadelphia to visit Fort Pitt, and to 
pursue missionary enterprises still farther West. The 
Rev. Charles Beatty had accompanied the Pennsyl- 
vania contingent of soldiers as chaplain in 1755, and 
again under Forbes in 1758, and on the Sunday suc- 
ceeding the capture of the fort preached a thanks- 
giving sermon to the soldiers. 

In religious persuasion some of the earliest settlers 
along the rivers, and especially about those settle- 
ments which had been formed by the Ohio Company, 
were Episcopalians, adhering to the establishment as 
it existed in the Old Dominion; and a majority of 
those in that part known as Greene County, and 
noticeably along Dunkard Creek and Muddy Creek, 
Washington County, were Baptists. 3 These latter 
had fled from odious laws of Virginia, which remained 
on the statute-book of that State long enough, when 
Patrick Henry made it the subject of one of his 
greatest efforts in favor of religious freedom, and 
which from the day he derided the law which threw 
■a. man in prison for preaching only Christ and him 
crucified became a nullity. 4 But of the interior set- 
tlements of the southwestern part, at the earlier date 
of colonization, it is estimated that seven-eighths were \l 
of the one lineage, and adhered to the Westminster 
Confession of Faith, sang the songs of Israel, and 
piously venerated the memory of those men who had 
brought about the solemn league and covenant. 

As we intend to refer to the religious history of our 
early people as it necessarily forces itself upon us in 
one view, we do not wish to be misunderstood in say- 
ing that we write a religious history in the sense com- 
monly taken. This is not of our province, but it is 
our duty to notice it so far as it is inseparably con- 
nected with our secular history. What we shall say 
is matter of fact, and our inferences will be drawn 
only from authenticated data. Of these records there 
is abundance, and from them, it is claimed, as we 
have before said, that the first Protestant sermon 
preached west of the Allegheny Mountains was by 
Rev. Charles Beatty, who came to Fort Duquesne 
Nov. 24, 1758, with the army of Forbes, who that day 
took possession of the fort, after its evacuation by the 
French, and who the next day or the following 
preached a thanksgiving sermon to the army. 

In 1760, Revs. Messrs. Alexander and Hector Alli- 
son were directed by the Synod of Philadelphia to go 

8 A good name for a creek in a Baptist settlement. 
* See Parton'a " Life of Jefferson." 



236 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



with the Pennsylvania forces. In 1766, Revs. Messrs. 
Charles Beatty and George Duffield were sent by the 
Synod to explore the frontier settlements and ascer- 
tain the condition of the Indians. They arrived at 
Pittsburgh on the 5th of September, finding Chaplain 
McLagan in spiritual charge of the fort. On the fol- 
lowing Sabbath Mr. Beatty preached in the fort, and 
both the missionaries preached to the people who 
lived outside the fort. Then they proceeded to the 
Muskingum, whence they returned to Pittsburgh, and 
then to their homes in the East. 1 

Soon after Mr. Beatty's visit, Mr. Anderson was 
appointed to visit this region, with the promise of 
twenty shillings for every Sabbath he should preach 
" on the other side of the Kittatining Mountains." 

In 1769 the Synod ordered the Presbytery of Don- 
egal to supply the western frontier with ten Sabbaths 
of ministerial labor. 

In 1771, Rev. Finley spent two months in mission- 
ary labors west of the Alleghenies. He came on horse- 
back with a single companion, to make a preliminary 
exploration. He is said to have been the first pioneer 
missionary who visited the Washington County re- 
gion. He purchased some land there, and in the 
assessment of tenants for Bedford County his name 
appears on the rolls. 2 

Rev. James Power was the first regularly ordained 
minister who settled in Western Pennsylvania. He 
passed through Westmoreland County in 1774, when 
he spent three months in missionary labor in the set- 
tlements. In 1776 he came with his family. He 
preached to the people at various places, where they 
afterwards had congregations, and supplied their wants 
till they organized and got other pastors. In 1779, 
after five years of missionary work, he became pastor 
of Mount Pleasant and Sewickley congregations, and 
of Mount Pleasant he continued pastor till he was 
incapacitated from age (1817). The other places of 
his earlier labors were at Dunlap's Creek, Laurel 
Hill, Tyrone, Unity, and Congruity. 

Mount Pleasant Church was about two miles north- 
west of the present town. The town was called after 
the name of the meeting-house of the congregation, 
which name of itself is a familiar Scotch-Irish one, 
and is applied to various townships and meeting- 
houses in the earlier settlements of Pennsylvania and 
Maryland. On the Sabbath 3 preceding the burning 
of Hannastown, Dr. Power was in the neighboring 
settlement somewhere. It has always been currently 
reported that he was officiating at Proctor's Tent, the 

1 Some of these ministers came out on a different errand than that of 
spreading the gospel, as Rev. John Steele, of Carlisle, who commanded 
a company under Armstrong in flip Kittanning Expedition, 1756. 

- Without citing authorities for all our statements, we would say we 
are indented in general for data for the part which refers to Presby- 
t. danism to "Old Redstone," "Life of Macurdy," "Centenary Me- 
morial," and contemporaneous authoritative documents published by 
authority of that church. 

3 Sunday waB always called the " Sabbath," after the custom of the 
Scotch. 



old name for Unity Church, on the fast-day preceding 
communion services ; that the men, as was their usual 
custom, had come to preaching with their guns, and 
that on hearing the commotion about the stockade 
the people dispersed, some of the men going towards 
the town. 4 

John McMillan, a Princeton man, and a name high- 
sounding among men, preached in 1775 among the 
people of our (now Washington) county, and in 1776 
he received a call from the Chartiers settlement, the 
name of the settlement along the Chartiers Creek. 
He was ordained fifteen days before the signing of 
the Declaration. In 1778 he removed with his young 
wife, and from that time devoted the able energies of 
a long life to active parochial duties and to educa- 



4 These following five ministers were here before the Redstone Pres- 
bytery was organized : 

John Finlf.y was the first of the pioneer ministers who visited this re- 
gion. He came on horseback, with a single companion, to explore the 
country and prepare the way for a permanent settlement. He was at 
this time in the prime of life, about forty years of age ; born in tire 
province of Ulster, Ireland ; educated at the Fagg's Manor School. He 
was ordained by the Presbytery of New Castle in 1752. 

In person he was a fat, nervous, florid little man, able to endure hard- 
ships, and prepared as soon as circumstances would admit to cast in his 
lot with the new settlements. He moved thither with his family in 1783, 
and about two years afterwards became pastor of the churches of Reho- 
1 h ■ 1 1 1 and Round Hill, first called " Upper and Lower Meeting-Houses." 
Of these churches he continued pastor until his death, Jan. 6, 1795. 

James Power, D.D., first visited the new settlements iu 1774. He 
was born in Chester County, Pa., in 1746, graduated at Princeton in 1766, 
licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle June 24, 1772. In 1776 he was 
ordained by the same Presbytery sine tilulo, the reason being assigned 
that "he was about to remove to the western parts of this Province." 
Mr. Power moved across the mountains with all bis family and house- 
hold effects packed on horseback. The minister carried the eldest 
daughter on a pillion behind him, and the youngest in his arms. The 
two other daughters were seated in baskets hung on either side of an- 
other horse, the mother on a third, and the household effects on other 
horses. After performing missionary work for some five years he be- 
came pastor of the churches of Sewickley and Mount Pleasant. In 17S7 
he was released from the charge of the Sewickley Church, but continued 
with Mount Pleasant until 1S17. He died Aug. 5, 1830, aged eighty-five 
years. Mr. Power/ was of medium height, erect, slender, graceful in 
manner, and extremely neat in dress; as a preacher he was clear, 
methodical, and evangelical. 

John McMillan, D.D., was the next man on the ground, of Irish de- 
scent, horn at Fagg's Manor iu 1752, graduated at Princeton, licensed in 
1744. lie first visited the West in 1775. He returned the next year, 
but owing to Indian difficulties did not remove his family to now 
Washington County until 1778, when he took charge of the ,, • 
tions of Chartiers and Pigeon Creek. From the latter he was dismissed 
about the year 1800 ; of the former he continued pastor until about 1830. 
He died at Caiinonsbnrg, Pa., Nov. 16, 1833, in the eighty-first year of 
bis age. Dr. McMillan was rough and brusijne in his persona] appear- 
ance and address, even slovenly. He wassix feet in height, roHgh-hewn 
in features, and with a voice that was like the rumbling of thunder. 

Thadueus Dodd was born in New Jersey, March, 1740. His parents 
were from Connecticut. He graduated at Princeton in 177:'., licensed in 
1775, came to the West iu 1777. He became pastor of (he churches of 
' Upper and Lower Ten-Mile," in Washington County. Died May 20, 1793, 
iu the fifty-fourth year of his age. 

Joseph Smith was a Marylander, born at Nottingham iu 1736, gradu- 
ated at Princeton iu 1764, licensed Aug. 5, 1767, came to the West iu 
1769. Iu the following spring he moved out, and became pastor of Buf- 
falo ami Cross Creek congregations, Washington County. He preached 
there until his death, April, 1792, at the age of fifty-six. Although tall 
and slender, fair in complexion, fine countenance, and brilliant eyes, he 
spoke so largely "f the terrors of the law that he was called " Hellrire 
Smith." 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



237 



tional interests. In 1779, Rev. Joseph Smith, a 
Princeton graduate, preached also in that part of the 
county now of Washington. This was on a prospect- 
ing visit, and the next year he received a call. These 
men supplied the congregations through our part of 
the county for several years, Dr. McMillan preaching 
perhaps as early as 1775 to the men in the woods at 
Proctor's and Lochry's. Of McMillan much has been 
written and said, and it appears deservingly. Had 
he lived in the patristic era of Christianity, and been 
surrounded by such men as Tertullian and Origen, he 
would have been canonized. As it was, he appears 
to have gone part of the way, for he received the so- 
briquet of "Cardinal" at the time he helped to form 
political opinion in favor of Jefferson. 

To these three ministers must be added Rev. Thad- 
deus Dodd and Rev. Joseph Smith, whose services 
were more identified with the region beyond the 
rivers and within the Washington County district. 
These five had established congregations all through 
the southwestern portion of Pennsylvania ; they came 
here to stay, and they were the first ministers here at 
the organization of the famous " Old Redstone Pres- 
bytery," the mother of the Presbyteries of the West. 

The Presbytery of Redstone was erected by the 
Synod of New York and Philadelphia on the 16th of 
May, 1781. It was directed to meet at Laurel Hill, 
in what is now Fayette County, on the third Monday 
of September following, at eleven o'clock a.m. The 
time approached, but the incursions of the Indians in 
the neighborhood of some of the members of the 
Presbytery rendered the meeting at Laurel Hill im- 
practicable. The meeting was held at Pigeon Creek, 
Washington County. There were present the. Revs. 
Messrs. John McMillan, James Power, and Thaddeus 
Dodd; Elders John Neil, Demas Lindley, and Pat- 
rick Scott ; absent, Rev. Joseph Smith. 

This was the first meeting of Presbytery west of 
the Allegheny Mountains. The second meeting was 
a failure, no quorum appearing. The third meeting 
was also a failure, "owing to the incursions of the 
savages." Its last meeting as the sole undivided 
Presbytery of the West was held on the 18th of Oc- 
tober, 1793. It held forty-one meetings. Of these in 
the churches of the Presbytery which were and still 
are in Westmoreland it met five times at Rehoboth, 
twice at Mount Pleasant, once at Fairfield, and once 
at Long Run. 

As all these churches, with some others within this 
Presbytery, were organized so much earlier, and as 
they have each of them a history, we may be pardoned 
for calling attention to them here, as we have else- 
where given their history at length. 

Rehoboth, or Upper Meeting-House (as Round- 
hill was called Lower Meeting-House), is believed to 
be among the oldest congregations of the Presbyterian 
denomination in the county. It is in Rostraver town- 
ship, and about nine miles from Roundhill, which is 
in Allegheny County. The Rev. James Finley visited 
16 



this part of the county in 1772, and preached to a few 
scattered whites living among the Indians. About 
1778 he gathered the people here into regularly or- 
ganized congregations, and in 1784 he took the pas- 
toral charge of them. He died Jan. 6, 1795. After 
remaining vacant for two years, the Rev. David Smith 
was installed over them, and he dying Aug. 24, 1803, 
was succeeded by Rev. William Wylie in 1805. Dr. 
Wylie continued their pastor till the spring of 1817, 
when he was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Johnston. 
These congregations, being on the border, suffered 
much from the depredations of the savages. 

Mount Pleasant Church was organized probably 
in 1776, when Dr. Power removed to the West. It 
was supplied by him from that period till the spring 
of 1779, when he became the pastor of the united 
congregations of Mount Pleasant and Sewickley. On 
the 22d of August, 1787, he was dismissed from 
Sewickley, and continued the pastor of Mount Pleas- 
ant till April 15, 1817, when, from age and infirmity, 
he resigned his charge. It continued vacant till 
April 18, 1821, when the Rev. A. O. Patterson, D.D., 
was ordained and installed pastor of the united con- 
gregations of Sewickley and Mount Pleasant. 

Sewickley Church is supposed to have been organ- 
ized by Dr. Power in 1776. He continued the pastor, 
in connection with Mount Pleasant, till August, 1787, 
when he resigned the pastoral care of Sewickley. The 
charge continued vacant until, in union with Long 
Run, it became the pastoral charge of the Rev. Wil- 
liam Swan, Oct. 16, 1793. It again became vacant 
Oct. 18, 1818. In 1821 the congregation united with 
Mount Pleasant, and called Rev. Patterson to the 
pastorate. 

Long Run, it is said, dates as early as the Red- 
stone Presbytery, 1781. It was supplied by the Pres- 
bytery till 1793, when it united with Sewickley, and 
called Rev. William Swan to become their pastor. 
He continued their pastor till Oct. 18, 1818, when he 
resigned this united charge, but in the following sum- 
mer was again installed pastor of Long Run alone, 
and continued in this relation till, at his request, it was 
dissolved April 17, 1822. 

Fairfield was early organized, and after being 
supplied by the Presbytery for a number of years, it 
at length, in connection with Donegal and Wheat- 
field, obtained as its pastor the Rev. George Hill, who 
was ordained and installed among them Nov. 13, 
1792. He continued the pastor of this church until 
his death, June 17, 1822. On the 17th of June, 1824, 
the Rev. Samuel Swan was ordained pastor of Fair- 
field, in connection with Ligonier and Donegal. 

Unity was organized about 1776. There was 
preaching here for a number of years before there 
■was a church. The place was known as Proctor's 
Tent. The present church is the third building of 
the congregation. Among its first members were the 
Proctors, the Lochrys, the Sloans, Craigs, and Wil- 
liam Findley. They were at first served by supplies. 



238 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Their first regular pastor was Rev. John McPerrin, 
who served for them from 1791 to 1800, who had the 
congregation of Salem also in his charge. Neither 
the Salem nor the Congraity Churches had congrega- 
tions as early as the Unity Church, but they were all 
organized at about the same time. They were all 
within the Redstone Presbytery. Rev. Samuel Porter 
was the first pastor of Congruity and Poke Run con- 
gregations. He was ordained in company with the 
Rev. McPerrin, Sept. 22, 1790, and installed pastor. 

To be a missionary then in a region like this, which 
was in partibus infidelium, was perhaps as much in 
labors and in fastings as it was in the days when the 
old missionaries lived, around whose lives centres the 
halo of unearthly glory. Paul was not iu more bodily 
danger when he preached on Mars' Hill than was 
Zeisberger among the Indians of Tionesta. These 
were dependent on charity for their food ; they were 
daily and nightly in danger from wild men and wild 
beasts. In the depth of the forest they often lay 
down on the bare earth with stones for pillows, and 
under the watchful stars gave their souls to God. 
They suffered from cold, and often from inhospitality, 
and for a good share of life lived among a rough 
people in a cheerless climate, and fearful of helpless 
old age. They preached to half-dressed men in the 
woods, who stood leaning on their rifles, and the first 
meeting of their Presbytery, in 1781, was put off on 
account of the Indian incursions of that year. 

The men of the Redstone Presbytery have been 
praised by some who knew their worth. From Brack- 
enridge to Doddridge is a wide gap, but the doubting 
philosopher touched his hat with the Doctor of 
Divinity in the exclusive establishment to the energy, 
the simplicity, and the sound doctrine of these simple 
fathers, and admitted that the preachers contributed 
much to that happy change in the civil state of the 
border. These men had, indeed, a most wonderful 
hold on the people, and did shape their civil as well 
as their moral ends. A great part of this effective- 
ness was no doubt owing to their way of assimilating 
with the people. The distinction between minister 
and layman was never once forgotten. There was a 
stereotyped difference, and yet the distinction could 
not casually be observed. No Franciscan that ever 
begged alms and shrived souls had more influence in 
a spiritual sense than had these early missionaries 
and the subsequent pastors. They were respected by 
that race which owned no allegiance to any prince or 
potentate — of that race which, in its rags, was as proud 
as the Castilian Dons. At the same time they coa- 
lesced with and became part of the people. They 
struggled with the first settlers in the fields, in dan- 
gers from the Indians, and in all the privations of set- 
tling a new country. They had often to work with 
their hands for their food, and to keep their little ones 
from crying for bread. But most of them attained to 
a good old age, and they had the happy satisfaction of 
seeing the evidence of their work with their own eyes. 



Soon after the Redstone Presbytery was organized 
there were various and successful attempts made to 
educate young men for the ministry especially, and 
in general for secular professions ; ' and among the 
pots and skillets of the early pastors' houses the poetry 
and eloquence of Greece and Rome were taught, and 
lectures given on dogmatic theology, where half a 
generation before the cross-legged Delawares sat jab- 
bering. During the few succeeding years John Mc- 
Perrin, Samuel Porter, Robert Marshall, George 
Hill, William Swan, and Thomas Marquis were li- 
censed. 2 



1 The Two Colleges. — Jefferson College began with the Academy and 
Library Company of Cannonsburg, 1791, with David Johnston its first 
teacher, Dr. McMillan transferring his Latin school to the chartered 
company. Col. Cannon built a stone building in 179G ; the Pittsburgh 
Gazette mentions it as a "successful grammar school" in 1792; the trus- 
tees petitioned the Legislature for an appropriation, and in 1800 got one 
thousand dollars, and in 1802 it was granted a charter as Jefferson Col- 
lege, Rev. John Watson, its first president, followed by Dunlap, 1803; 
Wylie, 1812; William McMillan, 1817; Brown, 1822; Breckinridge, 
1845 ; Crown, 1847 ; Alden, 1857 ; Riddle, 1862. The two colleges united 
under act of March 4. 1865, when Rev. Jonathan Edwards was chosen 
president, and inaugurated April 4, 1S66. 

Washington College grew out of the academy ; was incorporated in 
1806 ; the Legislature granted five thousand dollars in 1820, and in 1830 
gave five hundred dollars yearly, for five years, as a gratuity to young 
men who desired to qualify for teachers. Its presidents have beeu Brown, 
1800 ; Wylie, 1817 (closed two years) ; Elliott, 1830; McConaghey, 1831 ; 
Clark, 1850; Brownson, 1852; Scott, 1853; Wilson, 1865; Edwards, 1866, 
— consolidated. These two institutions and the united college have been 
of inestimable benefit not only to Washington County, but to the whole 
country, and to all parts of the world ; for ministers of the gospel and 
lawyers and physicians ami business men educated in them are found in 
all parts of the United States, while missionaries gone out from them 
have labored or are doing so on every continent. 

2 Samuel Porter was born in Ireland in 1760. His studies were pur- 
sued under direction of Mr. Smith and Rev. McMillan, the latter making 
no charge for board or tuition, while a friend provided for his family in 
the mean time. He was licensed Nov. 12, 1789. In the following year 
he became pastor of the congregations of Poke Run and Congruity. of 
the former he was pastor until 179S, of the latter until his death, Sept. 
23, 1825, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. 

George Hill was born in York County, March 13, 1764. He was li- 
censed to preach Dec. 22, 1791. He was firstsettled in the congregations 
of Fail held, Donegal, and Wheatfield (northern part of Ligonier Val- 
ley), Nov. 13, 1792. Six years afterwards he resigned the charge of 
Wheatfield, and accepted a call for Ligonier. In these charge* he la- 
bored until his death, June 9, 1822, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 
He was aman of remarkable vigor of constitution, with a mind to work. 

John McPerrin was born iu York County, now Adams County, Nov. 
15, 1757. He learned the languages preparatory to his going to college, 
under the Rev. Robert Smith, of Pequea, and was graduated Maj 7. 
1788, at Dickinson College, Carlisle ; licensed to preach Aug. 20, 1789, by 
the Presbytery of Redstone, and ordained and installed pastor of the 
united congregations of Salem and Unity on the 22d of September, 1791 ; 
resigned the charge of Unity on the 25th of June, 1800, and on the 20th 
of April, 1803, that of Salem, and having accepted a call from the united 
congregations of Concord and Muddy Creek, in the Erie Presbytery, he 
was dismissed to that Presbytery. He died Feb. 10, 1822. 

William Swan was a native of Cumberland County, Pa., and was 
educated at Cannonsburg; licensed to preach Dec. 22, 1791. He had 
many calls, but finally accepted the one from Long Run and Sewickley, 
April 7, 1793, and on the 16th of October following was ordained ami in- 
stalled their pastor. Here he labored for a period of twenty-five years. 
In October, 1718, he obtained leave to resign the pastoral care of the 
congregations, hut in the following spring, April 20, 1819, he was re- 
called to Long Run. Here he labored for three years longer, but by 
reason of declining health the pastoral relation was dissolved finally 
April 17, 1822. Under a slow pulmonary consumption his health con- 
tinued to decline, and on the 27th of November, 1827, he died, in the 
sixty-third year of his age. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



239 



From the necessity of the thing our remarks are 
more directed to the polity of the Presbyterian Church 
as it existed in the early Westmoreland than to any 
other. Its relation to the people now cannot be com- 
pared with its relation to them then, but it forms such 
an element in the secular history, that we, to under- 
stand something at any rate of the customs and man- 
ners of our founders, are led into an extended article. 
The Calvinistic tendencies of all the early churches 
of Western Pennsylvania being in one direction, and 
their polity somewhat identical, their customs may 
be called the same. Besides this, much of our early 
history is illustrated by their records. 

The meetings then of the early pastors with the 
people, before there were regularly-organized congre- 
gations, were in the open air. 

" The groves 
Were God's first temples, ere man learned to hew 
The shaft, or lay the architrave." 

A pulpit of logs was temporarily erected, and log 
seats resting on the ground upon stones answered 
for those who wished to sit, but it was commonly 
the custom of the men and boys to remain standing, 
leaning against trees. The pulpit when covered 
with boards was called a tent. In warm weather, 
clothing being very scarce, the men frequently came 
to meeting without coats, and the preacher, before 
reading the psalm, usually took off his coat and spoke 
in his shirt-sleeves. In cold or inclement weather the 
people brought with them blankets and coverlets, and 
greatcoats, and they sometimes built huge fires. 
When the catechumens had assembled at the Old 
Brush Creek Church before one Easter, it being raw 
and cold, the pastor, Rev. Weber, directed the 
young men to build a brush-heap near the church 
and fire it during the intermission between the fore- 
noon and afternoon sessions, that they might gather 
around it and warm themselves till they were called 
back to the cold building. 

Preaching in cabins was perhaps cotemporaneous 
with preaching in the woods, but where they expected 
to have frequent services, and where they had these, 
were the placfes which they called tents. In a com- 
munity the most accessible, and which marks the site 
or location of many of the early churches, these per- 
manent arrangements were made. Here a platform- 
pulpit like a shed was made to protect the preacher 
from rain and the sun. This was erected on a declivity 
among tall trees. A board in front of the preacher 
was the reading-desk ; the back and sides were closely 
boarded. Logs and puncheon-seats arranged against 
the incline of the ground served for the congregation. 
To such occasions of public worship are to be traced 
those peculiar, revivals which are recorded in the 
ecclesiastical history of Western Pennsylvania and 
Western Virginia. 

None of the earlier churches tell the date of their 
construction nor of their organization. But the first 
churches were the round log cabins made double, 



with the logs joined to each other along the sides. 
There are instances of churches being built in a 
single day. The recess left in the middle of such 
buildings was occupied on one side by the pulpit. 
In the earliest buildings no fire was used, and when 
fire was first utilized it was sometimes made in an 
earthen vessel in the centre of the building. 

On Sept. 13, 1775, Dr. McMillan preached at a 
meeting-house at Long Run, and Judge Veech, after 
giving the subject some reflection, states that there 
were doubtless meeting-houses at Mount Pleasant, 
Sewickley, Laurel Hill, 1 Dunlap's Creek (the scene 
of Dr. Power's early labors), not later than 1777. 
The first house in which Mr. Power preached for the 
Sewickley congregation stood on the road leading 
from Markle's paper-mill towards Pittsburgh, about 
half-way between the Big Sewickley and the Little 
Sewickley. It was a clapboard-roofed cabin, with 
openings in the logs covered with glazed linen for 
the windows. The clapboards were kept to their 
place by saplings or split logs. The seats were cleft 
logs raised on blocks ; the door and windows had 
been cut out after the house was built, and the door 
was hung on wooden hinges. 

The old translation of the psalms, called Rouse's, 
was the only one tolerated, and Watts' version was 
slow in superseding it. The clerk lined out (pre- 
cented) the lines of the psalm or hymn from his place 
under the pulpit. He also published the banns of 
marriage. He managed to sing and talk through his 
nose in a monotonous monotone. At first all the 
congregation sang the air only, but gradually the 
other parts were introduced, — the treble, the counter, 
and the bass. The number of times were few, and 
were known to all evangelical sects from Virginia to 
Massachusetts: These were called the twelve tunes 
of David. Parson, in his "Life of Jefferson," says 
that the psalmody of early Virginia for almost two 
hundred years was restricted to a fewer number of 
airs than this. When the notes to them were used 
they were such as afterwards were called by an irrev- 
erent generation " buckwheat" characters ; in size 
these were about the circumference of a grain of 
buckwheat, which, in truth, they somewhat resem- 
bled. 

The first innovation in psalmody is blamed to those 
Yankees of New England who passed the winter of 
1788 along the Yough awaiting to embark in the 
spring for the new lands along the Ohio, and whom 
Dr. Hildreth has made famous. These had among 
them the proverbial Yankee singer and fiddler, who 
followed in the wake of their great prototype, Ichabod 
Crane, to smash hearts, and, Orpheus-like, " to wake 
the woods of Rodope, when rocks and trees had ears to 
rapture." These, it is said, first introduced the bass viol 
to chord with the human voice in the choir; whence 
we have an idea of the effect of this innovation in the 

1 Now Connellsville, Fayette County. 



240 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



direction of the old minister to "let us feedle and 
sing" such and such a psalm. Those people of pas- 
sage introduced here a wonderful variety of tunes, 
and first, from among the hidden mysteries, disclosed 
the beauty of the " fugue" tunes in which our old 
people when they were young took so much enjoy- 
ment. The peculiarity of the fugue tunes will be re- 
membered by those who have heard them, but it is 
hard to explain. After the four parts into which the 
music was divided had been passed over together for 
the first two lines of the verse, they were separated, each 
portion of the congregation then singing for itself, and 
each following the other and taking up the line as the 
preceding portion ended on it. The nicety of it was 
that they all managed to come out together, and in 
this was the art. We have heard some very respect- 
able old persons say this manner of singing could not 
give a reverently- and spiritually-inclined creature a 
very forcible notion of the celestial harmony of the 
beatific spheres, for each part had to sing the highest, 
the loudest, and the strongest. 

The Presbytery of Redstone, increasing in popula- 
tion and in the number of pastors and churches, was 
from time to time changed in bounds and extent. In 
1830 the Presbytery of Blairsville was erected from 
the territory of Redstone, embracing the ministers 
and congregations north of the Pittsburgh and Stoys- 
town turnpikes, viz. : Rev. Messrs. J. W. Henderson, 
Francis Laird, David Barclay, James Graham, John 
Eeed, Samuel Swan, Jesse Smith, Thomas Davis, 
John H. Kirkpatrick, Samuel McFarren, Elisha D. 
Barrett, James Campbell, and Watson Hughes, with 
their respective charges. The new Presbytery held 
its first meeting at Ebenezer, Rev. Francis Laird, pre- 
siding. 

The old churches in the county which originally 
belonged to the Redstone Presbytery, but which now 
belong to the Blairsville Presbytery, are Fairfield, 
Donegal, Salem, Unity, and Poke Run. Those in ex- 
istence in 1830, when the Presbytery was organized, 
were Greensburg, Plum Creek (first called Ebenezer), 
Congruity, and Ligonier. Those which have since 
been added are Murraysville, New Alexandria, La- 
trobe, Penn, Parnassus, Irwin, and Derry. 

The Presbyterian Churches in Westmoreland 
County are as follows : 



Name of Church. 



Name of Minister. 



No. of 
Members. 



W. SI. DoualJson, P.. 



Lajrd Rev. John Kerr, S.S.. 

Fairfield 

Union 

New Alexandria 

Pine Kun 

Harrison City 

Manor 

Unity 

Greensburg, 

Poke Buu 

Latrobe 

Livermore 

New Salem 

Ligonier 



" F. L. Lenour, P 

" John M. Jones, P 

Vacant 

Rev. James Kirk, P 

" D. W. Townsend, P 

" W. W. Moorhead.P 

" Henry Bain, P 

" Thomas B. Anderson, P.... 

" James S. Woodburn, P 

" J. L. Thompson. P...<. 

" E. G. McKinley, I' 



Name of Church. 



Name of Slinister. 



No. of 
Members. 



Salem Rev. D. R. McCaslin, P 

Derry | " " 

Congruity ' " E. S. Robinson, P 

Irwin " A. Z. SIcGogney, P 

Murraysville " John I. Blackburn, P.. 

Parnassus .. Vacant 

Pleasant Grove | Sir. E. H. Dickinson, S.S 

Centreville 

Sit. Pleasant Reunion- 
Long Ruu 

West Newton 

Scottdale 

Mt. Pleasant 

Sewickley 

Pleasant Unity 

Rehoboth 



Vacant .. 

Rev. Spencer L. Finney. P.. 

" W. P. Sloore, P 

" John C. Meloy, P 

" J. H. Stevenson, P 

" Wm. F. Ewing, P 

Vacant 

Rev. A. A. Hough. P 

" A. F.Boyd, P 



95 

125 
221 
143 
251 
157 
115 

29 
13ti 
175 
170 
111 
191 
100 

93 
134 




REFORMED CHURCH. 
The German settlers on coming out did not bring 
ministers with them, nor did they have any for many 
years ; but they had in nearly every settlement, after 
the German custom, a schoolmaster who instructed 
the children in the catechism, and taught them read- 
ing and writing, who baptized the babes and read the 
prayers at the grave, who married young couples and 
who visited the sick. The school-house, later, was 
erected alongside of the church ; or if the school-house 
had been first the church was erected near it. so that 
services were often held in those buildings before they 
had church buildings. 

And so it was the custom long after this to make 
the house or outbuilding of some prominent Lutheran 
or German Reformed the centre of a congregation for 
a place of worship. Hither the pastor came and 
preached, held communion services, and catechised. 
These periodical services sometimes lasted for a week. 
The German branch of Protestantism which rose 
from the Reformation in the sixteenth century re- 
solved itself into two distinct communions, the "Re- 
formed" and the " Lutheran." The Reformed Church 
in the United States, up until the General Synod held 
in Philadelphia in 18(39, was officially known and is 
sometimes yet popularly called the German Reformed 
Church, but at that meeting of the Classis the word 
" German" was officially dropped from the title of the 
church. The Reformed is sometimes confounded 
with the Presbyterian Church, by being considered 
the German branch of that church, but they differ 
chiefly in this, that the latter is less liturgical and more 
rigidly Calvinistic than the former. 

The original members of both the Reformed and 
Lutheran Churches came from the German nations of 
Europe, and they were bound together by many ties, 
of which the strongest were lineage, language, inter- 
marriage, a commonality of liturgies, of pastoral au- 
thority, of profession of faith, and of symbolical ob- 
servances and formulas. It would appear to a dis- 
interested observer that the theology of the Heidel- 
berg Catechism was not so strictly taught then as later, 
and that in its views of the sacraments of the Lord's 
Supper and of baptism the church differed not so 
much from the Lutheran, for it now professes to be in 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



241 



these two questions more with Geneva than with 
Augsburg. But we make these remarks merely as an 
observer and without authority, and advance them to 
explain the commonality of these two communions 
as it is observed of their respective histories in our 
county in the primordial days. 

In the government of their churches they are both 
Presbyterial, in distinction to Episcopal, Papal, or 
Congregational, and so called because it is a govern- 
ment of elders; that is, as they say, by the " minis- 
ters and the congregational officers elected by the 
respective congregations for certain temporal and 
spiritual needs." These form the first body for 
church organization and business, while larger bodies 
formed together in a representative capacity, which 
larger bodies are called by some Presbyteries, but by 
these, " Classis," and so on. 

In the early clays of the colony, and particularly 
in the region outside of the more thickly populated 
parts, the rising generation of the German Protest- 
ants first found little in these two different churches 
to disagree in. They therefore frequently intercom- 
muned together, the common or nearest pastor per- 
formed the first and last rites of their ministerial 
functions to those in need without regard to church 
connection, and they both mutually assisted each 
other. 

There was originally in both these churches a 
great disparity between the population holding these 
religious preferences and the number of pastors to 
supply their spiritual wants. 1 

At an early date the members of the two German 
churches, the Reformed and the Lutheran, were ac- 
customed to meet in respective localities at the houses 
of some of their members, and here they held re- 
ligious services. These services were at first con- 
ducted without a minister, and consisted in singing 
from their German hymn-books, reading the Bible, 
and offering prayers from their German prayer-books. 
Among the Lutherans especially, and also, as we have 
seen, among the Reformed, when they had a school- 
master, who they usually brought with them, it was 
part of his duty to catechise and to administer the 
sacramental rite of baptism. By this means they got 
along for some years, and when each denomination 
at first got its pastor he was sufficient to supply the 
spiritual wants of a large district. Thus, when the 
pastor at the old Brush Creek congregation gathered 
his class of catechumens, the settlers brought or sent 
their children a distance of above twenty miles. 
Hither they came for catechisation from the Ale- 
mann settlement in Butler County, from Puckety, 
and beyond the Kiskiininetas. 

1 Rev. Schlatter, who arrived in America in 1746, hrought the congre- 
gations together and formed a Synod. At the first meeting of that hotly, 
Sept. 29, 1747, it consisted of five ministers and .twenty-six elders, and 
yet tile Reformed population was estimated to he ahout 30,000. 

" History of Reformed Church within the Bounds of the Westmore- 
land Classic. 1 ' We have consulted this publication, and it is our ail- 
thoiity for local data and statistics. 



The two churches likewise bought nearly all their 
church property in common. They worshiped to- 
gether in one house, and not infrequently performed 
and administered the sacraments of the church each 
for the other. The members of their congregations 
intermarried, and were buried side by side. 

The distinctive congregational polity of the ortho- 
dox German churches is nowhere more apparent than 
it is among those older congregations. They at first 
secured land at moderate rates sufficient for church 
purposes, and frequently glebe-land for the pastor's 
support ; they built a house for their schoolmaster ; 
they erected their churches with their own hands, 
and nearly every congregation had a stone-cutter who 
raised head- and foot-stones over the graves of the 
dead. 

The old graveyard of the Harrold congregation, 
with its mural remains of memorial tablets, rudely 
carved tombstones and modern monumental pillars, 
tells the whole story. For many years, and until very 
lately, it supported its own stone-cutters, who on the 
dressed flag-stones of the neighboring quarries carved 
the most grotesque figures, and made for weeping 
friends most melancholy epitaphs which soothed the 
widow's anguish, and even at this day bid the by- 
passer stop and ponder. These graven images did 
not conduce to idolatry, for they were not the like- 
ness of anything in heaven above, in the earth be- 
neath, or in the waters under the earth. Touching 
the designs on the pyramids and obelisks, on the 
mausoleums and sarcophagi of all people who hold 
the dead in memory, these are all in a sense symboli- 
cal. The moderns follow in the footsteps of the an- 
cients, and the latest is but a refinement on the earliest. 
Thus on these you have stars for the Chaldeans, trian- 
gles for the Hebrews, corbels for the Parsees, the 
sacred lotus for the Egyptians, urns for the Greeks, 
and for the Latins, lilies such as Father Anchises in 
Elysium, speaking to the pious ..Eneas, wanted to 
scatter over the shade of the youthful Marcellus. 
The commonest ornamentation of these tombstones 
is a curling vine around the upper disk terminating 
in broad leaves. In the centre where these begin is 
a flower which we incline to think was intended for 
an imitation of the tulip ; a flower that carried the 
memory back to the straight walks, the trim gardens, 
the cozy cottages, and the bridal wreaths of the bride 
along the Rhine. These flowers and vines have been 
painted, and some are green, some blue, some yellow, 
and others red. 2 Dear friends have scattered the seed 
of summer-savory and coriander, which springing up 
in thick beds scarce allows room for the periwinkle 
and golden-rod, and which when trod upon emits a 
strong odor. 

- For fear some antiquary should in future time attribute some em- 
blematic significance to these characters, we would hint that they were 
merely put upon the stones for ornamentation. These old ones, covering 
many years 1 time, were blocked out and chiseled upon by a man named 
Hiues, as appears by tile token. 



1 



242 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



" Yet even these bones from insult to protect 
Some frail memorial still erected uigli, 
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd, 
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 

"Their names, their years, spelt by the unletter'd muse, 
The place of fame and elegy supply ; 
And many a holy text around she strews, 
To teach the rustic moralist to die." 1 

The first German Reformed congregation in the 
county was the Harrold congregation. Balthazer 
Meyer, their schoolmaster, has left some of the records 
of the names of the children baptized by him before 
they had a minister. Among the first in the list was 
"Peter the son of Antony and Elizabeth Walter born 
11th September, 1771— Baptised, August 2d, 1772." 
The last child baptized was " Susanna, daughter of 
John and Christina Rudabaugh, born 30th May, 1782, 
baptized 4th June, 1782." 

In 1782 or 1783 requests were sent from the county 
to the Coetus (or Synod) for a Reformed minister to 
be sent them. Answering them, the Rev. John Wil- 
liam Weber came as a missionary, and remained their 
first pastor. In June, 1783, when he entered on his 
work he had four congregations to serve, — Harrold's, 
or Saint John's, and the Brush Creek, both in Hemp- 
field township ; Kiutig's, in Mount Pleasant town- 
ship ; and the Ridge Church, about one mile south of 
Pleasant Unity, in Unity township. He also preached 
at Pittsburgh. Besides these regular places of ser- 
vice, he held services and gave instructions in Ligonier 
Valley, and to the scattered Germans of both his own 
church and the Lutheran Church all over the south- 
ern part of the county in nearly every locality where 
later has been a congregation. 

In respect to its church organization, all those of 
the Reformed Church in Western Pennsylvania be- 
longed to the Old Synod of the United States. The 
first missionaries hither were the Revs. John William 
Weber, Henry Habbiston, and William Winel, who 
were sent to Westmoreland County and the con- 
tiguous regions by this Synod, and reported to it from 
year to year. The first Chassis was formed by the 
ministers and charges located west of the eastern line 
of Bedford County, and was named the Western 
Pennsylvania Classis, and was part of the Synod of 
the United States. In 1836 this Classis was allowed 
to unite with the Synod of Ohio and adjacent States. 
In 1839 the name of this Classis was changed to the 
Eastern District Synod of Ohio. In 1842 this Synod 



1 On a tombstone in the Brush Creek graveyard is the following line 
{inter alia). 

fair 
" She was young, she was poor " 
"Poor" has. been engraved for fair, and then crossed out and "fair" 
engraved above. 

In another graveyard, a widow, after telling of the virtues of her de- 
ceased husband, reminds the world that, 

" This stone << en cted 
Out of the Gralitudr. 
Of hie Consort." 
Truly. " the force of satire could no further go." 



was changed or divided into two Classes, to be thence- 
forth known as the Westmoreland and the Erie 
Classes. 2 

In 1850, by the Ohio Synod, the pastors and charges 
north of the Kiskiminetas River, and belonging to 
the Westmoreland Classis, were permitted to organize 
a new Classis. Westmoreland remained with the 
Ohio Synod up to the formation of the Pittsburgh 
Synod, Feb. 12, 1870. 

In October, 1871, the Pittsburgh Synod granted a 
request to the Westmoreland Classis to divide again 
into three parts, to be known by the names of West- 
moreland, Somerset, and Allegheny Classes. This 
division went into effect in June, 1872. 

The first meeting of the Classis was held at New 
Salem (Delmont P. O.) in June, 1872. Rev. John I. 
Swander (now of Ohio) was elected president; Rev. 
J. F. Snyder, stated clerk; and Rev. John W. Love, 
treasurer. 

We give the statistical report for the Westmoreland 
Classis for 1881 : 



Jacob F. Snyder 

Johu W. Love 

David B. Lady 

John McConnell 

Samuel Z. Beam 

Cyrus R. DietTenbacher. 

George D.Gurley 

Benjamin B. Ferer 

John Dotterer 

Albert E. Tnixal 

Charles W. Good 

Prof. Lucian Cort 

James Grant 

Supplied by Rev. Good 
Win. II Bates 



2 Emmanuel 

3 Second, Greensburg 

2 Brush Creek 

2 Salina 

4 Mount Pleasant 

2 First, Greensburg 

1 Latrobe 

:'. Pleasant Unity 

liPine Rim 

1 Irwin 

2 Salem 

| Principal Greensburg Female Sem. 

Without charge 

1 St. James Congregation 

1 Johnstown 



2 § 






339! 293 

289 _'i7 

650 432 

103 78 

228! 132 

4*n 400 

65 60 

315 23fi 

129; 80 

200 105 

24:1 178 



45 20 
50i 



Total, 15 2, r . 



In the mutation of things, the history of the Re- 
formed Church in Westmoreland County has a chap- 
ter full of matter for melancholy reflection. This is 
the one devoted to the sketches of those congregations 
which are now extinct. Of these there were five, — 
namely, the Miihleisen (now called by its English 
name, the Milliron), Donegal, Indian Creek, Barren 
Run, and the Forks congregations. These were all 
located in .the southeastern part of Westmoreland and 
the northeastern part of Fayette County. The dates 
of their organization are not known, and very little 

2 "Accordingly, the first meeting of Westmoreland Classis proper con- 
vened by appointment of Synod at Kindigh's, or St. John's Church, near 
Mount Pleasant, Pa., May 26th, 1813. There were present at this meet- 
ing six ministers and seven elders, namely : Revs. N. P. Hacke, William 
Conrad, II. A. Ibeken, William Winel, H. E. P. Voigt, II. Knepper ; and 
Elders John Wentzel, Henry Smith, Michael Ruby, Benjamin Countty- 
man, M. Zimmerman, Peter Whitehead, and David Stemble. There 
were absent: Revs. H. Koch, G. Lidy, P. Zeiser, and J, Althuuse. Rev. 
William Conrad was elected President; Rev. H. A. Ibeken, Secretary, 
and Elder Peter Whitehead, Treasurer." 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



243 



of their history, as no documentary history has been 
preserved. 

These were, no doubt, the result of Rev. Weber's 
missionary labors in that region during his ministra- 
tions. Probably some of them are of a later date, as 
the first record of these congregations, as referred to in 
the " History of the Reformed Church," is found in the 
minutes of the Eastern District Synod of Ohio for the 
year 1841. With the exception of the Milliron con- 
gregation, there is no written record of any of them 
prior to this date. Tradition, however, reports that 
they were served by the Rev. Weber and his succes- 
sors, Revs. Weinel and Voight. The record for that 
year shows that these congregations, except that of 
Barren Run, were a part of the Mount Pleasant charge, 
of which Rev. Voight was pastor. In 1845 the name 
of the Forks is dropped, and that of Barren Run ap- 
pears for the first time. But from the following year it 
does not appear again upon the record. The number 
only, and not the names of the other congregations, 
appear after 1849, but some of them still are con- 
tinued till 1859. From this time there is no further 
notice taken in the records of the Classes of any of 
them. 

Of these it may be said that there is no evidence 
they were ever in a prosperous condition, that they 
seem to have been weak and unpromising interests 
from the start, and that organized in remote localities, 
they could not receive the necessary pastoral services 
to make them prosperous, even under more favorable 
circumstances. For many years the organizations 
were kept up, and served with difficulty by the pastors, 
until they died from neglect. The membership was 
scattered, and some being absorbed in other denomi- 
nations. 

The Rev. C. C. Russell is reported as the last Re- 
formed minister who preached at Indian Creek and 
Barren Run. He visited the congregations for the 
purpose of reorganizing them, but found the material 
entirely lost to the Reformed Church. The Rev. J. 
A. Heller stopped preaching at Donegal, while he 
was pastor at the Mount Pleasant charge, about 
1870-72. This is the last account of any services 
held in any of these congregations. 

The Muhleisen, or Milliron, congregation shall have 
something more said of it in the local history of the 
township to which it belongs. In their " Gottes- 
Acker" they hold the bones of their first missionary, 
John William Weber. And strange, while the con- 
gregation itself has passed into the " unseen forever," 
the old church, with its old octagonal pulpit, now 
covered with spider-webs, and the old " pastor's 
house," still remain deserted but not desecrated, 
while the little graveyard, with many unmarked 
graves, is yet kept cleanly and neatly, and over all is 
the granite monument erected by the Westmoreland 
Classis to the memory of their pioneer missionary. 

Rev. John William Weber.— Rev. John Wil- 
liam Weber was born in the province of Wittzenstein, 



Germany, on the 4th of March, 1735. He was a 
school-teacher in the fatherland. He emigrated to 

> America probably in 1764, and in the " Coetal" (syn- 
odical) minutes of 1771 he is mentioned as a "school- 
master, who appeared with the request that he might 
be examined as to his knowledge of Divine things." 
The examination proving satisfactory, he was author- 
ized to preach. His first charge must have been in 
Northampton County, or rather in that part of it 

; which constitutes Monroe County in this State. The 
German traveler Schoepf, who passed through there 
in 1782, says in the account of his journey, "After 
we left Eckhardt's we missed the way which we were 
to take to Brinker's Mill, turning to the left; in this 
way, however, we came past several farms, for which 
we would not have looked in this region. They lay 
scattered in the woods, and are settled for the most 
part by Germans; for these are inclined mostly to lo- 
cate in remote places, where they can obtain land at 
a low price. We passed a small log church, which 
has been built by the Lutheran and German Reformed, 
whom it served alternately as a place of worship. 
Rev. Pastor Weber last served this congregation. We 
went to Pittsburgh." 

In a document drawn up by Mr. Weber himself, 
he says that he came to Westmoreland County in 
September, 1782, and that he preached in Pittsburgh 
before the 18th of October in the same year, when 
he was officially called to the charge at a salary of 
£116 in money, one hundred bushels of wheat, a free 
house, and firewood annually. The traveler, Schoepf, 
refers again to Mr. Weber, when he was at Pittsburgh, 
in October, 1782. Speaking of this city he says, 
" Public buildings, as houses for worship, there are 
as yet none here. There is, nevertheless, a German 
preacher here who ministers for believing persons of 
different confessions." These "believing persons" 
Mr. Weber no doubt organized into a congregation 
very soon afterwards, as the records of 1783 and his 
own constant language clearly imply. His labors ex- 
tended over a large territory, and continued for many 
years. He preached much. He catechised the young 
regularly in all the congregations. He laid the foun- 
dation of his church in these parts broad and deep, 
and upon them a structure has been raised worthy of 
the man. He is described by Dr. Harbaugh : " In 
personal appearance Mr. Weber was a good-looking, 
portly, well-formed man, blessed with a strong and 
vigorous constitution, and to undergo a great deal of 
labor and fatigue. He was of an ardent, quick tem- 
perament, free spoken, rapid, but clear and distinct, in 
his enunciation while preaching, and in the habit of 
what is generally termed 'calling things by their 
right names.' " His labors in Pittsburgh appear to 
have extended to the year 1812. He continued his 
labors in the country congregations until almost the 
day of his death, in July, 1816. He reached the ripe 
old age of nearly eighty-two. 

His name is mentioned in the still remaining frag- 



244 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



mental congregational records. More particular refer- 
ence to his labors here we have in his journal and in 
the papers referred to in his biography. A pretty 
full account of his life and services is contained in 
the second volume of Harbaugh's " Fathers of the 
Reformed Church," from page 208 to 221. 

Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke, D.D. — This eminent 
divine departed this life on Monday, Aug. 26, 1878. 
His remains were interred in the German burying- 
ground, in Greensburg, on Thursday, August 29th, 
in the presence of a very large assemblage of citizens, 
ministers, and professional men. The Rev. Thomas 
G. Apple, D.D., president and professor in the theolog- 
ical seminary in Lancaster, Pa., was present, and 
preached the funeral sermon in the old German 
Church in Greensburg, where the remains of the de- 
ceased were placed during the funeral ceremonies, in 
which several distinguished clergymen participated. 

The closing of the business houses and the un- 
usually large number of people who assembled to pay 
the last sad homage of respect to the memory of Dr. 
Hacke, evinced the profound respect that was felt for 
the deceased. Dr. Hacke was born in Baltimore, but 
educated in Germany. When he was about sixteen 
years of age he returned to America and studied di- 
vinity in Baltimore under the care of a Reformed min- 
ister. At the age of about nineteen years he came to 
Greensburg, in Westmoreland County, and soon after 
took charge of the German Reformed congregations in 
Greensburg, at Harrold's and at Brush Creek. The 
old German meeting-house in Greensburg, erected at 
the joint expense of the Lutheran and Reformed con- 
gregations, was a log building, erected in 1796 or 
shortly before that time, on the parsonage lot where 
Dr. Hacke lived previous to his death. Prior to his 
coming to Greensburg, the old brick Lutheran and 
Reformed German meeting-house, on the west side of 
Main Street, was commenced, but not finished when 
Dr. Hacke came out here, and it is said he preached 
his first sermon in Greensburg in the old court-house. 
He was the cotemporary of six of the president 
judges of Westmoreland County, namely, Judges 
Young, White, Knox, Burrell, Buffington, and Logan, 
and has survived all of them but two, and of all the 
members of the bar who were practicing law in 1819, 
when Dr. Hacke first came to Greensburg, but one is 
now surviving. At different periods of his life he 
had charge of at least nine congregations, namely, 
Greensburg, Harrold's, Brush Creek, Ridge, Ligonier, 
Youngstown, Hill's, Seauor's, and Manor. 

No man in the county had intimate social relations 
with so large a number of respectable and influential 
citizens, and hence when Dr. Hacke was in the vigor 
of life he was himself a power in the county, and 
young men entering upon a professional career sought 
his friendship as a passport to success. His learning 
was accurate, solid, and comprehensive, and his con- 
versation varied, chaste, mirthful, and entertaining. 
His judgment of capacity and character was excellent. 



A superficial? pretentious outside appearance never 
deceived him. In fact, all such characters soon dis- 
covered that it was useless and damaging to subject 
their shallow assumptions and pretended knowledge 
to the clear sunlight of his great discernment. By 
I some law of our rational natures, men of great abil- 
ity, although of very dissimilar talents, naturally 
gravitate towards each other. With such there is an 
inherent law of friendship and cordial feeling when 
this tendency is not overcome by some stronger mo- 
tive of competition or ambitious aims. Not to speak 
of the living, we may refer to two of the eminent 
men of Greensburg, now deceased, as a striking il- 
lustration of what has just been remarked upon. The 
Hon. J. M. Burrell, formed by nature for politics 
rather than for the law, and Dr. Alfred T. King, the 
naturalist, both of whom were pre-eminent in their 
respective positions, were strongly attached to Dr. 
Hacke, and entertained for him the most profound 
respect ; and he, on his part, seems to have recipro- 
cated this sentiment of devotion. There was nothing 
in their professional or religious tendencies that led 
to this. It existed in spite of these causes of diverg- 
ence. Dr. Hacke was not only a Christian theologian, 
but also a religious philosopher, who in any age and 
in any country — on the banks of the Ganges, the Nile, 
or the Obi — would have " understood by the things 
that are made" the eternal power and divinity of 
the Creator, and his right to the homage, respect, and 
veneration of all intelligent creatures. It is said of 
Spinoza that he was a mystic, drunk with God. Dr. 
Hacke was the reverse of all this. His mind was 
practical rather than speculative. In the sphere of 
the things of the world he demanded proof or clear, 
logical demonstration based upon known facts. While 
this was the tendency of his mental structure, it is 
evident that he was not wholly satisfied with this 
piecemeal and rodent process of attaining a knowl- 
edge of the facts in nature, because he read inces- 

i santly and with eagerness, but with great discrimina- 
tion, the advanced thought and profound speculations 

I of educated writers in every department of learning. 
There is one trait of character without which no 
man can be great, whatever may be his ability. It is 
that inflexible firmness of purpose that moves along 
the whole stage of life without vacillation. The soul 
s.> habilitated is founded on a rock, and when the 
popular humor of the hour is spent is spared the 
mortification of having floated on a bubble, a retro- 
spect of which is hardly consistent with enduring 
self-respect. Dr. Hacke possessed in a remarkable 
degree this trait of character. New measures, tran- 
sient outbursts of popular fervor in advocacy of one 
virtue to the oversight of others equally important, 
did not enlist his sympathies or disturb the even 
tranquillity of his steadfast and immovable disposi- 
tion, and then when the ephemeral excitement had 
passed away, even those who had fallen in with the 
current of the abnormal movement could see and ap- 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



245 



preciate " how much happier is he who remains im- 
movable, and smiles at the madness of the dance 
about him." For fifty-eight years of active minis- 
terial life Dr. Hacke sustained this solid character of 
temperateness, even in doing good, and when the 
community was surprised by radical and passionate 
popular movements in politics, morals, religion, and 
temperance, many learned to wait and hear what Dr. 
Hacke would say. This steadfastness indicated no 
indisposition to legitimate progress. Dr. Hacke was 
a great reader, and kept himself well informed on all 
scientific questions, and doubtless this had the effect 
of modifying his earlier convictions in regard to sci- 
entific truth. Perhaps the most difficult trial that he 
had to undergo in his ministerial capacity was the 
transition from German to English. The old mem- 
bers of his congregations of course insisted on ad- 
hering to German preaching and services in the 
churches, while the younger members, some of whom 
understood but little German, insisted on English 
preaching. Here was a dilemma hard to reconcile. 
Dr. Hacke was a man of large foresight, and doubt- 
less was convinced that sooner or later the transition 
must come ; but while he lived he was anxious to pre- 
serve the unity and harmony of all his church-mem- 
bers, and could not, with propriety, take a very de- 
cided stand on either side, and some were unchari- 
table enough, perhaps, to say, " Yaw, der Hacke will 
auch Irish werden." But this was a great mistake. 
Dr. Hacke was a thorough German, proud of his 
Saxon ancestry. He had spent his youth at Bremen, 
on the Weser, which takes its rise near Detmold, 
where Arminius, his countryman, in the ninth cen- 
tury had annihilated the legions of Varus, the Roman 
consul, and where, at a later period, Wittekind, a man 
of illustrious descent and immense estates, in the 
eighth century resisted for several years the armies of 
Charlemagne. Their character was that of wild, ob- 
stinate freedom, and they were the last of the Ger- 
man tribes to accept the Christian religion ; but within 
a generation after they had accepted it they became 
the most devoted followers of the Saviour. 

And now, concludes his biographer to whom we 
are indebted, after fifty-eight years of active minis- 
terial service, the old patriarch, descended from this 
noble stock, has bid adieu to all the active pursuits 
of this world. In a good old age, crowned with 
honor and respect, he has been gathered unto his 
fathers, and will not rise "till the heavens be no 
more." 

THE GEEENSBUKG SEMINARY. 

Greensburg Seminary is located at Greensburg, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa., thirty-one miles east of Pitts- 
burgh, on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. At 
a meeting of the "Board of Trustees of Literary In- 
stitutions" of the Pittsburgh Synod of the Reformed 
Church, held March 3, 1874, this institution was estab- 
lished by the action of that body. In accordance with 
this action the preliminary steps were immediately 



taken to put the institution on foot, and the idea of 
a permanent female seminary, which had been at- 
tempted at different times before, was now about to 
be realized. The Rev. Lucian Cort, of Marti nsburg, 
Pa., was called to take charge of the enterprise. 
Although engaged in an important work in the insti- 
tution over which he presided at the time, he was in- 
duced by the earnest appeals and solicitations of the 
friends of the new enterprise to accept the call. 
After due consideration of the risks and the financial 
responsibilities of commencing and carrying forward 
such an undertaking, he entered upon the work in 
good faith, and the erection of the necessary buildings 
was accordingly commenced without delay. On the 
18th of April a suitable location was purchased on 
elevated grounds overlooking the town and surround- 
ing country. On this beautiful site a large, elegant, 
and commodious building of the most substantial 
structure was erected for the accommodation of board- 
ing pupils and school purposes. The formal opening 
of the institution took place with appropriate services 
on the 7th of April, 1875. Thus in less than one 
year from the time of commencing the erection of the 
buildings they were entirely completed, and the in- 
stitution went into full operation. It took its origin, 
as may be seen on the one hand, from a deep-felt want 
in the minds of many of the citizens of Greensburg 
and surrounding community of a school of a high 
grade in their midst for the education of their daugh- 
ters, and on the other hand from the positive enact- 
ment of the Synod of the Reformed Church, in order 
to meet the educational wants of her own member- 
ship. The institution is thus brought into close rela- 
tion to the church, which gives it a broader basis and 
a more permanent character than a merely private 
project. It secures not only the support but the 
sanction of the church, without which no institution 
of learning can expect permanently to prosper. 
Whilst it is thus under the fostering care of the Re- 
formed Church, it is not sectarian, but only denomi- 
national and distinctively Christian. Its advantages 
are not exclusive, but free and open to all. With 
such a wide scope in view, it hopes to subserve the 
general interests of Christian education, as well as 
the special wants of the particular denomination 
under whose care and direction it was more especially 
established. 

The general object and character of the institution 
is set forth in a circular letter published before the 
opening, and is as follows : 

"The object of this institution is to afford to young ladies the advan- 
tages of a Christian education as distinguished from a mere secular 
training. It aims to accomplish this important end not by cultivating 
their mental powers only, but their moral, social, and ff-sthetic nature as 
well, thus developing the female character in broad, beautiful, and har- 
monious proportions. Her education should be such as to fit her for the 
duties of her appropriate sphere. She may have an important mission 
to accomplish in the more public or literary arena, but she wields a far 
greater power and influence in the social and domestic relations of life, 
which is undoubtedly her appropriate sphere of action. 

"It will be the constant aim of the principal to develop all those 



246 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



powers of mind and character which will fit her to move with dignity, 
grace, and effect in the various relations of life. While the solid blanches 
of an education will always be made a principal object, those of a more 
ornamental character, such as music, painting, drawing, etc., will also 
receive special attention. The cultivation of correct taste and good 
manners will always be insisted upon as an important element in female 
education. These attainments, with the grace of Christian piety, form 
the crowning virtues of the female character. The course of studies is 
broad and liberal, such as to meet all the demands of a good education. 
" The instructions will be thorough, scientific, and practical. The very 
best facilities and advantages for gaining a first-class education will thus 
be afforded those availing themselves of its provisions." 

Ill accordance with this design and purpose the in- 
stitution was opened, and the work of education com- 
menced and carried forward under most favorable 
auspices. All the departments of instruction were 
filled with able and competent teachers, which at once 
gave character to the institution, and was a means of 
attracting pupils. From the beginning the school 
enjoyed a respectable patronage, and the pupils have 
always come from the more substantial class of our 
citizens. _ It has grown in favor and in confidence 
with the pupils and people gradually until it has at- 
tained to the character and reputation of a first-class 
school. While many of the older schools in the 
country were compelled, on account of the pressure 
of hard times, to suspend their exercises temporarily, 
or to close entirely, Greensburg Seminary maintained 
itself successfully beyond the expectation of its most 
sanguine friends. It is no more a doubtful experi- 
ment but an accomplished fact, — a successful enter- 
prise, and ranks among the best schools of the land. 
The annual examinations of the various classes, the 
elegant entertainments by the young ladies in the de- 
partment of music, the splendid exhibitions of the art 
department, and especially the creditable exercises of 
the annual commencement, are the best evidence of 
the character and efficiency of the work accomplished , 
for the cause of higher education by this young but 
vigorous institution. It assuredly is a matter of great 
gratification to the principal and friends of the insti- 
tution to see so much evidence of the good work ac- 
complished, and to know that their efforts in behalf 
of the cause of female education have been, at least 
to some extent, appreciated by the public. It is, there- 
fore, hoped that the seminary will continue to receive 
the patronage aud support its merits so justly deserve, 
and that its future will be as successful as its past his- 
tory. Young ladies completing the prescribed course 
of study and passing the final examinations will be 
awarded diplomas by the authorities of the institu- 
tion. 

It will be perceived from the foregoing sketch that 
Greensburg Seminary is not merely an ordinary select 
or high school, but an institution of a high grade, in 
which young ladies may acquire all the branches of a 
polite and liberal education. 

The school was originally established as a female 
seminary exclusively, and as such was carried for- 
ward successfully for four years. To meet the want I 
of a good school for young men, it was then thought : 



best to open a male department in connection with 
the seminary by so changing its original design as 
also to extend its privileges and advantages to young 
men. This opened the institution to a wider sphere 
of usefulness and more extended operations. Accord- 
ingly, suitable departments of instruction were pro- 
vided for both sexes. 

It was t however, not intended by this change to 
interfere with the seminary course proper for young 
ladies, but so to enlarge and arrange the curriculum 
of study as to allow also of a course for young men. 
While the primary object of the institution, the edu- 
cation of young ladies, will thus be reached, the 
advantages of a higher collegiate education will also 
be afforded to young men. These departments con- 
stitute two distinct but co-ordinate courses of instruc- 
tion. The one was not merged into the other by 
promiscuously mixing the sexes together in the same 
course of study. While some branches might be 
pursued with advantage to both in the same recita- 
tions, the interests of the higher education of both 
sexes demand that other branches should be pursued 
separately, according to the respective wants and re- 
quirements of each. Hence distinct courses are 
maintained for the several departments so as not to 
interfere with each other. 

The object of the male department, as given in the 
first circular, is to afford young men the advantages 
of a liberal education. The course of study is broad 
and comprehensive, including all the branches of a 
good English education, as well as those of a higher 
or collegiate course. It corresponds substantially 
with that of our best colleges, and may be pursued 
with advantage by those desiring it to the junior 
year. 

The attendance in this department has been good 
from the beginning. The number of students en- 
rolled for the present term is forty-six. The outlook 
for the future is encouraging. A great proportion of 
the students are in the regular course. The study of 
the languages is a prominent feature of this depart- 
ment, while mathematics and the sciences receive 
their full measure of attention. 

Thus the work of education has been carried forward 
for the last four years in the interest of both sexes. 
The general cause of higher education has thus been 
subserved, and the usefulness of the institution 
greatly enlarged. 

The seminary proper has lost nothing by the 
change, but the institution has gained much by ex- 
tending its operations in offering its advantages to 
young men. The institution is doing a good work 
not only for Westmoreland County, but for Western 
Pennsylvania. The number of pupils in attendance 
in both departments is about one hundred. While 
the majority are from Westmoreland, there are some 
from five or six adjacent counties. The institution is 
now in the eighth year of its history. It has had its 
trials to contend with, such as are incident to all en- 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



241 



terprises of the kind, especially during the hard times 
we have lately passed through. These have all been 
overcome, and the future of the institution is looming 
up with brightest visions of prosperity. The ex- 
penses of the institution have necessarily been great, 
but by economy and proper management these have 
been met, and the institution saved from financial 
embarrassment. The institution to-day stands on 
good footing, and enjoys the confidence and patronage 
of the public, and promises to be a blessing to future 
generations. 

It speaks well for the institution that three mem- 
bers of the faculty as it was originally constituted are 
still of membership, and are the most active of its 
professors. 

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church is that body of 
Christian believers who hold the doctrines of the 
gospel as restored to the church and taught by the 
great reformer, Martin Luther, and as contained in 
the Augsburg Confession, which was written by Philip 
Melancthon, and read and published before Charles V., 
at the Diet of Augsburg, on the 25th of June, 1530. 

This Confession has passed into the literature of the 
Christian world, has been translated into almost 
every modern language, and now is confessed by 
more than forty millions of believers. The Lutheran 
Church in the United States dates back to the colonial 
times. Confessors of this faith came to this country 
from Holland in 1626, one hundred and fifty years 
before the Declaration of Independence, and Lutheran 
emigrants came from Sweden in 1636, and German 
emigrants came to this country early in the eighteenth 
century. At this present time the Lutheran Church 
in the United States numbers one million communi- 
cants, with a population of at least three millions. 

The history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
our county reaches back over one hundred years, but 
its early beginnings are difficult to trace, as only very 
imperfect records of those early times have been pre- 
served. 

Ite origin here is like the course of a mountain 
stream, that winds its way unseen amid woods and 
forests till it comes into the open country. Lutheran 
families came from eastern counties and from their 
fatherland to this. part of our State before Westmore- 
land County was erected. The Detars, the Rughs, 
the Millers, the Gangawares, the Harrolds, the Alt- 
mans, and Longs settled in Hempfield township be- 
tween 1762 and 1770. There were also settlements of 
Lutheran families in several other localities soon after 
the county was formed, namely, Brush Creek, Manor, 
Kintigs, Ridge, Brandts ; and the history of the Lu- 
theran Church runs parallel with the history of the 
count}' itself. 

The meagre and imperfect records of those early 
times render it very difficult to give a satisfactory ac- 
count of the Lutheran Church, and make it impossible 



to trace the origin and progress of those old congre- 
gations with minuteness and accuracy. 

We know that congregations existed ; we know, too, 
that they were early founded, and we conclude from 
the best information that we can gain that where 
members of the Lutheran Church (and other churches) 
settled in sufficient numbers in the same vicinity they 
soon associated themselves together into a religious 
assembly and engaged in Christian worship, and by 
common consent constituted themselves into a Chris- 
tian Church, without a formal organization by passing 
resolutions or the adoption of a written constitution ; 
for in many of these congregations we can find neither 
written constitutions, nor records of the organization 
and official acts of the congregation for the early years 
of their history. 

At first they met at private houses, and in the ab- 
sence of regularly ordained ministers the services were 
not unfrequently conducted by laymen, especially by 
schoolmasters who acted as evangelists. These ser- 
vices consisted of reading the Scriptures, singing and 
prayer, reading a sermon, or making some suitable 
remarks. 

Baptisms were often performed by these evangelists. 
In the congregations at Harrold's and Brush Creek, in 
Hempfield township, which were commenced quite 
early, baptisms were performed and religious services 
conducted by these schoolmasters for a nuniber of 
years. 

At Harrold's (Zion's Church) a congregation was 
gathered as early as 1771, and there is a record of 
baptisms by such an evangelist as we have spoken of 
above. Balthazer Meyer, a schoolmaster, conducted 
services and baptized children from 1772 till 1782, 
during which time this congregation was without a 
regular setted pastor. 

In the Brush Creek congregation, which com- 
menced, perhaps, a few years later than Harrold's, 
similar services were conducted by these evangelists 
until a permanent pastor was secured. 

The first Lutheran minister who was settled in this 
county was Rev. A. Ulrich Liitje. 1 He was a Ger- 
man by birth and education, who came to the Har- 
rold's Church about the year 1782, just one hundred 
years ago. He served the Zion's Church at Harrold's 
about ten years, which he more fully organized, and 
finished the first church, which was built of logs with 
floor of puncheon, rough benches instead of pews, 
and very primitive in all its arrangements. 

He secured for Harrold's Church a tract of land by 
patent as a glebe, which the Lutheran and Reformed 
congregations now hold in common, on which there 
is a cemetery, or " God's acre," and a church which 
was built in 1829. The farm of seventy acres of land 
is under the control of the trustees of the two con- 
gregations. Rev. Liitje also ministered to the people 
at Brush Creek and several other points, but as only 



1 Prunouuced " Loot-ye." 



248 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



few records of his work have been preserved we can- 
not speak of it with minuteness. 

In 1791, Rev. John M. Steck, a native of Germany, 
came to Westmoreland County from the eastern part 
of our State, and settled in or near Greensburg. He 
carried on the work that had been commenced by his 
predecessor witli energy and success, for he was then 
in the prime of life. He was thirty-five years of age 
when he came to Westmoreland County, and labored 
here for thirty-eight years. He died the 14th of July, 
1830, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and after 
a long and successful ministry. His mantle fell upon 
his son, Rev. Michael J. Steck, who was so well and 
favorably known in this county, and was successor to 
his father in the Greensburg charge. 

Rev. John M. Steck was really the patriarch of the 
Lutheran Church in this county, for he organized 
most of the old congregations and laid the founda- 
tions for others organized later, and was the only 
settled Lutheran minister here for twenty-five years. 
When he located at Greensburg he found two congre- 
gations that had been organized by his predecessors, 
namely, Harrold's and Brush Creek. A few years 
after his arrival he organized the first German con- 
gregation of Greensburg. Early in the present cen- 
tury (1809) Manor Church was organized; also St. 
James' and Hankey's a little later, in the north of the 
county ; also St. John's (Kintig), Swope's, Ridge, and 
Youngstovvn, south and east of Greensburg. These 
congregations and a number of stations constituted 
Father Steck's charge during the many years of his 
ministry. He served all these congregations and 
ministered to the spiritual wants of these people as 
far as possible for many long and weary years. Oc- 
casionally he received a little aid from other ministers 
and theological students. His son, Michael J., ren- 
dered some assistance for a short time before he ac- 
cepted a call to Lancaster in 1817. 

Rev. Jonas Mechling also rendered him some assist- 
ance whilst yet a theological student, and after his 
licensing, in 1820, became his co-worker in this large 
field. He took charge of the St. James and Hankey's 
Churches in the north of the county, and of the 
Forks and West Newton and Barren Run in the 
western part, and Douegal and Brandt's in the south- 
ern, and the rest of the county constituted the Greens- 
burg charge during the remaining part of Father 
Steck's ministry ; but the principal congregations of 
this important charge were the First German Church 
at Greensburg, Harrold's, Brush Creek, and Manor. 
A brief notice of these will not be out of place here, 
inasmuch as they exerted an important influence on 
other churches, and their history gives us the history 
of the church in general. 

The first German Lutheran congregation of Greens- 
burg was commenced soon after Rev. J. M. Steck 
settled in this county. Baptisms are recorded in 
1792, but there is no record of communion till several 
years later. No precise date can be fixed when this 



congregation was formally organized, and we believe 
that it grew gradually into the stature of a Christian 
congregation without a formal organization, like 
Harrold's and Brush Creek. In the latter end of the 
last century a log church was erected, which was 
built after the style of the log church at Harrold's, 
and corresponded with it in all its appointments. 
This church stood until the present one was built, 
commenced in 1815 and completed in 1819. 

This congregation has now a history of ninety 
years, has had a wide field of usefulness, and has no 
doubt exerted an important influence on other con- 
gregations. It now numbers over four hundred 
members, and Zion's (English) congregation, that 
went out from it in 1848 on the ground of language, 
numbers three hundred (for at that time the services 
in the parent church were all conducted in the Ger- 
man language). 

Brush Creek congregation, which was founded 
before the one at Greensburg, also had a log church 
built after the same plan, and had the same kind of 
furniture as the Harrold's Church, which was replaced 
by a new brick church in 1820, and which is still in 
good condition. 

The Manor congregation, which was founded in 
1809, completed the present church in 1815. 

These four congregations were associated during 
the long pastorates of Revs. J. M. Steck, Michael J., 
his son, and Jonas Mechling, covering a period of 
seventy-five years. 

Father J. M. Steck served them from the time of 
their organization into a charge till his death, in 
1830, and Rev. M. J. Steck became his father's suc- 
cessor, and continued to be pastor of this charge till 
his death, in 1848, and then Rev. Jonas Mechling 
became pastor in 1848, and continued to work in 
this field till the Master called him to his rest, in 
1868. 

In Father Steck's time the Greensburg charge had 
control of the whole county, and he was bishop of 
Westmoreland County and adjacent parts, and during 
the ministry of Rev. M. J. Steck, St. James, Hankey's, 
Seanor's, and other points were connected with this 
charge, but during the ministry of Rev. Jonas Mech- 
ling the charge consisted of these four congregations. 

Since his death the charge has again been divided. 
Now Greensburg and Harrold's Churches are under 
one pastor ; Brush Creek and Manor are joined to 
Adamsburg and Salem respectively. 

The pastors who have served this charge under 
its present arrangement are Revs. G. A. Brenger and 
Enoch Smith, and the present pastor is Rev. J. C. 
Kuntzman. 

Brush Creek has been served by Rev. J. S. Fink, 
and Manor by Revs. Brenger, Bauman, Smith, Ulery, 
and Roth. 

The history of the Greensburg charge gives us a 
comprehensive view of the history of the Lutheran 
Church in the county, and its growth and develop- 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



249 



ment is an index of the general development of the 
church. At the beginning of this century there was 
only one charge in the whole county. In 1820 the 
first division was made, when Rev. Jonas Mechling 
took charge of the remote congregations that had 
been hitherto served by Father Steck, and thus 
became his co-worker. 

In 1841, when Rev. Jacob Zimmerman took charge 
of several churches in the northern part of the county, 
a still further division was made of the field. He 
served the following congregations in Westmoreland, 
namely, Kliugensmith's Church (near Leechburg), 
Hill's, and Hankey's, in Franklin township. The 
last two he served from 1843 till 1849, and he served 
the first till he was compelled to quit the active duties 
of the ministry on account of his failing health. 

In 1847, Rev. W. S. Emery was called to West 
Newton and Seanor's charge, formed out of part of 
Rev. J. Mechling's and Rev. M. J. Steck's charge. 
He labored in this field with acceptance and success 
till 1859, when he was called to Indiana, Pa. 

In the autumn of 1847, Rev. J. Rugan came to 
Greensburg with a view of forming an English con- 
gregation, and in January, 1848, a small English or- 
ganization was founded of members belonging prin- 
cipally to the German Church, and soon after a similar 
organization was founded at Adamsburg of members 
from the Brush Creek congregation, and these two 
congregations constituted the Greensburg and Adams- 
burg charge, to which Rev. Michael Eyster was called 
in the autumn of 1848, and in which he continued to 
labor with remarkable success till death summoned 
him from his toils on earth to his reward in heaven. 

Thus we see that the history of the Lutheran 
Church in Westmoreland County records consider- 
able growth since its beginning. Instead of a few 
feeble congregations they have a goodly number of 
large ones, and instead of one or two lonely pastors 
they have a whole conference. Then also it must 
be borne in mind that many members have removed 
to adjoining counties and neighboring States, where 
they have been instrumental in forming and strength- 
ening new and other congregations. But gratifying 
as the growth and development of this church is, 
it would have been much greater but for two things, 
the lack of efficient English ministers and the re- 
luctance on the part of the fathers of the Lutheran 
Church to give up the German language. 

The present condition of the church may be briefly 
stated as follows : 

There are now twelve pastoral charges in this 
county, and there ought, in the opinion of their clergy, 
to be three or four more, but it is not considered wise 
to form new charges when pastors cannot be found 
for some that have been formed. 

1. The Greensburg charge, consisting now of the 
First German congregation of Greensburg and Har- 
rold's Church, Hempfield township. Rev. J. C. 
Kuntzman, pastor. 



2. Zion's Lutheran Church, Greensburg. Rev. 
W. T. Ulery, pastor. 

3. Mount Pleasant charge, consisting of Mount 
Pleasant congregation, St. John's, Swope's, and 
Ridge's. Rev. S. L. Harkey, pastor. 

4. Donegal charge, consisting of Donegal congre- 
gation, Franklin, Donegal township, and Bethel, in 
Cook township. Rev. D. Earhart, pastor. 

5. Ligonier, consisting of Ligonier congregation, 
Latrobe, Youngstown, and Derry. Rev. H. L. Mc- 
Murry, pastor. 

6. Saltsburg charge, consisting of St. James', Fen- 
neltown, and Saltsburg. Rev. R. M. Zimmerman, 
pastor. 

7. Delmont charge, consisting of Salem and Manor 
Churches. Rev. J. D. Roth, pastor. 

8. Brush Creek and Adamsburg charge, consisting 
of Brush Creek, Adamsburg, and Irwin congregations. 
Rev. G. E. Lund, pastor. 

9. West Newton charge, consisting of West New- 
ton, Barren Run or Hoffman's charge. Vacant. Rev. 
A. G. Wenzel, stated supply. 

10. Seanor's and Stanton. Vacant. 

11. Hankey's and Brinton. Vacant. 

12. Swedish pastorate, Irwin and Braddock's. 
Vacant. 

13. Hill's Church. Rev. A. D. Potts, pastor. 
There are twenty-six Lutheran congregations and 

three thousand eight hundred communicants in this 
county, with a Lutheran population of about eight 
thousand. 

MINISTERS OF THE EARLY LUTHERAN CHDRCH. 

Rev. Michael J. Steck, one of the founders of 
the Pittsburgh Synod and its first president, was the 
son of Rev. John M. Steck, for many years pastor of 
the Lutheran Churches of Greensburg and vicinity. 
He was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Pa., 
on the 1st of May, 1793. He early desired to be a 
preacher in the church of his baptism, and his father 
availed himself of every suitable advantage to give 
him a liberal education. After finishing his prelimi- 
nary education at the old academy at Greensburg he 
commenced the study of theology under his father's 
supervision ; but inasmuch as the pastoral duties of 
his father left him but little time for instructing his 
pupil, he sent him to the Rev. Jacob Scharle, pastor 
of the German Lutheran Church at Pittsburgh, under 
whose care he pursued his theological studies with 
great diligence and success. In June, 1816, he was 
licensed by the Synod of Pennsylvania, which held 
its sessions at Philadelphia. After the meeting of 
Synod he returned to Greensburg and became an 
assistant to bis father. In this capacity he labored 
for a short time, preaching mainly to the remote con- 
gregations of his father's large field. 

In December, 1816, he received and accepted a call 
to Lancaster, Ohio, then in the backwoods. He 
served congregations in the town of Lancaster and 



250 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



vicinity for twelve years with a degree of acceptance 
and success that is seldom equaled. At his father's 
earnest request he returned to Greensburg in 182S, to 
assist him in his declining years in the onerous duties 
of his large and promising charge. 

In 1830, when his father, the Rev. John M. Steck, 
died, his son became his successor. In that field he 
labored till his death in 1848. 

It is difficult for one at this day to conceive how 
great were the toils connected with his ministry. His 
vast field, and his mode of travel over it to points 
thirty miles distant from his home, and the number 
of his congregations and preaching-stations would 
sufficiently indicate the nature of some of those toils. 

He served regularly eleven congregations, besides 
preaching at a number of stations. His journal for 
nineteen years shows a succession of pastoral duties 
in his numerous congregations scarcely credible to 
one unacquainted with his active ministry. He often 
preached four times in one day, traveling in the 
mean time many miles. He not unfrequently in- 
curred no little danger in filling some of his distant 
appointments. It has been estimated that during his 
ministry of thirty-two years he preached eight thou- 
sand sermons, baptized five thousand children, and 
received two thousand persons into the communion 
of the church by the solemn rite of confirmation. 

From his social and pastoral intercourse with so 
many people, and from his agreeable and gentle man- 
ner, his name and character were perhaps more 
widely and more favorably known than those of any 
other minister of his day in this county. To many 
of his parishioners he was the ideal of a Christian 
minister. His ministerial work is even yet, by the 
older members of his communion, spoken of with 
marked affection and approbation. 

It has been observed that in some of the congrega- 
tions in which he labored he lived his ministry over 
again in the eyes of some of his devoted followers. 
Thus when one of his successors therein would say or do 
something that pleased such well, they would give it 
their most hearty sanction by saying : " So hat es 
der Fader Steck gemacht." 

He was eminently practical, and saw clearly what 
were the true interests of his church. He labored 
with untiring zeal for the introduction of the English 
language into the services of the church, and did 
much towards the organization of the English congre- 
gations in Greensburg and vicinity. The qualifica- 
tions of a good preacher and successful pastor he 
united in a more than ordinary or common degree. 
His appearance in the pulpit was prepossessing, his 
enunciation was distinct, his voice melodious, his 
manner natural, earnest, and impressive, his style 
simple and practical, his matter evangelical, and 
his appeals to the sinner affectionate and earnest. 
Pride and self-esteem were far removed from him. 
As a lesson to young men who might be disposed to 
be elated with apparent success, he often related an 



incident which, he said, cured him of all vanity as 
to the effect or results of his preaching. On a cer- 
tain occasion , before his licensure, he was sent out 
by his instructor to attend a funeral. The services 
were to be held at the house of the deceased. The 
young novitiate was very timid, and during most of 
the service kept his eyes fixed on the floor. Finally, 
however, venturing to raise them, he observed an old 
man with whom he was well acquainted, who, sitting in 
one corner of the room, was moved to tears. Think- 
ing that his remarks had made such an impression 
he took courage afresh, and finished his discourse 
with increasing energy. After the services were 
closed the old man came to him and said, " O Mike, 
ich bin doch so froh dass du gliicklich fertig worde 
bist, ich war doch so lang du thiitst stecke bleibe, ich 
hat mviste heule." ' 

He held the office of president of the Pittsburgh 
Synod for five successive years. 

One of his biographers, speaking of his ministerial 
duties, says, " Though almost constantly overwhelmed 
with labor, yet he never neglected a single call. He 
was always ready to go to his distant congregations, 
or convey the peace of the gospel to the abodes of 
disease and poverty. By day and by night, even when 
oppressed by the infirmities of age, or weighed down 
by sickness, or worn out by constant mental and 
physical exertion, he would forsake the comforts of 
home and fly to the post of duty, preaching the gos- 
pel, instructing the young, and administering the 
consolations of religion to the sick and dying, bury- 
ing the dead, and comforting the widow and father- 
less in their afflictions. Venerable man ! No wonder 
that the widow's heart leaped for joy, and the sorrow- 
ful felt a sweet relief, and the dying saint revived 
again as thy feet entered the abode of suffering. Thy 
tender sympathy was too real not to shed its balm on 
the wounded heart, and the consolations of thy lips 
were as life to the departing soul." 

His last sermon was a funeral sermon. His own 
death was commemorated by a discourse delivered by 
Rev. W. A. Passavant, from the text, " And devout 
men carried Stephen to his burial and made great 
lamentation over him." 

In the cemetery of the German Lutheran Church 
at Greensburg, on a plain simple stone, is the follow- 
ing inscription : 

" Here sleeps in Jesus the body of the Rev. Michael 
J. Steck, for nineteen years the faithful Pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Greensburg and 
vicinity. Born May 1, 1793, died Sept. 1, 1848, aged 
55 years and 4 months. He was a good man, full of 
the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people were 
added unto the Lord." 

Rev. M. J. Steck was the father of eleven children. 



l Literally— "0 Mike, I am so very glad that you were lucky in get- 
J ting through, for for a long time I thought you would stick, and I 
I couldn't help but cry." 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



251 



Some of his descendants reside in Westmoreland 
County, and are worthy progeny of so noble a father. 
Rev. Jonas Mechlini; was born in Hempfield 
township, Westmoreland County, on the 14th of Au- 
gust, 1798, and died on the 2d of April, 1868, in the 
seventieth year of his age, and in the forty-eighth 
year of his ministry, dating from the time of his 
licensure. 

At a very early age he was inclined to the office of 
the ministry, and began his preparatory studies as 
soon as opportunity was afforded him. After his pre- 
liminary studies were completed he pursued the study 
of theology, under the care of Rev. Pastor Schnee, 
of Pittsburgh, and finished his theological course 
under the care of Rev. Father Steck, of Greensburg. 

After having passed a creditable and successful 
examination, he was licensed on the 19th of Septem- 
ber, 1820, by the District Synod of Ohio. After his 
licensure he immediately became a co-worker with 
Father Steck, whose field had now become very large 
and imperatively demanded additional laborers. He 
was a missionary rather than a settled pastor, for he 
served congregations and preached at points which 
were quite remote from each other. He took charge 
of St. James' and Hankey's, in the northern part of 
the county, Barren Run and Forks Church in the 
western part, Kindig's and Swope's in the central 
part, and Donegal's and Brandt's in the southern part 
of the county. At these different points so distant 
from each other he labored for several years with 
fidelity and success. 

In 1827 he was relieved of the congregations in 
Bell and Franklin townships, and took charge of the 
churches at the Ridge and Youngstown. He served 
these congregations till the autumn of 1848, when he 
became pastor of the Greensburg charge. He now 
resigned the churches in Ligonier Valley, and as 
soon as a suitable pastor could be found he gave up 
the churches west of the Ridge. 

His whole ministerial life was spent in Westmore- 
land County, serving a large number of congregations 
in different sections of the county and remote from 
each other, but the last twenty years of his life were 
devoted to the Greensburg charge, including the First 
German Church, Greensburg, Harrold's, Brush Creek, 
and Manor. 

Rev. Jonas Mechling was well and favorably known 
in this county, and as a minister has exerted an im- 
portant influence on the Lutheran Church. Many 
of those to whom he ministered in holy things kindly 
remember him and bless his memory for his self- 
denial and earnest fidelity on their behalf. His sim- 
plicity of manners, his amiable disposition, and his 
even temper, together with his social culture and 
Christian character, won him many friends, and has 
embalmed his name in the hearts of those who knew 
him well. 

His fidelity to his Master, and his zeal and earnest- 
ness in the performance of his official duties, may be I 



gleaned in some measure from a brief abstract of his 
ministerial acts. His official record, kept with the 
greatest care, furnishes sufficient evidence of his zeal 
for God and his success in the work of the church. 
During the forty-eight years of his ministry he 
preached six thousand three hundred and twenty- 
seven sermons, not including many hundreds of 
funeral sermons. He baptized six thousand two hun- 
dred and eighty-six persons, confirmed two thousand 
and thirty-nine, and performed eight hundred and 
ninety marriages. 

Devoted to his work in the church, he was also faith- 
ful to his family and society. He was an affectionate 
husband, a kind father, a worthy and good citizen. 
Joined to a woman of true Christian virtue and grace 
of spirit, and devoted to her by the tenderest affec- 
tions, he was happy in his family relations. His 
wife, a woman of most amiable disposition and Chris- 
tian character, and five children, four sons and one 
daughter, survive him, and now that he has been 
gathered to his fathers his name and memory is 
held in high esteem by his family and friends, and 
by all who knew him when he was among them. 

The Pittsburgh Synod.— The Rev. Mr. Ulery, 
pastor of the English Lutheran congregation at 
Greensburg, collected some very pleasing memoirs of 
the early founders and ministers in the Pittsburgh 
Synod, and in a discourse to his congregation gave 
his labors. This discourse dwells at length on the 
life and services of fourteen ministers who had been 
members of the Synod, but who were then dead. 
From the labors of Mr. Ulery we give the following 
sketches : 

Rev. Michael Eystek was born in York County, 
Pa., 16th May, 1814, and died 11th August, 1853, in 
the fortieth year of his age. At the age of thirteen 
he was sent from his father's farm to the town of York 
to stand as a clerk in a store. While engaged in this 
occupation he resolved to devote himself to the gospel 
ministry. He entered Marshall College, then located 
at York, and pursued his studies there until the col- 
lege was removed to Gettysburg, whence he also fol- 
lowed it, and where he finished his literary and theo- 
logical course. In the fall of 1838 he was licensed 
to preach by the Western Pennsylvania Synod. He 
soon after accepted a call from the Williamsburg 
pastorate, in Huntingdon County, Pa. Here he la- 
bored for eight years. In 1846 he removed to Green- 
castle, Franklin Co., Pa., where he discharged the 
duties of his calling with the same fidelity which had 
characterized his former pastorate. Here his wife 
died, and this led to his removal. In 1849 he re- 
ceived a call from the churches at Greensburg, Adams- 
burg, and Salem Cross-Roads, this county. In the 
fall of 1849 he removed to Greensburg, and con- 
tinued his labors in the Greensburg pastorate, as the 
successor of Rev. M. J. Steck, until his death in 1853. 
The bodies of these two pastors lie side by side in the 
German burying-ground. 



252 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



His character has been portrayed in the words as 
we quote them : " He was a man of decided views 
and deep Christian experience. His faith was as 
simple as that of a child, and his piety as sincere as 
his faith was simple. He was a man of uncommon 
purity of character and uprightness of purpose. He 
possessed a kihd, genial, catholic spirit, but he was 
not afraid to avow his opinions because they might 
conflict with those of his fellow-men. It mattered 
not to him who were with him or who were against 
him ; it was enough to know he was right, and with 
this conviction he was prepared to stand up against 
the world. As a preacher he was solid, clear, fluent, 
logical, and convincing. Both his manner and matter 
were original.. He spoke often with much pathos and 
affection, and had great power over his audience. 
The effect he left was generally abiding. Few men 
could speak so fluently, and yet so profoundly, on any 
subject that might be presented." 

Rev. Herman Mantz was born in Magdeburg, 
Prussia, Aug. 11, 1821. In his twenty-sixth year he 
was sent by Father Gosner, of Berlin, as a candidate 
for the ministry. Soon after his arrival he spent 
several years at Zelienople, where he spent some time 
in studying English and theology under the direction 
of Rev. Gottlieb Bassler. In May, 1848, he was li- 
censed by the Pittsburgh Synod, and accepted a call 
from the German churches at Prospect, St. John's, and 
Petersburg. Died Dec. 15, 1853. 

Rev. Samuel B. Lawson was born on the 27th of 
August, 1808, and died on the 7th of February, 1864, 
in his fifty-seventh year. After finishing his theo- 
logical course he was licensed in 1844 by the Alle- 
gheny Synod, and was regularly ordained by the same 
body in 1846. He labored for some time in Somerset 
County in connection with that Synod. In 1853 he 
removed to Fryburg, Clarion Co., and took charge of 
congregations in the Pittsburgh Synod. In 1859 he 
removed to West Newton, Westmoreland Co., and 
continued to labor there until his death. 

Rev. Frederick Ruthrauff, son of Rev. John 
Ruthraufl', of Greencastle, Pa., was born on the 25th 
of October, 1796. In 1820 he commenced the study 
of theology under the care of Dr. J. G. Lochman. 
In 1822 he was licensed by the Maryland and Vir- 
ginia Synod to preach. His first charge was at Wil- 
liamsport, Pa. He then preached successively at 
Elizabeth, Lancaster Co., Pa., at Manchester, Md., 
and at Loysville, Centreville, Milton, and Worthing- 
ton. To the last place he removed in 1858, and thus 
became a member of the Pittsburgh Synod. He died 
Sept. 18, 1859, in his sixty-third year. 

Rev. John A. Delo was born in Clarion County, 
Pa., April 16, 1826, and died Nov. 1, 1864, in his 
thirty-ninth year. He studied for the ministry under 
the oversight of Rev. S. D. Wilt, of that county, and 
in 1849 was licensed by the Allegheny Synod. He, 
however, accepted a call in 1860 from the Apollo 
charge, Armstrong County. He filled a chaplaincy in 



the Federal army during the war, and afterwards re- 
moved to North Washington, where he died. 

Rev. Daniel Garver was born in Washington 
County, Md., Jan. 9, 1830 ; was educated at the Penn- 
sylvania College; licensed June, 1852, by the Synod 
of Pennsylvania. From his graduation until 1858 
he had occupied a professor's chair, had been en- 
gaged in missionary labor in the West, and had 
passed one year in Europe. In 1859 was pastor of 
the congregation at Canton, Ohio. In 1863 was called 
by the congregation at Greensburg, for whom he la- 
bored until his death, Sept. 30, 1865, in the thirty- 
fifth year of his age and the fourteenth of his min- 
istry. 

Rev. Samuel D. Witt became a member of the 
Synod in 1S35, and remained in it until his death at 
Circleville, Ohio, Aug. 27, 1851, in his thirty-eighth 
year. 

Rev. Gottlieb Bassler was born in the canton 
of Berne, Switzerland, Dec. 10, 1813, but came to 
America with his parents when quite young. They 
settled in Butler County, Pa. When fourteen years of 
age he walked in his bare feet to Greensburg to learn 
the printing trade with Jacob Steck. He afterwards 
entered Pennsylvania College, was graduated in 1840 
with honor, and the same year commenced his studies 
at the seminary ; licensed in 1842. In the spring of 
1845 he took a prominent part in the organization of 
the Pittsburgh Synod, became principal of the acad- 
emy then established by the Synod. He also labored 
in the churches in Butler County, and established 
new congregations. In 1852 he became associated 
with Rev. Passavant in the orphans' work, and con- 
tinued in that department until his death in 1868, 
October 3d, in his fifty-fifth year. 

Rev. John Rugan was born in Philadelphia, on 
the 27th day of January, 1817. He spent a portion 
of his youth in that city, and after having received a 
preparatory education he entered Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, situated at Gettysburg, in this State, where he 
graduated in the fall of 1843. After his graduation 
he spent two years in the theological seminary at 
Hartwick, N. Y., in the study of theology, and in the 
year 1845 he was licensed by the ministerium of the 
State of New York, which met at Albany. After his 
licensure he received a call to the pastorate at Sandy 
Lake, near Troy, where he remained, performing all 
the duties pertaining to the pastoral office, for about 
two years, until the autumn of 1847, at which time 
he was called to become co-pastor with Rev. Mi- 
chael J. Steck, at Greensburg. He also took charge 
of St. James' Church, situated in the northern part of 
the county. In this field he labored with great suc- 
cess. In January, 1848, he organized Zion's Evan- 
gelical Lutheran congregation at Greensburg with 
forty members, and the following spring he organized 
Trinity Evangelical Lutheral congregation at Ad- 
amsburg, which he served as pastor till the following 
autumn. After resigning Greensburg and Adams- 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



253 



burg congregations he devoted his time to St. James' 
and Salem for several years. Then he removed to 
Somerset, Ohio. He labored a number of years in ' 
Ohio with good success. His last field of labor was 
Vandalia, 111., where he built up a flourishing con- | 
gregation, and in this field he labored until his death. 
Besides these, continued the manuscript from which 
we have derived these brief memorials, there were four 
other clergymen who had been numbered with the I 
Pittsburgh Synod at that time whose names and | 
memories are even yet dear to the members of their 
church. These were Revs. John Esensee, Charles H. 
Hersh, Adam Long, and Christian D. Ulery. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.i 
We regret that we have not been able to give a 
more detailed history of the United Presbyterian 
Church of Western Pennsylvania and of Westmore- 
land than it is possible for us to give here. We are, 
however, not in blame, for the documentary records 
which we have looked over contain little of interest 
or information to us. The reader must, for further 
information, turn to the history of the different con- 
gregations in the local department of this work. But 
a church which has produced such an able pioneer 
ministry, and shaped the morals of such a large num- 
ber of our people, should lose no time in collecting and 
arranging their early congregational and ecclesiasti- 
cal history, that it may be preserved. 

The only Presbytery of this church in Pennsylva- 
nia down to 1776 was the "Associate Presbytery of 
Pennsylvania," and the earliest preserved record of 
its proceedings which we can find is dated "'Oxford, 
June 27, 1762." But at a meeting on May 20, 1770, 
the Presbytery resolved to divide into two, the one to 
be called the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania, 
consisting of the following ministers : Revs. James 
Proudfoot, Matthew Henderson, William Marshall, 
John Rodgers, John Smith, James Clarkson, James 
Martin, and John Murray ; the other to be called 
the Associate Presbytery of New York, consisting of 
Revs. John Mason, Robert Anan, Thomas Clark, 
William Logan, and Andrew Patton. 

From the original manuscript minutes of the Pres- 
bytery to which this region of Pennsylvania belonged, 
it is seen that Mr. Proudfoot supplied Westmoreland 
in the fall of 1775. There is also this entry : " At 
Oxford, Nov. 4, 1775. . . . Petition received and read 
from Fairfield, in Westmoreland County, craving 
supply and ordination of elders, together with the dis- 
pensation of Baptism and the Lord's Supper." There 
were many other petitions of a similar nature, and 
upon their consideration the Presbytery " agreed that 
Mr. Murray and Potter supply New York Province, 
Mr. Logan at Fort Pitt, and the vacancies in Cumber- 

1 The denominational name, " United Presbyterian," for this church 
in North America dates from 1858, when the Associate Presbyterian 
(from 1754) and the Associate Reformed (from 1782J were united under 
that name. 
17 



land and Northumberland Counties be supplied with 
an actual minister. Appointed Messrs. Henderson, 
Rodgers, and Smith as a committee to draw up a 
scheme of appointments to be laid before next side- 
runt." Mr. Logan was announced for Fairfield in De- 
cember, and for the Yough on January 6th following. 

The following also appears : " At Mr. Miller's house, 
May 8, 1777, 9 o'clock a.m., at which time and place 
the Presbytery being met and constituted, etc., a mo- 
tion was made and supported that the Presbytery now 
reconsider the clauses in the petitions from West- 
moreland and Northumberland respecting a minister's 
settlement among them ; accordingly the commis- 
sioner from Northumberland presented a petition for 
a moderation, which was read. A committee was ap- 
pointed to converse with Mr. Patton, which having 
done this reported that his present inclinations rather 
lay towards the people in Tobit and Buffalo town- 
ships, for which reason the Presbytery did and hereby 
do grant to these people in said places the moderation 
of a Call, and also to the people in Westmoreland, 
the moderation in Northumberland to be held on the 
9th of September (by Mr. Logan), and at Chartiers on 
the 15th of said month by Mr. Proudfoot." 

This extract from the " Minutes of Proceedings of 
the Second Associate Reformed Presbytery of Penn- 
sylvania" gives the account of the formal division of 
the Presbytery : 

" Tough Meeting-Hovse, June 24, 1793. 

"After a sermon preached by Mr. Adam Rankin 
from Eph. ii. 19, 'Now therefore ye are no more 
strangers and foreigners,' etc., the Second Associate 
Reformed Presbytery of Pennsylvania met and con- 
stituted with prayer by the moderator, by virtue of a 
resolution of the Associate Reformed Synod, which is 
as follows: June 8, 1793, Resolved, That the Pres- 
bytery of Pennsylvania be divided into two by the 
names of the First and Second Associate Reformed 
Presbytery of Pennsylvania, the Second to consist of 
Mr. Jamison, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Warwick, and Mr. 
Rankin, with their elders, and that they meet and 
constitute, the senior minister preaching and presid- 
ing, at such time and place as they will find most 
convenient. 

"Robert Amxan, 

" Moderator of Synod. 

"Present, Messrs. Rankin, Henderson, and War- 
wick, ministers ; Messrs. Richard Steel, James Wil- 
son, and Jeremiah Pearce, ruling elders. Appointed 
Mr. Henderson clerk pro tempore. . . ." 

The next meeting was held at Laurel Hill Meeting- 
House 12th August, 1793, Jamison, Henderson, and 
Warwick, ministers, and James Wilson and James 
Findley, elders, present. " Received and read a call, 
including a petition, for the Rev. John Jamison from 
the united congregations of Brush Creek, Hannah's 
Town, and Connemaugh. Heard a verbal petition 
from Short Creek, Three Ridges, and Buffalo, by 
Messrs. Stuart and Sharp, praying for a supply of 



254 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



preaching. . . . Presented the call to Mr. Jamison, 
which he accepted. Appointed the sacrament of the 
Supper at Loyal-Hanning the last Sabbath of this 
month, Mr. Jamison to preside and Mr. Henderson to 
assist. 

"Resolved, That Mr. Jamison's edict be served at 
Loyal-Hanning the Monday after by Mr. Henderson. 

" Appointed the sacrament of the Supper at Brush 
Creek the second Sabbath of October. Mr. Jamison's j 
installment the Friday preceding; Mr. Warwick to 
preside and Mr. Henderson to assist. 

"Appointed Mr. Henderson to Three Ridges the 
third Sabbath of September. Adjourned to meet at 
Loyal-Hanning the 26th Last." 

At next session " heard a verbal petition from Li- 
gonier Valley by Robert Hemwell (?) for a supply of 
preaching," but no action was taken upon it at that 
sitting. 

The next session of Presbytery was held at Brush 
Creek Meeting-House, Oct. 11 and 14, 1793. 

Brush Creek Church, afterwards Bethel, was the 
third in the county, organized 1796-97. Its first pas- 
tor was Rev. Matthew Henderson. Additional in- 
formation on this church and its early history within 
the county will be found in the local department of 
this work, and especially in the history of the Fair- 



field Church, Fairfield township 

Statistics from f/ie Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Churches, 1881. 



METHODIST. 

The first Methodist society in the United States 
was formed in New York in 1766, by some Irish emi- 
grants. The history of the church from that day to 
this in the United States is one of the marvels of 
modern times. From the peculiar organization of its 
clerical body it was pre-eminently the proselyting 
church of the latter day. Its itinerant preachers fol- 
lowed the people in all directions, and even to the 
very utmost bounds of civilization. The doctrine 
which they preached was calculated to arouse the 
slumbering passions of a people who had gotten at 
their mother's knee the first ideas of the Christian 
doctrines of future punishment and future felicity. 

Of Methodism we see more and know less than 
of any other religious denomination. The growth of 
this church organization has been regarded by all 
contemplative philosophers as one of the marvels of 
later times. The most philosophical of modern his- 
torians — himself a statesman of enlarged and just 
views, and a man not affined to the founders or the 
the cause of Methodism — has said that no man since 
the time of Cardinal Richelieu has been the equal of 
John Wesley as an organizer of latent forces. But 
when one familiar with the status of the Methodist 
Church to-day observes that it is not much from a 
century since John Whitefield preached in the shade 

T/tcse churches 



are all within the Westmoreland Presbytery. 



Ministers and Correspondents for 
Vacancies. 



Post-Office and 

State. 



Presbytery. 



Oliver Katz Saltslrarg. 



A. I. Young 

Wm. R. Stevenson.. 



E. Z. Thomas 

Wm. H. Vincent, S. C. 
M. M. Patterson 



J. N.Dick, D.D.. 
R. B. Taggart.... 



Josias Stevenson.. 



S. B. MeBride. 
A. R. Raukin.. 



D. M. Thorn.. 
C. B. Hatch.... 



Correspondents. 

Joseph Ross 

D. Alter, M.D 

B. L. Calhoun, M.D 

John Shaw 

George W. Kelley 

Without Charge. 
A. Young, D.D., LL.D., Professor.. 

S. B. Stewart 

J. A. Scroggs— 22 



Turtle Creek. 

WestNew tun. 

Negley. 

Llgonier. 

ParnaBSUB. 

Irwin's Station. 

Muiuit PltMsuiit. 

Greensburg. 

Laurel Hill. 
Murraysville. 

Bnena Vista. 
Irwin's Station. 



Youngs town. 
Parnassus. 

Stewart's Station. 
Watt's Mills. 



Licentiates, 1. 



Parnassus. 

Paulton. 

Latrobe. 



H- 



Saltsburg, 

N. Alexandria, 

Turtle Creek.. 

West Newton, ,- : , 

Sewickley, J^ 

Unity 

Fairfield (2) 

Pockety, % 

Allegheny, % 

Bethel (Westmoreland).. 

Mount Pleasant,^ 

Scottdale, ]/ 3 

Greensburg, }/, 

Latrobe, 34 

Laurel Hifi 

Murraysville, % 

Beulah, 1 .; 

Buena Vista 

Irwin 



Vacancies, 

Donegal 

Logan's Ferry 

Parnassus 

Stewart's Station.. 
Madison :. 



58 
55 

192 

126 

60 

150 

162 

138 

76 

115 

80 

38 

51 

85 

9:i 

77 

41 

100 

135 



57 
63 
22 
131 
45 



Baptism. Sabbath-Schools. 



40 
45 
125 
si I 
60 
21S 
160 
60 
45 
45 
40 
23 
4(1 
40 
65 
40 
30 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



255 



of the forest-trees to the straggling hearers around 
him in the eastern portions of the United States, the 
conclusion is reached without argument. 

But from the very nature of the Methodist system 
is one precluded from writing its local history, espec- 
ially if that extends over any length of time, for 
they in early days kept no records in their churches, 
nor minutes such as were to be preserved and treas- 
ured. Their itinerant preachers were, generally 
speaking, uneducated, if not illiterate, and in this 
they much prided, for they openly discouraged classical 
education and the higher grade of colleges, and under 
the plan of changing their pastors it was seldom that 
any one pastor remained more than a very few years 
at one charge. But from the same and other causes 
may we partially come at the causes of its wonderful 
numerical advancement. The early church started 
out with the motto of John Wesley, " My parish is 
the world," and entered into the world filled with 
missionary zeal and the hope of success. Laying 
hold of the common people by adapting itself to their 
capacity and circumstances, and gathering them 
together and setting them at work in class-meetings, 
camp-meetings, revivals, and in all sorts of ways, it 
has reached out and gathered in a large number of all 
classes of people. It then preached only Christ, and 
it cared not when or where or how. So, too, did it 
give its meeting-houses for any preacher of any 
Christian Church in which to preach, and it is nar- 
rated that the first missionary priests on frequent 
occasions said mass in their meeting-houses. But 
nothing could abate the zeal of their early ministers, 
both clerical and lay. Whatever may be said of 
the illiteracy of its itinerants it is evident that they 
were peculiarly adapted to their calling, and that they 
labored with success. Of wages and hire they got little 
or nothing. They passed and repassed up and down 
the whole land and had no abiding-place, for they 
knew, with the early apostles, that if the earthly 
house of their tabernacle were dissolved, they had a 
building from God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. 

From the days of the earliest settlements west of 
Laurel Hill the country was not without law, neither 
was it without the gospel. The Methodist preachers 
were here the very first year of their church organi- 
zation ; but not so early as the Presbyterians or the 
Baptists. This whole region into which the Meth- 
odist itinerants came was named in their ecclesiastical 
divisions the Redstone field. In 1784, John Cooper 
and Solomon Breeze stand in the minutes for Red- 
stone ; in 1785, Peter Moriarty, J. Fidler, Wilson 
Lee ; for 1786, John Smith, Robert Ay res, Enoch Mat- 
son, elder. They made their entrance at Uniontown, 
in the immediate neighborhood of which were many 
Church of England people and a few Methodists. 
But they had been preceded by Robert Worster, a 
local preacher of piety and considerable talent. 

The growth of this communion here is a subject of 



wonderment. Many of the earliest settlers of Western 
Pennsylvania were churchmen, zealously attached to 
the forms and beliefs of the Episcopal or mother- 
church of England. But this conservative church 
did not provide means for the protection and perpet- 
uation of congregational worship. The flocks were 
left without a shepherd. The Presbyterians would 
not give them the sacrament, or baptize their chil- 
dren, unless they would subscribe to the Westminster 
Confession, and promise to bring up their children in 
that faith ; the Baptists would not permit them to 
commune, except they would renounce their baptism 
and become immersed. No wonder that clear-sighted 
old John Wesley, seeing what was to be done, and 
how it was to be done, made haste "to provide," to 
use his own words, " for those poor sheep in the wil- 
derness." And so the itinerant heralds, running up 
and down in every direction, gathered the flocks into 
new folds, and working with their whole heart and 
souls gathered bread where others would have gath- 
ered stones. They went to and fro watching, and 
wherever they found an open door there they 
entered. 

The footsteps of these early preachers — Worster, 
Cooper, and Breeze — were traced a score of years 
afterwards by an observant man, himself, later on, a 
missionary farther west, 1 from Uniontown, where the 
first society was raised. Their labors were followed to 
the Youghiogheny, near the Broad Ford, from thence 
down that stream to the Forks, in Westmoreland 
County, where a large society was early raised of 
men eminent for worth and piety, most of whom had 
been churchmen. They were thence traced along the 
Monongahela into Washington County, through some 
of the northwestern regions of Virginia, and so on 
back to Uniontown, whence they started. 

In 1787 an annual conference was held at Union- 
town in the month of July. Bishop Asbury officiated 
as a plain Presbyter, in gown and band, assisted by 
Richard Whatcoat, elder, in the same habit. Michael 
Lord was ordained, of whom it was said he could re- 
peat the whole of the New Testament off the book 
and large portions of the Old Testament. The morn- 
ing service was read as abridged by Wesley. That 
was the last time that priestly robes and prayer-book 
were seen on like occasions in those parts. 

In 1788 the Redstone field seems to have been 
divided into four circuits, — Clarksbury, Ohio, Pitts- 
burgh, and Redstone. To this field of labor seven 
preachers were appointed. Under them and their 
assistants societies were formed farther north in 
Westmoreland, and particularly in Ligonier Valley. 

The Rev. James Quinn, 2 in his own words, speak- 
ing of his life and labors, says of these societies as 
they existed in the latter part of the last century,— 

1 "Sketches of the Life and Lahors of James Quinn, who was nearly 
Half a Century a Minister of the Gospel in the M. E. Church." Cin- 
cinnati, 1851. 

2 Quoted ntpra. 



256 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



"I now must cross over Laurel Hill and make my 
way into the head of Ligonier Valley. There was a 
small society at A. McLean's, from Shippensburg or 
Carlisle, and another at Enos King's, son of the old 
local preacher. These, however, at that time were of 
recent date, and the prospect not flattering. But near 
old Fort Ligonier was raised a large and flourishing 
society. Here the father of the venerable Bishop 
Roberts and his extensive family, although church 
people, fell into the ranks of Methodism. Ah, old 
mother missed it in not having a missionary bishop 
here, and some one to take care of the poor sheep in 
the wilderness. . . . Here, too, were the Shaws and 
Fishers, the latter of Quaker origin. Here, also, was 
the devout Cornelius Riley and his excellent wife, 
Abigail, father and mother of James and Tobias 
Riley, of the Baltimore Conference. Little did I 
think at the time I received them into the church 
and wrote their names on the class-paper at old 
Brother John Roberts', brother of the bishop, that I 
should live and be effective till the lads should be- 
come senior ministers in the mother-conference. 

" This society suffered much by emigration to the 
West, as most of the societies in the mountains did ; 
for when the rich lands of the West came into market, 
the mountaineers made a general rush, as if the bears, 
panthers, wolves, Indians, rattlesnakes, and fire had 
all broke loose upon them, and, poor things, many of 
them lost their religion and their lives in the scuffle. 

"There was another good society still farther down 
the valley, which met at the house of Brother Howell. 
Here James Talbot was a prominent and useful local 
preacher, and the father and mother of Brother 
Stewart, of Cincinnati, with their numerous family, 
were prominent in the membership. Here we leave 
the valley, and crossing a mountain or very high hill 
and passing over Conemaugh River, we arrive at a 
pretty extensive settlement at Black Lick. Here a 
handful of corn had been placed in the earth by the 
pioneers, and a good society sprang up, which met at 
the house of James Wakefield. This man was a local 
preacher. I am told he still lives (1843). He taught 
me some good things, and I loved him. 

" We now leave the Black Lick settlement and di- 
rect our course west, and on the tup of Chestnut 
Ridge the handful of corn had produced a good 
society, which met at the house of Father Wakefield, 
father of James. To his class belonged the venerable 
Martin Fate, his deeply-pious wife, three or four sons, 
and as many daughters. A son and grandson of this 
family became preachers, one local and the other 
itinerant." 

Passing on down southward through Westmoreland, 
he says, " There was a door opened for preaching on 
Jacobs Creek, among the Masons and Ragans, and a 
small society raised, which, however, passed off west- 
ward by emigration, leaving scarcely a vestige behind. 

"A few miles distant from Ragan's [Reagan's], on 
the Youghiogheny River, and near the foot of the 



mountains, they obtained a preaching-place at one 
Flaugherty's and Hain's, on a farm belonging to 
Zachariah Connell. Here a society was raised by 
Jacob Lurtan, and his numerous family attended and 
became members ; and the farm itself became the 
site of the town of Connellsville, and Connellsville is 
now the emporium of Methodism in an extensive 
tract of country." 

Such is one view, circumscribed it is true, of early 
Methodism in Westmoreland. We shall get another 
view from a different source, chiefly traditional, and 
still another in the extracts which we make use of, 
taken from the minute-book of the Greensburg 
Church records. Wherever these accounts differ, it 
will be seen they do not differ materially ; and, taken 
together, they well enough agree to present an intel- 
ligible view of the early history of the church here. 

The first Methodist preaching in the county was in 
1785, at " Fell's Settlement," in Rostraver township, 
some two miles east of the Monongahela River. Here 
preaching was had by itinerants sent out by the Balti- 
more Conference. The surrounding region was settled 
by Scotch-Irish, who worshiped at " Rehoboth" Pres- 
byterian Church, built nine years previous. But the 
Fell and several other Maryland Methodist families 
had settled on the rich lands between the Youghio- 
gheny and Monongahela Rivers, and soon the zeal of 
the pioneer itinerants found them and began their 
ministerial labors. "Fell's Meeting-House," a log 
structure, was built in 1785-86, and was the first 
Methodist Church erected west of the Alleghenies. 
In it the great Bishop Asbury often preached, and in 
the second one, afterwards built, the eloquent Bishop 
Bascom and other distinguished divines of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church expounded the word of God. 

The second Methodist preaching in Westmoreland 
County was in 1798, not far from Ligonier, at the 
residence of the Riley family, where was the second 
preaching appointment for the earliest traveling cir- 
cuit riders, of whom Rev. Isaac Conway was the first 
here. The third place of preaching was at Mr. Stuart's, 
in Fairfield (some of whose descendants reside in 
Irwin). These two families were perhaps the earli- 
est of the Methodists in all this region. The fourth 
preaching appointment was near Greensburg, about 
1812, in the families of Squire Ross, the Mellons, and 
McCutchens. The next was at Jacobs Creek and 
Mount Pleasant, both in 1817. The first three circuit 
riders at the latter point were Revs. Jacob Dowell, Or- 
ville Wilson, and William Barnes. Shortly after- 
wards preaching was had at Greensburg and on the 
Big Sewickley, — at the former at the house of Samuel 
Bushfield, and at the latter at Mr. Slatterbach's dwell- 
ing. The appointments were made at Mr. Miller's, on 
the "Manor." All these were up to 1825, and were 
included in one charge, and generally by two pastors, 
who traveled on horseback, preaching every day in 
the week, and seldom reaching an appointment oftener 
than once in two weeks. The whole county was then 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



257 



part of one circuit (Connellsville), and was under the 
Baltimore Conference. Among the first preachers was 
Rev. Valentine Cook, presiding elder, whose district 
extended from the " Virginia line" to Erie, Pa. He 
was born in 1765, in Monroe County, Va., and in 1788 
received into the itinerancy, having his first appoint- 
ment on the Calvert Circuit in Maryland. During 
1792 he became engaged in a newspaper controversy, 
touching the leading principles of Methodism, with 
Rev. Samuel Porter, D.D., and with Rev. Jamison, a 
Scotchman, a minister of the Seceders' Church. He 
became presiding elder, and in 1798 was transferred 
to Kentucky, where he died in 1820. He was among 
the first Methodist preachers in the county. Among 
the most prominent to follow him were Revs. James 
Riley, Thornton Fleming, James Wilson, Henry 
Baker, Samuel V. Gillespie, and the venerable Samuel 
Wakefield. 

Another of the pioneer and famous local preachers 
was Mr. Wirsing, grandfather of Capt. Wirsing, late 
county treasurer. He was born in Germany, and had 
been a commissioned officer in the army of his father- 
land, being in the dragoons. He was an educated 
gentleman of fine address and great powers of lan- 
guage. He was the ablest and most eloquent exhorter 
of his day, and people came in vast numbers to hear 
him speak at camp-meetings, quarterly meetings, re- 
vivals, etc. Under his preaching the venerable Rev. 
Samuel Wakefield was converted and embraced reli- 
gion, and there are yet living many old people of 
Israel who in their youth sought the altar of mercy 
under this famous exhorter's preaching. He was in 
the zenith of his fame in 1820, and five years later 
removed to near Petersburg, Somerset Co., where 
he died about 1835. Daniel and Conrad Pershing, 
brothers, were local preachers of note, and Isaac Per- 
shing, a son of the former, still lives at Derry, at a 
very advanced age. Rev. James Wakefield, uncle of 
Rev. Samuel Wakefield, was a minister of much celeb- 
rity, and preached all over this and the adjoining 
counties from 1800 to about 1845. He was a man of 
fine attainments and a successful revivalist, and pos- 
sessed a power of influencing his hearers hardly ex- 
celled in his day. 

The oldest Methodist preacher in the county, and 
with only two exceptions in the Pittsburgh Confer- 
ence, is Rev. Samuel Wakefield, D.D., of Mount Pleas- 
ant. This patriarch and pioneer of his church was 
born in Huntingdon County in 1799. His father, 
Thomas Wakefield, was a native of Ireland, and mar- 
ried Elizabeth Morton, who was born in Chester 
County. They removed in 1800 to Indiana County, 
where their son Samuel resided until twenty-one 
years of age, when he entered on the ministry. His 
first preaching appointment was in Fayette County 
(Fayjatte Circuit), embracing half of that county and 
a part of West Virginia ; his next, Somerset Cir- 
cuit; his third, Connellsville Circuit, which then em- 
braced all of this (Westmoreland) county. He was 



then made for four years presiding elder of the Union- 
town district, which also included this county. He 
has been fifty-nine years in the ministry, twelve as 
a local preacher and forty-seven as an itinerant. He 
retired some two years ago from regular preaching, 
although he yet preaches on special occasions, such 
as dedications, and at funerals. There is probably 
no minister in America who has traveled so far on 
horseback, preached so many sermons, married so 
many couples, administered so many sacraments and 
baptisms, and attended so many funerals as Rev. 
Samuel Wakefield. About 1854, Allegheny Col- 
lege, in recognition of his great learning, conferred 
upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity. He has written largely for the religious 
press, and is the author of a work on " Theology," 
which has been introduced into the course of study 
for young ministers and been extensively circulated. 
He also served four years as presiding elder of the 
Allegheny District. He was married Aug. 23, 1821, to 
Miss Elizabeth Hough, through which union have been 
born ten children, — five sons and five daughters, — all 
living. One of them, Rev. John F. Wakefield, is the 
Methodist Episcopal pastor of Latrobe station. Dr. 
James B. Wakefield is a physician in Mount Pleasant, 
and Dr. Alfred N. Wakefield a physician at Johns- 
town. Mr. Wakefield and his wife have lived to- 
gether sixty-one years, in which time the church, 
to which he has in all that period been a faithful 
minister, has increased its numbers and strength in 
this county to wonderful proportions, which is largely 
attributable to his zeal and ability and to his ever- 
watchful care for its growth and promotion. 

APPOINTMENTS IN THE CONNELLSVILLE CIRCUIT UNTIL 
THE FORMATION OF THE LIOONIER CIRCUIT, 1820-34.1 

Feb. 16, 1820, Connellsville* (Fayette County), 
Greensburg,* Mount Pleasant,* McNutt's, McCue's, 
Mellon's (afterward Ross'), Slatterbeck'sf (sometimes 
written Sloderbeck), King's,*t Fisher's (near Ligo- 
nier), Hopewell, Stuart'sf (Jacob, Ligonier Valley), 
Wakefield's (James). 

June 20, 1820, Adams', Armel's, Wilson's, Shep- 
pard's*t Sherrick's* (Jacobs Creek, not far from 
Seottdale), Shumard's, McAnelly's. 

Sept. 16. 1820, Wakefield's. 

Dec. 2, 1820, Harrold's. 

June 2, 1821, Wade's, Doty's, Bracken's (Indiana 
County?). 

Sept. 29, 1821, Trout's, Ross'* (nearCrabtree, Unity 
township). 

Dec. 8, 1821, Williams'. 

June 29, 1822, Miller's.* 

Sept. 13, 1823, Vanausdoll's, Harvey's (or Harry's)- 

Feb. 28, 1824, Sterrett's Salt-works. 

1 At the formation of the Ligonier Circuit, in the summer of 1834, the 
I preachers on the Connellsville Circuit had served the appointments dur- 
ing tiie previous year in those congregations or stations marked with 
an asterisk (*). The appointments marked with a dagger (t and per- 
haps others were thereafter included in the Ligonier Circuit. 



258 



HISTORY OP WESTxMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



May 21, 1825, Funk's. 

November, 1825, Blairsville, McKissen's, Enfield's. 

April 29, 1826, Ross' Furnace* (Ligonier Valley), 
Galbreath's (Ligonier Valley), Palmer's (Ligonier 
Valley). 

Oct. 28, 1826, Black Lick (Indiana County). 

April 14, 1827, Stiffy's, Riggs'* (near Markle's 
Paper-Mill). 

Oct. 27, ■ , Mardice's, or Mardus'. 

Dec. 27. 1828, Morrison's, Allander's. 

Oct. 9, 1830, Pershing's*! (John), northeast of 
Pleasant Unity, Unity School-house, near Pleasant 
Unity, Pershing's*! (Daniel). 

Jan. 9, 1831, McLane's,*t Boner's, Livermore, Mc- 
Cutcheon's* (or McCue's?). 

April 2, 1831, Ligonier*! (instead of Fisher's). 

June 11, 1831, Fairfield.*! 

Sept. 10, 1831, Asbury Chapel*! (perhaps instead of 
Hopewell). 

March 17, 1832, Randolph* (three and a half miles 
east of Greensburg). 

June 9, 1832, Armaugh (Indiana County). 

Nov. 10, 1832, Bethel*! (Pleasant Unity), Youngs- 
town.*! 

Feb. 2, 1833, Tarr's* Frick's,* Longenecker's,* 
Laugh] instown.*! 

April 20, 1833, Donegal,*! Hatfield's, Hartzel's*! 
(near Pleasant Unity). 

Oct. 12, 1833, Salem.* 

Jan. 18, 1834, Denniston Town* (New Alexandria). 

PHESENT PASTORAL CHARGES. 

After 1825 several new pastoral charges sprang up, 
and in that year all Western Pennsylvania was de- 
tached from the Baltimore and made into the Pitts- 
burgh Conference, which embraced West Virginia, 
Western Pennsylvania, and part of Ohio. In 1840 
the Erie Conference was made out of it, and in 1844 
that of West Virginia. The following are the present 
preaching appointments (stations and circuits) in the 
county : Circleville, Jacobs Creek, Lebanon, Ligo- 
nier, Cokeville, Latrobe, Irvine, Sardis, West Newton, 
Rostraver, Mount Pleasant, Pleasant Unity, Donegal, 
New Derry, Greensburg, Manor, and Madison. Each 
of these is a separate pastoral charge, embracing from 
one to four preaching-places. 

To this imperfect sketch of the Methodist Church 
of the county may be added a few words touching the 
Loyalhanna camp-meeting grounds. In the summer 
of 1874 the East Pittsburgh District of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church appointed a committee to select 
ground on which to hold a camp-meeting. The com- 
mittee selected, out of quite a number proposed, the 
present site now occupied,' one and a half miles east 
of Latrobe, and this they have improved by erecting 
suitable buildings and accommodations. The ground 
was leased for twenty years, and has been laid off in 
lots fronting sixteen feet, and back forty feet. There 
are two tiers of lots around the entire camp ; on these 



are the cottages, and in summer temporary tents, facing 
towards the square devoted to religious services, 
or upon the avenues that pass parallel to the sides 
and ends of this square. The seats in front of the 
preacher's stand will accommodate five thousand peo- 
ple. When camp-meeting is in progress — it lasting 
usually two weeks in August of each year — the grounds 
and the whole town of Latrobe are crowded with peo- 
ple. An admission-fee is charged, and these aggre- 
gate a considerable amount. Many owners of cottages 
with their families reside on the grounds during the 
heated season. 

EARLY METHODISM IN GREENSBURG AND VICINITY. 

The following minutiae cannot but be of interest to 
the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
throughout the county, although it relates particu- 
larly to the establishment of the church at Greens- 
burg, and to the history of the congregation there. 
For the most part of this material we are indebted to 
William Robinson, Esq., one of the oldest citizens of 
the town and members of the congregation there, 
who has with a due regard to the desires of posterity, 
and in anticipation of the interest they will take in 
the matter, committed his personal knowledge and his 
acquired information in this regard to paper. To his 
valuable manuscript we have had access, and the sub- 
stance of it is here reproduced. 

Greensburg, from the time when first at all regu- 
larly supplied with Methodist preaching, received this 
through the Pittsburgh Circuit until Pittsburgh be- 
came a station and the Connellsville Circuit was 
formed, about 1811, then in connection with the latter 
until 1816, when Pittsburgh was thrown into a circuit 
again (Pittsburgh and Connellsville), until about 
1819, since which there has been no such circuit as 
the " Pittsburgh and Connellsville." Greensburg 
was then in the Connellsville Circuit until 1851, when 
it became detached by the formation of a new circuit 
embracing Greensburg, New Alexandria, Ross', Mount 
Pleasant, and Pleasant Unity. 

The great local " public discussion of the leading 
points of difference between the Calvinistic and Ar- 
menian systems," by Rev. John Jamison, of the 
Seceder, and Rev. Valentine Cook, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, came off on Wednesday, June 12, 
1793, a few miles distant from Greensburg, in some 
outdoor woodland, where a great number of seats had 
been prepared and a pulpit erected, and where when 
the time arrived "a vast concourse of people were in 
attendance," some of whom came as far as fifty miles. 
Tradition fixes the place at Congruity. Rev. Samuel 
Porter, who then had charge of the Presbyterian 
Church at Congruity, and who had a hand in bringing 
on the debate, saying "truth was suffering, and I 
must defend it or own it defenseless," hastened on the 
succeeding Sabbath, June 16, 1793, to give his " opin- 
ion" in two discourses "On the Decrees of God, the 
Perseverance of the Saints, and Sinless Perfection." 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



259 



In 1792, Samuel Bushfield and wife (formerly Miss 
Catharine Taylor) came from Ireland, and after stop- 
ping a while in Lancaster and Huntingdon Coun- 
ties, settled at Greensburg in 1799. They were 
Methodists before they came hither, and soon after 
they came by their efforts Methodist preaching was 
secured. In 1799-1800 the first class at Greensburg 
was formed, embracing Samuel Bushfield and wife 
Catharine, Jacob Kern and wife Susanna, and John 
Kern and wife. 

The early Methodist meetings at Greensburg up 
to 1830 were usually held at Bushfield's house. In 
it, too, was the " Prophet's Chamber." These places 
were, first, a wooden house, in part still standing on 
the north side of Pittsburgh Street, on the second 
lot west of the northwest corner of Pittsburgh and 
Joseph Streets, and a few yards eastward of the spring 
which rises about midway up Bunker Hill. The 
western end of the building was then a one-story 
kitchen. This was the birthplace, so to speak, of 
Methodism in Greensburg and parts adjacent. 

After living a year or two in the house designated, 
Bushfield removed to a red, weather-boarded house 
which stood on West Pittsburgh Street, at the foot of 
the street, somewhere below the present residence of 
Hon. E. Cowan. About 1800-8 he removed to a log 
house on the north side of the road, and on the west 
bank of the spring run which passes from Ludwick 
to the Williams' (or old fair-ground) farm. Nearly 
opposite this house, on the south side of the road, is 
the old log barn, which was used for preaching instead 
of the house " in fine summer weather." This prop- 
erty he owned. In 1829 he removed to a house a 
short distance eastward from the spring, and as he 
moved he carried the visible church with him. To 
this house the venerable writer to whom we are in- 
debted says that at the age of eleven he accom- 
panied his father one Sunday when preaching was ex- 
pected, but no preacher was there. Aaron Hill then 
led a class. From there Bushfield in 1830 removed 
to the town of Greensburg, and there in 1832 he died. 
His wife, married at eighteen to Bushfield, died Dec. 
28, 1856, in the eighty-fourth or eighty-fifth year of 
her age, and having been for above seventy years a 
member of the church. 

Meetings were also held at the house of Jacob 
Kern before he moved West in 1817. He lived on 
Main Street, on a lot just north of the present church 
building. Sometimes, especially for night preaching, 
the court-house was used. This was before 1830, and 
more generally from 1830 to 1833. In 1832, Rev. 
Charles Cook came over from Uniontown, and held a 
protracted meeting here, at which a number joined 
the church, and after which the project of building a 
meeting-house was agitated. From 1830 until their 
first meeting-house was built class-meetings were 
still held in Bushfield's house and at the house of 
Joseph Kern. 

On Feb. 2, 1833, the Quarterly Conference ap- 



pointed Rev. Wesley Kinney, Samuel B. Bushfield 
(son of Samuel Bushfield, deceased), and George T. 
Ramsay a committee to make an estimate of the 
amount necessary to build a house of worship in the 
borough of Greensburg, and, if deemed expedient, to 
secure a suitable lot of ground for the purpose. To 
secure the first " Methodist Episcopal Meetiug-House" 
in Greensburg, which was built in 1833, two members 
of the society subscribed each fifty dollars, other 
members smaller sums, some citizens gave liberally 
(or what might be called so at the time), and Rev. 
John White, preacher in charge, collected around the 
circuit seventy dollars. The lot was bought of John 
Y. Barclay, Esq., for one hundred dollars. The first 
trustees were George T. Ramsay, Samuel B. Bush- 
field, Aaron Hill, Daniel H. Barnes, and Joseph 
Kern. The agreement between these and John Hart- 
zell, house carpenter, for the erection of the meeting- 
house was dated Feb. 16, 1833, and stipulated for a 
brick building, forty-two feet long and thirty feet 
wide, one story fourteen feet in height, three windows 
on each side and two in each end, each of twenty- 
four lights of eight-by-ten glass; one double door in 
centre of front end four feet wide in the clear. The 
building was to be completed by the 1st of the next 
July. It is thought the pulpit, altar, and pews were 
put in some time afterwards, and therefore were not 
covered by Hartzell's claim for the building, which 
was $638.85. The first seating was benches made of 
slabs and boards, and the first lighting was by can- 
dles in candlesticks and in sconces hung against the 
walls. Afterwards lard lamps were used for lighting. 
A debt for its erection was left on the hands of the 
trustees, which gave them some trouble until it was 
paid in 1839. 

The building was situated on Main Street, and ad- 
joined the present Presbyterian Church property. It 
was sold by the trustees to the school directors of the 
Greensburg public schools in 1849. In rebuilding, 
pilasters and a second story were added. This build- 
ing is still standing in good preservation, and is now 
occupied as a dwelling. 

Previous to the erection of the new church building 
and after the sale of the first one, a small brick church, 
formerly used by the Presbyterians, and standing in 
a corner of now St. Clair Cemetery, together with the 
court-house, were used for preaching in. The first 
class met in this little church, and the second and 
other classes, when formed in 1834 and 1835 and 
thereafter, met principally at private houses until 
their own church was built. These private houses 
were those of William Gorgas, Jane McKinney, Da- 
vid Cook, John McGeary, William Robinson, and 
Hugh Arters, and besides these places, prayer-meet- 
ings and revival meetings were also held at the houses 
of Jacob Myers, Samuel B. Bushfield, Samuel S. Tur 
ney, Robert W. Turney, William S. Brown, and others. 
Meetings were held at some of these even when the first 
church was in use. 



260 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Dec. 14 and 15, 1850, the Second Quarterly Meet- 
ing Conference for Connellsville Circuit was held in 
the church on the cemetery grounds. 

In 1849 the pastor in charge, Rev. J. G. Sansom, 
suggested that the meeting-house be enlarged or a 
new one built to accommodate the increasing con- 
gregation. The suggestion was acted upon, and in 
September the trustees appointed a committee of 
three — C. J. Kenley, William Robinson, and William 
A. Cook — to open a subscription and ascertain how 
much money could be raised for a new church build- 
ing. The money raised therewith, together with that 
realized from the sale of their old edifice, was used in 
purchasing a lot and building a new church. Early 
in 1850 the lot on the northeast corner of Main and 
Second Streets was purchased from Jehu Taylor. 
The building was begun on this lot in 1851. The 
basement was completed so as to be used for worship 
in 1852, and the audience-room was finished the fol- 
lowing fall, and on Nov. 25, 1852, the building was 
dedicated by Bishop Simpson. 

At a meeting of the members of the church and a 
few friends, held Oct. 14, 1835, the first " Methodist 
Sabbath-School Society of Greensburg" was organ- 
ized, with Rev. David Sharp as president; Rev. 
Jeremiah Knox as vice-president; John W. Barr, 
superintendent; George T. Ramsey, assistant super- 
intendent and treasurer; William McKinney, secre- 
tary ; and Charles F. Kenley, librarian. In 1871 it 
acquired an organ for the use of the school. 

UNITED BRETHREN. 

The church of the " United Brethren in Christ" 
began its existence among the Germans of America 
soon after the middle of the eighteenth century. 1 

The ecclesiastical literature of this denomination 
ardently proclaims that divine Providence greatly 
favored this people at that time by raising up min- 
isters of the gospel filled with grace and zeal and 
the disposition and ability to go out among their 
widely-scattered population and preach in such a 
manner as to gather many to their standard. 

Prominent among those evangelists were William 
Otterbein, Martin Boehn, George A. Geeting, and 
Christian Newcomer. 

Those men obeying what they took to be a call from 
the Lord, their labors were blest of the Lord. Ex- 
cellent societies were formed in many places, and 
congregations, after the manner of the Methodists, 
were established wherever they went. As the spirit 
of revival and reformation prevailed, their sphere of 
action spread more and more, so that they soon found 
it necessary to seek fellow-laborers to work in the 
fields, where the harvest was plenteous and the labor- 
ers were few. So the number of consecrated work- 
men was rapidly increased. 



] My thanks for assistance in this sketch are due to Rev. F. Fisher 
and Rev. J. C. Shearer. 



The number of believers multiplied, and the refor- 
mation spread through the States of Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and Pennsylvania. 

From the year 1766 to 1789, a period of twenty- 
three years, the preachers, who felt that they were 
" united brethren," and who were co-operating in the 
revival movement, met together as often as once a 
year, and generally at a great meeting, where in mu- 
tual and brotherly counsel they attended to such busi- 
ness as properly belonged to a Presbytery, a Classis, 
or a Conference. As the number of laborers increased, 
and as applications for authority to preach from those 
whom, as it was regarded, God had manifestly called 
and qualified for the work multiplied, these informal 
Conferences became more necessary and important. 
Mr. Otterbein, being eminently qualified, usually pre- 
sided, and his counsels and instructions, especially to 
the rising ministry, were in a high degree useful. 

At length, however, a formal Conference was deemed 
necessary ; the work had become so far extended that 
it became impracticable to attend to the necessary 
business of the church at the great meetings. Ac- 
cordingly the first Conference, regularly convened, 
was held in Baltimore in 1789. Fourteen preachers 
were recognized as members. 

The second regular Conference was convened in 
1791, in York County, Pa. Nine additional laborers 
were recognized, making in all twenty-three. 

After this period it was found necessary to hold 
Conferences annually, in order to more closely unite 
the preachers and to establish a better plan for their 
labors. 

At these Conferences the preachers who could give 
their whole time in traveling were assigned particular 
fields of labor, wherein they worked as itinerants. 
Others were appointed to hold revival meetings des- 
ignated at the Conferences, in different sections of the 
country, and to devote as much of their time to the 
work of evangelization as circumstances would permit. 

At a Conference held in Maryland in the year 1800, 
the name " United Brethren in Christ" was adopted. 
Up until this period the church had passed under the 
name of " United Brethren," an appellation very ap- 
propriate considering that converted Mennonists, Re- 
formed Lutherans, Tunkers, and Amish were drawn 
together and compressed into this one harmonious 
ecclesiastical organization. The additional words 
" in Christ" were appended to the former name in 
order to give distinctness as a denomination, and to 
avoid any legal difficulty which might arise in making 
deeds, wills, and other legal instruments. In the 
year 1815, at a General Conference, composed of rep- 
resentatives of the entire church organization East 
and West, a discipline was adopted setting forth the 
doctrines and rules of the church according as they 
were taken to be, as based on the word of God, so that 
harmony and peace might be preserved both in doc- 
trine and practice as the church increased. 

The polity of the church is a very modified episco- 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



201 



pacy, in which the hishops are elected quatlriennially 
and are not ordained to a superior order, but chosen 
as superintendents of the church. 

All ecclesiastical authority is vested in a General 
Conference, consisting of elders elected by vote of the 
members of the church congregations from every 
Conference district. The bishops are elected by this 
body, and are its presiding officers. They superintend 
the Annual Conferences in the respective districts 
over which they are appointed. They officiate in 
ordinations, and assist in stationing the preachers, 
according to the itinerant plan. 

The conditions of membership in this church body 
are profession of faith in Christ and an experience of 
pardon of sin and peace with God. 

The denomination now numbers one hundred and 
sixty thousand members, mostly English-speaking 
people. In our county they comprise a generally 
intelligent and respectable portion of the people. 

The first United Brethren preachers who came to 
this county were Christian Newcomer, George A. 
Geeting, Abraham Draksel, Charles Berger, and An- 
drew Zeller. 

These ministers came on extensive missionary tours 
from Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, visiting the 
county at intervals of three or four months, preach- 
ing in the houses, barns, and groves of those members 
of their communion who had moved from the East. 
Christian Newcomer, afterwards third bishop of the 
church, was the first to come to this county on those 
long preaching tours. His journal is still preserved, 
and shows that he Visited this county and preached 
in it as early as 1800. He says. — 

" Oct. 22, 1800. From thence I came to Mr. George 
Mumma's, a relation of mine in Westmoreland County, 
and stayed for the night. 23d. This morning set off 
on my way very early ; fed at a public-house in Lin- 
ganore [Ligonier] Valley," [this was at the old May's 
tavern stand, on the turnpike between Donegal and Laurel- 
ville]. Another extract will show the route by which 
these preachers traveled to this country from the East : 

" Nov. 8, 1803. We. traveled about thirty miles over 
a very mountainous section of country ; preached at 
Mr. Guth's, near Berlin. . . . 9th. To-day we pur- 
sued our journey across Laurel Hill, where we lodged 
with Henry Filger, in Ligonier Valley. 10th. We 
held a meeting at Mr. Weible's. The word made 
great impression. At night we preached at Mr. Bon- 
nett's [one mile cast of Mount Pleasant] , an intelligent 
German [but of French extraction]. Here I spoke 
from Heb. ii. 3. I had not spoken long before some of 
my hearers fell to the floor, others stood trembling and 
crying so loud that my voice could scarcely be heard." 
Six years later he writes, — 

"June 20, 1809. This forenoon we had meeting at 
Walter's ; in the afternoon I spoke at Swartz's ; lodged 
here for the night." [ This was near Pleasant Unity, at. 
the house of John Sioartz, grandfather of Mrs. John 
Gibbs and Mr. Paul Smarts, of Mount Pleasant.] 



" 21st. This day we preached in Greensburg, in the 
court-house ; Geeting preached in the German, myself 
in the English language." 

Six years later he writes of being at the General 
Conference at Mount Pleasant : 

"June 5th [1815]. Came to Worman's. 6th. This 
day the General Conference commenced at old Brother 
Draksel's. . . . Lodged with John Shupe". [ancestor 
of Mr. Oliver Shupe, of Mount Pleasant]. 

His visits are recorded as late as 1827, having been 
kept up with more or less frequency for a period of 
twenty-seven years. At page 313 of his printed 
"Journal" is the following entry: "June 22, 1827. 
Came to Daniel Worman's. 23d. Lodged at Bon- 
nett's. 24th. This forenoon I preached here from 
Luke xxiv. 45-47." 

At the first General Conference held in this region, 
above alluded to, were present the following ministers : 
Revs. Abraham Mayer, Henry Kumler, John Snyder, 
Abraham Draksel, and Christian Berger, of the State 

of Pennsylvania ; Revs. Newcomer and Jacob 

Baulus, of Maryland ; Revs. Christian Crura, Isaac 
Niswander, and H. G. Spayth, of Virginia ; and Revs. 
Andrew Zeller, A. Hiestand, Daniel Tryer, and George 
Benedum, of Ohio. 

Thus it will be seen that the church in this county 
has considerable historic interest, and the old house 
wherein was held this early church meeting is now a 
Mecca for the pilgrims of this faith. Every reason- 
able effort has been made to preserve it from demoli- 
tion, and it has been photographed and produced in 
all kinds of engravings, and in print hangs on maDy 
walls. It is certainly a commendable trait of respect 
and veneration now that the denomination has grown 
rich and influential that its members should set such 
store by old landmarks so full of interest. 

The first resident United Brethren minister in the 
county was Rev. Abraham Draksel, or Draksell (now 
Truxell). He owned and lived upon the farm now 
occupied by David Miller, near Mount Pleasant. His 
grandson, Rev. J. H. Pershing, has charge of Ligonier 
Circuit, and resides at New Florence. Notable among 
the names of the pioneer ministers of the church in 
this county is that of Henry Spayth, who moved to 
Mount Pleasant and became resident pastor there 
about the year 1815. Besides performing the labori- 
ous pastoral work of more than half a century, he 
wrote a history of the church, and assisted largely in 
the preparation of a denominational hymn-book. 
Few men did more than he to shape the polity of the 
church during a period of thirty years, from 1815 to 
1845. 

The first preaching-places in the county were the 
one designated above, near Mount Pleasant, and 
others at Donegal, West Newton, Madison, Greens- 
burg, and Pleasant Unity. 

The first regular organizations were at Mount 
Pleasant, Madison, and near West Newton. 

Among the oldest of living preachers who labored 



262 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



for the church in this county during the last half-cen- 
tury are Rev. J. L. Baker, now seventy-two, still 
traveling a circuit afoot, and preaching with youthful 
clearness and force, and Rev. William Beighel, still 
in charge of a circuit and resident at Pleasant Unity. 

Peter Walter, of Lycippus, is the oldest member of 
the church in the county. He was converted, in a 
religious sense, and joined the church, then in a barn 
near Pleasant Unity, at the age of eighteen, and has 
now belonged to the church as a member for seventy 
years. He attended the first General Conference at 
Mount Pleasant in 1815, and knew all the early 
preachers that came to this section. 

David Keister, an early member of Mount Pleasant, 
now above seventy, retains a large store of the tradi- 
tional history of his church, and remembers distinctly 
many of the fathers. He has a complete file of the 
Religious Telescope, the denominational organ of the 
church. 

The early growth of the United Brethren Church 
was slow, owing to the fact that its early ministers 
were evangelists rather than organizers; hence it is a 
matter of complaint that, although their labors were 
abundant and their converts numerous, yet these 
fruits were often garnered by more skillful organizers 
of other denominations. These early preachers spoke 
German, and seldom preached English ; hence, as the 
children of the families learned English at school and 
began to lose the use of the German, they preferred 
English preaching, and consequently joined other 
churches. 

There are now six pastoral charges in this county, 
— Mount Pleasant station, in charge of Rev. J. C. 
Sharer ; Westmoreland Circuit, with the venerable 
Rev. Isaac Potter as pastor ; Madison Circuit, Rev. J. 
S. Buell, pastor; Greensburg, under pastoral care of 
Rev. J. L. Jones ; Ligonier Circuit, Rev. J. H. Pershing 
pastor ; the west half of Ligonier Circuit is served by 
Rev. A. Davidson. 

These pastoral charges consist of seventeen organ- 
ized churches, worshiping in fourteen meeting-houses, 
and having a total membership of twelve hundred 
and ninety-five members. 

THE MENNONISTS— THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THE 
COUNTY. 
The Mennonist Church is one of the fragments 
into which the mother-church of Rome was shivered 
by reforming hands in the Middle Ages, and is ac- 
cordingly one of the many Protestant sects. The 
founder of the Meunonite — more preferably " Men- 
nonist" — sect was Menno Simon, who was in Fries- 
land in 1495 or '96, three years after the discovery of 
America by Columbus. He was contemporary with 
Luther, Zwinglius, Bucer, Calvin, Bullinger, and Me- 
lancthon. His doctrines were accepted by great num- 
bers, who became persecuted, and largely dispersed ] 
into Prussia, Poland, Denmark, Holland, and Russia. ' 
In 1683 a number of Mennonist families came to < 



America and settled in and about Gertnantown (now 
Philadelphia), and at subsequent times other bodies 
of them came and located near the original settle- 
ment. In 1736 five hundred settled in Lancaster 
County, and from this region they gradually dispersed 
into various States. In the last part of the eighteenth 
century the first Mennonist families settled in West- 
moreland County, and as years rolled by its settle- 
ment received several additions from the Eastern 
hives. With an eye to plenty and prosperity, the 
Mennonist pioneers settled in East Huntingdon town- 
ship, one of the most beautiful and fertile sections of 
the county, at the same time one rich in minerals. 
In the same valley, but across Jacobs Creek and in 
Fayette County, another settlement of Mennonists 
came. To this settlement came principally Lancaster 
County families, while to West Overton came gener- 
ally families from Bucks County. 

Among the subscribers to " The Christian Confes- 
sion of Faith," published at Philadelphia in 1727, 
occur the surnames Kolb, Ziegler, Gorgas, Conerads, 
Hirchi, Bear, Bowman, Langenecker, Beghtly. These 
surnames are to be found in Westmoreland, with such 
phonetic changes as point unmistakably to their deri- 
vation from the former. Thus Kolb has become Culp 
and Gulp ; Ziegler, Zigler ; Conerad, Coonrad ; Hir- 
chi, Harshey and Hershey ; Langenecker, Long- 
necker. In other documents occur the surnames 
Oberholtzer, now Oberholt; Kendigs, now Kintig; 
Miller, Funk, Bowman still the same in this county. 
In the original list of subscribers to this Confession 
of Faith, "done and finished in our united churches 
in the city of Dortrecht, 21st April, A.r>. 1632," occur 
the surnames Jacobs, Willisemsen, now Williamson ; 
Winkelmans, now Winkleman ; Zimmerman, now the 
same, or translated into Carpenter ; Shoomaker, now 
Shoe-, Shu- and Shoonmaker ; Movers, now the 
same, or Meyer, Meyers ; Koenig, now King; Bom, 
now Baum ; Claeson, now Clawson ; Petersen, now 
Peterson ; Segerts, now about the same ; Haus, now 
pronounced Houtz; op de Graff, now Updegraff. 
Thus the connection is shown between the Westmore- 
land Mennonists of the latter half of the nineteenth 
century and the Dortrecht, Utrecht, Leyden, Rotter- 
dam, and Amsterdam Mennonists of more than two 
hundred years ago. 

In this county the sect is on the decline. At one 
time their communicants were here numbered by 
hundreds, while now there are less than forty, and 
not one of these under the age of forty. The Men- 
nonist Church is in East Huntingdon township (which 
chapter see for its history), about midway in a line 
running north and south between West Overton and 
Bethany, and about midway in a line running east 
and west between Mount Pleasant and Reagantown. 
Its last minister was John Overholt, who resided on 
the eastern flank of the hilly range that farther north 
in the county is the well-defined Randolph or Dry 
Ridge. Since their settlement here the Mennonists 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



263 



have been distinguished for their moral worth, thrift, 
industry, and intelligence, and no portion of the 
county excels the part originally settled by them and 
still almost entirely owned and occupied by their 
numerous and forehanded descendants. 

BAPTIST CHURCH. 

The Salem Baptist Church, located near West New- 
ton, is the oldest of this faith in Westmoreland County. 1 
There are not more than three in the western part of 
the State that antedate it, and it may be there is but 
one. It was constituted nineteen years before the 
First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately 
the records of its constitution, if there were ever any 
kept, have been lost. Yet the history that antedates 
its constitution, and for some years after, was kept in 
the attentive memory of Brother J. P. Weddell. 
Richard Pritehard, his grandfather, was a member of 
the Presbyterian Church, but from his study of the 
Scriptures was convinced that his baptism was not 
apostolic. The only Baptist Church that he could 
attend was in Washington County. Henry Speers 
was their pastor, and baptized him into the fellowship 
of that church. His wife soon after obeyed in the 
same ordinance. Soon after this Elder Speers began 
to preach in their house occasionally, on the farm 
now owned by Thomas Ray, where Elders Beatty and 
Corbley also preached. These meetings were held in 
memory by Father J. P. Weddell, who a short time 
since died. 

The first persons baptized in that place were Jo- 
seph Budd and wife, and Nathaniel Hayden and wife, 
with some others whose names are forgotten. 

The old meeting-house was built on the same spot 
where the present one now stands. It was built in 
the year 1792, and continued to be their place of 
worship until their present house was erected in the 
year 1842. 

Among the early ministers were Lucy, Fry, and 
Phillips, and Elder Stone, pioneer preachers of West-' 
em Pennsylvania. Dr. James Estep preached to this 
church in his youth, in his prime, and even in his 
old age. He was their first regular pastor. He 
served them as a supply and pastor for almost half a 
century. 

William Shadrach, D.D., when but a boy, with 
his youthful eloquence led many to connect them- 
selves with this church, some of whom are still mem- 
bers of the church. 

Revs. Rockefeller, George I. Miles, and Dr. Wil- 
liam Penny, earnest ministers of the church, have 
gone to their rest, and their labors do follow them. 
The latter of these was baptized and received into 
the fellowship of this church. For thirty years pre- 
vious to the great revival under the preaching of Rev. 
Isaac Wynn, in 1841, was a dark page in the history 
of this church. They had no pastor and no preaching, 



1 From " Minutes of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association for 1871.' 



except when some traveling minister came among them. 
James Estep, generally once or twice a year, came and 
administered the sacrament. The members were few, 
but they were firm and true. They never ceased 
holding their prayer-meetings, and, like those of old, 
" They feared the Lord, and spake often one to an- 
other." At the latter part of this period there was a 
revival, which resulted in the conversion of over fifty 
persons, who were added to the church. 

After Rev. Isaac Wynn closed his labors with the 
church, Rev. E. T. Brown took charge; then suc- 
ceeded Revs. Milton Sutton, R. R. Sutton, and J. K. 
Cramer, the latter of whom preached for them over 
twelve years. After he left the church was without 
a pastor for several years. Revs. A. N. Dye and S. 
Washington each supplied them about six months. 
Rev. Daniel Webster was their pastor from June, 
1869, till January, 1871. Rev. Aaron Wilson, their 
present pastor, entered upon his labors about April 
1st. The Elizabeth, McKeesport, Mars Hill, and 
Olive Branch were organized chiefly from the Salem 
Church. 

The parsonage was built by Rev. A. Wilson. 

Rev. A. Wilson closed his pastorate in April, 1873. 
Rev. W. T. Hughes entered upon pastorate in May, 
1873. During his pastorate a branch was organized 
in West Newton, and a house built. 

Rev. W. T. Hughes closed his pastorate, May, 1875. 
Rev. J. J. Leightburn became pastor November, 1875. 
He resigned in 1880. Now without a pastor, have a 
good church property and parsonage, worth $8000. 

1882, Pastor, ; Deacons, Nelson Weddell, 

Nathan M. Grew, J. M. Montgomery ; Clerk, J. M. 
Montgomery. Sunday-school of thirty. 

MOUNT PLEASANT BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Organized November, 1828. Rev. William Shad- 
rach the first pastor, and only surviving constituent 
member. W. Shadrach ordained same year, and 
Abram Shallenberger ordained first deacon in Febru- 
ary, 1829. The next deacon was Jonathan Neumeyer. 
Both of these deacons have had sons ordained dea- 
cons of the same church. 

Rev. Leroy Stephens resigned in 1879, having 
served the church about seven years, being the longest 
pastorate in the history of the church. Rev. N. L. 
Reynolds began his pastorate in 1880, and is still in 
charge of the church. 

Few churches have had a more peaceful and pros- 
perous career for the last eighteen or twenty years. 

It was through the members of this church and 
their efforts that the institute was located at Mount 
Pleasant, and they have given a liberal portion of the 
funds which have made it what it is. 

MOUNT PLEASANT INSTITUTE. 

The Baptists purchased the old Mount Pleasant 
College in 1870, and opened what is now known as 
the " Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific 



264 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Institute" in September, 1873, under A. K. Bell, D.D., 
as president, and J. Jones, A.M., principal. The 
growth has been gradual but constant. Beginning 
with forty-six the first year, it has now reached one 
hundred and fifty, nearly all regular students. The 
institute is equaled by very few intermediate schools 
in its full courses of study. There is a three-years' 
course to prepare for college, besides a three-years' sci- 
entific and a four-years' literary course. 

There are now eight teachers besides the various 
lecturers. The property consists of a fine three-acre 
campus on one of the highest spots in the commu- 
nity, and covered with a beautiful grove of forest- 
trees, in full view of Chestnut Ridge. There are two 
large brick buildings, the one used as a ladies' dormi- 
tory building having cost twenty thousand dollars. 

The graduates of the school are beginning to occupy 
positions of influence, and are giving evidence of the 
thorough work the school has done. 

DONEGAL BAPTIST CHURCH. 

The Baptist Church at Donegal was constituted 
June 14, 1834. The following are the names of the 
members: John R. Lohr, John Robison, Sr., John 
Robison, Jr., Samuel White (afterward removed to 
Iowa), Catharine Robison, Agnes Lohr, Margaret 
White, Julian Robison, Mary Lohr, Eleanor Shad- 
rach, Catharine Lohr, Mary Lohr (the younger) 
Lydia Weimer, Mary Berg, Eleanor Keslar. All 
these, with the exception of John R. Lohr, Samuel 
White, and Eleanor Keslar, are now dead. The 
church was organized by the Revs. John P. Rocke- 
feller and Levi Griffith, on the date above given, at 
which time the Rev. Roekeigller was chosen pastor, 
John R. Lohr, deacon, and John Robison, church 
clerk. It remained under the care of this pastor 
until April 1, 1835, when he resigned. On the 18th of 
that month Rev. Levi Griffith was chosen pastor, and 
he remained in charge until the 1st of March, 1837, 
when he was succeeded by Rev. Rockefeller, who 
was again pastor till March 31, 1838. He was then 
followed by these in their order : Rev. Milton Sutton, 
till Feb. 20, 1S41 ; Rev. Garret R. Patton, from July 
10, 1841, till 19th December, 1843 ; Rev. Caleb Russell, 
till March 7, 1846; Rev. Albert G. Eberhart, till 
March 20, 1847 ; Rev. W. W. Hickman, till April 20, 
1850; Rev. John Parker, from Aug. 17, 1850, till 
March 13, 1852; Rev. J. K. Cramer, till Dec. 19, 
1857; Rev. John Scott, till June 18, 1859; Rev. John 
Williams, from April 1, 1860, till April 1, 1861 ; Rev. 
O. P. Hargrave, from June 18, 1862, till December, 
1863; Rev. James R. Brown, from May 5, 1866, till 
May 5, 1867; Rev. N. B. Crichficld, from July 12, 
1867, till Aug. 19, 1871 ; Rev. Z. C. Rush, from Sept. 
10, 1871, till June 19, 1875; Rev. David Williams, 
for six months thereafter; Rev. W. T. Galloway, 
preached for six months in 1877 as supply ; Rev. W. 
S. Wood, for six months in 1878 as supply, and six 
months in 1869 as pastor; Rev. John C. Skinuer, for 



three months from November, 1829, as supply; Rev. 
G. D. Knox, for six months in 1880 as supply ; Rev. 
W. T. Galloway, pastor in 1881, from April 1st -till 
September 1st; and Rev. W. W. Robison, from Sep- 
tember, 1881, as supply, who is now their pastor for 
one year. 

The deacons of the Donegal Baptist Church, with 
the dates of their ordination, are as follows: John R. 
Lohr, June 14, 1834; Samuel White, March 14, 1835; 
John Robinson, Sr., March 2, 1838; William Fligor, 
June 17, 1854; Rice Boyd, June 30, 1870. 

MARS HILL CHURCH. 

Organized in 1839. Resulted from special services 
held by Rev. Milton Sutton, then pastor at McKees- 
port, but residing in Connellsville. 

Passing by the place now known as Mars Hill, he 
was requested to hold services in the school-house by 
an aged lady of the Baptist faith by the name of 
Mrs. Tilbrook, the mother of John and Thomas Til- 
brook, both now deceased, but well known in this 
county. Rev. Mr. Sutton assented, and continued to 
stop and preach on Friday p.m., at two o'clock, and 
in the evenings. As a result a number of persons 
were baptized, and on Oct. 31, 1840, the church was 
recognized by Council. The following names appear 
as connected with this early history : Mrs. Tilbrook, 
John Tilbrook and wife Anna, Thomas Copeland and 
wife (father and mother of B. and J. Copeland, mer- 
chants of Irwin), John Dinsmore and wife (parents 
of J. McCoy Dinsmore, of Irwin), John Kearns and 
wife, Jacob Grennewalt and wife, Henry Grennewalt 
and wife (Col. Jacob Grennewalt's father and mother), 
Abram Leatherman and wife (sister of David Tins- 
man), Mrs. Col. Bigham Copeland, Mrs. Emily Gren- 
newalt (mother of Capt. Grennewalt, Twenty-eighth 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers), Matthew Linn 
and wife (parents of James Linn, McKeesport). 

A number of others might be named. The first 
•candidates for baptism were Mrs. Diana Kearns, Miss 
Polly McQuade; the first pastor, Rev. Milton Sutton; 
deacons, Jacob Grennewalt, John Tilbrook. The 
first house (a Union Church building) was erected in 
1841 at a cost of some fifteen hundred dollars. The 
ground for building and cemetery purposes was do- 
nated by John Tilbrook. 

The pastors of the church since its organization 
have been Revs. Milton Sutton, R. R. Sutton, J. P. 
Rockefeller, Gabriel Lanham, O. P. Hargrave (eight 
years), Daniel Webster (three years), R. C. Morgan 
(one year), O. P. Hargrave (nine years). The last, 
O. P. Hargrave, has been pastor for seventeen years 
iu June, 1882, an interval of five years intervening 
between 1868 and 1ST::. 

The present church building was erected in 1875, 
and dedicated May 28, 1876. Sermon by Rev. J. K. 
Cramer, assisted by Rev. J. J. Lightburn. 

The official members in 1882 are as follows : Pastor, 
Rev. O. P. Hargrave; Deacons, John Fretz, Daniel 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



265 



Grennewalt ; Church Clerk, John Ogg ; Trustees, Na- 
than Fullerton, Christian Fretz, Capt. Caleb Grenne- 
walt, Dr. James Penny, Samuel Grennewalt ; Sunday- 
school Superintendent, Alexander Wiley. 

Value of church property, $4000 ; membership, 
1881, 85 ; average yearly expenditures, $500 ; Sabbath- 
school members, 60. 

The history of the church has been similar to most 
organizations. In 1868 it numbered 153 members ; 
to-day 85. While weaker numerically, it is stronger 
financially. 

The Irwin, Greensburg, and Coulterville Baptist 
Churches were in part formed from this church. 

The early association of this church was with the 
Monongahela Association. 

IKWIN BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Organized in 1872. Recognized by Council Dec. 
10, 1872. Received into the Association (Pittsburgh) 
June, 1873, reporting sixty members. Rev. R. C. 
Morgan, pastor; I. D. Evans, clerk; J. M. Dinsmore, 
J. G. Steiuer, deacons. Dedicated house of worship 
October, 1874. Rev. R. C. Morgan resigned May, 
1876. Rev. J. W. Evans became pastor Dec. 1, 1876; 
resigned November, 1878. Rev. G. D. Knox became 
pastor May, 1878, and resigned Jan. 26, 1879. Finan- 
cial embarrassment, and house sold for debt in 1879. 
Rev. J. Gemple served as supply for a few months, 
closing his labors January, 1880. During his minis- 
try the church changed its name to the Shafton Bap- 
tist Church. Rev. H. Jeffreys became pastor in 
March, 1881, and still remains in charge. J. J. 
Jones, deacon; J. Mountain, clerk. Membership last 
report, 68. 

The Second Baptist Church of Irwin was organ- 
ized in 1879, and recognized by Council Aug. 14, 1879, 
with 30 members. Rev. G. W. Baker preached as a 
supply for a few months, closing his labors April, 
1880. The church now is without a pastor. 

First Baptist Church membership : 1873, 60 ; 1874, 
114; 1875, 169; 1876, 198; 1877, 163; 1878, 107; 
1879, 53. 

Value of church property when sold, 1879, $5000. 
A Sunday-school with an average attendance of 150 
pupils was kept up for several years. 

Benevolent contributions and home-work : 

1872 I 1877 S2.089.00 

1873 83,298.50 ' 1S7M • 859.37 

1874 2,809.00 1879 375.62 

1875 1,806.98 

1876 1,689.50 813,647.97 

This is an average of $1949.71 in the seven years. 

The outlook for the future is not encouraging for 
either the Irwin or Shafton Baptist Churches. There 
is some good material in both, and they may again 
arise in strength. 

GREENSBURG BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Organized April 5, 1873. Recognized by Council 
May 13, 1S73, with 33 members. Received into the 
Pittsburgh Association June, 1873. Rev. R. C. Mor- 



gan, pastor; Philip Clingerman, A. P. Smith, dea- 
cons ; John Mensch, clerk. Rev. R. C. Morgan re- 
signed pastorate April 1, 1874. Rev. O. P. Hargrave 
became pastor July 1, 1874, and is still in charge, 
1882. Dedicated their first meeting-house Oct. 13, 
1875. Dedication sermon by Rev. B. F. Woodburn, 
assisted by Rev. Leroy Stephens, Rev. J. K. Cramer, 
and Rev. J. S. Hutson. Sunday-school organized 
January, 1873. Has been a successful school under 
the superintendencies of A. P. Smith, John Mensch, 
and H. W. Walkinshaw, who is now in charge. Mem- 
bership in 1874, 57; 1881, 55. Near a hundred 
scholars have been in attendance some years. As in 
1878 there was 93 pupils, other schools have reduced 
this one. 

Officers in 1882 : O. P. Hargrave, pastor ; P. Clin- 
german, J. Mensch, D. B. Weaver, deacons ; H. W. 
Walkinshaw, clerk. Church membership, 94 ; value 
of church property, $3000. 

There has been baptized into this church 115 per- 
sons, 86 during the present pastorate. 

Benevolence and home-work : 



1874 8442.2, r , 

1875 627.13 

1876 1206.05 

1877 442.25 

1878 448.05 



1879 8609.43 

1880 542.10 

1881 2154.90 



S6472.16 



This is an average of $809.02 for the eight years. 

There has been connected with this church since its 
organization by baptism, 115; letter, 18 ; experience, 
30 ; total, 163. Only 12 by letter and 17 by experi- 
ence in eight years. Not much help from abroad. 

NEW STANTON BAPTIST CHURCH. 

In 1840 the Rev. Siegfried, of Mount Pleasant, com- 
menced to preach in New Stanton, and a Union Church 
edifice was built at that place the same year. 

In April, 1842, there was a church organized at that 
place numbering about 37 members. The Rev. Sieg- 
fried continued to preach here for about two years. 

In 1844 the church undertook and erected a stone 
edifice of its own, costing two thousand dollars. The 
Rev. Siegfried resigned his charge about this time 
and Rev. A. Eberhart was called to the pastorate, 
and served the church two years. The Rev. Morris 
then took charge of the church and served it for some 
time. He was followed by Rev. Richard Sutton, who 
served for two years. 

Rev. George White was pastor for some length of 
time. Rev. Lanham served the church for three or 
four years. Rev. John Williams, of Turkey Foot was 
pastor for some time. 

The Rev. John E. Thomas preached for a period 
of about six years. He preached his last sermon at 
this place from the text, "Man goeth to his long 
home, and the mourners go about the streets." Since 
that time the Rev. George Ames has officiated. 

The Rev. (Forger) Jones served as pastor for two 
years. The Rev. Wood preached for some time, but 
had no discipline. He was followed by the Rev. Z. 



266 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



C. Rush. The last regularly engaged pastor of the 
church was the Rev. John Knox, who resigned about 
five months ago (Dec. 1881). Since that time the 
church has had no preaching at all. The present mem- 
bership is 26. Those who assisted the church in pro- 
tracted efforts were such men as Dr. Estep, W. Wood, 
Sr., George I. and Ed. Miles, Job and Kaleb Rossel, 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

There was no Roman Catholic congregation in 
Western Pennsylvania for many years after its settle- 
ment. In the early days of our local history some 
few emigrants from Germany and Ireland, who still 
clung to the faith of their fathers, had settled in the 
East, but it was remarked that even the priests were 
foreign-born, and that few could speak in English. 
The rise and growth of the church in that part of the 
State west of the mountains is especially noticeable 
from the time of the construction of the great public 
works, such as the canals, the portage, and the rail- 
roads, when the labor was mostly done by those who 
had lately crossed the ocean hither. 

Up until this century was well advanced the little 
Catholic Church known as the " Hill Church" — that 
one which preceded the present St. Vincent's — was 
the Mecca of the faithful for a region of country of 
which the eastern portion of this county was a large 
but not the entire part. There are persons still living 
who remember when this congregation was made up 
of worshipers who had been gathered together from 
beyond Blairsville, in Indiana County, to beyond the 
head-waters of Indian Creek, in Fayette County. But 
even when so gathered together from such widely-sep- 
arated distances the congregation was small. In some 
districts Roman Catholics were so few that each one 
was known in person. It is with feelings of shame 
that the majority of intelligent people of the present 
generation are apt to contemplate the prejudices of 
their ancestors, most of whom from the force of circum- 
stances knew nothing of the ceremonial of the church, 
and little of its evangelical doctrines and history but 
what they got from Fox's " Book of Martyrs." 

Among the more liberal, however, such as had little 
or no bigotry, there is ample evidence to satisfy the 
inquirer that perhaps there was never a time in our 
local history when those of a kindred sentiment and 
who were not held in the bonds of ignorance did not 
meet on equal ground. The first priests were hospit- 
ably entertained at the houses of their German or their 
Irish Protestant friends. They ate at their tables and 
lodged under their roofs. 1 Two foreigners meeting 
had a bond of sympathy outside their religious pref- 
erences not known to native-born. Times change, 
and it is perhaps not worth the saying that now the 
ceremonies of the many Catholic Churches all over the 
land are sometimes as well comprehended by Prot- 



I The inquirer will perhaps be agreeably disappointed to discover how 
numerous are the family traditions among our early and most influential 
class of people bearing upon this subject. 



estant youth as by Catholic youth, although they may 
in general be more familiar to the one than to the 
other. To such the Miserere in its matchless elo- 
quence increases the faith of the penitent; in the 
Office of the Dead the sweet memory of departed 
friends comes back ; to most of them it is known that 
in the darkness and gloom of Passion Week, through 
the watches of the nights which ends with that of 
Good Friday, the deacons chant the office of the ten- 
ebrce : and the edifices are crowded on Easter Sun- 
days by a promiscuous crowd, who know that then is 
celebrated with "mass and rolling music" the mem- 
ory of the risen Lord. But there was a time when 
the gown of a Benedictine was thought to hold the 
incarnate spirit of evil, when the singing of the as- 
perges was in a language never spoken by Christian 
men, and when a simple countryman would as leave 
be bitten by a mad dog as get a dip of holy-water. 

The history of the Roman Catholic Church in West- 
moreland County is so peculiarly connected with the 
history of Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania, and, 
indeed, in one respect, with Catholicity in the United 
States, that it is deserving of a more than ordinary 
notice at our hands. One observation alone, to a con- 
templative person, indicates that its annals possess 
much interest, for the Right Rev. Abbot Wimmer, 
of St. Vincent's, as known in the hierarchy of the 
church, was with those prelates who entered the Coun- 
cil Hall of the Basilica, in which met the Ecumeni- 
cal Council of the Vatican. This prelate, to whom in 
1869 was accorded the enviable honor and distinction 
of joining the procession of cardinals, patriarchs, 
clerical princes, and notables of the Roman Catholic 
and Apostolic Church throughout the whole world, 
was the abbot of a monastery erected on a spot which 
in 1769 was in the midst of a great wilderness. And 
this monastery is certainly a place of much interest 
to our people, and its institution something in which 
they may well feel an honorable pride. 

CATHOLICITY IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Before giving a detailed history of Catholicity in 
Western Pennsylvania we find it expedient to revert 
to its cradle in the East, namely, to Philadelphia and 
its vicinity. 

The first traces of Catholic worship in Pennsylvania 
are found in the .public celebration of holy mass in 
Philadelphia in the year 1708, based upon the follow- 
ing quotation from a letter of Sir William Penn, then 
in England, to his Colonial Governor in America, 
James Logan: "There is a complaint against your 
government that you suffer public mass in a scandal- 
ous manner. Pray send the matter of fact, for ill use 
of it is made against me here." 2 In a subsequent 
letter he adverts to the same subject, saying, " It has 
become a reproach to me here with the officers of the 

- Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. x.; Penn 
and Logan Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 294. 






ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



267 



crown that you have suffered the scandal of the mass 
to be publicly celebrated." 1 

The priests celebrating the holy masses in Phila- 
delphia, according to historical documents, could have 
been no other than the Franciscan Friars Minor, Poly- 
carp Wicksted, or James Haddock. 2 The former came 
to America in the year 1674, and died before April, 
1725, and the latter arrived in the year 1700, and died 
in Maryland in or before 1720. 

The first Catholic Church that history records in 
Pennsylvania was St. Joseph's, erected by the Jesuits. 
Eight of the zealous missionaries with their superior, 
Rev. F. Segura, came to America in 1570. Betrayed 
into the hands of hostile Indians by an Indian con- 
vert, the treacherous Don Luis, all were murdered 
without mercy ; but forty-six years later two other 
heroic fathers of the same society, Revs. Andrew 
White and John Althain, landed in Maryland with 
Lord Baltimore on March 25, 1634, and were soon 
followed by other self-sacrificing confreres, one of 
whom was Rev. Josiah Greaton, whose glorious mem- 
ory is honored in history for having brought in 1730 
from Maryland to the Catholics in Philadelphia the 
consolation of their religion. 3 

The number of Catholics in Philadelphia and vicin- 
ity at this time cannot be ascertained ; but in April, 
1757, they amounted to thirteen hundred and sixty- 
five, scattered over Chester, Philadelphia, Berks, 
Northampton, Bucks, Lancaster, Cumberland, and 
York Counties. 4 

Five German Catholic families, for reasons not 
known, but presumably to better their worldly condi- 
tion, left these Eastern settlements in the years 1787 
and 1788 for Westmoreland County, having pre- 
viously arranged for the reception of occasional visits 
and the consolations of religion with priests from 
the German settlements at Goschenhoppen, Berks Co., 
Conewago, 3 and Philadelphia. After leaving their 
Eastern homes they journeyed through Huntingdon 
County to Hollidaysburg, crossing the main ridge of 



1 Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 

2 Rev. A. Lambing. The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh 
and Allegheny, p. 525. 

3 The first Catholic settlement within the bounds of what is now the 
Northern United States was made in Maryland, March 25, 1634. In 1774 
Baltimore was a station, visited once a month by a priest from White- 
marsh, who brought with him his vestments and altar service. In 178 1, 
Rev. Jobu Carroll, of Maryland, was made superior of the clergy in the 
United States, and afterwards bishop. 

4 Rev. A. Lambing, as above. In a map of " Philadelphia and Parts 
Adjacent" as it was in 1749, and which is bung in Independence Hall, 
in the list of public buildings is " One Mass House." 

6 The station at Conewago, northeast of Gettysburg, in York County, 
was among the first in Pennsylvania. It was established in 1741. and 
served from that time on. This was the centre of a large region, from 
which the priests at intervals went out to visit the pioneer families of 
the faithful, when they slept in the woods, made meals of cold potatoes, 
and said mass over the rough clapboard tables of their parishioners. 
Many years after, when they had no churches of their own, it was no 
uncommon thing for mass to be said, when the priest came, in fartthns, 
in the Methodist meeting-houses. (See "Life of A. D. Gallitzin," by 
Sarah BrownBon, for material used in part of this sketch.) 



the Allegheny Mountains and settled in Unity town- 
ship, Westmoreland Co. The following are the names 
of the heads of these families : John Propst, John 
Jung, Patrick Archbold, Simon Rufi'ner, Christian 
Ruffner, and George Rufi'ner. They were joined in 
the year 17S9 by Mr. Henry Kuhn, from Goschen- 
hoppen, Berks Co., Pa. Having settled here and 
there in Unity township, they went to Greensburg in 
March, 1789, to buy a lot on which to erect a tempo- 
rary church and lay out a graveyard. The land, how- 
ever, was presented to them, as they had only five 
shillings in cash. 

According to agreement, Rev. John Bpt. Causey, a 
missionary from Conewago, came to Greensburg in 
the following June to confer upon the few settlers 
the consolation of their religion. Finding no more 
suitable locality, he celebrated the mysteries of the 
Catholic faith in the humble residence of Mr. John 
Propst, lying on the Pittsburgh turnpike, ten miles 
east of Greensburg. This was perhaps the first cele- 
bration of holy mass west of the Alleghenies, save 
that at Fort Duquesne, at the confluence of the Alle- 
gheny and Monongahela Rivers, in which a French 
chaplain celebrated the mysteries of the Catholic re- 
ligion for the soldiers of this belief in 1754. Father 
J. Causey's missionary territory was too extensive to 
allow him much rest, hence he departed on the fol- 
lowing day. 

These pioneers were also visited by Rev. Peter 
Heilbron (or Hellbron) in 1787, pastor of Goschen- 
hoppen and vicinity, and in 1789 pastor of St. Mary's 
parish in Philadelphia. While pastor at Goschen- 
hoppen he laid, in the fall of the aforesaid year, at a 
place called " Sportsman's Hall," 6 in Unity township, 
Westmoreland Co., the foundation of the first perma- 
nent Catholic settlement, on the spot where St. Vin- 
cent's Abbey and College now stands. More Catho- 
lics soon flocked to this point on account of a Catho- 
lic priest residing there by the name of Theodore 
Brouwers. 

This reverend gentleman, a native of Holland, and a 
Franciscan Friar Minor, came to Philadelphia before 
August, 1789, and for a time enjoyed the hospitality 
of Rev. P. Heilbron. The parishioners, hearing that 
their pastor, Rev. F. Th. Brouwers, had a goodly sum 
of money to dispose of, tried their best to keep him 
among them, that the heavy debts on their church 
might be the sooner removed. Rev. F. Th. Brou- 
wers, however, did not yield to their solicitations, but 
positively declared his intention of going and erect- 
ing a church for Catholics destitute both of means 
and pastor. Having heard of the poor settlers in 
Westmoreland County, he resolved to go. thither, and 
before leaving Philadelphia purchased a farm of one 
hundred and sixty-two acres and forty-three perches 
in Derry township, on the eastern bank of the Loyal- 
hanna River, designated in the patent as "O'Neal's 



« "Sportsman's Hall" was the name of the tract of land in the patent. 



268 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Victory." Arriving in Greensburg and not finding a 
suitable residence, he boarded during winter with Mr. 
Christian Rufther, who resided about three miles east 
of the town. Early in the following spring he in- 
tended to build on his farm a residence for himself, 
and a chapel for the Catholics, but finding the land 
not very fertile and the place too distant from the 
settlement, he followed the advice of Mr. H. Kuhn, 
and bought the farm of three hundred and thirteen 
acres and eight perches, on April 16, 1790, known as 
" Sportsman's Hall." By the aid of an industrious 
carpenter he soon reared an humble frame building 
of seventeen by seventeen feet, one and one-half 
stories high, which he henceforth inhabited. A few 
years after a little low log house was put up as an ad- 
dition to the priest's house. Previous to this the 
confessional and the chapel were in the oratory of 
the priest who was incumbent. The new building 
had at first no seats but a few stools for the aged. 
The young and the middle-aged were required to 
stand, and expected to kneel upon the floor and bow 
their heads at the elevation. For a long time there 
was no stove in the building, so that in winter it .is 
said to have been intolerably cold. 1 

The hardships of a trying missionary career, how- 
ever, soon wore out the zealous priest, and he died 
prematurely on the 29th of October, 1790, having be- 
queathed to his successor in the capacity of a duly au- 
thorized pastor of this Catholic settlement the prop- 
erties of " O'Neal's Victory" and " Sportsman's Hall" 
for his maintenance. Many serious troubles and liti- 
gations have in the course of time arisen on account 
of the two properties, but the settlement became the 
parent of numerous other congregations, and was 
long considered a station for colonists going farther 
West. 2 



i Life of Rev. Gallitziu. 

- The desire of Father Brouwers — his Dame is variously written, 
Browere, Brauers, and Brouwers, the first is the English form— in mak- 
ing this purchase was to have it become a residence for devoted priests 
and the headquarters of the religious, who from it would attend the sur- 
rounding missionary stations. With this object he wished to bequeath 
the land to hie spiritual successors, with the injunction that they should 
Bay every year one mass for the repose of bis soul and three for his in- 
tention, but his will was so worded by the person who drew it up that a 
doubt was left, whence the will fell into litigation, and after running a 
number of years through the courts of the State, during which time 
the laud was held and used by the regular clergy, it was finally adjudged 
and determined with due regard to the intention of the testator. 

By act of Assembly of March 7, 1827, legalizing this will, the congre- 
gation of St. Vincent's Church were made the owners in trust for the 
use of the pastor of this real estate and appurtenances. 

The will is here given verbatim: 

WILL OF THEADORAS BROWERS. 

In the name of God Amen. I, the Reverend Theodoras Browers, 
being weak in Body, but of sound mind, memory, and understanding, 
and calling to mind the mortality of my Body Do make ordain & con- 
stitute this to be my last will and testament, viz., first I recommend my 
soul to God who gave it, my body to the Earth to be Buried in a decent 
Christian manner on the Place I now live on ('ailed "Sportsman Hall," 
and a small neat stone wall to be Built around my Grave. All my Just 
Debts and funeral Expences is next to be Paid. Item, I give and Be- 
queath to my Beloved Sister Gartrudas Browers fifty dollars, all the 



Many immigrants coming from the East and wish- 
ing to settle in Western Pennsylvania followed the 
above-mentioned route through Huntingdon County 
to Hollidaysburg, but crossing the main ridge of the 
Allegheny Mountains, settled in the north of it, in the 
vicinity of Bellefonte and Huntingdon ; others found 
homes farther south in the vicinity of Newry, whilst 
a few settled on the route or near it in Sinking Valley 
and the contiguous region. The Catholics here were 
attended by Rev. F. O'Reilly, who also erected 
churches in Newry, Huntingdon, and Bellefonte. 

The settlement in Unity township increased in the 
number of its inhabitants every year, despite the con- 
tentions caused by some avaricious men on account 
of the two properties. These litigations induced Rev. 
F. Lanigan, a recent arrival in the colony in 1797, 
to lead a body of men of the same mind as he him- 
self to West Alexander, Washington Co., and there 
to establish a branch colony ; but finding the land 
unsuitable for agriculture they disposed of it, and 
moved southeast to Waynesburg, Greene Co. In spite 

aforesaid Expenses and Legacies is to be paid by my Executor herein 
after named out of the money I have in the Bank of Philadelphia. 
Item, all my Horses, Cows and all other Farming Utensils to be left on 
the Place I now live on for the use thereof uutill Christian Andris year 
shall expire, then to be sold and the money arising therefrom to be ap- 
propriated to the payment of said Chrs. and Wife. And if the aforesaid 
articles should amount to more than will pay the aforesaid sums the re- 
maining to be applyed by my executors to the Payment of the Place. 
Item, I give and Bequeath all my books Clothing and furniture and all 
the residue of my Personal estate that shall not otherwise be disposed of 
to James Pennanc in trust and for the use of the Poor Roman Catho- 
lick Priest that does or shall live at the Chapel on Counewagge. Item 
I Give & Bequeath all my Ileal Estate, viz., my Place on which I now 
live Called Sportsman Hall, and one other Tract of Laud on Loyalhauua 
Creek t ailed " Neal's Victory" with their appurtenances to a Roman 
Catholick Priest that shall succeed me in this said place to be intailed to 
him and to his successors in trust, and so left by him who shall succeed me 
to his successor and so in trust for the uses herein mentioned in succes- 
sion forever. And the said Priest for the time being shall strictly and 
faithfully say four Masses each and every year forever, viz, one for the 
Soul of the Reverend Theodoras Browers on the day of his death iu each 
and every year forever, and three others the Mlowiugdays in each year 
as aforesaid at the request of the Reverend Theodore Browers, & further- 
more it is my Will that the Priest for the time being shall transmit the 
laud so left him in trust as aforesaid Jo his successor clear of all incum- 
brance as aforesaid. And I Do Nominate Constitute & appoint Christian 
Ruffner J: Henry Coons Executors to this my last Will and testament. 
R Mr. Theodore Brouwers M [seal], 
li. Mr. John Baptist Cause 

Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and Declared by the said Theo- 
dore Browers to be his last Will and testament this .twenty-fourth day 
of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety. In presence of us Christian Andris, William McGee. 

Westmoreland County, ss. Be it remembered that on the fifth day of 
November came Personally before me Win. MagheeD. R. for said County 
of Westmoreland, the R. Mr. John Baptist Cause and Christian AndriB 
and being solemnly sworn agreeably tu Law saith they were present and 
saw the Revd. Mr. Theodoras Browers, the Testator within named sign 
seal Pronounce & declare the within Instrument of Writing as his last 
Will aud testament, that at the timeof his so doing he was of sound 
mind memory and understanding to the best of their judgments. I agree 
to the above being personally Present. 

Win. Maghee. 

James Hamilton, Esq., Reg. 

The case is at December term, 1798, Common Pleas, and is captioned 
thus : 

The Lessee of the Executors, &c> of Theodoras Browers, Dec'd, us. 
Franciscus Fromm, Tenant. 



ECCLESIASTICAL II [STORY. 



269 



of this separation the Uuity township colony still 
remained the largest of all the settlements, and Rev. 
Peter Heilbron having been appointed pastor Of Sports- 
man's Hall, in the fall of 1799, had under his charge 
in November of the same year seventy-five commu- 
nicants.' 

Besides the route mentioned as taken by the first 
settlers of Westmoreland there was another, followed 
by some immigrants leaving Conewago, tending south- 
east to Shade Gap, and turning again into the first 
route near Hollidaysburg, and thence leading to Unity 
township, in Westmoreland, or branching oft' to Lo- 
retto, in Cambria County, where they knew there were 
Catholic Churches. 

Some immigrants naturally inclined to mountainous 
habitations directed their steps to the eastern Alle- 
gheny range. The most of these immigrants came 
from Maryland by way of Bedford, along the eastern 
slope crossed by the first route. Almost all the col- 
onists of Bedford, Harman Bottom, Loretto, and 
vicinity came by that way. Loretto especially at- 
tracted the attention of immigrants on account of her 
renowned and illustrious apostle, Dr. Demetrius Au- 
gustine Gallitzin. 

The fourth route of immigrants into Western Penn- 
sylvania was that offered by the Braddock road. This 
route, crossing the mountains, extended from Cumber- 
land by way of Uniontown and Youghiogheny River 
to Pittsburgh. Nearly all the colonists of Armstrong 
and Butler Counties, the largest settlements of West- 
ern Pennsylvania in the beginning of this century, 
came that way. 2 Brownsville, the upper Monongahela 
Valley, and Jacobs Creek were also peopled by the 
same route, but they attained no great importance for 
a considerable time, Pittsburgh itself being for a 
long time very insignificant, and its Catholic popula- 
tion small. The first priest to make his appearance 
in that town was, in all probability, the Rev. Father 
Whalen, who had been sent in 1787 by Bishop Car- 
roll, of Baltimore, to the Catholics in Kentucky. 
The usual road to the West in those early days was 
by flat-boats down the Monongahela to Pittsburgh 
and thence down the Ohio. 

The following fact, however, proves more conclu- 
sively the statistics of the Catholics in Pittsburgh in 
those early days. Bishop Carroll in May, 1792, 
ordered a young French priest, Benedict Joseph 
Flaget, the future Bishop of Bardstowu and Louis- 
ville, to take charge of the Catholics in Vincennes 
and its surroundings. Having come to Pittsburgh, 
he was on account of the high waters of the Ohio 
detained there six months, during which time he 
resided with a descendant of the French Huguenots, 
who had married an American Protestant lady, and 
was treated most respectfully by both. He said mass 



1 Rev. A. A. Lambing, " History of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and 
Allegheny," p. 25. 
= Ibid., pp. 25-27. 
18 



daily in his benefactor's residence, instructed the few 
Catholics of the French tongue, and also the soldiers 
in Fort Pitt, the headquarters of Gen. Wayne. His 
charity in tending to the wants of the sick and those 
of the troops stricken with the pestilential malady of 
smallpox regardless of creed, and the apostolic zeal 
which he displayed when four deserters had been 
condemned to death, one of whom he converted to the 
Catholic faith, endeared him to the general, as the 
following evidence proves. Among those four deser- 
ters was a French infidel, who refused every religious 
admonition and service. When their last hour ar- 
rived the good priest accompanied his convicts to the 
place of execution. The condition of his unfortu- 
nate countryman so much moved him that he fell into 
a swoon, which induced the general to grant him the 
pardon of the impenitent. This noble missionary 
left Pittsburgh in November in a flat-boat for Louis- 
ville. 3 

Rev. F. Peter Heilbron paid occasional visits to 
Pittsburgh's few Catholics. 4 

Rev. Dr. Demetrius Aug. Gallitzin found there in 
1804 only fifteen Catholics. In October, 1808, how- 
ever, we find in Pittsburgh a resident priest, Rev. F. 
X. O'Brian, who laid the foundation of St. Patrick's 
Church, which appears to have been finished before 
the close of 1811. This is evidently concluded from 
the fact that Rt. Rev. Bishop Egan, of Philadelphia, 
visited the city in the latter part of the year 1811, 
when it was not entirely finished, for he gave confir- 
mation in a private house. This was the first visit 
of a bishop to Western Pennsylvania. Father F. X. 
O'Brian worked zealously in his mission until 1820, 
when he retired, as it is said, to Maryland. Before 
coming to Pittsburgh he resided in Brownsville, and 
was succeeded in Pittsburgh by Rev. Charles B. Mc- 
Guire. • 

This reverend gentleman, a native of Ireland, was 
born Dec. 16, 1770, at Dungannon, Tyrone County. 
He was a Franciscan Friar by vow, had studied at St. 

3 Sketches of the Life of Eight Rev. B. J. Flaget, by Rev. M. J. Spald- 
ing, D.D., p. 31. 

i For a number of years after the death of Father Brouwers, Oct. 29, 
1790, his flock was without a shepherd. During the troubles attending 
the settlement of the will many families intending to join the first set- 
tlement about Greensburg discouraged at the religious situation there, 
or induced by motives of worldly advantage, scattered themselves in the 
woods from Conewago along to Greensburg. Then Rev. Brosius and 
Father Pellentz, from the missions in the East, made a few pilgrimages 
j to the settlers on the top of the mountains, and as far as to the families 
in Westmoreland. Mr. Fromm had in the mean time intruded on the 
estate left by Father Brouwers, while the Rev. Whalen attended to the 
spiritual necessities of the little flocks here, living during his short pas- 
torate in the greatest destitution and poverty. In 1799 the bishop of 
the church had the remote McGuire settlement on the top of the moun- 
tains, now Loretto, and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, provided 
for, the first by the prince-priest, Demetrius Gallitzin, aud the last by 
Mr. Heilbron. At McGuire's the young priest had, indeed, with the 
assistance of his parishioners, built "a little lonely church in days of 
yore," and on the Christmas-eve, when the snow lay waist-deep over alt 
the hills, the heir of a noble house as a priest sang the Gloria in Excelsis 
in the first mass in the first church of the congregation at Loretto. — See 
in detail Life of Rev. Gallitzin, quoted supra. 



270 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Isidore's Monaster}' in Rome, and had after the com- 
pletion of his studies occupied a professor's chair. 
After his arrival in America in 1812, he resided as 
pastor from 1817-20 at Sportman's Hall, and then 
moved to Pittsburgh, where the population was in- 
creasing, and Father Terrence McGirr became pastor 
at Sportsman's Hall. While Father McGuire had 
been charged with pastoral functions in Pittsburgh, 
he laid the foundation of St. Paul's Church, the 
present cathedral. 

In the year 1828 or 1829 a colony of Poor Clare 
nuns opened a house of their order in Allegheny. 
With this colony of nuns came Rev. Vincent Ray- 
macher, O.S.D., as their chaplain. He was succeeded 
in the fall of 1830 by Rev. A. F. Van de Wejer, of 
the same order, and assisted Father McGuire, who 
was in the course of years also assisted by Rev. An- 
thony Kenny. Father Patrick Rafferty was Father 
McGuire's assistant in 1830, in which year, about 
June 26th, Bishop Kenrick and Bishop Conwell 
passed through the town, according to the " United 
States Catholic Miscellany." About this time twelve 
hundred and fourteen persons are recorded as having 
received the sacrament of baptism during the previous 
ten years in that mission ; forty-three converts had 
been received into the Catholic Church in 1828, and 
twenty-seven in the year 1829. Bishop Conwell gave 
confirmation in St. Patrick's on Sunday, June 27, 
1829. Rev. John Grady and Rev. Thomas Gegon 
were also among Father McGuire's assistants. His 
active missionary life consumed his bodily strength, 
and he died in 1833, without having finished his noble 
undertaking. Rev. John O'Reilly having been his 
assistant since 1831, succeeded him as pastor and 
finished the church. 

As in Pittsburgh so in many other towns and set- 
tlements had churches to be built on account of the 
increase of the Catholic pojjulation and clergy. This 
increase necessarily demanded suitable government 
with full jurisdiction. The fifth Provincial Council 
of Baltimore, convoked May 14, 1843, therefore recom- 
mended to the Pope a division of the diocese of Phila- 
delphia, which had been suggested to the Pope in Jan- 
uary, 1836, and which now received his approval. 1 
The division was confirmed, and Pittsburgh was chosen 
to be the See of the new diocese, under the title of 
" Western Pennsylvania," having for its eastern 
boundary Bedford County. Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor, 
vicar-general of Pittsburgh and pastor of St. Paul's, 
was appointed first Bishop, and consecrated in Rome 
Aug. 15, 1843. He sailed for America November 
12th, and arrived in Pittsburgh December 3d.' 2 Soon 
after his arrival he, taking a census of his whole dio- 
cese, found fourteen priests, thirty-three churches, and 
a Catholic population of about twenty-five thousand. 



1 Lives of the Deceased American Bishops, vol. i. p. 500. 
- lav. A. A. Lambing, " The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pitts- 
burgh and Allegheny," pp. 57-60. 



The Catholic increase was proportionate in the 
Northwest. The first permanent settlements were 
made in 1795, under the patronage of the " Pennsyl- 
vania Population Company," which was organized in 
March, 1793. The pioneer settlers repaired the old 
military roads cut by the French along the shore of 
Lake Erie, and from Erie to Fort Le Bceuf, while 
new roads were opened by the agents of the Population 
Company. In 1805 the Erie and Watcrford Turnpike 
Company was organized, and four years later the 
road leading from Lake Erie to the Allegheny River 
at Waterford, a distance of fifteen miles, was com- 
pleted. These roads connected the lakes on the north 
with the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, and favored im- 
migration in no small degree. After the departure 
of the French troops from Fort Le Bceuf in 1759, the 
country remained in the exclusive possession of the 
Indians until 1767, when a Moravian missionary, 
Rev. David Zeisberger, from Wyalusing, penetrated 
the dense forests of the Northwest, and preached the 
gospel to the natives. In the following year other 
missionaries from Bethlehem joining Father Zeis- 
berger, formed a settlement on the banks of the Al- 
legheny. But a war breaking out in April, 1770, 
among the Indians so endangered their lives that, 
abandoning their village and huts, they passed down 
the river in boats, and entering Beaver Creek founded 
upon its banks a new settlement, which they called 
Friedenstadt (signifying a town of peace). 3 

The Northwest becoming by degrees accessible was 
soon the scene of an almost boundless speculative furor 
on account of its petroleum springs, which, attracting 
also the Catholic population, caused settlements to be 
founded, churches erected, and the number of Cath- 
olics increased, and their clergy to be greatly in- 
creased. The missionary territory having become too 
large, Right Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor handed in a pe- 
tition to Rome for the division of the diocese of 
" Western Pennsylvania," and for the erection of a 
new diocese, having Erie City as its Episcopal See. 
The petition was granted in 1853. The counties of 
Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Forest, Clarion, 
Jefferson, Clearfield, Cameron, Elk, McKean, Potter, 
and Warren composed its diocesan district, and Right 
Rev. O'Connor was transferred by his own request to 
that See in the year 1853, but was returned to his 
former See by Rome, at the request of the clergy of 
the Pittsburgh diocese, in the following year, 1854. 
Rev. J. M. Young, pastor of Lancaster, Ohio, who 
had been appointed for the See of Pittsburgh, became 
his successor in the Erie diocese, and was consecrated 
April 23, 1854. 

Right Rev. J. M. Young was a native of Shapleigh, 
Me., born Oct. 29, 1808, of old New England stock. 
He became a convert to the Catholic religion while 
pursuing the avocation of a printer. His zeal, sin- 
cere piety, and consistency as a Catholic when ein- 



' Svpher's School History of Pennsylvania, pp. 228 to 234. 



, 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



271 



ployed iu the Catholic Telegraph office in Cincinnati 
induced Bishop J. B. Purcell to exhort him to study 
for the church, and upon the completion of his studies 
to confer upon him holy orders. He worked zealously 
for many years in and about Lancaster, Ohio, until 
he was called to the See of Erie, where he died sud- 
denly, Sept. 28, 1866, in his episcopal residence. 1 

He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Tobias Mullen, for- 
merly vicar-general of the diocese of Pittsburgh, 
who was consecrated Aug. 2, 1868. The Erie diocese 
counts at present 84 parishes, 11 chapels, and 31 sta- 
tions where mass is occasionally said. The total 
amount of the Catholic population numbers 45,000.' 2 

Having viewed the rapid progress of Catholicity in 
Northwestern Pennsylvania, we return to that part of 
Western Pennsylvania constituting the diocese of 
Pittsburgh. The progress of Catholicity here is even 
greater. That the Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor was ever 
active in the administration of his diocese is attested 
by his many labors, and his indomitable will and lofty 
spirit are particularly evinced by that superb structure. 
known as St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, whose 
grandeur shall mirror to the future the nobility of the 
man. Cares and anxieties having brought on a soften- 
ing of the brain, Pope Pius IX. was induced to ac- 
cept his resignation in May, 1860. After his recovery 
he entered the Society of Jesus, and died Oct. 18, 
1872, at Woodstock, Md., a model of humility and 
piety. He was horn Sept. 27, 1810, near the city of 
Cork, Ireland. His classical education he received 
at Queenstown, and his sacred studies he completed 
at the Propaganda in Rome, where he was appointed 
after his ordination to the priesthood, June 1, 1833, 
Professor of Sacred Scriptures and Vice-Rector of the 
Irish College. Having spent some years in Ireland, 
he came to America in 1839 to assist Bishop Kenrick, 
of Philadelphia, in educating young men for the holy 
ministry at St. Charles Borromeo College, of which he 
was president until he was appointed vicar-general, 
and soon after Bishop, of Western Pennsylvania. 
He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Michael Domenec, 
D.D., a native of Spain, and of the Lazarist Order, 
who was consecrated Dec. 9, 1860. Known for his 
energy, zeal, charity, and politeness, he was esteemed 
by all. Finding the yoke of the diocese of Pittsburgh 
too heavy, he requested the Holy See to divide the di- 
ocese and create the new See of Allegheny, comprising 
that part of Allegheny County north of the Allegheny 
River, together with the counties of Butler, Armstrong, 
Indiana, Westmoreland, Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, 
and Bedford. This request was granted, and the new 
diocese confirmed Jan. 11, 1876. He was appointed 
by Pope Pius IX. first Bishop of that See, whilst 
Rt. Rev. J. Tuigg, D.D., for many years a zealous 
missionary in Altoona, succeeded him to the See of 
Pittsburgh, comprising that part of Allegheny County 

1 N'-w History of the Catholic Church, etc., by John Gilmary Shea. 
= Sudlier's Directory, 1882. 



north of the Ohio and south of the Ohio and Alle- 
gheny Rivers, together with Lawrence, Beaver, Wash- 
ington, Greene, Fayette, and Somerset Counties. Rt. 
Rev. J. Tuigg was consecrated March 19, 1876. A 
lawsuit between the two dioceses on account of the 
financial administration of Rt. Rev. Bishop M. Dom- 
enec broke the hitter's heart. He died at Tarragona, 
Spain, Jan. 5, 1878. 

That Rt. Rev. Monseigneur was born of wealthy 
parents in the city of Ruez, near Tarragona, in the 
northeast of Spain, in 1816. He received his classical 
education at Madrid, and at a college in the southern 
part of France, whither he retired on account of the 
Carlist war. His sacred studies he pursued partly in 
Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of the 
Lazarists, whom he afterwards joined, and partly at 
Barrens Seminary, Missouri. He came to America 
Oct. 15, 1837, with Rev. J. Timon, Visitor-General of 
the Congregation, and arrived at Barrens, in Missouri, 
Feb. 10, 1838. Here he finished his studies, and was 
raised to the dignity of the priesthood June 29, 1839. 
Two years later he was sent to Cape Girardeau, where 
he built a college in 1842. Having returned to the 
seminary at Barrens, and having been employed in 
missionary life till 1845, he was with some other 
Lazarists sent to take charge of the diocesan semi- 
nary of Philadelphia. After this he became an active 
missionary in Nicetown and Germantown, in which 
latter place he erected a handsome church, wdien he 
was called to the See of Pittsburgh, where he worked 
zealously for eighteen years. The unfortunate law- 
suit, which ended in his favor at Rome in January, 
1882, -under the plea of his Vicar-General, Father J. 
Hickey, perfected the reunion of the Allegheny and 
Pittsburgh dioceses, which took place Aug. 3, 1877. 
The two now form a Catholic population of 125,000, 
130 churches, and 44 chapels. Pittsburgh alone, with 
22 churches, has a Catholic population of 49,015. 

Westmoreland County, the seat of Catholicity in 
former times, has now become almost the least. The 
parishes, with the number of Catholics in it, are the 
following: Chestnut Ridge, 65; Florence, 60; Greens- 
burg, 350 ; Irwintown, 950 ; Latrobe, 700 ; Ligonier, 15 ; 
New Derry, 350 ; Penn Station, 150; Suter's Station, 
412; and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, 750. 

St. Vincent, the parent of all the churches in West- 
moreland County, Suter's Station alone excepted, is, 
compared with many others, in the minority as to 
numbers, but in regard to predominant prerogatives 
superior to all, as the meaning of its very name (" one 
being victorious") sufficiently indicates. It adopted 
that name from the Patron Saint of the church, which 
Rev. A. Stillinger, from the beginning of November, 
1829, the successor to Rev. F. McGirr, erected. Its 
dimensions were 87 by 51 J, and though begun in 
1833, was not completed until July 19, 1835, on which 
day it was blessed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Kenrick. Old- 
age prevented the zealous Father Stillinger from per- 
forming his pastoral functions in so extensive a dis- 



272 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



trict, and he was therefore transferred at his own re- 
quest to Blairsviile by Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor, Bishop 
of Pittsburgh, in 1845. His successor at St. Vincent 
was Rev. F. Gallagher, who transferred the parish in 
the fall of 1846 to Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., 
now mitred Abbot and President of the Americo-Casi- 
nensian Benedictine Congregation. This Rt. Rev. and 
Most Illustrious Prelate made St. Vincent the field of 
his energetic labors, the success of which the follow- 
ing pages will show. 

The Benedictine Order was founded by St. Benedict, 
of Nursia, an Italian, who was born in the year 480. 
To this order, as is well known to the students of his- 
tory, the Christianization and consequently the civili- 
zation of the largest part of Europe, and especially of 
England, is due. This fact of itself is sufficient to 
give us an idea of the debt of gratitude which the 
world owes to the Benedictine Order. But for it the 
treasures of science and literature of classic Greece 
and Latium were lost to us, and it is not easy to see 
how even the Bible itself could well have been pre- 
served had not the monks of St. Benedict taken care 
to multiply it by manuscripts. Facts as these must 
necessarily correct many mistaken views about monk- 
ish ignorance and superstition. Many of the flourish- 
ing towns and cities of Europe have grown simply from 
the foundation of a Benedictine monastery, around 
which people would settle and form a civic commu- 
nity. The spread of Benedictine monasticism thus 
became a most vital element, as said, in civilizing the 
nations of Europe. We may add that these monas- 
teries, in times of darkness, superinduced by the flood 
of heathen nations pouring into Europe from Asia 
during centuries, were the rallying-points of Chris- 
tianity, the bulwarks of civilization, the refuge of 
piety and learning. But especially is it worthy of 
remark that the influence of Benedictine monasticism 
was the most potent factor in bringing about a 
gradual release of the populace from the bonds of 
slavery. 

RT. REV. ABBOT BONIFACE WIMMER, O.S.B. 
st. Vincent's abbey and college. 

This Rt. Rev. Prelate was born Jan. 14, 1809, in 
Thalmassing, a town near Ratisbon, in Bavaria, and 
received in baptism the name of Sebastian, being the 
Benjamin of a large family by two different mothers. 
Displaying bright talents in early boyhood his parents 
sent him to a high school in Ratisbon to receive a clas- 
sical education. After having finished his course of 
eight academical years with great success, he went to 
the university in Munich in the fall of 1827 to study 
jurisprudence. During his philosophical course, how- 
ever, he changed his mind, and at the close of the 
year abandoned the law for theology, and was raised 
to the priesthood on the 1st of August, 1831. 

Having been employed for a year after his ordina- 
tion at Altoetting, in the diocese of Passau, perform- 
ing pastoral duties, he entered the Benedictine mon- 



astery " Metten," in Bavaria, and there received the 
habit of the order and the name, in religion, of Boni- 
face. Four young priests followed his example, 

! among whom were Gregory de Scherr, the lately 
deceased Archbishop of Munich, and Rupert Leiss, 

i Abbot of Scheyern, in Bavaria, who has also passed 
away. After having taken his religious vows, Dec. 

j 29, 1833, he was appointed assistant priest in a town 
called Edeustetten, near the Abbey Metten, till Octo- 
ber, 1835. From October, 1835, till June, 1836, he 
was employed as professor of St. Stephen's Gymna- 
sium, in Augsburg, when one of the Benedictiue 
fathers of the Abbey Metten dying suddenly, and as 
their number was still small, he was recalled from the 
Gymnasium in Augsburg and once more instated the 
assistant in the town of Edenstetten. But his stay 
was brief. He was next appointed pastor of Ste- 
phansposching, in Bavaria, where he remained two 
years. Scheyern was reopened about this time, and 
he was sent there as procurator, and in September, 
1S40, was promoted to a professorship in the Louis 
Gymnasium, Munich, to which the aristocratic in- 
stitute of Mr. Holland was attached. To this was 
added the office of prefect of discipline, and in the 
absence of the rector he became his representative. 

The number of inhabitants of North America, 
amounting at that time to about 20,000,000 in the dif- 
ferent States, was continually increasing. The German 
immigrants clamored loudly for Catholic priests, and 
churches were not to be found sometimes at a less 
distance than thirty or forty miles. 

In order to cover the want of the forsaken Catho- 
lics, Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer resolved to establish 
a Benedictine Abbey in America for educating young 
men for the priesthood. In general his plan was not 
well received in Germany, but there were not wanting 
stanch and influential friends to encourage him in 
this noble enterprise, and to tender him material aid. 
The first in rank who gave his approval to this plan 
was King Louis I., of Bavaria, next the Papal Nuncio 
Morichini, Bishop Count de Reisach, and the illus- 
trious mystic theologian Joseph Goerres. The " Louis 
Mission Union," organized for the propagation of 
faith, also promised its assistance upon the realization 
of the project. The matter long mooted in private 
circles finally reached the press, whereupon four stu- 
dents of theology and fifteen young men of different 
pn 1 1 essions offered themselves as willing associates with 
the reverend gentleman in his noble undertaking. 

King Louis I. did not deem such self-sacrificing 
men unworthy of his royal favors. Example, when 
set by royalty, is quickly followed, and this was no 
exception ; so the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer was soon 
furnished with all the necessaries, and left Munich 
for America on July 25, 1846, after having assisted at 
the holy sacrifice of mass, offered up for their success 
by Bishop Count de Reisach. From Rotterdam they 
embarked on the steamer "Iowa," and landed in New 
York Sept. 16, 1846. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



273 



A few days were consumed in rest and visits to 
friends before proceeding farther, during which time 
they met Rev. Henry Lemke, then pastor of Carroll- 
town, Cambria Co., Pa., who, having heard from 
Germany of the intention of Rev. D. Boniface Wim- 
mer and his associates, had come to New York to 
extend them welcome. In the course of a brief con- 
versation this reverend gentleman offered the colony 
his property in Carrolltown for a moderate compen- 
sation, and persuaded them to his settlement. But 
before entering into a bargain Rev. D. Boniface 
Wimmer consulted Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, 
and upon his advice he took charge of St. Vincent, 
forty miles east of the city. His first visit thither 
disclosed the above-mentioned church, built of brick, 
a pastor's residence of the same material, a little 
school-house, and a frail log barn. On Oct. 18, 1846, 
he and his companions took possession of the place. 
The foundation of the future monastery was laid Oct. 
24th of the same year by the conferring of the re- 
ligious habit on his subjects. Nineteen were to be 
invested, and there were only six habits. The diffi- 
culty, however, was overcome by the first invested 
returning to the sacristy and transferring their habits 
to the next in rank. The same poverty was witnessed 
at table, some having to wait for the dishes until 
their companions had taken their repast. Unshaken 
courage and fervent zeal for the good cause, however, 
animating all elevated them above the circumstances, 
and none was found to regret the step he had taken. 
Their first care was to sow some wheat in the hur- 
riedly cultivated soil for the next year's consumption. 
In this kind of manual labor the Rev. D. Boniface 
Wimmer set a most heroic example ; he felled many 
a proud tree, and shrank not from any hardship. 
Thus his stern steadfastness contributed not a little 
to animate and encourage the sinking spirits of some 
when in the next summer all means were exhausted 
and scarcely a spark of hope remained. But when in 
the direst extremity a letter came from Munich to 
St. Vincent, in the beginning of August, 1847, an- 
nouncing the arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner, O.S.B., 
from Scheyern, with a purse of five thousand gul- 
den, a donation from the " Louis Mission Union," 
with the further promise of a yearly contribution of 
two thousand gulden in case of success, fear and 
anxiety gave place to joy and gladness when the 
reverend gentleman and twenty aspirants to the 
Benedictine Order arrived on 17th of August at St. 
Vincent. 

The brothers, young and old alike, of that infant 
monastic body now set to work with redoubled energy, 
despite of their half-starved condition, and an un- 
shaken trust in the providence of God was ever after 
their guide and stay. 

Their immediate wants being now supplied, the 
Rev. Superior's attention was next directed to other 
difficulties almost as trying to his heart. One of 
these was the lack of priests. He himself was obliged 



to administer to the wants of Catholics in Greensburg, 
Saltsburg, and Indiana, Pa., but the labor was too 
great, the time allotted too short, and the neglect 
of his monastic family on their account far too 
serious to be long endured. He therefore raised to 
the priesthood on the 18th of March, 1847, Martin 
Geyerstanger, who took the name of Charles in re- 
ligion, and who had finished his ecclesiastical studies 
in Germany. This was the first ordination of a Bene- 
dictine in America. Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner and the 
young priest were now his colaborers. The latter 
having passed away April 22, 1881, a short sketch of 
his life will, we hope, not be taken amiss. 

Rev. F. Charles Martin Geyerstanger, born Nov. 
20, 1820, at Salzburg, Austria, was of medium height 
and broad-shouldered, with a choleric, sanguine tem- 
perament. In his active sacerdotal career his ser- 
vices were truly heroic. His childlike simplicity, 
meekness, and affability won many friends, and zeal- 
ous as he was, all looked upon him as an angel of 
peace. Uniform in bearing towards all, even to the 
unjust, selfish, and proud, he possessed a keen sense of 
humor and an eccentricity that brought on incon- 
veniences which greater prudence might have avoided. 
A good theologian and an excellent historian, he was 
without an equal in sacred liturgy. 

The arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner with the 
twenty aspirants to the Benedictine Order, although 
encouraging, incommoded in no slight degree the 
young monastic family, the buildings being too small 
for such a number. The Rev. D. Superior therefore 
commenced the erection of a new one, one hundred 
by forty feet. The foundation was laid on the 28th 
of September, 1848. But as the winter had set in 
early and was unusually severe, the new edifice, 
barely under way, was provided with a temporary 
roof, which was so defective that some were com- 
pelled, while taking their scanty meals, to protect 
themselves with the umbrella against rain and snow. 
They often awoke in the morning covered with snow 
or drenched with rain. These trials, however, far 
from discouraging, served but to strengthen their 
resolution, and their self-sacrificing Rev. D. Superior 
as ever animated their zeal in the noble enterprise by 
his glorious example. Hope at length began to dawn, 
and its resplendent rays, penetrating the mists of a 
cloudy horizon, became more substantial when the 
Rt. Rev. Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, offered to 
the Rev. D. Superior the administration of Carroll- 
town, in Cambria County, which was gladly accepted, 
and the purchase of the property of Rev. H. Lemke 
was soon consummated. In the same year, 1848, the 
foundation of the present Priory, of which Rev. Dr. 
Peter Lechner and P. Charles Geyerstanger took 
charge, together with the neighboring missions, was 
laid. 

Being now the only priest at home, and the adjacent 
Catholic settlements again falling under his charge, 
the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer had those ecclesiastical 



274 



HISTOEY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



students, who had in the mean time finished their 
studies under his direction, and who, having made 
their religious vows on April 15, 1849, raised to the 
priesthood, which was done on the 20th of the same 
month. They were, however, unequal to the demand, 
in consequence of which the Rev. D. Superior wrote 
to the Abbey of Metten, in Bavaria, for assistance, 
but obtained only one priest. Seeing then the ne- 
cessity of a seminary on a larger scale for the educa- 
tion of young men aspiring to the priesthood, he, on 
the arrival of several German students far advanced 
in their studies, was the sooner enabled to obtain his 
object. Good prospects led him to found, in the fol- 
lowing year (1850), the Priory in St. Mary's, Elk 
Co., Pa." 

The news of this zealous and indefatigable laborer 
in the Lord's vineyard had in the mean while reached 
Rome, and Pope Pius IX. raised the young Benedic- 
tine colony to the rank of a monastery. This flatter- 
ing recognition aroused the zeal of the Rev. D. Su- 
perior still more, and the demand for priests being 
now supplied, his paternal heart found another chan- 
nel in which to direct his energies, namely, to supply 
the lack of competent Catholic teachers in the differ- 
ent parishes, who would instill into the tender hearts 
of the young good and sound moral principles. With 
this view he wrote to the venerable Mother Superior 
of the Benedictine nuns in Dryopolis (Eichstaett), 
Bavaria, but only three sisters responded, arriving in 
St. Mary's, Elk Co., Pa., July 22, 1852. They opened 
an academy in the same year, and taught the paro- 
chial school, and having in the course of time re- 
ceived many novices, now count five hundred mem- 
bers in fifteen convents and thirteen mission-houses 
located in eleven different States. 1 

Prosperity now flourishing throughout the missions, 
the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer undertook a journey 
to Rome in 1854, partly to return his humble thanks 
to the Sovereign Pontiff for the favors bestowed upon 
the young colony, and partly to explain matters more 
fully, in order, if possible, to have the new monastery 
raised to the dignity of an Abbey, and his journey 
was not made in vain. His Holiness received him 
kindly and cheerfully granted his request; and with- 
out any voucher, previous election, or petition from 
his subjects conferred on him the dignity of abbot 
for three years, a favor in such cases seldom granted. 
The Pope, moreover, allowed him to propagate, with 
the consent of the respective Bishops, the Benedictine 
Order in any diocese of the Union. 

Thus favored and empowered he returned to 
America, and received from his subjects and friends 
a cordial reception. Such an opportunity for the 
propagation of his order in other dioceses was soon 
acted upon on the reception of a kind invitation 



1 J ii the year 18i:i the Legislature oi the State iiieurpurated the monks 
at St. Vincent under the title " The Benedictine Society of Westmore- 
land County." 



from the Right Rev. Dr. J. Cretin, Bishop of St. 
Paul, Minn. On the strength of this invitation he 
founded a Priory in Stearns County the same year, 
1856, and named it St. Louis, in token of gratitude 
towards his royal benefactor, Louis I., King of 
Bavaria. This Priory has since through the favor of 
the Sovereign Pontiff been raised to the dignity of an 
Abbey, July 17, 1806, with the Rev. D. Rupert Seiden- 
bush, at that time Prior in St. Vincent's Abbey, as its 
first Abbot, and since June 30, 1875, Bishop of Halia 
I. P. I., and Vicar-Apostolic of Northern Minnesota. 
He was succeeded by Rev. D. Alexius Edelbrock, 
president of St. John's College, which was attached 
to the Abbey. 

When the generous King Louis I. of Bavaria had 
been informed by Rt. Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer that 
this Abbey was named after his Majesty, he wrote, 
having been his regular correspondent, as several let- 
ters which are preserved in the archives of St. Vin- 
cent show, the following letter, which we shall sub- 
scribe in full : 

"Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Aug. 29, 1867. 
" Lord Adbot P. Boniface Wimmer. 

" For the good wishes tendered me on the anniversary of my birthday, 
and that of the Saint whose name I hear, contained in your letter dated 
the 10th, I kindly thank you. I know well how to appreciate the grate- 
ful seutiments of the Benedictines in America. It pleased me very 
much to hear that the new Ahhey in Minnesota hears my name. I wish 
ttie hest prosperity to it, to you, aud to tile whole BenedictiDe Order in 
America. 

" With profound esteem, aud devoted to you as ever, 

" Yours most sincerely, Louis I." 

Under such good auspices and wishes the Rt. Rev. 
Prelate steered forward on the ocean of life with ex- 
panded sails for other conquests. Another Priory was 
erected in Atchison, Kan., under the directorship of 
Rev. Augustine Wirth, in the same year, 1856, and 
in time raised to the same dignity. Unforeseen diffi- 
culties, however, somewhat retarded his plans. The 
Rev. D. Augustine Wirth resigned his office, and was 
succeeded by Rev. D. Louis Fink, who was shortly 
after promoted to the Episcopal See of Leavenworth, 
Kan. His successor was Rev. D. Giles Christoph, 
who was in turn succeeded three years later by Rev. 
D. Oswald Moosmiller, under whose directorship the 
Priory prospered until March 23, 1876, when the Rev. 
Dr. Innocent Wolf, then Prior at St. Vincent, was 
elected its first Abbot.September 29th, and consecrated 
October 20th of the same year. 

After having accomplished so much, Rev. Boniface 
Wimmer next turned his attention to the South, and 
in the years 1876 and 1877 he purchased and estab- 
lished colonies in the States of Louisiana, North Caro- 
lina, Alabama, Georgia, and later, in the year 1881, at 
Wetaug, Pulaski, in Southern Illinois, twenty miles 
north of Cairo. In Georgia he erected on Skidaway 
Island, near Savannah, an agricultural school for col- 
ored boys under the directorship of the able Rev. D. 
Oswald Moosmiller, wdio has since built in Savannah 
for the negroes the Sacred Heart Church, with a Cath- 
olic school in the basement frequented by sixty col 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



275 



ored children. As their number is daily increasing, 
he is contemplating the erection of a larger building 
exclusively for school purposes. 

But the path of the kind Abbot Boniface Wimmer 
was not always strewed with roses. Thorns and thistles 
often sprouted up to wound his tender heart and dis- 
turb the tranquillity $£ hjis mind. His term of office, 
prolonged by Rome, having in the mean time expired, 
and being accused in Rome, on account of a certain 
individual of his flock, by name Paul Keck, a religious 
fraud, of favoring and promoting Spiritualism, he was 
compelled to take a second journey to Rome in 1865 
to free himself of the charge. Having proved to the 
satisfaction of all the falsity of the accusation, he estab- 
lished in the Eternal City the College of St. Elizabeth, 
to afford the most talented of his young ecclesiastical 
students an opportunity for acquiring greater perfec- 
tion in the sciences, and for attaining honorable aca- 
demic degrees. About this time, in accordance with 
a previous election by his subjects, he was confirmed 
in Rome, July 27, 1866, Abbot of St. Vincent and 
Praeses of the Benedictines under his charge, forming 
the Americo-Casinensian Congregation, for life. On 
his arrival home he received an invitation to the second 
Plenary Council in Baltimore, which was to begin on 
the first Sunday in October, 1866; but as the Vatican 
Council in Rome was announced soon after, he, as 
Praeses, having an assessment-right and suffrage-vote, 
was invited to attend, and accordingly set out for Rome 
a third time, arriving there Oct. 20, 1869. But as the 
council could not be continued on account of the war 
between Germany and France, and as the political at- 
mosphere of Rome itself was rather gloomy , he dissolved 
his College of St. Elizabeth, sending two young priests 
to the University of Innsbruck, in the Tyrol, to finish 
their course, and returned with the three others, who 
had received the diplomas of Doctors, to St. Vincent. 
Previous toils and the effects of old age now began to 
tell upon his constitution, though he was still unceas- 
ingly active in the interests of his order, of his Mon- 
asteries and Abbeys, and for the welfare of the Cath- 
olic Church in America. To him is 'due the first im- 
pulse of the now past-celebration of the fourteenth 
centenary of the Benedictine Order. The principal 
celebration of the feast-giving epoch in the history of 
the Benedictines was announced to take place on 
Pentecost, in 1880, at Monte Casino, in Italy, the 
shrine of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine 
Order. On that occasion the Rt. Rev. Prelate went 
to Rome for the fourth time, and reopened the Col- 
lege of St. Elizabeth in the Eternal City. Shortly 
after his return to St. Vincent, he sent to Rome, on 
Sept. 30, 1880, four young men, two priests and two 
clerics, who were joined by two more in the fall of 
1881, and placed them all under the directorship of 
Rev. D. Adalbert Mueller, Phil., Dr. L., who was pro- 
vided with an introductory letter to His Eminence 
Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda. His 
Eminence replied in the following terms : 



" Rt. Rev. Sib : 

"Your letter of September ^'Jth has been received, and perused witu 
exceeding joy upon the intelligence of your having sent to Rome two 
priests and two clerics to study philosophy and theology. It affords me 
great pleasure to offer you my congratulations and to confer upon you 
the well-merited praise, for I think that you have done a very good 
work for the Church in America by opening for your mouks a house 
where they are enabled to attain a greater perfection in their sacred 
studies. Rightly and meritoriously you acted, for from here are drawn 
purer Apostolic traditions of the Church, and as Rome is the head of 
Catholicity and the See of the Romau Pontiff, doctors of the highest 
note from every quarter of the globe make it their abode. I hope, 
therefore, you will reap richer fruit, and, if possible, that more young 
clerics from the United States shall come to Rome to finish their philo. 
sophical course, and become more proficient in sacred discipline. The 
Catholic Church would then surely shine with greater lustre in America. 
But as far as you are concerned, you have done a good work, and I will 
pray to God that he may preserve you long. 

"Rome, at the PuopAGANnA, Jan. 2, 1881. 

"Your devoted brother, 

"John Card. Simeoni, Prefect, 
"J. Masotti, Secretary" 
" Rt. Rev. Boniface Wimmer, Abbot, O.S.B., 
" Westmoreland. 

Having viewed the venerable prelate's tireless life 
in many States and climes, let us now turn our atten- 
tion to the home of his labors, St. Vincent. If the 
progress of the order was rapid and material abroad, 
it was no less so at home. The old frame barn has 
been replaced by a new one built of brick, two hun- 
dred and twenty-two by sixty-seven feet, and the ar- 
rangement of this huge structure, under the immedi- 
ate supervision of Ven. Brother Andrew Binder, is 
complete in every detail. The brewery and a flour- 
mill, with three stones, are well known. The old 
parochial residence, forty by forty feet, has given 
place to an Abbey of four hundred by two hundred 
and ten feet, which, though not in the latest or best 
style, is withal commodious and well adapted to its 
purpose. The Seminary, small and deficient in many 
respects when founded in 1848, was advancing slowly 
but surely under Rev. D. Alphonse Heimler, until it 
attained perfection under the directorship of the Rev. 
Dr. Hilary Pfraengle, which the qualifications of the 
board of professors and great crowd of students, to 
the number of three hundred and fifty, yearly testify. 

On the 24th of August, 1855, Pope Pius IX., 
by Apostolic Brief, erected the religious community 
at St. Vincent into an Abbey, the effect of which 
action was to give to the community a well-defined 
status in the ecclesiastical organization of the Catho- 
lic religion, and to raise its Superior to the dignity of 
a Prelate, which is a dignity somewhat akin to that of 
a Bishop. By an act of the Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania of April 28, 1870, the institution was incorpor- 
ated with the power of conferring academical degrees. 
The course of studies is the theological, classical, and 
commercial. The college possesses a large library ot 
sixteen thousand volumes, a chemical and philo- 
sophical cabinet, a herbarium of fourteen thousand 
species, a collection of shells, fossils, and a coin col- 
lection of five thousand rare specimens. 

Art, too, has found a fostering influence in the 



276 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



young Abbey, and has been cultivated by prominent 
professors, as the many paintings in the art gallery 
and at the different Priories attest. A photographic 
atelier is numbered among the latest additions to St. 
Vincent. Art-joinery there in the different styles of 
altars, by Ven. Brother Cosmas Wolf, has attained a 
high state of perfection, as those in St. Vincent, in 
the convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Covington, 
Ky., and in St. Francis' Church in Cincinnati, and in 
many other cities and towns plainly certify. 

The musical acquirements of many of the profes- 
sors are known far and wide, and some have even re- 
ceived the flattering appellation of virtuosos. 

Ranking next to art aud science, and closely con- 
nected w T ith the latter, is the printing department. 
This was from its very beginning the favorite idea of 
the Venerable Prelate, though not realized till the 
year 1865, when a printing-machine was procured, 
which has ever since been of the greatest service. 
For some years back it has kept three type-setters 
continually busy, and is presided over by the Very 
Reverend D. Sebastian Arnold. With this is con- 
nected a book-binding establishment, in which two 
men are constantly engaged. 

Tradesmen of all kinds are found among the Bene- 
dictines. The tailoring department is run by four 
very diligent men, under the direction of a worthy 
Brother. In the shoe-shop three brothers ply the awl 
and last from morn till night, and are sometimes, as 
is often the case with the tailors, unable to satisfy the 
demands of the inmates of the Abbey and College. A 
harness-maker is kept busy doing justice to himself 
and trade. Carpenters and masons, black-, tin-, and 
locksmiths always have their hands full of work. 
Bakery and butchery are carried on by the Abbey's 
own inmates, and cannot be less active, considering 
the great number of students, its own members, and 
the never-diminishing number of wayfarers. 

All these achievements owe their origin to the Ven- 
erable Prelate, and their culmination and mystical 
sanctification to the open and disinterested religious 
tendency which he has sown in the hearts of his sub- 
jects from the day he invested the first nineteen in the 
habit of the order. This tendency, or, more strictly, 
spirit, based upon the evangelical counsels, is identi- 
cal with that of their founder, the great St. Bene- 
dict. In virtue of these counsels the Venerable Pre- 
late, Boniface Wimmer, is by ecclesiastical authority 
the spiritual father and physician, the teacher and 
high priest of his flock with plenary jurisdiction. 
This he kindly exercises over those subjects under 
his immediate care, resident in thirteen -States of the 
Union, numbering 106 priests, 1 deacon, 35 clerics 
in minor orders, 11 novices, 116 lay-brothers, and 85 
scholastics, together with 8 Priories, 17 parishes, and 
14 missions. Adding to these the Abbey of St. 
Louis (having lately changed its name to St. John 
B.), in Minnesota, St. Benedict, in Atchison, Kan., 
ami St. Malachy, in Iowa, with their Priories and 



parishes, whose founder and Praeses is the Venerable 
Prelate, we have his whole work spread over sixteen 
States, counting 3 abbeys, 1 independent Priory, 11 
depending Priories, 45 parishes, and 43 missions, all 
of which contain 151 active priests, 60 clerics, 19 
novices, 177 lay-brothers, and 150 scholastics. The 
number of the parishioners fitter the care of the Ben- 
edictines in the United States is about 42,000. Their 
colleges, in which are taught the different arts and 
sciences, are 6, aud the number of pupils frequenting 
them every year average 500. The number of priests 
having completed their studies at St. Vincent alone, 
comprising regulars and seculars, is about 400. The 
catalogues of the different years contain many names 
of students who are now prominent lawyers and phy- 
sicians, esteemed clerks and respectable citizens. 
They all proudly acknowledge St. Vincent as their 
" alma mater," and profoundly reverence, duly re- 
spect, and sincerely love her founder and their bene- 
factor, the Rt. Rev. and Most Illustrious Prelate, 
Lord Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. 1 

ST. XAVIER'S CONVENT AND SEMINARY. 

The Convent and Young Ladies' Academy of St. 
Francis Xavier, being the religious house and semi- 
nary of the Sisters of Mercy, is situate about three 
miles from Latrobe, in Unity township, Beatty being 
its post-office and railroad station, and St. Vincent 
its telegraph-office. 

The Order of Mercy was founded by Catherine Mc- 
Auley, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1831. 
This generous and philanthropic lady was endowed 
by nature with qualities of rare value of both mind 
and heart, which fitted her for the important mission 
she was called upon to fill. As soon as she came into 
the possession of her ample fortune she hastened to 
relieve the suffering and distress of her own neighbor- 
hood. A few years' experience showed her how much 
she might be able to do in preserving the innocent, 
reclaiming the erring, and instructing the ignorant 
j by assembling around her a few pious and educated 
ladies who could aid her in the good work, her own 
means being sufficient for the building of a school, 
an orphan asylum, and a home for destitute servant- 
girls when out of situations. These buildings were 
erected in Baggot Street, Dublin. Soon Miss Mc- 
Auley was joined by several young ladies, who were 
attracted by the good works they saw carried on in 
their midst. These pious ladies now began to visit 
the sick in their houses as well as in the hospitals. 
The Archbishop of Dublin being greatly pleased with 
the good accomplished by the little congregation, and 
wishing to make it permanent, advised Miss McAuley 
and two of her companions to retire to a convent and 
make a novitiate, after which they made the three 
vows of poverty, charity, and obedience, assumed a 



1 We are under obligation for courtesies anil favors to Rev. Father 
PaulinuB, O.S.B., and Rev. Father Aug. Schneider, O.S.B., of St. Vincent, 
for much assistance herein. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



277 



religious dress, and returned to their duties in Bag- 
got Street. Miss McAuley, now Sister Mary Cath- 
erine, drew up rules and constitutions for their gov- 
ernment, which were confirmed by the Holy See in 
July, 1841. This last act placed the Order of Mercy 
among the religious orders of the Catholic Church. 
In a few years so rapid was the spread of the order 
that it had houses in almost every part of the world. 
In June, 1841, Rev. M. O'Connor, D.D., was ap- 
pointed pastor of St. Paul's Church, on Grant Street, 
Pittsburgh. He labored zealously for two years in 
his new mission, when he obtained permission to visit 
Rome, where he hoped to enter the Society of Jesus, 
and thus realize the desire of his earlier years. In 
this he was disappointed, as Pennsylvania had in the 
mean time been divided into two dioceses, and Pitts- 
burgh named as the new See, for which Dr. O'Connor 
was appointed first Bishop. Disappointed in his hopes, 
and grieved at his elevation, he humbly submitted to 
' the appointment of the Holy See, and was consecrated 
Bishop on the loth of August, 1843. The new diocese 
was well known to its Bishop ; he had seen during his 
pastorate at St. Paul's the great need of instruction 
and education for the growing population ; therefore 
he resolved to bring with him on his return a founda- 
tion of a religious order devoted to the training of 
youth. For this purpose he visited Ireland, and see- 
ing the new Order of Mercy suited to the wants of 
his people, he obtained a foundation of seven Sisters. 
These generous ladies bade farewell to the land of 
their birth, and immediately set sail for the New 
World, encouraged by the hope of leading to God or 
aiding in their journey heavenward the children of 
the far West. On the morning of December the 
21st, 1843, the sun arose for the first time on the Sis- 
ters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. They received a cordial 
welcome from the leading members of St. Paul's con- 
gregation, and a suitable house was arranged for their 
temporary use. In the course of a few months the 
daughters of some of the first families in the twin 
cities became acquainted with the Sisters, and, being 
pleased with their mode of life, sought permission to 
join them in their good works. The first candidate 
that entered the Order of Mercy in the United States 
was Miss Eliza J. Tiernan, of Allegheny City. This 
young lady brought to the little community rare vir- 
tue, bright accomplishments, and a liberal fortune, 
all of which were most acceptable, and enabled the 
Sisters to extend their usefulness. Several other 
young ladies following the example of Miss Tiernan, 
a school was opened on Penn Street, and later on 
the Sisters rented the then well-known " Concert 
Hall," which they fitted up for an hospital. The 
next year they took charge of an orphan asylum. 

Although all these benevolent works had been un- 
dertaken within the short space of eighteen months, 
yet there were some Sisters waiting an opportunity to 
establish another school. In the spring of 184~>, Henry 
Kuhn, an old gentleman from the central part of West- 



moreland County, Pa., called on the Sisters and offered 
them a farm on very liberal terms for the purpose of 
establishing an academy for young ladies. Encour- 
aged and directed by the bishop, their true friend, 
the Sisters accepted the conditions, as the academy 
would supply a want which was much felt in Western 
Pennsylvania. The farm lay forty miles east of Pitts- 
burgh, on the line of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia 
turnpike, a favorable circumstance before the con- 
struction of railroads. A more beautiful location 
could not be desired, as the surface was unbroken, 
and sloping gradually towards the morning sun. 
There were, however, no buildings on the farm, so 
the pastor of St. Vincent's Church, which was about 
a mile distant, generously offered his residence for the 
temporary accommodation of the Sisters and their 
first pupils, whilst he located himself in the sacristy 
of the church. Thus was formed the nucleus of the 
academy since known as St. Xavier's. The first pu- 
pils were Misses N. Shoemaker, of Ebensburg; S. 
Myers, A. and A. McCaffrey, of Pittsburgh; A. and 
P. Ihmsen, M. and E. Mulvaney, of Birmingham. 

The infant academy began to attract attention, and 
several new pupils applied for admission, which made 
it necessary to procure more ample accommodations. 
In the autumn of 1S45 preparations were commenced 
for building on the farm. As their means were limited 
the Sisters could not attempt to build on a grand scale. 
They therefore contracted for a plain three-story 
building, which in after-years would stand as the right 
wing of a more imposing edifice. The site of the 
new building was most favorably chosen, as it com- 
manded an extensive view of the Chestnut Ridge, 
with its irregular outlines, causing an enchanting va- 
riety of light and shade to cling around its forest-clad 
summit, with the fertile valley of the Loyalhanna as 
a foreground. 

All things being prepared, the building was com- 
menced early in 1846, and to the great joy of both 
Sisters and pupils its progress was so rapid that the ' 
closing year found it near completion. When the 
bright spring days of 1847 brought forth the buds and 
blossoms, the Sisters took their youthful charge out 
for a ramble in the fields and a visit to the new build- 
ing. What was their delight to find that in a few days 
it would be ready for their accommodation. The 
transfer was now the all-absorbing topic at recreation. 
May the 14th, the anxiously looked for day, dawned 
bright and beautiful, and after an early breakfast the 
work of transportation began. Some of the kind 
neighbors lent their wagons to aid in the moving ; 
towards noon a procession might have been seen wend- 
ing its way towards the new academy, and before the 
sun went down the Sisters and the pupils were settled 
in their new home, which, in honor of the apostle of 
the Indies, received the name of "St. Francis 
Xavier." 

The increased accommodation was appreciated by 
the patrons of the institution, and the opening of the 



278 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



next session found many new pupils added to the 
little band of the previous year. About this time a 
permanent standing was given to the new institution 
by the incorporation of the Sisters under the title of 
" The Sisters of Mercy" by the Legislature of the 
State. 

More care had been taken to procure a good view 
than pleasant recreation-grounds, for the academy 
was located in a field without a tree to shelter it from 
the summer sun, while on the adjoining farm only a 
few rods distant stood a charming grove of original 
forest-trees. This luxury, so near at hand and yet im- 
possible of attainment, caused the young ladies to 
feel their own privation all the more keenly. Shade- 
trees had, it is true, been planted, but what were these 
diminutive saplings compared with the lordly oaks 
and giant maples of the grove, many of which had 
seen two hundred summers, and no doubt had formed 
a shelter for the red man ages before ? This trial was 
not of long duration ; the farm with the tempting 
grove was offered for sale in the year 18">2, and 
although the funds of the corporation at the time 
were inadequate to the undertaking, yet as the advan- 
tage was so important and the time of payment ex- 
tended, the farm was purchased. Soon the boundary 
fence was removed, and the grove with all its attrac- 
tions added to the recreation-grounds. Where nature 
had been so lavish, it was an easy matter to render 
the surroundings of the academy what they have often 
been termed by visitors, " a little Paradise." 

About this time the Pennsylvania Railroad was 
completed, uniting the eastern with the western part 
of the State, and passing within two miles of St. 
Xavier's, rendering it easy of access from the princi- 
pal cities of the State. Two or three additions were 
made to the buildings, which were needed for the in- 
creasing number of pupils. In 1861 a chapel was 
contracted for at a cost of about $40,000, the base- 
ment of which was to serve as a hall for the academic 
commencements. Owing to the scarcity of laborers 
during the Rebellion the chapel was not completed 
until 1866. In the mean time a neat two-story 
building, known as the Guest House, was erected, 
about three hundred yards distant from the academy, 
for the accommodation of the pupils' friends when 
visiting them during the year. 

The academy grounds were artistically laid out, and 
many improvements made in the appearance of the 
institution, when, in the space of one short afternoon, 
there was nothing left of the vast pile of buildings, 
including the beautiful chapel, but smouldering ruins. 
At 2 p.m., Feb. 1, 1868, the terror-stricken cry of fire 
rang through the academy, and large volumes of flame 
were already rolling out from the roof of the middle 
building. The directress immediately collected the 
pupils and left the building in safety. Every effort 
was made to save a part of the building, but in vain, 
no water but that furnished by ordinary pumps being 
on the premises. The neighbors, on seeing the fire, 



ran to the rescue, and through their kindness a great 
amount of bedding and household furniture was 
saved, as well as sixteen pianos. The young ladies' 
trunks and wardrobes were all preserved through 
the untiring exertions of the Sister under whose 
charge they had been placed. Nothing was saved 
in the Sisters' part of the house, as every effort was 
directed to the well-being of the pupils and the pres- 
ervation of their effects. The weather being in- 
tensely cold, and the snow unusually deep, the scene 
of desolation was most distressing. Night was com- 
ing on, so nothing remained to be done but to procure 
as many sleds as possible and take the Pittsburgh chil- 
dren to the station to meet the night train. The Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company kindly gave free trans- 
portation to Sisters and pupils, and placed their 
carriages at the disposal of the frightened wayfarers 
to convey them to the convent in Webster Street, where 
they remained until the following morning. As many 
as the Guest House could accommodate remained 
there and had a miniature academy on a very home- 
like plan. The Sisters saw the labor and gathering 
of years swept away in a few hours, and, what was 
more to be regretted, their insurance was very light, 
only $20,000, while the chapel alone cost $36,000. 

Great sympathy was manifested by all classes for 
the Sisters' loss, and substantial encouragement given 
to rebuild the academy, as liberal donations were 
made to a building fund by the friends of the ill-fated 
institution. The Sisters sold some property, which 
brought a good price, and also made arrangements for 
a loan of money when needed, so that no delay might 
arise in the progress of the building. By the 1st of 
March all things were in readiness for the commence- 
ment of a new building, to take the place of the one 
just swept away. The plans were drawn by J. W. 
Kerr, the architect of Pittsburgh City Hall. The new 
structure was to be erected on the site of its prede- 
cessor, to be semi-Gothic and of irregular outline, with 
a front to the east of seventy-four feet by forty feet 
deep. Left wing, running northwest, one hundred and 
seventy feet by forty-four; right wing, running south, 
one hundred feet by fifty. The chapel to connect 
with the front building and run parallel with the left 
wing. This portion of the building was to be Gothic, 
seventy-four feet by thirty-four, the foundation to be 
prepared with those of the other building, and the 
edifice erected in the future. The estimate for its 
completion was $20,000, and that of the academy 
$100,000. 

Work commenced early in April, and was vigorously 
carried on during the following summer, when from 
sixty to eighty workmen were engaged in its erec- 
tion. September, 1869, saw the new academy ready 
to accommodate the pupils at the usual time for re- 
suming studies. Each part of the institution having 
been arranged to suit its intended purpose, and the 
whole building erected at once, gave it a perfection 
of which the old one could not boast, and added much 



THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



279 



to the convenience and comfort of the pupils. The 
chapel was erected in 1870, which completed the re- 
placement of the buildings swept away by the fire of 
Feb. 1, 1868. 

The new academy received the same liberal patron- 
age that favored its predecessor. Although the num- 
ber of boarding-schools had been increased in Western 
Pennsylvania, yet the spacious study hall and ample 
class-rooms of the academy are graced by a goodly 
number of the daughters of influential families, not 
only of this State but of various other States. The 
academy continues to impart a solid English educa- 
tion, together with a knowledge of the languages and 
fine arts, and to prepare its pupils to go forth accom- 
plished members of society. Many of the pupils of 
St. Xavier's may be found in different parts of the 
country filling with credit the various positions which 
only an educated Christian lady can advantageously 
fill. A few return to their alma mater and join 
their teachers in the various works of mercy peculiar 
to their mode of life. Of their efficient services to 
suffering humanity the sick and wounded soldiers of 
the civil war have had sufficient proof, as many of 
the Sisters who ministered to their wants in the Stan- 
ton and Douglas Hospitals of Washington and the 
West Penn Hospital of Pittsburgh were graduates of 
St. Xavier's. 

The museum of the academy contains a well- 
arranged collection of minerals, embracing different- 
ores and rock-forms, some handsome cameos and 
mosaics, a fine selection of quartz crystals, Amazon 
stones, spars, etc., besides fossils of different ages, and 
a valuable set of coins and medallions. For these 
the institution is indebted to its friends. It also 
possesses a fine library, comprising many of the stand- 
ard works of English literature, besides several book- 
cases filled with encyclopaedias, books of reference, 
etc., so placed as to be accessible to the various classes 
at suitable hours. The most of these works have 
been the gifts of the reverend clergy of this and 
other dioceses. 

The course of studies, according to the last prospec- 
tus of the academy, embraces the various branches 
of elementary training, together with those which 
constitute the higher departments of a finished educa- 
tion. Heading, writing, astronomy, algebra, chem- 
istry, history, geology, geometry, belles-lettres, book- 
keeping, practical and rational arithmetic, geography, 
grammar, rhetoric, botany, natural and moral philos- 
ophy, vocal and instrumental music, logic, French, 
German, Italian, Latin, drawing, painting, plain 
sewing, etc. Music, singing, drawing, French, Ger- 
man, Italian, Latin, wax-work, and ornamental 
needle-work are extra branches, and will be taught at 
the option of the parents. Letters written or received 
by the young ladies are examined by the directress 
previous to their delivery. The scholastic year com- 
mences September 1st, and terminates on the 1st of 
July. It is divided into two sessions. If a pupil be 



removed before the close of the session for which she 
has entered full payment will be required for the 
whole, except in case of sickness. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 

The " Pittsburgh Gazette" — "Farmer's Register," the First Paper printed 
in Greensburg — " The Greensburg ami Indiana Register" — The "West- 
moreland ami Indiana Register" — " The Westmoreland Republican 
and Farmer's Chronicle" — "Greensburg Democrat" — "Republican 
and Democrat" — " Westmoreland Democrat" — The " Greensburg Ga- 
zette" — "GreenBburg Gazette and Faimer'sand Mechanick's Regis- 
ter— (And again} "The Greensburgh Gazette"— " The Westmoreland 
Intelligencer" — "The Sentinel" — The "American Herald" — "The 
Tribune" — "Tribune and Herald" — "The Pennsylvania Argus" — 
"Frank Cowan's Paper" — "The Democratic Times" — "The National 
Issue" — "The News" — "The Greensburg Press" — "The Evening 
Press" — German Newspapers: " The Star of the West" — "The West- 
moreland News" — " The Ligonier Free Press alius " The Valley Dem- 
ocrat" — Mount Pleasant "Literary Gazette" — " Latrohe Inquirer" — 
" Latrobe Advance" — " The Reveille" — The " Irwin Spray" — " The 
Irwin Chronicle"— The West Newton " Weekly Cycle"—" The West 
Newton Press" — " The Scottdale Tribune" — The " Miner's Record" — 
Oddities — Observations — Extracts — Literature — Dr. Frank Cowau's 
Publications. 

About the time the old court-house was completed, 
and before the town of Greensburg was made a bor- 
ough by incorporation, the printing-press — the light 
and the life of modern civilization — made its appear- 
ance. The occasion was favorable, for up to that time 
the only printing-office in Western Pennsylvania was 
the office of Scull & Hall, the proprietors of the 
Gazette, at Pittsburgh. John Scull and Joseph Hall 
established the Pittsburgh Gazette and issued their 
first number on the 26th of July, 1786. At their 
office all the printing which was done in the West 
was executed. The writs used in court, the sum- 
mons and executions used by the justices, sale bills 
were printed at their office until one was established 
at Greensburg. 

The Farmer's Register was the first venture in news- 
paper literature west of the mountains after the estab- 
lishment of the Pittsburgh Gazette. The first number 
made its appearance about the beginning of the year 
1798, and it was published and edited by John M. 
Snowden. A man by the name of McCorkle was said 
to have had some connection with the paper, and to 
have been associated with Snowden, but most prob- 
ably he was the printer only, and had nothing to do 
with the paper either as proprietor or manager. Mr. 
Snowden was a native of Philadelphia, and his ven- 
ture here was not unprofitable. He disposed of the 
paper to William S. Graham about 1808. He re- 
mained in the county till some time after that, and 
was elected to serve several offices of trust. He re- 
moved hence to Pittsburgh, where in 1812 he suc- 
ceeded J. C. Gilleland in the management of the 
Sunday Mercury, the ancestor, as one might say, of 
the Pittsburgh Post. He was a professional printer. 
He was uncle of John M. Laird, Esq., the Nestor of 



280 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the Westmoreland press of our clay, and under him 
Mr. Laird served his apprenticeship in the printing 
business. 

The paper continued to be called the Farmer's 
Register till 1808, when the name was changed to The 
Greensburg and Indiana Register, and again later to 
The Westmoreland and Indiana Register. The occa- 
sion of this was the increasing circulation of the paper 
in Indiana County, and the fact that it was the 
medium for the public advertisements of that county. 
As the headings were of movable types, and as these 
types were sometimes used in job-work, the arbitrary 
title of the paper was not infrequently so of necessity, 
which occasion was usually explained by an apology. 
In the issue of July the 9th, 1812, it was explained 
that, from having been disappointed in receiving the 
proper kind of type, they had to change the name to 
Greensburg instead of Westmoreland. For extra 
jobs they had to use the head-line of the paper. 

The mechanical part of the paper was good; the 
type was large and distinct, and the earlier volumes 
had the old-fashioned ff. The paper material was 
heavy and durable, and the few old copies extant, 
notwithstanding the sear and yellow withered leaves 
of age turning, as they are, into irrecoverable dust, 
are well preserved. In 1811 the paper was printed on 
paper manufactured at the paper-mill of Markle & 
Doura, on the Sewickley, twelve miles west of Greens- 
burg, which had then but recently been built. 

The paper in size was nine and one-half inches by 
thirteen inches. There were four pages of four 
columns each in clear type and closely set. The price 
of subscription was two dollars and a quarter per 
year. The news was mostly made up of foreign intelli- 
gence, or of reports of Congress, and of new treaties 
with the Indians. Each number contained about five 
columns of advertisements, and, on an average, one 
column of short extracts from exchanges. Under 
the head of news were given Jefferson's addresses, 
reportof the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, sickness of 
Bernadotte, and a new battle gained by Bonaparte. 
There were no professional cards among the adver- 
tisements, but there was a standing notice that rags 
would be taken at the highest market price in pay- 
ment for the subscription to the paper. What might 
be called editorials were scarce. The political and 
social course of the paper was shaped by articles in 
the form of correspondence, so that an editor might 
make an attack on a political opponent or cry down 
an evil under some nam de plume. But besides these 
collections there were papers and contributions on 
political subjects of from five to seven columns. 
Findley wrote incessantly for the paper from the time 
of its establishment, and it was suspected that lie 
helped to carry it on, not only with his influence but 
with his money. The paper politically was Jeffer- 
sonian-Republican, and the articles which Findley 
furnished for electioneering purposes were in vindi- 
cation of his political career. These were sometimes 



addressed to his constituents, explanatory of his 
course in Congress in reference to the embargo and 
on the prospect of war with Great Britain. William 
S. Graham, purchasing the establishment from Snow- 
den in the beginning of 1808, continued its publica- 
tion after changing its name to the Westmoreland and 
Indiana Register. Graham was something of an en- 
terprising man, and besides publishing from time to 
time cheap works, as " The Constitution of the United 
States" and " Watts' Hymns" in sheep, he kept a 
collection of books, pamphlets, and stationery on 
sale. Here could be purchased " Valentine and 
Orson," and "The Englishman's Right, or a Dia- 
logue between a Barrister-at-Law and a Juryman." J 
But the young student who wanted " Robertson's 
History," and the young miss who wanted the poems 
of Ossian, had to send with Randall McLaughlin or 
some of the store-keepers when they went East. 

From 1812 a change may be noticed in the style of 
the paper. Interspersed with editorial notes of from 
twelve to twenty lines are seen an account of the red- 
haired fat boy, of the hog that told fortunes and cast 
accounts, the latest antidote for the bite of a mad dog, 
and a description of the execution of eight negroes at 
one time somewhere in the South. About this time 
appeared the first advertisements of patent medicines : 
The Elixir of Perpetual Adolescence, and Doctor 
Blank's Anti-Bilious Compound. Invalids were cured 
by the big words. By such slow degrees have we ar- 
rived at our present civilization. 

The style of such articles as wereoriginal was usually 
more dignified and conventional than one would look 
for in a newspaper now. But there are many defects in 
them compared with our papers, and more than one 
hiatus. We look in vain for mention of matters of in- 
terest to us ; such, for instance, as a biographical notice 
on the death of Truby or Hanna, a description of the 
early town, who were building the latest houses, and 
when the old court-house was completed ; such notices, 
in short, as make the very being of a country paper. 
The expenditures of the county were, it is true, pub- 
lished in the current numbers, whence we get the in- 
formation that the expenses for the year 1808 were 
$7165.12, and that John B. Alexander received one 
hundred dollars for his year's salary as clerk to the 
commissioners. 

As there were no regular mails for many years after 
the paper began to be published, and then at first only 
along the old State road and turnpike, the subscrib- 
ers had to make such arrangements as they could 
agree upon to have their papers forwarded to them. 
The bundle for a community was usually left at 
some store, where the subscribers called for them. 
In 1812, on the establishment of a post-route from 
Bedford to Greensburg, it was stated that the subscrib- 
ers on that route could now be served by mail. 

The Westmoreland and Indiana Register continued 

1 This valuable ami instructive little work niiiv be foil ml us an appen- 
dix to Blnu's "Justice." 






THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



281 



to be published by Graham till his death in 1815, when 
it was carried on by his widow, Mrs. James Graham, 1 
with the assistance of Mr. Peterson and Mr. Under- 
wood respectively as foremen, till September, 1818, 
when it was transferred to other owners and the name 
changed. The identity of the -Register ended at that 
time, but as it was the paper upon which the subse- 
quent series of Democratic papers was founded, its 
existence was perpetuated in them. 

The Register did not purport to be a political paper, 
although it is apparent now that its leaning was in 
one direction. In 1811 the first political paper os- 
tensibly such was established by the Federalists, and 
called the Greensburg Gazette. In 1818 the Demo- 
crats resolved on having a paper for party purposes, 
and some of the leaders forming a company, with 
Frederick A. Wise as manager, purchased the Regis- 
ter, which, in a new dress, made its appearance in the 
first week of April, 1819, as The Westmoreland Repub- 
lican mill Farmer's Chronicle. 

Frederick A. Wise had been born and brought up 
in Greensburg, but at that time was working in Bal- 
timore at the printing trade, which he had learned. 
He took charge of the paper with the understand- 
ing that he was to be the sole manager, and also 
the owner and manager, on the repayment of the 
purchase money to the joint-stock company which 
had bought the Register. Of the paper Mr. Wise 
continued editor till 1830, when it was sold to Jo- 
seph Russell, Esq. In 1841, Mr. Russell took in 
partnership David K. Marchand, Esq., a practical 
printer ; in April, 1844, Mr. Marchand became sole 
editor and proprietor, and continued as such until 
July, 185G, when he sold an interest to Andrew Gra- 
ham, a farmer of Ligonier Valley, and something of 
a local politician and office-holder. In 1861, Mr. Gra- 
ham became sole editor and proprietor. Mr. Graham 
continued in the management only till Jan. 1, 1862, 
when James F. Campbell & Co. succeeded Mr. Gra- 
ham as proprietors of the Republican. Under this 
management it remained but a short time. In Jan- 
uary, 1863, James F. Campbell retiring, it became the 
property of William A. Stokes, Esq., a prominent 
member of the bar, and an officer for a time in the 
regular army, but whose tastes followed the profes- 
sion of the pen rather than that of the sword. Mr. 
Stokes had contributed very extensively to the paper 
previously to the time when it passed to Campbell & 
Co., and had been responsibly connected with it dur- 
ing the time it was carried on under that manage- 
ment, he being the "company." He then published 
the Republican until August, 1864, when he sold it to 
Mr. W. W. Keenan, then proprietor of the Greensburg 
Democrat, who combined the two establishments into 
one. 

As the Republican exists in the Westmoreland Demo- 
crat of to-day, we shall here give the history of the 

1 Mrs. Graham was sister of the late Dr. John Morrison, of Greenshurg. 



Democrat prior to the consolidation of those two 
papers, and then from that time the history of that 
one which was formed out of both. 
The first number of 

THE liUEENSBTJRG DEMOCRAT 
made its appearance November the 18th, 1853. 2 E. J. 
Keenan and John Klingensmith, Jr., were editors and 
proprietors. The paper had been established to rep- 
resentand give expression to that wing of the Democ- 
racy which advocated the renomination of William 
Bigler to the governorship, and which indorsed his 
administration. This was the second time in the 
political history of the county that a newspaper had 
in heated occasions been established as a party organ. 
As the other two papers which were devoted to the 
cause of that party— the Argus and the Republican— 
were at that time opposed to the re-election of Mr. 
Bigler and were committed to his defeat, and as the 
paper was established with the object stated, its ad- 
vent was heralded with many marks of displeasure 
by the press whose policy it opposed, by great grati- 
fication by its friends in the faction whose interests it 
represented, and by the approbation and encourage- 
ment of the opposition, whose best policy was to give 
it notoriety. Besides this the gentlemen at the head 
and back of the paper were well known throughout 
the county, and had become personally identified with 
the Democratic party in all local issues and interests. 

The salutatory was novel in its way. Under the 
caption "Liberty of the Press" the editors in this 
leader struck out in an entirely new vein. The writer 
after proclaiming their devotion to the principles of 
the Democratic party, declared that their course 
should be independent of all cliques and factions. 
The editorial and business management of the paper 
was conducted by E. J. Keenan, Esq. The paper from 
the first evidenced labor and talent. 

Mr. Klingensmith died in 1854, and the paper then 
passed into the hands, as it had really till that time 
been under the control, of Mr. Keenan. By him it 
was published and edited till the commencement of 
1857, when William W. Keenan, Esq., brother of E. J. 
Keenan, became the local editor and manao-er. In 
1857 the style of the management was E. J. Keenan 
& Bro. In June, 1858, it was purchased by James 
Keenan & Co., James Keenan then being the osten- 
sible head of the paper, and his brother representing 
the company. James Keenan, Esq., was at that time 
United. States consul at the port of Hong Kong 
China ; and the paper, so far as its practical manage- 
ment was concerned, was still conducted by his brothers 
here, and was the same as it had been before that. 
James Keenan died in 1862 ; his brother, E. J. Kee- 
nan, had entered into the active service of the United 



- In the prospectus for this paper it was originally called the Westmore- 
land Democrat, hut on account of the smaller size and neater appearance 
of the words, and to give more room for the vignette, it was changed to 
tho Greensburg Democrat. 



282 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



States in the army ; and William W. Keenau became 
entire and sole manager and editor of the paper. 

Probably no local paper in this section of the State 
rose with the same rapidity or attracted so much at- 
tention, both from friends and from opponents, as did 
the Democrat under the practical management of E. J. 
Keenan. It had many characteristics which are inci- 
dent to a successful newspaper. It was zealous in its 
friendship and bitter in its enmity. The editor was 
assailed in every place of attack by his political oppo- 
nents, — in the courts, in the press, even in the church. 
But opposition is one of the very essentials of a suc- 
cessful party newspaper. The reputation of a politi- 
cal organ is established, and the paper is fixed on a 
permanent basis only when it is denounced by the 
opposition and attacked from all sides. 

Some of the articles which appeared in the Demo- 
crat at that time have in the virulence of their attack 
perhaps been never paralleled in the history of our 
provincial press. The article denouncing William A. 
Cook for his alleged renegading from the Democratic 
to the opposition party (at that time the Know-Noth- 
ing organization), and for his acceptance of the candi- 
dacy of an office on the ticket, was one of the most 
caustic and bitter personal and political attacks prob- 
ably ever printed on the page of any newspaper in the 
whole State. It, however, resulted in a libel suit, 
which of course gave the more prominence to the 
paper. The editor was mulcted in six and a fourth 
cents damages and the costs of the suit. 

But the most unique issue was that of July 13, 
1859. The second page of this number was almost 
entirely filled with wood-cuts and double-leaded 
matter, resembling very much the "broadsides" of an 
earlier day. This matter was arranged in the ordi- 
nary columns, and was headed " Cameron & Co.'s 
Combined Circus, Menagerie, and Diorama." It was 
a political utterance, and in it all the prominent poli- 
ticians of the party in opposition, either national, 
State, or county, were caricatured, travestied, or bur- 
lesqued. It was a highly sensational article, but there 
were many who questioned the opportuneness of the 
brochure, and it is more than probable that the editor, 
both in person and in estate, suffered from the bitter- 
ness engendered by this effusion, and which ceased 
not to be effectively felt until long after. 

Edward .1. Keenan had barely reached his majority 
when he assumed the entire control of the Democrat. 
He had a peculiarity of expression on paper, so that 
his articles were, to one conversant with his style, 
readily distinguishable. He used good English, went 
right to the point, and although he sometimes pro- 
fessed the pathetic, yet a vein of humor is readily 
discerned running through all his productions. He 
was a master of the art of ridicule. In his manner 
he was companionable, and spared no effort to be 
agreeable. He therefore had many friends. He was 
open-hearted, forgiving, and generous beyond all 
belief, pitied all phases of suffering and misery, and 



no one ever appealed to him for charity in vain. 
Within certain limits it may be truly said that he fed 
the hungry, clothed the naked, and ministered to 
those who were sick and in prison. Physically he was 
weakly, and he bore in his body the seeds of disease. 
After his return from the army he devoted himself to 
the practice of the law. For a short period it is true 
he gave some of his attention to a new paper called 
the Democratic Times, but this attention was only su- 
pervisory. Uuder an accumulation of diseases he 
died, Friday, June 1, 1877. 1 

It was announced in the Democrat of July the 12th, 
18(52, that the interest of James Keenan in the estab- 
lishment had been purchased by Alexander Allison, 
a practical printer, who had been connected with the 
office, and that the publication of the Democrat 
would thenceforward be conducted under the style of 
William W. Keenan & Alexander Allison. It was 
also announced that the editorial department would 
remain as before. So that the publishers or editors 
of the paper were of those who had been connected 
in one capacity or another with it from shortly after 
its establishment. Alexander Allison retired March 
6, 1863, having disposed of his interest to William W. 
Keenan. 

THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT. 

In August, 1864, W. W. Keenan, the proprietor 
of the Democrat, purchased the Bepub/ican from W. 
H. Stokes, and the two papers were consolidated 
under the name of the Republican and Democrat, in 
which E. J. Keenau became again interested. The 
first number of this consolidation was issued on the 
31st of August in that year. The paper continued 
under the proprietorship of the Messrs. Keenan and 
uuder the management of W. W. Keenan, with a 

1 Edward J. Keenan died Friday June 1, 1*77. 

When about sixteen years of age lie accompanied bis brother, Thomas 
.1. Keenan, then European law agent, on a trip to Europe, and spent 
some eight months in the British Isles. Of his experience and observa- 
tions there be furnished some very interesting sketches. At about eigh- 
teen he established the Democrat. He served a term as register and re- 
corder, having previously conducted the affairs of the office as deputy 
under his brother, Gen. James Keenan. In the civil war he served as first 
lieutenant of infantry, in the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserve Veteran 
Corps, from which be was transferred to the Signal Corps, and advanced 
to higher position because of his superior ability. During his services in 
that department be made some suggestions of important improvements 
which were afterwards adopted. After the war he resumed the practice 
of the law in Greensburg, and had a large business. He stood among the 
foremost in his profession, and was remarkable for his acumen, culture, 
and humor. He also engaged in oil operations in the oil regions of IVmi- 
sylvania, and amassed considerable wealth. But his generous nature 
and i arelese forethought involved him in, so that when the panic came, 
his relentless creditors having no mercy, be was compelled to sacrifice 
his real estate to their mercy. On several occasions before bis death he 
acted as chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and for a time 
was editor of the Times. When Hon. "William Wallace was chairman of 
the Democratic State Committee, he, with the advice and consent of 
the committee, made Mr. Keenan deputy chairman for the western 
portion of the State, embracing some twenty or more counties, and 
gave to him complete control of the campaign therein. Some of his 
fiercest political contests were with the Hon. John Covode, and while 
politically at dagger's points, they were, it seems, personal friends. He 
\\;is married to a daughter of Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, and at bis death 
I left a widow and three children. 






THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



283 



short exception, when he associated with himself 
James H. Clarke, who had been the local editor of 
the Republican in 18(53. Near the close of 1871, Kline 
& Co. purchased the Republican and Democrat, and 
assumed the proprietorship and editorial control of 
the same on the first day of January, 1872. The firm 
consisted of Dr. W. J. K. Kline and S. A. Kline, Esq., 
who at once enlarged the paper from a twenty-eight 
to a thirty-two-column sheet, and issued the first num- 
ber on the tenth day of January in a new dress. S. 
A. Kline disposed of his interest to A. B. Kline, who 
succeeded him on the 1st of October, 1873, when the 
style of the firm was changed to Kline & Bro., who 
are still at this time the editors and proprietors of 
the establishment. On the 1st of January, 1876, they 
dropped the word " Republican" as a part of the 
name, and adopted the title Westmoreland Democrat, 
which is identical with one of the original names 
when the word Republican was synonymous with 
Democrat. 

Under its present management it has kept pace in 
general and local news with the improvements in 
journalism, enlarged its circulation, and has taken a 
leading part in the political controversies of the day, 
with such a distinctive apprehension of the varied 
issues that it has preserved and increased the respect 
and good will of the Democracy of the county, as well 
as that of many who are not in sympathy with its 
political creed. 

In Collins & McLeester's Proof-Sheet for 1873, a 
publication for practical printers, in an account of the 
various newspapers of the State, Greensburg was re- 
marked for the journalistic distinction of having odd 
or contradictory titles for at least three of its then ex- 
isting newspapers, as witness the Tribune and Herald, 
the Republican and Democrat, and Frank Cowan's 
Paper. 

THE GREENSBURr r GAZETTE. 

The Tribune ami Hern Id of to-day traces the history 
of its press to the Gazette. The Greensburg Gazette, 
which was established by David McLean as the organ 
of the Federal party, was the first political paper in 
the county ostensibly and professionally so. It began 
its existence in 1811. Mr. McLean was succeeded by 
Frederick J. Cope, Esq., in 182-!. 

The first number of the Gazette edited by Mr. Cope 
was dated Friday, October the 11th, 1822. In closing 
his editorial duties with that number of the paper, 
Mr. McLean stated that " notwithstanding he had 
commenced business under very unfavorable circum- 
stances, the generosity of his friends had given him 
all the prosperity he could wish." He had then made 
arrangements to continue in business at Pittsburgh, 
and had already moved his family there. 

The Gazette of the early day was a four-column 
sheet, and as such continued till 1823. April 25th of 
that year (at No. 29, Vol. I., New Series, and Vol. XII., 
Whole Number 612, regularly) another column was 
added to the page, making it a five-column paper. 



The advertising matter was slowly but certainly in- 
creasing in extent and in proportion to the contents of 
the paper. In size the page, as it Was set up in type, 
was eighteen by eleven and a half inches, with a very 
small margin, not half an inch, around. 

The contents and make-up of the Gazette differed 
not much (mutatis mutandis) from the Register, or 
from other papers of the day. In the Gazette some 
story partaking largely of the romantic style of liter- 
ature then in vogue, under such a heading as "The 
Pirate's Treasure," " The Count's Secret," " The Mys- 
tery of Norwood Castle," was usually printed on the 
last page to the exclusion of other matter. Under 
the heading " Domestick" was given the local and 
provincial news. 

The politics of the paper was, as we said, opposite 
to that of the Republican. The Gazette first advocated 
the election of Jackson to the Presidency. But it 
must be also remembered that Jackson for a long 
time was claimed by the Federalists. When Jackson 
was taken up and supported by the Democratic-Re- 
publicans it then opposed him. 

After the fashion and the usage of the newspaper 
and other publishing concerns — a fashion traceable 
to England — the country editors sold books and sta- 
tionery of ordinary kind at their establishments, and 
even printed books and pamphlets, and carried on the 
bookbinding business in connection therewith. At 
the office of the country paper, indeed, was the only 
place to get the current literature of the day. Among 
the publications which the Gazette in 1824 proposed 
to put in press was " Divine Breathings; or, a Pious 
Soul Thirsting after Christ, in one hundred Pathetick 
Meditations, &c, to contain 128 pages of 16's. Price, 
37'> cents, full bound and gilded." 

On February the 1st, 182S, the Gazette establish- 
ment passed out of the hands of Mr. Cope 1 into those 
of John Black & Son (Mr. Morrow not being known 
to the public as connected with the paper), with the 

1 Frederick J. Cope, who is still living, was born in Greensburg, Oct. 
14, 1801, and is the oldest person living: here born in this place. He was 
the son of William and Elizabeth f Rohrer) Cope, who came from Hagers- 
town, Md. His grandfather was Caleb Cope, who early settled in 
Western Maryland, and bis great-grandfather was Oliver Cope, who 
came over with William PeDn in 1681 , in which year be erected in 
Chester County his log bouse, still standing in 1863. The subject of 
lbi> sketch was born in a house that Btood where Bftughman's Block 
now is on Main Street. He learned the printer's trade with David Mc- 
Lean, then proprietor of the Greensburg Gazette. The latter went to 
Pittsburgh and purchased the Pittsburgh Gazette {now Commercial Gazette) 
of John Scull, its founder. Mr. Cope then purchased the Greensburg 
Gazette, Aug. 23, 1822, and published it until Sept. 29, 1826. It was a 
small sheet (demi-paper) of four pages, each of four columns. He en- 
larged it one column before he sold it to Paul Horrow, then cashier of 
the bank here. His paper was distributed by the mails and often by 
carriers. The cost of the raw paper was then much higher than now 
and in those times the printers employed were such as could be picked 
up, and oftentimes of but little experience. He traded his printing- 
office to Paul Morrow for the farm he has since owned, which was 
patented and owned by John Brownlee before the burning of Hanuas- 
town in 1782. Mr. Cope is one of the oldest printers in the State, but 
has not worked at the trade for fifty-six years. For the last quarter of 
a century he has contributed largely to the agricultural and educational 
press, and the articles thus contributed have given him great celebrity. 






284 



HISTORY OF WESTiMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



number which commenced the second half of the 
seventeenth volume. The junior member of this firm 
was then engaged in learning the printing business 
in the office, and the management of the office was 
left to him. The latter end of the name of the paper 
was dropped, and it was called again merely The 
Greensburg Gazette. 

In 1829, there being then no longer any use for the 
Federal party, it lost its identity in the anti-Masonic 
which sprang up like a mushroom. The Gazette then 
became anti-Masonic. 

Mr. Black, Sr., conducted the editorial management, 
and directed the course of the Gazette in politics until 
1832, when he retiring on account of ill health the 
editorial management was transferred to his son, 
William F. Black. The name of the paper was then 
changed to The Westmoreland Intelligencer. After the 
death of Mr. Black, Jr., the control of the paper 
passed into the hands of Reece 0. Fleeson, subse- 
quently and for many years one of the proprietors of 
the Pittsburgh Dispatch. 1 From Fleeson it passed to 
John Ramsey, upon whose death in 1839 the paper 
was purchased by John Armstrong, Esq., the father 
of John Armstrong, Esq., of the Westmoreland bar, 
and of Col. James Armstrong, both present citizens 
of Greensburg. For more than ten years Mr. Arm- 
strong, with the more active and personal superin- 
tendence of his son, a practical printer, edited and 
controlled the paper. 



1 The Tnlelligencer was yet owned by the widow of William F. Black, 
but under the management of Mr. Fleeson. It professed to be " Demo- 
cratic anti-Masonic," and in 1834-35 supported, or rather advocated, 
William II. Hal lison for President, and Francis Granger for Vice-Presi- 
dent. It was printed every Friday on Market Street. The Intelligencer 
was in size larger than the Gazette, and the types were bigger. 

From the Gazette, Friday, April 2a, 1824 : 

"The Gazette Office and Book-Bindery have been removed to the 
house lately occupied by Mr. Gallagher as a hatter's shop, between Mr. 
Brown's and Mr. Mowry's stores, and opposite the Post-Office, where sub- 
scribers aud others are respectfully requested to call." 

From the Gazette, July 10, 1824: 

"PRINTING. 

The Editor 

Having Procured From 

New York and Philadelphia, 

An addition to his former assortment, 

A Variety of Elegant 

Plain and 

Ornamented 

TYPES, 

He is enabled to execute 

Hand-Bills, 

Pamphlets, Cards, Blanks, etc., 

In a superior style at a sli'irt notice. 

"Book-Binding is neatly and expeditiously executed at the Bindery 
attached to the Printing-office. 

"Old Books will be substantially rebound at moderate charges. 

" fl®~ A number of Books, long since bound, remain on hand. The 
Owners are requested to call for them, or they will be Bold to pay for the 
binding." 



THE SENTINEL. 

It is here necessary to make a digression from the 
regular line of succession and take up one of the col- 
lateral branches, so to speak. 

In 1840 a new political paper was started in Greens- 
burg called The Sentinel. John F. Beaver, Esq., a 
lawyer in practice, was at the head and back of this 
concern, while Jonathan Row, a practical printer, a 
man of ability, and a native of Indiana County, was 
the editor and manager. It was partly a matter of 
private enterprise, and partly a political speculation. 
It was not till the campaign of that year that all the 
discordant elements in opposition to what was called 
the Democratic-Republican party effectually coalesced 
and united. Hence there was a struggle for all in 
opposition to become " organs." In either aspect the 
Sentinel was not a success, and after a short but vig- 
orous existence the concern was purchased by Mr. 
Armstrong, the proprietor of the Westmoreland In- 
telligencer, and being merged into that paper lost all 
identity. 

In November, 1850, Mr. Armstrong sold the Intel- 
ligencer to D. W. Shryock, Esq., who had been brought 
up to the printing business. 

When the next phase of opposition in politics took 
shape, and one of the parties was known as the Dem- 
ocratic, the other as the Know-Nothing or True 
American party, the name of the Intelligencer was 
changed to the American Herald. After the dissolu- 
tion of the Know-Nothing organization the name of 
the paper was changed to The Greensburg Herald, and 
thenceforth became the organ of the Republican 
party. As such it continued for some years. Its 
editor aud proprietor, Mr. Shryock, in the ascendency 
of his party was remembered by the administration 
in power. He was appointed revenue collector for 
the Twenty-first District at a time when the office was 
very profitable. 

THE TRIBUNE. 

The political course of the Herald had, however, 
in time raised opposition within the party in the 
county on local questions. The leader in this oppo- 
sition was James R. McAfee, Esq., at the present time 
deputy secretary of the Commonwealth. Mr. McAfee 
was a lawyer at the bar, was a well-known Republican 
politician, had been superintendent of the common 
schools, and a member of the Assembly. In 1870 
he established The Tribune in opposition to the 
Herald, and as the organ and the political exponent 
of the party in the county. The first number made 
its appearance on the 23d of July of that year. 

These two papers were published in opposition to 
each other for about eighteen months. The prosperity 
of the Herald was visibly affected by The Tribune, 
and the editor, in all probability wearied with the 
cares and activity of a lengthy and laborious profes- 
sional service, sold his establishment to Messrs. At- 
kinson and Weddell. These gentlemen were the law 
partners of Mr. McAfee, and in reality they repre- 



THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



285 



sented that gentleman as well as themselves. A 
month after the sale and purchase, or in February, 
1872, the two papers were consolidated, and under 
the style of the 

TRIBUNE AND HERALD 
were published by McAfee, Atkinson, & Weddell. 
Upon the retiring of Mr. Weddell, the paper, then 
the undisputed organ of the Republican party in 
Westmoreland, was, and has been till this time, con- 
ducted by Messrs. McAfee & Atkinson. 

Mr. Shryock, the gentleman who established the 
business prosperity of the Herald, was, as we said, a 
professional printer, a native of Greensburg, and re- 
sided in the town continuously until he accepted the 
position of cashier of the National Bank at Mount. 
Pleasant, Pa., when he moved to the business-place 
of the bank. There he resided until the beginning 
of the current year (1881), when, upon the establish- 
ing of the Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank 
of Greensburg, Pa., he was elected cashier of that 
bank, which position he at present occupies. 

All the papers represented in the Tribune and Herald 
were founded and have been in opposition to the 
Democratic party. They have been successively 
Federal, anti-Masonic, Whig, Know-Nothing, Amer- 
ican, and Republican. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA ARGUS. 

Tlie Pennsylvania Argus, although in a certain aspect 
more modern than the other papers just mentioned 
(which are in a certain sense the representatives of 
the first two newspapers of Westmoreland), yet in 
another aspect it is the oldest paper in the county. 
It still retains the name it was first called, and it has 
now been edited and managed by the same proprietor 
(with the co-operation latterly of his sons) from a 
period dating farther back than the actual existence 
of any other of the papers named. 

The Pennsylvania Argus was established in 1831 by 
Jacob S. Steck and George Rippy. It was Demo- 
cratic in politics, and represented as the disaffected of 
their day " the outs." These had thought that the 
Westmoreland Republican exhibited a disposition to 
domineer over the opinions, and to monopolize the 
patronage of the Democratic party, and thus the 
establishment of the Argus was regarded as a neces- 
sity. 

The Democratic party at that conjuncture was di- 
vided on the question of State politics. George Wolf, 
Democrat, had been elected Governor in 1S29 by a 
very large majority over Joseph Ritner, the Whig and 
anti-Masonic candidate. In 1832, on an increased 
vote, the same candidates running, Wolf was elected 
it is true, but by a very small majority. The friends 
of Wolf determined to prove that he was still popular 
as ever, and that he could be, as Simon Snyder had 
been, elected a third time. But the friends of other 
candidates protesting they were afraid to take so many 
chances against Wolf as the nominee of their party, 
19 



and being in reality opposed to his candidacy, when 
the nominating convention was held the friends of 
one of them, Henry A. Muhlenberg, appeared in such 
numbers and took such a determined stand that a 
bitter quarrel ensued, the Democracy divided, and 
both Muhlenberg and Wolf were nominated, one by 
each wing of the party. The Whigs and anti-Masons 
again nominated Joseph Ritner, whom Wolf had 
twice defeated. The divided Democracy carried on 
the campaign as if there were no other candidates to 
elect or defeat but those of the two factions. They 
denounced the candidates of the opposing faction 
without stint or mercy, and the opposition they waged 
against Ritner was mild compared with the opposition 
they waged against each other. The result was as 
expected. Ritner was elected, not by a majority but 
by a plurality vote. One of the most memorable in- 
cidents of Ritner's administration was the Buckshot 
war. 

In this division of the Democratic party in 1835 
the Argus became the friend, advocate, and supporter 
of Henry A. Muhlenberg. For this reason, long after 
that campaign, and when its asperities were somewhat 
forgotten, the Argus was considered by a majority of 
the party in the county rather heterodox. 

After the death of Mr. Rippy, the Argus was con- 
tinued by Mr. Steck. The establishment becoming 
involved in pecuniary matters owing to a want of ac- 
tive support, it was sold at sheriff's sale about 1839, 
and J. M. Burrell, Esq., afterwards president judge 
of this district, became the purchaser. 

About the middle of the year 1841 the Argus came 
into the hands of Messrs. Joseph Cort and James 
Johnston as editors and proprietors, and Samuel S. 
Torney as printer and publisher. With the number 
for May 26, 1843, Mr. Johnston retired from the edi- 
torial management of the Argus, and the editorial du- 
ties thenceforth devolved on Mr. Cort until July, 1844. 
Mr. Cort then sold his interest to Messrs. S. S. Torney 
(or Turney) and William H. Hacke. The former of 
these gentlemen was lately the postmaster at Greens- 
burg, and the latter is foreman of the Tribune and 
7/rraMoffice. The paper was'earried on by these 
gentlemen as editors and proprietors. 

The old files of the Argus previously to and up to 
this time evidence that the paper was heartily com- 
mitted to the cause of the Democratic party. Some 
of the political articles of the paper which came 
from the pen of Mr. Burrell while he was in control 
were widely circulated, and were met in reply by 
Horace Greeley in the Log Cabin, one of his first news- 
paper ventures in New York. Under the control of 
Messrs. Cort and Johnston the Argus strenuously ad- 
vocated the nomination to the Presidency of Col. 
Richard M.Johnston, — he of Kentucky who had killed 
Tecumseh. The selections for the paper were made 
with taste and singular discretion, and were not re- 
stricted to matter of an exclusive partisan character, 
i for the oration of Daniel Webster at the unveiling of 



28C. 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the Bunker Hill monument, and the remarks of Mr. 
Clay at the close of his career in the Senate, were 
given a place as conspicuous as was any other subject 
matter of general information or instruction. 

In 1849, John M. Laird, Esq., purchased the Argus, 
and since that time it has been under his manage- 
ment. 

Regarding the ancestry or descent, etc., prior to his 
parentage of the venerable John Moore Laird, of 
Greensburg, the oldest printer, publisher, and editor 
(in consecutive years in the craft), reference may be 
had to the biographical sketch elsewhere in this work 
of his brother, the Hon. Harrison Perry Laird. 1 

John M. Laird found in his father a private tutor 
of rare qualifications, and under him and in the com- 
mon schools when open he passed the early years of 
his youth, acquiring a knowledge of geometry and 
surveying, etc., and finally spent some time in a classi- 
cal school at Pittsburgh, and in his seventeenth year 
was taken into the printing-office of his uncle by 
marriage, John M. Snowden, of that place, and who 
established the first paper in Westmoreland County, 
the Register, toward the close of the last century. 
There he learned the printer's trade, and after journey- 
working a while was called to Somerset, Terry Co., 
Ohio, where he conducted a newspaper lor three years. 
He then removed to Steubenville, Jefferson Co., Ohio, 
and became part owner of a paper which he soon 
bought out, and conducted it alone till his own sick- 
ness under fever and ague and the death of his wife 
induced him to return to Pennsylvania in 1831. 
While at Steubenville, Edwin M. Stanton, a " bright, 
active boy, a profitable adjunct of the office," and 
who became the most famous of War Ministers as 
secretary under Lincoln and Johnson, entered Mr. 
Laird's office and learned the printer's trade. Mr.' 
Laird preserves memories of Edwin, which ought to 
be put in permanent form. Soon after returning to 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Laird took part in there-establish- 
ment of the Pennsylvania Argus, with which he has 
since continued, and of which he has long been the 
sole owner; a paper from the beginning Democratic 
in politics, ever maintaining loyalty to the Constitu- 
tion, so markedly, indeed, in the times of the late 
war as to provoke the bitter anathemas of its foes, 
who in their hot zeal at times threatened to demolish 



1 John M. Laird is the latter's oldest brother. Their father and mot tier, 
Rev. Francis Laird, D.D., and Mary Moore, were married in April, 1800, 
and became the parents of eight children, who were born in the order 
of their names following: John Moore Laird (editor ol the Pennsylvania 
Argus, and connected with that paper for fifty-one years), born Sept. S, 
1802 ; William, horn in December, 1803, died in the fall of 18S1 from an 
injury received from a vicious horse; Jam', bom in 1806,and who in- 
termarried with Zachariah Gammell Stewart. M.fb, and died in lsTi); 
Eliza Moore, born 1807, became the wife of James R.Johnson, both dying 
some years ago, leaving two sons, both of whom have since died ; Francis, 
born 1809, and now residing at Saltsburg, Indiana County; Harrison 
Perry Laird, born 1811, a leading lawyer of the Greensburg bar, and 
present State senator; Robert, born 1813, died in Tennessee in 1845; 
Mary Moore, born in 1S15, intermarried with the Rev. Thomas S. 
Leasson, of BrooUville, Jefferson Co , Pa, 



the office in which it was published and kill the editor 
himself. But while papers or presses less pronounced 
in their devotion to the Constitution were suppressed, 
Mr. Laird's paper remained active, fulminating when 
and what it would ; and here the chronicler discovers 
an instance of that peculiar concatenation of things 
which are not always visible to first sight. The 
printer's apprentice at Steubenville was then but the 
" makings of the man," who in the times of which 
we were just speaking wielded the military forces of 
the land, and stretched out the arms of the govern- 
ment's protection over whom he would, and he had 
not forgotten his dear old printer-master, the man 
who did much to encourage Edwin into a practical 
career in his young days, and who was his and his 
father's warm friend. 

A peculiar characteristic of Mr. Laird's business 
sense of propriety, his love of independence in politi- 
cal action, as well as moral discrimination between 
his duties to creditors and the public, demands notice 
here, and is evinced in the tact that whenever, espec- 
ially in early days, he needed to borrow money to carry 
on his paper, he always sought persons of the oppos- 
ing political party as leaders, in order that he might 
the better preserve the independence of the leaders 
of the party which he favored, and which might come 
to think, if its members supplied the " munitions" of 
his arsenal, that it owned its ordnance, his press, and 
so had a right to dictate the character of his paper. 

For forty years of his life Mr. Laird held the office 
of justice of the peace, and in the exercise of his 
magisterial functions was noted for his good offices 
towards the peaceful adjustment of the contentions 
which he was called upon to consider. He has also 
held the offices of coroner and of register and recorder. 

Jan. 1'2, 1830, Mr. Laird married Ellen Marton, of 
Cadiz, Ohio, who died Aug. 19, 1831, leaving a 
daughter, Ellen M. Laird, still living, and the wife 
of G. W. Hanney, of Franklin township, Westmore- 
land Co. 

Sept. 8, 1835, he married Rebecca Moore. She died 
July 5, 1874, leaving three sons and one daughter] 
His son William died Nov. 29, 1876, aged thirty-one 
years. His surviving sons, James Moore Laird and 
Francis Van Buren Laird, have the chief manage- 
ment of the Argus newspaper and job-office, the politi- 
cal character of the Argus being under the exclusive 
control of the proprietor. 

FRANK COWAN'S PAPER. 

This journal was founded by Dr. Frank Cowan, who 
issued his first number May 22, 1872, in folio form] 
size of sheet being twenty-eight by forty-two inches. 

It was devoted to the material interests of South- 
western Pennsylvania, — coal, coke, iron, oil, railroads] 
manufactories, etc. 

With the completion of the first year of the paper's 
existence the form was changed from a four-page to 
an eight-page paper, the size of sheet remaining the 



THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



287 



same. In October, 1873, during the Westmoreland 
County Fair, Frank Cowan's Daily was published for 
four days in connection with the weekly. The daily 
was the same size as the weekly, and netted the pub- 
lisher, in the brief period of its being, four hundred 
dollars. 

In the spring of 1874 the publication of the paper 
was transferred to Pittsburgh, the printing-office re- 
maining in Greensburg. At the same time an agency 
was opened in Loudon, England, at the office of The 
Monetary and Mining Gazette. The scope of the 
paper was further increased by the publication. by the 
editor and proprietor of a Christmas story called 
" Zomara, a Romance of Spain," and a " Map of 
Southwestern Pennsylvania," size twenty-eight by 
thirty-three inches, printed in three colors, illustrating 
the coal, iron, coke, railroads, rivers, and towns of an 
arc about one hundred and twenty miles in diameter, 
with Greensburg in the centre. 

In the spring of 1875 the form of the paper was 
changed from an eight- to a sixteen-page, the size of 
sheet remaining the same, and in August of the same 
year its publication was concluded on account of the 
broken health of Mr. Cowan. 

The paper was a marvel for the time for neatness of 
appearance, typographical distinction, and fine selec- 
tions. Much more original matter appeared in its 
columns than was customary to be seen in county 
papers, and the selections were all made with great 
care, judgment, and labor. Even the advertisements 
gave evidence of scrutiny and a regard for harmony. 

The first number opened with an original article, 
contributed by the Hon. Edgar Cowan, on " Woman : 
her rights, her wrongs, and her remedies." It was a 
learned and an exhaustive exposition of the legal 
status of married women under the laws of Pennsyl- 
vania, as well as a treatise on the social and domestic 
relations of women in general in the economy of the 
day. 

In size Fran!; Cowan's Paper was as large as any of 
the other papers of Greensburg. There was no end 
to the devices and the ingenuity of the editor. The 
second form of this paper, whicli was an eight-page, 
was so arranged that each of the sides of the press- 
work showed for an outside page and opened on edi- 
torial matter. 

The title-head of his daily was noted for its singu- 
larity, being an enlarged fac-simile of his own hand- 
writing, having the' appearance " as if it had been 
put on with a split brush and tar." 

The motto of his paper was " To come home to 
men's business and bosoms," a quotation from Bacon. 

In the fall of 1875 the printing-office was sold by 
Mr. Cowan to a company styled " The Democratic 
Times Company," composed of Edward J. Keenan, 
Frank Vogel, William P. Fisher, and Ulam Rohrer, 
for three thousand dollars, who began the publication 
in the office of the Paper of The Democratic Times. 
This paper was continued for a little more than a 



year, when, the company failing to make their second 
and third payments, the office passed back into the 
hands of Mr. Cowan, and the Tiuu :i was discontinued. 

In the winter of 1878, the Argus office being de- 
stroyed by fire, the Argus was printed for several 
weeks in the office of the Paper, with the material of 
the same. 

In the summer of 1878, Dr. Cowan opened a job- 
office and published a duodecimo volume of four 
hundred and twenty-four pages entitled "Southwest- 
ern Pennsylvania in Song and Story." 

In September, 1878, Mr. Cowan sold the office to 
Messrs. John T. Fulton, John Rugh, George W. Rum- 
baugh, William Armbrust, and F. L. Armbrust for 
two thousand dollars, who soon after established The 
National Issue as the organ of the Greenback party, 
under the management of F. L. Armbrust, Esq. 

Under that arrangement Mr. Armbrust continued 
the publication of The National Issue under its various 
sizes until July 1, 1880, when C. A. Light, Esq., and 
Mr. L. F. Armbrust published it during the Presi- 
dential campaign. On the 17th of November it was 
sold to a co-operative company, and the Rev. Uriel 
Graves was appointed editor, and C. A. Light, Esq., 
local editor. By these gentlemen the Issue was con- 
ducted until April 1, 1881. It then fell into the hands 
of John T. Fulton and Rev. Graves, who continued 
the same employes, and who commenced the publica- 
tion of The Daiiy Evening News in connection with 
The Weekly National Issue. The News was an inde- 
pendent paper, while the National Issue was the organ 
of the Greenback party. The Issue was an eight-page 
paper, and the News a four-page five-column paper. 

In May, 1881, the owners of the National Issue sold 
it with all rights and privileges and a subscription- 
list of about eight hundred to Messrs. J. H. Ryck- 
man and J. B. Laux, who at once changed its name 
and political character. It is now known as The 
Greensburg Press, a weekly Republican paper, and 
The Evening Press, a daily independent journal. The 
first number of The Evening Press was issued May 18th, 
and the first number of the weekly June 6, 1881. 

Under the able editorship of James B. Laux, Esq., 
the Press soon became known as a brilliant exponent 
of Republican doctrines as well as a journal of a high 
standard of excellence in its literary and scientific 
departments. It took high rank at once, and has grown 
in favor and influence ever since. 

The partnership existing between the publishers, 
covering a period of a little more than three months, 
was ended September 1st, when Hilary J. Brunot, 
Esq., purchased the interest of Mr. Ryckman. 

Since that time he has become sole owner, and 
under the management of Mr. Laux, as editor and 
manager, the circulation of the paper has wonderfully 
increased. 

The Evening Press he has also made a success, de- 
monstrating to those who prophesied its failure that 
his faith was well founded. It is the only daily pub- 



288 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



lished in the county, and the only one published in 
the congressional district composed of Greene, Fay- 
ette, and Westmoreland Counties. 

On Sunday, July 3, 1881, the day following the 
tragic shooting of President Garfield, a Sunday edi- 
tion was issued, the first Sunday paper ever issued in 
Westmoreland County. By this enterprise the people 
of surrounding towns received full particulars of that 
sad event without being compelled to wait for the 
Monday papers. The papers sold readily at twenty- 
five cents apiece in some places, in one instance a 
dollar being offered for a copy. 

Both the daily and weekly have had surprising suc- 
cess, enjoying the confidence of a large and influential 
class of citizens by reason of their judicious treatment 
of public questions. 

Mr. Laux is a staunch disciple of Alexander Ham- 
ilton, believing with his whole soul in the principle 
of nationality as opposed to State sovereignty. The 
motto he has given the Press shows the tenor of 
his political belief, "The Nation: first, foremost, and 
always." 

The following extract from his "greeting" in the 
first number of the Press will show more strongly his 
political ideas: 

" It will do its utmost to develop the growth of a 
strong feeling for nationality among the people, be- 
lieving it to be the only true way of finally uniting 
all sections of the country as one people. It will ad- 
vocate uniform laws for the whole nation, making 
crime as disreputable and punishable in one State as 
it is in another. It will advocate a code of laws 
whereby the ends of justice cannot be evaded or de- 
layed by the technicalities of different State laws." 

GERMAN NEWSPAPERS. 

At one time there were two newspapers published 
in the German language in Greensburg. One was 
published by Frederick A. Cope, along about 1828, 
in connection with the Gazettr. This was subse- 
quently published by John Armbrust. It was called 
in German The Star of I In- West. It was subsequently 
removed to Adamsburg, whereat its publication was 
continued for some time. The other one was pub- 
lished by Jacob S. Steck, in connection with the 
Argus, but it existed but for a short time, and during 
that time its circulation was limited. 

In 18ti2 a paper called the Westmoreland News was 
started in Greensburg by John B. Crooks. In politics 
it was Republican, and although it was edited with 
considerable ability, was handsomely printed, and 
bore a neat typographical appearance, yet the next 
year, 1863, its publication was discontinued for want 
of support. The subscription-list was sold to the 
Herald, and the materials to James F. Campbell, who 
removed them to Johnstown, and with them there 
established the Johnstown Democrat. 

So much of the papers of the county town, and 
now let us go into the " provinces." 



THE LIGONIER FREE PRESS, 
edited and published by Mr. S. A. Armour, was estab- 
lished about the 1st of June, 1845, at Ligonier. It 
was neutral in politics, and " devoted to literature, 
morality, agriculture, news, finances, miscellany," and 
several other things. The Press, however, had not 
been long diffusing light and knowledge until it began 
to show a preference for the Democratic party. In 
the beginning of the year 1854 it openly forsook its 
so-called independent course, and henceforward sailed 
under Democratic colors. The editor in announcing 
to the public the future course of the paper on politi- 
cal subjects says that the increased number of his 
subscribers and their political preferences had mostly 
urged him to this course. But he gave additional 
reasons why he should make his paper a party paper. 
It then supported William Bigler forthegovernorship. 
This was the beginning of the ninth year of the Press. 
With the number for the 10th of January, 1854, the 
Free Press on that day took the name of The Valley 
Democrat, and was issued every two weeks. 

The paper varied in size, capability, and evidences 
of judicious supervision with the varying career and 
fanciful tastes of its eccentric editor. Complete files 
of the paper must be rare. We do not know if any 
exists. At one time the project promised much, but 
time at last told upon it; and owing to the irregularity 
of its appearance, and the lack of sufficient support 
at the hands of a generation whose attention was 
diverted by the deeeitfulness of riches and the cares 
of the world, the Valley Democrat for a long time lan- 
guished, and languishing did die. Mr. Armour was 
compelled more than once, that the paper of his 
choice — the child of his invention — should live, to 
walk to Pittsburgh and carry his paper on his back to 
Ligonier. He was a great walker, and could walk 
with ease the distance, which was fifty miles, in one 
day, and return the next. 

Of those numbers of the Press and Valley Democrat 
which we have seen, the first number of the Democrat 
will serve as a sample of the rest. This is Vol. I X., 
No. 1, dated Ligonier, Penna., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 
1854, S. A. Armour, editor and proprietor. Terms, 
one dollar per year. The paper has six columns to a 
page, and each page is about eighteen by fourteen 
inches. The matter throughout is widely spaced, but 
the letter-press is legible and the paper not bad. The 
caption of the first column is " Fearful End of a Rum 
Drinker." The next column has at its head the wood- 
cut of a sailing steamship, as formerly the other papers 
had one of a newsboy riding at a gallop, and under- 
neath the ship, in heavy broad letters, "Highly Im- 
portant from Russia & Turkey," which two nations 
were at that time at war. In this column the glad 
news was brought to the housed-up inhabitants of the 
Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill that " an insurrec- 
tion had broken out in Nickchivan; that Prince Wo- 
ronzotf, the Russian commander, had been surrounded 
at Tirlis; that Schanyl, the Circassian leader, and 



THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



2S9 



Selim Pasha were gradually approaching each other; 
and that Admiral Machinoff had (literally) 'got the 
bulge' on Vice-Admiral Osman Bey." A great deal 
of such stuff was scattered throughout the whole 
paper. Probably one-third was taken up with adver- 
tisements; of local items there were few, of editorial 
comments scarcely any. Under the column for 
"Poetry" was that fine ballad, so illustrative of the 
Western border annals, called " The Arkansas Gen- 
tleman, Close to the Choctaw Line," which filled a 
column and a quarter ; while in another number ap- 
peared that other equally fine and pathetic ballad of 
" Joe Bowers." 

From these selections you may get an appropriate 
idea of the facetiousness and of the humorous charac- 
teristics of the editor. But the papers were no doubt 
at one time treasured among the penates of many a 
household. For if the paper had, as all such papers 
have, an interest, this interest was for the locality in 
which it circulated. Although its local news was 
meagre, it was always of a "startling" character, and 
worthy to be remembered. It contained the records 
of the births and deaths as they occurred in the Valley, 
touching observations on deceased friends, and much 
other local information, which if collected and ar- 
ranged might at this day be of a very satisfactory 
kind. The most valuable of the contributions to Mr. 
Armour's publications which we can recall are some 
relating to the early times about Fort Ligonier, and 
personal recollections and narrations of some of the old 
inhabitants bearing upon the Indian wars, which in 
early times reached the Valley. So too might items 
relative to the industrial and productive interests be 
gathered which might possibly be useful. In a num- 
ber printed during the winter of 1854 it is said that 
the furnaces of the Valley were doing an "immense 
business that season." 

MOUNT PLEASANT PAPERS. 
There has always been an interest manifested in 
Mount Pleasant in newspaper literature. Some of 
the ventures, it is true, have not been successful. In 
the early part of 1843, Norval Wilson Truxal was 
editor and proprietor of the Literary Gazette. He had 
been a former publisher of the Freeport Columbian. 
In April, 1843, The Democratic Courier began its ex- 
istence, with Mr. Truxal as editor, and D. H. H. 
Wakefield as assistant editor. The paper advocated 
Democratic principles, and had for its motto, " Mean- 
«fs, it<>t nun." Mr. Truxal got knocked off his feet 
somehow, but afterwards got up again, and in 1846- 
47 established The Ranchero, at Third and Market 
Streets, Pittsburgh; but the Courier had ceased to 
gladden the hearts of its former patrons. 1 

LATROBE PAPERS. 
The Latrobe Inquirer, W. R. Boyers and J. G. W. 
Yeater publishers, was first issued in March, 1861. 

1 Srf history of Mount Pleasant borough in this work. 



It was a six-column, four-page paper, and contained 
considerable local news. It was abaci time, however, 
to start a newspaper, — just at the beginning of the 
war. It did not long continue in existence. 

The Lnt robe Advance was established by C. B. Fink 
and F. A. Benford, and its first issue appeared Aug. 
6, 1873. Mr. Benford retired from the copartnership 
September 30th same year, since when Mr. Fink has 
continued the publication alone. The Advance is in- 
dependent in all things and neutral in nothing. It is 
devoted largely to the interests of Latrobe and vi- 
cinity, and to general and local news. It is an eight- 
column sheet, makes a neat appearance, and is ably 
edited. 

The Reveille is the name of a paper established 
Feb. 1, 1882, by C. T. Athearn. It is published semi- 
monthly, and is a four-page sheet of three columns 
each. It is largely devoted to the interests of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and is fast winning its 
way into popular favor. 

IRWIN PAPERS. 

The Tririn Spray was the first journal ever started 
in Irwin, and was founded by B. M. Mc Williams, who 
issued its first number Aug. 20, 1875. It was a four- 
page sheet of twenty-four columns, devoted to the 
interests of the borough. Its office was on Third, 
south of Main Street. Its publication was continued 
nearly three weeks, when the office was burned, and 
the paper was never revived. It was a neat paper in 
typographical appearance and well edited. It was 
published every Friday, and had attained a respect- 
able circulation and patronage. 

The Irwin Chronicle is the second newspaper ever 
established in the town, and was founded by W. H. 
Johnston, who issued its first number April 15, 1881. 
Its motto is, " A chiel's amang ye takin' notes, an' 
faith he'll prent it." It is a four-page sheet of twenty- 
four columns, and is independent in sentiment and 
tone. It is largely devoted to local news, and espec- 
ially to home interests. It is well edited, and re- 
ceives a large advertising patronage from the business 
men of the place. It is printed every Saturday at 
one dollar per year. Mr. Johnston is sole editor, pub- 
lisher, and proprietor. 

•WEST NEWTON PAPERS. 

The first newspaper published in West Newton 
Town was The Weekly Cycle, established by O. H. Har- 
rison, who issued its first number June 20, 1855. Its 
publication was continued about a year. It was a 
four-page sheet of twenty-eight columns, and was de- 
voted to agriculture, home interests, news of the day, 
and general miscellany, and was independent, but not 
neutral. It was published every Thursday morning, 
and had its printing-office on Main Street, opposite 
A. Lowry's hotel. Its terms were $1.50 per annum 
in advance, or $2 at the end of the year. It had a fair 
share of home advertising, with considerable from the 



290 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pittsburgh merchants, still its support was not ade- 
quate to the outlay of its publisher, who discontinued 
it. 

The West Newton Press was established Nov. 28, 
1878, by E. C. Hough and W. L. Rankin. At the 
end of three months Mr. Hough bought out his part- 
ner, and from that time to the present has been its 
sole proprietor, publisher, and editor. At first it was 
ten by fourteen inches in size, but six months after its 
establishment Mr. Hough enlarged it to its present 
dimensions, twentj'-six by forty. It is a four-page 
sheet of thirty-two columns. Its motto is, "The 
Press, the people's paper, independent in all things, 
neutral in nothing." It is published every Thurs- 
day morning at its well-equipped office on First 
Street, near the railroad station. It is an ably-edited 
journal, and especially devoted to home and local 
news and interests. It has a large circulation, and 
its columns are well patronized by the best business 
advertisers of the town and valley. Mr. Hough, its 
editor, was born and raised here, and is largely iden- 
tified with the best interests of the community, to the 
moral, social, intellectual, and business tone of which 
his journal has greatly contributed. 

SCOTTDALE PAPERS. 

The Scottdale Tribune is a neat four-page paper of 
twenty-four columns, established Dec. 22, 1880, by its 
present editors and publishers, I. M. Newcomer & Co. 
It is published every Thursday, is devoted to local 
news and interests of the town, and has a circulation 
of some eight hundred. It is an independent sheet, 
and is edited with ability. 

The ^fi/ier's Record is a twenty-four-column news- 
paper, published on Wednesdays, with A. O. Wel- 
shan and J. R. Byrne as editors. It is a consolida- 
tion of the Brownsville Labor Advocate and the 
Miner's Semi- Weekly Record. Its office is in Campbell 
Block. It is the official organ of the miners and 
coke-drawers of the " Connellsville coke region," 
and is published exclusively in their interests. It 
was established June 1, 1881, as a one-page sheet of 
eight columns, has been five times enlarged, and is 
now on the point of still greater enlargement. It has 
twelve hundred subscribers, and is devoted to the in- 
terests of the " Knights of Labor." One of its editors, 
J. R. Byrne, is secretary for this region, under D. R. 
Jones, head secretary, of Pittsburgh. 

ODDITIES. 
In the number of the Gazette for March 25, 1825, 
there was a wood-cut representing a locomotive and 
three truck-cars laden with coal. There is a lengthy 
article taken from the Baltimore American, which 
filled three columns of the papers, which was a de- 
scription of the new motive-power, then but recently 
utilized in this method in England. But, oh! such a 
locomotive, and such cars ! Above the wood-cut was 
the following: "A Section of a Rail Road, with a 



view of a Locomotive Steam Ehgine, having in 
tow three transportation wagons. Upon the railroad, 
fifty tons may be conveyed by a ten-horse power at 
the rate of 12 or 14 miles per hour." 

The following appeared in the editorial column, 
referring to the subject : 

" We have prepared and placed on the first page 
of our paper an engraving representing a loco-motive 
steam engine, having in tow three transportation 
wagons, accompanied by an explanation from another 
paper. We are indebted to the United States Gazette 
for a copy of the plate. It would be impossible, 
we think, considering the kind of country through 
which our road passes, to bring the steam wagon 
into successful operation between the east and west. 
It requires too many stationary engines to propel 
the wagons over our numerous hills. It would be 
necessary to have half a dozen in sight of this town, 
for we are situated on a hill, and surrounded by 
them on all sides." 

In the latter part of 1861 and 1862 the county 
papers generally issued a half-sheet. They were led 
to this from the scarcity of printers and of printing 
paper of the proper size. For the time it was also 
noticeable that the advertising patronage fell off. In 
instances where these half-sheets were issued the type 
was generally reduced ,in size, so that very nearly as 
much news was furnished then as befere. Then it 
became common for the paper to be issued in half- 
sheets and sent twice a week. The demand for news 
was at the highest possible point, and as the county 
newspapers then printed letters from the volunteers in 
camp, and were particular in giving the casualties of 
the Westmoreland soldiers, all the papers, when the 
flurry of the first excitement was over, saw them- 
selves with larger lists of paying subscribers, and a 
growing trade in advertising which far exceeded 
anything in the past experience of newspaper men 
here. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Near every change in the management of these 
papers was, in regard to the mechanical or composi- 
tion part, to the advantage of the public. The papers 
grew in size as they grew older. With such editors 
as Wise and Cope, Burrell and Fleeson, Stokes and 
Armstrong, men of known ability and ardent poli- 
ticians, and with such contributors as Judges Coulter 
and Young, Drs. Posthlethwaite and King, Revs. 
James I. Brownson and J. A. Stillinger, lawyers as 
A. G. Marchand and A. W. Foster, litterateurs as 
James Johnston and William A. Stokes, the old files 
of these papers cannot but be interesting and instruc- 
tive. As a class, the professional men of the old 
school cultivated the art of expression beyond those 
of a later day. The reason is obvious : their profes- 
sional duties were not so laborious, there was a 
method of reaching the ears and attracting the notice 
of the people not practiced now, and, lastly, journal- 



THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. 



291 



ism has since their day become a profession of itself. 
Within the time we have marked, several noted dis- 
cussions on political, on religious, and on scientific 
subjects were carried on in elegant and forcible lan- 
guage, in which the knowledge of the moderns was 
embellished and adorned by quotations and illustra- 
tions from the poetry and philosophy of the ancients. 
Besides those articles, which were valuable contribu- 
tions to the current literature, and which, to an ex- 
tent, invited scientific research, the papers of that 
date contained the effusion of those sentimental crea- 
tures, who, " sighing o'er Delphi's long-deserted 
shrine," prowl and howl around the outskirts of Hel- 
icon and Parnassus. These enriched the lyrical de- 
partment of belles-lettres with acrostics spelt out on 
their fingers, with political songs set to the air of the 
" Camptown Races," with monodies after the style of 
Macpherson's "Ossian," and with odes (in the Huckle- 
berry Hills after the favorite metres in Tom Moore's 
melodies. 

A close reader who compares the original produc- 
tions, particularly the essays on scientific and politi- 
cal subjects, and the finer productions in biography, 
history, and poetry, will conclude that in relative 
merit the common newspapers of to-day will suffer 
by the comparison. The present generation has read 
nothing like the political controversy between Coul- 
ter and Postlethwaite, in which the measures of 
Quincy Adams' administration were discussed ; the sci- 
entific and historical debates between Dr. King and 
Rev. Stillinger ; or the various brochures of Coulter, 
or the poetry of Edward Johnston. 

Some of the poems which appeared in the olden 
papers, whose authors are unknown, are indeed gems, 
and deserve a better fate than they met. Violets they 
were that wasted their sweetness on the desert air. 
One poem which we recall, but cannot give, in which 
the verses ran as freely as in any of Shelley's, was 
headed, "Lines written on the presentation of Wash- 
ington's sword and Franklin's staff." Another one, 
called " My Father's House," had an ease and grace 
of diction not unworthy of Addison. The following 
little waif appeared in the Pennsylvania Argus of 
Feb. 26, 1846 : 

" For the Pennsylvania Argils. 

" FRIENDSHIP. 

" BY S. B. M. 

" Friendship, thou dost not seek splendor, 

Princely domes allure not thee ; 
Mitred heads would oft surrender 

Every gem to purchase thee. 
Kindly thou dost seek the lowly, 

And around the cottage fire, 
Zest all pure and love all holy 

In each heart thou dost inspire. 
Lest thy presence ever cheer me, 

Even now I woo thy form, 
Surely thou wilt deign to hear me, 

Surely thou wilt ever charm. 
Insolence must bow before thee, 

Blighty in Ihy magic spell ; 
01 be mine, I now implore thee, 

Till I bid the world farewell." 



LITERATURE. 

Closely affined to the newspaper history is the liter- 
ature which in a strict sense belongs to the county. 

In 1878 there was published at Greensburg a book 
from the pen of Dr. Frank Cowan, in which an at- 
tempt was made to embody in verse the salient fea- 
tures and prominent characters of the history of 
Southwestern Pennsylvania, in a setting of similes, 
figures, and formulas in keeping with the mountains 
and rivers, the plants and animals, and the climatic 
peculiarities of the country. Its title, " Southwestern 
Pennsylvania in Song and Story," inadequately gives 
an idea of its scope. Suffice it here that it involves 
in an ideal form a great part of the history of West- 
moreland County, and as such has entered into the 
general history of the county in a way that, in part 
at least, it must be incorporated in this book, and as 
a whole commended to the reader who has an appre- 
ciation for the poetic and romantic of history. 

The contents of the volume are arranged under six 
heads, — " Prehistoric," " Under the Crown of France, 
1679-1758," "Under the Crown of Great Britain, 
1758-1776," " Under the Flag of the United States, 
1776-1878," "Miscellaneous," and "Evolution." 

In the first group is found one of the most graphic 
of the narrative ballads of Mr. Cowan's, a philosophic 
poem, entitled "The Last of the Mammoths," in 
which the victory of man over the greatest of his 
four-footed rivals, and of mind over matter, is de- 
picted in a very ingenious and artistic manner. The 
scene is laid along the route followed by Gen. Forbes 
and Col. Bouquet from Hannastown westward, and 
the termination of the conflict occurs on the ice at 
the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela 
Rivers, where, in 1S75, two teeth and several large 
bones of the skeleton of a mammoth were discovered 
by a dredger. In the concluding stanzas the former 
river is made to typify man, and the latter woman, 
and the Ohio (which according to Mr. Cowan signi- 
fies the bloody, or the river of blood) the stream of 
life, while the mammoth is metamorphosed into the 
aggregate of the organic life of the past ages of the 
world, as follows : 

" A Mammoth's tooth, off the Pittsburgh Point, 
In the eddying, swirling flood, 
Where the two waters meet and embracing greet, 
As one in the River of Blood — 

" Like Mau, the river that rolls from the North, 
From a head with an icy mouth; 
Like Woman, the flood with the warmth of her blood 
That comes from a heart in the South — 

" Where the two rivers meet, and like man and wife greet, 
In the flood from the East to the West, 
That flows on forever to the Gulf of the Giver, 
And the Sea of Eternal Best. 

" While in their bed are laid the dead, 
Of the first and of the last, 
Who have swelled the flood of the River of Blood, 
In the Mammoth of the Past!" 

In the second group we have " The Myth of Brad- 
dock's Gold," a ballad in which a ghastly scene is 



292 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



presented to the imagination, impressing on the reader 
an idea of the retribution for greed and crime with a 
shudder. The foundation for the story is the fact that 
Braddock on the day of his disastrous defeat had 
twenty-five thousand pounds in specie in his military 
chest, and from that day to this nothing authentic 
has come to light with respect to the large sum of 
money, although there is scarcely a mile of Brad- 
dock's road that has not been broken with the mat- 
tock at midnight to discover it. In the ballad, how- 
ever, the possible but most improbable treasure is 
supposed to have been found by two brothers, the 
only survivors of a family who for three generations 
had been engaged in the impoverishing and debasing 
search. 

The second needs no introduction, being entitled 
" St. Clair," but it is worthy of note that, in admira- 
tion of the character of the brave old soldier, and in 
commemoration' of his deeds, Mr. Cowan dedicated 
his book in the following striking summary, " To the 
memory of Arthur St. Clair, by whose life South- 
western Pennsylvania has been associated with Scot- 
land, England, and France, the savages of America, 
the filibusters of Virginia, the formation of local, 
State, and national governments, and the great men 
of America for half a century, and by whose death 
Southwestern Pennsylvania will be associated with 
the ingratitude of republics forever." 

From the fifth group, or "Miscellaneous," we select 
the stirring song which has become a part of the 
popular literature of the county, and given a familiar 
epithet to the river far and wide. 

"THE DARE-DEVIL TOUGH. 
" Where the bluff Aileghenies rise rugged and rough, 

And fetters and bars tor a continent forge, 
There dashes defiant the dare-devil Yough, 

Through rocky ravine, deep dell, and grim gorge. 
Xo this river I drink ; for akin to my blood 

Is its torrent so bold, and so buoyant ami free ; 
Braving bowlder and crag with impetuous flood, 

As onward resistless it rolls to the sea! 

"And here's to the man with a will like the Yough, — 

A will that would wield as a weapon the world, 
Daring all, and defying even Death with a scoff, 

When over the brink of decision he's hurled ! 
"l'is tlic man that I love, the bold and the brave, 

Converging his might to the channel of aim ; 
From tin- mountain of life to the gulf of the grave, 

Rolling on like the Yough to the ocean of Fame ! 

" And here's to the woman atlood with the tide 

That bursts from the mountain-height's fountain of love, 
On wdiose billow the barks of futurity glide 

Until anchored in bliss in Eternity's cove! 
"l'is the woman 1 love; alel the flee bounding wave 

That breaks in the course ,,f mv not) throbbing blood 
Is the might of the love in return that she gave, — 

A might that's akin to t lie Yough's rushing flood !" 

Supplemental to this book, entitled "Southwestern 
Pennsylvania in Song and Story," Mr. Cowan, in 
1881, published another work called "An American 
Story-Bonk," short stories from studies of life in 
Southwestern Pennsylvania, pathetic, tragic, humor- 



ous, and grotesque. As stated in the preface, how- 
ever, the book was written before the publication of 
the volume of- poems. It contains twenty-four stories, 
the scenes of most of which are laid in Westmore- 
land. In "The Old Man of Beulah" the phenomena 
oi mid-winter on the summit of the Allegheny Moun- 
tains are personified, the moaning of the wind becom- 
ing his voice, the drifting snow his long white beard, 
and the shadows of the hemlocks his great gray cloak ; 
the widow of Llewellyn Lloyd standing in the same 
relation to the sights and sounds around her as Peggy 
in the " Tale of Tom the Tinker's Time" to the dis- 
tressing incidents of the Whiskey Insurrection. In 
" The Coal King" the mining of coal on the Monon- 
gahela River is wrought into a romance of the mock- 
eries of life. In "The Railroad" a feud of Ireland 
is laid in the grave of America as the result of the 
battle between the Fardownians and Corkonians at 
Hillside during the construction of the road-bed of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. In "The Grist-Mill" 
the old mill at the falls of Jacobs Creek is recon- 
structed and peopled anew with the bashful, burly 
miller, Ebeuezer Mix, and the rosy, rollicking, royal 
Widow Garvey, in a most provoking plight to them- 
selves, but quite the reverse to all others. In " The 
Pack-saddle Gap" the profile of the human face that 
appears in the outlines of the rocks on the mountain- 
side is invested with the stern significance of the 
features of Fate cut in the living rock. In " The 
Fiddle-faced Hog" the humors of the early settlers 
are depicted in a facetious trial about a monstrous hog 
before a trio of arbitrators of the most extraordinary 
proportions. In " The White Deer" the effect of su- 
perstition is illustrated in the fate of twin brothers, one 
of whom by chance kills an albino fawn while hunt- 
ing on the mountain. In " The Steamboat" a pecu- 
liarity of the river service is personified in Capt. 
Godfrey Gildenfenny, who gets his just deserts in 
falling into the clutches of a fully-developed and ac- 
complished old maid, Miss Arabella Guilk. In " The 
Devil in a Coal-Bank" a number of curious incidents 
and episodes are dove-tailed into a story, the moral of 
which is that there is a just punishment for every 
crime committed against the laws of man and God. 
In " The Oil Derrick" the ups and downs of the 
operator in oil are described in two laconic worthies 
who are alternately princes and paupers. In "The 
Ridger" the peculiarities of the inhabitants of the 
several ridges of Westmoreland and adjacent counties 
are set forth in a humorous manner in the dialect pe- 
culiar to the region of rocks and rattlesnakes in which 
the people referred to live, and among whom the au- 
thor declares himself to be the chief, by birth and 
habitation at least, in addition to his being their ex- 
pression in the art of the story-teller. In "The Erd- 
spiegel" the story of two lost children on one of the 
ridges of the Laurel Hill is graphically and very pa- 
thetically told. In "The Towscape" the old super- 
stition of the caul is made the foundation of a curious 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



293 



tale, in which the credulity and timidity of the Ridger 
is made the background to reveal the mysterious ter- 
rors of the life and death of the unknown murderer. 
In "The Log Cahin" the innocence and purity, the 
health and happiness of the humble cabin on the 
Ridge are put in contrast with the vice and crime, 
disease and death of the gilded saloons of sin in the 
towns and cities. In "Yony Waffle" a humorous 
personification is made of the idea of art evolving 
from accident, our hero becoming in his adventures 
and achievements the embodiment and expression of 
a thousand oddities. In " The Road Wagon" the trials 
of the German immigrants in the olden time are re- 
lated, the sad fate of Gretchen and the sympathetic 
Hans being touching in the extreme. In " The Printer 
Tramp" a worthy with whom the author in his ca- 
pacity as an editor doubtless became personally ac- 
quainted is introduced in a dual state to the reader, 
at the same time on earth and in heaven. In "The 
Coke-Oven" the dark side of the negro's character 
in superstition and crime is revealed to the reader in 
a very curious story. In " The Red Squirrels" a 
parable is told in illustration of the effect of greed 
and selfishness when time at last sets all things even. 
In "The Cow Doctor" the relationships between man 
and the ox in Southwestern Pennsylvania are sum- 
marized in a humorous account of the adventures of 
Jackson Rummell. In "The Blaze and the Block" 
a very curious story is told, involving the craft of the 
old-time surveyor in the backwoods and the use made 
of it in a court of justice. In " The Bully Boy with 
the Glass Eye" the mother-in-law of popular face- 
tiousness deservedly comes to a tragical end. In " Old 
Helgimite," one of the most highly wrought and ar- 
tistic of the characteristic creations of our author, 
the writer is revealed in a measure himself in the im- 
aginative and voluble Dr. Ott, who, as he is described 
to be, "if he was exceptional in one thing and extra- 
ordinary in another, it was in his ability to idealize 
luxuriantly and express his thoughts exuberantly," 
while in " The Proof-Reader," the last of the series, 
the shortcomings of him who should be infallible 
in the eyes of an author are recounted in a humor- 
ously malignant manner, the description of the 
"Proof-Reader," "in feature, form, and function," 
being remarkable as a specimen of the grotesque in 
the literature of American humorists. 

Dr. Cowan has published also a collection of ballads, 
poems, and songs pertaining to the "Little World," 
which he has made in a measure his own in literature 
as an appendix to his " Southwestern Pennsylvania in 
Song and Story," entitled " The Battle Ballads and 
Other Poems of Southwestern Pennsylvania." This 
collection includes the curious " Description of Penn- 
sylvania" in 1692, by Richard Frame, the rare bal- 
lad of Crawford's defeat, several poems on the de- 
feat of St. Clair, and poems by David Bruce, H. H. 
Brackenridge, Sally Hastings, Samuel Little, A. F. 
Hill, John Greiner, and William O. Butler. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 

Provincial Courts— The County Justices — Distinction of President Judge 
— William Crawford, First Presiding Judge— Judge John Moore— In- 
crease in Legal Business — Difference in Practice — First Regular At- 
torneys— Characteristics of the Early Practice— Jndge H. H. Brack- 
enridge— James Ross— John Woods — Steel Sempll — Henry Baldwin 
and William Wilkins— Legal Ability of the Early Bar— The Bench— 
Judge Addison— Old Judicial Forms, etc.— Judge John Young — Judge 
Thomas White— Judge J. M. Burrell— Judge J. C. Knox — Judge Joseph 
Burlington— Judge James A. Logan — Judge James A. Hunter— John 
Dyers Alexander— Alexander William Foster— The Hanging of Evans 
—James Findlay— Richard Coulter— John F. Beaver— Albert G. Mat- 
chiind — Henry D. Foster— A. A. Stewart— H. C. Marchand— Joseph H. 
Euhns— James C. Clarke— John Latta— ltoll of Attorneys. 

PROVINCIAL COURTS. 

The judicial system of Pennsylvania, to quote the 
language of a forcible and accurate writer, Mr. Henry 
Cabot Lodge, 1 was above the colonial standard, both 
as regards bench and bar. The early Quaker scheme 
of peace-makers to act as arbitrators and prevent law- 
suits seems to have met with little success, and at the 
time of the Revolution there was an adequate and 
efficient organization for the administration of the 
common law, which prevailed in Pennsylvania as 
elsewhere, except when modified by statutes, imperial 
or provincial. All judges were appointed by the Gov- 
ernor. The lowest court was that of the local magis- 
trate or justice of the peace, competent to try cases 
involving less than forty shillings. The next was the 
county court, or Court of Quarter Sessions, composed 
of three justices, who sat by special commission as a 
Court of Common Pleas, while the highest tribunal 
was the Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice 
and three puisne judges, with general appellate juris- 
diction, and combining the functions of the English 
Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Ex- 
chequer. They held two terms, and were also em- 
powered to sit as a Court of Oyer and Terminer and 
hold a general jail delivery, a power rarely exercised. 
Causes involving more than fifty pounds could be 
carried up from the Supreme Court to the king in 
council. There was no Court of Chancery. Keith 
had succeeded in establishing one, with himself as 
chancellor, under the charter, but after his rule it was 
suppressed, and such equity jurisdiction as was re- 
quired was exercised by the common law courts. 
There was a register-general of probate and adminis- 
tration at Philadelphia, and recorders of deeds 
appointed at an early period in each county. 2 

The bar in Pennsylvania was exceptionally good, 

! and had always received full recognition. Practice 

was simple, and attorneys were admitted by the jus- 

1 History of the English Colonies in America, p. 232. 

- There was an old English Court of Vice-Admiralty, from which there 

was an appeal to England, but this court was so unpopular that the 

judge at one time complained that he could not pel form the duties of his 

: office. The judiciary of Delaware was similar in arrangement, but 

formed an independent organization. — Ibid, 



294 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



• tices after slight examination ; but the law, as a pro- 
fession, had many excellent representatives in the 
colony, and drew to its ranks many men of learning 
and ability. Andrew Hamilton, who defended Zen- 
ger, was the first American lawyer who gained more 
than a local reputation, whose ability was recognized 
in England, and the only one whose reputation and 
ability in colonial times was so recognized. 

Touching the subject of crimes and offenses in the 
colony in the eighteenth century, Lodge, in the " His- 
tory of the English Colonies in America," writes: 

"At last tin new theory of criminal legislation was abandoned in the 
year 1718. Work-houses and jails were established, the number of capi- 
tal offenses was increased from one to fourteen ; every felony, except 
larceny, was made capital on a second offeuse, and matters went on in 
Pennsylvania in the ordinary fashion of the time. At the time .if the 
Revolution, while, as compared with England, the amouut of crime was 
trifling, it was, as compared with the other colonies, very considerable, 
ami although Infrequent there was much variety. About the middle 
of the century there waB a great deal of hanging for house-breaking, 
horse-stealing.aud counterfeiting. Highway robbery wasnot unknown, 
and informers were tarred and feathered in the back counties by a popu- 
lation loyal to the cause of untaxed liquors. . . . The habit of rioting 
spread to the other towns [i.e., from Philadelphia], and the brutal mas- 
sacre by the Scotch-Irish "Paxton Boys" of the Indians at Conestoga 
was the most notorious result of this turbulent disposition. The rioters 
and the criminals were almost wholly Irish. Not one native or Eng- 
lishman was found in any ten of the inmates of jails, and the unfortu- 
nate prominence of Pennsylvania in this respect wasattributable to the 
character of a large portion of her immigrants." 

THE COUNTY JUSTICES. 

The act under which the judiciary was regulated 
was of old date (May 22, 1722). Under it a Court of 
Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery was 
to be holden in every county of the Province four 
times in a year. The Governor or his lieutenant 
commissioned the justices who held the courts. Any 
three of the justices could hold private or special 
courts, and in or out of session they were empowered 
to take recognizances. The authority of these county 
justices was modeled after the authority of the justices 
of the sessions in England, as the justices of the Su- 
preme Court, under this law, had full authority to 
exercise the judicial powers of the justices of the 
courts at Westminster. 

The jurisdiction of the judges of these county 
courts was extensive. Thus they were empowered to 
lay out cartways to the public roads, to appoint viewers 
of partition fences, to superintend the erection of 
bridges and the laying out of highways. No member 
of a court of justice was allowed to sit while his own 
cause was on trial. They were empowered to appoint 
persons to receive the claims for the reward offered 
for the killing of such birds and animals as upon 
which a bounty was laid by law. They could also 
grant writs of replevin, could issue writs of attach- 
ment, and award process for taking lands in execution, 
and to recover on mortgage. They had authority to 
recommend for tavern licenses. They had the ac- 
knowledging of deeds, the probating of wills, and 
jurisdiction to recover small debts. In their magis- 
terial capacity they were hedged in by laws protect- 



ing them, as well as the constables, if they exceeded 
their commission. In such casi is as fall within the 
penal code they had likewise an extensive judicial 
power. Although they could not take cognizance of 
such offenses as were capital, yet they could sentence 
a felon to imprisonment, to the pillory and stocks, 
and amerce him in correspondingly large pecuniary 
fines and forfeitures. 

Besides the county justices there were other legally 
appointed justices of the peace with powers not so 
extensive. They had, and exercised ordinarily, such 
powers as are exercised by our justices of the peace. 
These were sometimes armed with a special commis- 
sion, called a dedimus /lotestatem. With all these privi- 
leges, therefore, these justices were an influential class, 
a class, in fact, in many respects apart from the rest. 
We cannot, indeed, appreciate or rightly comprehend 
their position in the social scale by comparing them 
with our present justices of the peace. The standard 
was relatively much higher. From the judicial sys- 
tem of the colonies, they stood for lawyer and for 
judge. The county justice vvas not only the highest 
judicial officer in the county, and as such sat at the 
sessions to decide causes, but to him was referred all 
such controversies as arose among his neighbors. 
This in his civil capacity ; while in the military ar- 
rangement he was usually an officer. His education, 
such as it was, his tastes, his distinction, and the cus- 
tom of the early colonists all forced him to be a 
military man. The magistrates were looked upon as 
of a separate class, although not distinguished from 
the others by landed wealth or by any superiority in 
dress or equipage. They lived among the people and 
as the people. Their houses were ordinarily log 
houses, with perhaps few supplementary articles of 
furniture. But there was among these undoubtedly 
a higher standard of sociability and a finer polish than 
among the common classes ; and this standard is either 
traceable to usage and contact with the society of the 
older settlements of the East, or it was a vestige of 
old-world manners. As a class they were high-toned, 
punctilious in honor, of integrity; and in such a 
i sense they held their heads high over those who were 
beneath them. The magistrates of the early colony 
were to the common people what the justices of the 
peace in England were to the common people two 
hundred years ago. 

Those penal laws, of which we first spoke, modeled 
after those of England, were, beyond our imagining, 
severe. The most trifling offense was punished by 
imprisonment under wretched diet and in unhealthful 
pens. Many of the crimes or misdemeanors for which 
a convict would now be sent to the penitentiary, the 
county jail, or the work-house were then capital. 
Under this head were arson (that is, the burning of 
dwellings or public buildings), robbery, manslaughter 
by stabbing, counterfeiting, witchcraft. Although 
this is a true statement, we perceive, as Judge Wil- 
liam Bradford says, that the severity of our criminal 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



295 



laws is a foreign plant, and not the native growth of 
Pennsylvania. 1 It was endured, but was never a 
favorite. Under them the county justice could, if he 
chose to, punish a person found judicially guilty as 
severely as our military laws now punish unruly sol- 
diers when in actual service, and in such a manner as 
is now utterly unknown to our civil laws. Such a 
recital may give us an idea of the plenary power 
vested in these magistrates. But although "their pro- 
ceedings may, when we read the reports preserved to 
us, excite in us astonishment, yet we may observe 
that they seldom exercised their full authority. We 
may likewise reasonably conclude that they were, as 
compared with the same class vested with the same 
power in other parts of the colonies, humane men. 

Touching the manner of conducting suits at law and 
the results of the system under the county justices, j 
we have the observation of a distinguished person, 
and this in a place where one would scarcely go 
to hunt it if he, were on that errand. St. Clair, when 
Governor of the Northwestern Territory, made some 
lengthy observations on extending the jurisdiction 
of a single magistrate in the trial of small causes in the 
Legislature of the Territory on the motion of Judge 
Symmes. The Governor was opposed to the motion, 
and probably had his preconceived notions of opposi- 
tion from his notice of the practical workings of the 
county courts under the colonial and ante-revolu- 
tionary period. That he was describing the system 
as he had seen it in vogue at Haunastown there can 
be no reasonable doubt. 2 He says, " A worse mis- 
chief is still behind, — this kind of jurisdiction fosters 
a content ions, revengeful spirit among the people. I 
have seen some of the meetings before magistrates in 
the United States on their law days, as they call them, 
when the business was transacted with little or no 
solemnity, and where a looseness was allowed for 
abuse and recrimination that had a bad effect, nut 
only on the manners of the parties litigating, but on 
those of all the auditors, and the very considerable 
numbers attending them, especially on the afternoons 
of Saturdays, the time generally chosen by those who 
had no manner of business, and they seldom failed of 
returning worse citizens, worse neighbors, and worse 
men, and in settling one dispute the seed of a great 
many were sown, besides much extortion is practiced, 
to be convinced of which it is only necessary to look 
into the statute-book of any of the States, where nu- 
merous laws are to be found for preventing and cor- 
recting it." 

In the array of the names of those nominated as 
conservators of the peace we have a list of men who, 
as a general thing, were upright in character, of the 
strictest integrity, fearless in facing danger and op- 
posing tyranny, of simple but dignified manner, of 
good general information, and of special knowledge 

1 See Smith's or Bioreu's " Laws." title Criminal Procedure. 

2 See St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 3B1. 



in the cardinal principles of English liberty. There 
were of course among them some who did not rela- 
tively stand so high as others. These were, however, 
kept in a secondary position, and of them we have no 
knowledge for either good or evil. 

DISTINCTION OF PRESIDENT JUDGE. 
By the records of the Quarter Sessions and Common 
Pleas Courts, from the correspondence in the Colonial 
Records, and from the Minutes of the Council, it 
would appear that it was the custom to distinguish 
one of the justices on the bench as the president 
or presiding justice, and the others as his associates. 
This nominal distinction appears to have misled 
many. The status of the president judge was not 
indeed clearly presented till the lapse of a hundred 
years, and was first discussed when Westmoreland 
celebrated her centenary, in 1773. It is thence con- 
cluded that when any particular one is mentioned as 
president judge it was as a matter of mere formality, 
that it was following the organization of the Su- 
preme Court, that the justice who sat thus distin- 
guished had no actual precedence over the others, 
and that the nominal precedence was mostly con- 
ferred upon William Crawford when he was present, 
although in some instances Lochry, Foreman, Gist, 
Hanna, and Moore are named as presiding justices. 3 

WILLIAM CRAWFORD, FIRST PRESIDING JUDGE. 
William Crawford appears to have been a man 
who, even in his younger years and at that day, 
stood high among the people of the frontier and with 
those in authority, both in our own Province and in 
Virginia. He was one of the early settlers on the 
old Braddoek road, having taken up lands in 1767. 
He chose the spot where Braddoek had crossed the 
Youghiogheny in 1755. The place of his residence 
was called Stewart's Crossing. His house stood nearly 
opposite Connellsville. 4 He was identified with the 



3 It would appear that the justices elected or selected one of their 
number from time to time to preside. It is generally conceded that the 
presiding officer did not thus sit hy virtue of any legislative provision 
prior to the act of 28th January, 1777. The only instance I have met 
with evidencing hy record their official compliance with this act of 1777, 
which enacted that " The President and Council shall appoint one of the 
Justices in each County to preside in the respective courts, and in his 
absenco the justices who shall attend the court shall choose one of them- 
selves President for the time being," is an order of record at the October 
sessions, 1781, Quarter Sessions docket, to wit: 

" Rule that no Cause whatever be Removed from this Court into the 
Supreme Court after this Term until the Respective writs necessary for 
the Removal thereof be produced at Bar. 
"By the Court, 

"Chaiii.es Foreman, PrcsV Elect." 

That court, however, was held "before Edward Conk, Esquire, ami his 
associates, Justices of the same Court," and it would seem that in the 
absence of any appointment made by the president or Council the 
judges " elected" one of themselves to preside. 

At the January Sessions, 177u, Edward Cook was, for the first time, 
styled " Precedent Judge. . . ." The Court of Quarter Sessions held Gth 
January, 1778, was held "before Edward Cook, Es<p\, Precedent, anil his 
AssociateSj justices of the same court," 

4 This was in Augusta County, Va., as claimed by that Common wealth ; 
afterwards in the district of West Augusta, and finally in YohOgania 
County until 1779, when Virginia relinquished her claim to what is now 



296 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



government of Virginia, both before this time and till 
his death. He was recognized as the chief county 
justice until the beginning of 1775, when, preferring 
to side with Virginia in the civil troubles, he was dis- 
placed by order of the Governor, which order recog- 
nizes him as the presiding justice. It is therefore 
presumable that the appointment of him at first was 
from the consideration of these facts, for he was only 
about forty-two years old at the time. But it is cer- 
tain that he was a natural-born gentleman of the old 
school, and a patriot without dissimulation. He was 
personally acquainted with Washington, and on inti- 
mate terms with him from long before Washington 
was a public personage until they were separated by 
death. Washington mentions him in several places 
in his journals and correspondence. He served under 
Braddock with Washington, who procured him an en- 
signcy. He was remarkable for his hospitality, none 
passing his door without a hearty welcome in. He 
was said to be of a singular good nature and great 
humanity, tender-hearted and charitable, was pos- 
sessed of sound judgment, and was a brave and tried 
soldier. He was among those inhabitants of Western 
Pennsylvania calling themselves citizens of West Au- 
gusta County, who in 1775 met at Pittsburgh to give 
expression to their views on the troubles then appear- 
ing. Crawford, as a prominent citizen, was placed 
upon the committee to which was intrusted the de- 
fense and protection of the people there. When ac- 
tual hostilities began he raised a regiment of Western 
Virginians and Westmorelanders, and received a col- 
onel's commission in the Continental army. In the 
course of the war, such men as he being more needed 
where better known, he returned to his home. Dur- 
ing the latter end of the Revolution his energies were 
interested in protecting the western border, in devis- 
ing methods for its protection, and in watching against 
the British and Indians in the West. Under his in- 
struction the fort called Crawford's Fort was built on 
the Allegheny, at the mouth of l'uckety Creek. So 
high did he stand that in 17*:! he was chosen to com- 
mand the expedition against the Indian towns on the 
Sandusky, for after much suffering the inhabitants 
jointly volunteered to carry the war into the hive it- 
self. This expedition, called Crawford's expedition, 
stands out prominently on the page of border history, 
and the success of the Indians, the capture of Craw- 
ford, his terrible death at the stake witnessed by Dr. 
Knight, the fiendish joy of the savages avenging tin' 
death of their former comrades by the most horrid 
torture ever depicted or related, the cool, calculating, 
unrelenting picture of that man Girty (who escaped 
immortality from being unknown to Dante), these 



Southwestern Pennsylvania. As claimed by Pennsylvania it was, in 
17G7,iu Cumberland County, subsequently in Bedford, afterwards in West- 
moreland, and finally in Fayette County, when, on the 26th ot" Septem- 
ber, 1783, the latter was formed. 

Much information about Crawford will be found in "Crawford's Ex- 
pedition against Sandusky," by Butterfield. 



help to form the last scene in the life of Crawford, 
the first of the colonial judges, above the rest honored 
by his fellow-citizens as the first presiding judge of 
Westmoreland County. 

In regard to the distinction of president judge, — 
" Precedent Judge," as it was written, — it is to be ob- 
served that at the change of the government into other 
hands at the time of the Revolution a law was enacted 
which regulated anew the judicial system. This law ' 
authorized the president and Council to appoint one of 
the justices in each county to preside in the respective 
courts, in whose absence the justices present could 
choose one of themselves for the time being. But it 
would seem that no appointment was made for West- 
moreland till October, 1785, when, as appears by a 
minute of the Council of that day, John Moore was 
appointed president of the Courts of Common Pleas, 
Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Court for the county 
of Westmoreland. 2 Moore, at the time he received 
the appointment, was on the bench as one of the jus- 
tices, under a previous commission, embracing Chris- 
topher Truby, John Moore, and William Jack. Moore 
first sat as president judge at Greensburg. Fiveyears 
later, by the constitution of 1790 as the organic law 
of the State, these president judges were to be profes- 
sional lawyers, or learned in the law. Judge Addi- 
son, who has left a number of reports, frequently re- 
ferred to as good authority, was the first legal-learned 
judge, being the first uuder the Constitution. He sat 
on the bench of this judicial district from 1791 to 
1803, when he was succeeded by Judge Roberts. 

JUDGE JOHN MOORE. 
John Moore, of Westmoreland County, the son of 
William Moore and Jennett Wilson, was born in 
Lancaster County, Pa., in 1738. His father died 
when John was a small boy, and his mother, in com- 
pany with her brothers, Charles and John Wilson, 
removed to the district of Westmoreland County as 
early as 1757. At the commencement of the Revolu- 
tion John Moore was engaged in cleaning out and 
cultivating a large farm of four hundred acres on 
Crabtree Run, a branch of theLoyalhanna, two miles 
south of New Alexandria. A comfortable stone 
dwelling, still in pretty good condition, marks the 
place of his residence, and indicates a man in advance 
of the rude civilization of that day. He was a mem- 
ber of the Convention of July 15, 1776, and appointed 
by that body on the Committee of Safety. In 1777 
he was appointed a justice of the peace, and subse- 
quently surveyor of the public lands in Westmore- 

1 Act 28 January, 1777. 

" George Band, Esq., was at the time also on the bench under a coni- 

lnis inn dated 20th November, ITSt. M .■'* commission is recorded in 

book "A," p. o44, recorder's office. Moon- presided the last time at the 
July term, 1791. At the October term, 1791, Alexander Addison opened 
his commission. He sat as president judge, with William Todd and Wil- 
liam .lack as second and third judges. While Addison was president 
judge, the courts were sometimes carried on in his absence by On- othei 
judges, his associates on the bench. 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



297 



land County. In 1779 he was commissioned one of 
the justices of the several courts of Westmoreland, 
and in 1785 was presiding judge. Under the consti- 
tution of 1790, Judge Moore was retired from the 
bench, being succeeded by the celebrated Judge Ad- 
dison. In 1792 he was chosen to the State Senate 
from the district of Allegheny and Westmoreland. 
He died in 1812, aged seventy-three years, and is 
buried at Congruity Church. Judge Moore married a 
daughter of Isaac Parr, of New Jersey, a woman of 
intelligence, vivacity, and fine personal appearance. 
She survived her husband many years. In personal 
appearance Judge Moore was a man full six feet in 
height, straight and erect, had large brown eyes, 
brown hair, and nose rather aquiline. He had two 
sons and four daughters. One of his sons was county 
surveyor of Westmoreland, the other, a civil engineer, 
died in Kentucky. His daughters were respectively 
married to Maj. John Kirkpatrick, a merchant of 
Greensburg ; John M. Snowden, of Allegheny County, 
mayor of Pittsburgh, and associate judge of the 
county ; Rev. Francis Laird, D.D., father of Hon. 
Harrison P. Laird and John M. Laird, Esq., of 
Greensburg; and the fourth, James McJunkin, a 
farmer of Westmoreland County. 1 

INCREASE IN LEGAL BUSINESS. 
But the change in the system of litigation has been 
as marked as any change within the county in the 
hundred years of its existence. Perhaps the differ- 
ence between the early practice and the practice at 
this day is as great — to make use of a strained meta- 
phor — as the difference between the log house of 
Robert Hanna and the court-house at Greensburg. 
It has been observed that in petty States and narrow 
territories fewer laws suffice than in larger and more 
populous districts, because there are fewer objects on 
which the law can operate. It is also noticeable that 
the amount of litigation is increased, not so much by 
the difficulty of deciding questions of law as by de- 
termining matters of fact. These changes have been 
imperceptibly brought about and in a way uncon- 
sciously, as the change from boyhood to manhood is 
unconscious. The amount of legal business of the 
county of Westmoreland as it is now, since almost a 
score of other counties have been taken from its 
original limits, has increased, within the hundred 
years, probably tenfold. The number of cases en- 
tered in the Common Pleas docket in the first three 
years after the organization of the county in 1773 
aggregated 1330. One-half of this number was em- 
braced in the first four terms, and which made up the 
first year's business. It must be remembered that 
there was an accumulation of business awaiting to be 
disposed of. The number of cases on the continuance 
docket in the same court, beginning with February 
term, 1873, and including the first twelve terms, aggre- 

1 From sketch by William II. Egle, M.D., iu Fenn, Hist. Magaziue. 



gate 7851. The average number for each term of the 
first twelve terms, beginning in 1773, is 111. But 
probably the most correct average for possibly the 
first twenty years would be the average per term from 
July term, 1774, to April term, 1776, wdiich was about 
05. The average per term for the first twelve terms 
after 1873 — that is to say, from the February term, 
1873, to February term, 1876, inclusive — is 650, while 
the average number per term of the eight terms 
which correspond with the eight just mentioned is 
about 790, or above twelve times as many. 

DIFFERENCE IN PRACTICE. 

And great as the difference seems merely in the 
number of casfcs, the difference iu the practice is 
equally as great. The forms of the early practice and 
pleadings, as has been observed by Chief Justice 
Agnew, were simple. The body of the civil law was 
not laden with technicalities. Trespass on land or 
cattle, on the person or on the effects of the settler, 
violations of petty contract, contests for land in the 
most common way and in the simplest form were 
usually the subject of forensic dispute, and the actions 
themselves were in trespass, trover, and assumpsit, 
covenant, replevin, and iu ejectment. Now that the 
land is filled with business of new kinds, new agents 
lor its execution, and new forms of contract, new laws 
have been passed and novel forms of procedure intro- 
duced, new wrongs have been occasioned and new reme- 
dies have come with them, so that now we have feigned 
issues, bills of discovery, bills for injunction, writs of 
mandamus and quo warranto, of error coram nobis et 
robis. We have what you call the corporation lawyer, 
the divorce lawyer, the Quarter Sessions lawyer, the 
proctor, the counselor, the solicitor, the master in 
chancery. This is all changed since Michael Huff- 
nagle pleaded at the bar before the Hon. Charles Fore- 
man, " Precedent of our Court of Common Pleas." 

By the rules regulating the admission of attorneys, 
adopted at the January sessions of 1783, the applicant 
was required, if above twenty-one years of age, to 
have read for three years ; was to have been a resi- 
dent of some one of the United States at least one 
\ ear previous, and was to take the oath of allegiance 
imposed by act of Assembly before he could practice. 
By this time the bar of Western Pennsylvania had 
some very good local practitioners, and the requisites 
for admission were somewhat more imperative. Under 
the old colonial arrangement the qualifications neces- 
sary for a practicing attorney at the county courts 
were not extensive, neither was there much responsi- 
bility attached to him in a professional capacity out- 
side the practice in the higher courts. 

As there is no list of the early practitioners at the 
Westmoreland bar extant, we have gathered to°-ether 
all that we could find, some appearing and conduct- 
ing suits the evidence of whose admission is not ac- 
cessible. We have taken the names from the old ap- 
pearance dockets in the office of the prothonotary and 



298 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



out of the minutes of the Quarter Sessions Court. We 
give the dates of admission when so stated, and other- 
wise the terms at which we find their first appearance 
respectively, although these dates do not invariably 
correspond with the dates of admission. Sometimes, 
indeed, attorneys from neighboring counties were ad- 
mitted, on motion, at several successive terms. 

FIRST REGULAR ATTORNEYS. 

The first regular attorney whose admission at this 
bar is noticed is Francis Dade, who was admitted on 
Aug. 3, 1773. In the April term of 1774 we find the 
names of Espy, Irwin (written, properly, Erwin), 
Smiley, Galbraith, and Wilson; in October term, 
1774, Megraw, and sometimes St. Clair, conducts 
cases. Mr. Wilson makes the motions of record in 
the Quarter Sessions during 1773. At the January 
sessions of 1779, on motion of David Sample, himself 
of course a practitioner, Samuel Erwin was admitted 
to practice. Sample was State's attorney in 1779. 
Michael Huffnagle was admitted in 1779, on motion 
of David Semple. The only observation touching 
the professional career of this very prominent citi- 
zen which we have yet come across is contained in a 
letter from St. Clair to President Reed, dated March 
26, 1781. On the consideration of the bill to erect 
Washington County, Gen. St. Clair recommended 
Huffnagle to the office of prothonotary, as " a young 
gentleman now in the practice of the law in West- 
moreland," and who, he said, was a man of probity, 
and capable of filling the office with propriety. He 
had served a regular apprenticeship (the old word 
used around the temple) to Mr. Shippen, of Lancaster, 
and had come to St. Clair strongly recommended. 
He had worked in the office with Brison and as pri- 
vate clerk to St. Clai-r for a number of years, and 
during the time he served him (so the general con- 
tinues) he gave satisfaction not only to him, but 
very generally to everybody who had business at the 
office. 

In the April sessions of 1780, Robert Galbraith and 
Thomas Smith were admitted. At January term, 
L785, Ross and Young appear ; at April term, Scott; 
and at October term, Thompson. Ross ami Woods 
mostly appear together, they being located at Pitts- 
burgh at that time. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, 
afterwards a justice of tbe Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania, was admitted at a court held before Edward 
Cook on the second Tuesday of April, 1781, on mo- 
tion of Mr. Smith. On the same day James Berwick 
was also admitted and sworn. In the January ses- 
sions of 1782, James Hamilton was admitted ; in the 
January sessions of 1783, Thomas Duncan and George 
Thompson; in 1784, John W_oods. On the second 
Tuesday of April, 1782, on motion of Brackenridge, 
Mr. David Bradford was admitted an attorney at this 
court, he having read under Mr. Chaw, of Maryland. 
This man was afterwards the head and front of the 
Whiskey Insurrection, and died, self-expatriated, a 



wealthy planter on the lower Mississippi, after having 
made his name both famous and infamous. 1 

These attorneys were among the first, and they prac- 
ticed while yet the courts were held at Hannastown, 
and before the removal of the county -seat, about 1785. 
Of these, Andrew Ross, Magraw, Galbraith, David 
Sample, James Wilson, and Epsy were lawyers be- 
longing to the Bedford County bar. James Ross and 
Bradford were first of the Washington County bar, 
although Ross afterwards removed to Pittsburgh. 
Brackenridge had located at Pittsburgh in 1781. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY PRACTICE. 

There were, therefore, in the early days no regular 
resident lawyers while yet Hannastown was tbe 
county-seat, and the bar was made up when the 
court came together. The practice, which a regular 
professional lawyer might have acquired would not 
have been a profitable one. His pay for the most 
part would have been in truck [quid pro quo), such as 
turkey, venison, cordwood, and pelts. Tbe eminent 
jurist, Hugh H. Brackenridge, when a young attorney, 
received for his retainer in defending the Indian 
Mamachtaga, hung at Hannastown for murder, a 
quantity of beaver-skins. From the fact of there 
having been so few resident attorneys at Hannastown 
has, in all probability, arisen the delusion, still cher- 
ished by the oldest settlers, that the "Hannastown 
Age" was the golden age, vainly, vainly hoped for by 
mortals to come again. The lawyers then followed 
in tbe train of the itinerant justices of the State 
(and afterwards with the president judges of the 
Common Pleas) when they came out on their circuits. 
It is said that when court was opened many of these 
awaited at the steps of the court-house for clients, 
and their appearance was frequently entered on the 
day of the trial. The bench and the bar — judges, 
clerks, and lawyers — traveled together on horseback. 
Some of these early practitioners who thus came out 
at first as the country progressed settled at different 
county-seats in Western Pennsylvania. Westmore- 
land embraced Pittsburgh till 1788, and there were 
resident lawyers there as early as 1781, and in 1786 
there were three, — Brackenridge, Ross, and Woods. 
These bad to come to Hannastown and Greensburg 
before Allegheny County was erected, and when that 
event occurred there was already the nucleus of a 
bar gathered around Robert Hanna's house, which 
ever since its organization has held a distinguished 
place among the bars of the Commonwealth. 

The appearance of tbe court, such as it was, at 
Hannastown, when the justices opened their commis- 

1 Bradford was a Marylander, having come into Washington County 
wlii if it was under the Virginia regime, and represented one of its couu- 
tiesin the Legislature of that Commonwealth. Fie was a brother-in-law 
of Judge James Allison (grandfather of Hon. John Allison, late register 
uf United States Treasury), and of Judge Charles Porter, of Fayette. A 
granddaughter became the wife of Richard lirodhead, United States sen- 
ator from Pennsylvania, 1851-57, and < son is said to have married a 
sister of Jetterson Davis. — Veech in Centenary Memorial. 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



299 



sions, was not such, we may imagine, as would con- 
duce to the dignity of county trials. The judges sat 
on common hickory chairs, raised byway of eminence 
on a clapboard bench. As the room was small there 
was no separate place either for the bar or the people, 
but all sat promiscuously together. So, from the 
same inconvenience, they sometimes filled the jail 
building so full with prisoners that they had either 
to let some go without serving an imprisonment, or 
else make them pay up in the pillory or at the post. 1 
As all the officers of the court were ordinarily well 
known to most of the citizens, part of that dignity which 
a separate profession brings was necessarily lost. But, 
on the other hand, when the chief justice came round 
and took his seat in the Criminal Court, his dignified 
demeanor and his scarlet robe commanded a rever- 
ence which was wanting in the county sessions. In 
many instances those rough parties, with bullying 
propensities, resisted the hand of the constables un- 
der the eyes of the county judges. " Give him a fair 
chance and clear him of the law, and he would lick 
any of them.'' To such it was necessary, as in the 
instance mentioned by Brackenridge, 2 to call in the 
pnsxe mmi/iilus, the power of the county, to carry him 
to the nearest stable or pig-pen, so that he was kept 
in custody till the dignity of the law w-as fully recog- 
nized. 

The principal part of the early law business was of 
a civil nature, or of such ordinary transactions as 
arise between man and man, and which, by far, are 
the most numerous of causes arising among citizens. 
Our ancestors were not, in the sense we form the idea, 
a litigious people. If one had committed an offense 
against the peace he was apprehended on the warrant 
of a justice and taken to the county jail. If he could 
get bail he was, of course, bailed out. When the 
sessions met and he had been convicted of a larceny 
or house-breaking, the punishment was summary. He 
was taken out of the court-house, so called, and 
flogged, or compelled to stand in the pillory. As the 
fines belonged, in part, to the revenue, these pecuniary 
fines laid upon offenders amounted, in the relative 
value of money, to a considerable sum, and they were 
exacted in nearly every instance. But if he had no 
money and no means of getting any, he had to make 
up for his fine by so many stripes, the precise value of 
which severally, without inquiring minutely, we are 
unable to state. As the jail or prison-house was 
often insufficient for all offenders, it became absolutely 
necessary, when it was full, for a general delivery. 
Nor would it have been in Christian keeping to have 
let them loose without some special mark put upon 
them to remind them, and all, of the power of the 
justices and of the inflexibility of justice. It was 
not always that the jail held those that were taken, 



1 A common saying, " from post to pillar," is a corruption traceable to 
this origin. ll. 

2 "Recollections," by H. M. Brackenridge. 






and it was not always that an offender could be taken. 
It was no difficult matter for one of the mountaineers 
to evade, nay, to resist, the officers. In some districts 
process of law could not be served. 

Thus, even after law was established, from the 
necessity of the thing there had arisen a kind of un- 
written law, which obtained with all the force of 
written law, and of which one may find, if he is curi- 
ous to discover, traces at this day. The status of a 
people who commence colonies in a civilized State 
and age is different from the status of those who, by 
slow and almost imperceptible advances, have arisen 
out of original barbarism by their own developments. 
This is logically and elegantly put by Adam Smith 
in his "Wealth of Nations," and we advert to it here 
as fitting. And, indeed, had there been no law com- 
manding this and forbidding that, yet would thes< 
very colonists have been guided by certain and in- 
variable customs as easily determinable as any written 
obligation. Our early court-rolls are not encumbered 
with long criminal calenders. In proportion to the 
ordinary civil cases, affrays, riots, sureties of the 
peace, assaults and batteries, and such like misde- 
meanors are, in comparison, few. Even in such a 
state we have no evidences of the compounding of 
felonies; nay, literally there was more "pounding" 
than compounding. 

II. H. BRACKENRIDGE. 

Hugh Henry Brackenridge fills such a large space 
in our history that we shall meet with his name and 
have occasion to make observations upon some of his 
actions in various as well as numerous instances. 
We shall advert to him in his character of lawyer 
and individual. 3 

Judge Brackenridge was indeed an extraordinary 
man, and differed much in many things from other 
men. Nature had done everything for him, and yet 
he labored as if she had done nothing. His person, 
voice, and manner would have rendered him a star of 
the first order on the stage. His eye, his glance, the 

8 Hugh Henry Brackenridge. — Hugh H. Brackenridge was a Dative 
of Scotland, born in Campbelton in 174s. At the age of five be came 
with his fattier to Pennsylvania. He became a tutor at Princeton, 
having graduated at that college in 1771, and was master of an academy 
in Maryland when the Revolution broke out. He removed to Philadel- 
phia, and having studied divinity became a chaplain in the army. Re- 
linquishing the pulpit for the bar, he edited for a time the United States 
/ urine. In 1781 he settled at Pittsburgh. In 1786 he was sent to the 
Legislature to attain the establishment of the county of Allegheny. 
Was made a judge in 1789, when be was appointed to the vacancy caused 
by the election of McKean Governor, and from 1799 until his death was 
judge of tlie Supreme Court of the State. The part be took in the 
Whiskey Insurrection made him prominent, lb' vindicated his course 
in that affair in his " History of the Whiskey Insurrection," published 
the year after. Washington, Hamilton, and Mifflin well understood bis 
position. He published a poem on the " Rising Glory of America," 1774; 
''Eulogium on the Brave who fell in the Contest with Great Britain/ 
delivered at Philadelphia, July 4,1779; "Modern Chivalry, or the Ad- 
ventures of ('apt. Farrago," 1796, an admirable satire; " Oration," July 
4, 179:1 : " Gazette Publications Collected," 1806. He died at Carlisle on 
the 25th of June, 1816 (Archives, Second Series, vol. iv., el seq.). The 
eulogium may be found in Niles' " Register." 



300 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



sound of his voice would sometimes make the blood 
run cold in the veins. His mind was of the highest 
poetic order, but of the most astonishing versatility. 1 
He could at perfect command excite a tragic horror 
or occasion peals of laughter, but he seldom at- 
tempted the pathetic. His imagination ascended the 
highest heaven of invention. When he began to 
speak he frequently labored under great embarrass- 
ment. He has thus been compared to an eagle rising 
from level ground, but as he proceeded he rose by 
degrees, and when he poured himself upon his career 
he seemed to range through heaven, earth, and sea.- 
Some of his nights were as wonderful as those of 
Bourdaloue or Curran. The fame of his wonderful 
powers is confined to the few who witnessed them, and 
to a feeble tradition. It was his misfortune to display 
his talents on an obscure and circumscribed theatre, 
and on subjects seldom fitted to call them forth. 

But fortunately for us we still have as a blessed 
heritage his contributions to the literature of Western 
Pennsylvania, — contributions of value untold, and 
which are growing more precious day by day. In his 
occasional contributions to the periodicals of his day 
we have preserved many facts which are now the cap- 
ital stock of the provincial annalist, while the arti- 
cles which, as a young man, for his amusement he 
submitted for publication are, as it were, brands 
snatched out of the fire. In them are sentences here 
and there which the future historian will seize upon 
as texts and quote as authority. But his "Modern 
Chivalry" is undoubtedly one of the happiest hits 
ever made in that range of American literature It 
not only exposes with a keen wit the abuses of our 
popular form of government, but it preserves many 
of the customs, provincialisms, and manners of the 
people of that day and generation. The most prom- 
inent and notorious of the political and religious 
characters of Southwestern Pennsylvania are therein 
caricatured. Thus Findley, our member of Congress, 
appears as Traddle ; James Ross and Woods as Valen- 
tine and Orson ; many of the expressions Capt. Far- 
rago uses are merely the expressions and the opinions 
of Brackenridge himself, and doubtless in almost 
every chief character therein deliueated he intended 
to, and actually did, portray or make allusion to some 
prominent actor in the farce of the Whiskey Insur- 
rection, if we only had the clew to find it out. 

As to his style, it is pleasing, and his writings 
abound with apt allusions to the history, poetry, and 
mythology of the ancients. He excelled in repartee, 
and a shadow of regret cannot but pass along when 
we think how many brilliant jests, pathetic appeals, 
and ornate sentences were lost among the brown 
rafters of Robert Hanna's rickety log cabin. 

1 The poet Bruce, of Washington Comity, thus describes him: 

" In an aula" lugging dwalt a starling 
Wha was o 1 ilka bird the darling." 

2 "Per omnes terrasque, tractumaque maris, coclumque profundum." 



The personal habits and individual characteristics 
of distinguished men are always matters of curiosity 
and interest. Some of these characteristics in Brack- 
enridge were marked. He never dined out or invited 
to dinner, and was unwilling to see company until 
after tea. This, therefore, was the time for persons 
to drop in to hear his conversation. In this none ex- 
celled him ; although during the day it was difficult 
to get him to say a word, except on business. It was 
a treat to hear him speak when he chose to unbend. 
He could relate a story where the illusion was so per- 
fect that the hearer would suppose there were half a 
dozen characters on the stage. The famous Jeffrey, 
in one of the numbers of the Edinhinv/h Hcricir, says 
that Matthews, the English comedian, was inferior 
to him in relating a story ; and of all men competent 
to judge, Jeffrey was perhaps the most competent. 3 
He generally walked about as he conversed, and like- 
wise when he was speaking he was constantly moving 
himself. It has been remarked that what he said on 
the bench while seated had nothing of his usual elo- 
quence, and when he was eloquent there, which was 
but seldom, he rose upon his feet. 

JAMES ROSS. 

We regard ourselves fortunate in having access to 
the personal recollections of a lawyer of Western 
Pennsylvania, one of the principal practitioners at the 
bar at an early day and a judge of no mean reputa- 
tion. Of these recollections and of his observations 
therein we shall, so far as they refer to our subject, 
make full use. 

Judge H. M. Brackenridge, son of H. H. Bracken- 
ridge, or the "old" judge, the lawyer to whom we 
refer, in his " Recollections of the West" says that Mr. 
James Ross was at that time — the beginning of the 
present century — decidedly at the head of the West- 
ern bar.* His reputation was, however, not confined 
to the town of Pittsburgh or State of Pennsylvania. 
He had occupied the point of display on the largest 
theatre America affords, the Senate of the United 
States, and there he had ranked as the equal of Bay- 
ard, Gouverneur Morris, and Giles. He had a large 

3 See " Reminiscences 'it Thomas Carlyle," by Fronde. 

4 James Ross was a Pennsylvania!), born in York County, July 12, 
1762. He was educated at Pequea, under Rev. Dr. Robert .Smith, and 
taught at Cannonsburg. He studied law in Philadelphia, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1784. He was a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1790, and an aid.- defender of the Federal Constitution. He 
was United States senator from 1794 to lsoi. and a commissioner of 
the United States to the Western insurgents. He died at Pittsburgh, 
Nov.27, ls47. He published "Speech on the Free Navigation d the 
Mississippi," 1S03. 

Thomas Smith, one of the early practitioners at Ilauuastown, was a 
native of Scotland, He emigrated to America at an early age ; was a 
lawyer by profession. He was appMijibsl d-puty surveyor Feb. 9, 1769, 
and established himself at Bedford. He was prothonotary, clerk of the 
sessions, and recorder of Bedford County, colonel of tile militia in the 
Revolution, member of the Convention of 1776, memberof the State 
Legislature, member of the Old Congress, 1780-82, president judge of 
the judicial district of Cumberland, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Bedford, and 
Franklin Counties, 1791-94, judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 
1794 to 1S09. He died at Bedford June, ISU'J.—.lrcli., N. S., iv. 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



301 



and noble frame, and a head of Homerian cast, indi- 
cating his capacious mind. His voice was clear and 
full, while his thoughts and action flowed in a ma- 
jestic stream. He was remarkable for the clear and 
perspicuous manner of treating his subject, and he 
possessed a perfect command over his hearers by the 
self-p6ssession which he always displayed. Sometimes 
he would thunder, sometimes indulge in a vein of 
pleasantry, but he must be classed among those prod- 
igies of mind who, like Webster and the orators of a 
later day, bent the will of men by appealing to their 
reason, and who instruct where they do not convince 
by the depth of their thought and the extent of their 
knowledge. He never tripped or appeared at a loss 
for an expression. Every sentence might be written 
down as it was spoken, the result probably of careful 
preparation at first, which became a second nature. 

JOHN WOODS. 
The reputation of Mr. Woods as a skillful lawyer 
was also high. His person was fine, and his dress and 
manner bespoke the gentleman, although there was a 
touch of aristocratic pride about him which lessened 
his popularity. His voice was rather shrill and un- 
pleasant, especially when contrasted with his manly 
appearance, but, like John Randolph, his ear-piercing 
voice often gave effect to a powerful invective. Few 
lawyers could manage a case with more skill. He 
was deeply versed in the subtilties of the law of ten- 
ures and ejectment causes. Being possessed of a 
handsome fortune, he rather shupned than courted 
practice, but in a difficult case the suitor thought 
himself fortunate when he could secure his assistance. 

STEEL SEMPLE. 
But the great favorite of the younger members of 
the bar was Steel Semple, who ought to be considered 
at the head of the corps of regular practitioners. In 
stature he was a giant of " mighty bone," and pos- 
sessed a mind cast in as mighty a mould. Personally 
he was timid and sluggish. As a speaker bis diction 
was elegant, sparkling, and classical. His wit was 
genuine. He was at the same time a prodigy of mem- 
ory, a gift imparted to him in kindness to supply the 
want of industry, although it is not every indolent 
man who is thus favored. Mr. Sample was conversant 
with all the polite and fashionable literature of the 
day, and was more of a modern than his distinguished 
competitors. It is no less strange than true that for 
the few first years of his appearance at the bar his 
success was very doubtful. His awkward manner, his 
hesitation and stammering, his indolent habits occa- 
sioned many to think that he had mistaken his voca- 
tion. Judge Brackenridge, the elder, was almost the 
only person who saw his future eminence. He was 
unfortunately carried off when he had just risen to 
distinction. He fell a victim to that vice which un- 
happily has too often overtaken the most distinguished 
in every profession. He died when a little turned of 
20 



forty. His fame had not traveled far from the dis- 
play of his powers, which is usually the case in pro- 
fessions which must be seen and felt to be appreciated. 

HENRY BALDWIN AND WILLIAM WILKINS. 

Two younger members of the bar were at that time 
rapidly rising and taking the lead in the practice of 
the court at Allegheny, and each of these had a re- 
spectable clientage in Westmoreland as long as they 
continued to practice here. They were Mr. Henry 
Baldwin and Mr. William Wilkins, the first afterwards 
distinguished as a justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, the other as a politician, a member 
of Congress, a cabinet officer, .and a foreign minister. 
The first appearance of both these gentlemen was at- 
tended with brilliant success, although they were en- 
tirely unlike each other. Mr. Baldwin was a deeply- 
read lawyer and an excellent scholar, but in his 
person and manner remarkably plain and unstudied. 
He was a warm, rapid, and cogent speaker, at the 
same time close, logical, and subtile. He invariably 
exhausted his subject, but studiously avoided all orna- 
ment or unnecessary verbiage. He entered at once 
in medias res, and ended without peroration when he 
had nothing more to say. Mr. Wilkins was more than 
genteel in his person ; his features were cast in the 
Roman mould, and his dress always neat and even 
elegant. His manner was excellent, his voice and 
enunciation clear and distinct. He was diffuse in his 
speeches, and wanted method, argument, and depth 
of philosophical acumen ; but he knew those whom 
he addressed, as the musician knows the instrument 
he touches. He was, therefore, a successful and a 
justly popular advocate. 

LEGAL ABILITY OF THE EARLY BAR. 

With knowledge of these one should, therefore, 
greatly err if he should measure the standard of pro- 
fessional ability of the lawyers who then traveled on 
the circuit and pleaded in these backwoods and the 
justices of the Supreme Court of that day who came 
out with them to deliver the jails, with the standard 
of professional ability of those attorneys who pleaded 
before the county justices and with the county justices 
themselves. At no time in the history of the Penn- 
sylvania bar has the professional ability of those 
regular lawyers been rated higher than it is now. 
With St. Clair for prothonotary in a court in which 
Brackenridge, Espy, Ross, and Smith pleaded before 
McKean and Yeates there might have been, as there 
were, some lawyers of mediocre talent and attainments, 
but they were not all of mediocre talent and attain- 
ments. 

At that day, and much later, the attention of the 
student was chiefly directed to the law of terms and 
the books of reports. The course of study embraced 
the more abstruse branches of the profession, such as 
are almost obsolete at the present day, and perhaps 
required a more intense strain upon the reasoning 



302 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



powers. They may be called the arcana of the law, 
far too deep for the reach of common sense, distinc- 
tions so refined and subtile as to require to be seen 
through the microscope of mental vision. 

In the early courts the law was not so much settled 
as made by the most plausible and ingenious reasoner. 
At this day in our practice the pleadings are closer, 
the professional training more technical, and the 
bounds and limits of the law more definite and less 
varying. 

These lawyers whom we have named were regular 
practitioners at the .Westmoreland courts and be- 
longed to this bar. Each of them had a clientage 
here, they appeared regularly at the sittings of the 
court, and they were personally well acquainted with 
many of our people. But something shall now be 
said of those who were citizens of Westmoreland in 
every sense, who were here located and resident, who 
■had their offices here, who had come to remain, and 
who were, strictly speaking, the bar of the county. 
And first as to the bench. 

THE BENCH. 

The judges learned in the. law who have presided 
over the courts of Westmoreland since the adoption 
of the constitution of 1789-90, with their respective 
terms, have been as follows : Alexander Addison, from 
1790 to 1803; Samuel Roberts, from 1803 to 1805; 
John Young, 1806-36; Thomas White, 1836-47; 
Jeremiah M. Burrell, 1847-48 ; John C. Knox, 1848- 
50, J. M. Burrell, 1851-55: Joseph Buffington, 1855 
-71; James A. Logan, 1871-79; and James A. Hun- 
ter, the present incumbent. 

Of these, Judge Burrell, Judge Logan, and Judge 
Hunter were natives of the county, and were practi- 
tioners at this bar at the time of their elevation to 
the bench. Judge Young was a native of Scotland, 
but located in Westmoreland, and was a practitioner 
here when he was made judge. 

JUDGE ADDISON. 

Alexander Addison was a native of Ireland, born 
1759. He was educated at Edinburgh, and was 
licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Aberlowe, 
Scotland. He emigrated to Pennsylvania, and on 
Dec. 20, 1785, applied to the Presbytery of Redstone 
to be taken under their care. The examination did 
not prove altogether satisfactory, but permission was 
granted him to preach in the bounds of the Presby- 
tery, application having been made from the town of 
Washington for the stated labors of Mr. Addison. 
Shortly after he gave up preaching and gave his at- 
tention to the law. He finally settled at Pittsburgh 
as a lawyer. He was president judge of the district 
which included the four western counties engaged in 
the Whiskey Insurrection, and sat on the bench for 
twelve years. He was removed by impeachment, 
through political rancor. He was an accomplished 
scholar and cultivated writer. He published " Obser- 



vations on Gallatin's Speech," 1798 ; " Analysis of 
the Report of a Committee of the Virginia Assem- 
bly," 1800 ; " Pennsylvania Reports," 1800. Dr. Car- 
nalian says of him, " A more intelligent, learned, up- 
right, and fearless judge was not to be found in the 
State." His charge to the grand jury during the in- 
surrection is a noble monument of his talents and 
worth. He died Nov. 24, 1807. 

OLD JUDICIAL FORMS, Etc. 

The judges of the Supreme Court and of the Dis- 
trict Court in early times appeared in black gowns 
when they sat in the civil courts, but in scarlet gowns 
when they sat in the criminal court. The late Alex- 
ander Johnston, Esq., of Kingston House, used to say 
that when he was sheriff of the county (1808) it was 
customary, and had been so before his incumbency, 
for the sheriff, at the head of the tipstaves, to go to 
the house at which the judge stopped, or the resi- 
dence where he lived, and on the opening day of the 
term escort him thence to the court-house. The 
sheriff, at the head of the procession, carried a white 
wand or rod. 

The early judges were close observers of the old 
forms of the English procedure, and especially so in 
the forms of the criminal practice. The jurors were 
not provided with chairs till some time during Judge 
Young's term, but they were compelled to stand from 
the beginning to the end of a long, tedious trial. The 
only manner in which they could get relief from the 
weariness of a long-continued posture was for them, 
time about, to rest upon the shoulders of each other 
by bearing their weight on their hands. 

Under the judicial system of 1790 two associate 
laymen composed a part of the bench. The old asso- 
ciate judges were sometimes men of some ability and 
aptitude in the law, although this character of the 
gentlemen was not the rule but the exception. They 
could and ordinarily did transact the occasional busi- 
ness of the courts in the absence of the president 
judge. Thus at February term, 1841, in the Common 
Pleas minutes for Monday, Feb. 15, 1841, is this 
entry: "The Hon. Thomas White, having just re- 
covered from an attack of smallpox, thought it not 
prudent to attend as president of our court on this 
week, and John Lobingier, Esq., one of his associates, 
being in attendance, and having received the fore- 
going intimation from Judge White by letter, took 
the bench, called the jurors, and adjourned till 10 
o'clock to-morrow morning. Tuesday morning, 16th, 
Judge Pollock in attendance with Judge Lobingier. 
Grand jurors called, sworn, and charged by Judge 
Pollock, constables' returns made, etc., and proceeded 
to business in the Quarter Sessions." 

These associates were sometimes called assistants; 
for instance, the record in 1793 says, "At a court held 
before Hon. Alexander Addison and his assistants.' 

Of Judge Samuel Roberts we know little. His 
term was short, and was not marked by any unusual 




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SL -V 





0-J u 



'O^A^ PL 




1 









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£w ^^^Un^y 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



303 



event. He first presided at June term, 1803, the term 
beginning on the third Monday, the 20th day of the 
month, and presided for the last time at December 
term, 1805. For those terms, as well likewise at sub- 
sequent terms, jurors were drawn on the panel from 
Armstrong County, and from Indiana County, to sit 
and try causes which were tried here at Greensburg 
from their vicinage. 

JUDGE JOHN YOUNG 

was born in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the 
12th of July, 17(32. He was a member of an ancient 
Scottish family, distinguished for its wealth, learning, 
and high rank, branches of it having been ennobled 
before the reign of the unhappy Mary, Queen of 
Scots. 

Mr. Young's father and grandfather were both sur- 
named John. He had three brothers, named Thomas, 
Douglass, and William, and one sister, named Mary. 
They were all liberally educated. The father of 
Judge Young was a wealthy merchant of Glasgow, 
and lived in a style becoming his station and wealth, 
and gained a reputation for great liberality and kind- 
ness of heart, which qualities his son inherited in an 
eminent degree. 

Through the generous impulses of a nature ever 
ready to serve his friends and relatives he became 
financially involved. He bailed his brother William 
for a large amount, for which debt his property was 
all sold, and he died in ten days after in consequence 
of the anxiety of mind which that event caused him. 

At the time of his father's death Mr. Young was a 
student at law, and a clerk in the office of Sir Walter 
Scott's father. After he had procured places for his 
younger brothers, he emigrated to this country, and 
arrived in Philadelphia when about seventeen years 
of age, with, it is said, but one English shilling in his 
pocket. Here he attracted the notice and secured the 
favorable attention of Mr. Duponeeau, then a notary 
public and sworn interpreter of foreign languages. 
He entered his office as a student-at-law on the 1st of 
January, 1784. On the 28th of January, 1785, Mr. 
Duponeeau certifies that he derived great and valuable 
assistance from Mr. Young in his office, both in re- 
spect to legal matters and the French language. 

Mr. Young afterwards entered the office of Judge 
Wilson, and studied law under him until his admis- 
sion to the bar, Jan. 8, 1786, after which he practiced 
for some time in the Philadelphia and Chester County 
courts previous to his removal to Westmoreland 
County. 

The high character of the Scotch and Scotch-Irish 
settlements in the western part of the State and their 
great prosperity induced Judge Young in 1789 to 
settle in Westmoreland County. He opened an office 
in Greensburg, then recently made the county-seat, 
and soon gained a large practice in this and adjoining 
counties by reason of his ability as a lawyer and his 
absolute integrity of character. 



His extensive practice frequently called Mr. Young 
to the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore. In Phil- 
adelphia his predilections for the teachings of Swe- 
denborg often brought him into association with Mr. 
Francis Bailey and his estimable family. In this 
family he became acquainted with a Miss Maria Bar- 
clay, an orphan girl, to whom he was so drawn by 
the attraction of congenial tastes that he ultimately 
made her his wife. He was past twenty-four and 
she was past twenty-one years of age when they were 
married in Philadelphia by the Rev. Nicholas Col- 
lin, then rector of the Swedish Churches in Pennsyl- 
vania, with whom he had become acquainted in his 
inquiries about Swedenborg, whom Mr. Collin had 
personally known in Sweden. From the certificate of 
Mr. Collin it appears that Mr. Young and Miss Bar- 
clay were "joined in the banns of holy wedlock" 
" on the 12th day of November, in the year of Christ 
1794." With this lady he lived in the strongest bonds 
of mutual attachment for many years, having had by 
her the issue of eight children, — three sons and five 
daughters. After the decease of this lady, beloved 
and respected by all, the judge contracted a second 
marriage with Miss Statira Barclay, a cousin of his 
former wife, by whom he had two children, — a son 
and a daughter. 

Judge Young in Westmoreland County soon be- 
came known as a man of force and discretion. He 
was chosen in 1791, with Nehemiah Stokely, a sur- 
vivor of the Revolutionary period, as a delegate to the 
first meeting at Pittsburgh called to consider the 
troubles occasioned by the act of Congress of the 3d of 
March, 1791, which imposed a duty upon spirits dis- 
tilled within the United States. The revolt against 
the " excise act," as it was called, has been known 
ever since as the " Whiskey Insurrection." 

Judge Young's participation in the negotiations 
between the contesting parties added largely to his 
popularity and materially increased his clientage. 

In the years 1792 and 1793, when the Indians were 
troublesome in the western parts of Pennsylvania, 
Judge Young served two terms of two months each 
in a military capacity. He was in some subordinate 
command, a captaincy it is believed, but not now 
positively known. He had, however, no passion for 
military pursuits, and soon and gladly returned to 
the more congenial walks of civil life in Greensburg. 
Judge Young continued the practice of the law with 
eminent success till the year 1805. In that year a va- 
cancy occurred in the presidentjudgeship of the Tenth 
Judicial District of Pennsylvania, then composed of 
the counties of Somerset, Cambria, Indiana, Arm- 
strong, and Westmoreland. At that period Thomas 
McKean was Governor of the State. There were many 
applicants for the office, and among them lawyers of 
the first eminence at the Greensburg bar. Letters 
of solicitation were forwarded by the friends of Mr. 
Young, and it was currently reported that the Gov- 
ernor said he would appoint him, because he knew 



304 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



him to be qualified by his firmness, integrity, and 
great legal acquirements to preside over that talented 
though turbulent bar, but he did not like his religion ! 

Mr. Young was in fact appointed president judge 
of said district, his commission bearing date at Lan- 
caster, the 1st of March, 1806, and held that office 
until the latter part of 1837, a period of thirty-one 
years, when, admonished by bodily infirmities, he 
resigned official station, and retired to private life to 
enjoy the repose appropriate to advanced age, and 
sweetened by the retrospections of a long and success- 
ful career of distinguished activity and usefulness. 

When Mr. Young was appointed judge he was re- 
alizing from his legal engagements and his agencies 
an annual income of about five thousand dollars. 
This income he was reluctant to relinquish, and ac- 
cepted the judgeship only on the earnest solicitations 
of his friends. He was generally employed in all the 
larger cases in the civil courts of this and the adjoin- 
ing counties where titles to land were the subjects 
oflegal adjudication. His proficiency in this branch 
of the law and his habits as a lawyer were notably 
displayed in one celebrated case. When the right to 
the land upon which the Roman Catholic Church 
and Monastery near Beatty Station now stands was 
in dispute between the secular and the regular clergy, 
Mr. Young was employed on one side, and H. H. 
Brackenridge, Esq., the father of Judge H. M. Brack- 
enridge, of Tareutum, and himself afterwards a judge 
of the Supreme Court of the State, was employed on 
the other. Brackenridge had been educated for the 
ministry, and on the trial there was a great display 
of ecclesiastical law and learning. The bulls of Popes 
and the decrees of Councils were read in the orig- 
inal Latin, and explained in this case with ease and 
accuracy, and the exact extent to which canon law 
was acknowledged by the common and statute law. 

Judge Young was at this time considered the best 
special pleader at the Western bar. His anxiety to 
sustain this nice though intricate practice in law 
brought him into collision witli some of the members 
of the bar at an early day of his judicial career, 
which was one of the causes of an impeachment that 
was then gotten up against him, but which was not 
sustained by the Legislature. It was an abortive 
attempt to degrade a man whose integrity, benev- 
olence, and general excellence of character wrung 
approving testimony from even his most active polit- 
ical opponents. 

The person who preferred the charges in the articles 
of impeachment, and who was mainly instrumental in 
giving them currency and in preparing the way for 
their introduction, was one of the leading lawyers of 
the Westmoreland bar, Maj. John B. Alexander. 

Judge Young showed his magnanimity of character 
in his courteous treatment of his accuser in their in- 
tercourse after the failure to impeach. As a judge 
he was noted for the clearness of his charges and in- 
structions. His exposition of the law was so sound 



that in nearly all his cases his decisions were affirmed 
by the Supreme Court. 

As a criminal judge, he invariably leaned to the 
side of mercy, and that the prisoner might have a fair 
and impartial trial he always manifested the utmost 
patience and anxiety to have the very words of the 
witness, which oftentimes produced collisions between 
him and the bar. And in all cases he tempered jus- 
tice with every allowable lenience. He has been 
known to decide causes against persons who after- 
wards treated him with gross disrespect, and yet, 
when his decision had been affirmed in the Supreme 
Court on writ of error, to advance moneys to the very 
individuals who had showered upon him indecent re- 
proaches and abuse to relieve them from the diffi- 
culties occasioned by the decision. He was ever 
the warm friend and devoted advocate of women in 
distress, and especially of widows and orphans. A 
case occurred in Cambria County in the year 1831. A 
man by the name of Fitzgibbons, a Catholic in re- 
ligion, poor, but honest and industrious, had bought 
a piece of land and paid for it. But afterwards it ap- 
peared that a mortgage had been recorded against the 
land, of which he was not aware when he made the 
purchase. On that mortgage the land was advertised 
to be sold. The judge, when going into court one 
day, had his attention arrested by a woman crying, 
with two or three young children about her. He in- 
quired the cause, and learning from her that her hus- 
band's land was to be sold on the mortgage, besides 
making himself acquainted with the facts in other 
quarters, he directed a Mr. McCabe to buy it in his 
own name with money which he advanced to him. 
Her husband, who was then lying at home sick, was 
told to meet him at the next court, at which time he 
gave him a lease at a low rate, and contracted to re- 
couvey to him his land for the amount he gave the 
sheriff at the sale, on long payments, without interest, 
although he had been repeatedly offered a considerable 
advance on what he had paid for the land, on account 
of its value being increased by the proximity of the 
State improvements to it. 

Judge Young survived his resignation a little over 
three years, dying Oct. 6, 1840. His remains were 
buried in the Greensburg burying-ground, which is 
now called the St. Clair Cemetery. Judge Young 
was in many respects a remarkable man, and might 
be called eccentric in some of his habits, an evidence, 
however, of his originality. He was a man of deep 
and varied learning in fields outside of his profession. 
He was master of seven languages, one of which he 
acquired after he was seventy years of age. 

He was well versed in mathematics, moral and polit- 
ical philosophy, and polite literature. He was a bril- 
liant Latin scholar, speaking the language fluently. 
He occasionally visited the Greensburg Academy 
when Thomas Will was the master, and the two 
learned men would frequently converse in the Latin 
tongue. He also spoke French with fluency. When 






THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



305 



James Johns, who had been educated at St. Omers, 
in France, was preceptor in the academy, Judge 
Young frequently visited him, and the two conversed 
with equal readiness in French and English. When 
Victor Noel, a Frenchman, was arrested and im- 
prisoned in the Somerset County jail for the murder 
on the Allegheny Mountains of Mr. Pollock of Lig- 
onier Valley, Judge Young presided at the trial, be- 
cause his knowledge of the French language would 
secure the prisoner a fair trial. He explained the in- 
dictment and other forms of the trial to the prisoner 
in French, who had the satisfaction to be sentenced 
to be hanged in the polished language of his native 
land. Judge Young was remarkably well informed 
on church history and denominational beliefs, and 
with the best thought in the metaphysical world. 
In addition to his extensive law library, he left a 
large collection of miscellaneous books, magazines, 
and pamphlets, the best kind of evidence of scholarly 
tastes. 

The religious opinions of Judge Young were in 
consonance with the teachings of that wonderful man, 
Emanuel Swedenborg. In common with many who 
have studied the teachings of Swedenborg, he saw in 
him a great teacher. When one reads what Emerson, 
one of the greatest philosophers of this age, has said of 
him, it will not be surprising why Judge Young, with 
his lofty ideal of justice and right living, embraced 
the tenets of the great Swede. Emerson says, " By 
force of intellect and in effect he is the last father in 
the church, and is not likely to have a successor. No 
wonder that his depth of ethical wisdom should give 
him influence as a teacher. To the withered tradi- 
tional church yielding dry catechisms he let in nature 
again, and the worshiper, escaping from the vestry of 
verbs and texts, is surprised to find himself a party to 
the whole of his religion. His religion thinks for 
him and is of universal application. He turns it on 
every side, it fits every part of life, interprets and 
dignifies every circumstance. . . . The moral insight 
of Swedenborg, the correction of popular errors, the 
announcement of ethical laws take him out of com- 
parison with any other modern writer, and entitle 
him to a place vacant for some ages among the law- 
givers of mankind." 

Judge Young, though he became devotedly attached 
to his adopted country, still retained a strong affec- 
tion for the mother-country. The Albion, a handsome 
paper published in New York, was edited by a man 
named John Young, and it was intended to defend 
the interests and express the sentiments of British 
subjects resident in the United States. Its heading 
was adorned with a handsome engraving of the "rose, 
shamrock, and thistle," and its motto was expressed 
in the following Latin words: "Caelum, non animum, 
mutant, qui /nuts mare currunt" (" They change their 
sky, not their affections, who cross the sea"). Of this 
paper Judge Young was a patron, admirer, and 
reader. 



By the failure of heirs in the direct line to the 
estate of Easter Culmore, in the county of Stirling, 
Scotland, Judge Young became Laird of Forrester, 
being next of kin in collateral degree. He was thus 
an American judge and Scottish laird at the same 
time. 

A romantic interest is attached to the story of this 
inheritance, uniting as it does in the same individual 
the republican simplicity of a new world anil the an- 
cestral pride of the old, which compelled him to as- 
sume the name of Forrester in addition to that of 
Young. 

The revenues of this Scotch estate amounted dur- 
ing the first half of the century to about three hun- 
dred pounds sterling, or fifteen hundred dollars yearly. 
When Judge Young emigrated to this country money 
was very scarce and lands very cheap. He made ju- 
dicious investments, accepting land for fees, and in 
the course of a long life acquired a large amount of 
landed property in this country, besides holding stock 
in a number of corporations. His children were left 
wealthy. 

The residence of Judge Young was on Main Street, 
opposite the present Methodist church building. It 
was a plain, unpretentious structure, weather-boarded 
and painted white. He dispensed a liberal hospitality ; 
as a host was fond of entertaining company, and 
was especially partial to the society of learned men 
and travelers. His character and disposition were of 
the most amiable kind. His kindness to the poor and 
destitute was proverbial. During a time of great 
scarcity he sent a wagon-load of flour to the poor in 
one of the counties in which he presided as judge. 
He never permitted a poor man to leave his house 
without giving him something. He silenced all sug- 
gestions that he might possibly be giving to unworthy 
objects by fearing lest some one who was really needy 
might be turned away unaided. In short, so benevo- 
lent and kind-hearted was the judge to all who came 
within his sphere that all who knew him loved him, 
and so marked was he by integrity, truth, and upright- 
ness that all respected him, despite of what many re- 
garded as the eccentricities of his character and the 
errors of his religion. So, in closing an obituary 
notice of him in a Greensburg newspaper a neighbor 
of his said, " The affluence with which providence 
blessed the labors of Judge Young enabled him to 
gratify those kindly feelings for the wants of others 
which it was well known formed a prominent trait in 
his character. No one ever went from his door who 
sought charity without having reason to invoke the 
blessings of heaven upon the kindness of his heart. 
No juror ever sat in judgment upon a culprit without 
being reminded by the judge that it was better to let 
ninety-nine guilty ones go unpunished than that one 
innocent person should sutler. He was as remarkable 
for his politeness and courtesy as he was distinguished 
for the extent of his literary acquirements. Profound 
as a jurist, courteous as a citizen, affectionate as a 



306 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



father, upright as a judge, he discharged all those 
duties to his kindred, his country, and society, which 
will make him long remembered as a Christian, a 
philanthropist, and a patriot." 

For the last few months that immediately preceded 
the close of his life on earth, he gave evident tokens 
that these qualities of his heart and life had eminently 
fitted him to die the death of the Christian. 

Judge Young was at one time the owner of several 
slaves, but freed them before the time required by 
law. With their liberty he gave them also enough of 
money to start them in the world. 

Judge H. M. Brackenridge, in his " Recollections," 
in recalling the days when he opened an office in 
Somerset, says that he spent a week in Greensburg at 
Judge Young's. " Here I enjoyed the society of the 
judge, and of my friend, Walter Forward, and the 
kind attentions of the best of women, Mrs. Young." 

The sweet little villa, " Skara Glen," as the country 
residence of the judge was called, became the subject | 
of one of the elder Brackenridge's poetic effusions, 
" Skara Glen" is now in the possession of his grand- 
son, Frank Y. Clopper, Esq. 

Judge Young was about six feet in height, of deli- . 
cate mould, and of a dignified bearing, stooping 
slightly in his walk, occasioned by his contemplative 
habits. He usually dressed in plain black, with the 
conventional swallow-tailed coat and ruffled shirt 
worn by the English gentry of his time. He re- 
tained the fashion of wearing his hair in a cue. 
His face was well formed, the nose long and straight, 
his color "the pale cast of thought," and his ex- 
pression always grave and thoughtful. His forehead 
was high and smooth, and his manner cool and im- 
pressive. Although he would sometimes unbend to 
smile, yet he was seldom known to laugh outright. 
In company he was very quiet— was a good listener 
rather than a fluent talker. 

There are persons still living who saw the justices 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, and of 
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, of that day, with 
Roger B. Taney as the chief of the one, and John 
Bannister Gibson as the chief of the other, and they 
all invariably bear testimony to the fact that no one 
of them inspired more respect, by personal appear- 
ance or deportment, than the Hon. John Young. An 
excellent portrait of him was painted by the cele- 
brated artist Gilbert Stuart, the painter of the famous 
portrait of Washington known as the Stuart picture. 
This portrait of Judge Young corroborates all that 
has been said of his personal appearance. It is now 
the property of his grandson, Frank Y. Clopper, Esq., 
who has also one of his grandmother's, the wife of 
Judge Young, also painted by Stuart, They are both 
fine examples of Stuart's best work, and are with 
justice highly prized by their fortunate possessor. 1 

' Judge Young retired from the bench at the end of November term, 
1S36. On that occasion he delivered a valedictory address to the grand 
jury. Alexander Johnston, Esq., was the foreman of the jury, and at 



JUDGE THOMAS WHITE. 
Immediately upon the resignation of Judge Young, 
Thomas White, Esq., of Indiana County, was com- 
missioned president judge of the Tenth Judicial 
District, composed of the counties of Westmoreland, 

his request the valedictory was furnished to the public. It has never 
till now appeared in any book. It is a fair sample of the judge's style, 
and we insert it in behalf of those who still venerate his memory. 

Mr. Johnston replied in the following remarks: 

" The graud jury have unanimously called upon me, as their foreman, 
to express their high estimation of your Bervices, impartiality, and in- 
tegrity, and to say that you have their warm wishes, that peace and 
happiness may attend your retirement from public life, and also that 
a copy of your excellent valedictory address be furnished for publication. 

"For myself, who have been long acquainted with you in private life, 
and intimately connected with the court in several ministerial capaci- 
ties, I cordially unite with my fellow grand jurors in their feelings and 
wishes, and heartily join iu their solicitation. 

" To the Hon. John Young, president of the Tenth Judicial District : 

"The grand jury, whom you have made the medium of addressing 
your fellow-citizens of Westmoreland County for the last time, among 
whom you have been long respected and beloved, and over whom you 
have presided in your official capacity for more than thirty years with 
impartiality and dignity, respectfully request a copy of your excellent 
address for publication. 



' A. Johnston, Foreman. 



' Greensburg, Nov. 23, 1836.' 



ADDRESS. 
"Gentlemen: 

"Before I conclude, permit me to take this opportunity of announcing 
my intention - to retire from public life on the rising of the present 
court. During thirty years as president of the Tenth Judicial District 
of Pennsylvania, which for about the half of that period comprehended 
Somerset, together with the four counties of Westmoreland, Armstrong, 
Indiana, and Cambria, it has been my study to discharge the duties of 
my office according to the best of my judgment without respect of 
either persons or parties. Neither ambition nor emolument could have 
induced me to accept of it. No efforts were used on my part to attain 
one attended with so much labor as well as responsibility as it was and 
has been. It was committed to me by the then Governor (McKcan), 
whose character for independence of mind and high legal talents is 
justly entitled to respectful commemoration. 

•' That in various instances I have erred I am well aware. Such is 
the frailty of human nature, and of all civil institutions and laws, open- 
ing a wide held for construction, with the uncertainty and occasionally 
the contlietion of evidence, every human tribunal cannot but In- mote 
or less fallible. From the very scope of the duties incumbent on me to 
afford satisfaction to every person was impracticable. Nor have I ever 
attempted to please any, or to court what is usually called popularity, 
which in the administration of justice would have been contrary to 
Sacred Writ, as well as sound reason. By this course I have lost nothing 
in the good opinion of the intelligent and impartial portion "I the 
public, although it may have occasionally excited umbrage. Protected, 
as I gratefully acknowledge to have been, by the Divine Providence, the 
ebullitions of calumny (to which all holding public trusts are liable! 
have done me no real harm. I cheerfully take this occasion to declare 
that I cherish the Christian duty of forgiving all that may have in- 
! tended any. I shall always remember the general favor of my fellow 
citizens for little short of half a century siucs ray abode among them. 
My best wishes for their individual welfare and that of the community 
at large shall never be wanting. 

" Let ns, gentlemen, ever bear in mind that we must sooner or later 
be accountable for the due exercise of all our faculties. Liberty has 
been bestowed for beneficial ends. When abused it becomes a mere 
cloak to licentiousness, and is generally accompanied by the contempt 
of piety and virtue. This abuse leads to anarchy, the worst species of 
tyranny, followed by the overthrow of all genuine liberty. It ought, 
therefore, to be under the guidance of Bound reason, and regulated by 
Divine Revelation, the fountains of all wisdom and intelligence,— 
1 the light and the life of men.' 

"I conclude with the best wishes for all my fellow-creatures, inde- 
pendent of external distinctions. We are all the children of one common 
Father, who causes the sun of His love and the rays of His wisdom to 
1 Bhiue upon all." 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



307 



Indiana, Armstrong, and Cambria. His commission 
was dated the 13th of December, 1836. On February 
the 20th, 1837, his commission was read in theGreens- 
burg courts, when he took his seat on the bench here. 
He presided in these courts until the beginning of 
1847, when J. M. Burrell, Esq., was appointed and 
commissioned his successor. Thomas White studied 
law in the office of the celebrated jurisconsult, Wil- 
liam Rawle, in Philadelphia, and in 1821 commenced 
the practice of law at Indiana. He was then aged 
about twenty-one years. He soon obtained a good 
practice. He was also agent of George Clymer, who 
owned a large quantity of land in Indiana County, 
and particularly about the town of Indiana. He 
presided over the courts of this judicial district from 
1836 to 1846. Early in the Rebellion he served as 
one of the commissioners in what was called the 
" Peace Convention," which met at Washington. He 
was of medium height; in manner polite and affable, 
but dignified. He took a great interest in agricul- 
ture, and was one of the projectors and supporters of 
the Indiana Agricultural Society, one of the most 
successful associations of the kind in the State. He 
died on the 23d of July, 1866, aged sixty-seven. 

JUDGE BURRELL AND JUDGE KNOX. 

On the 27th of February, 1847, Judge White's term 
as judge of the Tenth Judicial District expired, and 
on that day Governor Shunk nominated Jeremiah M. 
Burrell, an attorney of the Greensburg bar, to the Sen- 
ate for the vacancy. The Senate not confirming the 
nomination, the Governor then sent in the names of 
Mr. Gilmore and Mr. McCandles, but the Whig Senate 
refused to confirm any other than Judge White, the 
late incumbent. The Governor, however, would send ! 
no other names in ; went beyond any precedent exist- | 
ing in the history of the State growing out of a disa- 
greement of the two co-ordinate powers to fill such a 
vacancy, and early in 1847 commissioned Mr. Burrell. 

The question whether the Governor had power to 
fill the vacancy, and which arose upon the contem- 
plation of the Governor to commissiou Mr. Burrell, 
was amply discussed. There had been only two legal 
expositions of parallel cases under the Constitution 
of the United States, which in the clause prescribing 
the method of supplying certain vacancies was iden- 
tical with the Constitution of Pennsylvania. These 
expositions and opinions had been given by Mr. Wirt 
and by Mr. Taney, attorneys-general of the United 
States. These legal views were all the legal prece- 
dents, although there had been at least three actual 
precedents set by Presidents identical with this case. 
Upon the opinion based upon the authorities cited, 
the Governor unhesitatingly filled the commission. 

The record of the Common Pleas Court has this 
minute : 

" Monday morning, 24th May, a.d. 1847. Jeremiah 
M. Burrell, Esq., appeared on the bench and presented 
his commission from the Governor of Pennsylvania, 



dated 27th March, 1847, appointing him president 
judge of the Tenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, 
composed of the counties of Cambria, Indiana, Arm- 
strong, and Westmoreland, which being read, the 
courts were opened at eleven o'clock ; Hons. John 
Moorhead and James Bell, associate judges, being 
also on the bench." 

Jeremiah Murry Burrell was born near Murrysville, 
in Westmoreland County. His father was a Dr. Bur- 
rell, a native of Dauphin County, Pa., and his mother 
was a daughter of Gen. Murry, one of the founders 
of Murrysville. He was an only sou. His parents 
were wealthy, and he received a liberal education. 
He was prepared for college by a learned Scotchman, 
Thomas Will, at the Greensburg Academy, and fin- 
ished his education at Jefferson College, Cannons- 
burg, Pa. He studied law with the Hon. Richard 
Coulter, afterwards one of the Supreme judges of the 
State, and opened a law-office in Greensburg after his 
admission to the bar on the 14th of July, 1835. 
Some time about 1839 he bought the Pennsylvania 
Argus, and became its editor. He was an active 
politician, and he secured the paper for political pur- 
poses. He made the paper even more Democratic 
than it had been. In the hot political campaign of 
1840 he established his name as a writer of high 
ability, and made a State reputation for the paper. 
Some of his articles on political topics were copied 
in other papers all over the Union. Horace Greeley 
in the Log Cabin, on the side of the opposition, 
took issue with some of the articles, and gave them 
still wider circulation by replying to them in the 
fulminating style which later made him one of the 
most celebrated political journalists of the age. In 
the campaign of 1844 he was one of the most efficient 
speakers and writers in the State in behalf of Col. 
Polk, his political friends pitting him against such 
men as Thomas Williams, who was afterwards selected 
by Congress to deliver the eulogium upon Abraham 
Lincoln. He was subsequently elected to the State 
Assembly. Here he soon distinguished himself, and 
there was a heated rivalry between him and Thomas 
Burnside, Jr., a son of Judge Burnside of the Supreme 
Court, and a son-in-law of Simon Cameron, then a 
Democrat, for the position of leader of the Democratic 
party in the House. In this competition Burrell was 
victorious, and it is admitted by both friends and 
political opponents that he was the ablest partisan ' 
and the most eminent orator in the Pennsylvania 
Legislature. 

At that time in Pennsylvania the nominations for 
the judiciary were made by the Governor and con- 
firmed by the Senate, and a vacancy occurring in 
Burrell's district, the Governor sent in his name to the 
Senate for president judge. After a contest he was, 
as we have before said, rejected in that body through 
political motives and probably through some per- 
sonal dislikes. It was deemed expedient to vacate 
this appointment, which being done, John C. Knox, 



308 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



of Tioga, was appointed, confirmed by the Senate, 
and commissioned in his stead. 

Judge John C. Knox presided for the first time in 
the Westmoreland courts at May term, 1848. The 
minutes contain the following entry : 

" At 11 o'clock A.m., 22d May, 1848, the Court met. 
John C. Knox, of Tioga County, appeared in court, 
and was conducted to the Bench by Judge Burrell, 
when the commission of the said John C. Knox from 
the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl., ap- 
pointing him President Judge of the Tenth Judicial 
District of Penna., composed of the counties of West- 
moreland, Cambria, Indiana, and Armstrong, dated 
the 11th day of April, 1848, was read." 

When the courts opened Judge Burrell then prac- 
ticed before Judge Knox. 

In 1850 the constitution of the State was amended 
so as to place the election of the judges in the hands 
of the people. Judge Burrell was nominated by his 
party and easily elected. 

Then for November the 17th, 1851, is this minute: 

" Immediately after adjournment the Members of 
the Bar met in the Court-House, for the purpose of 
giving J. C. Knox a complimentary dinner. H. D. 
Foster, Esq., was called to the chair, and H. Byers 
Kuhns was appointed secretary. On motion, J. M. 
Burrell, W. A. Stokes, and Alexander McKinney ap- 
pointed a committee to select the place and make all 
necessary arrangements." 

In the year 1851, Judge Knox was elected judge 
for the counties of Venango, Clarion, Jefferson, and 
Forrest. 1 In 1853 he was appointed to the Supreme 

1 " Monday, Nov. 17, 1851. 

"To the Hon. J. C. Knux : 

''Sir, — The members of the Bar of Westmoreland County, desirous to 
express on your retirement from the Bench of this DiBtrict their feel- 
ings of warm attachment for the courtesy which you have uniformly 

shown them, their admiration of your ability, their appreciation of 3 

professional learning, their confidence in your integrity, ami their high 
sense of those private virtues and legal accomplishments which have 
given them, during your Presidency in this District, a delightful friend 
and have secured to the people an administration of Justice speedy, 
certain, and impartial. 

"We desire you ever to rely on our kindly sentiments. Among us 
you will always be welcomed as an old and sacred friend; absent from 
us we shall regard with deep interest your future course, and hope that 
it will be prosperous and happy. 

"To testify to those feelings, we respectfully request your acceptance 
of a Public Dinner at such time as may suit your convenience. 
"With much respect, your friends, 



" H. D. Foster. 
Jos. H. Kuhns. 
J. M. Burrell. 
Edgar Cowan. 
Will. A. Stokes. 
W. H. Markle. 
Jno. Armstrong, Jr. 
H. P. Laird. 



Jas. C. Clarke. John Armstrong. 

H. Byers Kuhns. Jac. Turney. 

H. C. Marchand. B. Coulter. 

Jas. M. Carpenter. Wm. A. Cook. 

J. F. Woods. Alex. M'Kinney. 

S. B. M'Cormick. T. J. Barclay. 

Aug. Drum. Wm, J. Williams." 
G.W. Clark. 

"Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1851. 

"TO THE MEMBERS OF THE B.VR OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY: 

"Gentlemen, — Your kind note of invitation to a public dinner has 
just been presented to me, and a perusal of its contents has afforded me 
the most lively satisfaction. 

"It is to me a source of great pleasure to learn that you approve of 
the manner in which I have performed the duties of my office during 
the time that I have presided in your county. And I assure you, geutle- 



Bench to the vacancy caused by the death of Penn- 
sylvania's most eminent jurist, Hon. John Bannister 
Gibson. He resigned from this position to become 
attorney-general under Governor Pollock, and in 1861 
he went to Philadelphia to practice law with David 
Webster. He soon after became afflicted with soften- 
ing of the brain ; and was sent to the asylum, and 
is now (1882) an insane inmate of the State Insane 
Asylum at Norristown. 

On the morning of Feb. 16, 1852, the new commis- 
sions of J. M. Burrell, president judge, and of James 
Bell and David Cook, associate judges, being read, 
court opened. Judge Burrell acted as judge in this 
district until 1855, wdien he was appointed judge of 
the District Court of the United States for Kansas, 
then one of the Territories. 

Judge Burrell's wife was Miss Anna Richardson, 
a woman of great beauty in her youth, of liberal ac- 
complishments, and of handsome fortune. He left 
a family of a widow and several children. In re- 
ligion his family were Old-School Presbyterian. He 
was a man of taste and refinement, and what he did 
he did well. He built a fine house at Greensburg for 
a residence, and its excellent location, tasteful grounds, 
and convenient appurtenances are duly appreciated 
by its present owner and occupant. He had a well- 
selected library, and played with singular skill upon 
the violin. He had splendid social qualities, but a 
delicate constitution. From the first as a judge he 
created a favorable impression in every court in 
which he presided, and gave general satisfaction. 

Judge Kimmell, of Somerset, and Judge Agnew, 
afterwards Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, presided in 
these courts at sundry times in the adjudication of 
causes in which Judge Burrell was disqualified dur- 
ing his tenure of office. 

JOSEPH BUFFINGTON, 

for many years president judge of the district of which 
Westmoreland County was a part (the " old Tenth"), 
was born in the town of West Chester, Chester Co., 
Pa., on the 27th day of November, 1803, and died at 
Kittanning on the 3d day of February, 1872. The 
ancestors of Judge Buffington were Friends or Qua- 
kers, who left the county of Middlesex, England, and 



men, that, so far as the intention is concerned, you do me no more than 
justice. As to acts, I am conscious that your partiality has induced you 
to bestow commendations by no means deserved. 

" To you, as members of the Bar, I am under obligations that I can 
only repay by keeping them inconstant remembrance. Coming amongst 
you a si ranger, I was received as a familiar friend, and in our intercourse, 
professional and personal, I have been treated in the kindest manner. 
I am proud of your good opinion, and hope ever to retain it, and although 
our official relation is about to be severed, my earnest wish is that the tie 
that connects us as men and members of the same noble profession may 
never lie weakened or destroyed. 

" I cannot forego the pleasure of meeting you at the festive board, and 
therefore accept your invitation, and name Friday evening of this week 
as the most convenient time. 

"With sentiments of high regard, 

" I remain, gentlemen, truly your friend, 

"John C. Knox." 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



309 



came to the Province of Pennsylvania shortly before 
the proprietary, and settled near Chadd's Ford, in 
Chester County, near the site of the battle of the 
Brandywine, where his grandfather, Jonathan Buf- 
fington, had a grist-mill during the. Revolution. His 
lather, Ephraim Burlington, kept a hotel at West 
Chester, at a tavern stand known as "The White 
Hall," a venerable hostelry, and celebrated through 
that region for many years. It was here that the 
subject of this sketch was born and lived until his 
tenth year, when his father, in hopes of bettering his 
fortunes in the West, left West Chester, came over 
the mountains, and settled at Pine Creek, about five 
miles above Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny River. 
It was during this journey that the travelers passed 
through Greensburg, and it was at the old Rohrer 
House (afterwards the McQuaide House, and for 
many years his favorite stopping-place), that Judge 
Burlington first saw a soft-coal fire. When about 
eighteen years of age he entered the Western Uni- 
versity at Pittsburgh, then under the charge of Dr. 
Bruce, at which place he also enjoyed the instructions 
of the venerable Dr. Joseph Stockton. After pur- 
suing a liberal course of studies he went to Butler, 
Pa., and for some time prior to studying law he 
edited a weekly paper, called the Butler Repository, 
and in company with Samuel A. Purviance, after- 
wards a well-known attorney of Allegheny County 
and attorney-general of the Commonwealth, he en- 
gaged in keeping a small grocery -store. Soon after- 
wards he entered as student-at-law the office of Gen. 
William Ayres, at that time one of the most cele- i 
brated lawyers in Western Pennsylvania, under 
whose careful training he laid a thorough foundation 
for his chosen life-work. During his student life he 
married Miss Catharine Mechling, a daughter of 
Hon. Jacob Mechling, a prominent politician of that 
region, and for many years a member of the House 
of Representatives and Senate of Pennsylvania. Mr. 
Mechling was originally a native of Westmoreland 
County, and was married to Miss Drum, an aunt of 
Hon. Augustus Drum, M.C. from Westmoreland, of 
Gen. Richard Drum, U.S.A., and of Maj. Simon 
Drum, who was killed in the Mexican war. 

In the month of July, 182G, he was admitted to 
practice in Butler County, and in the Supreme Court 
on Sept. 10, 1828. He remained at the Butler bar for 
about a year, but finding at length that the business 
was largely absorbed by the older and more expe- 
rienced practitioners, he determined to seek some new 
field of labor, and finally settled upon Armstrong 
County, to which place he removed and settled at 
Kittanning, where he resided continuously until his 
death. Here his industry, integrity, and close appli- 
cation soon brought him to the front of the bar, and 
although the first years of his professional life were 
ones of hardship and narrow means, yet in a few years 
he was in possession of a practice that absorbed all 
his time and afforded a good income. 



From coming to manhood Judge Buffmgton took 
a strong interest in politics. At the inception of the 
anti-Masonic party in 1831, or thereabouts, he became 
one of its members, and served as one of the delegates 
to the National Convention of that body which met 
at Baltimore in 1832 and nominated William Wirt 
for the Presidency. During those years he was sev- 
eral times nominated for the position of State senator 
or member of the House of Representatives, but with- 
out success, his party being largely in the minority. 

In 1840 he joined the Whig party, taking an active 
part in the election of Gen. Harrison, and serving as 
one of the Presidential electors on the Whig ticket. 

During the years that intervened from his coming 
to Kittanning until 1843, Judge Buffington was closely 
engaged in the line of his profession. Patient, labo- 
rious, and attentive, full of zeal and energy for his 
clients' causes, he had acquired an extensive practice. 
He was constantly in attendance upon the courts of 
Clarion, Jefferson, Armstrong, and Indiana, and his 
services were often in demand in other counties. He 
was connected in all the important land trials of that 
region, and his knowledge of this intricate branch of 
the law was thorough aud exhaustive. Said one of his 
life-long friends, "To speak of Judge Buffington's 
career as a lawyer would be a history of the judicial 
contests in this section of the State for more than a 
quarter of a century. He had a large practice in 
Armstrong, Jefferson. Clarion, aud Indiana Coun- 
ties, the courts of which counties he regularly at- 
tended. It was my pleasure to be with him, either 
as assisting or opposing counsel, in many of these 
counties. It may not be forgotten that in those early 
times in the judicial history of middle Western Penn- 
sylvania the bar constituted a kind of peripatetic as- 
sociation, all and each contributing his share to the 
social enjoyments of the occasion, and to the instruc- 
tion of the unlearned in law, of the obligations which 
were imposed upon them. These unions at different 
places created necessarily many happy reminiscences. 
But, like the schoolmaster of the village, ' the very 
spot where once they triumphed is forgot.' 

" It cannot be forgotten or denied that Judge Buf- 
fington was a conscientious, fair-dealing, and upright 
lawyer. He had imbibed so largely of the privileges 
and excellencies of the profession, knew so much of 
it and the rightful manner of pursuing it, that to him 
chicanery was fraud; technicality, folly; and injus- 
tice a crime." 

In the fall of 1843, Judge Buffington was elected a 
member of Congress as the Whig candidate in the dis- 
trict composed of the counties of Armstrong, Butler, 
Clearfield, and Indiana, his competitor being Dr. Lo- 
rain, of Clearfield County. In 1844 he was re-elected, 
his competitor being Mr. McKeunan, of Indiana 
County. During his service in the House he acted 
with the Whigs in all important measures, among 
others voting against the admission of Texas on the 
ground of opposition to the extension of slave territory. 



310 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



His fellow-townsman and warm personal friend, 
Hon. W. F. Johnston, having been elected Governor, 
he appointed Judge Buffington, in 1849, to the posi- 
tion of president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial 
District, composed of the counties of Clarion, Elk, 
Jefferson, and Venango. This position he held until 
1851, when he was defeated in the judicial election 
by Hon. John C. Knox, the district being largely 
Democratic. 

In 1852 he was nominated by the Whig State Con- 
vention for the judgeship of the Supreme Court. In 
the general overthrow of the Whig party that re- 
sulted in the defeat of Gen. Scott for the Presidency 
that year, Judge Buffington was defeated, his com- 
petitor being the late Chief Justice Woodward, of 
Luzerne County. 

The same year he was appointed by President Fill- 
more chief justice of Utah Territory, then just organ- 
ized. He was strongly urged by the President per- 
sonally to accept, as the position was a trying one, 
and the administration wished it to be filled by some 
one in whom it had confidence. Its great distance 
from civilization and the customs of the country, 
which were so abhorrent to his ideas, led him, how- 
ever, to decline the proffered honor. 

On the resignation of Hon. J. Murry Burrell, 
judge of the Tenth District, he was appointed to that 
position, in the fall of 1855, by Governor Pollock, 
with whom he had been a fellow-member of Con- 
gress, and with his appointment commenced a close 
and intimate acquaintance with Westmoreland County 
and its citizens that lasted until his death. 

In the fall of 1856 he was elected to fill the position 
to which he had been appointed for a term of ten 
years. In this election he had no contestant, the 
opposition declining to nominate through the advice 
of their then candidate for the Presidency, James 
Buchanan, a special friend of the judge's for many 
years. This position he held until 1866, when he was 
again elected to fill the judgeship for another term of 
ten years. 

This he resigned in 1871, when failing health ad- 
monished him that the judicial labors, already be- 
yond the power of any man, were too great for one 
who had passed the meridian of life and had borne 
the heat and burden of the day, whilst others more 
vigorous had fallen by his side. It was hard, indeed, 
for one whose mind was skilled to greatness and 
trained to labor to listen to the demands of a feeble 
frame whilst yet that mind was in the vigor and 
strength of maturity. But, sustained by the con- 
sciousness of duty well done, and cheered by the 
united voice from without proclaiming his life's mis- 
sion to the public nobly performed, he left the battle- 
field of life and lived (as was his wont) amid the 
brighter joys of social and domestic love, himself the 
centre around which the affections of a dear home 
clustered. He was again in private life after forty- 
six years' connection with the bench and bar of the 



Commonwealth, to the thoroughness and industry of 
which the State Reports for the forty years preceding 
bear silent but eloquent witness. 

Surrounded by friends and every comfort of life, 
the following year passed quickly, but, as in the case 
of many an overworked professional man, the final 
summons came without warning. On Saturday, Feb. 
3, 1872, he was in his usual health, and on rising from 
dinner went to an adjoining room, across which he 
commenced walking as was his wont. His wife com- 
ing in five minutes afterwards found him lying on the 
sofa in the sleep that knows no waking. He was 
buried with the services of the Episcopal Church, of 
which he had been an attendant, officer, and liberal 
supporter for many years. Of Judge Buffington as a 
lawyer we have spoken ; as a citizen he was public- 
spirited, and as a neighbor he was kind and sympa- 
thetic ; all his intercourse with his fellow-men was 
marked with a courtesy and quiet dignity that im- 
pressed one as being in the presence of one who was 
a gentleman in the true sense of the word. His 
memory is a rich legacy to friends who survive. 

JUDGE JAMES A. LOGAN. 

On Monday morning, May 8, 1871, accompanied 
hy Judge M. P. McClannahan, one of the associate 
judges, and the only one in the county at that time, 
his colleague, Judge Robert Given, being in Califor- 
nia, Judge Logan took his seat upon the bench, and 
directed the crier to open the courts. He then handed 
his commission from Governor Geary, appointing him 
president judge of the Tenth Judicial District, to the 
prothonotary to be read. The commission empower- 
ing him to hold the said office until the first Monday 
of the next December was then read. 

Judge Logan was a native of Westmoreland County, 
born in the limits of Burrell township. He received 
his education at Elder's Ridge Academy, a prepara- 
tory school in Indiana County, and studied law with 
William A. Stokes, Esq., and with the Hon. H. P. 
Laird, and on motion of W. H. Markle, Esq., was 
admitted to practice on the 16th of May, 1863. After 
his admission to the bar he entered into partnership 
with Mr. Markle, and remained with him until the 
senior member of the firm was appointed collector of 
United States revenue of this congressional district. 
He was shortly after his admission appointed solicitor 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and after the South- 
west Railway was incorporated was selected to man- 
age the legal affairs of that road, of which he was also 
a director. 

He applied himself with diligence to the study of 
the law, and soon evidenced legal talents of more 
than ordinary degree. He acquired a good practice, 
and was prominent as a rising politician in the Re- 
publican party, and was mentioned as a candidate 
for Congress a year or two prior to his appointment 
as judge. 

Judge Logan presiding with satisfaction in each of 






THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



311 



the three counties of his district under this' appoint- 
ment, was nominated by the Republican party as its 
candidate for election, and was easily elected over 
Silas M. Clark, Esq., of Indiana, his competitor in the 
Democratic party, his party having a majority in the 
district. He presided after his election over all the 
courts of the district until Westmoreland was made 
a separate judicial district by the Constitution of 
1874, when he was retained as judge of this county 
alone. Over the courts of this county he presided 
with eminent ability, firmness, and skill until he 
resigned, in 1879, to accept the position of Assistant 
General Solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a 
position in the legal department of that corporation 
which he was the first to occupy. 

JUDGE JAMES A. HUNTER. 

The Hon. James A. Hunter, the present incumbent 
of this distinguished office, upon the vacancy occur- 
ring by the resignation of Judge Logan, was com- 
missioned as president judge of the Tenth Judicial 
District by Governor Hoyt, July 12, 1879, his com- 
mission running to the first Monday of January, 
1880. On the 14th of July, 1879, Judge Hunter took 
his oath of office. In the election of the fall of 1879 
to fill this vacancy Judge Hunter was elected by the 
people of Westmoreland their law judge for ten 
years.' 

JOHN BYERS ALEXANDKK. 

At the beginning of the present century, Westmore- 
land, relatively speaking, was yet in the backwoods. 
At that time there were no turnpikes, not to say 
canals or railroads. Although the people were in- 
dustrious and energetic, yet they were, as is always 
the case in like circumstances, in too many instances 
inclined to be quarrelsome and fond of litigation. 
The class which made up the great majority of the 
early inhabitants were proverbially fonder of the 
sight of a court-house than a church. Its county 
town was, therefore, taking all things together, a good 
location for a young lawyer of able body and practi- 
cal mind — characteristics and acquirements which 
nearly all the eminent lawyers of that day possessed 
in a marked degree. Among these first lawyers was 
John B. Alexander. 

John Byers Alexander was born in Carlisle, Cum- 
berland Co., Pa., and emigrated to Greensburg early 
in the present century. He was admitted to the 
Westmoreland bar on motion of William Wilkins, 
Esq., at the December term of court, 1804. He opened 
his first office here, engaged in the practice of the law, 
and resided here until the war of Eighteen-Twelve 
commenced. Mr. Alexander had been liberally edu- 
cated, having been graduated at Dickinson College, 
Carlisle, when that institution had a first-class repu- 
tation. He was a good Latin scholar, readily reading 
and explaining old law writers to the court. In his 

1 See biographical sketch of Judge Hunter. 



old age he was heard to quote Horace in the original 
in ordinary conversation with gentlemen of culture. 
But Coke says that the law is a jealous mistress, and 
requires an undivided attention. Alexander was of 
the same opinion, and had little regard for any lit- 
erary pursuit outside of his profession. He was no 
politician, and read no newspapers, novels, maga- 
zines, or histories. His sole literary recreation was 
the reading of Shakspeare. This he knew so well 
that he quoted it regularly in court, and could repeat 
whole scenes without any mistake, and with proper 
manner and pronunciation. And to him, in his 
profession, the great dramatist was undoubtedly of 
great use, and particularly in this, that it supple- 
mented him with a fund of quotations with which in 
addressing juries he could relieve the dryness and 
dullness of professional language. 

His father having a large family to support, he, 
after having received his collegiate education, was 
thrown upon his own resources. He studied much, 
worked hardly and carefully, and as a return rose to 
the front rank at the bar, and gained the best practice 
in the couuty. 

Only on two occasions did he allow his mind to be 
drawn away or diverted from the practice of his pro- 
fession, in which he was making money and gaining 
reputation. The first of these occasions was the war 
of Eighteen-Twelve. When that war with Great 
Britain commenced he collected a company of volun- 
teers, and served with credit under Gen. Harrison in 
several engagements with the British and Indians. 
The name of his company was "The Greensburg 
Rifles," and an account of its services in that cam- 
paign will be found in the chapter of this book in 
which the subject of that war is treated of. 

After his return he resumed the practice of the law, 
rose to the head of the Greensburg bar, and obtained 
a lucrative practice in this and the adjoining counties. 
But notwithstanding his peaceful profession, Alex- 
ander still retained a taste for military display. His 
town of Carlisle had been the site of a British bar- 
racks and a military rendezvous, and hence there 
had grown up among the inhabitants an admiration 
of a soldier's character and a fondness for a soldier's 
life. But in the case of Alexander, he was born with 
the instincts of the soldier, and members of his family 
had raised the name to distinction in the military 
annals of the Revolutionary era on the side of the 
colonies. The title for which he felt a fondness and 
expressed a preference was the familiar one of "Major," 
by which he was known all over the State, and which 
he justly and honorably had earned in the field. 

Moved by this military taste, Alexander raised a 
company of artillery for " parade duty," when 

" No war or battle's sound 

Was heard the world around ; 
The idle spear and shield were high up hung; 

The hooked chariot stood, 

Unstain'd with human blood; 
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng." 



312 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The company was the model company of the mili- 
tary division in which the militia of the State was 
divided, and was truly a fine one in appearance. The 
men were handsomely uniformed, were all over six 
feet in height, and their two handsome brass cannons 
were drawn by large gray horses. The rank and file 
consisted of substantial farmers and stout mechanics 
and laborers. In rich and gaudy uniform, Alexander 
always commanded in person, and he expended a 
large sum of money in equipments, horses, and dona- 
tions. He, with his company, turned out in honor of 
Lafayette when he passed through the southwestern 
part of our county, and he commanded this company 
in person at the execution of Joseph Evans. 

Alexander not only encouraged the profession of 
arms by his example, but he went so far as to ac- 
knowledge the code of honor in theory and practice. 
He fought a duel with a Mr. Mason, of Uniontown, 
Fayette Co. They exchanged shots, but neither was 
wounded. Both desired a second fire, but the seconds 
refused on the ground that the point of honor for 
which they fought did not require another interchange 
of deadly missives, and neither had the satisfaction 
of putting a bullet-hole into the body of his antago- 
nist. 

This fondness for military parade and display thus 
became rather a weakness with Alexander. As he 
grew older he became vain of military titles and 
reputation, and was easily cajoled and flattered on 
this point. 

His military reputation, however, rested on a more 
substantial foundation. Of his popularity, based upon 
his military exploits, is related a curious incident. 
Some time about 1838, when Sanford, who introduced 
upon the stage the "Jim Crow" minstrelsy, intended 
to dance and sing, Alexander was in Pittsburgh, at- 
tending the Supreme Court. He went to the theatre, 
and on his appearance in the boxes it was suggested 
to Sauford to make him a compliment. Jim Crow 
improvised the following : 

"01e Gen'ral Harrison, 

He was the big commander, 
And the next big hero there 
Was Major Alexander! 

"So wheel about," etc. 

This drew attention to the box of Alexander, and 
was received with uproarious applause. The old Major 
was highly gratified. 

But on his return from the war he quietly returned 
to his profession, not using his military reputation as 
a stepping-stone to popular favor. His military ser- 
vices were such as to have made him a distinguished 
citizen of the county had they not been very largely 
lost sight of in his more brilliant reputation as an 
eminent lawyer. In this character shall we chiefly 
regard him in this sketch. 

The second and less fortunate occasion which drew 
off his attention from the agreeable toil of the office 
and the bar was his election to the State Assembly. 



Prior to that, and until the advent of Gen. Jackson 
into the political arena, he had taken no part in poli- 
tics. At that time he avowed himself a strong Jack- 
son man. The individuality and the upright and 
simple character of that remarkable leader drew to 
his support many of contrary political opinions and 
preferences. On the first evidences of the popular- 
ity of that military citizen he was claimed by both 
parties which were then in antagonism, and probably 
the Federalists, or Whigs, had more right to class him 
with those in their faith than had the Democrat- 
Republicans. But Alexander, although a Federalist 
of Federalists, was among the first of Jackson's sup- 
porters in Westmoreland, and remained the friend of 
his administration, without the hope of preferment or 
of party patronage. 

In 1834 one of the representatives of Westmoreland 
in the General Assembly, James Findlay, having been 
appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth by Gover- 
nor Wolf, a vacancy was made in the representation, 
which was filled at a special election by returning 
Maj. Alexander. 

The professions of the law and of arms have from 
times of high antiquity been regarded as inimical 
professions. Inter arma silent leges. But Alexander 
was attached to both of them. It may be said of him 
too, as it was said of another, that law was his busi- 
ness and arms was his recreation, in relative degrees. 
For politics, however, he had no predilection. It is 
seldom that eminent lawyers are successful as politi- 
cians or as legislators, and especially when they enter 
public life advanced in years. The political and leg- 
islative careers of such eminent jurists as William 
L. Meredith and James M. Porter, of Rufus Choate 
and Horace Binuey, were in nowise successful, and 
certainly added nothing to their reputation as law- 
yers. 

Alexander was unanimously elected to fill the va- 
cancy, and thereupon went to Harrisburg. It was 
admitted by all that his representative career was a 
failure. He was like a fish out of water. He there 
came in contact with men who, although they could 
scarcely have spelled their way through the horn- 
book, could have bought him and sold him in legis- 
lative trickery every hour in the day. For those he 
had the utmost contempt, and he appeared to regard 
the whole legislative body somewhat as Gulliver 
regarded a similar assemblage in Lilliput. Before 
the session closed he left them in disgust, mounted 
old "Somerset," and rode home. 

Thenceforth he took no part in politics whatever 
until 1840, when his old commander was nominated 
for the Presidency. During that campaign he con- 
sented to preside at a Harrison meeting at Greens- 
burg. He was then on the verge of eternity, and 
died shortly after, in the same year. 

The position of Mr. Alexander at the Westmore- 
land bar for a period of about twenty years is gener- 
ally admitted to have been at its head. There were 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



313 



then at the bar other lawyers who rose to eminence 
after his day, and at his day there were gentlemen 
who were justly regarded as able lawyers, but these 
were mostly younger and less experienced. Rich- 
ard Coulter, a younger man, was his superior in 
eloquence, Alexander Foster in extensive reading 
and discursive knowledge, and several others in gen- 
eral accomplishments, but when he was in the full 
vigor of his intellectual manhood, as a learned lawyer 
he had no superior. But in the end his inclination 
and ability for work decreasing with lost vigor, his 
former position was secured by others. 

Probably the great secret of the success of Alex- 
ander as a lawyer was his sedulous and exclusive de- 
votion to the profession of his choice. More than 
one of the text-writers and expositors of the English 
jurisprudence have, in giving their experience and 
advice, laid stress on the observation that to succeed 
at the law all thought of advancement elsewhere 
must be abandoned. Bacon, who undoubtedly was 
vain of his intellectual powers, admitted the superi- 
ority'of Coke, his one-time rival for the enviable dis- 
tinction of being the oracle of that code which, 
taking shape in the Institutes, soon after came to be 
regarded as a not unworthy rival of the imperial 
jurisprudence, the code of the civil law of the Latin 
civilization ; and this superiority which Bacon ad- 
mitted in Coke he attributed not to superior intellect 
or attainments, but to a closer and more exclusive 
study of the groundwork and superstructure of the 
English common and statute law. It is said by 
Chitty, the elder, that the law as a jealous mistress 
submits to no division of affection. It was a well- 
known apothegm, traceable to the earliest of the, law- 
writers of England, and which Blackstone regards 
with the veneration due to a saying so old, and which 
he lias made part of the text of the Commentaries, 
that to make a good lawyer, a lawyer sufficient to 
judge the law T s, requires the ceaseless lucubrations of 
twenty years; and all his disciples know that before 
the master entered upon that course of study which 
qualified him to expound the laws of his country, and 
to lay out the plan of a new academical science, he 
bade adieu to polite literature in elegant and expres- 
sive verse, entitled " The Lawyer's Farewell to his 
Muse," and which began " Shakspeare no more." 

In one particular the writer of the Commentaries 
seems in his actual literary experience to have been 
at issue with his own advice, for notwithstanding this 
adieu, and although he did devote himself to the mas- 
tery of the law, yet Blackstone really never did aban- 
don his Shakspeare, but was in his lifetime regarded 
one of the best Shaksperian scholars in England, and 
found time to annotate, correct the text, and offer 
valuable suggestions for an edition of the dramatist's 
works, edited by a friend towards the end of his life. 
But he read Shakspeare as a lawyer would read it. 

This advice Alexander followed in all parts. 
Shakspeare he did not and could not forego, — it was 



his vade-mecum. In Blackstone he saw the perfection 
of human reason, in Shakspeare the perfection of 
human wisdom. From the one he obtained his 
knowledge of law, and from the other his knowledge 
of human nature. In his speeches before the jury he 
constantly drew from the serious portions, the pro- 
verbial expressions, and the didactic moral passages 
of his author; and in his peculiar humor, when away 
from professional restriction, he acted, with appro- 
priate " 'Fore-God-well-said-my-lord-, and-with-a- 
proper-accent-and-manner," the comic scenes. 

The high reputation of Alexander as a lawyer was 
well deserved. His mind was a legal one, clear, logical, 
and practical, and from early life he had been a close 
and severe student. Once, when complimented upon 
his legal knowledge as if coming by nature, he re- 
plied, " I owe my legal knowledge, whatever maybe 
its extent, to hard study. I rose and studied when 
others were in their beds." This habit of study 
he retained until old age. It was said that he read 
Blackstone every year, and at all favorable opportu- 
nities refreshed his memory with the other standard 
law authorities. In short, he read nothing but law- 
books and Shakspeare. 

As a sound and well-read lawyer he had, as we said, 
no equal at the Westmoreland bar, and in the special 
branch of the law relating to land title he had no su- 
perior in Western Pennsylvania. He was retained as 
counsel in many cases of disputed title in the court of 
last resort in the State, and even in some cases of a 
like character which were adjudicated in the highest 
court of the United States. He was the counsel in 
one particularly heavy land-title case on an appeal 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, wherein 
his adversary was the celebrated William Wirt. 
Alexander gained his cause, and the argument dis- 
played such legal acumen that he astonished the 
bench as well as the bar. At its conclusion he was 
complimented by Mr. Wirt and by Daniel Webster, 
who was present, and who expressed in his warm- 
hearted way his approbation of the manner he had 
handled his case, of his exposition of the law, and 
the profundity of his legal reasoning and learning. 
It is said, furthermore, that Alexander recognized 
these marks of approbation by such an expression as 
left a questionable doubt as to his appreciation of 
them ; for, as he was reputed one of the best lawyers, 
so he was reputed one of the best cursers in the State. 

In the intricate and abstruse practice of the land 
law of Pennsylvania Alexander was, without doubt, 
the superior of Wirt. Wirt was a politician, an 
orator, and a literary man, but to the law alone had 
Alexander devoted an almost entire attention. If 
Wirt were the Bacon, Alexander was the Coke. 

His contemporaries used to relate many instances 
of his success at the bar in the management of his 
cases, and many anecdotes illustrative of his peculiar 
characteristics. Some of these have come down to 
our own times. 



314 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



A young lawyer of Armstrong County once secured 
the services of Alexander in an important land trial. 
Alexander took the case, made an examination of it, 
and prepared a memorandum and brief. He duly 
attended the Armstrong court when the case was set 
for trial ; but having met an old acquaintance there, 
who, like himself, was of a convivial disposition, the 
Major became so intent in " fighting his battles o'er 
again" that he did not care whether court kept or no. 
The Armstrong lawyer became uneasy, went to Alex- 
ander, whom he found in bed, told him that every- 
thing depended on his assistance, and that his client 
was anxious for the trial to proceed. Thereupon the 
Major asked for his saddle-bags, and opening them 
he took out a bundle of papers. " Take these papers," 
said he, with a hasty imprecation, " go into court, 
and if you cannot win the case upon them you are 
not much of a lawyer." The young lawyer did so ; 
he went into court, and entirely upon the precedents 
and authorities cited in the papers drawn up by 
Alexander obtained a verdict in favor of his client. 
When the term of court was over the young attorney 
called upon Alexander, who still remained in his 
room with his old military companion, and asked him 
what was his fee and what the services of both should 
be. " Why, you may charge as little as you please," 
he replied ; " but I'm not going to have all this 
trouble and toil for less than one hundred dollars." 

We have been told that the fees of Alexander were 
fair, moderate, and never exorbitant. He was no 
professional shark. Notwithstanding all the great 
land trials in which he was engaged, the largest fee 
he ever secured was one of a thousand dollars. 

He greatly distinguished himself in one of the most 
remarkable cases ever tried in the Westmoreland 
courts. A negro man named Tom Morgan had been 
charged with an attempt to commit a rape upon a 
girl who was weak in intellect if not actually im- 
becile. The outrage excited such indignation in 
Greensburg that a party of stout men armed them- 
selves with cowhides and wattles, dragged the black 
man from his house, and so beat and whipped him 
that nothing saved his life but the sheriff and the 
posse, who took him out of the hands of the mob, 
lodged him in jail, and placed a guard round the jail 
building. Before yet the excitement had subsided 
the negro was indicted in the Oyer and Terminer 
Court. Eminent counsel, at private expense, was 
secured to assist the Commonwealth in the prosecu- 
tion. Conway, one of the first lawyers of Cambria 
County, and Coulter, one of the first lawyers of West- 
moreland, both of them eloquent advocates, were 
with the deputy attorney-general. 

When the case came on to be heard the negro was 
brought into court. A more pitiable appeal to a sen- 
sitive mind of our generation could not well be made 
than did this despised, friendless negro. But at that 
day a negro was regarded even in Pennsylvania as 
more a beast than a man. Popular prejudice was 



against him, and this popular prejudice was insti- 

! gated and then influenced by all arts and all argu- 

' ments. The character of the prosecutor was lost 

sight of in the wide-spread opinion of the guilt of 

the prisoner. 

Mr. Alexander was designated by the court to take 
the cause of the defense. Among the first questions 
raised was the question of the competency of the 
prosecutor to testify. The question was one of the 
greatest importance in the trial of the cause, as her 
testimony was necessary for a conviction. To gain 
this position and allow the testimony both Conway 
and Coulter spoke, and doing so they addressed much 
of their discourse to the jury and to the audience, 
although towards the judge. They argued the point 
with ability and eloquence. A latitude was given the 
argument unknown in ordinary trials, for it was more 
than an ordinary trial. The court-house was filled 
with people, and the audience was in sympathy with 
the orators. Coulter acquitted himself with more 
than ordinary satisfaction. He displayed the highest 
gifts of the orator. In his peroration he addressed 
himself to the subject of his eloquent labor, and drew 
all eyes and all hearts to the girl as she sat there 
within the bar. She alone was unmoved, and there 
was something in her half-idiotic look which with the 
words and manner of the counsel drew all hearts to 
her in pity, so that the cause of the girl was made the 
cause of the people. The advocate had, from the 
pathetic and tragic rendition of his story, the bench, 
the jury, the audience, many of the bar, and even the 
prisoner in tears, and it was evident that if the point 
had been at the ruling of those who heard him their 
sympathy would have carried all before it. 

Mr. Alexander then rose to take exception at the 
court ruling for the admission of the testimony of the 
prosecutor in the case under reason of the law. He 
said that he had never, as counsel, been spoken to by 
the negro; that he cared nothing for him, whether he 
was white or black ; nor did he wish to extenuate his 
guilt if he were guilty; but that he desired to see the 
law vindicated. He then examined the condition of 
the girl. Where the counsel for the prosecution had 
raised pity he raised doubt ; and where the one had 
appealed to sympathy the other appealed to reason. 
Those who listened soon began to perceive from the 
evidences of their own senses that the poor girl was 
but a demented creature, whose ideas of discriminating 
right and wrong were vague, and whose notions of 
female chastity were still vaguer; and so the accused 
and the accuser stood on the same ground. 

But the counsel for the prisoner did not stop at this. 
He lost sight of his client in the magnitude of the 
cause. He brought to his case his stored-up learning 
of the common law, he recalled old judicial decisions, 
quoted black-letter authority from the law-Latin and 
Norman-French text-books of the Middle Ages, 
marshaled together all the maxims of the common 
law bearing on the capacity and the incapacity of 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



315 



witnesses to testify, drew the legal distinction of 
idiocy, lunacy, and dementia, and brought the court 
from the fountain sources of legal wisdom down 
through a long series of English decisions to a modern 
date, and examining into the law of evidence as it 
was recognized in Pennsylvania, he applied his argu- 
ment to the case in hand ; and in the end ruled the 
court by quoting a recent decision of the president 
judge, where, in a similar case, the testimony of the 
main witness had been rejected. To the astonishment 
of the bystanders, who had expected that the prisoner 
would go to the penitentiary to serve out in solitary 
confinement the rest of his days, Tom Morgan walked 
out of the court-house a free man. 

As most everything connected with the life of such 
a distinguished man has some interest, we shall now 
have something to say on the family relations, the per- 
sonal appearance, and the habits of Maj. Alexander. 

His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, and they had emi- 
grated to this country before the Revolution. His 
father, Peter Alexander, was born in Cumberland 
County, Pa. The family were Whigs and patriots 
during the war of the Revolution. The wife of John 
B. was a Miss Smith, of Cumberland County, a sister 
of the wife of Dr. Postlethwaite. He had no chil- 
dren. Two of his sisters married in Westmoreland ; 
one was married to Joseph Kuhns, Esq., and the other 
to Eli Coulter, Esq., the father of Gen. Richard 
Coulter and Alexander Coulter, Esq., of Greensburg. 
His wife survived him, and on her death the property 
went to the collateral heirs. Besides two sisters he 
had two brothers, Samuel Alexander, who was a lead- 
ing lawyer of the Carlisle, Cumberland County, bar, 
and Thomas Alexander, who once lived with his 
brother in Greensburg, and who was never married. 

In personal appearance he was a large, fat man. 
His height was about five feet ten inches, and his 
weight about the year 1834 must have been about two 
hundred and forty pounds. Of his personal appear- 
ance there is one thing which has been remarked by 
all those who remember him. He had a most re- 
markable head, and a description of it may not be 
uninteresting to the students of phrenology. It was 
unusually large, but not well rounded. It was elon- 
gated from the occiput to the sinciput, that is to say, 
it was inordinately long from the hind part of the 
skull to the forehead, and in this direction it was dis- 
proportionate to the height. It was large and promi- 
nent in front of the ears, extended far behind them, 
but was not developed in proportion above the ears. 
It seemed — from this description and judging scien- 
tifically — to be deficient in veneration and the moral 
sentiments. 

In the vigor of his life and manhood he had been 
well formed and muscular, but in his old age he had 
become very corpulent. His nose was large and 
straight, and his complexion between fair and florid. 
In his younger years he was undoubtedly a good- 
looking man, but the exposure of an active campaign, 



and careless and unwatched habits in eating and 
drinking had in time made his skin and features 
rough. Yet even in his old age when in good humor 
he had a pleasant and genial smile, and when he 
chose his manners were polished and genteel. In 
company with women no man could be more gentle 
and good-humored. His rudeness belonged in great 
part to the times and the society around him. 

Alexander rose the year round at the break of day, 
studied his cases, answered his letters, and did the 
heavy part of his business before breakfast. When 
his business did not absorb his attention he read in 
some law-book. After breakfast he visited the offices 
and taverns, and chatted with clients and acquaint- 
ances. Although he kept a sideboard with liquors for 
callers, he treated at the taverns. He was no churl, 
and was popular with inn-keepers and drinking men. 
Although he has had, among a certain class, a reputa- 
tion for using blackguard expressions, yet he never 
descended to relate obscene stories or retail low gossip. 
In warm weather he slept in the afternoon, and had the 
habit of reading his favorite author in bed at night. 

In business transactions the integrity of Alexander 
was inflexible. He was never known to do a dis- 
honest or dishonorable action No man could say 
that he ever defrauded him of a dollar. His hand- 
some fortune was all gained by honorable professional 
toil. In his marital relation he was a pattern. No 
lady in the days of chivalry was ever treated with 
more attention and courtesy than Mrs. Alexander. 
His character was really an elevated one, and it was 
only when the " times were out of joint" that he was, 
as he was commonly reported, rude, overbearing, or 
quarrelsome. 

He resided for years in a large brick house on 
Main Street, diagonal to the Methodist Church. 
This house with many alterations is now and has 
long been used for hotel purposes, and during the 
civil war obtained the name of the " Richmond 
House." His law-office was in the same building. 
Some time between 1830 and 1840 he removed to the 
township. Then both his residence and law-office 
were in a house half a mile southwest of the borough. 
Every business day he rode into town on a beautiful 
sorrel horse with a silvery mane and tail, called 
"Somerset." He employed and amused himself in 
agriculture and horticulture, and in the improvement 
of the breed of cattle and poultry. The culture of 
the fields became with him quite a hobby, and with 
all the modesty of his profession he always main- 
tained that his apples, hogs, turkeys, and chickens 
were the best in Westmoreland. 1 



l A.CTION OF THE COURT ON THE DEATH OF JOHN B. ALEX- 
ANDER, ESQ. 
May term, 1840. 
From the Record for Saturday morning, May 23, 1840: 
The court being in session, the Hon. Richard Coulter rose and an- 
nounced to the court the death of John Byers Alexander, Esq., the 
eldest brother of this bar. 



316 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.. 



ALEXANDER WILLIAM FOSTER. 

Alexander William Foster was the son of Rev. 
William Foster, pastor of Oetorara Church, in Sads- 
bury township, Chester County, Pa., and was born 
October, 1771. He studied law under Edward Burd, 
Esq., in Philadelphia, and became a member of the 
bar in 1793. In 1796 the Foster family removed from 
Chester County to Meadville, in Crawford County. 
In the same year he was employed as agent and law- 
yer by the Holland Land Company. He soon ac- 
quired such a reputation in his profession that his 
practice extended from Pittsburgh to Erie. In 1812 
he was retained to go to Greensburg to try a cause, 
and he so favorably impressed some litigants with his 
conducting of the case that he was retained by a 
number of suitors. He thereupon, instead of remov- 
ing to Pittsburgh to locate permanently, as he had in- 
tended, settled in Greensburg, where he remained 
and practiced law until 1831, a period of nearly twenty 
years. 

Upon settling here he soon obtained a first-class 
practice, which, after the manner of the time, extended 
to the counties of Indiana and Armstrong. He was 
considered one of the best of his profession in this 
judicial district, and along with Coulter and Alexander 
formed the trio of leading lawyers at the bar of West- 
moreland. 

A personal friend has thus described some of his 
professional characteristics. Mr. Foster did not pos- 
sess the impassioned and florid eloquence of Richard 
Coulter, or the legal profundity of John B. Alexander, 
but his professional attainments were said to have 
been more extensive than those of the former, and he 
had a mental acumen and a power of extorting truth 
from witnesses beyond the ability of the latter. But 
if his oratorical powers were not splendid, yet he had 
great copiousness of language, and with a fiuency 
without error or hesitation could express his ideas in 
words suitable to the subject. The fault of his ora- 
tory was that it was not concise and chaste, but in- 



Tliat the members of the bar unanimously desire the ordinary busi- 
ness of the court be suspended for this day, that they may pay a merited 
and just tribute of respect to the memory of their deceased brother, 
and have an opportunity of attending his funeral : — Mr. Coulter said it 
was customary to give testimonials of respect to the memories of dis- 
tinguished members of the bar by a suspension of the business on ac- 
count of their decease, and lie felt unmingled pleasure in offering to the 
court the full and entire concurrence of all the members of the bar in 
that practice. He said the brethren of the bar all acknowledged their 
indebtedness to Maj. Alexander for the many advantages they individu- 
ally and collectively derived from their intercourse at the bar with him. 
They recollected his vigorous intellect, which seized with a giant's grip 
every cause in which he was professionally engaged ; they recollected 
many passages of pleasant professional intercourse with the deceased, 
and now when he was removed from among them they desire to bear 
to his memory the token of respect which was accorded by the profes- 
sion to their eminent brethren. He therefore moved the court to ad- 
journ over this day. 

Per curiam. We have pleasure in announcing to you our cordial ap- 
proval of the practice suggested, and sincerely join with the members 
of the bar in their merited tribute to the memury of the deceased. 

The court then adjourned. 



clined to verbosity. If Foster was not profoundly 
learned in the law like Alexander, yet he was a well- 
read lawyer, and could always use, like ready change, 
all his legal information. Although inferior to Alex- 
ander before the court, he was superior before a jury. 
Here on an average he was equal to Coulter. He 
could not so readily move to wrath and tears, but 
could always expose knavery, detect fraud, and try 
to attain the truth in such away as to force attention, 
excite mirth, and move to laughter. He had too 
much of the milk of human kindness in his bosom 
to be bitterly sarcastic, but his speeches were often 
enlivened with humor and anecdote. 

Mr. Foster was of a kindly, genial disposition, fond 
of company and conversation. His office was said to 
have been the best ever in Greensburg for the study 
of the law. While other lawyers were reserved, taci- 
turn, and often overbearing and supercilious, Foster 
was affable, courteous, and fond of communicating in- 
formation. He frequently conferred with his students, 
put cases to them, and held in his office a kind of 
moot court. It was reported of several of Foster's 
students who rose to distinction in their profession 
that they learned more law orally from him than they 
had ever got by reading his books. Among his stu- 
dents were John Riddell, of Erie, Thomas Struthers, 
of Warren County, and Calvin Mason, of Fayette 
County, who in 1813 fought a duel with pistols with 
John B. Alexander. He practiced in Philadelphia, 
and died in that city. John F. Beaver also learned in 
the office of Mr. Foster all that legal chicanery which, 
added to his natural shrewdness, caused him to be 
considered the acutest attorney in the district, and it 
was in his office where Henry D. Foster, his nephew, 
got his law, upon whom the mantle of his uncle de- 
scended. 

Mr. Foster delighted in the subjects of agriculture, 
horticulture, and engineering ; wrote many articles 
on the practical applicability of chemistry to farm- 
ing, and delivered many orations at the county fairs, 
then held at Greensburg. 

In 1820 and 1822 he was the Federalist candidate for 
Congress in the district composed of Westmoreland, 
Indiana, Armstrong, and Jefferson Counties. He was 
twice defeated because he was on the unpopular side. 
In 1820, in the strong Democratic county of West- 
moreland, he obtained a small majority. After the 
dissolution of the Federalist party he became an anti- 
Mason, and after the collapse of that party he became 
a Whig. 

In person he was of middle size and weight, rather 
inclined to leanness than corpulency. His face was 
good, but it ordinarily wore a mild, amiable, and 
rather melancholy expression. His temperament was 
nervo-bilious, and his complexion sallow, with a ten- 
dency to pallor. He was greatly addicted to smoking. 
The cigar was his constant companion, and it was 
probably for his own use that he had hot-houses for 
the growth and cultivation of Spanish tobacco. 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



317 



THE HANGING OF EVANS. 

No event in the history of the county was so much 
talked of and so long remembered as the hanging of 
Joseph Evans for murder in 1830. 

From an old copy of The Republican, dated 23d 
April, 1830, we briefly abstract the statement of the 
condemned man, made six days previous to his exe- 
cution, which took place on Tuesday, 20th April, 
1830, on a hill east of the town, and between the 
Southwest Railway and the Main Street, and was 
witnessed by several thousand people, who had gath- 
ered on the hillsides from far and near to see the law 
commit murder. 

Evans at the time of his execution was scarcely 
twenty-two years of age. He was even then some- 
what wild, having been engaged repeatedly in fights, 
and in tarring and feathering and riding on a rail a 
man who had been guilty of beating his wife, clean- 
ing out a house of ill fame, riding on a rail, shaving 
the heads, and tarring and feathering two married 
men there caught, and breaking the jaw of a son of 
one of these men for inquiring into the matter, burn- 
ing down another house of ill fame for two dollars, 
shaving the mane and tail of the horse of a Methodist 
preacher, and " lathering" the preacher so that he was 
laid up for two weeks. He assisted in riding on a 
rail and tarring and feathering a man and a woman 
who were cohabiting together in violation of the com- 
mandments, and in a manner which did violence to 
Evans' moral principles. 

These little extravaganzas gave zest to his life in 
his travels, and finally he landed in Derry township, 
where, one Sunday evening, he got into a dispute 
with Cissler about stealing a pair of shoes, but over a 
pint of apple brandy they became good friends. 

The night before Christmas he amused himself by 
whistling the " Boyne Water," and was rewarded for 
his music by a vigorous attack from three gentlemen 
who did not fancy the tune ; but it seems he was able to 
cope successfully with all three, and from this appears 
to date the real trouble which resulted in his acci- 
dentally taking the life of Cissler, and in consequence 
thereof losing his own. 

On the morning before New Year he and others 
amused and regaled themselves with cards and 
whiskey, and finally a quarrel ensued, whereupon sev- 
eral of the party fell on Evans (who does not seem to 
have been a favorite) to beat him. He seized the fire- 
shovel and swung it back and forth to keep them off, 
when Cissler, who was not in the melee, came up to 
stop the fight, and accidentally received a blow on the 
forehead from the shovel, and fell back upon a large 
iron kettle. He breathed only a few times, but never 
spoke. 

Evans made no effort to escape ; but when a large 
crowd had gathered, and attempted to tie him, he 
resisted so violently that they desisted and kept out 
of his reach. He then took the rope and tied his 
legs, when the crowd beat and abused him con- 
21 



siderably, upon which he got himself loose, and 
" slashed" around indiscriminately. 

After the inquest he was taken to Bairdstown, 
before Esquire Scott, and on the 2d of January, 1830, 
was lodged in jail in this place, and on the 18th of 
February, 1830, he was tried and found "guilty of 
murder in the first degree." 

In his comments upon portions of the evidence he 
is very severe, and alleges that it contains not one 
word of truth. 

At the execution he was perfectly calm, and re- 
marked to the sheriff, on surveying the assembled 
multitude, that " there were not so many people pres- 
ent as he had seen at such places." During the whole 
time from the time he left the jail, following the cart 
which contained his coffin, until the drop fell there 
I was no sign of weakness or trepidation. Indeed, at 
the last moment he handed to some one on the plat- 
form below a drum, which he had used for a seat while 
I the preparations were being perfected to launch him 
into eternity. 

At the scaffold the people, estimated to number 
seven or eight thousand, were addressed by Revs. 
Laird, Hacke, and Steck, and, at request of Evans, 
a hymn was sung. He addressed the crowd, warning 
them against the vices of which be had been guilty, 
asserting the injustice done him by some of the wit- 
nesses, but forgiving all as he hoped for forgiveness. 
He seemed to be entirely resigned to his (ate, and 
manifested no desire to live. 

This, with the two executions at Hannastown at a 
very early period, when that place was the county-seat, 
I were the only ones that had taken place in this county 
until a generation after ; and now, after fifty years, 
I it is the general judgment that the conviction and 
execution of Joseph Evans was more the result of 
clamor and prejudice, with also a considerable amount 
of false swearing, than from an}- regard for justice. 

James Findlay, Esq. — At the time of the trial of 
Evans the prosecuting attorney was James Findlay. 
The result showed that he only did his duty too well 
for justice and humanity, and it is a matter of regret 
that he could not have been retained for the defense 
of the unfortunate prisoner. 

At that time the bar of Greensburg possessed high 
character and great ability. It was dignified by the 
profound legal erudition of John B. Alexander, 
resplendent with the florid eloquence of Richard 
Coulter, adorned by the extensive attainments and 
enlivened by the wit and humor of Alexander Foster. 
Other gentlemen of talent contributed to elevate the 
character of the profession by mathematical knowl- 
edge, and rapid and accurate habits of business, so 
that the bar of Westmoreland was second to none 
outside of Philadelphia. 

Prominent among these gentlemen— joWmws inter 
pares — was James Findlay, Esq. The mention of his 
name in the Evans trial suggested the idea that a 






318 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTS', PENNSYLVANIA. 



brief biographical sketch would be an appropriate 
and respectful contribution to the memory of one so 
worthy that he deserved a monument. 

Although James Findlay possessed the undoubted 
ability to make a permanent reputation, yet he was 
so careless of future fame that he did nothing to per- 
petuate his memory with posterity. He " never wrote 
a book, built a house, planted a tree, or begot a child." 
For more than a generation his body has been mould- 
ering in the clay of a cemetery. 

James Findlay, Esq., was born in 1801, on a farm 
that belonged to his father, about three miles from 
Mercersburg, in Franklin County. It was situated 
about one-half mile from the Presbyterian Church of 
West Conococheague, of which Dr. John King was 
pastor, by whom James Findlay was baptized. By 
the way, the reputation of Dr. King has extended far 
beyond the Alleghenies, and his memory is still held 
in respect by many, to the spiritual wants of whose 
ancestors this gentleman had administered. 

In the fall of 1813, and in the twelfth year of James 
Findlay's age, his father removed his family to Har- 
risburg, which had become the seat of State govern- 
ment. James Findlay resided at Harrisburg, and was 
a pupil at the best school in town until 1820, when 
he was matriculated at Princeton College, which was 
then regarded as one of the best institutions of learn- 
ing in the United States, and whereat his brother 
Archibald and other relations had graduated. 

William Findlay had lived in a style of old-fash- 
ioned hospitality at Harrisburg, and in consequence 
of stringency in his pecuniary affairs he could not 
afford to keep James at Princeton until he graduated. 
He was forced to leave his alma mater and return to 
Harrisburg, where he became a student of law in the 
office of Francis R. Shunk, who was married to his 
only sister, who afterwards became so well known as 
the matronly lady that with such ease and dignity 
presided over the hospitality of the executive mansion 
at Harrisburg. 

After his admission to the bar by the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of Dauphin County, James Findlay opened 
a law-office at York, in Eastern Pennsylvania. But 
York was an old county, her land titles well settled, 
and the litigation comparatively unimportant. So 
Mr. Findlay removed to Westmoreland County. On 
motion of George Armstrong, Esq., was admitted to 
the bar of Greensburg, Aug. 23, a.d. 1824. 

Greensburg was a good location for Mr. Findlay. 
The legal business was abundant and remunerative. 
Lawyers from Pittsburgh and other counties attended 
the courts of Westmoreland. The natural talents, 
liberal education, and thorough legal training of Mr. 
Findlay would soon have placed him at the head of 
his profession. In politics he had open to him a 
primrose path to honor and emolument. 

Upon his location in Greensburg he received the 
appointment of prosecuting attorney, the duties of 
which he discharged with integrity and ability. Dur- 



ing his term of office there was no composition of 
felony, and .no escape of wealthy criminals by flaws 
in indictments. 

The name of Findlay was identified with Democ- 
racy, Gen. Jackson had been elected President of 
the United States, and Wolf Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania. And so nation, State, district, and county 
were all in the hands of Mr. Findlay's political 
friends. To the public coffers his name was an 
" open sesame." Had James Findlay been ambitious 
of political distinction he needed but remain in West- 
moreland and adhere to his party, and every round 
of the political ladder was accessible to his footsteps. 
He could early have attained any position ever held 
by his worthy and honored father. 

In 1831, Mr. Findlay was elected to the Legisla- 
ture. He was re-elected in 1832 and 1833. In De- 
cember, 1833, Samuel McLean, who was Secretary of 
the Commonwealth, was elected to the Senate of the 
United States. Such was the reputation of James 
Findlay that Governor Wolf at once tendered him 
the vacant office. He resigned his seat in the Lower 
House, of which he was then Speaker, and accepted 
the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

The old citizens of Westmoreland will remember 
that in the winter of 1834 there was a special election 
for a member of the Lower House to supply the vacancy 
caused by the appointment of Mr. Findlay. It was 
currently reported and believed that Governor Wolf 
had expressed a personal wish that Westmoreland 
would honor herself and the State by sending to the 
Legislature a man qualified in talent and reputation 
to succeed James Findlay. 

" Suppose," said the leading citizens, " that West- 
moreland surprises and pleases the Governor by send- 
ing a better man?" 

The notion tickled the political gossips, and so, 
amid much firing of cannon, wild roaring of the rab- 
blement, and great guzzling of powerful potations, 
Maj. John B. Alexander was unanimously returned 
to the Legislature. 

Historians inform us Caligula, Emperor of Rome, 
gave his horse a place in the Senate, and had him 
proclaimed First Consul. As Maj. Alexander held 
the opinion that our legislators belong to the equine 
genus as clearly as donkeys, he astonished the Gov- 
ernor and natives by riding his splendid horse, Som- 
erset, to Harrisburg, and by doing nothing appa- 
rently while there but instructing the animal iu the 
mysteries of legislation. It is said that after staying 
a few days in Harrisburg, and looking at and ming- 
ling with the members of the House, he mounted his 
splendid steed and came away, stating in language 
considerably more emphatic than elegant that they 
were a set of ignoramuses, and he would have nothing 
to do with them. 

James Findlay remained at Harrisburg, discharging 
the duties of the office of Secretary of State, until the 
inauguration of Governor Ritner. In the early part 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



319 



of 1836 he removed to Pittsburgh and recommenced 
the practice of his profession. In politics there were 
many things unsuited to the mind and manners of 
Mr. Findlay. Their intrigues, violence, selfishness, 
and rancor must have often disgusted his candor, dis- 
turbed his equanimity, and shocked his refinement. 
His pecuniary affairs demanded some attention, and 
so instead of returning to Westmoreland he located 
himself in Pittsburgh and devoted himself to the 
duties of his profession. In a short time, he rose to j 
prominence, gained the deep respect of his fellow- 
members of the bar and the confidence of clients. 

Francis R. Shank, a gentleman of an old and re- 
spectable family in Eastern Pennsylvania, had mar- 
ried Miss Findlay, opened a law-office in Harrisburg, 
and filled several public offices. In January, 1839, 
he was appointed Secretary of State to Governor Por- ' 
ter. He held this office until 1842, when he removed ' 
to Pittsburgh, and entered into partnership with his j 
brother-in-law, James Findlay. The partners ad- 
mirably suited each other. The superb penmanship, 
habits of order and industry, knowledge of forms, ! 
and strong constitution well fitted Shunk for the 
manual labor of the profession, while Findlay could 
readily and amply supply the logic, rhetoric, and 
legal erudition necessary for success before court and 
jury. Of the pair it might be safely said, without an 
iota of irony, par nobile fratrum. The firm was on 
the high road to pre-eminent professional success, 
when, unfortunately, James Findlay took sick and 
died in 1843, in the forty-second year of his age, 
about a twelvemonth before Francis R. Shunk was 
elected Governor of Pennsylvania. 

It is somewhat singular that Mr. Findlay never 
married. He was so amiable in disposition, so reg- 
ular in habits and domestic in manners that he was 
well adapted to receive and confer happiness upon a 
proper partner. 

The personal appearance of Mr. Findlay was very 
agreeable. He was rather over than under middle 
height, straight, and well proportioned. His com- 
plexion was fair, his hair light brown, his forehead 
broad and high, and his features very pleasant, be- 
cause constantly expressive of kindness and good 
humor. His mouth was rather too large, but it was 
filled with regular and beautiful teeth as white as 
ivory. He dressed plainly, but with good taste, and, 
as he was very near-sighted, he always wore silver 
spectacles. His manners were courteous, and about 
all that he did there was an air of refinement. In 
this country, where there is no aristocracy, no gentry, 
no arbitrary distinctions, so that a proper classifica- 
tion of society becomes difficult, if not impossible, 
and yet there was about James Findlay that nescio 
quid, that peculiar je tie sais quoi, which makes even 
a total stranger feel that this is a gentleman. 

His morals were as pure as a virgin snow-drift. 
Coarse profanity and witty obscenity were common 
and, with some, commendable in his profession. Al- 



though not disposed to be rigidly righteous, Mr. Find- 
lay held both swearing and blackguarding to be contra 
bonos mores, — against good morals and good manners. 
He was not a member of any church, but his amiable 
disposition and enlightened conscience produced all 
the effects of true and heartfelt religion, namely, de- 
cency, integrity, and charity. "If cleanliness be 
godliness," then Mr. Findlay was a model Christian, 
for he was never guilty of a dirty skin, dirty garment, 
dirty trick, or dirty expression. 

The status of Mr. Findlay in his profession was 
highly respectable for one of his age. His mind was 
logical and discriminating, and his memory so good 
that he retained whatever he read. Wherever he 
practiced, he was employed against the best men of 
his professional cotemporaries. A legal friend, who 
knew him long and intimately, thus speaks of him : 

" I think I may say that no one ever enjoyed in a 
greater degree the respect and affection of his profes- 
sional brethren. This was strikingly manifested at 
the time of his death. The gentlemen of the Pitts- 
burgh bar paid him the unusual, it may be the un- 
precedented, mark of respect of closing their offices 
during his funeral." ' 

RICHARD COULTER, JUSTICE S. C. 
Richard Coulter was born in Allegheny County, 
Pa., in what is now Versailles township, 2 in March, 
17S8. He was early sent to Jefferson College, but he 
did not remain there for graduation. He read law 
with John Lyon, Esq., at Uniontown, Fayette Co., 
and on the 19th of November, 1810, was admitted to 
practice in the courts of that county. 3 On Feb. 18, 
1811, on motion of John B. Alexander, Esq., he was 
admitted an attorney of the courts of Westmoreland. 
In 1816 and 1817 he was elected to the Assembly 
on the ticket in opposition to the then Republican 

1 William Findlay, the father of James, was an active and leading 
politician, whose services were intimately connected with the history of 
the State of Pennsylvania. In 1790 he was a member of the Convention 
which framed the constitution of the State and continued to be the 
fundamental law until 1S38. In 1807 he was chosen to he treasurer of 
the State. In 1817 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, beating 
Joseph Hiester, the Federalist candidate, by a majority of several thou- 
sands. In 1820 he was again a candidate for Governor against the 6ame 
man, and at this election he was defeated. In 1821, William Findlay 
was elected United States senator, and was a member of that body until 
the end of his senatorial term in 1827. 

The gentleman from whose reminiscences of Findlay we have so 
largely drawn thus wanders into the clouds: 

"James Buchanan aud James Findlay were both of Scotch-Irish de- 
cent, and were horn at the same locality of Conococheague, near Mercers- 
burg. Both had been born and bred Presbyterians, and were both bap- 
tized by the same pastor, Dr. John King. They were both Democrats, 
one by conversion and the other by inheritance. They were both liber- 
ally educated, and both lawyers by profession. They were both bach- 
elors. They were both moral men. They were both gentlemen in dress 
and manners. Had Buchanan died at the age of forty-two, he might have 
been esteemed to be a kind-hearted and generous gentlemau, a good 
lawyer and patriotic citizen. Had Findlay lived until threescore and 
ten, he might have been President of the United States and been as 
much denounced as James Buchanan." 

2 There is now a coal town located near this spot called Coultersville. 
J Mis examining committee were James Ross, of Pittsburgh; Parker 

Campbell, of Washington ; and Thomas Meason, of Uniontown. 



320 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



party. In 1818 he was on what was called by the op- 
position the Federal ticket, and was elected to the 
same office, and was the only one elected on that ticket. 
So, also, in 1819. In 1820 he was a candidate on what 
was called the Independent Republican ticket for 
the same office, and was the only one elected on that 
ticket, the Democratic ticket going through for the 
rest. In 1821 he was defeated by ninety-three votes. 
In 1826 he was nominated as an independent candi- 
date for Congress, James Clarke being the regular 
Democratic nominee, and was elected. In 1828 he was 
elected without opposition. He was also elected in 
1830 and 1832, then as the regular Democratic nomi- 
nee, but in 1834 was defeated by Mr. John Kliugen- 
smith. 

In the mean time he had practiced law until Sept. 
16, 1846, when he was appointed a justice of the Su- 
preme Court by Governor Shunk, and again, after 
the approval of the Senate, Feb. 17, 1847, from which 
time his commission ran for fifteen years. Under the 
then new constitution, Oct. 2, 1851, he was elected 
and commissioned associate justice for fifteen years, 
he having drawn the long term. He died Tuesday, 
April 20, 1852, at Greensburg, Pa. 

What follows may convey something of an impres- 
sion, although an inadequate one, of the political, 
legal, and literary character, as they are evidenced in 
the public career of this distinguished citizen. 

When, in 1832, Mr. Coulter was sent to Congress, 
he was sent as the leader of the Democratic party in 
the county. He was the best speaker and writer in 
his party here, and he had made such a reputation in 
Congress that the Democrats at home were proud of 
their representative. But most unfortunately Mr. 
Coulter disagreed with his constituents and with the 
Jackson administration on the subject of the United 
States Bank and the custody of the public money. 
As he was a strong advocate of the recharter of a 
national bank, the Democrats of his district refused 
to renominate him, when he offered himself to the 
people as a volunteer candidate. The congressional 
district was then composed of Westmoreland and In- 
diana, and it was thought that he, by his eloquence 
and personal popularity, would overcome the usual 
Democratic majority in Westmoreland. The Demo- 
crats put in nomination against him John Kliugen- 
smith, a plain man of German descent, but an active 
and insinuating party man of some influence among 
his own class. He was chosen as the strongest man 
in the county. There was at that time in those dis- 
tricts wherein this German element predominated a 
marked clannish or national feeling. A man of Ger- 
man descent, who spoke the German language, would 
always receive more than his party vote. It was held 
that Klingensmith would receive the votes of all his 
freundschaft, and of persons who, although not Demo- 
crats, were of Teutonic descent. Indiana was an 
anti-Masonic county. Coulter was a well-known 
Mason, who in the violent disputes with the anti- 



Masons had been put forward as a champion of the 
" brethren of the mystic tie." To obtain the vote of 
Indiana County he openly renounced Masonry. His 
letter of renunciation will be found in the old files of 
the Greensburg papers. The election was hot ; his 
political opponents used every argument and every 
incentive to defeat him when it was possible to do so 
by dissension in his own party ; and notwithstanding 
his own high character and the great exertions of his 
friends he was defeated. He was a man of courage 
and of unquestioned talent, but he could not stem the 
strong current of Jackson Democracy. 

After his defeat Mr. Coulter withdrew from politics, 
and gave his whole time and attention to his profes- 
sion. His defeat in all probability was beneficial to 
him in more than one point. His engagement in 
active political life had caused him to neglect his 
business pursuits. His habits henceforth became 
more even, and his attention ceasing to be distracted 
by the fascination of political life, he shortly obtained 
one of the most, if not altogether the most, lucrative 
practices at the bar. His defeat helped to make him 
a wealthy man, and in all probability prolonged his 
life. For the habits of a public life, such as it then 
was at the seat of government, were entirely different 
from those which prevailed about a county-seat of 
justice, and necessitated a continuous and tireless 
mental activity, and one scarcely ever in harmony 
with a judicial cast of mind. 

But although he had withdrawn from politics, it 
was generally known that he sympathized with the 
anti-Democratic party, which had then assumed the 
name of Whig. He voted in 1840 for Gen. Harrison, 
and in 1844 he was chosen chairman of the Clay and 
Markle County Committee. In this position he wrote 
and published a handsome, nervous address to the 
voters, which will be found in the files of the Greens- 
burg Intelligencer. To the astonishment of the pub- 
lic, shortly before the election he changed sides and 
openly voted for Shunk and Polk. 

The power of appointment of judges was then 
vested in the Governor. Some time in 1846 a vacancy 
occurred in the Supreme Court. Governor Shunk 
was petitioned to appoint Coulter to the vacancy. 
Among these petitioners the most active were the 
members of the Westmoreland bar without respect of 
party. They had some outside influence and co-oper- 
ation in their efforts. The Rev. James Brownson, the 
pastor of the Presbyterian Church to which Coulter 
and his family were attached, was a nephew of Gov- 
ernor Shunk by marriage, his mother being a full 
sister of Mrs. Shunk. As Westmoreland had given 
the Governor some two thousand majority, he could 
not well refuse the solicitation of the party leaders 
here. Coulter was therefore appointed by Governor 
Shunk associate justice of the Supreme Court in the 
stead of Justice Kennedy, deceased Jan. 8, 1847. 

In 1850 the constitution was amended so as to give 
the election of judges to the people. Among the 



TEIE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



321 



vacancies to be filled at the election of 1851 was that 
of chief justice and an associate justice of the Su- 
preme Court. John Bannister Gibson and James 
Campbell were nominated for these offices by the 
Democrats, and William L. Meredith and Richard 
Coulter by the Whigs. All the Whig candidates — 
Governor and judges — were defeated except Richard 
Coulter, who was elected by a majority of some thou- 
sands over James Campbell. Mr. Campbell was a 
lawyer of Philadelphia, and was subsequently Post- 
master-General under President Pierce. 

The opinions of Judge Coulter while he was on the 
bench by appointment, and his upright conduct, were 
regarded by honest and religious men with so much 
favor that the Whigs tendered him the nomination 
without any intrigue or personal solicitation from his 
friends or himself. 

He early distinguished himself on the bench in an 
elaborate opinion in the case of David Hummell et 
al. versus Dr. Mercer Brown et al., in which he at 
great length defined and gave judicial status to the 
legislative power of the State in the creation and con- 
trol of corporations, particularly those of an eleemosy- 
nary character. At the time of its rendition, 1847, 
it was regarded by lawyers as one of the ablest and 
most eloquent opinions ever delivered from the bench 
of the Supreme Court. 

The character of Mr. Coulter as a judge was highly 
respectable. As a lawyer he may not have been equal 
to Gibson, but he was equal to Bell, of Chester, and su- 
perior to Rogers and Burnside. He was incorruptible, 
and his course was such as to enlarge the confidence 
of appellants. While other judges were more or less 
controlled by the mastery of Gibson, Coulter was 
sternly independent. For example, on the Sunday 
law question he disagreed with all the other judges. 
On this question being brought before them they 
rested the observance of Sunday on the laws of Penn- 
sylvania. Judge Coulter regarded it as a Christian 
Sabbath, and rested its observance on positive com- 
mand from Almighty God. He assumed, in short, 
the higher law position. The arguments and opin- 
ions are found in the reports, and should be read by 
students. 

As a politician, Coulter was charged with incon- 
sistency and whimsical changes of opinion and party. 
But perhaps there were good sense and sound judg- 
ment at the bottom. He had been a Federalist, and 
became a Democrat under the wing of Jackson. The 
Jackson Democrats a long time maintained sound 
Federalist measures, — a protective tariff, a national 
bank, and a general system of internal improvements. 
The highest protective tariff bill that any of the old 
Congresses ever passed was signed by Andrew Jack- 
son in 1828. But when Jackson adopted the opinions 
of the States' Rights men, and used the veto power to 
derange the financial system of the country, Coulter 
had the courage to resist the administration and 
maintain a consistent position. His conduct in 1844 



appeared very strange, but it was afterwards seen to 
be politic. It was understood by intelligent poli- 
ticians that if Binney and Le Moyne, the anti-slavery 
candidates for President and Governor, remained in 
the field Clay and Markle would be defeated. The 
election was to be decided by combinations and ar- 
rangement. Of this Coulter was fully aware, and no 
doubt knew that in maintaining a consistent position 
he was doing no good to Clay and Markle, and was 
only condemning himself to obscurity and the mo- 
notonous life of a dull country town. His influence 
with the leading Democratic leaders in the county 
was still strong; the past was forgotten, and they 
came to his aid when he called upon them. 

Mr. Coulter was fiercely and coarsely assailed for 
his renunciation of what Voltaire calls the "tom- 
foolery of Freemasonry" when he was a candidate 
for re-election to Congress. But he could not have 
obtained a majority in Indiana County unless he had 
renounced Masonry, and his connection with the 
Masons was broken off for the patriotic purpose, as 
was said, of serving the substantial interests of the 
whole country. It must be remembered that as a 
representative in Congress he occupied a front posi- 
tion. The election in this district was regarded with 
anxiety throughout the State, and his defeat was de- 
plored by the opponents of the administration. A 
leading opposition paper lamented his defeat in the 
following language : " Poor Pennsylvania ! she is the 
Breotia of the Union ! Where else could such a man 
as Richard Coulter have been defeated by such an 
unknown and illiterate person as his antagonist?" 

Judge Coulter was well read in politics, theology, 
law, and literature. His private library, both law 
and literary, was excellent. The evidences of his 
scholarship will be found in his political controversy 
with Dr. Postlethwaite, his miscellaneous writings, — 
such as " The Burning of Hannastown," " Address" 
to the Whigs in" 1844, — and in his reported opinions 
when on the Supreme Bench. The controversy with 
Dr. Postlethwaite may be found in the old files of the 
county newspapers. While in Congress he made a 
very long speech for the recharter of the Bank of the 
United States, a copy of which in manuscript has 
been retained in his family. 1 His letter of re- 
nunciation of Masonry is beautifully written, and 
worthy of republication by reason of its literary 
merit. His speeches, addresses, and select miscella- 
nies would fill a well-sized volume. His style, easy 
and good, is also flowery, ornate, and oratorical. But 
he was a bachelor and fond of poetry and novels. Of 
all the lawyers at the Greensburg bar he was the 
greatest orator. Traditions of his powers and of his 
wonderful effect over jurors and even large assemblages 
are still preserved, and it is likely that no man of or- 



1 We have had access to this, and we regard it as a patriotic, scholarly, 
and profound argument, and an able presentation of that side of the 
controversy. 



322 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



dinary intellect who heard his celebrated speech on 
the trial of Tom Morgan will ever forget its effect. 

Great as a lawyer as Judge Coulter was, those who 
are well informed as to his talents and parts are of 
opinion he might have been still greater and have 
been able to attain a higher position in his profession 
had he given all his time and abilities to that pro- 
fession. He was the best general scholar of all the 
lawyers at the Greensburg bar, and a better one than 
any of the judges on the bench of the Supreme 
Court. 

In touching upon the moral character of Judge 
Coulter it may well be said that he had will-power 
sufficient to break away from the customs and habits 
which, although at that time were with professional 
men not bad, yet common, and such as were not re- 
garded without a certain degree of favor. But oppo- 
sitely all his influence was on the side of morality 
and religion. His professional character was stain- 
less. He was upright, truth-telling, and honorable, 
and made money by fair labor in his profession. In 
all the hot political contests he was never charged 
with meanness, chicanery, or the exaction of ex- 
orbitant fees. Although sometimes whimsical and 
charged with ill temper, he was a person of humanity, 
and disposed to protect the weak and friendless. Al- 
together he was an upright, moral man and a patriotic 
citizen. 

John F. Beaver. — The story of the life and pro- 
fessional services of John F. Beaver is so well told 
in the following article, which appeared upon the 
announcement of his death, and which was written 
by an able member of this bar and an intimate friend 
of Mr. Beaver, that we might mar it by adding any- 
thing to it that we have collected from other sources. 

John F. Beaver died at his residence at Newton 
Falls, Ohio, on the 12th of June, 1877. 

Although more than thirty years had gone by since 
Mr. Beaver left here, his name, fame, and person 
were still fresh in the recollection of many of our 
people. In fact, it was not possible for any who 
once knew him ever to forget him, as his genial char- 
acter and exuberant flow of animal spirits rendered 
him conspicuous in every company. 

He was born near Stoystown, in Somerset County, 
his maternal grandfather, Daniel M. Stoy, Esq., 
having given a name to that village as its original 
proprietor. His father, Henry Beaver, removed some 
years after, with his family, to Grapeville, in this 
county, where the subject of this sketch continued to 
live till about 1843 or 1844, when he removed to the 
place where he died. He left a widow and one son 
to enjoy a large estate, the fruit of his industry and 
economy. His physical organization was remarkable, 
and he excelled all his fellows in athletic sports and 
exercises which required strength and precision of 
muscular action. 

In his prime his weight was about two hundred 



and twenty-five pounds, bone and muscle, and old 
men still tell of his wonderful feats of skill and 
strength, which were always accompanied with some 
humorous freak to attract the crowd. For a wager 
he would stipulate to pitch a quoit into the hat of his 
antagonist fourteen times out of fifteen a distance of 
forty yards. Having won at the expense of the hat 
he would console the owner by buying him a new 
one. With the rifle he was unerring, anything but 
the centre being with him an exceptional accident. 
Hearing, upon one occasion, of a match to shoot for a 
bear in a remote part of the county, he dropped in, and 
was solicited to take a stake to make up the match, 
which he could not decline, for fear of spoiling the 
fun. The first trouble was to fix the distance from 
the mark. This he appeased by proposing that 
each marksman should put down his number of 
yards, then divide the aggregate by the number of 
the stakes. He was the clerk and entered last, put- 
ting down one yard, wanting, he said, to get as nigh 
as possible to the target. On footing up and dividing 
the result was what he expected and brought about, 
but there was no suspicion. The next difficulty was 
his want of a gun, and his awkwardness was so ap- 
parent that none of the company liked to intrust him 
with one. A boy was, however, discovered on the road 
at some distance with a ponderous, rusty-looking fire- 
lock, which after much haggling he agreed to lend 
for the occasion, provided they would not tell his 
father. The firing then commenced, and when 
Beaver's turn came they kindly volunteered to show 
him how to hold the weapon, how to look through 
the sights, and so on. He was very unsteady, but 
somehow or other the nail was driven and the paper 
fell. This was rare sport, and the luck of the lawyer 
was marvelous. The second round was followed by 
the same result. Then there was not so much laugh- 
ing, and the suspicion increased when some of the by- 
standers saw a chain hanging out of the boy's pocket. 
He was equally nervous and equally successful on 
the last round, when the boy chained the bear to lead 
him away. He was Beaver's boy, with Beaver's gun 
and chain. 

The finishing stroke was to furnish the whole party 
with a good dinner, and secure them as friends and 
clients ever after. 

At about the age of twenty-one Beaver cut himself 
with an axe, and was confined to his house for some 
weeks. This was intolerable to his active spirit, and 
he must do something, and there was only one thing 
he could think of. He was utterly illiterate, barely 
able to read, but seeing a copy of " Smith's Laws," 
which had belonged to his grandfather Stoy when a 
justice of the peace, he determined to attack them, 
dry as they were. This he did with so much zeal and 
vigor that by the time his wound healed he was 
the confidential adviser of all his neighbors in the 
law. He then learned surveying, and after mastering 
that art practically he concluded to study law regu- 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



323 



larly, and for this purpose put himself under the 
direction of A. W. Foster, Esq., a good tutor and 
eminent lawyer, who thought he saw in this young 
Hercules something better even than muscle, and he 
encouraged him to persevere. 

He read law for five years, boarding all that time 
in Grapeville, four miles from Greensburg, and walk- 
ing in and out every day. He was admitted to the bar 
in February, 1833, and was soon in a large practice. 

He was first an anti-Mason in politics, and after- 
wards a Whig, then one of the original Free-Soil 
party. He ran for Congress in 1840 as a Whig, but 
was defeated by A. G. Marchand, Esq. The senior 
editor of the Argus, John M. Laird, Esq., was during 
the campaign chairman of the Democratic County 
Convention to prepare resolutions of the sense of that 
body. He and Beaver stopped at the same hotel. 
Laird called his committee and had his resolutions 
already " cut and dry" for the meeting in the afternoon. 
His head was about thirty inches, more or less, and 
Beaver's was of the same size, and when Laird went 
to dinner he mistook his hat, and put his resolutions 
in Beaver's hat. Beaver went into court, and among 
other things presented to the court was Laird's reso- 
lutions, denouncing him (Beaver) as a scamp and un- 
worthy of any respectable citizen's support. The 
court (Judge White), as fond of fun as anybody, 
gravely decided that he had no jurisdiction of the 
matter, and the resolutions were returned to Mr. 
Laird and duly passed by the convention. 

Such was the good humor and fun of our old men 
forty years ago. About this time he did a good deal 
of professional business in Allegheny, and in 1842 sold 
his library and office furniture to Edward Cowan, 
Esq., with whom he was a short time in partnership, 
but removed to Ohio in a year or two thereafter. His 
success at the bar and in the Supreme Court was very 
marked, being a great favorite with the judges on ac- 
count of his fair and candid bearing towards them. 

As soon as he was qualified in Ohio he was elected 
to the Senate of that State, and attracted great at- 
tention and consideration by his size, dress, and sin- 
gular ability. The Senate was a tie without him, and 
he was looked for with great anxiety when that body 
met. He arrived just in the nick of time, his wagon 
having broken down on the way ; he had walked 
twelve miles that morning. He was a stranger, 
covered with mud, and as he strode into the cham- 
ber he was greeted with cheers, and his " boots" be- 
came famous in song and story for years after. He 
was leader for some time, but he could not work well 
in the harness of party, and he gave up his chances 
for promotion to enjoy independence of thought and 
action in the practice of his profession, which he 
continued till the last. 

In the mean time he was industriously enlarging 
the boundaries of his knowledge in every direction, 
and continued his efforts through life, until at last he 
had few equals in all the fields of human learning. 



His memory was astonishing, extending to the mi- 
nutest details, even dates and figures in all his busi- 
ness transactions ; and he has been known to repro- 
duce a draught of the courses and distances of a tract of 
land he had surveyed years before by mere force of 
his recollection. 

He was a fearless inquirer and thinker, and, like 
all men of great energy and full of animal spirits, 
he was prone to be a reformer by remodeling the 
world according to modern ideas. Nor did failure 
seem to discourage him, as a new scheme was at 
hand always and ready for adoption. 

His manners were easy and entirely unaffected, and 
no amount of provocation could disturb the equanim- 
ity of his temper or give him a second thought. He 
treasured no malice, and seemed incapable of hating 
anybody for any length of time. He had no vanity 
or pride, took no thought of himself or his person, and 
if clothes had been indestructible he would have worn 
the same suit forever. Mr. Cowan once having in vari- 
ous ways got his measures, procured for him a new suit 
of fashionable clothes, based upon a pair of polished 
boots, and surmounted by a great white "stove-pipe" 
hat. There was some coaxing necessary to get him to 
don the " rig," but once on and in the street the town 
turned out to give him an ovation. He was the hero 
par eminence of the young men. His great physique, 
kind and genial disposition had for them irresistible 
attractions, and they followed him for instruction as 
well as entertainment. 

He belonged to a class of men produced in Western 
Pennsylvania, of nearly the same age, and who were 
equal, at least, to any of a like area in the Union. 
Ogle, Black, and Elder were of Somerset — " frosty 
sons of thunder ;" Black, still wielding his ponderous 
spear, now without a rival ; Ewing, Veech, Patterson, 
and Kaine sustained the old renown of Fayette, while 
Coulter, Thomas Williams, Governor Johnston, and 
Foster gave fame and credit to old Westmoreland. 
Some have disappeared, and the rest are fast disap- 
pearing ; but they are not forgotten, and will not be 
as long as genuine merit has admirers. 

Albert Gallatin Marchand was born Feb. 26, 
1811, and died Feb. 5, 1848, in the thirty-seventh year 
of his age. The disease of which he died made itself 
known but a few months before his death, but it had 
been secretly undermining his constitution for a long 
time prior to that. 

At a very early age he went into the prothonotary's 
office as an assistant to his father, Dr. David Mar- 
chand. He even then displayed remarkable business 
! talents; but the urbanity, and politeness of his man- 
I ner, his obliging and kind and courteous disposition, 
always manifesting itself towards those who were 
brought into business intercourse with him, secured 
for him the admiration, confidence, and esteem of 
I the foremost business men and litigants of the 
county. 



324 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



He came to the bar in 1833, and when he did so 
he at once succeeded to a much larger practice than 
is usual with beginners in this profession. This con- 
tinued until his death. 

To this profession he devoted very respectable legal 
talents, considerable learning, great zeal, and untiring 
industry. No man's cause was left in his hands 
without receiving the carefullest and most critical 
attention, and when it was necessary to carry it to 
the bar he was assiduous in his preparation, and there 
advocated or defended with manly zeal and vigorous 
eloquence. His intercourse with members of the bar 
was characterized with scrupulous integrity, a high 
sense of honor, and a candid frankness ; and these 
traits were evidenced in his intercourse with his fel- 
low-men generally. He thus attained, for one of his 
age, a very high eminence in those qualities that 
confer dignity and honor on his profession. The 
clients who intrusted business to him had all confi- 
dence that everything would be done for them. His 
integrity was beyond a question, and his word as good 
as his bond. 

He was early and sincerely attached to his party, 
the Democratic, and his fellow-citizens recognizing 
his worth, early conferred upon him honorable office. 
In 1840, when in his twenty-eighth year, he was elected 
to Congress in the district composed of Westmore- 
land and Indiana Counties. When he first took his 
seat, during the administration of Harrison, he was 
the youngest member except one. In 1842 he was 
elected for another term. 

He possessed those strong traits of character very 
prominent in his family, a love for home and for the 
domestic circle, and preferred the endearments of wife 
and children and of devoted relations above the loud 
voice of popular applause. 

His loss was deeply felt, for when one so young, so 
talented, so honored, and so beloved, a patriot so ar- 
dent and a friend so true as he was thus so suddenly 
called away from the circle in which he moved, the 
hearts of all were clouded with grief, and with these 
his memory was loug sacredly treasured. 

HON. HENRY BUNNELL FOSTER. 

But scant justice can be done in the limits of a 
sketch like this to the memory of a man who filled so 
large a place while living in the esteem and affection 
of the community in which his life's work was done, 
one so distinguished as a lawyer, statesman, and jurist. 

Henry Donnell Foster was born in Mercer, Mercer 
Co., Pa., Dec. 19, 1808. He was a descendant of dis- 
tinguished Scottish, English, and Dutch stock. The 
Fosters were noted for their learning and ability gen- 
erations before they came to this country, more than 
a century and a half ago. They were of that God- 
fearing liberty-loving race which fought so long and 
so fearlessly against the religious intolerance which 
devastated Scotland in the bloody years before the 
time of Cromwell. 



They were among the refugees who fled to the 
North of Ireland for peace and safety, and where they 
soon became a family of note and influence among 
the Scotch-Irish colonists. From this stock came 
Alexander Foster, the ancestor of the subject of this 
sketch, who, with his three young sons, William, 
James, and John, emigrated from Londonderry in the 
year 1725, and settled in Freehold, N. J. 

On the maternal side, Mr. Foster was descended 
from the English Lords Townley, who were promi- 
nent Roman Catholics, and lived in Lancashire, where 
they held large estates. The maternal ancestor of 
the Fosters who first came to this country was Mary 
Townley, the wife of William Lawrence. She was a 
sister of the then Lord Townley, the head of the 
family. Mary became a Protestant, and married Wil- 
liam Lawrence, which so scandalized her Roman 
Catholic brother that he forbade her ever entering his 
house again. She went with her husband and many 
others in that famous emigration to Holland which 
preceded the Puritan emigration to the bleak shores 
of New England. 

After a residence of two years, she and her hus- 
band set sail from the harbor of Delft Haven for 
America, with Plymouth, Mass., as their destination. 
Their reckoning became lost in a severe storm during 
the passage, and they were compelled to land at the 
mouth of the Hudson, among the Dutch settlements. 

Their eldest son, William, married and settled at 
Flushing, Long Island. The daughter married a Van 
Hook, and lived on the Hudson near New York, or 
New Amsterdam, as it was then called. Their son, 
Lawence Van Hook, was a judge of the court in that 
city. His daughter Frances married the Rev. Samuel 
Blair. She was the great-grandmother of Mr. Foster. 

Of the three sons who came to America with their 
father, Alexander Foster, James, when grown, went 
to Washington County, Pa., where he made extensive 
purchases of lands and became a farmer. He was the 
grandfather of the celebrated American musical com- 
poser, Stephen C. Foster, also of William B. Foster, 
Jr., at one time vice-president of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, and of Morrison Foster, of Alle- 
gheny City. 

John went South and settled in Tennessee, where 
his descendants have been distinguished citizens, emi- 
nent in the councils of their State, and before the civil 
war in those of the nation. 

William, the remaining son, the grandfather of 
Mr. Foster, studied for the ministry and settled in Oc- 
torara township, Chester Co., Pa., where he preached 
the gospel until the time of his death. He was born 
in Little Britain township, Lancaster Co., in 1740. 
He was graduated at the College of New Jersey in 
1764, having for his cotemporaries in that institution 
David Ramsay, the historian, Judge Jacob Rush, 
Oliver Ellsworth, Nathaniel Niles.and Luther Martin. 
He was taken under the care of the Presbytery of New 
Castle as a probationer for the ministry, Oct. S3, 1766, 






THE LEGAL PKOFESSION. 



325 



and was licensed to preach by that Presbytery, April 
21, 1767. He accepted a call from the congregations 
of Upper Octorara and Doe Run, and was installed 
Oct. 19, 176S, being then about twenty-eight years of 
age. 

Soon after his licensure he married Hannah, a 
daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, formerly of Fagg's 
Manor, and a granddaughter of Lawrence Van Hook, 
Esq., formerly one of the judges of the Court of 
Common Pleas of New York, who was among the 
first settlers from the United Netherlands. 

In the Revolution Mr. Foster engaged heartily in 
the cause of civil liberty, and encouraged all who 
heard him to do their utmost in defense of their 
rights. In the beginning of 1770 he preached a very 
patriotic and stirring sermon to the young men of his 
congregation and neighborhood upon the subject of 
their duty to their country in its then trying situation. 

On one occasion Mr. Foster was called to Lancas- 
ter to preach to troops collected there previous to their 
joining the main army. The discourse was so accept- 
able that it was printed and circulated, and did much 
to arouse the spirit of patriotism among the people. 

Indeed, the Presbyterian clergymen generally were 
stanch Whigs, and contributed greatly to keep alive 
the flame of liberty, which our disasters had fre- 
quently caused to be well-nigh extinguished in the 
long and unequal contest, and but for them it would 
often have been impossible to obtain recruits to keep 
up the forces requisite to oppose a too often victorious 
enemy. Some of them lost their lives, and others 
were driven from their congregations in consequence 
of their zeal in behalf of their country. 

It was a great object with the British officers to 
silence the Presbyterian preachers as far as possible, 
and with this view they frequently dispatched parties 
of light-horse into the country to surprise and take 
prisoners unsuspecting clergymen. 

An expedition of this kind was planned against 
Mr. Foster. He was a special object for British 
malevolence, as he had induced so many young men 
to join Washington's army, which was then lying 
encamped at Valley Forge. Sir William Howe, the 
British commander, threatened to hang him to the 
highest tree in the forest could he but catch him. An 
expedition was actually sent out by Sir William 
Howe for that purpose, who sent a body of cavalry 
to waylay him on his way to the little church in the 
woods, where he was engaged to preach to a small 
party of recruits about to join the army at Valley 
Forge. Mr. Foster was informed of the expedition 
against him before leaving home by a Quaker neigh- 
bor, who, although a friend of the British, was also a 
friend of Mr. Foster, and urged him not to meet his 
engagement, for if he did he would certainly be 
hanged and his property destroyed as had been 
threatened. Mr. Foster, however, insisted on fulfill- 
ing his engagement, and after removing his family to 
a neighboring farmer's house, and his library and 



valuables to another, he started off to meet the 
recruits. 

In the mean time some one had sent word to Gen. 
Washington of his danger, who at once sent a com- 
pany of cavalry to protect him in the little church 
when he was preaching to the recruits. The British 
soldiers, after proceeding about twelve miles on their 
way, were informed by a Tory tavern-keeper that their 
purpose was known, and that a few miles farther on 
parties of militia were stationed to intercept them, 
on hearing which they returned to Wilmington with- 
out having accomplished their object. 

Mr. Foster died on the 30th of September, 1780, at 
the age of forty years, having been pastor of the Oc- 
torara Church, in connection with Doe Run, about 
twelve years. He had been preaching, and on his 
walk home was overtaken by a heavy rain, which 
brought on the attack that terminated his life. 

Mr. Foster was evidently a man of very superior 
mind, and was much esteemed and respected by all 
who knew him for his solid sense and unaffected 
piety. 

The congregation procured a tombstone to be placed 
over his remains in the Octorara Churchyard, which 
bears the following inscription, written by the Rev. 
Mr. Carmichael : 

"HERE LIES ENTOMBED 
WHAT WAS MORTAL OF THE 
REV. MR. WILLIAM FOSTER, 
who departed this life 
Sept. the 30th, 1780, 
in the 41st year 
of his age. 
Foster, of sense profound, flowing in eloquence, 
Of aspect come!}', saint without pretence, 
Foster, the hrave, the wise, the good, thou'st gone 
To reign forever with thy Saviour on his throne, 
And left thy widowed charge to sit and weep alone. 
If grace and gifts like thine a mortal could reprieve 
From the dark regions of the dreary grave, 
Thy friend, dear shade, would ue'er inscribe thy stone, 
Nor with the church's tears have mixed his own." 

Mr/ Foster left eight children, four sons and four 
daughters, the oldest about thirteen and the youngest 
one year of age. His will, executed the day before 
his death, contained, among others, this provision : 
" My son Samuel to be made a scholar." 

This son became the father of our subject, Henry 
D. Foster. The estate left by Mr. Foster was not 
large in point of value, but Mrs. Foster was a very 
prudent, managing woman, and, under the blessing 
of Providence, was enabled to raise her children 
until they were of an age to take care of themselves. 

Alexander W. Foster, the second son, studied law 
with a Mr. Burd, who had an office corner of Ninth 
and Chestnut Streets, in Philadelphia. After his 
admission to the bar he was for a while in a law part- 
nership with George Clymer. In 1796 he and his 
brother Samuel decided to remove their mother and 
the remainder of the family out to the western part 
of the State, where there was a wider field for their 
talents. They settled in Crawford County, purchas- 



326 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ing a farm on Conneaut Lake, six miles from Mead- 
ville, for their brothers William and James to cul- 
tivate, where their mother and sisters lived with them. 

In 1802, Alexander W. Foster married Jane T. 
Heron, the young and beautiful daughter of Capt. I. 
G. Heron, a retired officer of the Revolutionary war, 
then living in Franklin, Venango Co. In 1812 he 
moved to Greensburg, Wesmoreland Co., and prac- 
ticed his profession there for many years. He with 
his brother, Samuel B., were among the most eminent 
lawyers of Western Pennsylvania, and were long re- 
cognized as the leaders of the bar. He devoted half 
a century to the labors of his profession, and died in 
Mercer, 1843, at the age of seventy-two years, after a 
short illness, resulting from a sudden cold taken while 
preparing cases to take before the Supreme Court in 
Pittsburgh. He left a son, Alexander W. Foster, 
Esq., who became a prominent member of the Pitts- 
burgh bar. Of his professional standing we have 
spoken before. 

Samuel Blair Foster, the oldest son of the Rev. 
William Foster, and the father of Henry D. Foster, 
studied for the ministry at Princeton College, but 
never preached. He afterwards studied law with his 
brother, Alexander W., and became an eminent lawyer 
in Mercer County. He was one of the most brilliant 
lawyers in the State; his eloquence and ability were 
of a most striking character. He was profoundly 
versed in the law, and his counsel was much sought 
after by those who had intricate law cases. His 
career, although so short, was remarkably brilliant. 
He did at the early age of forty years. 

He married Elizabeth Donnell, a daughter of Judge 
Donnell, of Northumberland County. The Donnells 
were prominent in public affairs in that county. 

He left a son, who was destined to become one of 
greatest lawyers in the nation, and eminent as a 
statesman. Henry D. Foster received his education 
at a college in Meadville. He came to Greensburg 
in 1826, and began the study of law in the office of 
his uncle, Alexander W. Foster. He often spoke 
during his lifetime of the following incident, which 
first determined him to become a lawyer. When 
about ten years of age, while living in Mercer, he 
attended court one day for the purpose of hearing his 
father making a speech in an important case on which 
he was then engaged. His father's brilliant and elo- 
quent address so touched the heart and imagination 
of young Foster that he fully made up his mind on 
leaving the court-house to become a lawyer also, like 
his father, and to emulate him in his fame. 

He completed his law studies under his uncle's 
instructions, and was admitted to practice in the 
Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County on 
the 26th of August, 1829, when not quite twenty-one 
years of age. His certificate of admission to the bar 
shows that he was examined by John B. Alexander, 
R. B. McCabe, and Joseph H. Kuhns, Esq., and who 
on examination recommended him as qualified for 



admission. His ability as a lawyer was soon recog- 
nized, and he rapidly rose to the highest ranks in his 
profession. He became thoroughly devoted to his 
profession, and the allurements of political life were 
not strong enough to make him neglect his legal 
studies. He was the lawyer and the jurist combined 
in one, the practitioner as well as the expounder of 
the law. His mind was an eminently legal one, 
which, combined with an unerring judgment and an 
incisive manner, made him a formidable opponent in 
a lawsuit. He had no liking for criminal cases, but 
when he was engaged in one he invariably took the 
side of the defense. Many incidents are related of 
his habits as a lawyer, of the remarkable insight he 
had into the character of men, and his ability to 
handle them. His power over a jury was considered 
phenomenal, and very few cared to oppose him before 
a jury. He had an extensive practice and might 
have become wealthy, but was prevented by his ex- 
treme liberality to the needy and to his friends. He 
was generous to a fault. In him the oppressed found 
a defender, the wronged an advocate, the poor a dis- 
penser of alms. 

Judge Gibson, Judge Thompson, and H. D. Foster 
were said to be the three great land-lawyers in Penn- 
sylvania. Judge Gibson has been heard to say that 
he regarded Mr. Foster as the greatest land-lawyer in 
the State. 

No man in the State made a better reputation as a 
statesman than Mr. Foster. He took a commanding 
position from the time he first entered the political 
arena. When yet a young man, as far back as 1828, 
he was noted for his stanch support of the Jackson 
Democracy. He was three times elected to Congress, 
and twice defeated. He first served in the Congress 
of 1S42, again in 18-14, and for the last time in 1870. 
He ran for Congress in 1866, but was defeated, and 
again in 1868, when the returns showed a majority in 
his favor, but the seat was contested by Mr. Covode, 
his opponent, who succeeded in preventing him from 
taking his seat. He was a member of the Pennsyl- 
vania Legislature during the sessions of 1857 and 
1858, and in 1860 was the Democratic candidate for 
Governor, his successful competitor being Andrew G. 
Curtiu. It was during this campaign that. he had 
his controversy with Stephen A. Douglas, who wanted 
Mr. Foster to take sides against Breckenridge, which 
Mr. Foster refused to do. Breckenridge was a cousin 
of Mr. Foster. This fact had, however, nothing to do 
with his position in that famous contest. 

Mr. Foster's career in Congress was a notable one. 
It is said that on the occasion of his famous speech 
on the tariff question, in 1846, he was warmly con- 
'gratulated by John Quincy Adams, who made the re- 
mark that Foster " was the coming man." In the 
tariff debates of that clay he left a record of which 
any Pennsylvanian might be proud. His bold, 
manly, clear, and convincing arguments against Mr. 
Homes, of South Carolina, to repeal the duty on 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



327 



railroad iron is a master-piece in itself, both in point 
of close reasoning and logical adduction, while it 
demonstrated the fact that he was thoroughly im- 
bued with a sense of the great importance of the iron 
industries of the State. The tariff then in force was 
the highly protective tariff of 1842. Bills were intro- 
duced in Congress to repeal or modify it and adopt a 
universal ad valorem principle. 

Mr. Foster was offered a number of times, during 
the period his party was in the majority in this State, 
the nomination for the judgeship of the Supreme 
Bench, which he always refused. His only ambition, 
if, indeed, he had ambition outside the realms of the 
law, was to become a United States senator. He was 
supported for the Senate by that wing of the Democ- 
racy which refused to support John W. Forney for 
that position. This defection in the Democratic 
ranks resulted in the election of Simon Cameron. 
Senator Cameron was always an admirer of Mr. 
Foster, and after his nomination for the governor- 
ship he offered him a present of a thousand dollars 
to help pay his election expenses, remarking, as he 
made the offer, that though opposed to him fn poli- 
tics he liked him, and wanted to serve him. Mr. 
Foster, of -course, refused to accept the gift. In 
times of great danger to his party he was always se- 
lected as the one of the few men who could secure 
victory to its banners. 

He was a man universally loved and respected; his 
manners were always gentle and attractive, which 
made him hosts of friends wherever he went. He 
was the soul of honor, and his life was without stain 
or reproach. 

In personal appearance he was prepossessing and 
very gentlemanly. He was of medium height, very 
erect and active. His countenance was of a benevo- 
lent type, and an affable expression always dwelt 
upon it, and lighted it up with a glow that no vicissi- 
tudes of fortune, no asperity of political contests, no 
malevolence ever changed. His eyes were light blue 
and intellectual in expression, though mild as those 
of a child. His forehead at sixty-five was without a 
wrinkle, — " on his brow shame was ashamed to sit." 
The shape of his head indicated a more than ordinary 
capacity of mind. His hair, dark in his younger 
days, turned gray, and then white as he reached old 
age, he wore in a negligent fashion which became 
him well. 

He married Mary Jane Young, the youngest daugh- 
ter of Judge John Young, and by her had five chil- 
dren, all daughters, — Mary DeCharms, married to F. 
Z. Schellenberg, Esq., of Irwin Station ; Elizabeth 
Donnell, married to Capt. A. K. Long, U.S. A.; Fran- 
cis Forrester, died at the age of seventeen, unmarried ; 
Emily F., married to F. A. Hopper, Esq., of Irwin 
Station ; Hetty Barclay, married to George C. Hewett, 
Esq., of Philadelphia. 

He died Oct. 16, 1880, at the home of his daughter, 
Mrs. F. A. Happer, at Irwin Station, Westmoreland 



Co., in the seventy-second year of his age. His death, 
by a singular coincidence, occurred exactly eight 
years after the death of his wife. The day of their 
deaths was also the birthday anniversary of their 
daughter, Mrs. F. Z. Schellenberg. 

No man's death for many years in this part of the 
State called forth such unstinted expressions of sor- 
row. He was a man singularly fortunate in the pos- 
session of the esteem and love of the community. 

ARCHIBALD A. STEWART. 

Archibald A. Stewart died suddenly on Sunday, 
July 3, 1882. Mr. Stewart was born in the county 
of Indiana, this State, March 3, 1833, and at the 
time of his demise was in the forty-ninth year of 
his age. He was of Irish ancestry, but of American 
birth. He graduated at Jefferson College, Washing- 
ton County, in 1854, at which time he commenced the 
study of the law under the Hon. Henry D. Foster, 
lately deceased, and was admitted to the Greensburg 
bar two years thereafter, where he continued the 
practice of his profession until his untimely death. 
In the mean time, however, he had been twice suc- 
cessively elected district attorney of this county, fill- 
ing the position with distinguished ability. 

Mr. Stewart was a noble-hearted man, generous to 
a fault, and many of the poor and needy and distressed 
have cause to fondly remember him for his long-con- 
tinued and disinterested benevolence, for verily he 
was ever the fast friend of the needy and indigent. 
He was a man of superior intellectual attainments, 
well versed in the science and in the practice of the 
law, and at all times and under all circumstances an 
honor to his profession. His personal popularity was 
almost unbounded. He had but few enemies, and 
they were mostly of such a caste that their enmity 
was always preferable to their friendship. The de- 
ceased was an ardent, unswerving, and uncompromis- 
ing Democrat, and had been such from his youth up, 
his unalterable attachment to the Democratic creed 
ever "growing with his growth and strengthening 
with his strength," always battling in the front ranks, 
and disbursing his means liberally for the success of 
the cause he had ever championed. 1 

1 The following are the resolutions adopted on the sad occasion by his 
fellow-members of the bar: 

,l Resolutions. 

"Resolved, That the Bench and the Bar have learned with sincere re- 
gret of the unexpected death of A. A. Stewart, Esquire, in the prime of 
life. In the morning the shadows are long. at. noon they are gone; 60 
it is with the race of man. In the morning of life he indulges in a long 
expectation, but these fond hopes often vanish like morning shadows 
before the meridian of life is reached. 

" Resolved, That the early death of Mr. Stewart, in the midst of use- 
fulness, will he felt by the Bar, lamented by the community at large, 
and mourned with sincere and profound regret by the masses who 
crowded the Sessions. Whoever was obnoxiouB to the stroke of justice, 
or in danger of the penalties of the law, he was eager, zealous, and 
faithful to defend. This eccentricity brought him much labor, often 
ill requited, but many and lasting personal friends. 

" Resolved, That Mr. Stewart's kind and benevolent disposition, his 



328 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



HENRY CLAY MARCHAND. 

Henry Clay Marchand, one of the most distin- 
guished lawyers that ever belonged to the West- 
moreland bar, was born March 9, 1819, and died 
January 16, 1882, leaving a record of which, for its ; 
singular integrity of character, purity of purpose, i 
and intellectual clearness in the domain of forensic | 
disputation, all Westmorelanders may well be proud. 
He studied law in the office of his older brother, Al- 
bert G., and when admitted to the bar, May, 1840, he 
at once became partner with his brother in the same 
office. This partnership continued till the death of 
his brother in 1848. 

This was a new and important era in his life. He 
was the youngest partner of the firm. The prop on 
which he had leaned was suddenly taken away, and 
he was bound to rely on his own resources ; but it [ 
seems that the mantle of his departed and lamented 
brother fell on him, and he was enabled to carry on 
the work as if by the accumulated wisdom and judg- 
ment of his deceased brother. He continued to do 
the business of the office, which increased from year 
to year, alone until 1864, when John A., son of Hon. 
Albert G. Marchand, deceased, was admitted to prac- 
tice, when a partnership was formed which continued 
uninterrupted till his death. 

Henry C. Marchand practiced law at the Greens- 
burg bar for forty-one years. By his diligence and 
devotion to the duties of his profession he stood for 
many years prior to his death among the foremost at 
this bar. 

He was, without any doubt, one of the most es- 
teemed, trustworthy, honorable, and successful lawyers 
in our county; as a jurist and a counselor he had 
few superiors in the State. He enjoyed the confidence 
of the court, the bar, the community, and the general 
public that knew him in such a measure as few of his 
contemporaries have. 

Whilst he was true to his clients, whose interests 
he carried in his heart as a sacred trust committed to 
him, and to the promotion of whose cause he devoted 
his best abilities, yet he was also loyal to truth and 
justice, and endeavored to advance the rights and 
common interests of humanity. 

He was always honorable and just towards his col- 
leagues, and did much to ennoble his profession. 
Possessing genius, nobility of character, he added 
dignity to his calling. 

Forgetful of himself, and always anxious to make 
others happy, he was truly a man of toil. 

Few men have been able to accomplish what he 
has done, because they either shrink from the toil 
which he endured cheerfully, or lack the well-digested 
system by which he worked. He was a pattern to 
men in his own as well as in other professions. 

manly bearing, aud his sympathy for every form of human frailty and 
distress indicated a largeness uf heart that won for him hosts of friends 
and admirers. His fidelity to all the trusts confided to him, either legal 
or personal, were strictly righteous, fair, open, aud houorable." 



He was a man of no outward show, but a man of 
solid worth. He was naturally timid and reserved 
with strangers, modest, and shrank from public notice ; 
but among his friends and in his own family he was 
frank, cordial, full of sympathy, and manifested the 
kindest interest in all. 

As those know best who have seen him oftenest 
and known him longest, a kinder heart never beat, 
and tenderer feelings never pulsated in human breast 
than filled his bosom. This is said not as a matter of 
sentiment, but as a matter of fact, and of honest con- 
viction, based on our personal knowledge of his char- 
acter. His heart could always be touched by an 
appeal on behalf of a worthy cause, and promptly 
responded to every call coming from the poor and 
needy. He did not love in word, but in deed and in 
truth. He never sounded a trumpet before him when 
he did deeds of charity. He did not let his left hand 
know what his right hand did. There are many who 
will miss him, but they will not soon forget the kind- 
ness which they received at his hands, known only to 
themselves and to him who bestowed them. 

Now that he is gone we recall his character and 
his noble life, well rounded. We think of him 
as the esteemed citizen and the true patriot, as the 
learned jurist and eminent counselor, the dutiful son 
and the kind brother, the affectionate husband and 
the faithful friend, the lover of truth and defender of 
every Christian virtue. He was a good man, for 
from his hand flowed deeds of love and acts of kind- 
ness. He was a true man ; no guile was found on his 
lips and no deceit in his heart. He was a just man, 
loved integrity, and sought to promote righteousness. 
He was an honest man, " the noblest work of God," 
devoting his best talents to promote the highest in- 
terests of humanity. He was a magnanimous man; 
he could forgive a foe and forget an injury. He was 
a religious man ; he had the profoundest reverence 
for God and sacred things, and had implicit faith in 
the atonement of Christ. 

" His life was gentle; and the elements 
So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
And eay to all the world, This was a man. 
II'- was a man, take him for all in all ; 
We shall not soou look on his like again." 

The memorial passed by the bar which met on the 
occasion of his death, as is their custom on the death 
of one of its members, to express some token of re- 
spect for the deceased, so clearly expresses the salient 
features of his professional characteristics that it 
deserves a place in this inadequate sketch. 

The bar met in pursuance to adjournment on 
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 1882, at one o'clock p.m., in the 
court-room, and at the request of the former chair- 
man, Hon. Judge Hunter, the Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, 
being the oldest surviving member of the bar, and 
chairman of the committee on resolutions, took the 
chair. The committee on resolutions reported the 
following memorial, to wit: 




#&, &>^ s7??ot/yt £<»~t<^ 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



329 



"The committee appointed to express the sentiments of the members 
of the bar touching the death of Henry C. Marchand, Esq., respectfully 
report: 

"The bar of "\Ve6tmoreland County were touched with profound sor- ! 
row on learning of the death of Henry C. Marchand, Esq., and as a 
token of their high regard for him, not only as a melnberof the bar, but 
as a citizen, they desire to record here thiB memento of the impressiou he 
has left upon their minds. The marked simplicity of his character, the 
solidity of his judgment, his sincerity, earnestness, and uncomplaining 
toil all indicated a man easy of approach, wise in counsel, faithful and 
zealous in action. He made no claim to mere forensic display, and it 
would not be in place to mar his unique character as a practitioner at 
the bar by asserting it here. His chief power lay in a special ability to 
prepare and arrange to the beBt advantage all the details nseful in a | 
legal contention, and to select with skill and sound legal discrimination 
the authorities bearing on the litigated point. In this sphere of profes- 
sional excellence he had, perhaps, no superior at the bar in Westmore- 
land County. As a citizen and member of society, he was punctual and 
faithful in the discharge of the duties of life. lie was sincere in his 
friendships, and in his intercourse with the bar and his fellow-citizens 
he was courteous, cheerful, and decorous. His loss will be felt by all 
clashes of Si.rH'ty. and f>|n'rial]\ M Ihose with v\ limn he had daily busi- 
ness relations. He was the strength and pillar of the family circle in 
which he moved, the sunshine there of warm and loving hearts. 

"In view of this great bereavement, we extend to his family and 
friends the profound and sincere condolence of the memberBof the bar." 

HON. JOSEPH H. KUHNS. 

Bernard Kuhns, of German descent, was one of 
the early settlers in Northampton County. Before 
1780 two of his sons, John and Philip Kuhns, settled 
on a six-hundred-aere tract of laud some two miles 
from Greensburg, which their father had years before 
patented. The latter was elected sheriff of the county 
in 1798, and died March 28, 1823, in his sixty-second 
year. His wife was Eliza, the youngest daughter of Dr. 
David Marchand. Their children were Jacob, David, 
Daniel, John, Samuel, Joseph Henry, Reuben, and 
Eliza (married William H. King). They all lived 
in this county except John, who removed to Putnam 
County, Ohio, where he became a judge of the courts. 
Daniel and Joseph Henry Kuhns are the only two now 
living. The latter was born in September, 1800, in a 
log house (now weather-boarded), the property of j 
Judge James A. Hunter, and located on West Pitts- j 
burgh Street. He first attended school in the old log ! 
school-house by the spring on the commons (now 
part of St. Clair Cemetery, where the superintendent's 
house is). It was then taught by " Master" Williams. 
He subsequently attended the academy, and then went 
to Washington College, where he graduated in 1820. 
He read law with Maj. John B. Alexander (whose 
sister he afterwards married), and was admitted to the 
bar about 1823. He first practiced, but for a short 
period, with Maj. Alexander, and subsequently by 
himself. He soon acquired a very extensive and lu- 
crative practice both in the Westmoreland and Su- 
preme Courts. He is now the eldest ranking member 
of the bar, but retired some five years ago from the 
practice. In 1850 he was elected by the Whig party 
to Congress from the district then composed of West- 
moreland, Indiana, Somerset, and Fulton Counties. 
He served one term in the national House of Repre- 
sentatives, but declined a re-election, preferring to 
resume his profession in which he stood so high. He 



was first married, in 1825, to Margaret Alexander, of 
Carlisle, by whom he had four sons and four daugh- 
ters, of whom one is H. Byers Kuhns, a leading at- 
torney of the bar. After her death, in 1850, he mar- 
ried Harriet, widow of Hon. William Jack, by whom 
he had two sous, — Joseph H., Jr., superintendent of 
the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and Lewis, a con- 
tractor on the same. When Greensburg was laid out 
his father and uncle, John and Philip Kuhns, bought 
lots in it, then covered with fine oak timber, which 
they cleared off and built upon. 

Mr. Kuhns is one of the oldest citizens of the town, 
and a man whose life has been a useful and success- 
ful one, reflecting honor on his ancestors, who were 
among the earliest pioneers in this region. 

James Cunningham Clarke was born in Laugh- 
linstown, Westmoreland Co., Pa., on Feb. 2, 1823 ; 
removed with his father's family to Blairsville, Pa., 
in 1831 ; entered as a pupil in the private classical 
school of Rev. David Kirkpatrick in 1837 ; finished 
his education at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pa., 
where he graduated in 1843 ; same year commenced 
reading law with the late Judge Coulter in Greens- 
burg ; was admitted to the bar in 1816, and entered 
on the practice of his profession in Westmoreland 
County, where he has since continued to reside. 

He has identified himself with the various public 
improvements of his adopted residence, such as the 
establishment of the St. Clair Cemetery, the erection 
of the gas-works, serving many years in the Board 
of Burgesses and in the School Board, in the latter 
of which he served (with the exception of a single 
year) from 1859 till 1881, at which time he resigned. 
In religion a United Presbyterian. In politics a 
Democrat, always taking a deep interest in the suc- 
cess of the party to which he was attached. 

In 1874 he was honored by the party with election 
to the State Senate, where he served the sessions of 
1875-76, and was re-elected in the fall of the latter 
year for the term of four years, and served in such 
capacity duriug the term for which he was elected. 

In 1852 was prominently mentioned as a competent 
and suitable person to fill the vacancy in the Board 
of Canal Commissioners caused by the resignation of 
William Searight. 

John Latta was born in Unity township, West- 
moreland Co., Pa., on March 2, 1836. In early life he 
had the benefit of an English academical education 
at Eldersridge and Sewickiey Academies. In 1857 he 
entered the law-office of D. H. Hagen, Esq., at Pitts- 
burgh, pursuing and completing the study of law at 
Yale University, and was admitted to the Westmore- 
land bar in November, 1859. He took an active part 
in the Presidential campaign of 1860, and in every 
political campaign since. He was a delegate to the 
Democratic National Convention of 1864 and 1872. 
In the latter convention he voted with the minority 
of the Pennsylvania delegation against the nomina- 
tion of Greeley. 



330 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



In 1862 he was defeated for the nomination of dis- ! 
trict attorney by the late A. A. Stewart, Esq., but was 
nominated the next year for the State Senate, and was 
elected by the counties of Fayette and Westmoreland. 

In 1871 he was elected to the Legislature, and re- 
elected in 1872. He was defeated for the nomination 
for Congress in the spring of 1874 by the Hon. Jacob 
Turney, but was nominated by the Democratic State 
Convention which met in Pittsburgh later in the sum- 
mer for Lieutenant-Governor, and was elected in the 
fall of same year. He is now engaged in the practice 
of his profession in Greensburg, Pa. He has served 
as a school director for the past fourteen years, and as 
vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He 
is a descendant of Scotch-Irish ancestry. 

.ffiSOP'S FABLE. 

iEsop relates this fable : Once upon a time a man 
and a lion were journeying together, and came at 
length to high words which was the braver and 
stronger of the two. As the dispute waxed warmer 
they happened to pass by on the roadside a statue of 
a man strangling a lion. "See there!" said the man, 
" what more undeniable proof can you have of our 
superiority than that?" "That," said the lion, "is 
your version of the story ; let us be the sculptors, 
and for one lion under the feet of a man you shall 
have twenty men under the paw of a lion." The 
moral is obvious. And as it has not been our habit 
to pass panegyrics upon the living, we mean by this 
that the bar of Westmoreland to-day stands as high 
as it has ever done in the annals of the past in this 
Commonwealth, and that the reputation given it by 
those distinguished men who adorned it with their 
legal wisdom and erudition has not suffered diminu- 
tion by our seniors now in practice, and will not be 
abated when the rising juniors shall have taken their 
places. 

ROLL OF ATTORNEYS ADMITTED TO PRACTICE AT 
THE WESTMORELAND BAR. 

This list having been made up from the minutes 
in the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions Courts, 
although as near perfect as it is possible to be under 
the circumstances, may not in the first portion be 
entire. In some of the minutes no admission is noted 
for the space of several years. The names of some 
prominent attorneys do not appear at all. No other 
list has been ever made that we know of other than 
this. As a rule, the term only at which the attorney 
was admitted is given. Under the head of " remarks" 
is noted whether the admitted attorney was a regular 
student at this court, if he was a practicing attorney 
at some other bar and thus admitted for the occasion, 
or if on being admitted at another bar he came here 
to practice. In the first instance he is marked " reg- 
ular," in the next the county bar at which he appears 
to have been a member is given, or simply the word 
"motion," and in the third instance the word "cer- 



tificate" is used, which also indicates in some in- 
stances that the student, being a graduate of some 
college competent to give a degree which would admit 
him to practice the law, was entitled to admission by 
virtue of such degree. The attorney making the mo- 
tion for admission is also given, unless where the 
record omits the name, when the word " motion" is 
used. 



Attorneys. 


Day or 

Term when 

Admitted. 


Remarks. 


Attorney making 
Motion. 


Michael Huffnagle. 


Jan. 6, 


1779 




Sample. 


Samuel Br will. 


" 


" 




M 


Andrew Scott. 


Oct. T., 


" 




Hu finagle. 


H.H. Uiackeuridge. 


April T. 


17S1 




Smith. 


.lames Berwick. 


" 


" 






David Bradford. 


" 


1782 




Brackenridge. 


Thomas Duncan. 


Jan. T., 


178a 


Washington Co. 


Smith. 


George Thompson." 


** 


" 


" " 


" 


John Woods. - 


" 


1784 




" 


.lohn Young. 


" 


17*9 




Ross. 


Daniel St. Clair. 


" 


" 


Regular. 


Woods. 


David He.ldiek. 


July 6, 


1790 


Washington Co. 


Smith. 


Jacob Nagle. 


Oct. 4, 


" 




" 


Steel Sample. 


Oct. 6, 


1791 


Allegheny Co. 


Woods. 


Henry Woods. 


June T. 


1792 




Woods, John. 


David McKeehan. 


Dec. T., 


" 




Robs. 


Hugh Koss. 


" 


" 




Ross, James. 


George Armstrong. 


Mar. 11 


1793 




Woods. 


Joseph Pentecost. 


Mar. 12 


*' 


Washington Co. 


Ross, James. 


Henry Purviance. 


Mar. S., 


1794 


Regular. 


Young. 


Arthur St. Clair, Jr. 


June S., 


" 


" 


Woods, John. 


Paul Morrow. 


Mar. S., 


1795 


Allegheny Co. 


Young. 


Thomas Collins. 


June S. 


" 


■t ii 


" 


Thomas Headon. 


Dec, 


" 




it 


James Morrison. 


" 


" 




ii 


Thomas Creigh. 


Mar. S , 


1796 


Certificate. 


ii 


Abraham Morrison. 


June S., 


"■ 


l( 


Woods, John. 


Samuel Mehon. 


" 


" 


it 


(I u 


J.ih. Montgomery. 


Dec. T., 


" 


it 


Young. 


John Lyon. 


June T. 


1797 


Motion. 


Woods. 


Thomas >'esbit. 


Sept., 


" 


Certificate. 


Ross, James. 


John Simiiison. 


Mar. S., 


1798 






William Kauuells. 


JuneT. 


" 


Motion. 


Armstrong. 


Parker Campbell. 


" 


" 


11 


Young. 


Thomas Measoo. 


Sept. S., 


" 


" 


" 


David Hays. 


" 


" 


" 


Morrow. 


John Kennedy. 


" 


" 


" 


Sample. 


C. S. Semple. 


Dec. S., 


" 


" 


McKeehan. 


Samuel Deemer. 


Mar. S., 


1799 


" 


Sample, S. 


William Ayres. 


** 


" 


" 


" 


Robert Callender. 


" 


" 


" 


Kepple. 


Robert Allison. 


Sept. S. 


1800 


" 


Callender. 


Ralph Martin. 


Mar. S. 


1801 


" 


Armstrong, Geo. 


Samuel Harrison. 


June T. 


" 


Fayette Co. 


Ross, John. 


Joseph Park. 


Sept. T. 


" 


Motion. 


Morrison. 


Joseph Weigley. 


Dec. T., 


" 


11 


Young. 


Alex. Foster. 


*' 


" 




Sample. 


William N. Irwine. 


June T. 


1802 


" 


Collins. 


Jonath. R. Reddick. 


Mar. T. 


1*04 


" 


Armstrong, Geo. 


Othro Srader. 


" 


" 


" 


Addison. 


Henry Hanlet. 


" 


f * 


" 


Woods, Jno. 


Meshack Sexton. 


June T. 


" 


" 


Young. 


Henry Baldwin. 


Sept. T. 


'* 


" 


Armstrong. 


William Ward, Jr. 


" 


" 


Somerset Co. 


Wi.-inlrv. 


J. B. Alexander. 


Dec. T. 


" 


Motion. 


Wilkins. 


Samuel Guthrie. 


" 


" 


" 


Morrow. 


Samuel Selby. 


Mar. T. 


1806 


" 


Weigley. 


James M. Biddle. 


Dec. T. 


" 


" 


" 


Walter Forward. 


" 


" 


Allegheny Co. 


Armstrong, Geo. 


Charles Wilkins. 


Mar. T. 


1808 


It 41 


Ross, James. 


Samuel Massey. 


" 


" 


Motion. 


Armstrong. 


John Reed. 


Nov. T. 


" 


" 


Forward. 


H. M.Brackenridge. 


May T. 


1809 


ii 


Reed. 


James Wells. 


Sept. T. 








John L. Fair. 


" 


" 






Magnus M. Murray. 


Dec. T. 


" 


Motion. 


Wilkins, W. 


Daniel Stannard. 


Feb. T. 


lsin 


Indiana Co. 


Reed. 


James M. Kelly. 


" 


" 


" " 


Armstrong. 


Richard Win. Lain. 


May T. 


" 


Motion. 


Koss, Jas. 


Robert Fimlley. 


" 


" 


Cert. Crawford Co. 


Weigley. 


Neville B. Craig. 


Aug. T. 


" 


Allegheny Co. 


Wilkins. 


Guy Hicox. 


11 


11 


Armstrong Co. 


Weigley. 


John 11. Chaplain. 


" 


" 


Allegheny Co. 


Forward. 


John M. Austin. 


" 


" 


ii ii 


Ross, .lames. 


Rh hard Coulter. 


Mar. T. 


1811 


Motion. 


Alexander. 


James Carson. 


Aug. T. 


" 




" 


Samuel Douglass. 


Feb. T. 


1812 


Motion. 


Wilkins, C. 


John McDonald. 


May T. 


« 


Allegheny Co. 


Wilkins, W. 


John Dawson. 


Feb. T. 


1814 


Fayette Co. 


Coulter. 


Joseph Beckett. 


May T. 


" 


Motion. 


" 


Samuel Kingston. 


" 


" 


" 


Foster, A. W. 


Charles Shaler. 


Dec. T. 


■ " 


Allegheny Co. 


" " 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



331 



Attorneys. 


Day or 

Term when 

Admitted. 


Remarks. 


Attorney making 
Motion. 


Attorneys. 


Day or 

Term when 

Admitted. 


Remarks. 


Attorney making 
Motion. 


John A. T. Kilgore. 


Feb. T., 1815 


Regular. 


Armstrong, Geo. 


P. C. Shannon. 


Aug. T., 1845 


Regular. 


Report. 


John Carpenter. 


ii it 


Motion. 


Reed. 


George W. Bonnin. 


Feb. T., 1846 


Motion. 


Marchand, A. G. 


Obadiah Jennings. 


Aug. T., « 




Forward. 


Jno. Alex. Coulter. 


tt .i 


Regular. 


Report. 


Calvin Mason. 


Oct. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


James C. Clarke. 


it n 


" 


" 


Samuel Alexander. 


May T., 1816 


u 


" 


S. B. McCormick. 


Aug. T., " 


" 


*' 


Edward J. Roberts. 


Nov. T., " 


Allegheny Co. 


Alexander. 


Wm. A. Campbell. 


tt tt 


" 


" 


Jacob M. Wise. 


Feb. T., 1S17 


Regular. 


Report. 


Wm. H. Markle. 


" 1847 


" 


'* 


S. V. R. Forward. 


it it 


Allegheny Co. 


Armstrong, Geo. 


Wm. A. Cook. 


it it 


" 


" 


H. M. Campbell. 


May T., 1818 


Cumberland Co. 


Alexander. 


L. T. Cantwell. 


Nov. T., « 


Motion. 


Clarke. 


James Hall. 




Allegheny Co. 


Forward, W, 


Francis Egan. 


May T., 1848 


Certificate. 


Foster. 


Andrew Stewart. 


tt ii 


Fayette Co. 


Reed. 


John Campbell. 


Aug. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


Josiah E. Barclay. 


Aug.T., || 




Kelly. 


John C. I'. Smith. 


it <i 


" 


" 


W. 11. Brackenridge 






" 


Richard Coulter, Jr. 


Feb. T., 1849 


" 


** 


Ephraim Carpenter. 


n it 


Regular. 


Report. 


H. Byers Kuhns. 


ii it 


" 


ti 


A. Brackenridge. 


1819 


Allegheny Co. 


Foster, A. W. 


George W. Clark. 


u ti 


|| 


it 


John Bouvier. 


II It 




Reed. 


Samuel Sherwell. 


May T., " 




it 


John S. Brady. 


Sept. T., " 


Regular. 


Coulter. 


Jacob Turuey. 


it ti 


" 


tt 


John Y. Barclay. 


Nov. T., " 


Ad. Bedford Co. 


Armstrong, Geo. 


John Penny. 


Nov. T., " 


Motion. 


Cowan. 


Thomas Blair. 


Feb. T., 1820 


Armstrong Co. 


Alexander. 


S. P. Ross. 


Feb. T., 1850 


Regular. 


Report. 


Sylvester Dunham. 


May T., " 


Beaver Co. 


" 


Coffee. 


May T., " 


Motion. 


Burrell. 


James McGee. 


ii it 


Virginia. 


Coulter. 


W.J. Sutton. 


Nov. T., " 


" 




Chauucey Forward. 


Aug. T., " 


Somerset Co, 


" 


James Trees. 


Aug. T., 1851 


Regular. 


" 


Gasper Hill, Jr. 


" " 


Regular. 


Report. 


H. S. Magraw. 


tt ti 






H. G Herron. 


April T.,1822 


" 


" 


John E. Fleming. 


1852 


" 


" 


Charles Ogle. 


.i ii 


" 


" 


Thos. G. Taylor. - 


tt t* 


14 


'* 


Joseph Williams. 


" " 


" 


• t 


J. Freetly. 


" ■ 1853 


Motion. 


Foster. 


H. N. Weigley. 


M it 


'• 


" 


Thos. Armstrong. 


1 


Regular. 


Report. 


W. W. Fetterman. 


May T., " 


Allegheny Co. 


Forward. 


James Todd. 


tt 


" 


" 


John Riddell. 


Ang. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


J. M. Underwood. 


May T., 1855 


Motion. 


Mc Kinney. 


Thomas White. 


Nov. T., " 


Indiana Co. 


Alexander. 


A. A. Stewart. 


1857 


Regular. 


Drum. 


Thomas R. Peters. 


Feb. T., 1823 


Motion. 


" 


James C. Snodgrass. 




" 




A. S. T. Mountain. 


ii tt 


Allegheny Co. 


Coulter. 


John H. Hoopes. 


Aug. T., " 


" 


Cook. 


John H. Hopkins. 


Mav T., " 


Motion. 


Alexander. 


Thomas Fenlon. 


" 1858 


Motion. 




Joseph H. Kiiluis. 


Aug. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


James A. Hunter. 


ii t. 


Regular. 


Armstrong, J., Sr. 


Richard Biddle. 


May T., 1824 


Motion. 


Alexander. 


Judge Kelly. 


Nov. T., " 


Philadelphia. 


Motion. 


James S. Craft. 




" 


Barclay. 


John D. McClarren. 


ii tt 


Indiana Co. 


" 


James Findlay. 


Aug. T., " 


" 


Armstrong, Geo. 


John Latta. 


1859 


Petition. 


Stokes. 


William Snowden. 


Feb. T.,1825 


" 


Foster, A. W. 


Logan. 


Feb. T., 1860 


Regular. 


Foster. 


John Armstrong. 


tt ii 


Regular. 


Alexander. 


John I. Case. 


Nov. T., " 


Allegheny Co. 


Motion. 


John J. Henderson. 


May T., " 


Motion. 


Barclay. 


Andrew M. Fulton. 


tt tt 


Regular. 


Report. 


Michael Gallagher. 


" " 


" 


Coulter. 


M. A. Cauders. 


tt u 




" 


Hugh Gallagher. 


Aug. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


W. R. Boyer. 


Mav T., 1861 




Motion. 


Richard Bard. 


Nov. T., " 


Armstrong Co. 


Motion. 


Jacob Beaumont. 


Nov. T., " 


11 


Turney. 


Wm. Postb-thwaite. 


" 1826 


Regular. 


Report. 


W. H. Stewart. 


Feb. T.1862 


" 


Armstrong. 


John Glenn. 


Feb. T., 1827 


Motion. 


Alexander. 


W. M. Given. 


May T., " 


" 


Laird. 


Thomae Struthers. 


Aug. T., » 


Regular. 


Report. 


R. B. Patterson. 


•t it 


Motion. 


Foster. 


R. B. McCahe. 


May T., " 


Indiana Co. 


White. 


Albert Daun. 


Nov. T., " 


Certificate. 




Daniel C. Morris. 


Nov. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


J. H. Hampton. 


tt tt 


Motion. 




John H. Wells. 


Feb. T., 1828 


" 


" 


John V. Painter. 


Feb. T., 1863 




Armstrong. 


Thomas Williams. 


Aug. T., « 


Motion. 


Coulter. 


James A. Logan. 


May T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


Alfred Patterson. 


Nov. T., « 


Regular. 


Report. 


James A. Blair. — 


tt it 


" 


" 


James Nichols. 


May T., " 


Armstrong Co. 


Motion. 


J. H. Calhoun. 


Aug. T., " 




Motion. 


George Shaw. 


U II 


Motion. 


Alexander. 


E J. Keenan. 


Nov. T., " 


Regular. 


Latta. 


Wm. F. Johnston.' 


1829 


Regular. 


Report. 


Michael Sarver. 


u ii 


" 


Hunter. 


H. D. Foster 


Aug. T., " 


" 


" 


B. G. Childs. 


it tt 


Allegheny Co. 


Stewart. 


M. D. Magellan. 


May T., 1830 


Motion. 


Findlay. 


B. H. Lucas. 


it it 




Motion. 


Robert Burk. 


Aug. T., " 


" 


** 


W. C. Moorland. 


tt it 




" 


Joseph J. Young. 


Nov. T., " 


Regular. 


Report. 


T. R. Dulley. 


May T., 1864 




" 


William P. Wells. 


1831 


Motion . 


Knhus. 


John A. Marchand. 


tt it 


Regular. 


Given. 


Thomas L. Shields. 


" 1832 


" 


Barclay. 


J. J. Hazlett. 


" " 


" 


Kuhns, Joseph. 


A. G. Marchand. 


Feb. T., 1833 


Regular. 


Report. 


J. M. Brown. 


Nov. T., " 


Ohio. 


Motion. 


John F. Beaver. 


it it 


" 


" 


W. C. L. Totten. 


it tt 


Regular. 


Kuhns, Joseph. 


A. W. Foster, Jr. 


Not. T., " 


Motion. 


Kuhns. 


W. M. Moffett. 


May T., 1865 




Motion. 


John H. Deford. 


May T., 1834 


« 


Barclay. 


Hon. W. H. Lowrie. 


" it 


Motion. 


Hunter. 


William B. Conway. 


1835 


" 


" 


A. Wiedman. 


Aug.T., " 


" 


Foster. 


J. M. Burrell. 


ii it 


Regular. 


Report. 


Cyrus P. Long. 


.< it 


" 


Marchand, H. C. 


Augustus Drum. 


1836 


" 


" 


Frank Cowan. 


ti tt 


Regular. 


Report. 


J. Armstrong, Jr. 


Feb. T., 1S4U 


" 


" 


S.P. Fulton. 


Feb. T., 1866 


Pittsburgh. 


Kuhns, Joseph, 


H. C. Marchand, 


May T., " 


" 


tt 


Samuel Palmer. 


tt u 


" 


tt ii 


J. F. Woods. 


ii it 


" 


n 


H. H. McCormick. 


ti ti 


Motion. 


Hazlett. 


Casper Harrold. 


Feb. T., 1842 


Motion. 




Wm. D. Moore 


tt 


Regular. 


Kuhns, Joseph. 


Edgar Cowan. 


it it 


Regular. 


" 


James R. McAfee. 


Aug.T., •' 


" 


Report. 


James Armstrong. 


•i tt 


" 


" 


Alex. J. Walker. 


'* " 


" 


" 


H. P. Laird. 


May T., " 


" 


" 


Henry U. Brumer. 


U it 


" 


" 


John Creswell. 


it n 


Motion. 




J. Traintir King. 


" " 


Pittsburgh. 


Todd. 


C. S. Eyeter. 


ii it 


" 




George R. Cochran. 


it tt 


" 


Hunter. 


Andrew Ross. 


Nov. T., " 


Regular. 


" 


J. B. Sampson. 


Nov. T., " 


Motion. 


Foster. 


Daniel Wyaudt. 


May T., 1843 


Motion. 


Marchand, A. G. 


Johu Blair. 


" " 


" 


" 


Amus Steck. 




Regular. 


Report. 


George E. Wallace. 


Feb. T., 1867 


Philadelphia. 


Hunter. 


Alex. L. Hamilton. 


Aug. T., " 


Motion. 


Beaver. 


Thomas P. Dick. 


Nov. T,, " 


Regular. 


Hazlett. 


Alex. H. Miller. 




« 


" 


Wm. M Blackburn. 


May T., 1868 


" 


Armstrong, J., Sr. 


J.Sewell Stewart. 


K it 


» 


Burrell. 


John Y. Woods. 


tt u 


" 


Turney. 


John C. Gilchrist. 


it it 


Regular. 


Report. 


Silas McCormick. 


tt tt 


" 


Marchand, H. C. 


Wilson Riley. 


Nov. T., " 


Motion. 


Foster, H. D. 


John F Wenthng. 


it it 


" 


" " 


J. N. Nesbit. 


May T., 1844 


" 


Marchand, A. G. 


George D. Budd. 


ti ti 


Philadelphia. 


Hunter. 


Francis Flanagen. 


it it 


■* 


Beaver. 


Dan 1 ! McLaughlin. 


Nov. T., " 


Cambria Co. 


Foster. 


Bernard Connyn. 


it it 


" 


Cowan. 


John W. Rohrer. 


Feb. T., 1869 


Motion. 


Armstrong, J.,Sr. 


J. M. Carpenter. 


it ii 


Regular. 


Report. 


D. S. Atkinson. 


it it 


Regular. 


Turney, 


Edward Scull. 


it ii 


Motion. 




T. J. Weddell. 




** 


Logan. 


Ah\. McKinuy. 


Aug.^T., " 


Regular. 


" 


David T. Harvey. 


It it 


" 


Given. 


Thoe. J. Barclay. 




" 


" 


G. D. Allien. 


tt it 


" 


Cowan. 


James Donnelly. 


Nov. T., " 


Motion. 




Samuel Singleton. 


May T., " 


Motion. 


Foster. 


John Kerr. 


tt it 


Regular. 


" 


W. D. Todd. 


" " 


" 


" 


Wm. J. Williams. 


Feb. T., 1845 


" 


" 


Wm. T. Haines. 


1870 


Allegheny Co. 


Stewart. 


Thos. Donnelly. 


May T., " 


Motion. 


Foster. 


D. P. Tyranny. 




Cambria " 


Hunter. 


John Potter. 


Aug. T., " 


« 




G. W. Minor. 


ti tt 


Fayette " 


Foster. 


Thos. J. Keenan. 




Regular. 


Report. 


Silas A. Kline. 




Regular. 


Logan. 



332 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Attorneys. 


Bay 

Term \ 


or 1 

■hen 1 Remarks. 


Attorney making 
Motiun. 




Admitted. , 




Frederick S. Rock. 


May T. 


Is7n Kegular. 


Atkinson. 


James S. Moorheatl. 


" 


" 


Stewart. 


James F. Gildea. 


Nov. T. 


" " 


Man-hand, H. C. 


W.H.Klingensmith. 


" 


ii ii 


Foster. 


John I>. Gill. 


Ang.T. 


1871; 


Wentling. 


Irwin \V. Tarr. 




ii u 


Armstrong. 


M.H.Todd. 


Feb. T. 


1872 Motion. 


Marchand, H. C, 


Samuel Lyon. 




" ; Indiana Co. 


Moorhead. 


James G. Francis. 


" 


" Regular. 


Fulton. 


Welty McCullough. 


May T. 


ii « 


Armstrong. 


Hathaway. 


" 


" 'Armstrong Co. 


Turney. 


D. Porter. 


Aug. T. 


" J Motion. 


Latta. 


Joseph J. Johnston. 


Feb. T. 


1873 Regular. 


Turuey. 


John II. McCullogh. 


May T. 


ti » 


Clarke. 


George Shiras. 


Feb. T. 


1874 Pittsburgh. 


Motion. 


II. W. Walkinshaw. 


" 


1877 Motion. 


Marchand, H. C. 


A. I). McConnell. 


May T. 


" Regular. 


Cowan. 


W. H. Young. 


A "-;, T ' 


ii « 


Laird. 


V. E. Williams. 




1878' 


Report. 


John M. Peoples. 


" 


ii i< 


" 


Alex. M. Sloan. 


Nov. I. 


1879, 


" 


Alex. Etcher. 


May T. 


1880 


" 


J. T. Marchand. 


Aug. T. 


" 


" 


John B. Iliad. 


" 




" 


Lucien W. I>oty. 


May T. 


1881 Report. 


Motion. 



Attorneys in active 

James A 
II. P. Laird. 
John Armstrong. 
Edgar Cowan. 
W. H. Markle. 
II. B. Kuhns. 
Jacob Turney. 
John Latta. 
M. A. Cundet'8. 
W. M. Given. 
J. J. Hazlett. 
John A. Marchand. 
Frank Cowan. 
J. R. McAfee. 
John Y. Woods. 
John F. Wentling. 
D. S. Atkinson. 
Silas McCormick. 
Silas A. Kline. 
James S. Moorhead. 



practice Jan. 1, 1882. 
judges' list : 



From the 



Hl'NTF.e, President Judge. 

W. H. Klingensmitb. 

John D. Gill. 

Welty McCullough. 

J. J. Johnston. 

G. D. Albert. 

A. D. McConnell. 

W. H. Young. 

V. E. Williams. 

John M. Peoples. 

H. Walkinshaw. 

J. \V. Taylor. 

A. M. Sloan. 

Alexander Eicher. 

John N. Boucher. 

J. B. Head. 

J. Thornton Marchand. 

Lucien W. Doty. 

P. H. Gaither. 



Hon. John Young, otherwise Hon. John 
Young Forrester. — Elsewhere in this chapter may 
be found an extended biographical sketch of the Hon. 
John Young, in which his birth and early life in 
Scotland and his career in America, especially upon 
the bench, are narrated. His scholarly accomplish- 
ments and other matters of interest concerning him 
are there also dwelt upon. This gentleman became 
the hereditary Laird of Forrester, entitling him to the 
entailed estate of Easter Culmore, in the county of 
Stirling, Scotland, and, according to laws and customs 
of that land, used thereafter, in his correspondence 
and dealings with his relatives and citizens of his 
native country, the adnomen "Forrester," as re- 
quired. 

Judge Young was born in the city of Glasgow, 
Scotland, July 12, 1762, and came to America in 1779, 
and on arrival in Philadelphia entered as a student 
the law-office of Mr. Duponceau, and afterwards that 
of Judge Wilson, a man of eminence in his day. 
Being admitted to practice in that city, Judge Young 



eventually settled as a lawyer in Westmoreland 
County in 1789. In 1794 he married Miss Maria 
Barclay. By her he had eight children : 

First. Hetty Barclay, intermarried with Edward N. 
Clopper, Esq., and who became the mother of six 
children : 1, Mary Young, wife of R. W. Burgess, of 
Washington, D. C. ; 2. Elizabeth Forrester, married 
to William M.Stewart, Esq., now of Philadelphia; 
3. Edward D. (deceased) ; 4. Margaret Jane ; 5. Col. 
John Young Clopper, now of Colorado ; 6. Frank 
Young Clopper, Esq., of Greensburg. 

Second. Frank B. Young, who, after being liberally 
educated in this country, was sent to Scotland to com- 
plete his studies, became a physician and a man of 
much eminence in literature, and was an intimate 
friend of Sir Walter Scott. He died in Scotland, un- 
married. 

Third. Ellen M. Young, who married Ephraim 
Douglass, of Uniontown, Fayette Co. 

Fourth. John Young, who was educated at Annap- 
olis, Md., became a midshipman, and was sent abroad 
to various naval stations. After his father's death, 
he, being the oldest living son, inherited the titles and 
estates of his father in Scotland, and became Laird 
of Forrester. He died in Greensburg in 1846, un- 
married. 

Fifth-. Statira Young, who lived and died in Greens- 
burg, unmarried. 

Sixth. Joseph Jameson Young, a lawyer, who set- 
tled in Indiana. After the death of his brother 
John, he went to Scotland and took possession of 
the estate above referred to, returned, and died in 
Indiana. 

Seventh. Elizabeth Forrester, who married James 
F. Woods, ,Esq., of Greensburg, Pa. 
Eighth. A daughter, died in infancy. 
About 1811 Mrs. Judge Young died, and the judge, 
remaining a widower for a year or so, took to wife 
the cousin of his deceased lady, Miss Statira Barclay, 
by whom he had two children, — Mary Jane, who be- 
came the wife of the late Hon. Henry Donnell Foster, 
at one time the foremost lawyer in the State; and 
Stephen Barclay Young, still living in Deer Creek, 
Allegheny Co. 

Judge Young was appointed president judge of the 
district over which he had judicial charge for thirty- 
one years in 1806, resigned his judgeship in 1837, and 
died Oct. 6, 1840, in the seventy-ninth year of his 
age. He was a gentleman of remarkable intellectual 
acquirements and moral characteristics. He was well 
versed in many languages, speaking rome seven dif- 
ferent tongues readily, one of which he acquired after 
he retired from the bench, he having been a man of 
very studious habits all his life. Of him are existing 
many pleasing legends, going to demonstrate his pos- 
session of the attributes of an unusually lofty and 
tender character. It is authentically stated of him 
that he was one of the most merciful of landlords. 
In seasons of short crops or of distress among his 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



333 



numerous tenantry he was in the habit of sending to 
them, and frequently himself took to them, supplies 
of provisions, which he freely gave them. His benev- 
olences were a part of his current every-day life, and 
too much could not easily be said in his praise as a 
private citizen. 

JUDGE JEREMIAH MURKY BURRELL. 

In the preceding part of this chapter devoted to 
" The Bench and the Bar" is told at considerable length 
the story of the life of the late Jeremiah Murry Burrell, 
his career at the bar, as a politician, as an editor, in 
the Legislature, and upon the bench. Somewhat of 
his characteristics as a private gentleman are there 
also noted. This sketch is therefore brief, and made 
as little repetitious of the biographical notes referred 
to as it could well be, and is designed mainly to sup- 
plement them, especially in its latter paragraphs. 

Jeremiah M. Burrell was born in Murrysville, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa., Sept. 1, 1815. He was the 
son of Dr. Benjamin Burrell, who came from an east- 
ern county and settled in Murrysville in the practice 
of his profession, and in 1814 married Sarah Murry, 
daughter of Jeremiah Murry, Esq., a merchant and 
large landholder. Jeremiah was the only child of 
this marriage, and after receiving such elementary 
education as the village school afforded, entered a 
classical school taught by a Rev. Mr. Gill about three 
miles from his native village, and in which he studied 
Latin and the mathematics and prepared for enter- 
ing college. After a full course of collegiate traiuing 
at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Washington Co., 
Pa., he graduated with honor. His father having 
died, and young Burrell having decided to enter into 
the legal profession, his mother removed to Greens- 
burg, where he entered the office of Richard Coulter, 
afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, 
and after the due course of reading was admitted to 
the bar, and rapidly made progress into a good prac- 
tice, which became a large one. He possessed splen- 
did powers of oratory, which impressed his audiences 
in the very beginning of his career. While studying 
law he had stumped the county as a Democratic poli- 
tician, commanding great admiration, and making 
countless profitable acquaintanceships, which served 
him when he entered upon professional practice. He 
conducted the practice of the law with assiduity, 
faithfulness, and constantly increasing success for some 
years, meanwhile paying attention to politics, and at 
about thirty years of age was elected to the State Leg- 
islature, and continued therein, serving three succes- 
sive terms, the last the sessions of 1847^18. 

In 1847 he was appointed judge of the Tenth Judi- 
cial District of Pennsylvania, and in February, 1852, 
took his seat as judge of the same court under elec- 
tion (as elsewhere stated in detail), and held the post 
till 1855, when he was appointed by President Pierce 
judge of the Territorial District of Kansas. Leaving 
his family in Greensburg, he went to Kansas and en- 
22 



tered upon his professional duties in a time of great 
excitement over the slavery question. Judge Burrell 
entertained what was known as Douglas' "Squatter 
Sovereignty" policy in regard to that Territory, and 
which involved the proposition of the right of citi- 
zens of any State to take with them into the Territo- 
ries south of the Missouri Compromise line, without 
interference or opposition by others, whatever was 
regarded as property in their own State. If this 
policy was a mistaken one, it must be remembered 
that it was entertained by many able statesmen of the 
times, which were those of great political distress in 
the land, when no man was found wise and prophetic 
enough to foresee what one of the several conflicting 
propositions or policies of that day would prove the 
best or most expedient for the country, or be, all things 
considered, actually the most just. Judge Burrell's 
instincts and education inclined him to refined con- 
sideration for the rights of all men, and nothing but 
a supreme reverence for the Constitution of his coun- 
try could have allured him to lose sight for the mo- 
ment of the great question of positive and equal 
justice to and among all races of men. 

Suffering from malarial fever in Kansas, Judge 
Burrell returned to Greensburg in 1856, and after a 
sickness of some months' duration, died at his home, 
surrounded by his family, on the 21st day of October 
of that year. 

He married Miss Ann Elizabeth Richardson, daugh- 
ter of William H. and Henrietta D. Hubley Rich- 
ardson, of Greensburg. Of this union were six chil- 
dren, — Sarah Murry, intermarried with O. J. Greer, 
now residing in Bradford, Pa. ; William Richardson, 
deceasevl ; Henrietta Hubley, wife of George F. Huff; 
Benjamin, residing in Bradford ; Mary Richardson, 
married to J. M. West, Esq., of Bradford, Pa. ; and 
Jeremiah Murry, now a banker in Sanborn, Dakota 
Territory. 

Judge James Alexander Hunter, president 
judge of the Tenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, 
is the son of Scotch-Irish parents, and was born in 
Lancaster County, Pa., April 18, 1835. Judge Hunter 
comes of a long-lived race, some of his ancestors in 
both his paternal and maternal lines having lived to 
be over one hundred years old. His father, James K. 
Hunter, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, died in 
Greensburg in 1879, aged ninety years, and his mother, 
whose maiden name was Eliza Stewart, born in County 
Tyrone, Ireland, is still living at the age of eighty - 
J three. His parents were married in Lancaster County 
in 1832, and removed from Eastern Pennsylvania to 
Westmoreland County in 1841. 

Judge Hunter received thorough common-school 
instruction, and by his own personal efforts provided 
himself with the means of obtaining an academic 
education. He taught common and select schools, 
and when he gave up teaching held a " professional 
certificate" from the county superintendent. 

He read law with Judge James Todd, of the Greens- 



334 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



burg bar, formerly of Philadelphia, and who was 
attorney-general under Governor Ritner, and was ad- 
mitted to tbe bar in 1858, and opened an office for the 
practice of his profession in Greensburg. He soon 
after took into partnership Col. J. W. Greenawalt, who 
was mortally wounded at the battle of the Wilderness 
while in command of the One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment Pennsylvania Volunteers. After the death of 
Col. Greenawalt lie entered into partnership with 
Hon. J. R. McAfee, the present Deputy Secretary of 
the Commonwealth, who eventually retired from the 
firm to enter upon the publication of the Greensburg 
Tribune. Whereafter Judge Hunter formed a co- 
partnership with Jacob Beaumont, Esq., and that 
gentleman dying in 1870, he took into partnership W. 
H. Klingensmith, Esq., who is still in active practice, 
and with him Judge Hunter continued in partnership 
till he was appointed to fill the vacancy on the bench 
occasioned by the resignation of Judge Logan, of the 
Tenth Judicial District, in 1879. 

Judge Hunter was appointed the first register in 
bankruptcy under the United States bankrupt law of 
1867 for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania, 
composed of the counties of Westmoreland, Indiana, 
and Fayette. Being elected to the State Legislature 
for the session of 1869, he resigned his office as regis- 
ter, and thereafter declined re-election to the Legis- 
lature on account of his professional practice, which 
he conducted till July, 1879, when he was appointed 
by Governor Hoyt president judge of the district, the 
judicial chair of which he now occupies under popu- 
lar election to the place in the fall of the same year. 
Ee was the candidate of the Republican 1 party for the 
office he now fills, and was elected by over a thousand 
majority over his opponent, the late Archibald A. 
Stewart, Esq., the Democratic nominee, in a largely 
Democratic district, and was commissioned president 
judge Dec. 4, 1879. 

Judge Hunter has never been other than Republican 
in politics, and since he came to the bar has taken an 
active part in all the important campaigns, and being 
a considerate gentleman, has ever borne himself 
fairly, without giving offense to opponents, he holding 
that abuse never gained friends tor any cause. The 
sense of justice and fairness exhibited by the citizen, 
lawyer, and politician could not but manifest itself, 
still more distinctly perhaps, in the judge, command- 
ing for Judge Hunter in his present official capacity 
the confidence and esteem of the bar and the public. 
Though not of robust physique, Judge Hunter bears 
certain indices of ability to endure extreme mental 
labor, and safely undergo close application to what- 
ever pursuit he might engage in. At this period of 
his judicial career it might be indelicate to himself, as 
well as of questionable taste as regards the public, to 
indulge here in speculative forecasts of the years that 
still remain of his first term in the judicial office, or 
the years that may be appended to them ; but it is 
always safe to say of a man of Judge Hunter's cast 



of mind and moral nature that he cannot well go back- 
ward in his career ; that steady and certain progress 
is the path which his essential character compels him 
to pursue; that not less but even more honors, duly 
won, lie along his course in life. 

Em.AK Cowax, LL.D., ex-United States Senator. 
-Senator Cowan is on the maternal side of Scotch- 
Irish extraction, and was born in Sewickley township, 
Westmoreland County, Sept. 19, 1815. 

The immigrant, Hugh Cowan, came to America at 
an early day and settled in Chester County, Pa., where 
William Cowan, the grandfather of the senator, was 
born on Christmas-day, 1749. He was a man of large 
stature and vigorous intellectual powers, and was a 
captain in the Revolutionary army. In the family 
of his grandfather Senator Cowan passed the early 
years of his childhood. 

Senator Cowan owed nothing to birth or fortune to 
tit him for his career in after-life, but he had an un- 
quenchable thirst for knowledge, and from earliest 
infancy read everything that came in his way. His 
first book was the Bible, the historical and legendary 
parts of which he has never neglected or forgotten. 
Along with this he had the " Vicar of Wakefield," 
"Robinson Crusoe," "Life of Franklin," "Pilgrim's 
Progress," "Afflicted Man's Companion," "Baxter's 
Call," etc. These were all read over and over again 
till literally worn out. He also went a few months 
in the year to the country school, learning a little 
arithmetic, the horizon of the schoolmaster at that 
day being bounded by the " rule of three." Grammar 
and geography were unknown. At the age of twelve 
he was able to borrow books in a circle of four or five 
miles, and he exhausted all within this area in a 
short time. " Rollin's Ancient History," with all its 
marvels, is still held by him in reverence for the de- 
lights it afforded him. "Good's Book of Nature" 
was his next Same, ami it heated him to such a de- 
gree that he determined to read medicine. 

"Wistar," "Homer," "Meiggs," " Richerand," 
" Eberle," " Chapman," and others occupied all his 
spare time as serious studies for some years, but his 
appetite for all general reading — novels, poetry, his- 
tory, etc. — greedily devoured the contents of every- 
thing readable whenever found. 

At the age of sixteen he commenced to keep a 
school in Elizabeth township, Allegheny County, but 
after six months it being irksome he quit it and re- 
turned back to Westmoreland County. For some 
time he was engaged in rough carpenter-work, after 
which he took to the river, building boats and mining 
coal down the Ohio. About the same time he ran 
a keel-boat from various places along the Youghio- 
gheny River which were accessible down to Pitts- 
burgh, carrying country produce and bringing back 
returns in money or merchandise. Having earned a 
little money in this way he entered the Greensburg 
Academy, and there learned the rudiments of Latin. 
Shortly after this he went back to school-teaching, 







^p^^^^/.^ 



J 




C^tj^tyv^- 




THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



335 



first in Rostra ver township, and then in West New- 
ton. Early in the fall of 1838 he went to Franklin 
College, Ohio, and graduated in the fall of 1839, de- 
livering the valedictory. In 1S71 his alma mater 
conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. In De- 
oember of that year, having concluded to study law, 
he entered himself in the office of Hon. Henry D. 
Foster as :i candidate for admission to the bar. The 
law not requiring him to read the first year in the 
office, he spent that year in West Newton and taught 
school most of the time. The year 1840 was cele- 
brated for the political campaign in which William 
Henry Harrison was elected President. Mr. Cowan 
conceiving that President Van Buren's administration 
was corrupt, joined the Whigs, and was somewhat 
conspicuous, along with the Hon. Joseph Lawrence, 
of Washington County, Hon. James Veeeh, of Fayette 
County, and the Hons. Thomas Williams ami Moses 
Hampton and Dr. William Flder, of Allegheny 
County, as a speaker in that campaign. The second 
year, 1841, he read closely in the office of Mr. Foster, 
and at February term, 1842, was admitted to the bar. 
He-was soon successful, and obtained a full and lucra- 
tive practice, the profits of which in great part he 
expended in books or anything else he wanted with- 
out purchasing real estate or in any way attempting 
to accumulate a fortune. In 1850 he purchased the 
home where he now resides, on West Pittsburgh 
Street, and which he has improved and made com- 
fortable. 

In 1856 he took an active part in the campaign for 
Fremont in preference to Fillmore and Buchanan, 
the former of whom represented Know-Nothingisin, 
the latter Indifferentism to the extension of slavery 
into the Territories of the United States. Mr. Cowan, 
on the contrary, was of the opinion that Congress 
was the proper authority to determine the character 
of new States admitted to the Union, as to whether 
they should or not allow African slavery. He dis- 
claimed any interference on the part of the free States 
with slavery as it existed in the slave States, but he 
contended that those States had themselves decided 
that negroes were dangerous property ; that in order 
to protect it the slave must be kept in ignorance, the 
tongues of free men must be tied, and the press muz- 
zled. And when the Northern people took into the 
Territories with themselves only innocent property, 
the South ought to enter on the same footing. 

Fremont was defeated, and the troubles in Kansas 
grew worse and worse, until its situation was little 
better than that of civil war. In 1860 all the ele- 
ments of the opposition in Pennsylvania united to 
form a " People's Party," sending delegates to the 
Chicago Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln. 
Mr. Cowan was an elector, and was active in that 
memorable campaign. In January, 1861, he was 
elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat 
on the 4th of March, 1861. Secession was now rife 
in the cotton-growing States, and the situation was 



one of extreme difficulty. The South relied on the 
"Declaration of Independence" to justify their seces- 
sion ; the North, on the other hand, contended that 
the Constitution was paramount, and established a 
"Perpetual Union" of the States, in which the mi- 
nority of the people of any State had an equal right 
to maintain it with the majority, that the latter had 
no more right to secede than the former. Here per- 
haps it is safe to say that upon a fair count of the 
Southern people there was a majority for the Union, 
and upon a poll of the free States a. majority would 
have voted against " war" to compel the seceders to 
come back. The minds of men everywhere were 
unsettled, the administration was embarrassed, and 
hesitated as to the proper course to take. 

After five or six weeks of this painful uncertainty 
South Carolina settled it, 12th April, 1861, by an at- 
tack on Fort Sumter, then in the possession of the 
Federals. The North was ablaze in an instant, the 
insulted flag was on every housetop, and war was 
inevitable. It is curious to look back and observe how 
ignorant even the wisest men were as to the nature 
of the terrible conflict which was to follow. Jefferson 
Davis calculated that thirty thousand men could de- 
fend the Confederacy, and Mr. Seward predicted that 
in ninety days the Rebellion would be suppressed. 
Davis failed with half a million of as brave men as 
ever lived, and Seward had to wait four years before 
his prophecy could be verified. 

Mr. Cowan, in view of the war, laid down for his 
own guidance at least certain rules, from which he 
never swerved, and which in all his speeches he en- 
deavored to enforce: 

1. The Union having been created by the Constitu- 
tion, to violate it was to justify disunion. The North 
can only justify herself in coercing the South by 
standing strictly on the Constitution. 

2. There are two elements to be concilated, — First, 
the Democratic party in the free States; second, 
the Union men of the border States and the Confed- 
eracy. This can only be done by avoiding all legis- 
lation offensive to them, and all partisan crimination 
of which the secessionists could take advantage. 

3. Congress should confine itself to providing suf- 
ficient revenue and raising armies, ignoring all party 
politics. 

4. The war should be waged according to the rules 
of civilized warfare and the laws of nations, as be- 
came the dignity of the republic. 

5. That the war being made to suppress a rebellion 
and not to make a conquest of the Confederate States, 
as soon as the rebels submitted the States should re- 
sume their functions in the Union according to the 
pledges of Congress on that subject. 

In pursuance of these rules he voted steadily against 
all unconstitutional projects, — "legal tender," "confis- 
cation," "national banks," "tenure of office," "recon- 
struction," " Freedman's Bureau," "civil rights," etc. 
He also opposed " test oaths," expulsion of senators 



336 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



on party grounds, and the giving negroes the right 
of suffrage, etc. 

Mr. Cowan was chairman of the Committee on Pat- 
ents, a member of the Judiciary Committee, and after- 
wards of the Finance Committee. He was the author 
of the three hundred dollar clause in the conscription 
law, and he was mainly instrumental in preventing 
the bridge at Steubenville from being built with one- 
hundred-feet spans only ten feet above high-water 
mark with a draw. He had it raised to ninety feet, 
with spans three hundred feet. The original bill had 
passed the House, and had been favorably reported 
upon in the Senate before it attracted any attention. 
Had it passed it would have inevitably destroyed the 
lumber and coal trade of Western Pennsylvania on 
the Ohio River. 

Mr. Cowan was an "old-line Whig," and was 
largely instrumental in fusing that element with the 
11 American and Republican" elements in Pennsylva- 
nia, on the sole ground of opposition to the intro- 
duction of slavery in the Territories of the United 
States. The canvass in Pennsylvania in 1860 was 
made on that issue, abolition being repudiated. 

When elected to the Senate he was almost entirely 
unknown, except in Southwestern Pennsylvania, hav- 
ing never held any office higher than that of school 
director; but he was known then as a leading lawyer, 
a classical scholar in ancient and modern literature, 
besides being fully abreast in science and philosophy 
with the best thought of the time. As a lawyer, in 
the Senate he took rank with Collamer, Browning, 
the elder Bogart, Reverdy Johnson, and Trumbull. 
Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, of Mr. Cowan says, 
" He was always listened to with interest. He was a 
dashing debater, and came into any controversy when 
it was at the highest, and was able to maintain him- 
self against much odds." 

A very graphic description of Mr. Cowan is given 
by the poet, N. P. Willis, in the Home Journal, as 
follows : 

"The drive to Hull's Hill was exceedingly beautiful, like an excursion 
in early October, made mainly interesting to me, however, by the com- 
pany 'if the eloquent senator who shared our carriage, the finest speci- 
men I have yet seen of brilliancy and learning, sprouting like luxuriant 
tendrils upou the rough type of a Kentucky Anak. Of his powerfully 
proportioned frame and finely-chiseled features the senator seemed as nat- 
urally unconscious as of his singular readiness and universal erudition. 
He comes from the western part of Pennsylvania, and has passed his life as 
half-huntsman, half-schoolmaster and lawyer, being a distinguished man 
only because other people were not so, evidently quite unable to help it. 
His speech for the Hags, very flowing and fine, has been reported at 
length in the papers. 1 It was stirring to watch the faces of the men as 

1 One or two passages from Senator Cowan's speech at the presentation 
of the flags will show the importance of flag-influence in war: 

"... I am also further instructed to say to you that by the terms of j 
the law directing the Governor to procure colors for each regiment now i 
in the field for the defense of the Union, it was also provided that when 
the war was over, and you bad returned victorious (as it is the earnest i 
wish and prayer of all the people of our good old Commonwealth that 
you may), your gallant feat* in anus trill be inscribed on these flags, in order 
that they may be laid away among the archives of the State, there to re- | 
main for all coming ages, a fit memorial of your valor. It may be, too, i 
that when the republic is again in danger, these standards u-ill be brought out, j 



they looked on and listened to him. I realized what eloquence might 
do in the inspiring of pluck for the battle!'* 

The Washington correspondent of the Boston Post 
thus describes Senator Cowan : 

"As Trumbull and Johnson occupied the leading position in the ex- 
citing debate on the' Civil Rights Bill, I find I have left myself too little 
space in which to strive to convey some fair idea of Cowan, of Pennsyl- 
vania, measuring some 6ix feet three inches, possessed of avoice like the 
diapason of a small church organ, and a habit of using it in two distinct 
octaves. Senator Cowan is certainly a most peculiar and impressive 
speaker, and possesses one great merit, that of never speaking unless he 
has something to say. When he rises in the central aisle, and with his 
tall figure dwarfing everything about him, sends his rolling voice sailing 
on the waves of fetid air that forms the atmosphere of the ill-ventilated 
chamber, he reminds one of the description Carlyle gives of Mirabeau 
in the French Convention of 1789. He is to the Conservative Republi- 
cans what Johnson is to the Democrats and Trumbull to the Radicals, the 
oratorical exponent of policy. If he is less philosophic than Johnson, 
and if he be not as casuistic as Trumbull, he possesses more of that 
peculiar quality, clear common sense, and a practical way of stating it 
than either." 

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial gives 
the following sketch of Senator Cowan, the accuracy 
of which will be appreciated by all acquainted with 
the gentleman. Alluding to the late debate on the 
Post-office Bill, the writer says, — 

" And now a gaunt, angular man at the right of Mr. Doolittle takes 
the floor. You are struck first with his height, Bharpnessnf visage, and 
extraordinary powers of voice. In the management of the latter, it 
seems as if those guttural tones were lowered to the utmost for the ex- 
press accommodation of men of less altitude and smaller grasp of the 
perceptive faculties. There is a musical rumble, and a most pleasing 
diction, however, about every period, and such an assumption of power 



and held up before the eyes of your children, so that the glorious record em- 
blazoned upon them may incite them to imitate your exampleand emu- 
late your courage in the defense of their country and its constitution. 
. . . What a magical influence that symbol of our country's national 
honor exerts over us all ! In the month of April last the loyal people 
were plowing and sowing in the fields, hammering in the workshops, 
and trading at the counters and upon the wharves, incredulous of dan- 
^T a in I careless of the coming storm. Suddenly the news came, like an 
electric shock, that the rebels round Furt Sumter had fired on our flag. 
Startled and indignant, as if the shot had been directed against himself, 
every true man was on his feet in an instant, and the banner thus in- 
sulted was immediately consecrated the idol of the people. It was every- 
where, it waved on every house-top, it fluttered in every breeze, and it 
was conclusive proof of disloyalty not to bow before it in the day of its 
first humiliation. The great heart of the nation was stirred to its very 
depths, and its beating might be heard in the heavy tramp of thousands 
of armed men hurrying to the field of battle to wipe out the national 
disgrace and visit dire retribution upon the heads of those who had caused 
it. . . . These are the flags of that 'destiny.* To your bauds I commit 
them. I know that then they will never be dishonored. Yuu have both 
of you (Col. Samuel Black and Col. J. W. McLean) long years ago given 
a soldier's earnest of your fidelity to the Republic. Yuu have already 
followed its flag in the conquest of an empire. One of you assisted in 
carrying it in a continued succession of triumphs from the Rio Grande 
to Buena Vista, through Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey,— all 
now names in history, and monuments of a renown in which your share 
was honorable. The other accompanied it from Veia Cruz to Mexico, and 
saw the glories of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Molina del Rey, Chapultepec, 
and Tacubaya by the way, till it waved finally in undisputed mastery 
over the halls of the Montezumas. Never can they be confided to more 
deserving hands. Take them, they are still auspicious of victory, and 
the righteous cause which has hallowed them ever — the cause of the 
people — will hallow them still, and assure it. The spirits of your fathers, 
mighty dead, will hover over your battle-fields, silent witnesses of your 
heroism in showing yourselves worthy of such sires. The God of battles, 
too, watches over the brave and true. His blessing is upon you, and the 
sheltering wing of his mercy is about you and us, to save us all by you, 
in this the darkest hour of the nation's peril." 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



337 



and right, figuring in every gesture mid mannerism, that it would not 
be hard to convince the auditors above the floor that this is the Hercules 
of senatorial debate. Yet there is one other marked and singular char- 
acteristic of the speaker that astonishes and overshadows the whole 
effect. It is the abandon of declamation, the continual sway of that 
towering bulk, and a Imp-hazard style of putting those stentorian truths, 
which, in connection with the magnificent mil and volume of voice, 
cannot fail to completely engross and surprise the hearer. At this time 
he is taking the majority of bis senatorial coadjutors to task for a want 
of toleration and a lack of respect for the opinions of the minority. 
The strictures are put forth with such a sweep and power of utterance— 
just a shade of ironical pomposity in the tone— that one can hardly look 
upon the subjects of such lordly censure without giving way to a sym- 
pathetic influence to belittle and district from them too." 

Hon. George Sanderson, mayor of the city of Lan- 
caster, in his paper, as below quoted from, describes 
the speech made by Mr. Cowan in that city Sept. 20, 
1368, as the ablest and most telling speech of the 
campaign : 

"The Democratic meeting at the court-house on Monday was one of 
the largest assemblages of the kind ever witnessed in this city. Every 
seat was filled, all standing space was occupied, and very many were 
forced to leave without being a'de to get inside the large court-room. 
It was not a mere partisan demonstration. It was an assemblage of the 
earnest, thinking men of Lancaster, drawn together by patriotic motives 
and a desire to bear the great political questionsof the day discussed by 
a man of the most marked ability, one who faithfully represented the 
people of Pennsylvania in the highest council of the nation, a man who 
could not be lured into the indorsement of unconstitutional measures 
and pernicious legislation by any allurements of place, power, or pecu- 
niary profit. Hon. Edgar Cowan, the chief orator of the occasion, is 
respected by honest men of all parties, and esteemed us a truthful, high- 
minded gentleman, possessing the judgment to discern what the best 
interests of bis country demand, aud the resolute will to carry out his 
conscientious convictions regardless of consequences to himself. 

" During Mr. Cowan's speech he was constantly interrupted by spon- 
taneous outbursts of applause, at one point the audience rising en masse 
to their feet and cheering with full and united voices. We never saw an 
audience listen so attentively. 

" During two hours scarcely a man in the vast throng moved, though 
many of them were uncomfortably crowded and numbers compelled to 
staud." 

The Greensburg Herald of Dec. o, 1860, concerning 
Mr. Cowan's expected election, has the following: 

" It is sad that the ' hour brings the man,' so now we have the man 
for the hour. In Edgar Cowan, Esq., of Greensburg, all the requisites 
for the position harmoniously combine. Already is he looked upon by 
those who know him intimately &h one, if not the most prominent 
among the candidates. This being the fact, it is proper that we should 
now, in brief, give the public at large not so well posted some of the 
outlines of Mr. Cowan's fitness. 

" He is a native of Westmoreland County, now in bis forty-sixth year. 
From infancy almost he was, like many of the great men of our nation, 
thrown upon his own resources. At the close of bis collegiate course, 
early in lS4<J,he commenced the study of law. During that memorable 
Presidential canvass bis eloquent and sonorous voice was often heard in 
his native county, ably discussing the questions then at issue before the 
country. He was a decided favorite among those who sang * Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too, 1 and could never avoid being compelled to respond to the 
calls for 'a speech from Westmoreland's young orator,* made by every 
political gatheriug where it was thought he was one of the number 
present. His career at the bar has been eminently successful, and we 
think we will not be charged with making any invidious distinctions 
when we say that, for his diligence, promptness, and fidelity to the in- 
terests of bis clients, the power with which he grasps, and the readiness 
and clearness with which lie unravels all intricate legal questions, as 
well as his fairness towards an adversary, be now deservedly ranks 
among those at the head of the bar in Western Pennsylvania. Thor- 
oughly booked in all the popular sciences and several modern languages, 
with great physical and mental self-reliance, he stands forth panoplied 
to advocate and defend the rights of a free people in every phase of life's 
checkered pathway, no matter in bow exalted or responsible a position. 
In short, b«- is a self-made man, who has hewn bis way to the position 



he now occupies, indebted to nothing but his own inherent energy and the 
bfetsing of health under the free institutions of our country. 

" Politically, Mr. Cowan has all his life been an ardent supporter of 
the doctrines enunciated in the Chicago platform." 

The Times has the following : 

"SENATOR COWAN. 

"When Edgar Cowan was first mentioned in connection with the 
United States senatorship, the questions were almost universally asked, 
'Who is he? What is he? and, Where does he come from ?' His was 
most assuredly not aState-wide reputation ; he bad been no office-seeker, 
and very little of a politician, and outside of his immediate neighbor- 
hood his name was. almost unknown, except, perhaps, to a circle of 
choseu friends or to the leaders of his political party. We were told, 
however, by those whose candidate he was that he was a close student ; 
a man of extensive and varied learning ; an able, shrewd, and faithful 
lawyer; a powerful aud skillful debater, who would not fail to make 
his mark in the Senate; and, above all, an honest man, who would yield 
neither to the blandishments of power nor the lust of gain, but would 
act on bis own convictions of right and duty, fie the consequences what 
they may. So much we were told ; and, beyond this, we had a right to 
infer, from the fact that he defeated David Wilmot in the Republican 
caucus, that he was conservative in his views. Indeed, this of itself was 
enough to satisfy those who opposed him. David Wilmot, his radical 
and fanatical competitor, bad been laid on the shelf, for the time being 
at least, and that was glory enough for one day. 

" Mr. Cowan was elected and took his seat, modestly and unassum- 
ingly, with no flourish of trumpets to herald his fame. He seldom rose 
to speak during his first session, and his name was but seldom seen in 
public print, except in the votes he gave, which generally seemed to be 
honest and conservative. Yet, though unassuming, his reputation was 
fuBf spreading among those around him, and at the second session he 
was placed on the Judiciary Committee, the second in importance of the 
committees of the Senate." 

A prominent newspaper of the day has the follow- 
ing notice of Mr. Cowan's position on the Confisca- 
tion Bill : 

" Hon. Edgar Cowan on the Confiscation Bill.— Senator Cowan 
has received much abuse from the ultra press of the country for his late 
speech upon the Confiscation Bill of Senator Trumbull. His speech, 
however, has been indorsed by the President, his Cabinet, a large 
majority of the leading lawyers and statesmen of Pennsylvania, while 
Senators Col lamer, Fessenden, Doolittle, Browning, and Clarke have 
expressed upon the floor their hearty concurrence therein. While he 
has the confidence of such men, he can well await the ultimate indorse- 
ment of his course by the whole reading community, which must cer- 
tainly follow." 

The Tribune^ of New York, has the following from 
a Harrisburg correspondent, dated Dec. 19, 1874: 

" Upon the subject of United States senator, within the last week the 
name of Edgar Cowan has been more frequently mentioned than any 
other candidate. As a lawyer and a statesman, Mr. Cowan is the peer of 
any man in the Commonwealth ; and if there be a man in the State to 
whom more thau another the Democrats owe a debt of gratitude it is 
Edgar Cowan. Mr. Cowan has given evidence of more ability, mani- 
fested more nobility of uature, and exhibited more nerve and independ- 
ence than any Pennsylvania!! that ever filled a seat in the Uuited States 
Senate, and his election to a seat in that honorable body at this time 
would do honor to the Democracy, and he greeted with joy by a large 
majority of the people of the Keystone State." 

The following is from the gifted pen of Hon. Wil- 
liam A. Stokes, editor of the Greensburg Republican: 

"HON. EDGAIt COWAN. 
"It is not for us to pronounce the panegyric of a political opponent, 
but it is our duty to do justice to all men, for justice is the supreme and 
all-pervading element of Democracy. Wherefore we have not hesitated, 
iu regard to some leading Republicans, to express our approval of such 
portions of their conduct as were entitled to commendation, while, on the 
other hand, we have, with equal freedom, condemned error, even in our 
political friends. Devoted during life to the disinterested support of 
Democratic principles, we are, nevertheless, not insensible to the meiit 8 
of our opponents or the mistakes of our friends. 
1 



338 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



'■ ' For naught so vile that on the earth doth live 
But to the earth some special good doth give; 
Nor aught bo good but, strained from that fair use, 
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. 1 

" In this spirit of independent impartiality we have now both to cen- 
sure and commend the course, somewhat inconsistent, of our neighbor 
and friend, Mr. Cowan. For many years this gentleman was the soul of 
the Whig and Republican parties in Western Pennsylvania. His iuteg- 
rity and intrepidity gave him vast power, and occasional disagreement 
with his associates — secondary development of his original Democracy — 
served only to increase his influence and commend him to the kindly 
feelings of his opponents. Elected to the Senate, he took bis seat the 
same day on which Mr. Lincoln whs inaugurated President. He heard 
from his lips, which had just kissed the Bible as he took the constitu- 
tional oath of office, that he had no design, desire, or power to interfere 
with slavery or to invade in any manner the rights of States or people. 

"Nobly, upon many momentous occasions, was he sustained by the 
patriotic minority of the Senate, — faithful alone among the faithless, pow- 
erless in the present, but to whom soon justice will be done, and whose 
constant virtue will be embalmed in the homage of after-ages. In March, 
1863, on the question of indemnifying the President and all others for 
violation of the habeas corpus, he attacked the malignant majority of the 
Senate, and pointed to the sole path of safety for the republic with power 
and wisdom in the following language: 

" ' It Beems to me that if we of the dominant party were more tolerant 
of the opposition, and instead of taking pains to insult their beliefs and 
misrepresent their opinions we should carefully avoid any albisi.ni to 
them whatever, we would soon disarm that opposition. I have been 
from the first of opinion that the introduction of any measure, no mat- 
ter how important it might appear to be in the eyes of its friends, calcu- 
lated to provoke the hostility of the Democratic party and incite it to 
opposition was mischievous in the highest degree, and all that we might 
gain by such a measure would be nothing compared with what we should 
lose by arousing it to resist it. Their harmonious co-operation with us 
in the prosecution of the war is worth more to the country a thousand 
times over than auy measure we could propose, and which would tend 
to alienate them from us. Ib there any man living to-day, who l..\ es bis 
country better than his own hobby, who would not he willing and ready 
to give up all the causes of differences with that great parly, composing 
one-half of our people, for the sake of insuring its hearty and cheerful 
co-operation with us in carrying on the war? Sir, I had rather have tin- 
moral and material aid of the Democratic party in this war than all the 
legislative projects that could be hatched in the brains of a Congress com- 
posed entirely of reformers. One kindly pulsation of its great heart and 
one sturdy stroke of its mighty arm would do more to put down the Re- 
bellion than all the laws we could possibly pass. I would cheerfully 
yield all my preconceived notions at any lime to secure its aid in this 
extremity, and with it^- aid I believe the unity of the republic would 
soon be resbuvd mid the old Hag again afloat everywhere, still more the 
subject of veneration and still more the assurance of safety and protec- 
tion than it ever was. I would respect the traditions of that party, and 
deal tenderly with its likes and dislikes, and surely, under no circum- 
stances, would I offend it when it could be avoided.' 

********** 

'"The Constitution, then, being the charter by which our government 
is created, It Is easy to see that outside of that charter there is not, nor 
can there be, any government; there may be force and despotism, but 
there can be no law nor true government. And the man who for a mo- 
Dieut thinks the government can be saved by violating the < ■on-titutioii 
is guilty of either supreme folly or supreme wickedness. He has never 
comprehended the principles of a free government, or his moral nature 
has been so far perverted as to prevent him from distinguishing between 
such a government and a despotism. Akin to that notion is another, 
that the authority commit, d and t h<- mode of action prescribed by the 
Constitution are inadequate to the defense and protection of the liberties 
of the nation. Now, I venture to assert that nothing could be more un- 
founded than such a supposition, go far from it, I have no hesitation in 
saying that if, at this time, the nation relied solely upon the omnipotent 
discretion of its rulers, without a written Constitution at all, that those 
rulers, if they were wise, would adopt for themselves just such a set of 
rules for their guidance as we now have in the Constitution. Ii author- 
izes every politic aud forbids all impolitic measures. It rises like a « all, 
behind which the wise statesman intrenches himself to resist the mad- 
ness of faction or the bliud folly of the people when, seduced by dema- 
gogues, they desire to i - os« rt to dangerous though plausible schemes, 
schemes which for long ages have been tried over and over again, aud 



always with the same disastrous results; schemes which are sure to find 
advocates in troubled times, when wisdom stands back fearful of respon- 
sibility, and empty, blatant folly rushes forward to offer counsel. Such 
times we are fallen upon, and our only safety — the ark indeed of our 
safety — is the Constitution.' 

"With what trembling amazement the caitiffs of the Senate must have 
heard this indignant condemnation of their conduct, this spontaneous 
outburst of patriotism, of irrepressible integrity, of almighty truth, 
coming, too, from Pennsylvania, from a Republican, one of the chiefest 
among them, but not like them, no public plunderer, no slave of the 
Executive, no deputy of despotism, no enemy of his fellow-citizens, no 
perjured traitor, but a man, strong, fearless, and pure, ready to rebuke 
wrong, and impelled by his very nature to vindicate right against all 
assailants, exhibiting the occasional weakness of human frailty only in 
efforts to save those who are predestined to be politically damned, and to 
preserve connection with a rotten party fast drifting to destruction. 

"Thus, and many times, our Senator 

"'Shed 

On ears abused by falsehood truths of power 

In words immortal, — not such words as flash 

From the fierce demagogue's unthinking rage, 

To madden for a moment and expire, 

Nor such as the rapt orator imbues 

With warmth of facile sympathy, and moulds 

To mirrors radiant with fair images, 

To grace the noble fervor of an hour, 

But words which bear the spirit of great deeds 

Wing'd for the future. 1 

"The people of Pennsylvania cherish high hopes of the future of Mr. 
Cowan. Many of them look to him with confidence as the champion of 
their right.-. For ourselves, moved only by the desire to do impartial 
justice to all men, we are prepared to condemn or commend according 
to the course which the senator may hereafter pursue." 

We quote from the noted English novel, entitled 
"The Dobbs Family in America," written by the cor- 
respondent for the Maxwell Publishing Company of 
London. The book was published in London in 1865, 
and has the following concerning the scholarly senator 
from Pennsylvania: 

"The tall, fine-looking gentleman, with keen gray eyes and aquiline 
nose, is Edgar Cowan, of Pennsylvania. A short time ago 1 heard one 
Of his brother senators say that be was the most talented man who ever 
came to Congress from Pennsylvania. This is the opinion, too, of one 
opposed to him in politics, and therefore more entitled to credence than 
if it were the expression of a partisan. Senator Cowan has come up from 
the people. At avery early age he was thrown upon his own resources, 
and baa by bis indomitable will and talents mounted to his present posi- 
tion. He is the fullest man in this chamber. Although his specialty is 
the law, it would be difficult to name a science that be is not more or less 
acquainted with. Nothing delights him more than to tackle with men 
of science who are able to throw the ball with, him, then the riches of 
his well-stored mind are displayed in profusion. Lei the subject be what 
it may, he always touches bottom. He has the appearance of an indo- 
lent man, but is really an industrious one. 

" In the casual or running debate that frequently occurs here he does 
not .speak with fluency. There is a degree of hesitancy in selecting or 
finding ins words which falls unpleasantly on the ear, but as soon as be 
is fully aroused all impediment is removed; and Ins words roll out in 
well-rounded sentences, the voice full and deep. Some of his tones are 
disagreeable and harsh, but his voice has greater volume, when he 
chooses to employ it, than tb.it of any other senator here. 

" His style in one point, classic illustrations, is not unlike that of the 
Boston senator, Mr, Sumner, but in other respects it is more vigorous 
and logical than Simmer's Cowan is practical and argumentative, a 
u i angler by profession ; Sumner is impractical and visionary, a weaver 
of finely-spun notions. Sumner lacks determination ; Cowan is as brave 
as Julius Caesar. The one is rhetorical without being wordy, the other 
is rhetorical and verbose. The style of tin* Pennsylvania senator is sym- 
metrical, while that of Sumner is inflated and pompous. But they are 
both fond of tradition and classic lore; here Hoy meet un common 
ground. 

" When Cowan gets well into his subject his face becomes pale and his 
attitude Striking, and he is truly eloquent. He is a conscientious, high- 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



339 



minded man, who dares to do what is right regardless of consequences. 
He has never pandered to the views of cliques or factions, but always 
shown himself bold and independent, never flinching, hut always fairly 
grappling with the question." 

The following is part of an editorial from the New- 
ark (N. J.) Daily Journal; 

EDGAK COWAN. 

" In point of intellectual and moral status Edgar Oowan is to-day the 
giant of the United States Senate. Elected as a Republican by the Legis- 
lature of Pennsylvania, he has fearlessly, and with a degree of dignity 
seldom equaled and certainly never surpassed by any statesman of the 
land, dune what he considered to he right, and that in the face, time and 
again, of party diction, 

" In this Congress there are few men, indeed, who can bear more than 
a Liliputian significance when compared with the ripe statesmen of the 
Clay, Webster, and Douglas school; but Senator Cowan is a towering 
and noticeable exception to the rule. An independent and original 
thinker, a profound, logical, sound lawyer, an able and powerful debater, 
he is the marked man of the United States Senate. 

"His views on nil subjects command great respect, and elicit, even 
from the disunioniste, an attention worthy of their force and power. 
He is a strict constit 'utionnl ronstnwtionixl. While watching with argus-eye 
the interests of the sovereign State of Pennsylvania, he never is unmind- 
ful of the rights of all the States. His earnest appeal is ever ready to 
redress a wrong, be it against the North or .South, the East or West." 

The following is from a Lancaster paper: 

"Of course we do not class Mr. Cowan with the Radicals. He is in 
every sense of the word a national man, and one of the wisest and ablest 
statesmen of the present day. He was elected as a Republican in the 
wiuter of 1SG1, and took his seat otithe 4th of March of that year. Mr. 
Cowan, though recognized as one of the ablest lawyers and best stump- 
speakers of this State, was not known outside of Pennsylvania at the 
time of his election, and even here he was little known as a politician, 
except in his own section of the State. He had never sought office, had 
never occupied any official position, and had never filled the role usual 
to seeking itinerant politicians. Those who knew him best knew him 
as a scholar, as a lawyer, as a profound political thinker, as an honest, 
bold, outspoken man ; and they expected and predicted that he would 
take high rank, even in so exalted a body as the Senate of the United 
States. 

"Those expectations and predictions have been abundantly fulfilled. 
Mr. Cowan took his seat in the Senate ju-t at the outbreak of the war, 
at a time when this nation was entering upon a struggle in which both 
its material strength and the statesmanship of its public men were to be 
subjected to the severest ordeal. The military power of the rebels was 
not the only obstacle to be overcome. As is the case in all revolutionary 
periods, there was great danger to be apprehended from the excesses of 
excited feeling. In a crisis such as that through which we have just 
passed that public man is to be esteemed the wisest and most truly pa- 
triotic who breasts popular opinion when he finds it taking a wrong 
direction, and employs all the might that is in bis whole nature to pro- 
tect the Constitution of his country and to preserve the majesty of its 
laws inviolate. 

" Fully as much as any man in the Senate of the United States, Mr. 
Cowan has proved himself to be possessed of this the highest quality of 
a great statesman. He not only showed himself to be perfectly familiar 
with the Constitution of the United States, able to comprehend fully all 
its provisions, and alive to the necessity of adhering closely to its teach- 
ings, but he exhibited an extended knowledge of other forms of gov- 
ernment, and an intimate acquaintance with their working, both in times 
of peace and in the midst of revolutionary struggles such as that through 
which we were passing. The very first attempt which was made to 
overstep the limits of the Constitution excited the fears and aroused the 
opposition of Senator Cowan. It mattered uut to him that it was a party 
measure. Yielding to no man in devotion to the Union, he knew no 
party when the Constitution of his country was assailed. He always 
believed and asserted that there was strength enough in this nation and 
power enough in the hands of the government to preserve the national 
life and honor without the violation of a single provision of that sacred 
instrument. Hence he was at all times found battling against every 
unconstitutional act, whether attempted under the plea of military neces- 
sity or the strained inference of powers not granted. How he has" labored 
in that noble work the whole country is well aware. His clear, logical, 



and eloquent speeches have been read until to-day there is not a village 
or hamlet in all this broad laud where Edgar Cowan is not known and 
honored." 

The following speech delivered as stated in the 
introduction, all of which is taken from the Boston 
Courier of Aug. 2, 1864: 

"The following is a Bpeecl) by Hon E. <\<wan. of Pennsylvania, de- 
livered in tin:' Senate of the United States on the 27th of June, a few 
days before the close of the late srssaoi of Congress. The Senate had 
under consideration at the time Mr. Trumbull's amendment proposing 
to repeal the joint resolution of July 17, 18G2, which qualifies the Con- 
fiscation Act and limits forfeitures under it to the lifetime of the 
offender : 

" Mr. Cowan said, ' I think, Mr. President, that our course in regard 
to the Southern people has been of a character entirely the reverse of 
that which would have been successful iu suppressing the Rebellion. 
We were filled with incorrect ideas of the work we were engaged in, or 
of the only methods by which we could perform the gigantic task we 
had undertaken. We started out with exaggerated notions of our own 
Btrength, ami we disdained to think that our success depended upon the 
loyal men of the South ; we thought we did not need them, and treated 
them accordingly. Think of such a proposition as that contained in this 
law, that if they do not lay down their arms in sixty days they will be 
punished by lossof their estates! How, pray, are theyto lay down their 
arms? Surely we know enough to know that this is mere mockery, and 
that the rebel President might as well expect a soldier in our armies to 
lay down his arms upon a promise of his protection. 

" ' Mr, President, I have sometimes doubted whether we could be seri- 
ous when we expect any good results to come from such measures as 
this, which not only exposes us to ridicule but does harm to our cause. 
What was wanting iu tins crisis of our history with new criminal legis- 
lation when the code was complete before '.' We had a statute punishing 
treason with death, a just and proper punishment, one well according 
with the magnitude of the crime as well as with the majesty of the law 
which inflicted it. Foi all those who conspired the dismemberment of 

j the republic, who used the means and perverted the State governments 

, to bring it, this is the fitting punishment, because it is the highest, and 

' falls upon the guilty alone where it ought. I would have had no addi- 
tional laws; in war they are not needed. I would have contemplated 

i no reforms within the area of the Rebellion; they cannot be made at 
such a time. What we wanted was men and money; these granted, the 
true function of Congress was over until peace was restored and all par- 
ties again represented. But, above all things, I would not have played 
into the hands of the enemy; 1 would not have done that which the 

■ rebels most desired to have doue, because I have no doubt that this and 
all kindred schemes have been the very ones which they must wanted 

j us to adopt. I do not know that Jefferson Davis ever prays; hut, if he 

does, I have no doubt that he would pray ' 

" Mr. Wade. — ' Pray for just such an advocate !' 

" Mr. Cowan. — 'Pray for such a statesman as the honorable senator 
from Ohio, the most effective ally he ever had or could have. 

" ' He would have prayed for measures on our part which were obnox- 
ioua to all people of the South, loyal and disloyal, Union and disunion, 
lie would have prayed that we should outrage all their common preju- 
dices and cherished beliefs; that we should do these things by giving 
ourselves over to the guidance of men whom it was part of their religion 

i to hate, to hate, personally and by name, with an intensity rarely wit- 
nessed in the world before. He would have prayed for confiscation 

[ general and indiscriminate, threatening as well the victims of usurpa- 
tion as the usurpers themselves, as well those we were hound to rescue 
as those we were bound to punish. Fervently he would have prayed for 
our emancipation laws ami proclamations as means to fire the Southern 

, heart more potent than all others; they would rally the angry popula- 
tion to bis standard of revolt, as if each had personal quarrel. He would 
then have a united South, while, as the result of the same measures, a 
distracted and divided North. 

'"That is the way I think he would have prayed, and would pray 
now. Is any man so stupid as not to know that the great desire on the 
part of every rebel is to embark in revolt with him the wholr people of 
the disaffected districts? Is not and has not that been considered enough 

j to insure success to him? And where does history show the failure of 

, any united people, numbering five or six millions, when they engaged in 
revolution ! Now here ; there is no such case. 

'"What did we do to bring this unity about in the South? We forgot 

' our first resolve iu July, 1861, to restore the Union alone, and we went 



340 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



further, and gave out that we would also abolish slavery. Now, that 
was just exactly the point upon which all Southern men were the most 
tender, and at which they were the most prone to be alarmed and offended. 
That was of all tilings the one best calculated to make them of one mind 
against us; there waB no other measure, indeed, which could have lost 
to the Union cause so many of them. It is not a question either as to 
whether they were right or wrong, that was matter for their considera- 
tion, not ours; for if we were so desirous of a union with them, we 
ought not to have expected them to give up their most cherished institu- 
tions in order to effect it. Unions are made by people takingoneanother 
as they are, and I think it has never yet occurred to any man who was 
anxious to form a partnership with another that he should first attempt 
to force the other either to change his religion or his politics. Is not the 
answer obvious, would not the other say to him, "If you do not like 
my principles why do you wish to be partner with me? Have I not as 
good a light to ask you to change yours as a condition precedent?" 

" ' So it was with the Southern people; they were all iu favor of slavery, 
but one-half of them were still for union with us as before, because they 
did not believe we were abolitionists. The other half were in open re- 
bellion because they did believe it. Now, can any one conceive of greater 
folly on uurpart than that we should destroy the faith of our friends and 
verify that of our enemies? Could not anybody have foretold we would 
have lost one-half by that, and then we would have no one left to form 
a Union with? We drove that half over to the rebels, and thereby in- 
creased their strength a thousand-fold. 

"'Is not all this hiBtorynow? The great fact is staring us full in 
the face to-day, we are contending with a united people desperately in 
earnest to resist us. Our most powerful armies most skillfully led have 
heretofore failed to conquer them, and I think will fail as long as we 
pursue this fatal policy. 

"' Now, Mr. President, I appeal to senators whether it is not time to 
pause and inquire whether that policy which has certainly united the 
Southern people in their cause, and which quite as certainly has divided 
the Northern people in their support of ours, ought to be abandoned at 
once? Why persist in it longer? Can we do nothing to letrieve our for- 
tune by retracing our steps? Can we not divide the rebels andunite the 
loyal men of the loyal States by going back to the single idea of war for 
the Union ? oris it now too late? Have we lost irrecoverably our hold 
on tii'' affections of our countrymen who were for the Union in 1861, 
even in 1862? Is there no way by which we could satisfy them that we 
yet mean Union, and not conquest and subjugation? And what a differ- 
ence in the meaning of these two phrases! The first offers the hand of 
a brother, the second threatens the yoke of a master. Or are we obliged 
now to exchange the hopes we had of Southern Union men for that othei 
and miserable hope in the negro? Is he all that is left of loyalty in the 
South, and the only ally we can rely upon to aid us in restoring the 
Union? Ye gods, what have we come to at last? Either to yield to an 
unholy rebellion, to dismember an empire, or to go into national com- 
panionship with the negro ! Is this the alternative CO which our mad- 
ness has brought us ? 

" l Mr. President, these things are enough to drive a sane man mad. 
After all our pretension, all our boasting, hew absurd will we appear in 
the eyes of all other nations if we fail in this struggle! Especially as 
almoBl all the measures about which we have occupied ourselves for the 
last three years have been based upon our success already assumed a.-- a 
fixed fact. We provided for confiscating the estates of rebels before we 
got possession, we emancipated slaves before we got them from their 
masters, and we provided for the disposition of conquests we have nol 
made; we have disposed of the skin of the bear, and the bear itself is 

yet uncaught. All this we have put upon the record ; the statute l fa 

will bear witness against us in all coming time, and we cannot escape 
the consequences if we fail. 

11 ' Mr. President, our government was intended to be one of law, pre- 
eminently of law. There was to be nothing in the administration of it 
left to the arbitrary will of an individual or individuals. This was its 
merit, or intended so, par excellence. I am for preserving its character 
in that respect strictly. Let no man, from the President down to the 
most petty officer, dare to do anything, whether to friend or enemy, ex- 
cept as warranted by law. Let us make war according to law, and let 
us have peace according to law. If we fight a belligerent enemy, let us 
do it according to the law of nations. If we punish or restrain a refrac- 
tory citizen, let us do it by the law of the laud, " by due process of law." 
Had we bad faith in our Constitution and laws and our people, we had 
not been in our present condition. Had we made war and war alone, 
the loyal people North and South to a man would have been with us. 
The voice of faction, if not entirely hushed, would have been harmless. 
The capital of the demagogue would have been worthless, and the nation 



would have been irresistible. Had we treated the negroasthe Constitu- 
tion treats him, as a person, as another man, had we made no distinc- 
tion or difference between him and other citizens, we had not aroused 
against him that tribal antipathy which will be far more likely to destroy 
him than a false philanthropy will be likely to elevate him in the scale 
of being. If he was friendly to us, the same use could have been made 
of him that we have made ; we could have enlisted him in our armies 
noway we have been enbstiug him in our navy for long years. We could 
have received him as a volunteer,if be was able-bodied, without looking 
to his complexion, and we could have drafted him without inquiring 
into the relations which existed between him and his master, any more 
than we inquire into the relations of the white man of twenty years of 
age with his parent or his guardian. State laws adjusts all these ques- 
tions, but to the United States it made no difference whether he owed 
service to individuals or not; he owed his first duty to the republic, as 
military service was required. All this was lawful, and u<> ioyal man 
ever did or would have complained of it kindly done in the proper 
spirit. 

" ' I have only to say in conclusion, sir, that I hope that the joint reso- 
lution will not be repealed, and that this and all kindred projects will 
fail in the future, for the simple reason that they strengthen the rebels 
by uniting their people with them, and they weaken the Union cause by 
dividing its friends and distracting them with unnecessary issues. Let 
us unite upon the single idea of suppressing the armed opposition to the 
government. Let the energies of the nation be devoted solely to that 
purpose, and success may yet come, if success is possible.'" 

The following is from the Pittsburgh Leader, inde- 
pendent, but generally favoring the Republican party: 

"THE COMING CONFLICT. 
"The Next U.S. Sknator. 

"It is not from among those who are willing only that a great Com- 
monwealth like ours should make its selection for such an honorable 
place, now, indeed, sadly dishonored by the character, or rather want 
of character, of some who now represent many of the States in that body, 
but it should search until it finds, as fit to be its representatives, men of 
high and commanding intellect, of earnestness and force, and of sound 
practical judgment. 

" Of all the men named for that position there are none the superior 
and but tew the equal, in point of ability, of Hon. Edgar Cowan, of West- 
moreland County. 

" Taking his seat iu ISfil as a senator of the United States, elected by 
what was then known as the ' People's party,' this gentleman, while 
properly enough upholding in so far as was just and right the political 
interests of his particular party, did not feel bound to follow it in all its 
windings. Regarding the preservation of the Union aso»eof the first es- 
sentials to the peace and prosperity of the people of lioth sections, and ut- 
[fi l\ opposed ii» every proposition looking to a dissolution of the Union, 
peaceful or otherwise, Mr. Cowan was ready and earnest at all times iu his 
support of the government in putting down the Rebellion. But believ- 
ing that legal power enough existed, under the Constitution, iu the Fed- 
eral government to enable it to maintain itself, he opposed every infrac- 
tion of that instrument. The Constitution, he believed, was intended to 
be maintained inviolate, just as he believed the Union must be preserved ; 
but he could not see, as did the party iu power, the necessity of violating 
the one to preserve the other. A preserved Union with a violated Con- 
stitution would be such an Union as heaven and hell, held togetheronly 
by the power of the strong, the unquestioned masters, the weaker un- 
questioning serfs. The oaths Mr. Cowan had taken to support and main- 
tain the Constitution were not esteemed by him as idle pledges, to be taken 
to-day and cast off to-morrow, but obligations binding here and hereafter. 
All this time, and iu all the long years that ran through a fierce and 
bloody war, Mr. Cowan looked not behind him, and as bill after bill was 
presented, and law after law was enacted violating the plainest letter and 
the clearest spirit of the Constitution, he vainly implored his Radical col- 
leagues to stay their mad hands in the work of destroying all that was 
good and grand in our government, that they might supply its place 
with an Union broken and a Constitution destroyed forever. 

"Against the unjust expulsion of Senator Bright, of Indiana; against 
the insane schemes of men crazed with the fury of fanaticism, who 
sought by unconstitutional and wicked confiscation laws to impoverish 
the whole South and to make private property lawful prize of war; 
against legal-tender acts, which debased our currency and made the dol- 
lar of to-day the half-dollar of to-morrow, changing daily and hourly, 
with victory or defeat, the standards and measures of value ; against the 




JJ. JP J^a <W, 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



341 



national banking laws, which substituted for government greenbacks 
without interest a currency bearing interest against the people as a gov- 
ernment and the people as individuals, triplicating gain at the expense 
of many to the enrichment of a few ; against the Freedman's Bureau, 
which cost the people fifty millions of dollars directly and many hun- 
dreds of millions indirectly, with its swarms of carpet-bag Governors and 
marshals and other Federal office-holders; of and against all these out- 
rages and all others of a kindred scope and design, at all proper times 
and in all proper places. In bis place in the Senate and before the peo- 
ple Mr. Cowan most earnestly, even prophetically, protested and spoke, 
but spoke in vain. His predictions then have become history now, and 
his Republican colleagues of those days can only look back, since the 
whirlwinds of November have scattered the cohorts of Radicalism like 
chaft", and with anguish recall to mind how they had been warned of 
their certain destruction unless they paused in their wild career. 

"Is it uecessary to remind our people of this? Need they be told that 
to revenge itself upon him for his manliness in rebuking them for their 
wrongdoing, even the Senate of the United States, with a petty malig- 
nity never before exhibited towards a senator, refused him a confirmation 
when his name was laid before it by President Johnson as minister to 
Austria ? Happily in their madness they stopped not with a refusal to 
confirm him alone, but almost every decent name presented for every 
high office, unless stamped with tlte seal of Radical subordination, met 
with the same fate, and that which was intended as a sting and a re- 
proach became, among good men, an honor and a boast. Shall we not 
now, when in power, repay those who, in the dark hours of our country 
and our party, toiled for it and us when the toilers were not many, who 
through good report and evil report held the even tenor of their way, 
with no thought for the morrow save in so far a-s the morrow might per- 
chance lift from our heads the load of incompetency and corruption 
which was daily plunging us downward into the very depths of destruc- 
tion. 

"It baa been said, and said truly, that Mr. Cowan is no politician. 
While this may be weakness, or rather a want of strength among 
politicians, it is a point that should most strongly commend him to the 
people. They have wearied of politicians as statesmen. The country 
has been too long in their hands for its good, and it is time that a little 
wholesome statesmanship should be infused into our system. With the 
machinery of political organizations, and the manner and method of } 
organizing and controlling political movements, Mr. Cowan is not famil- j 
iar, and certainly cannot be called a time-server, else he had not been j 
numbered with the Democracy to-day. Had policy controlled him, he ' 
has shown himself a very inapt student, and has read the history of 
parties with but little profit when he learned only to abandon even a 
corrupt but still the strong and powerful organization in the very full- 
ness of party strength, and cast his fortunes with an organization then 
few in numbers, without consolidation or leaders,and loaded down with 
inipracticables who never learned while they never forgot anything. 

" What more fitting rebuke to the insolence of fanaticism than to send 
hack to the Senate one who, like Mr. Cowan, has been the subject of 
their most intense dislike and most rampant hatred? And when our rep- 
resentatives meet together to select one to represent our Commonwealth 
in the Senate, it does seem to us that personal preferences should be lost 
sight of, and that freely and with universal accord he should be chosen. 

"Much more could be written on this subject, but we have said 
enough to indicate our views fully and unreservedly, and we trust that 
our words may bear good fruits." 

The following is from the National Intelligencer: 

" On the outside of to-day's paper will be found a brief but most im- 
portant speech made in the Senate by Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania. 
Mr. Cowan is one of that large class of Republicans who honestly be- 
lieved that Republicanism meant reform, and that the war was simply 
for the restoration of the Constitution and the Union. The change which 
has taken place in the course of policy adopted must necessarily separate 
such men from their former political associations, and induce them to 
act with those who still seek the great and honorable objects which the 
administration has abandoned. The National Intelligencer'' s description of 
the speaker will invite attention to what he says : " Entering the Senate 
at the opening of the Thirty-seventh Congress he early won for himself 
the admiration and respect of his associates, without distinction of party, 
by the learning and dignity with which he explained and defended 
his views of public policy, while the independence and eloquence for 
which he was conspicuous in debate early drew to him the attention of 
all who mark with interest the progress of our parliamentary dis- 

CllSsi(r|l„. 

" Mr. Cowan, we need not say, is a distinguished member of the Re- 



publican party, but in his whole career as a legislator he has made it 
apparent that be considers his first and highest allegiance due to the 
country, and therefore never narrows his mind so as to give to the 
former the homage that should be paid only to the latter." 

"' Woans of Truth and Soberness. 1 — Under this head the National 
Intelligencer republishes some excellent remarks of Senator Cowan's 
during the late session of Congress, which wo in turn republish in our 
columns this moruing. The words of the senator are indeed ' words of 
truth and soberness; 1 those of Paul before Agrippa were not more so, 
though doubtless many an abolitiou Festus will say with a loud voice 
that the senator is beside himself. But the senator is not mad. What 
he says is surpassingly just. These things are known to every enlight- 
ened patriot; nay. they are known to the President himself, whom we 
fain would hope that the senator almost persuades to be a conservative. 

'"Among all the members of the National Legislature who have I D 

called to give counsel for the safety and welfare ot the republic in this 
day of severe trial, 1 says the Intelligencer in introducing Senator Cowan's 
remarks, ' we know of none who has brought to the discharge of his 
duties a higher intelligence, a clearer sagacity, or a more patriotic fidel- 
ity than the Hon. Edgar Cowan, the learned senator from the State of 
Pennsylvania.' 

"This is deserved praise. If not ■horn for the universe,* like Burke, 
the Pennsylvania senator has not, as Goldsmith said much too strongly 
of the glorious orator and philosopher of Beaconsfield, — 

' narrowed his mind, 
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.' 

"Meanwhile, we commend the remarks of Senator Cowan to the at- 
tention of our readers. His main views on the fundamental question of 
the hour are thoroughly sound." 

In 1842, Senator Cowan married Lucy, daughter of 
Col. James B. Oliver, of West Newton, Westmoreland 
Co. Col. Oliver died in 1873, at the advanced age of 
ninety-three years. 

Senator and Mrs. Cowan are the parents of three 
children, — Elizabeth, intermarried with J. J. Hazlett, 
Esq., a member of the Westmoreland County bar ; 
Frank Cowan, a member of the same bar, and a 
physician, a gentleman of extensive scientific and 
literary attainments, a world's traveler, who has re- 
cently made the circuit of the globe, after thorough 
visitation of all the most important countries of 
Europe; and James, who resides with his father. 

Hon. Harrison Perry Laird, of Greensburg, 
present State senator, representing the Thirty-ninth 
District, is on the remote paternal side of Scotch- 
Irish and English extraction. His great-grandfather, 
John Laird, was the son of a gentleman of County 
Donegal, Ireland, who owned in perpetuity a farm of 
ninety acres, lying within a mile of Raphoe, in that 
county, and which is still held in the Laird name. 
The mother of John Laird was an English lady. 
The last-mentioned gentleman, who married in Ireland 
a lady named Martha Russell, migrated with her to 
America about 1760, and settled in Adams County, 
Pa., in the manor of Mask, on Lower Marsh Creek, 
in the township of Strabane, and there reared a 
family, one of which was William Laird, his youugest 
son, and the grandfather of H. P. Laird, and who in- 
herited his father's farm in Adams County. William 
married a Miss Jane McClue, and became the father 
of several children, the youngest of whom was Fran- 
cis, who was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, 
Pa., and thereafter studied for the ministry, and being 
licensed to preach as a Presbyterian minister, re- 



342 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



moved when a young man into Westmoreland County 
about 1797, when he entered upon his clerical career. 
He was subsequently installed over the churches of 
Poke Run, in Westmoreland County, and Plumb 
Creek, in Allegheny County, and continued to preach 
till 1854. He was a man of marked ability, skilled 
in classic lore, and in the mathematics, and although 
a man of no ambition for public distinction or honors, 
he received from Washington College, Pennsylvania, 
the Doctorate of Divinity, its voluntary tribute to his 
learning and ability. He married Mary, the daugh- 
ter of the Hon. John Moore, the first president judge 
of Westmoreland County, 1 who was also a member of 
the first Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, 
held in 1776, and was a State senator shortly subse- 
quent to 1790, representing the district of which West- 
moreland County was a part. 

Rev. and Mrs. Laird were the parents of several 
children, Harrison P. being their youngest son. He 
received his first discipline in books under a noted 
teacher, Jeremiah O'Donovan, a gentleman who had 
been educated for the Catholic priesthood, but who 
never took orders. Mr. O'Donovan was a man of 
varied and extended learning, a versatile genius, and 
withal somewhat of a poet, and the author of a his- 
tory of Ireland. Mr. Laird remained under his tute- 
lage for two years, and became deeply attached to his 
teacher, still preserving the fondest remembrances of 
him. His next preceptor was the Rev. David Kirk- 
patrick, D.D., who kept a classical school at Loyal- 
hanna Mills, in Westmoreland County, which Mr. 
Laird attended for two years. He then entered Jeffer- 
son College, Washington County, Pa., from which in- 
stitution he graduated. After graduation from college 
he took charge of Madison Academy, in Clark County, 
Ky., for a year, and leaving it entered as a student 
Transylvania University, Ky., where he took courses 
of lectures for a year, after which he returned to 
Pennsylvania, and took a seat in the law-office of Hon. 
Charles Shaler, of Pittsburgh, and under his direc- 
tion read law for two years, and was admitted to the 
bar of Allegheny County, and immediately after ad- 
mission to practice located in Oreensburg, where he 
.still follows his profession. 

Shortly after his advent to Greensburg he was 
elected to the State Legislature, in the year 1848, 
and was re-elected in 1849, and again in 1850, — three 
terms in succession. At that period of his legislative 
experience he was a member of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee and chairman of the Bank Committee, and 
drew up the banking law of 1850, some parts of which 
were copied or incorporated in the present National 
Banking Act of the United States. 

In the fall of 1S80 he was elected to the State 
Senate from the Thirty-ninth Senatorial District, 
consisting of Westmoreland County, for the term of 
four years. 



1 For the distinction of president judges see chapter in which the suh- 
ject of the early judiciary is treated. 



Since Mr. Laird came to the bar he has devoted 
himself with singular assiduity to his profession and 
to general literature, to which, being unincumbered 
by a family, as he is and ever has been, he has been 
able to give more time than could most other members 
of the bar. Aside from the classical languages usually 
studied in our colleges, Mr. Laird is conversant with 
the French and German languages and with the He- 
brew, and following a proclivity of research into 
ancient tongues has of late taken up the study of 
Syriac. 

Hon. Jacob Turney, of Greensburg, is on his pa- 
ternal side of Hollandish stock; on his maternal, of 
the same and of English extraction. His great grand- 
father, whose surname was Dorney, since changed to 
Turney, migrated from Holland, and settled in an 
early day in Eastern Pennsylvania, where Daniel Tur- 
ney (or Dorney), the grandfather of the Hon. Jacob; 
was born, and who was one of a large family of chil- 
dren, three or four brothers of which left their home 
in Eastern Pennsylvania at about the same time for 
Western and Southern countries. One of them set- 
tled in Ohio, where his descendants are now numer- 
ous; another in Tennessee, where he raised a large 
family, one of his descendants being the present 
Chief Justice Turney of that State. Another of the 
brothers went to North Carolina, and permanently 
located there, where the Turney name designated 
quite extensive families. Daniel Turney made his 
way to Westmoreland County, and settled near what 
is now Hannastown, in what was then the capital 
town of an extensive territory which was comprised 
under the name Westmoreland. He was a farmer. 
There were born to him six sons and two daughters, 
and of whom Jacob Turney, Sr., was in number the 
third child, born 1788. In youth he located in 
Greensburg, where he spent the rest of his life. He 
held several public offices, — those of county commis- 
sioner, county treasurer, etc. He was an active poli- 
tician, and contracted a cold (from the effects of which 
he ultimately died, Jan. 4, 1827) on the Allegheny 
Mountains, where he, with others, was storm-stayed 
on his return from a political State Convention at 
Harrisburg to which he was a delegate, in or about 
the year 1820. Jan. 23, 1810, he married Margaret 
Singer, a daughter of Simon Singer and Mary Clouser 
Singer, natives of Carlisle, Pa. Mrs. Singer died in 
Greensburg about 1S1!>. Mrs. Margaret Singer Tur- 
ney was born May 11, 17H2, and is still living, in the 
clear possession of unimpaired mental faculties, an 
intelligent, sprightly, and witty lady, a woman of re- 
markable accuracy of memory, which seems to be as 
unclouded now as ever. 

Jacob and Margaret Turney became the parents of 
five sons and two daughters, — Daniel ; Nancy Wil- 
liams, who married Robert Story, of Hempfield, West- 
moreland Co., and died Feb. 5, 1881, in the sixtjj 
seventh year of her age; Samuel Singer Tunny, a 
printer by trade, formerly editor of the Pennsylvania 





& a, (2/£^ 





' 



yrufd/:- 



THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 



343 



'Argus, and from about 1870 to 1882, postmaster of 
Greensburg; Lucien B. ; Lucinda-, intermarried with 
Richard B. Kenley, of Ludwick; Robert Williams, 
now, and for over twenty-five years past, connected 
with the Pennsylvania Railroad ; and Jacob, Jr. 

Jacob Turney was born in Greensburg, Feb. 18, 
1825, and received his literary education in the com- 
mon schools, and in Greensburg Academy, and re- 
verts with special affection to Peter R. Pearsol, a 
famous instructor in the common schools. During 
the years of his minority, Mr. Turney, while attend- 
ing school a portion of the year, devoted other por- 
tions to some business occupation, and among other 
things learned the printer's trade. After learning 
that trade he was appointed and served as deputy 
sheriff, and thereafter attended the academy, leaving 
which he engaged as clerk in the register's and re- 
corder's office of the county, and while so engaged 
commenced reading law under the direction of Hon. 
A. G. Marchand, at that time a man of great emi- 
nence in his profession. Mr. Marchand dying before 
Mr. Turney had completed his studies, he continued 
reading under Henry C. Marchand, and was admitted 
to the bar at May term, 1849, and entered upon the 
practice of his profession, at once securing to himself, 
through a large acquaintanceship made while in the 
recorder's office, and by his personal manners, -which 
were popular, and in no measure calculated to antag- 
onize others, a lucrative practice. In 1850 he was 
elected district attorney of Westmoreland County by 
a large majority over his competitor, being the first 
district attorney elected under the then new law. He 
was re-elected in 1853, and served till 1856., During 
his term of office the Pennsylvania Railroad was in 
process of construction, giving rise to an unusual 
ammint of criminal business. Trials for murder were 
frequent, and Mr. Turney obtained prominence as a 
practitioner, especially by the long-contested trial of 
George Ward and Malcom Gibson, charged with the 
murder of Lunciuda Sechrist, a case enumerated 
among the remarkable criminal trials of the land, 
and which resulted in their conviction of murder in 
the first degree. But on a new trial granted, the pris- 
oners, after a protracted trial, were, to the astonish- 
ment of the community, who generally condemned 
the jury for their verdict, acquitted, when they imme- 
diately left the region. The noted case of Hugh Cor- 
rigan, indicted for the murder of his wife, known as 
"Big Mary," convicted of murder in the first degree, 
and condemned to be hung, but who cheated justice 
by taking a dose of poison a few days before the ap- 
pointed time of execution, will be long remembered 
as one of the remarkable trials conducted by Mr. 
Turney. 

In 1855-56, Mr. Turney, being an earnest Demo- 
crat, took a prominent part against the Know-Nothing 
or American party, and stumped the county in oppo- 
sition to that organization. In 1856 he was one of 
the Presidential electors who cast the vote of the State 



for James Buchanan for President, and in 1857 was 
nominated, without solicitation on his part, for the 
State Senate, and was elected senator for the district 
composed of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties 
for the term of three years, served during the term, 
and at the close of the session of 1859 was elected 
president of the Senate. 

During the late war Mr. Turney was known as a 
pronounced War-Democrat, and in 1871 he was pre- 
vailed upon to permit the use of his name in the 
hopelessly Republican district of Westmoreland and 
Indiana Counties as a candidate for the State Senate 
in opposition to Gen. Harry White, and was defeated 
by a reduced Republican majority. 

In 1874 he became the Democratic candidate of the 
Twenty-first District, composed of the counties of 
Westmoreland, Fayette, and Greene, for Congress, 
and was elected representative to the Forty-fourth 
Congress, and in 1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth 
Congress. During his congressional career he served 
upon the Committees on Elections and Privileges, 
Mines, Mining, and Territories, and other committees 
with great credit to his constituents. 

Leaving Congress, Mr. Turney returned to the 
practice of his profession, which he is now actively 
ami profitably pursuing. Though eminently success- 
ful in his official career and gratified by the confidence 
reposed in him by his constituents, Mr. Turney re- 
gards it as a mistake in a professional man to even 
temporarily abandon his practice for public life. 

Feb. 2, 1854, Mr. Turney married Miss Mary Stew- 
art Richardson, daughter of William H. and Hen- 
rietta D. Richardson, of Indiana County, by whom 
he has had eight children, seven of whom are living, — 
Barton R., deceased ; Catharine M., married to A. L. 
Kinkead, Esq., of Pittsburgh ; Mary Stewart, William 
R,, Thomas C, Elizabeth F., Jacob M., and Hen- 
rietta M. 

Jambs Russ McAfee. — The grandparents of James 
R. McAfee on his paternal side migrated to America 
from the north of Ireland and settled in Franklin 
County, on the Conococheague. They were the par- 
ents of two children, a daughter and a son, May and 
John. May married Thomas McCurdy about 1800, 
and subsequently removed to Indiana County, Pa., 
there raising a family of ten children, only two of 
whom are now living. The son, John, the father of 
J. R. McAfee, removed from Franklin County to 
Westmoreland County about. 1801, and in 1806 was 
married to Mary Thompson, a daughter of John 
Thompson, a native of County Derry, Ireland, who 
about 1775 settled on a farm on the Big Sewickley, in 
South Huntington township. 

Mr. John McAfee and his wife immediately after 
marriage settled near Smithton, on the Youghio- 
gheny River, on a farm whereon they resided a few 
years, and thence removed to Indiana township, Alle- 
gheny Co., and there settled on a farm which Mr. 
McAfee bought from the late James Ross, Esq., of 



344 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pittsburgh, who was the Federal candidate for Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania in 1798, and after whom the 
subject of this sketch was named. 

To these parents were born four sous and six daugh- 
ters,— Joseph, William, John, James Boss, Matilda, 
Catharine Eaton, Margaret, Mary, Nancy, and Jane. 
The last-named daughter died in infancy. The rest 
of the children lived to maturity. 

John McAfee died on the 28th of March, 1834, in 
the fifty-eighth year of his age, Mrs. McAfee on the 
24th of March, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age. 
James Ross McAfee was born in Indiana township. 
Allegheny Co., Pa., March 10, 1822. He was raised 
upon the farm, and received his education in the com- 
mon and select schools and the Greensburg Academy, 
but when eighteen years of age engaged in teaching 
school, and occupied himself more or less with teach- 
ing for a period of ten years. In 1850 he entered 
upon merchandising, and continued at that business 
till 1857, when he was elected superintendent of com- 
mon schools of Westmoreland County (May, 1857), 
and served from the 1st of June of that year till June 
1, 1860. In 1859, during his term as superintendent, 
he was entered as a law student in the office of Gen. 
Richard Coulter, and read law with him until the lat- 
ter went into the army in the war of the Rebellion, 
when Mr. McAfee entered the office of James A. Hun- 
ter, Esq., now Judge Hunter, and with him completed 
his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. 

From 1862 to 1864, Mr. McAfee served as assistant 
United States assessor for the Twenty- first District 
of Pennsylvania. In 1864 he resigned the position of 
assistant assessor, and was elected to the House of Rep- 
resentatives of Pennsylvania from the Westmoreland 
and Indiana District, and was re-elected in 1865. 
He served as assistant clerk of the State Senate for 
seven years, and one year as assistant clerk of the 
House. In 1879 he was appointed Deputy Secretary 
of the Commonwealth under the administration of 
Governor Hoyt, in which he is now serving. 

In 1868, Mr. McAfee was one of the Republican 
delegates of his district to the Chicago National Con- 
vention which nominated Gen. Grant for President 
and Schuyler Colfax Vice-President. In the same 
year he was one of the two secretaries of the Re- 
publican State Central Committee of Pennsylvania, 
Galusha A. Grow being chairman. Mr. McAfee was 
originally a Whig, and cast his first vote for President 
for Henry Clay in 1844, and has been identified with 
the Republican party from its birth to the present. 

In July, 1870, McAfee established The Greensburg 
Tribune, and in January, 1872, bought out and con- 
solidated with his paper the Greensburg Herald, and 
associated with himself as proprietors and editors D. 
S. Atkinson and T. J. Weddell, Esqs. In 1874, Mr. 
Weddell retired from the paper, selling his interest 
to his co-proprietors, and the business of the establish- 
ment has since been conducted under the firm-name 
of McAfee & Atkinson. 



Jan. 23, 1844, Mr. McAfee was united in marriage 
to Miss Maria E. Reed, daughter of the late Joseph 
and Sarah Gilchrist Reed, of New Alexandria, West- 
moreland Co. Mr. and Mrs. Reed subsequently re- 
moved to Ashland, Ohio, in which place both of 
them died. Mrs. McAfee died March 18, 1852. She 
was the mother of four children,— two sons and two 
daughters. One of the sons died in infancy, the 
other in his twentieth year. The daughters are still 
living. 

Feb. 15, 1853, Mr. McAfee married Miss Louisa A. 
Craig, eldest daughter of the late Samuel and Sally 
A. Hogg Craig, of Saltsburg, Indiana Co. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

The Profession in the Early Days of the Province and State, and in 
Westmoreland— Quackery— Dr. James Postlethwaite— John Ormsby, 
M.D.— Dr. Alfred T. King— Dr. David Alter— The Westmoreland Med- 
ical Association and Society— List of Enrolled Practitioners— Dr. 
Henry G. Lomison— Dr. David Alter— Dr. James A. Fulton— Dr. J. Q. 
Robinson— Dr. W. J. Kline— Dr. J. T. Krepps— Dr. J. D. Milligan. 

The position which the medical profession has 
always occupied in the history of the Province and 
the State is a matter of just pride to all Pennsyl- 
vanians. In commenting upon this subject in the 
time of the colony, a knowing author has collected 
certain facts which we shall make use of substantially 
as he has. 1 

In the colonies of the South medical men, as a 
class, were in themselves of little merit, and socially 
and politically had no importance, whence in Penn- 
sylvania the case was exactly reversed. Although 
Gabriel Thomas asserts, in mentioning the attractions 
of the colony, that it had neither lawyers nor doctors, 
and was therefore both peaceable and healthy, yet 
there is no doubt that two physicians of good reputa- 
tion came out with Penn, and that from that time on 
the profession was respected, and was always extend- 
ing its influence and its services. The country phy- 
sicians, except in the back districts, where the prac- 
tice was of the rudest sort, were apparently men of 
good repute, eking out a slender professional income 
by fanning or shop-keeping, but the most eminent of 
the profession were gathered, of course, in Philadel- 
phia. The best doctors were expected to be apotheca- 
ries as well, a"nd dispense medicines to their patients. 
They almost invariably walked in making their round 
of visits in the towns, and in the country rode on 
horseback. Midwifery was given up exclusively to 
the women. The profession, as a whole, was of a re- 
markably good quality, and it is said that in all Phil- 
adelphia there were not more than two or three 

1 H. C. Lodge, Hi6t. of (he Bug. Col. in America, chap. xiii. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



345 



quacks. The services rendered to the progress of 
medical science by the profession in Pennsylvania 
were as great if not greater than in any other colony, 
and were in themselves very considerable. Inocula- 
tion was successfully introduced in 1731, although not 
without the usual hard contest with existing preju- 
dices. Three years later, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, a 
graduate of the London schools, published an essay 
upon the " Iliac Passion," the first medical essay pro- 
duced in Pennsylvania, and one of the earliest which 
appeared in the colonies. About the middle of the 
century he began to lecture upon anatomy, and was 
the pioneer in this branch of medical instruction. 
He was also one of the first physicians appointed to 
the hospital founded in Philadelphia in the year 1750. 
Ten years later, Dr. William Shippen began a course 
of anatomical lectures in a private house, and by these 
small beginnings he and his friend, Dr. Morgan, suc- 
ceeded in starting the medical college which in the 
year 1765 was ingrafted upon the University of Penn- 
sylvania. Dr. Shippen subsequently did much to 
raise the practice of midwifery from the rule of thumb 
methods of the old women, who had a monopoly of 
this department. These energetic and able men, 
among whom Dr. Rush, famous also by his contro- 
versy with Cobbett, held a leading place, were fair 
examples of their profession. They were men of 
family, position, and wealth, were educated abroad, 
and were adherents of the English school. They not 
only did much to advance medical science in America, 
but they helped to break the old tradition of barbers 
and apothecaries, which even now weighs upon med- 
icine in England, and to put the profession in its true 
position, and to render it attractive, honorable, and 
desirable to men of all ranks and of the highest at- 
tainments. 

The people of Westmoreland were fortunately fa- 
vored in early having good medical practitioners 
among them, but these were few, and complaint was 
made that even then the status of the profession, 
taken generally, was not high. 

In an article prepared for and published in Tlie 
Greensbnrg Gazette in June, 1824, entitled "The Medi- 
cal Character of Westmoreland County," the writer 
took special occasion to refer to the necessity of legisla- 
tive action for the protection of the medical profession, 
and to show at length the evil effects of quackery in the 
profession at that day. It is probable that the article 
might have been instigated by personal motives ; but 
even if it was, the characterof the contributor, who was 
evidently a practitioner in good standing and a com- 
petent authority, entitles it to our observation. We 
give the latter part of the article entire as a contribu- 
tion to the medical literature of the county: 

" But let us," he says, " proceed to the more imme- 
diate object of this communication, viz., a review of 
the medical character of this county, from which it 
will appear whether a few salutary restrictions on 
the practice of physic would not procure more whole- 



some effects than some of the alterations in our tariff 
that have called forth so much eloquence and argu- 
ment from some of the first men of the nation. 

" There are about forty persons in this county who 
follow the practice of medicine for a living. But 
how few of this number are entitled to the honorable 
epithet of physician? Not more, I will venture to 
say, than one-fourth. There are a few gentlemen of 
that profession who hold a distinguished rank, who 
have been gifted by nature with comprehensive, 
vigorous, and penetrating minds, and who have pre- 
pared themselves for the important duties of their 
station by a regular and systematic education — men 
to whose skill and honesty I would cheerfully in- 
trust myself if in need of their assistance ; but the 
fact is notorious and unanswerable that it is but a 
small minority that merit this character. Much the 
greatest number come under a very different descrip- 
tion, a description easily drawn by reversing that 
which has just been given. 

" Encouraged by the total want of anything in the 
laws of Pennsylvania regulating the practice of 
physic, as is customary in all well-regulated govern- 
ments, and in most of our sister-States, an establish- 
ment was formed in this county many years since by 
a notable junto of quacks. Perhaps their history 
should be more distinctly traced to one individual, 
whose name is familiar to almost every person in the 
county, a man who but a short time previous to his 
settlement here is said to have laid aside the more 
creditable employment of a blacksmith, — a business 
certainly not well calculated to fit him for his new 
profession. With scarely as much knowledge of his 
mother-tongue as would enable him to read a common 
English author, and not as much as would enable 
him to write legibly, without any knowledge of dis- 
ease or the nature and power of remedies, or of the 
structure of the human system, he began his career, 
depending wholly and solely on his cunning, his 
effrontery, and his ignorance. 

"As there are materials in human nature of every 
grade and description, this man soon found subjects on 
whom to commence his operation. To those who were 
of the most ignorant class, and who are always disposed 
to lend their belief to what is marvelous and incredible, 
he told the most wondrous tales of cures and opera- 
tions that he had performed elsewhere. When ap- 
plied to, even in trifling cases, his first object was to 
put some terrific name upon the disease, and alarm 
the patient as much as possible by pointing out the 
danger of his situation. For instance, a common cold 
would be called ' catarreous fever,' or ' consumption ■' 
a disordered stomach would be called ' scurvey of the 
stomach,' and an innocent wart a ' cancer.' In this way 
not only the patient himself, but whole neighborhoods 
were led to believe that cures which were in fact no 
cures were performed by him, and were to be consid- 
ered as most astonishing evidences of his skill in the 
healing art. 



346 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



" Another method pursued by this 'mighty mock de- 
frauder of the tomb' was to follow business wherever 
he could find it when business did not follow him, — to 
take patronage, as it were, by storm. For instance, 
did he hear of a neighbor being sick, under the sem- 
blance of benevolence and disinterested love, he would 
take his horse, visit him, and tender his services. If 
ho had children to vaccinate, he would expatiate on 
the dangers of smallpox and the efficacy of vaccination, 
and humbly request the privilege of performing the 
service, waiving altogether for that time the idea of 
compensation. This, however, would serve for book 
entry and after-consideration. 

" In short, no species of villany, hypocrisy, or de- 
ception was left unresorted to, and it is truly aston- 
ishing with what success he employed them, for it is 
to be confessed, to the disgrace of the good sense of the 
country, that his business extended far and wide. 

" I have been thus particular in describing the char- 
acter of this individual because, as he was the origin 
of a regular system of quackery in this settlement, he 
has ever stood the envied sample of imitation for that 
batch of young adventurers who have passed under 
his talismanic touch, and issue forth under the im- 
posing name of ' Yankee Doctors.' 

"These creatures he was in the habit of gathering 
up in dozens from the rejected filth of society, drill- 
ing them a few weeks in the art and mystery of 
quackery, ami then sending them forth to prey upon 
the vitals of the community. And of this same fra- 
ternity are many professors of the healing art at pres- 
ent in this and the adjoining counties. Their progress 
can be traced in whatever direction they have gone 
by the numerous victims to their rashness, ignorance, 
villany, and seduction. Many a father mourns a 
promising member of bis family nipped by their rude 
hands in the blossom of life; and many an innocent 
but senseless girl points to them as the authors of her 
crime and the murderers of her peace." 

Not many fields more congenial to the quack and 
the empiric could be found than the back country of 
Western Pennsylvania some three generations ago. 
It was not until the warm sun o-f enlightenment had 
well-nigh reached the noouday height of this cen- 
tury that the phantoms of a traditionary superstition 
one by one fled before his penetrating rays from then- 
latest lurking-places in the dusky abodes of credulity 
and ignorance. At this day, it cannot be gainsaid, 
traces of the same credulity still exist, but they now 
exist as the nature of the wolf exists in the habits of 
the house-dog. This credulity is now covert; it was 
then open and palpable. And even in districts not 
accessible to the doctor of the nearest village, or 
among those who were too poor or too mean to ask 
the services of a doctor, there was always some one 
in the neighborhood who stood ready to cure and heal 
by virtue of occult mysteries. The flow of blood was 
stopped by reading a passage from the Scripture ; 
spells of acute forms were traceable to the manifesta- 



tion of evil spirits ; and even chronic and constitu- 
tional disease in their worst forms, and for which 
medical therapeutics to this day has failed to pre- 
scribe a cure, were brought within the list of curable 
afflictions which such miserable knaves professed to 
heal. 

Empiricism and quackery have existed in the hon- 
orable profession of medicine from time immemorial. 
It is the peculiarity of quacks that they are as out- 
spoken against regularly educated physicians as they 
are forward in professing their own systems and ob- 
truding their knavery upon a helpless following. So 
it is related of Paracleus, the prince of empirics, that 
he treated his contemporary physicians with the most 
sottish insolence and illiberal vanity, and told them 
that "the very down on his bald pate had more 
knowledge than all their writers, the buckles of his 
shoes more learning than Galen and Avicenna, and 
his beard more experience than all their universities." 
This man flourished in the fifteenth century, near 
Zurich, in Switzerland, and under the shadow of a 
famous seat of learning. But he scarcely professed 
to greater and more numerous cures than Dr. Ormsby, 
and had no panacea more efficacious in his dispensary 
than was to be found in the saddle-bags of the ma- 
jority of country doctors two generations ago. Blue- 
mass was to these what the holy ointment of Fierabras 
was to Don Quixote. 

But the land was then cursed not only with quacks 
but also with knaves. Of the presence of these med- 
ical impostors — used for want of a better addition — 
there is abundant evidence. Of one, the most con- 
spicuous of these, we shall have something to say after, 
however, dwelling at some length upon one wdio has 
been regarded with the greatest veneration in his pro- 
fession, and who was an ornament to it and a blessing 
to his race. 

JAMES POSTLETHWAITE. 

James Postlethwaite, the subject of this memoir, 
was the seventh son of Samuel and Matilda Postle- 
thwaite, citizens of Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Pa. 
He was born in that town on the 12th of January, 
1776. His father, Col. Samuel Postlethwaite, was a 
plain, sensible citizen, who was respected for inflex- 
ible integrity, and very much liked on account of his 
mild, friendly, and amiable disposition. He died at 
an advanced age, in his garden, of an attack of 
apoplexy. He was born in this country, but was 
of English descent. Goldthwaite, Cowperthwaite, 
Thistlethwaite, and Postlethwaite are all names of 
Teutonic origin, and not uncommon in Yorkshire 
and the north of England. 

The maiden name of the mother of Dr. Postle- 
thwaite was Matilda Rose. Her father was a lawyer, 
distinguished in his profession for unusual ability. 

Pre-eminent among the early physicians of West- 
moreland was Dr. James Postlethwaite. 

It is a loss to the little world of Western Pennsyl- 






THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



347 



vania, says bis biographer, 1 that Dr. Postlethwaite 
had ao fidus Achates to preserve and transmit his col- 
loquial remarks, for they are certainly more worthy 
of a place in libraries than a large part of the " Con- 
versations" and " Recollections," "Ana," "Table- 
Talk" that have been recorded and preserved for 
future generations. But all this is somewhat digres- 
sive, and so revenonsanosmoutons. 

James Postlethwaite was placed at a very early age 
at a grammar school, which was under the superin- 
tendence of the celebrated Ross, a most accurate and 
learned linguist, whose grammar of the Latin lan- 
guage was so long the one used in American acade- 
mies and colleges, and where the accidence of Latin 
is so simplified and its acquisition so facilitated that 
it has all the information coutained in the Scottish 
and English classical grammars, without any of their 
laborious and painful pedantry. With such a pre- 
ceptor, Teucro auspice el Teucro duce, how could Pos- 
tlethwaite fail to attain an extensive and critical 
knowledge of Latinity ? 

Dickinson College, at Carlisle, was then regarded 
as one of the best institutions of learning in the 
United States. It was then under the control of the 
Presbyterian denomination, at that time the most 
wealthy and numerous body of Christians in Penn- 
sylvania. For more than a score of years it has been 
in the hands of the Methodists, and, without meaning 
any disrespect to that religious sect, it may be stated 
that Dickinson has degenerated from its former high 
character. It may be that hitherto Methodism has 
depended too much upon divine assistance, and neg- 
lected t lie carnal means for the acquisition of knowl- 
edge. This neglect or contempt of mere human or 
secular knowledge is not sustained by the authority 
or examples of Holy Scripture, for worldly wisdom 
and useful knowledge are subjects of fine and frequent 
praise in the sacred writings. Moses was imbued with 
the profound erudition of the priesthood of Egypt, 
and the Apostle Paul knew so well the histrionic lit- 
erature of Greece that he could embellish his dis- 
courses with extracts from their dramatice writers as 
readily as an English divine can adorn his sermons 
with quotations from Shakspeare: for example the 
following line from Euripides, which, quoted by the 
apostle, and thus made well known, has passed into a 
proverb in nearly all Christendom, "Evil communi- 
cations corrupt good manners." 

When Dr. Postlethwaite was a youth a liberal edu- 
cation was then far more limited than it is at jjresent. 
For instance, Dr. Postlethwaite was considered to be 
well educated in his day, and yet, although a first- 
class Latinist, he knew nothing of Greek beyond the 
alphabet. For enlarged and liberal education at that 
time the American people had not the opulence, the 
books, or the speedy and constant communication 






1 James Jolmstun, Esq., to whom we are much indebted in this sketch, 
and for other personal reminiscences. 



with the old seats of learning in Europe. Often, too, 
the pressing necessities of existence, limited means, 
and large families forced men upon the stage of life 
before they had acquired a complete preparation. 

At an early age James Postlethwaite left college, 
and in June, 1792, commenced the study of medicine 
in the office of Samuel A. MeCoskey, a successful and 
popular practitioner in Carlisle. The extent of his 
acquirements at his time of life was a matter of gen- 
eral astonishment. He was indebted for them in part 
to himself, and in part to nature. His ardor in pur- 
suit of knowledge was indefatigable, and the ease 
with which he unfolded the intricacies and evolved 
the complications of any subject, no matter how 
recondite, appeared not like the effect of study, but 
like acts of intuitive apprehension. 

Sir Walter Scott had not yet shown mankind what 
wonders could be worked in the field of romantic 
fiction, and the sun of Lord Byron had not arisen to 
attract and awe the learned world by its lurid splen- 
dors. The genius, learning, and taste of Robertson, 
Hume, Goldsmith, Smollett, Gibbon, and Rollin had 
illuminated and popularized historical researches, and 
this renascency of this kind of learning in the latter 
half of the last century, along with a natural inclina- 
tion of mind on the part of James Postlethwaite, had 
caused the careful perusal of history to be a daily 
duty with him, and by the change itself constituted 
an amusement in the intervals of severe professional 
study that ultimately tended to the invigoration of 
his mental powers, while at the same time it fur- 
nished him with a fund of accurate and extensive 
historical information, which armed him cap-a-pie in 
religious and political controversy. Of all the muses 
he liked Clio best, the heroic muse of history, and 
his heart kept time to the grand strain wherewith the 
poet salutes her, and which bursts upon the ear like 
a full band of martial music, — 

" Quern Deum, or Heroa l.vra, vel acri 
Tibia siimus celebrare, Clio?" 

In 1795 and 1796, James Postlethwaite went to 
Philadelphia to obtain medical instruction in the 
University, and its rolls bear evidence of his matricu- 
lation. He had the rare felicity of listening to the 
wisdom of those Esculapian sages who first gave the 
medical school of Philadelphia the high reputation 
it has since enjoyed. These eminent physicians and 
lecturers were Drs. Shippen, Wistar, and Benjamin 
Rush, who were seldom equaled and never surpassed 
by those who succeeded them. 

In 1794 there had been an insurrection in Western 
Pennsylvania to resist the payment of a small tax 
laid upon whiskey by the Federal government. Al- 
though a youth in years, yet a man in knowledge, 
; James Postlethwaite had accompanied the military 
expedition west to quell the rebellious rising in the 
capacity of an assistant surgeon. He so well liked 
the country west of the mountains that when he had 



348 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



finished his medical education he resolved to locate 
himself in Westmoreland County. 

In 1797, mounted on horseback, he directed his 
course towards the new home of his destination. He 
did not depart joyously, like a young man full of 
animal spirits and the love of adventure. It was with 
a heavy heart, and eyes moistened with tears that he 
halted on a hill westward of his native place and 
took a long, mournful, lingering look over it and its 
beautiful scenery. Nearly all love their native places, 
but Carlisle had reasons peculiar to herself for the at- 
tachment of her children. Carlisle was the centre of 
an intelligent, handsome, and well-mannered popula- 
tion, in a rich and highly-cultivated agricultural dis- 
trict. It possessed one of the best institutions of 
learning in the United States. It had been a British 
military station before the Revolution ; there were re- 
mains of old-fashioned, old-world manners, and when 
Dr. Postlethwaite migrated there were still reminis- 
cences of rufile-shirted, silk-stockinged, periwigged, 
red-coated officers, who had jigged and jilted, floun- 
dered, flounced, and fluttered before the deluge of the 
Revolution among the fair dames and damsels of the 
valley of the Cumberland. But though Carlisle be a 
bonny town, Dr. Postlethwaite was forced to leave it, 
and at length found himself located in the quiet and 
sequestered village of Greensburg, in the backwoods 
county of Westmoreland. However, his body only 
was in Greensburg, for his heart was in the environs 
of Carlisle, in the safe custody of Miss Elizabeth, 
daughter of James and Margaret Smith, old and 
highly-respected citizens of Cumberland County, who 
resided near Carlisle. To recover joint possession of 
this important corporeal appurtenance, Dr. Postle- 
thwaite returned to Cumberland, and was married on 
the 11th of April, 1799, to the aforesaid Miss Smith. 
There are very few couples that ever suited one an- 
other better than his lady and Dr. Postlethwaite, and 
they lived in a state of uninterrupted connubial hap- 
piness until their separation by his death. This mar- 
riage had been one of affection, not of convenience or 
interest. They possessed health, quiet, and compe- 
tence, and were blessed with a family of healthy, 
handsome children. 

When Postlethwaite first established himself as a 
medical practitioner in Greensburg, being a consci- 
entious man, he felt the full responsibility of his 
duties, and so he arduously studied the best authors of 
the old school of medicine, — Cullen, Sydenham, For- 
dyce, Rush, Darwin, and Abernethy. In addition to 
the mental exertion necessary for this professional 
study, he, in common with other country physicians, 
was forced to undergo an amount of bodily labor equal 
to that of a coach-horse. It will be remembered that 
when Dr. Postlethwaite began to practice medicine in 
Westmoreland, and for a score of years afterwards, 
there were not even turnpike roads. Travel by steam, 
both on water and land, was unknown, and convey- 
ance was slow, laborious, and expensive. Population 



was sparse, the country wild and covered with forest, 
and the roads rough, crooked, hilly, and dangerous. 
The shops of apothecaries and medical prescriptions 
were rare or unknown, and every village physician 
was obliged to carry his drug-shop in his saddle-bags. 
In addition to his ordinary duties, a country physician 
was expected to pull teeth, bleed, extract wild hairs, 
and usher children into this world of woe, or, in other 
words, act as physician, surgeon, optician, dentist, 
nurse, and man-midwife. 

In Scott's story of " The Surgeon's Daughter" there 
is a description of the rough life of a village doctor in 
a rural district of Scotland, which is not altogether 
unsuited for that of a medical practitioner in West- 
moreland in the beginning of the present century. 
The Scottish country doctor, like the ghostly lover in 
Burger's German ballad of Leonore, mounts his horse 
at midnight, and traverses in the darkness paths 
which to those unaccustomed to them seem formid- 
able even in daylight. 

" Let the wind howl through hush ami tree, 
This uight he must away ; 
The steed is wight, the spur is bright, 
He cannot stay till day. 

"And hurry! hurry! off he rides 
As fast as fast might be ; 
Spurn'd from the courser's thund'ring heels 
The flashing pebbles flee." 

For these nocturnal rides through a wild and rough 
country, at the risk of life and limb, the compensation 
was very inadequate to the toil and danger. Besides 
attending to all the cases in his own vicinity, the 
country physician was at the command of every one 
within a circuit of forty miles. 

The celebrated traveler, Mungo Park, who had ex- 
perienced both courses of life, gave the preference to 
traveling as a discoverer in the deserts of Africa to 
wandering by night and day as a medical practitioner 
in the wilds of a country district in Scotland. 

All this is bad enough, and perhaps the description 
is too highly colored to suit our country ; but still it 
was no amusement for ladies to ride in a dark and 
stormy night, in a matter of life and death, over 
shocking roads, through the long and dark woods of 
Westmoreland. 

Dr. Postlethwaite soon obtained a good practice, 
and throughout his life stood at the head of his pro- 
fession in Westmoreland. But his education, his 
obscure location in a backwoods village, in absence of 
suitable incitements to ambitious exertions, and the 
diversion of his mind to studies outside of his pro- 
fession prevented Dr. Postlethwaite from attaining 
the highest medical position, such a status, for ex- 
ample, as that held by Addison, of Pittsburgh. In 
addition to what knowledge could be gained in this 
country, the eminent physician, Addison, had studied 
surgery in Edinburgh, chemistry in Leyden, and 
walked the hospitals in London. Moreover, in a city 
there are more opportunities of information than in 
the country. The rewards and honors of persons 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



349 



eminent in the profession are much greater, and as 
there is more competition the faculties must be con- 
centrated on professional studies, and not applied to 
extraneous subjects, or allowed to stand in a state of 
stagnation. But according to good and sound opinion, 
the professional standing of Dr. Postlethwaite was 
highly respectable. He was well versed in the doc- 
trines of the old and established school of medicine. 
He had clear perceptions of the nature and seat of 
morbid action, and great readiness in the application 
of suitable therapeutical means to relieve pain and 
remove disease. 

In discharging the duties of his profession his de- 
portment was always extremely kind. He appeared 
to feel deep sympathy with suffering humanity, and 
this attracted to him the hearts of his patients. To 
his professional brethren his conduct was always 
urbane, and he towered as far above the low back- 
biting and petty jealousies of his profession as the 
summit of a snow-clad mountain above the unwhole- 
some vapors that settle at the foot. In dealing with 
patients he presented an example of high-toned 
integrity and charitable feeling now almost unknown 
in the profession. He was not an avaricious man, yet he 
asked a fair compensation for his services, and at one 
time of his life was willing and anxious to accumu- 
late a competence " for the glorious privilege of being 
independent." 

But though willing enough to take the advice of 
honest Iago, and " put money in his purse," he has 
been known to lose a wealthy and liberal patient by 
insisting upon total abstinence from strong drink as a 
necessary condition before he would agree to continue 
his professional attendance, and by endeavoring to 
convince the gentleman that health and the use of 
ardent spirits are incompatible. He was known to 
attend, with all the kindness of a woman, and without 
hope of any pecuniary return, upon an unfortunate 
and wretched man who was raving with delirium 
tremens. 

Having emigrated to this county when land was 
" cheap as dirt," and having had a good practice for 
thirty years, had Postlethwaite been as avaricious 
as he was talented, or had he flayed patients alive, as 
is now the practice of a portion of the profession, 
instead of a few thousand, he might have died worth 
several hundred thousand dollars. There is much 
standard or conventional joking about the fleecing of 
clients by lawyers ; but the doctors now often improve 
on the practice of the other learned profession, and, 
in addition to the robbing of patients, they act on the 
sentiment of some sanguinary gentlemen of the high- 
way that " dead men tell ?io tales." 

Dr. Postlethwaite was an honorable, truthful, and 
courageous gentleman, who discharged the duties of 
his profession with care and sincerity, to the best of 
his knowledge and ability ; but yet he never held 
what nature designated as his proper place, the 
highest position in his profession. With the whole 
23 



force of his strong and acute intellect directed upon 
medicine, he ought to have been a doctor whose ipse 
dixit would have passed without contradiction. But 
he had no professional enthusiasm, and, instead of 
medicine, the main inclination of his mind was 
towards politics and religion. 

When Postlethwaite was just emerging from youth 
into manhood two great political parties, known as 
Federalists and Democrats, came into existence. Dr. 
James Postlethwaite, both from education and con- 
viction, became a decided Federalist. He gave his 
first vote to the Federal party, and adhered to it until 
it passed out of existence. After he had married and 
taken a position in society he became a copious and 
careful reader of political books and newspapers, and 
kept full and accurate notes of the results. So con- 
versant was he with American political history that 
he had few equals and no superior in that kind of in- 
formation. He knew well the history and reason of 
every article in the Federal Constitution, and he was 
as well or better acquainted with Hamilton, Adams, 
and other leading Federalist writers than with Wistar, 
Rush, and the eminent expounders of the medical 
profession. His fugitive contributions on political 
subjects would fill a volume, and are worthy of col- 
lection and republication. They were first published 
in the Greensburg anti-Democratic papers, and in the 
old Pittsburgh Gazette. 

The newspaper contributions by which he acquired 
the greatest local notoriety are to be found in a con- 
troversy which he maintained with the Hon. Richard 
Coulter upon the subject of the administration of 
John Quincy Adams, in connection with the election 
of Jackson to the Presidency. It occurred during 
the Presidency of Adams, and excited so deep and 
general an interest that the newspapers in which the 
dispute was published were in anxious and extensive 
requisition. Judge Coulter's articles were published 
in the Westmoreland Republican and Farmer's Chroni- 
cle, edited by Frederick A. Wise ; those of Postle- 
thwaite appeared in the Greensburg Gazette, then 
under the editorial management of John Black. 

Judge Coulter and Postlethwaite were the two 
ablest men in their professions and the first citizens 
in the social circle in which they lived, and so the 
controversy excited as much interest as an encounter 
between two choice lances, two champion knights, 
in the days of chivalry. As is usual in such cases, 
the respective friends of the two gentlemen clajmed 
for either of them the honor of victory, but the com- 
batants themselves were willing to have it considered 
as a drawn battle. Each confessed that he had put 
forth his whole strength, and had found an antagonist 
worthy of his steel. At this distance of time, and 
with the changes produced by it, one would be better 
able to form a just judgment of the merits of the dis- 
tinguished adversaries in the controversy. 

While Dr. Postlethwaite detested Gen. Jackson, he 
admired Daniel Webster. When a young man, and 



350 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



before he became religious, Dr. Postlethwaite some- 
times deviated into a common custom of " gentlemen 
of the old school" and interpolated a few oaths into 
his conversation. His profession of religion and 
moral convictions led him to abandon this habit, and 
yet an instance is drawn where his irascible tempera- 
ment and his hatred of Gen. Jackson led him to re- 
lapse into a slight paroxysm of profanity. "About the 
years 1838 and 1839" — so a gentleman relates from his 
personal remembrance — " I sometimes consulted him 
as a physician. One day in conversation Webster 
became the subject, and the doctor lauded him as the 
greatest of living statesmen. I repeated a sarcastic 
remark, attributed to John Randolph, ' Daniel Web- 
ster is highly talented, but utterly corrupt ; like a rot- 
ten mackerel in moonlight, or putrid meat in the dark, 
he shines and stinks, and stinks and shines.' The 
sarcasm excited the indignation of the doctor. He 
pronounced Randolph 'an accursed caitiff, incapable 
of any great and good action.' He defended Web- 
ster from the charge of being corrupt ; and asserted 

that ' Andrew Jackson was the author of that d d 

infamous falsehood.' Jackson feared and hated Web- 
ster, and wished to counteract the influence of his 
talents by falsehoods about his moral character. He 
then denounced Jackson as the worst man of the age, 
— a compound of cunning and ferocity. ' His flat- 
terers call him "the old Roman," — the noblest Roman 
of them all.' Of all the Romans, remarked the doc- 
tor, 'he most closely resembles Caius Marius after 
he had imbued bis hands in the blood of bis fellow- 
citizens and trampled upon the liberties of his coun- 
try.' " 

Of the force and severity of Dr. Postlethwaite's 
satirical talents some idea may be conveyed by the 
following piece of information, obtained from a gen- 
tleman of unimpeachable veracity. An attempt was 
made to establish in Washington County, Pa., a news- 
paper with the name of The Democratic Eagle and 
Banner of the Cross. It was intended to promulgate 
and defend the principles of the most intense Democ- 
racy and the most liberal Christianity. Of both these 
Dr. Postlethwaite was the uncompromising enemy, 
and so he assailed the scheme in the Pittsburgh Gazette 
with such sarcasm aud humor that at one blow he 
entirely annihilated it. In one of his figures he 
made the eagle go flying away with the cross in his 
beak. 

One day, while discussing politics in a group of 
men, an impudent Democratic lawyer remarked to 
Postlethwaite in a sneering manner, " Obscurity is 
said to be an element in sublimity. Your arguments, 
doctor, should be sublime, for they are above my com- 
prehension." 

" Sir," said Postlethwaite, " I have given you my 
arguments, but I cannot furnish you with intellect 
enough to understand them." 

After the Federal party ceased to exist as a political 
organization, Postlethwaite became an anti-Mason, 



and used his pen against secret societies. The Demo- 
crats had identified their party with Masonry, and so 
anti-Masonry was opposition to Democracy. For a 
time the Masonic brotherhood dwindled into insig- 
nificance, and the anti-Masons abandoned their party 
association. Dr. Postlethwaite became a Whig, and 
as he had given his first, so he gave his last vote 
against the Democratic party. Had the Federals 
continued to exist as a party, he never would have 
voted with any other political organization. 

Dr. Postlethwaite was never an open and avowed 
skeptic, but, on the other hand, he was not a merely 
traditional Christian. His mind was too inquisitive 
and his disposition too bold to accept religion by pre- 
scription. The full vigor of his remarkable intellect 
was put forth to examine the internal and external 
evidences of Christianity, and the conclusions were 
faith in the Christian system, and reliance upon it for 
salvation. In the conviction of such a mind virtue 
gained a brilliant advantage, for on the side of reli- 
gion there were henceforth arrayed good character, 
industrious habits, an acute and active intellect, and 
extensive information. 

His parents were Episcopalians, and Postlethwaite 
by education and baptism had been a nominal mem- 
ber of the Church of England, but after his marriage 
and location in Westmoreland County he left the 
Episcopalian denomination and connected himself 
with the Presbyterians. He was admitted to mem- 
bership during the pastorship of the Rev. William 
Speer, who for twenty years had charge of the 
churches of Unity and Greensburg. 

The conversion of Dr. Postlethwaite was produced 
by the study of the Bible, the Westminster Catechism, 
and ecclesiastical history. With minds of the liberal 
kind change in politics and religion is not astonish- 
ing. They are accustomed to reason and open to 
conviction. There is a common habit with the mass 
of the people to denounce those who change their 
opinions under the names of "apostate" and "turn- 
coat." In good truth mankind are indebted for many 
benefits aud blessings to turn-coats. But for a change 
of opinion Paul would have died a Pharisee, Martin 
Luther a Roman Catholic, aud John Wesley a zeal- 
ous member of the Church of England. But for 
change of opinion Adams and Jefferson, Franklin 
and Washington would have died loyal subjects to 
the king of England. 

Dr. Postlethwaite was so well acquainted with eccle- 
siastical history and polemical literature that there 
were few clergymen equal and none superior to him 
in this kind of information. It appears that from his 
arrival at his majority his mind had been much occu- 
pied with theological metaphysics. Two old letters, 
written to him by a brother, one in 1S13, and the other 
in 1821, in both of which religion is the main subject, 
are still extant. The letters give evidence of thought, 
reading, and correct scholarship. It appears that Dr. 
Postlethwaite had a brother Samuel, who had gone to 






THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



351 



the South and located himself at Natchez, Miss., 
where he was engaged, with other persons, in the 
manufacture of salt and the raising and shipping of 
cotton. He held slaves, and says that he will en- 
deavor to increase his stock. "You seem," he writes 
to James, "to entertain terrible ideas of our situation 
here. I think that it is the finest country in the world, 
and that there is nothing to apprehend from the kind 
of property we hold. I am endeavoring to increase 
my force from eighty to one hundred." 

Samuel was a decided Federalist in politics, and op- 
posed the war of 1812 and the administration of 
Madison. In his letter of 1821 he excuses himself to 
his brother for not openly connecting himself with a 
Christian Church and making a profession of religion. 
In his letter of 1813 he discusses, in answer to James, 
the profound metaphysical doctrine of the mode in 
which God rules the universe. 

James Postlethwaite (as appears in a quotation in 
Samuel's letter) maintained the opinion that " nothing 
happens, nationally or individually, without the ex- 
press knowledge, permission, and direction of the Su- 
preme Governor of the universe." 

His brother Samuel, on the contrary, was " inclined 
to believe that the universe is governed by not partial 
and particular but general laws ; that man is endowed 
with reason and free will, and that this belief is per- 
fectly consistent with the dignity and wisdom of an 
omnipotent and omniscient Deity." J 

In this metaphysical dispute, carried on between 
two brothers in 1813, flagrante bello, during the last 
war with England, James Postlethwaite occupied the 
orthodox Christian position, while Samuel leaned 
towards the philosophers. Alas for the vanity of 
this world, its wealth and wisdom, both Postlethwaites, 
like Harry Percy, are long ago food for worms. 

James Postlethwaite was tall in stature, straight, 
and well formed. He was about six feet in height, 
and in his prime of life weighed over two hundred 
pounds. His address was polished and dignified, and 
his countenance was noble and commanding. His 
nose was as Roman as that of Cato, the Censor. His 
eye was hazel in color. It was small, but keen and 
penetrating, and when excited in conversation it 
often kindled until it shot a fiery radiance. The 
Yankees or New England men compared Webster 
to a Deity. He was called "the God-like Daniel." 
When he was in England the ladies pronounced him 
to be a " very handsome man." One who saw Dr. 
Postlethwaite and Daniel Webster walking and talk- 
ing together on the Main Street of Greensburg, felt 



1 The ideas of Samuel Postlethwaite are beautifully versified in Pope's 
' Essay ou Man :" 

" Remember, Wan, the universal cause 
Acts not by partial but by general laws : 
He 6ees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perish or a sparrow fall, 
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, 
And now a bubble bursts and uow a world." 



confident that Postlethwaite was superior to him in 
all the qualities that constitute manly beauty or per- 
sonal perfection. If a painter had been solicited to 
depict upon canvas a beau ideal of the grave, pious, 
most respectable, and eloquent citizen whom Virgil 
has so beautifully described, he might have painted 
the likeness of James Postlethwaite.' 

Dr. Postlethwaite had a number of brothers, sev- 
eral of whom emigrated to and lived in the South. 
He had four daughters and three sons. The oldest 
daughter married the distinguished lawyer and poli- 
tician, Charles Ogle, of Somerset. The second, Emily, 
died unmarried. The third, Matilda, married the 
Rev. W. W. Woodend, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church of Saltsburg, Indiana Co., and the fourth, 
Sydney, married Dr. Alfred T. King, of Greensburg. 
His oldest son, William, settled in Somerset; his 
second, Alexander, went to Natchez, and died there ; 
and Samuel, the youngest, died a bachelor in the 
State of Illinois. The Postlethwaites are all gone 
from Westmoreland. 

James Postlethwaite died in Greensburg, West- 
moreland Co., on the 17th of November, 1842, in the 
sixty-seventh year of his age. In his last years he re- 
ceived consolation from his religion, for, notwith- 
standing his high-toned temper and pride of charac- 
ter, he became a Christian of the most simple, humble, 
and child-like faith. He always listened to his spir- 
itual instructor with the deepest deference, both from 
the pulpit and his own fireside. He was buried in the 
Presbyterian graveyard, now the St. Clair Cemetery. 
They who know personally or otherwise his quali- 
ties and his virtues may well wonder why there is no 
memorial over the grave of James Postlethwaite. 

Johx Ormsisy, M.D. — As we have just finished a 
sketch of the life of a learned, virtuous, and useful 
physician, an ornament of society, and an honor to 
his profession, it seems in accordance with the laws 
of nature and the rules of custom to give an account 
of a mountebank, who in every quality and attribute 
presented a contrast. Our object is not to make a 
great man appear to be greater by forcing him into 
juxtaposition with an obscure ignoramus, but to show 
how shamefully the people of Pennsylvania have 
been imposed upon by the pretensions of medical 
charlatans and the impudence of empiricism. 

Some time about 1839 or 1840 there came to Greens- 
burg a man who called himself John Ormsby, and 
who represented himself to be a physician by pro- 
fession. His age was about thirty years. He was of 
medium size. His countenance was not handsome, 
but open and pleasant, and his deportment was grave 

- " Ac, veluti magno in populo stepe coorta est, 
Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile vulgus — 
Jamque faces et saxa volant; furor arma ministrat; 
Turn, pietate gravem ac mentis si forte virum quern 
Couspexere, silent, arrectsque aribus adstaut, 
Ille regit dictia auimos, et pectore mulcet." 



352 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and dignified. His head was very large, and as he 
was inclined to baldness he possessed quite an in- 
tellectual appearance. He always wore clean linen, 
dressed well in dark-colored clothes, and carried a 
handsome silver-mounted cane. His habits were ap- 
parently good, and he had all the exterior decencies 
of a respectable man. He was a native of the United 
States, but of what part it is not known. He had 
resided for some years in Michigan, but came to 
Westmoreland directly from Butler County, where he 
had practiced medicine, and where he had married. 

Ormsby did not pretend to have received any regu- 
lar medical education, or to have graduated at any 
regular medical institution. He alleged that he 
studied his profession with a celebrated German doc- 
tor, Dellenbach, who resided in Ohio, and practiced 
entirely on the uroscopic system of medicine, wherein 
the symptoms of disease are ascertained by an ex- 
amination of the urine of the patient. He exhibited 
a certificate from Dellenbach, stating that John 
Ormsby had studied medicine under his instruction, 
and that he was fully qualified to practice in that 
particular mode of the medical profession. By the 
way, it may be stated for the information of those 
who were not cotemporaneous with Ormsby's epoch 
in Greensburg, that before and after 1840 there lived 
and practiced medicine in Ohio a certain Dr. Dejjen- 
bach, who had a great reputation for curing disease, 
and who was considered infallible in diagnosis. Every 
quack has his nostrum, and as Sangrado cured all 
diseases by warm water, so Dellenbach knew all dis- 
eases by the same element in a condition at second- 
hand. Dellenbach had as great a reputation for the 
discovery of disease as Dr. Braddee, of Uniontown, 
had for its cure until he grew tired of the petty larceny 
plunder of patients and entered upon the wholesale 
robbery of the United States. 

Like all empirics, Ormsby made a great use of ad- 
vertising. His bills, with " UROSCOPIA" at the top 
in flaming letters, were found in nearly all bar-rooms 
and public places. They represented him to be a 
favorite pupil of the great Dellenbach, and stated 
that he had performed a number of wonderful cures, 
which were certified to by reputable people, including 
ladies afflicted with sterility, and clergymen troubled 
with dyspepsia and derangement of the kidneys. 

Ormsby opened an office in Main Street, in the 
centre of the town, for he was resolved not to hide 
his light uuder a bushel, and, besides, he was troubled 
with none of that mauvaise honte, that unlucky 
modesty or bashfulness which is often a stumbling- 
block in the road to fame and fortune. He had as 
much "modest assurance" as if he bad been born in 
Dublin, lived in London, and served for seven years 
as a runner for a New York house. 

It is well known that every quack has his nostrum, 
specific, panacea, or peculiar mode of treatment. The 
hobby of Ormsby was the discovery of disease by the 
urine. This has been a diagnostic since the days of 



Hippocrates, and is used by all regular practitioners. 
But while the orthodox doctors use the urine only in 
certain cases, such as liver complaint, Ormsby and his 
school regarded it as the infallible symptom in all 
cases, — in itch, scrofula, sore eyes, corns, and rheu- 
matism, as well as affections of the liver and kidneys. 
The diagnosis of disease by the urine has always been 
favorably regarded by the Germans and persons of 
German descent. Ormsby had located himself where 
there was a large number of substantial citizens of 
German origin. In addition, it may be said that 
when people are sick their judgment is unsettled ; 
they run for relief to any quarter, and thus become 
the prey of bold charlatans and impudent impostors. 

In despite, therefore, of the denunciations of the 
regular doctors, and the sneers and jeers of wags and 
blackguards, Ormsby gained notoriety, and began to 
get business and make money. 

He had some knowledge of the world, but very 
little book-learning. He could write a legible scrawl, 
and could read and spell about as well as many a 
member of the Legislature. Of the learned lan- 
guages he knew nothing. Of ancient and modern 
history he knew so little that he would have been 
puzzled to determine whether Alexander the Great 
was the ruler of Macedon or Muscovy. All that he 
knew of American history aud politics was through 
the newspapers, aud of these he knew just enough to 
have made a Fourth of July oration that would have 
passed current at a country cross-roads. 

Yet still to sustain his professional dignity he pre- 
tended to all kinds of knowledge. A singular celes- 
tial body made its appearance, and invited the curi- 
osity of the gazing multitude. The learned world 
unmuzzled its wisdom, aud tried to explain the nature 
of the appearance in the heavens. Some said that it 
was a comet, others pronounced it to be a comated 
meteor, while a few of the philosophers held it to be 
nothing but an "irradiated nimbus." Ormsby was 
resolved not to be outdone in this display of learning, 
and so he wrote a learned article for the newspapers, 
in which he described the heavenly apparition and 
said that it was well known to the scientific world by 
the designation of "The Gray Mare's Tail." The 
learned laughed, but Ormsby was undaunted, and 
persisted so strongly in his asservations that many 
believed that in this case the gray mare was the 
better horse, and that Ormsby had the right end of 
the tale. 

A physician of this county, as eminent for his 
ability as well known for his eccentricity and un- 
timely death, went to Philadelphia, and brought back 
with him a beautiful wooden instrument, named a 
stethoscope, used for the purpose of testing diseased 
lungs. Ormsby saw it and conceived a queer notion 
in his noddle. He went to a tinsmith and got a horn 
made about as long as that to be sounded by Gabriel. 
He rode into the country nearly every day with this 
engine strapped to the cantle of his saddle. On being 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



353 



asked the use, he replied that it was intended to test 
diseased lungs, that it was called a stethoscope, and 
was usually made of wood; but Dr. Dellenbach held 
the opinion that tin was the better material, because 
metal conveys sound more strongly and clearly. He 
said that he had it made about four times the usual 
length, because the longer an instrument the greater 
is its potency, as may be understood by the working 
of the lever ! 

One may well ask, Would one so ignorant of the 
profession pretend to administer medicine, and how 
did he manage without danger to life ? The follow- 
ing was his mode of procedure. He had procured 
several blank-books, and in them he, or others for 
him, had written down the general symptoms of, and 
remedies for, nearly all ordinary diseases. Many of 
the recipes he had obtained from the books of other 
empirics, others by inquiries from nurses and old wo- 
men, and some by the examination of some old dis- 
pensatories. It is certain that he had never read a 
medical book. In fact, he did not know even the 
names of the best medical authors. 

Of anatomy he knew nothing. He had never dis- 
sected a corpse nor seen one dissected. If asked upon 
which side the heart is situated, it is probable that 
he would have replied, with "The Mock Doctor" of 
Moliere, " On the right side, of course." If the ques- 
tioner had doubted this assertion, and urged that the 
left side was the proper location of the heart, Ormsby 
had enough of readiness and impudence to have re- 
plied, "Ah! that was the location of the heart at 
one time, but it is now transferred to the right side. 
Nature must keep pace with the progress of medical 
science !" 

The physicians of Westmoreland formed an asso- 
ciation for the advancement of medical science. 
From the association were excluded all who did not 
practice on the old regular system, or who could not 
show a diploma from a medical college. As Ormsby 
was excluded from the association he assailed it with 
great vigor. He tried to make the public believe that 
the association was formed to injure his reputation 
and destroy his practice. He was the Napoleon of 
medicine, against whom the Legitimists had formed 
a combination. One of the regular doctors replied 
to him in several sarcastic articles in the newspapers, 
but that did Ormsby some benefit, for it gave him no- 
toriety, and that was what he most eagerly desired. 
Some members of the medical association ascertained 
by inquiry in Ohio that Ormsby never had been a 
student of Dr. Dellenbach. Dellenbach gave them a 
letter to that effect, in which he stated that if Ormsby 
pretended to hold a certificate from him it must be a 
forgery. It was thought that this would silence and 
annihilate him, but instead of that it did him no 
harm. If Ormsby was nothing but a vile impostor 
and ignorant quack, why did these learned doctors 
take so much trouble to expose him ? If he cured his 
patients under a forged certificate, it was better than 



to kill them with a regular diploma. And so aided 
by the notoriety this affair gave him, and sheltered be- 
hind an Ajax-shield of sevenfold impudence, Ormsby 
pushed on to fame and fortune. 

He actually got a respectable practice, and made 
some money. He bought property, and built himself 
a Swiss cottage upon Bunker Hill. Had he lived 
and practiced for ten years more in Westmoreland he 
might have retired upon a competence, and deserved 
his good luck about as well as other medical impos- 
ters, such as the Browns, Hooflands, Wolfes, and 
Hoofnaugles. 

lie was industrious, and rather economical. Having 
been very poor, he had learned to appreciate money, 
and was anxious to get rich. When the news of the 
discovery of gold in California arrived in the old 
States, the desire of wealth led Ormsby to rush to 
the El Dorado. While eagerly searching for the 
precious metal a bank of earth fell upon him, and 
Ormsby descended to Hades. 

" Extremes meet," and there is only " one step from 
the sublime to the ridiculous." Led by the associa- 
tion of ideas, and under shelter of these well-known 
sayings, we have passed per saltum from Dr. Postle- 
thwaite to Dr. Ormsby. 

DR. ALFRED T. KING. 
Dr. Alfred Thomas King, born Oct. 22, 1813, 
in the town of Galway, Saratoga Co., N. Y., and 
died Saturday, Jan. 2, 1858. His people were Cov- 
enanters of a poor but respectable class. He got 
a substantial common schooling, and was put by his 
father with a doctor of the place as a boy of all-work. 
He attended about the office, keeping it in shape, and 
the doctor being the physician for some public works 
in the city, the boy was regularly employed in carry- 
ing out the medicine as mixed to the patients at the 
works. His attention was thus drawn to medicine. 
He got all the information he could from observation 
and close attention about the office. He remained in 
the employ of this doctor until he had a quarrel with 
the doctor's wife, the mistress of the house. She, in 
addition to the work imposed on him as office-boy, 
wanted him to act as scullion about the house and 
kitchen, which he indignantly refused. This led to 
acrimonious language, in consequence of which he 
either left or was discharged. 

From the office he went back to his father. At 
that time a Rev. Andrew Wiley, D.D., an Irish Cov- 
enanter, taught a school and had a congregation in 
Philadelphia. King's father got the boy placed as a 
boarder and scholar in Andrew Wiley's school. All 
the acquirements he had in the higher branches of a 
liberal education he received here. Dr. Wiley was a 
good scholar, but eccentric in his habits. He some- 
times got so overcome with liquor that he could not 
sit at table. Still he was a good scholar and preacher. 

After receiving what education he did at Dr. 
Wiley's, he attended the medical lectures at that city 



354 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and walked the hospitals. He supported himself, and 
made some money afterwards by himself lecturing on 
medicine, and by doing duty in the Philadelphia hos- 
pitals. He then commenced practice as a physician, 
and opened an office in that city. He got but little 
business, and having got in arrears with his rent, he 
was ejected for the non-payment of the same by the 
woman who owned the building. Much dejected in 
spirit, as he afterwards related, he then endeavored to 
secure a position as assistant surgeon on board of a 
ship, and while engaged in the negotiation for this 
position he happened to meet at the house of Mr. 
Wiley, with whom he still stayed, a Westmoreland 
man, a citizen of Greensburg, of the name of Wil- 
liam Brown. Mr. Brown was a shop-keeper of the 
town, and when he went to Philadelphia to buy goods, 
himself being a Covenanter, was visiting Dr. Wiley, 
with whom he was on familiar terms. Brown showed 
the doctor a Westmoreland paper which contained 
the notice that a good physician was badly wanted at 
Pleasant Unity, in that county. He told him the 
location was a good one, and that if he would go there 
he would in a short time get into business. This was 
about 1838. 

Upon this he made arrangements to come out. He 
sold what effects he had, and after paying his passage 
had seventy-five cents left. He located in Pleasant 
Unity, and when he first came when he visited a 
patient he either walked or borrowed a horse. As 
horseflesh, however, was then cheap, he soon got one. 
In the course of his practice he was brought into con- 
tact with Dr. Postlethwaite, of Greensburg. He vis- 
ited him, was taken to his home, and introduced into 
his family, which eventually led to the marriage 
between Dr. King and Miss Sidney Postlethwaite, 
daughter of the doctor. Drs. Postlethwaite and King 
shortly after entered into partnership in Greensburg. 

He had now more leisure and opportunity to turn 
his attention to the study of literature and the natural 
sciences, and especially geology. 

In 1840, Dr. King contributed a series of nine arti- 
cles to the Republican newspaper on the subject 
of geology. These articles, however, were preceded 
by a short one in the form of a communication, and 
which was a serious criticism on an essay from the 
pen of Alexander Campbell, D.D., on the Mosaic 
geology. The appearance of a comet and an unusual 
display of meteors in the heavens in the fall of that 
year gave rise to much scientific discussion in the 
public prints throughout the Union. Dr. King's 
observations on meteorology were not the least inter- 
esting and instructive of these. He also gave his 
views on animal magnetism, and in sundry articles 
advocated the cherished project of a County Medical 
Association. 

Dr. King made a collection of these articles given 
by him to the press, and they make quite a large book. 
To this scrap-album we have had access, and although 
it is quite voluminous, yet it does not contain all the 



contributions which he made, nor all of his public 
addresses or lectures. 1 

In his own hand, under date 1840, is the following 
memorandum, as a kind of preface : 

" These essays were written as much for the amuse- 
ment and improvement of the writer as for the in- 
struction of the readers, but when both can be united 
considerable benefit may result, therefore the object 
must be considered laudable. 

" Being fond of literary pursuits, and residing in a 
town in which there is little appreciation of litera- 
ture, the writer chose this mode of amusing himself 
during the few leisure moments which he could 
snatch from the performance of the arduous practice 
and study of an onerous profession." 

These articles, on scientific and medical topics, were 
on "Bronchitis," "Scrofula," "Cancer," " A Meteor- 
ological Phenomenon," " Tornadoes," " On the Im- 
portance of a Well-Directed Education," " History 
and Habits of the Hessian Fly," " Natural Sciences," 
" A Brief Exposition of Mr. Espy's Philosophy of 
Storms," " Asiatic Cholera," being a communication 
on the nature and character of the disease, furnished 
in answer to a special request of many of the first 
citizens of Greensburg, and which ran through a 
series of ten articles printed in the Argus. There 
are also other miscellaneous articles on various sub- 
jects, of which some were written in an amusing vein, 
but all were directed to worthy and commendable 
objects. 

Of all the literary productions which gave Dr. King 
notoriety, the most notable was an address delivered 
before the Westmoreland County Lyceum on the 
evening of the 24th of March, 1843, on " The Study 
(if Natural Science." In this address he made severe 
strictures on the Roman Church for what he called 
its intolerant spirit, manifested against the leaders of 
science in the Middle Ages, and particularly the efforts 
made to have Galileo to recant. In it was also used 
this language: "The baneful consequences of the be- 
lief in supernatural agency in the direction and ac- 
complishment of earthly events have been dissipated 
to the four winds of heaven." This lecture gave occa- 
sion for a lengthy and learned reply by the defenders 
of Mother Church. Immediately following its publi- 
cation came a reply signed " Amicus Veritatis." In 
these articles it was evident he had met a more for- 
midable antagonist. The author was said to be Peter 
C. Shannon, Esq., a well-known attorney, now on a 
Territorial bench. It is true that the articles were 
given to the printer in the handwriting of Mr. Shan- 
non, and it is probable that he furnished some of the 
language and quotations used, which were taken from 
the body of the English poetry ; but the substance of 
the reply, the arguments, the citations from the po- 



1 Our thanks are due Dr. William H. King, son of Dr. A. T. King, of 
West Fairfield, tor the use "f the BCrap-album of his faiher and for other 
favors. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



355 



lemical writers and from the ecclesiastical and secu- 
lar history of the Middle Ages were the work of Rev. 
Stillinger. This reply appeared in the Argus, and it 
was an article of such force and ability that Dr. King 
replied in the Intelligencer over his own name. A re- 
joinder was made, and this was so forcible and so full 
of statements which appeared to be well authenticated 
in history that, finding that he was contending with a 
theologian on his own ground, a disciple of Saint 
Thomas Aquinas, who was well versed in the subtle- 
ties of scholastic disputation, and in the logic of his 
master on a subject that was old and threadbare, Dr. 
King went to Pittsburgh, and consulted with Dr. 
Greene, of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and 
there got facts and authorities upon which he based 
a reply, and which ware incorporated therein. Since 
that day no similar controversy has been presented to 
the people of this county. Of course nothing was es- 
tablished. The friends of science maintained that 
the doctor had the advantage ; the friends of religion 
maintained that the priest had the advantage. To a 
large class, who would not seem to be moved by any 
sinister motive in expressing their opinion, it ap- 
peared that Dr. King had the merits of the case, but 
that as a historian and a theologian he was not the 
equal of Dr. Stillinger, and that in the argument and 
in the management of the controversy the latter had 
the advantage. 

The results of this controversy were injurious to the 
moral reputation of Dr. King. Henceforth an illit- 
erate rabble garred at his heels till his death. Brain- 
less men took up the cry, for the want of a better, of 
" quack," and were patted on the backs by the veriest 
of quacks. Others, who themselves had no more re- 
ligion than a house-dog, openly proclaimed that on a 
strict interpretation of the Scripture he was an infi- 
del, and that he was a corrupter of youth and a 
teacher of false doctrine. Even jealous members of 
his profession, who were actuated by no honorable 
motives, violently charged him with being the advo- 
cate of mercurial treatment. He was attacked for his 
scientific views by the clergymen of almost every de- 
nomination, and by those laymen whose zeal, like 
honest Bardolph's, " burnt in the nose." 

A singular phase to be considered in this famous 
controversy was this : The Intelligencer, the paper in 
which Dr. King's articles were published, had the 
reputation of being the mouth-piece of that body of 
citizens who profess a stricter morality than their 
neighbors, without regard, of course, to persuasion. 
The Argus was more worldly. Where the first quoted 
Scripture in its editorials, the last quoted Hudibras 
and Don Juan. Hence scoffers said that there was 
much of the motives which actuated the Puritans in 
their endeavors to extirpate the profane amusement 
of bear-baiting evidenced in this, and that the doc- 
tor was countenanced in his heterodox views not be- 
cause he attacked Christianity generally, but because 
he abused the Roman Church particularly. 



Prior to the year 1844 it was the prevailing opinion 
among geologists that in the carboniferous age no 
air-breathing animal could possibly have existed, on 
account of the supposed excess of carbonic acid gas 
in the atmosphere necessary to produce the wondrous 
vegetable growths of the coal strata. Sir Charles 
Lyell, one of the most eminent of geologists, says 
that no vertebrated animals more highly organized 
than fish were known in rocks of higher antiquity 
than the Permian (that is, the period following the 
carboniferous age, and which closes the paleozoic era, 
or the older division of geological time) until the 
year 1844, when a fossil reptile was discovered in the 
coal-measures of Mu'nster-Appel, in Rhenish Bavaria. 

In the same year, and before the news of this im- 
portant scientific discovery reached America, Dr. 
King made public a discovery of fossil remains 
which had been unearthed by him several years pre- 
vious. Up until that time he had discovered in sev- 
eral localities fossil footmarks of seven distinct but 
nondescript animals on micaceous sandstone belong- 
ing to the coal-measures. This was the first unequiv- 
ocal indication, at least in America, and among the 
first in the world, of the existence of birds or other 
animals high in the scale of organization lower than 
the new red sandstone, and hence geologists regarded 
the discovery with great interest. 

Before this discovery was made by Dr. King, it was, 
we have said, the unanimous opinion of geologists, 
from the absence of the remains of highly organized 
animals among the coal-rocks, that they did not exist 
at that early epoch. This discovery also conflicted 
with an hypothesis long maintained by distinguished 
geologists, that the atmosphere during the carbon- 
iferous period contained a much larger amount of 
carboniferous acid gas than at present, which by ab- 
sorption caused the rapid growth of tree-ferns, lepido- 
dendrons, and other stupendous coal plants now 
found so abundantly in a fossil state. This discovery 
proved that such could not have been the case, since 
birds and other highly organized lung-breathing ani- 
mals existed at the same period. 

Professor Silliman, in the American Journal of Sci- 
ence for January, 1845, makes the following remarks 
in reference to these footmarks : 

" Dr. King's discovery is of great interest for the 
novel forms which he represents in the drawings ac- 
companying his papers. Only two of them can prob- 
ably be referred to a biped animal. . . . The other 
five figures are referable to quadrupeds, of which 
there are at least four different species, if not genera. 
His figure ' 6' is distinctly referable to an animal 
having the same inequality of step as the cheirothe- 
rium and other batrachians. The figures 3, 4, 5, and 7 
are probably quadrupeds, but differ entirely from 
anything else of the sort we have seen; there is a cir- 
cular imprint, surrounded by five toes, in one case 
circular, in another long and ovate, in a third they 
are of an intermediate character." 



356 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Dr. King framed a new nomenclature, and ar- 
ranged all these tracks under classes and orders, 
genera and species, and his paper was published in 
and among the proceedings of the Academy of Natu- 
ral Sciences of Philadelphia for November and De- 
cember, 1844, and in the American Journal <>f Science 
for January, February, and March, 1845, edited by 
Prof. Silliman, where full descriptions and accurate 
engravings of these remarkable footmarks may be 
seen. 

This discovery, as might be expected, created the 
greatest excitement in the scientific world. Sir Charles 
Lyell, president of the Royal Geological Society of 
London, came to North America in the interests of 
his science, and while here made it a special object of 
his journey to visit Dr. King, and make a personal 
inspection of the geological formation of this region, 
and especially to examine the strata of the coal-meas- 
ures in which had been found these fossil remains. 
The public expression of Mr. Lyell was looked for 
with great expectation, and many quidnuncs predicted 
that he. upon a personal examination of the remains, 
would come to an unfavorable conclusion. Upon his 
return he wrote the following letter for publication : ! 

"To the Editoks of the Pennsylvania Aegis, 
i LBMBH, — As many persons have inquired at Greensbnrg since 
my return from a visit to the quarries in Unity township what opinion 
I have come to respecting the curious markings discovered in 1S44 by 
Dr. King, I shall be obliged to you if you will state in your journal that 
I entirely agree in the views which ho has expressed respecting these 
fossil footmarks. They are observed to stand out in relief from the lower 
surface of a slab of sandstone, which lay some feet below the soil. They 
closely resemble the tracks of an animal to which, from the hand-like 
form of the foot, the name of Cheirotberiumhas been given in Europe, 
where they occur both in Germany and in England. It is now univer- 
sally admitted that such tracks must have been made by a large reptilian 
quadruped. 

"Their position in the middle of the carboniferous formatiou has been 
correctly pointed out by Dr. King, for this layer of sandstone in West- 
moreland County is decidedly lower than the main or Pittsburgh Beam of 
coal, but there are other smaller seams of coal which occur still lower 
in the series. These are the fiist and as yet the only indications which 
have been brought to tight in any part of the world of the existence of 
reptiles in rocks of such high antiquity. We cannot, therefore, estimate 
too highly the scientific interest and importance of this discovery. 
■'I am gentlemen, 

■■ Four obedient servant, 
"Greensburg, 18th April, 1846. "Charles Lyei.l. " 

The importance of this discovery, and the recog- 
nized place of Dr. King as a geologist, has long been 
settled; and in the far advanced degree of that science 
to-day he is regarded as one of those who helped to 
lead the way to the mountain-tops, whence his fol- 
lowers may get a glimpse of the promised land. 

Reference to this discovery in the standard works 
on geology, is thus made: 

"Cheirotherian Footprints in Coal-Measures. United States. — 
In 1*44, the very year when the Apateon or Salamander of the coal was 
first met with in the country between the Moselle and the Rhine, Dr. 
King published an account of the footprints of a large reptile discovered 
by him in North America. Theseoccurin the coal strata of Greensburg, 
in Westmoreland County, Pa., and I had an opportunity of examining 
them in 1846. I was at once convinced of their genuineness, and declared 

1 The original letter is in possession of the editor. 



my convictions on that point, ou which doubts had been entertained 
both in Europe and the United States. The footmarks were first ob- 
served standing out in relief from the lower surface of slabs of sand- 
stone, resting on thin layers of fine unctuous clay. I brought away one 
of these masses, which is represented in the accompanying drawing 
(Fig. 3SG). It displays, together with footprints, the casts of cracks of 
various sizes. The origin of such cracks in clay, and casts of the same, 
has before been explained, and referred to the drying and shrinking of 
mud, and the subsequent pouring of sand into open crevices. It will be 
seen that some of the cracks traverse the footprints, and produce distor- 
tion in them, as might have been expected, for the mud must have been 
soft when the animal walked over it and left the impressions, whereas 
when it afterwards dried up and shrank it would be too hard to receive 
such indentations. 

u No less than twenty-three footsteps were observed by Dr. King in 
the same quarry before it was abandoned, the greater part of them so 
arranged (see Fig. 387) on the surface of one stratum as to imply that 
they were made successively by the same animal. Everywhere there 
was a double row of tracks, and in each row they occur in pairs, each 
pair consisting of a hind- and fore-foot, and each being at nearly equal 
distances from the next pair. In each *pa rail f-1 row the toes turn, the 
one set to the right, the other to the left. In the European Chmruthe- 
rium, before mentioned (p. 290), both the hind- and fore-feet have each 
five toes, and the size of the hind-foot is about five times as large as the 
fore-foot. In the American fossil the posterior footprint is not even 
twice as \&rg? as the anterior, and the number of toes is unequal, being 
five in the hinder and four in the anterior foot. In this, as in the Eu- 
ropean Chiirotheriuni, one toe stands out like a thumb, and these thumb- 
like toes turn, the one set to the right, and the other to the left. The 
American trowas evidently a broader animal, and belonged 

to a distinct genus from that of the triassic age in Europe. 

"We may assume that the reptile which left these prints on the 
ancient sands of the coal-measures teas an air-breather, becaim Ut weight 
would not have '■■ i ater to have made impressions so deep 

and distinct. The fame conclusion is also borne out by the cu=t:- ol the 
cracks above described, for they show that the clay had been exposed to 
the air and sun, so as to have dried and shrunk. 

"The geological position of the sandstone of GreenBburg is perfectly 
clear, being situated in the midst of the Appalachian coal-field, having 
the main bed of coal, called the Pittsburgh seam, three yards thick, one 
hundred feel above it, and worked in the neighborhood, with several 
other seams of •■..i\ at lower levels. The impressions of Leptdodendron, 
Sigillaria, Stigmaria, and other characteristic carboniferous plants are 
found both above and below the level of the reptilian footsteps. 

" Analogous footprints of a large reptile of still older date have since 

been found [1849), by Mr. Isaac Lea, in the lowest beds of the coal forma- 

I tion at Pottsville, near Philadelphia, so that we may now be said to 

have the loot mark- of two reptilians of the coal period, and the skeletons 

of four.*' 3 

"Amphibian footprints have been observed in the coal-measures both 
of Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia. Near Greensburg, Pa , iu a layer sit- 
uated about one hundred feet below the horizon of the Pittsburgh coal, 
Dr. A. T. King counted twenty-three consecutive steps of one individual. 
■ the hind-feet are five-toed, and of the fore-feet four-toed, — the 
former five and a half inches long, and the tattei four and a half inches. 
The distance between the successive tracks is six to eight inches, and 
between the two lines about the same, which shows that the animal was 
tit as long as broad, aud probably a batracbian of the Laby- 
rinthodont tribe. The species is called Thenaropn* he'erodxcttflm." 3 

His address, delivered Nov. 22, 1842, before the 
Westmoreland County Medical Association, on the 
rise ami modern history of medicine, is without doubt 
one of bis most interest ini: productions. 

In regard to bis style of expression, he had the rare, 
happy faculty of conveying information on scientific 
subjects in popular language. He was a profi ssional 
who was not content with the restricted dictum of 
the materia medica, but to express his acquirements 
and his thought laid contribution to the polite liter- 

- Sir Charles Lyell: Manual of Geology, New Turk, Harper's, 1871, 
p. 4(i7. 
3 James I>. Dana : Manual of Geology, Philadelphia, 1863, p. 361. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



357 



ature of ancient and modern times. In his inquiries 
and researches he penetrated into the very depths of 
the natural sciences, identified the medicinal proper- 
ties of plants with the plants themselves, and was not 
satisfied with any of the phenomena of nature with- 
out comprehending the whole of the scientific bear- 
ing and all the reasons connected with them. He 
took pains to show, and did show in popular language 
embodying learned research, that the knowledge of 
organic chemistry was essential in the acquirements 
of a thorough and scientific physician. The ostenta- 
tious and obtrusive ignorance in the profession at 
his day in thesje sciences was doubtless the cause of 
the supreme contempt in which he held the average 
backwoods or country physician. 

Dr. King had also turned his attention largely to 
the existing flora and fauna of Western Pennsyl- 
vania, and with them he was probably more intimate 
than any man of his day. He dissected all the ani- 
mals, had a collection of almost all the birds, and his 
herbariums furnished specimens of all the plants of 
the region between the crest of the Alleghenies and 
the Western boundaries of the State. His experi- 
ments as a chemist and his collections as a mineral- 
ogist attest his zeal and industry in these depart- 
ments of human knowledge. He was also a thorough 
microscopist, and his testimony in several great crim- 
inal trials upon the blood-corpuscles found on the 
clothing of the prisoners aided largely in administer- 
ing the laws correctly in such cases. 

In the death of Dr. King — and now we use the 
words of one of his warm friends — not only his friends 
but his profession and the community in which he 
lived sustained a heavy loss, because, although not 
appreciated perhaps by all classes, there was, never- 
theless, a large number of families who looked to 
him in the distress and alarm consequent upon disease 
in their midst with unbounded confidence, and they, 
no doubt, sincerely lamented the dispensation which 
deprived them of his professional aid. Certainly 
one of the most skillful among his brethren, he had 
besides such rare faculties for the diagnosis of dis- 
ease that some of them almost believed him inher- 
ently and especially gifted in that behalf, rather than 
that his abilities had been acquired by close observa- 
tion in a large practice. Cool and careful at the 
bedside, collecting all the evidence, investigating all 
the symptoms, he came to no conclusion until the 
whole was taken into the account, and then he was 
rarely ever mistaken. In his mode of treatment too 
he was equally judicious, and if his remedies some- 
times failed in their operation they never proved in- 
jurious, or left the patient worse than before. To 
him the "vis medicatrix naturae" was all in all, and 
the office of the pill and plaster was but to clear the 
way for its full and free operation. Hence his won- 
derful success in many of the most dangerous cases 
to which he was called. 

Although not celebrated as a surgeon, yet he per- 



formed all needful operations with a correct eye and 
steady hand, except those, perhaps, which require 
the very highest professional skill, and the largest 
amount of practice; and these his modest sense of 
responsibility prevented him from undertaking rashly 
merely for the sake "I' iclai. 

His reputation was such that some two years before 
his death he was appointed Professor of theTheory and 
Practice of Medicine in the Medical College of Phil- 
adelphia, and filled it for one or two sessions with 
profit to his class and marked distinction for himself; 
but his ill health at length compelled him to abandon 
his vocation as a teacher in his profession. 

Dr. King in personal appearance was rather tall 
and well formed, yet he was by no means of a robust 
constitution, and his sedentary habits as a hard stu- 
dent were not calculated to improve it, so that he 
suffered more or less at all times from disordered 
digestive functions, and he wdio could remedy all the 
ills of others was unable to relieve his own. His dis- 
ease was inflammation of the stomach and intestines, 
which had committed such ravages upon his naturally 
feeble frame that before his professional brethren 
were aware of his danger or could come to his aid it 
was impossible to save him. Drs. Brown (Sr. and 
Jr.), Jackson, and Eeiter watched him with intense 
anxiety, using all the means of modern science, but 
in vain. On the 2d of January. 1852, death removed 
him of all care and suffering, as gently as a mother 
puts her child to sleep. 

His body lies somewhere in the St. Clair Cemetery, 
but the stranger would not be able to identify the 
grave. A plain tombstone which had been erected 
over them has been misplaced and broken. In his 
life and death he is an example of a character unap- 
preciated at home but honored abroad, — ''a prophet 
not without honor save in his own country." The 
words which Milton wrote to Cromwell were applica- 
ble to him, — "He who conquers another's liberty in 
the very act loses his own." 

He who has made the name of Westmoreland to be 
connected with his own and embalmed them both in 
the libraries of the leading philosophical societies and 
universities of the civilized world from London to 
Tokio — words familiar to paleontologists everywhere 
— lies in a nameless grave within twoscore steps of 
him whose name has been conferred on their burying- 
ground, whose life and services, too. brought untold 
distinction and honor to the county, and whose dust 
is covered by the humble monument erected by the 
hand of charity. 

Dr. David Alter. — Among those members of the 
medical profession of Westmoreland County who 
have earned high reputation in the walks of science, 
Dr. David Alter, who died in September, 1881, de- 
serves to be mentioned. In our mention of him we 
avail ourselve of the graphic and affectionate memoir 
from the pen of Dr. Frank Cowan, a gentleman who 



35S 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



in the field of literature has done for his profession 
what Dr. Alter did in the field of practical science. 

" In the year 1878," says Dr. Cowan, " I called j 
upon him at his residence in Freeport, Armstrong ! 
Co., Pa., and found him, in appearance, an old man, 
with a calm and kindly countenance, in stature above 
the ordinary, albeit stooped and shrunken with age, 
still pursuing his profession, that of a physician, for 
a livelihood, while in effect he was the puzzle or 
sphinx that every philosopher must be to those 
around him who cannot appreciate the work of his 
hands in an objective form in the open day, much 
less encompass, in the depth, the distance, and the, 
darkness of his windowless mind, the complexity of 
cerebration and entanglement of thought from which 
his work has been evolved. 

"Dr. Alter was born on the 3d of December, in the 
year 1807, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 
in what is now Allegheny township, and within a few 
miles of the town of Freeport, in which he lived a 
great part of his life, and died, on the 18th of Septem- 
ber last, in his seventy-fourth year. 

"Dr. Alter was a boy of only eight or nine when 
his mind was directed to the study of electricity. 
This was the result of reading the life of Benjamin 
Franklin. At ten, an uncle, a student of medicine, 
brought home from Washington a Leyden jar and 
other apparatus, and the boy became acquainted with 
frictional electricity and the accumulation of the 
mysterious mode of force in the jar. And before the 
lail attained the age of fifteen he had set up in his 
father's orchard a pole surmounted by a wire, in order 
that he might charge his Leyden jars with electricity 
from the clouds, the subtile force with which he already 
had begun to make experiments. 

"About this time, suffering from an affectum of the 
eyes, he went to an Irish doctor in Freeport, who, 
after prescribing for him and learning the curious 
bent of his mind, lent him a book on electricity. 
This the young student read and re-read with such 
avidity that it almost cost him his eyes. 

"Soon after, from another physician, he procured a 
work on chemistry, and devoted himself assiduously 
to make himself master of its contents. And thus he 
went on, borrowing books and accumulating knowl- 
edge slowly and laboriously, until, at the age of 
twenty-four, in the year 1831, he was graduated as a 
physician at the Reformed Medical College of the 
United States, New York, belonging to the botanic or 
eclectic school of to-day. 

"After this short account of his boyhood and edu- 
cation in his specialties, Dr. Alter proceeded to give 
me an account of his labors and achievements. 

" In 1836, while living at Elderton, Armstrong Co., 
he invented and perfected an electric telegraph, which 
consisted of seven wires, the electricity deflecting a 
needle on a disk at the extremity of each wire. Each 
needle being deflected to the right or left, the seven 
gave in all fourteen movements or characters, which 



in turn by combination gave a greater number than 
was absolutely necessary to transmit messages resolved 
into letters and figures. Each wire had a separate 
helix. And so perfected was the system that the doc- 
tor had it in operation between his house and his 
workshop in the barn, himself and members of his 
family transmitting messages to and fro. 

" I related to Dr. Alter what I had heard of his 
connection with the invention of the electric tele- 
graph, which was in brief that he was the first to 
accomplish the results comprehended in the term an 
electric telegraph, and that Professor Morse had stolen 
the idea that has made him immortal from him, Dr. 
Alter. To this he replied that, as far as he knew, he 
was the first to perfect and put into use an electric tele- 
graph, and that he did it apart from and independent 
of everybody. ' But,' he continued, ' others about 
the same time attained the same results. In 1837, in 
England, Professor Wheatstone invented a telegraph 
on a similar plan to mine, using one wire, a single 
disk, and a deflecting needle ; and with respect to 
Professor Morse and the electric telegraph now in 
general use, I have seen in the newspapers time and 
again the statement which you make, and am free to 
say that it is without the slightest foundation ; indeed, 
I may say that there is no connection at all between 
the telegraph of Morse and others and that of myself, 
and that my system would be inadequate to do the 
work that is done to-day by the Morse; oh, no, no! 
Professor Morse most probably never heard of me or 
my Elderton telegraph.' 

" I was surprised at hearing this refutation of what 
I had heard asseverated so often ; but at the same time 
I was pleased, for the doctor exhibited more anxiety to 
disabuse my mind of an erroneous impression of an- 
other than to create a favorable impression for himself. 
Indeed, with respect to his own electric telegraph, he 
spoke of it as if it had been a toy of his youth, or an 
ingenious plaything for the amusement of himself and 
family, rather than as the forerunner of the marvelous 
machine that is now in use. in every civilized country 
of the globe. And although, as he himself states, his 
invention was not in the line of the ancestry of the 
great telegraph, yet it is worthy of honorable mention 
among men for all time as an original and prior 
achievement of a less. 

" And here, in parenthesis, in justice further to 
Professor Morse, I may say that a claim for priority 
is made even for his invention, substantially and es- 
sentially as it now exists, over the crude and cum- 
bersome inventions of Dr. Alter and Professor Wheat- 
stone. In ' Appleton's Encyclopedia' it is stated 
authoritatively that Morse completed and put into 
successful operation his telegraph in 1835, or two years 
before the date generally assigned, and one year be- 
fore Dr, Alter, while Dr. C. T. Jackson, Morse's most 
formidable rival, declares that his telegraph was an 
accomplished fact in a perfect instrument in opera- 
tion in 1834, or one year before Morse. 






THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



359 



" Now to pass to another invention, which, in other 
forms, in time may rival the telegraph and electric 
motor. 

" In_1837, Dr. Alter invented a little machine which 
was run by electricity, and on the 29th of June, 1837, 
he published in the Kittanning Gazette an elaborate 
article on the use of electricity as a motive-power, 
under the heading of ' Facts Relating to Electro- 
Magnetism.' This paper attracted attention among 
scientists and inventors, and was commented on gen- 
erally. See Silliman's ' Principles of Physics,' page 
€16. 

" In 1845, Dr. Alter, in association with Dr. Ed- 
ward Gillespie and James Gillespie, went into the 
manufacture of bromine from the bittern, or mother- 
liquor of the salt-works, by a process which he and 
his partners had invented and elaborated to such an 
extent that they secured two patents for it. A large 
jar of the precious substance was exhibited at the 
World's Fair in New York" in 1853, and attracted 
great attention, the wonder being that the rare form 
of matter could be produced in such quantites. 

" I beg leave here to correct another error that pre- 
vails with respect to the achievements of Dr. Alter, 
namely, that he was the discoverer of the elementary 
substance bromine. He was not, and never pretended 
to be. Bromine was discovered by a chemist named 
Balard in 1826, and Dr. Alter, in his modest way, 
only assisted others in inventing and patenting two 
processes for its manufacture, in which he engaged in 
business with his associates. 

"I now come to the ultimatum attained by Dr. 
Alter in science and invention, namely, the discovery 
and application of the principles of the prism in that 
marvelous mode of investigation universally known 
to-day as spectrum analysis. And here, in setting 
forth his claim to this achievement, which in effect 
has added almost a new sense to mankind, beyond 
the statement which the doctor made to me that he 
made his discovery in 1853, I desire to give iu evi- 
dence only that which is unimpeachable and indis- 
putable, namely, the documents setting forth the dis- 
covery in detail, which were published in a leading 
scientific journal and spread before the eyes of inves- 
tigators and inventors throughout the world. And in 
doing so I doubt not that I shall do all that my la- 
mented friend, were he here, would ask or allow to 
preserve his name among his fellow-men, without con- 
demning either the encyclopedists for ignoring him, 
or the distinguished scientist who, perhaps uncon- 
scious of the prior claim of another, wears the crown 
of glory to which he, Dr. Alter, is entitled. 

" The first paper of Dr. Alter appeared in Novem- 
ber in the year 1854, or no less than five years before 
the announcement of the discovery of spectrum 
analysis as his own achievement by Gustav Robert 
Kirchoft", of Konigsberg, Germany, for a sketch of 
whose life and works the reader is referred to the 
leading encyclopedias of the day. 



" It appears in Silliman's American Journal of Sci- 
ence and Art, 2d Series, vol. xviii., for November, 
1854, pp. 55-57, under the following head : ' Article 
VI. — On certain Physical Properties of Light, pro- 
duced by the Combustion of different Metals in the 
Electric Spark refracted by a Prism. By David Alter, 
M.D., Freeport, Pa.' 

" A second article appeared in the same scientific 
journal for May, 1855, vol. xix., pp. 213-14, underthe 
captiou, 'Article XXI. — On certain Physical Pro- 
perties of the Light of the Electric Spark within 
certain Gases, as seen through a Prism. By Dr. Alter, 
M.D., Freeport, Pa.' In this explicit article a para- 
graph is found indicating the application of his dis- 
covery to the detection of the elements in combustion 
in shooting stars or luminous meteors, in other 
words, to the application of spectrum analysis to the 
study of celestial phenomena ml infinitum. 

" While, in curious confirmation of the discoverer's 
comprehension of the scope of spectrum analysis 
still in his hands, Dr. Alter already had daguerreo- 
typed the dark lines of the solar spectrums, two of 
which he sent along with his communication to Pro- 
fessor Silliman. 

" It remains now but to show that the substance of 
these articles of Dr. Alter was reproduced in Europe, 
and came within the ken of Professor Kirchhoff', pos- 
sibly beneath his very eyes, to make out a presump- 
tive case that, in addition to the indisputable prior 
discovery of spectrum analysis by Dr. Alter, his was 
the source, afar in the backwoods of Western Penn- 
sylvania, from which has flowed the stream of science 
on the surface of which the gilded galley of Kirch- 
hoff has floated in glittering splendor around the 
world. A half-page abstract of Dr. Alter's first paper 
appeared in the Chemico-Jahrsberichte of Liebig and 
Kopp for 1854, while the second paper of Dr. Alter 
was reproduced in its entirety iu the Parisian journal 
L'lnstitut for the year 1856, page 156, and in the 
journal of Geneva, Archives of the Physical and Natu- 
ral Sciences, vol. xxix. page 151. In addition to this a 
full-page extract from the second paper was published 
in Kopp and Will's (formerly Liebig and Kopp's) 
' Annual Report of Chemistry,' 1859, page 107, and 
in the extract the statement of Dr. Alter appears 
that gases would be characterized just as distinctly 
by the light of the ordinary electric spark as metals 
by the galvanic light, also that all the elements could 
be distinguished in this way by means of the fusion. 
In connection with which it is to be noted that in 
this year the announcement of the discovery of Kirch- 
hoff was made, namely, the cause of Fraunhofer's 
lines in the solar spectrum. See ' Reports of the 
Academy of Berlin' for 1859, page 652 ; ' Poggen- 
dorfs Annals' ; ' Dingler's Polytechnic Journal' ; 
and Kopp and Will's ' Annual Report of Chemistry,' 
1859, page 646. 

" And here I cannot refrain from expressing my 
surprise at the omission of the name of Dr. Alter by 



360 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Professor Kirchhoff in his summary of the progressive 
steps of spectrum analysis to the ultimate attained 
at the time of his writing, seeing that the * Annual 
Report of Chemistry,' which contained the procla- 
mation of his discovery on page 643, contained on 
page 107 an extract exhibiting the results of Dr. 
Alter's investigations four and five years before, re- 
sults, too, which clearly comprehended his own, and 
I can account for it only on the ground of dishonesty 
and the basest of all incentives to action or inaction, 
ingratitude, exhibited in kicking the ladder after the 
house-top is gained. But Kirchhoff, in the interest of 
self-glorification, happily is not the only recorder of 
the achievements of science and the history of man- 
kind, and I doubt not that the 'time will soon come 
when the name of David Alter will be pronounced 
with the same breath of praise and pride that keeps 
alive and revered the names of Franklin and Morse. 

" It is a little matter in comparison with the above, 
but it is curious, and perhaps not without its use, to 
know that the prism with which Dr. Alter made his 
remarkable experiments, was made by him from a 
fragment of a great mass of very brilliant glass found 
in the pot of a glass-house which had been destroyed 
in the great fire of Pittsburgh on the 10th of April, 
1845. Thus remotely was the burning of Pittsburgh 
the solution of the combustion of the sun of the solar 
system, and of the otherwise incomprehensible con- 
flagrations of more distant furnace spheres in illimit- 
able space. 

"Besides the achievements of Dr. Alter referred to 
above, he accomplished much more that is deserving 
of note. Of other inventions, I may mention here a 
rotating retort for the extraction of coal oil from can- 
nel coal and the oleiferous shales. With this appa- 
ratus in operation by a company with ample capital, 
the philosopher was on the high road to making a 
fortune, when, presto ! E. L. Drake, at the depth of 
only seventy feet, in Venango County, struck oil or 
petroleum, and the days of coal oil and Dr. Alter's 
affluence were at an end. 

"Indeed, from his birth to his death, the life of 
Dr. Alter was a struggle with poverty; but in the 
greater mankind in which he was merged and with 
which he is now immortal, he is rich in the reward 
which his race inherits." 

THE WESTMORELAND MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 

At the solicitation of Dr. A. T. King, a number of 
the medical profession met at Greensburg in the sum- 
mer of 1842 to hold a conference on the subject of 
organizing a County Medical Society. In the county 
papers for the month of August appeared the follow- 
ing announcement: 

"To the Medical Profession. 
" Whereas, having deeply lamented the desolate and disconnected state 
in which the medical profession of Western Pennsylvania exists, alike 
disreputable to ourselves and the profession io other parts of the United 
States, where friendship, and science, and literature are cultivated by 
its members; and whereas, being fully convinced that the multitudinous 



evils, not expedient to mention in this place, resulting from this discon- 
nected state maybe easily remedied and the cause readily removed ; 
therefore a meeting of the members of the profession in Westmoreland 
and the adjoining counties is respectfully and earnestly solicited on 
Tuesday of the second week of the court, in Greensburg, for the purpose 
of taking into consideration the practicability of organizing ourselves 
into a society." 

The meeting held in pursuance of this conference 
and announcement was attended by some of the fore- 
most physicians of the county. Of its proceedings 
we have nothing except what we have gathered from 
the fragmentary notices in the county papers. Of 
this meeting, however, Dr. Hasson, 1 of West Newton, 
was elected president; a committee was appointed to 
draft a constitution, and a subsequent meeting was 
fixed for Tuesday, the 13th of October, 1842. This 
meeting was reported as follows: 

"Westmoreland Medical Association. 

"Agreeably to adjournment, a large number of physicians of the 
county convened at the court-bouse on Tuesday, the 13th instant. 

"Dr. Hasson, president of the previous meeting, being absent, Dr. 
Porter was called to the chair, Dr. Brown, secretary, 

" When, on motion, it was Resolved, That the secretary form a list of 
the members present, now and at the former meeting, and that they be 
considered the society. 

"The committee to draft a constitution submitted one, which, after 
interchange of sentiments, was, with ils preamble, adopted with amend- 
ments, after which the following officers were elected: Dr, D. Porter, 
president; Dr. J. Postlethwaite, \ \- ■•-president; Dr. A. T. King, record- 
ing secretary; Dr. J. Hasson, corresponding secretary; Dr. S. P. Brown, 
treasurer; Dr. F. Vogely, librarian. 

"On motion, Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draft 
by-laws and report at next meeting. Drs. Richardson, B. R. Marchand, 
aud William Speer were appointed. 

"On motion, Resolved, That a committee on a minimum fee-bill be 
appointed, and that they report at next meeting. Drs. King, Cummins, 
and Brown were appointed. 

" On mot ion, Drs. Porter and King were appointed to deliver addresses 
at the next meeting. 

"On motion, Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed 
by the officers and published iu the Republican and Intelligencer. 

" Resolved, That the society now adjourn to meet in this place <>u 
Tuesday, 22d ol November next, at one o'clock p.m. 

"David Porter, President. 

" S. P. Brown, Secretary, 

"Preamble to the Constitution of Que Westmoreland Medical Association 
as adopted on the report of (he Committee : 

"The objects contemplated by the Westmoreland Medical Association 
are, first, The cultivation of friendship and good feeling among its mem- 
bars. Second, The collection, diffusion, interchange, preservation, and 
general advancement of knowledge pertaining to medicine and surgery, 
together with the various branches of physical science which are sub- 
servient to them. Thirdly, The promotion of tho empire of general 



1 Dr. John Hasson died at his residence in West Newton, Pa., May 1", 
1872, aged sixty-six years. Dr. Hasson was born in Cecil County, Md., 
received bis academic education at West Nottingham Academy, in his 
native county, pursued his medical Btudies in the office of Dr. Joseph 
Pancoast, of Philadelphia, and after having attended two summer 
courses in the Philadelphia School of Medicine and three full winter 
courses of medical lectures in the University of Philadelphia, received 
from that institution the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 
1835. After a practice of three years in the State of Maryland, he set- 
tled i 1 1 West Newton, Pa., March, 18-J8, having Letters from several 
eminent physicians of Eastern Pennsylvania, among which Mere tes- 
timonials of ability and integrity from Drs. Pancoast, Randolph, and 
William Rush, ot Philadelphia. These testimonials foreshadowed the 
confidence Dr. Hasson afterwards enjoyed throughout a career of thirty- 
four years of active professional life. During this long period he served 
a numerous community of patrons, and was always prompt iu the dis- 
charge of professional duty and faithful in his attentions to the sick. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



361 



knowledge, bj which we mean to include all the branches of the exact ; 
sciences and general literature. Fourthly, The diffusion of professional 
knowledge as far as practicable among the community." 

On the occasion of the meeting of the society in 
November, Dr. King delivered his address, one of the 
most beautiful and entertaining of all his produc- 
tions. The subject was " A brief historical abstract 
of the origin, progress, and present condition of 
medical science." 

At a meeting of the association in February, 1843, 
Dr. Porter, the president, delivered an eulogy on Dr. 
Postlethwaithe, who had died Nov. 17, 1842. Dr. 
Hasson delivered a lecture upon anatomy. 

At a meeting in May, Dr. Cummins was the presi- 
dent pro fern., and Dr. King recording secretary. 

This association in time passed out of existence, 
and the next effort to form an organization was in 
1852. 

The following is from th^ Argus oJ March 19, 1852 : 

"MEETING OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

" Agreeably to a notice circulated among them, a number of the mem- 
bers of the medical profession of Westmoreland County met at the office 
of Dr. A. T. King, in Greensburg, on Tuesday, the 9th inst., for the 
purpose of forming a County Medical Society. 

"The meeting was organized by calling Dr. A. T. King to the chair, 
and the appointment of Wni. C. Lane as secretary. 

" After the organization the following resolutions were offered by Dr. 
Reiter, of Mount Pleasant, and unanimously adopted : 

" 1st. Resolved, That our object In forming a County Medical Society is 
to co-operate with the onward movement now making in the United 
States, as well as in the world at large, for the advancement of medical 
science. 

"2d. Resolved, That Drs. King and Lane be appointed a committee, 
whose duty shall be to prepare a constitution and by-laws for the govern- 
ment of this society, and that they present the same at the next meet- 
ing of the society, so that the members may have an opportunity of ap- 
proving them and attaching their names to them. 

" On motion of the chairman, it was resolved that each member who 
may attend the next meeting of this society be requested to bring with 
him a written statement of the nature and predominant characteristics 
of the various diseases which have prevailed in his respective locality 
during the past year. 

" It was furthermore unanimously agreed that Dr. Win. C. Reiter be 
requested to deliver an address before the members of this society at its 
next meeting. 

"On motion of Dr. 0. J. Robison, the society adjourned to reassemble 
at the office of Dr. King, in Greensburg, on Monday, the 12th day of 
April, at 'I o'clock p.m. 

" It was also 

11 Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the 
several newspapers of Greensburg. 

"A. T. King, PresH. 
" Wm. C. Lane, Sec'i/." 

The Westmoreland County Medical Society was 
organized at Greensburg, Nov. 15, 1859. The first 
minutes of the society are as follows : 

" Moorhead's Exchange, Greensboro, Etc. 

" Pursuant to an advertisement a large number of the physicians of the 
county met for the purpose of organizing a County Medical Society. Dr. S. 
P. Bruwn was elected president ; Dr. Nelson, vice-president ; and Dr. Ana- 
wait, secretary. After some consideration of the object and advantages 
of a County Medical Society, on motion, Drs. Kemble, Richardson, Rugh, 
Blackburn, and McConoughy were appointed a committee to prepare a 
constitution and by-laws fur the government of the society. 

"The committee on constitution and by-laws reported a draft, which, 
after some modification, was adopted. 

" A committee was appointed to make nominations to fill the various 
offices. The following were reported and elected, viz. : S. P. Brown, 



president; R. Nelson and J. McConoughy, vice-presidents; J. W. Ana- 
wait, recording secretary; T. Richardson, corresponding secretary; 
James Taylor, treasurer; George S. Kemble, J. L. Cook, and J. W, 
Blackburn, censors. 

"On motion, the treasurer was instructed to provide the books neces- 
sary for recording the minutes, etc. 

" On motion, Dr. Kemble was appointed to deliver a public lecture on 
the evening of the next quarterly meeting. 

"On motion, the secretary was instructed to prepare a resolution ex- 
pressive of the sense of the society concerning the early death of J. E. 
King. 

"On motion, it was resolved that the minutes of this meeting be pub- 
lished in the county papers. On motion, the secretary was instructed to 
advertise each regular meeting three weeks in advance. On motion, the 
society adjourned to meet at I o'clock p.m. of Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1860. 

"J. W. Anawalt, R. S." 

The next meeting of the society was held at the 
court-house, Feb. 14, 1860. At this meeting the fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted : 

" Resolved, That all members of the profession of the county present 
to-day whose qualifications entitle them to membership in this society, 
and those whose names were appended to the advertisement for a meet- 
ing of the members of the profession to organize this society, shall be 
regarded as members from the beginning after they shall have signed 
the constitution and paid the initiation fee." 

At the night session of this meeting Dr. George S. 
Kemble delivered an interesting and appropriate lec- 
ture to a public audience on "The Medical Profession 
and the Public, their Mutual Relations and Respon- 
sibilities." 

Thus did the Society begin its existence, which has 
continued uninterruptedly from that time to this. It 
has held since that time eighty-two meetings, the 
minutes of which have been kept in due and proper 
order. The proceedings therein are full of interest to 
the profession, and that it has been greatly advantaged 
by the interchange of ideas passed at these periodical 
assemblings there can be no manner of doubt. A 
very large proportion of the members of the profession 
in the county belong to it, and have uniformly given 
it their active support. 

At the meeting of Nov. 15, 1881, the following offi- 
cers were elected : President, Dr. F. L. Marsh ; Vice- 
Presidents, Drs. Strickler and Van Kirk ; Secretary, 
Dr. D. E. Welsh ; Treasurer, Dr. D. W. McConoughy ; 
Censor, Dr. C. D. B. Eisaman ; Examining Board, 
Drs. Anawalt, Cowan, and Cook. 

The Westmoreland Medical Society has ever ad- 
vocated legislative action in the behalf of the profes- 
sion and for the protection of the regular school. 
There are many evidences of this, but we shall only 
advert to its action in one instance. 

In the session of the Assembly for 1854-55 a bill was 
reported providing for the establishment of a Board of 
Medical Censors, to consist of three regular physi- 
cians to be appointed by the Governor, before whom 
! all practitioners of medicine, irrespective of age or 
, standing in the profession, should be annually sum- 
moned, in order to undergo an examination, not only 
as to their qualifications, but as to the progress they had 
made in the developments and improvements in the 
| science of medicine, subjecting them, upon the first 
examination, to a tax of twenty-five dollars, and five 



362 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



dollars for every subsequent yearly examination. In 
the event of non-compliance with this act the penalty 
was to be " no recourse in law for the collection of 
their bills for medical services." Two of the censors 
were to constitute a quorum, to whose decision in all 
cases the third should submit. 

The committee which had been appointed by the 
Westmoreland County Medical Society on the quali- 
fications of physicians and surgeons made their re- 
port in the form of two resolutions (1866). The first 
resolution was to the effect that the State should be 
divided into Eastern and Western Districts; that the 
Governor should appoint five competent medical men 
in each district to examine persons who should de- 
sire to practice medicine, surgery, or obstetrics in the 
several counties therein, and who had not graduated 
in lawfully-chartered medical institutions, and to grant 
certificates to those found competent, for which the 
person examined should pay fifty dollars, the standard 
of qualifications not to be lower than that required by 
medical colleges in this State. 

" Further, that it shall be unlawful for any person 
to practice medicine, surgery, or obstetrics in any part 
of the State who is not a graduate of medicine, or 
who does not hold such certificate; and it shall be 
unlawful for any such person to collect any bills, or 
receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, for 
such service." 

The committee was then instructed to prepare a 
bill in accordance with the above resolution, and lay 
the same before the Legislature for adoption. 

The following list of regular practitioners in the 
county is made up from the docket in the prothouo- 
tary's office, in which are recorded the names of all 
who are entitled to practice under the terms of the 
act of Assembly contemplating it : 

Logan M. Kifer, Irwin Station; Jefferson Medical College, March 5, 
1878. 

James L. Crawford, Greensburg; Jefferson Medical College, March 7, 
1KGS; Bellevne Hospital Medical College of New York City, March 1, 
1875. 

John S. Crawford, Greensburg; Hahnemann Medical College of Phila- 
delphia, March 10, 1875, 

I.Putnam Klingensmith, Derry Station; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 11, 1875. 

David Gildner, Bolivar borough. I, David Gildner, have been en- 
gaged in the practice of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics since the year 
ls71 in the following places, to wit : Philadelphia, one year; Somerset 
County, one year; Cambria County, one year; Washington County, six 
years; and in Westmoreland County, one year. 

Wilson J. Hugh, Franklin township; Columbus Medical College, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, Feb. 27, 1877. 

Alexander Hunter Peebles, Youngstown ; Cincinnati College of Medi- 
cine and Surgery, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 17, 1870. 

Robert Robinson Bowman, Youngstown ; Jefferson Medical College, 
tiarch 12, 1878. 

james C. Cline, Derry Station; Jefferson Medical College, March 13, 
1880. 

James Henderson Lafferty, New Florence borough ; College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Md., March 1, 1881. 

Frederick Henry Patton, West Newton borough; Jefferson Medical 
College, March 10, 1866. 

Bennet Hutchinson Van Kirk, West Newton borough ; Jefferson Med- 
ical College, March 12, 1869. 

Joseph Henderson Richie, West Newton borough ; Western Reserve 
Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 10, 1867. 



James Taylor, West Fairfield, Jefferson Medical College, March 8, 
1851. 

Jacob Swan Taylor, West Fairfield ; Electric Medical Institute of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, June 7, 1881. 

John Davidson Milligan, Madison borough ; Bellevne Hospital Medi- 
cal College of New York City, March 1, 1876. 

James Ayres Fulton, Delmout. I, James A. Fulton, have been en- 
gaged in the practice of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics since the year 
1864 continuously in the borough of New Salem. 

Henry George Lomison, Greensburg; Jefferson Medical College, March 
6, 1852. 

William Dana McGowan, Ligonier borough; University of Pennsyl- 
vania, Philadelphia, April 5, 1851. 

George Washington Kern, West Newton borough ; Hahnemann Medi- 
cal College, Philadelphia, March 11, 1878. 

Matthew Watson Miller, Ligonier; Cincinnati College of Medicine 
and Surgery, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 15, 1872. 

Mars tun Monroe McColly, Ligonier; Jefferson Medical College, March 

12, 1870. 

Alexander Johnston Rogers, Scottdale. I, A. J. Rogers, have been 
engaged in the practice of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics in the State 
of Pennsylvania for more than twenty years, and I have been in con- 
tinuous practice since the year 1871 in the counties of Fayette and 
Westmoreland. 

John Q. Robinson, West Newton borough; University of the City of 
New York, upon pridie Id. Mart., 1849. 

Albert William Strickler, Scottdale borough; Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, March 9, 1871. 

David William McConaughy, Latrobe borough ; Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, Marcli 3, 1858. 

George Bon bright Anderson, Latrobe borough ; Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, March 10, 1877. 

Daniel Abraham Arter, Greensburg. I, Daniel A. Arter, have been 
engaged in the practice of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics for more 
tlian thirty years, and I have been in continuous practice in the horough 
of Greensburg since the year 1871. 

Bernard Cole Leaton, Bolivar borough ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 12,1873. 

David William Miller, Adamsburg; Western Reserve Medical College 
of the city of Cleveland, Ohio, upon the die ante diem quintum nomas mar- 
tias, 1881. 

Ralph Erskin Fulton, Mount Pleasant borough; Jefferson Medical 
College, March 12, 1860. 

William John K. Kline, Greensburg. Doctor of Medicine conferred 
by Long Island College Hospital, New York, July 2, 1863. 

William Jackson Clarke, New Florence; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 28, 1849. 

Robert McConaughy, Mount Pleasant borough; Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, March 11, 1875. 

Benjamin Ilupple Mitchell, Scottdale; Jefferson Medical College, March 
10, 1877. 

James Henderson McLaughlin, New Salem borough ; Cincinnati Col- 
lege of Medicine and Surgery, Feb. 17, 1873. 

George Singer Foster, Greensburg; Ilonmeopathic Medical College of 
Pennsylvania, March 3, 1859. 

James Sullivan Miller, Derry Station ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 10, 1855. 

James Logan Brown, Pleasant Unity; filed written statement. 

James Ross Ewing, Oakland X Roads; Cincinnati College of Medicine 
and Surgery, July 30, 1870. 

George Barkley Porch, New Florence; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 13,1871. 

John Rowland Moore, Burrell; Jefferson Medical College, March 11, 
1854. 

Amos Ogden Taylor, New Salem; Eclectic Medical College of Penn- 
sylvania, Dec. 29, 1879. 

Jacob T. Ambrose, Ligonier borough; Long Island College Hospital* 
June 29, 1870. 

William McWilliams, Merwin; filed written statement. 

Alpheus Arlington Bush, Merwin; Bellevne Hospital Medical College, 
March 1, 1875. 

Hamilton Keeley Beatty, Parnassus; Jefferson Medical College, March 

13, 1871. 

James Irwin Marchand, Irwin; Jefferson Medical College, March 8, 
1862. 

James Mortimer Bennett, Donegal township ; filed written statement, 
found elsewhere in these columns. 




4. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



3G3 



David Emniett Welsh, Latrobe: Jefferson Medical College, March 12, 
1878. 

Alexander Bennett Mitchell, Harrison City ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 4, 1872. 

Hugh Wallace Love, Harrison City ; Eclectic Medical College of Penn- 
sylvania, March 25, 1880. 

George Parks, Murrysville; College of Physicians and Surgeons, Bal- 
timore, March 4, 1879. 

Millard Sowash, Irwin; Jefferson Medical College, March 11, 1874. 

Joseph Sturgeon Long, Circleville; Westeru Reserve College of Ohio, 
March 4, 1868. 

James Patterson Orr, West Bethany ; University of Michigan, March 
26, 1879. 

Florence L. Marsh. Mount Pleasant ; Jefferson Medical College, March 
7, 1868. 

Joseph L. Cook, New Alexandria ; Jefferson Medical College, March 9, 
1858. 

Robert Brown Hammer, Greensburg; University of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, March 15, 1881. 

John Edwin Rigg, Stonerville; College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Baltimore, Md., March 4, 1879. 

Oliver Wycoff Howell, Mount Pleasant township; Western Reserve 
College of Hudson, Ohio, March 6, 1880. 

Bruce L. Calhoun, Parnassus; Cincinnati College of Medicine and 
Surgery, June 19, 1876. 

Lewis Trauger Smith, Pleasant Unity; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 4, 1876. 

George Louis Humphreys, Irwin ; Jefferson Medical College, March 
11, 1874. 

Joseph Hiester Clark, Mount Pleasant ; filed written statement. 

Wiufield Scott Madden, Latrobe; Jefferson Medical College, March 15, 
1876. 

Enoch Wright Townsend, Greensburg; Homoeopathic Medical College 
of Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 19, 1853. 

Jacob Welty Rugh, New Alexandria; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 8, 1851. 

John Duncan Evans, Latrobe; Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 
Feb. 7, 1871. 

John Nelson McCune, Suterville; Western Reserve College, Hudson, 
Ohio, upon the die pridie Xoiias Mdrtisu, 1878. 

Robert Francis Gaut, Mount Pleasant township; Detroit Medical Col- 
lege, Feb. 29, 1876. 

Darwin Darius Taylor, Irwin ; filed written statement. 

John Charles Taylor, Irwin; filed written statement. 

James McCouaughy, Mount Pleasant ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 20, 1845. 

Lewis Shupe Goodman, Mount Pleasant, Eclectic Medical Institute, 
Cincinnati, May 7, 1878. 

Henry Leander Donnelly, Latrobe; Jefferson Medical College, March 
9, 1853. 

Frank Johnston Wethington, Livermore; Long Island College Hos- 
pital, New York, June 6, 1876. 

Norman G. Berkey, Hempfield township ; Jefferson Medical Collage, 
March 12, 1878. 

Morgan Rhees Banks, Livermore; filed written statement. 

Martin Dallas Heath, Mount Pleasant; Pulte College of Cincinnati, 
March 4, 1880. 

Isaac Newkirk Leyda, Manor Station ; Doctor of Medicine conferred 
by University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., March 12, 1875. 

Samuel Cummins Campbell, Stahlstown; Eclectic Medical Institute, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. C, 1879. 

James Taylor Krepps, Webster; Jefferson Medical College, Philadel- 
phia, March 11, 1875. 

William Armstrong Jamison, Cowansburg ; Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia, March 12, 1879. 

Lemuel Offutt, Penn Station; University of Maryland, Baltimore, 
Md., Feb. 29, 1876. 

Charles David Fortney, Scottdale. Have been engaged in the practice 
of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics for twenty-seven years, and in con- 
tinuous practice in Westmoreland County since the year 1871. Written 
statement filed. 

David Alters, Parnassus; Jefferson Medical College, March 9, 1861. 

Lewis Sutton, Mendon ; Jefferson Medical College, March 29, 1848. 

Uriah M.Snyder, New Salem (Delniont P. O) ; Bellevue Hospital Medi- 
cal College, New York City, March 1, 1872. 

Alvin St. Clair Daggette, Shatter station (Youghiogheuy P. 0.) ; Cleve- 
land Medical College, Ohio, March 2, 1881. 



James White Anawalt, Greensburg ; Jeffersou Medical College, March 
10, 1855. 

Francis McConnell McConaughy, Ligonier ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 24, 1846. 

James H. Kelly, Pleasant Unity. Has been engaged in the practice of 
medicine for twenty-three years in the counties of Indiana and West- 
moreland, and in continuous practice in Westmoreland County since 
1871. Written statement filed. 

James Buchanan Wakefield, Mount Pleasant. Has been engaged in 
the practice of medicine, etc., for eleven years, and in continuous prac- 
tice in Westmoreland County since 1871. Statement filed. 

Joseph Robertson, Rostraver township; Columbus Medical College, 
Columbus, Ohio, March 3, 1881. 

Joseph William B. Kamerer, Greensburg; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 13, 1871. 

Samuel Edgar Burchfield, Latrobe; University of Michigan Homce- 
pathic Medical College, June 30, 1881. 

James Priue Frye, Webster; College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Baltimore, March 4, 1880. 

William Brown Cosgrove, New Derry; College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Baltimore, March 3, 1880. 

Samuel H. Decker, New Derry ; Medium's Medical Association, Michi- 
gan, Aug. 19th, 1880. 

Joseph Spratt Dodd, Parnassus ; Jefferson Medical College, March 11, 
1875. 

Samuel Shaw Stewart, Stewart's Station ; Jefferson Medical College, 
March 9, 1861. 

Daniel Elwood Beltz, Ligonier; University of Medicine and Surgery, 
Pennsylvania, May 10, 1865. 

John Wesley Morrison, Dougal borough ; written statement. 

Perry Green Anderson, Scottdale ; Physio-Medical College of Ohio- 
Feb. 4, 1869. 

Dr. Henry- G. Lomison- , who enjoys the popular dis- 
tinction of being one of the leading physicians of West- 
moreland County, is of English stock on his paternal 
side, and of Dutch lineage on the maternal side. His 
immigrant ancestor, Lawrence Lomison, was a native 
of Bristol, England, from which place he took ship in 
1682, and landed in Chester, then called Upland, Pa., 
December 11th of that year. Some time after his arri- 
val he married an immigrant lady, a native of Holland, 
by the name of Von Kindel, and with her settled on 
lands near Germantown, Pa., where they became the 
parents of a large family, some of whom removed to 
Northampton County, Pa., others settling near Tren- 
ton, N. J., and Belvidere, in that State. 

Dr. Lomison is descended from the Belvidere 
branch, and is the son of William Lomison, who was 
born near Belvidere in 1788, and died in 1862, at the 
age of seventy-five years. Dr. Lomison's mother, 
whose maiden name was Anna Fulkerson, was the 
daughter of Col. John Fulkerson, of Northumber- 
land County, Pa., a native of Holland, and was born 
in 1787. She intermarried with William Lomison in 
1811, and died Dec. 11, 1856. 

Mr. and Mrs. William Lomison were the parents of 
eight children, of whom Dr. H. G. Lomison was the 
youngest. He was born July 17, 1831, near Dan- 
ville, Columbia (now Montour) Co., Pa., was reared 
upon the homestead farm, receiving a common-school 
education and instruction in Danville Academy, and 
at the age of nineteen, after having for a year or two 
taught school, entered upon the study of medicine 
under the direction of Dr. James M. Stewart, of In- 
diana County, Pa., to which county the family of Dr. 
Lomison had removed a little before that time, and 



364 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



eventually matriculating at Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, Philadelphia, graduated from that institution in 
March, 1852. He at once entered upon the practice 
of his profession at Saltsburg, Indiana Co., his capi- 
tal stock at that time consisting of his general educa- 
tion, professional acquirements and books, a robust 
and powerful constitution, determination to excel, tire- 
less energy, and " a horse, saddle, and bridle." Thus 
equipped he soon made his way into a good and, not 
long after, alarge and lucrative practice, which he pur- 
sued, with Saltsburg as his centre of operations, unin- 
terruptedly till the winter of 1858-59, which he spent 
in New York in attendance upon the course of lec- 
tures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 
the winter of 1859-60 he attended a course of medi- 
cal lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 
the spring of 1860 took up his residence in Greens- 
burg, and followed his profession until 1869, in which 
year he took a tour of eight months in Europe, with 
the principal object of acquainting himself with the 
practice of medicine as administered in the chief hos- 
pitals of England, France, Germany, Switzerland, 
Austria, and Italy, which he visited. Returning he 
resumed practice, which he still follows with the old 
love for his profession, his popularity as a physician 
constantly increasing. 

Dr. Lomison is a gentleman of business abilities 
and spirit, and of public enterprise, and has made 
valuable improvements in real estate in the county 
and at the county-seat by the erection of edifices of 
various kinds. Among those at Greensburg should 
be mentioned the Dixon House, on Depot Street, and 
on West Otterman Street, a structure heretofore 
greatly needed in the borough, the Lomison Opera- 
House, with conveniences for over a thousand sitters, 
and supplied with full sets of scenery, together with 
unusually commodious dressing-rooms. In addition 
to sedulous attention to his large professional busi- 
ness, Dr. Lomison has found time to engage exten- 
sively in matters of real estate, with results which 
popular opinion declares extremely profitable. He 
is the possessor of over a thousand acres of land in 
Westmoreland County, all underlaid with the cele- 
brated Connellsville coking-coal. 

In politics Dr. Lomison is a Democrat, and was in 
1878 a candidate for nomination to Congress from the 
Twenty-first District "of Pennsylvania, composed of 
the counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, and Greene, 
and received the unanimous vote of his party in West- 
moreland County. He has since been urged by the 
party to go again before the people, but while appre- 
ciating the confidence reposed in him by his multi- 
tudinous friends, declined on account of professional 
and other engagements. 

Obviously possessed of that good sense of " the 
fitness of things" which some other able physicians 
have manifested in the doctrine, vitally illustrated, 
that no man who loves his profession and is truly 
married to it has need of or right to any (other) wife, 



Dr. Lomison remains a bachelor; at any rate, what- 
ever may be his doctrine concerning the matter in 
question, his practice leaves him single. The priest 
and the doctor, both "father-confessors," and bound 
by the sanctities of their professions to guard well, in 
utter silence, the countless delicate secrets necessarily 
confided to them, should not be subjected to the temp- 
tation of a special, inquisitive family "bosom," into 
which to be beguiled to pour the privacies of their 
subjects and patrons. A " doctor's wife" is often the 
most " knowing," treacherous, and scandalous nui- 
sance in a community. 

Dr. David Alter. — The Alter family of Pennsyl- 
vania was of Swiss extraction, and first settled in 
Cumberland County, where David Alter was born in 
1775. He married Elizabeth Mull, of German origin, 
and removed with his wife and two children, in 1803, 
to Puckety Creek, where he had purchased the old 
Miller tract. He erected the noted " Alter's Mills," 
famous in early times as the resort for the milling of 
a large scope of country. He was a captain in the 
war of 1812, and his sister married Governor Ritner. 
He and his wife were buried in the old Brady grave- 
yard. Their children were Nancy, married to Maj. 
George Dugan; Joseph, Jacob, Samuel, John, Henry, 
David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Elias, Samson, and Eliza- 
beth, the latter dying unmarried and young. The 
first eleven all raised large families. Of these, all are 
living but Joseph, Elizabeth, Henry, and David. 
Jacob celebrated his fifty-eighth wedding anniver- 
sary before the death of his wife. Joseph was born 
in 1800, and, like his father, was a miller and farmer. 
He w T as a famous athlete in his younger days, and in 
wrestling was unequaled in this region. He married 
Margaret C. Dinsmore, daughter of Robert and Mar- 
garet (Curry) Dinsmore. They had eleven children, 
three boys and eight girls, of whom the former, 
Dr. David Alter, Robert D. Alter, and Rev. Joseph 
Alter, and one of the latter, Maria M. (married to 
Martin Van Buren, of Ohio), are living. The eldest 
child, Dr. David Alter, was born Dec. 28, 1829. He 
first attended the old subscription schools, then those 
of the new system, adopted in 1834—35, and subse- 
quently the Freeport Academy. He completed his 
education at Madison College, in Guernsey County, 
Ohio. While attending the latter and pursuing his 
medical studies he taught school for some eight years. 
He read medicine with Dr. Thomas Galbraith, of 
Tareutum, and graduated at the Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelphia, in 1861. The same year he 
located at Puckety Church to practice his profession. 
In 1862, during the war, he was sent to the Fifth 
New York Regiment (Col. G. K. Warren), then at 
Harrison Landing, as a contract surgeon, and in the 
winter of 1863, after the battle of Fredericksburg, he 
visited and attended the hospitals in and near Wash- 
ington City. In the summer of 1863 he was with the 
Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment of 
militia, and went to Gettysburg as a volunteer sur- 





&/?Z?jZ^ 




THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



365 



geon, and in the fall assisted in the capture of Gen. 
John Morgan on the Ohio River. Later in the same 
year he went with Rev. W. F. Kean, and at his re- 
quest, as a delegate of the Christian Commission to 
Southern Tennessee and Northern Alabama. On 
Sept. 10, 1864, he was mustered in as a surgeon of the 
Two Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
and was among the first troops that entered Rich- 
mond, Va., on its capture in 1865. After his muster 
out, June 26, 1865, he came to Parnassus, where he 
had located in the fall of 1865. Here he has remained 
to the present time in the successful practice of a pro- 
fession in which he is one of the acknowledged lead- 
ing practitioners of the county. He has been for 
years the surgeon of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, 
and was once president of the Allegheny Valley 
Medical Association. Among his medical students 
three have achieved distinction, — Dr. J. L. Crawford, 
of Greensburg (a learned contributor to the medical 
press) ; Dr. John Porter, of McKeesport ; and Dr. 
George C. Parks, of Murrysville. Dr. Alter was the 
first president of the Parnassus Bank, which position 
he held several years, and has served as president of 
the School Board, and under his administration the 
Parnassus schools were put into a high state of effi- 
ciency and attained a first-class rank. He has been 
elected by his townsmen as chief burgess of the 
borough, and was largely instrumental in the organ- 
ization of the literary and philosophical societies of 
the town. He is a member of the United Presby- 
terian Church. In politics he is an unswerving Re- 
publican, and comes of an old stock originally anti- 
slavery in ante bellum days. He was married Dec. 
31, 1863, to Miss Mary, daughter of John H. and 
Jane (Irvine) Anderson, by whom he has three chil- 
dren, — Alonzo Anderson, William Irvine, and Joseph 
Galbraith. Dr. Alter has one of the largest private 
collections in the State of natural history, Indian 
relics, and historical objects old and rare, and his 
studies in these directions have greatly stimulated 
others to investigation and research in the same 
channel. His collections embrace almost every 
variety of animals, fishes, insects, reptiles, coins, and 
of curiosities collected from far and near at great ex- 
pense and with unceasing labor. He has the "rebel 
flag" captured at Richmond, Va., from over the 
Speaker's stand in the House of Representatives of 
the Southern Confederacy, and the " slave-roll" of the 
oldest and largest slave-holding family in the "Old 
Dominion" in 1854. Among his valued heirlooms is 
an old family clock, made in 1775, of brass, beaten 
and worked by hand, which has been kept in the 
Alter family, descending to the oldest male branch of 
each generation. His large collection embraces many 
ancient and historic maps and documents seldom 
found outside of public institutions, all of which 
attest the patient researches of their owner into anti- 
quarian objects and studies. 
Dr. James A. Fulton. — The Fulton family, of 
24 —~ 



Scotch-Irish extraction, of which Abraham Fulton 
was the ancestor, resided near Londonderry, Ireland. 
His children were James, Abraham, Robert, Joseph, 
Margaret (married to a Mr. Irvine), and Polly (mar- 
ried to a Mr. Boyd), who all came to America about 
1780, and all settled iu Westmoreland County except 
Joseph, who located in Ohio after remaining a few 
years in this State. James, who settled in Derry 
township, married a Miss Laughrey, by whien union 
were born the following children : James, Abraham, 
Robert, Cochran, Benjamin, and Sarah (never mar- 
ried). Of these, Benjamin was born in 1791, and 
married in 1834 Jane Ayres, also of Scotch-Irish 
birth. He was a reputable farmer, and died in 1859, 
and his wife in 1S72. Their children were Dr. James 
Ayres Fulton ; Nancy E., married to Maj. A. P. Davis, 
of Pittsburgh; and Violet E., unmarried. 

Dr. James A. Fulton was born in Derry township, 
Jan. 8, 1835. He attended the common schools in 
his neighborhood, and afterwards Allegheny College, 
at Meadville. He then taught school seven years in 
his native township, during which time he read medi- 
cine with Dr. J. W. Blackburn, of Derry. He at- 
tended his first course of lectures at Cleveland (Ohio) 
Medical College, and his second at Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelphia. He then located in New 
Salem, in 1858, in the practice of his profession, in 
which he has been eminently successful, securing the 
confidence of the people and the respect of the medi- 
cal profession. On July 30, 1861, he was mustered 
into the United States service as first lieutenant of 
Company H, Fortieth Regiment (Eleventh Pennsyl- 
vania Reserve Volunteer Corps), and was discharged 
Oct. 3, 1863, on account of severe wounds received 
July 2, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg. He was 
wounded by a Minie-ball, which went into and 
through his right leg and lodged in the left, where it 
was cut out the February following by Dr. Pancoast, 
of Philadelphia. When wounded the doctor was 
commanding his company at Round Top. Pre- 
vious to this, in 1862, during the McClellau campaign 
and "Seven Days' fighting" before Richmond, he, 
with all his regiment save Company B, was captured 
at Gaines' Mill and taken prisoner to Libby Prison, 
where at the expiration of forty days they were re- 
leased on parole. After returning from the army he 
again resumed his practice, now one of the largest in 
the county, and in which as a successful practitioner 
he hardly has a superior in Westmoreland. He was 
married by Rev. James C. Carson, Dec. 26, 1865, to 
Nancy Sterritt, daughter of Robert and Mary (Bor- 
land) Shields, by which union were born the follow- 
ing children : Robert Henry, Wilbur Wilson, Mary 
Elizabeth, Anna Louise, Jane Helen, and James Guth- 
rie. Together with his wife, he is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, of which for many years 
he has been a leading trustee, and is assistant super- 
intendent of the Union Sunday-school. The doctor 
has ever been greatly interested in all moral and 



366 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



educational measure!? for the advancement of society, 
and which find in him a zealous supporter. In poli- 
tics he is a stanch Republican, devoted to the prin- 
ciples of his party, but is not a politician in a partisan 
or machine sense. As a souvenir of his services to 
his country when imperiled by a rebellion, he keeps 
and cherishes the rebel Minie-ball extracted from his 
person and received at the great battle that decided 
the destinies of the late civil war. He is a member 
of the County Medical Society, organized in 1859. 
His residence is on Pittsburgh Street, where, sur- 
rounded with a neat home and pleasant family, he 
assiduously devotes his time and well-known ability 
to the practice of his honored profession. 

Dr. J. Q. Robinson was born in Rostraver town- 
ship, Westmoreland Co., Pa., July 22, 1817, the third 
in a family of nine children of Thomas and Achsah 
(Bailey) Robinson. On the father's side the family 
are of Irish descent. 

His grandfather, Alexander Robinson, moved with 
his family from Chestnut Level, Lancaster Co., Pa., 
at the close of the war of the Revolution, and settled 
in Rostraver, on land whictt he patented, and a por- 
tion of which is still owned by his descendants. His 
wife was Martha McCormick. Their children were 
Mary, Nancy, Elizabeth, John, Alexander, Martha, 
and Thomas. 

Mary was wife of James Cunningham, farmer in 
Rostraver, seven children ; Elizabeth, wife of William 
Bingham, farmer in Rostraver, eight children ; Nancy, 
■wife of Thomas Patterson, farmer in Fayette County ; 

Martha, wife of Patterson ; John, married 

Hannah, daughter of Rev. James Finley, ten chil- 
dren ; Alexander studied medicine, and died soon 
after entering upon the practice of his profession. 

Thomas Robinson, his father, was born in Lancaster 
County, July 22, 1777, was about three years of age 
when the family moved to Rostraver, and spent the rest 
of his life on the homestead place, a portion of which 
came into his possession by purchase from other heirs. 
He added other lands, and at the time of his death 
was the owner of upwards of four hundred acres. He 
built the brick residence now owned by Jesse Fries, 
a son-in-law. He married Achsah L., daughter of 
Daniel and Lucinda (Perry) Bailey. On her father's 
side she was the lineal descendant in the sixth gen- 
eration from Thomas Bailey, who emigrated from Eng- 
land) and was known to be a resident of Boston, Mass., 
in 1643, and with his wife, Ruth, in Weymouth in 
1661. The line is as follows : 1st, Thomas; 2d, John, 
of Scituate; 3d, Joseph; 4th, Adams; 5th, Daniel; 
6th, Achsah. John Bailey moved from Weymouth 
to Scituate, and was " among the list of allowed and 
approved inhabitants in Scituate to whom portions of 
the common lands were assigned by the joint com- 
mittee of the court and town in 1673." Married Sarah 
White, Jan. 25, 1672 ; children by this union : John, 
b. Nov. 5, 1763, d. 1752 ; Sarah, b. October, 1675, 
died young ; Mary, b. December, 1677 ; Joseph, b. 



1679;. Benjamin, b. 1682; William, b. 1685; Hannah, 
b. 1687 ; and Samuel, b. 1690. No record of his first 
wife's death. He married Dec. 9, 1699, Ruth Clothier. 
No children by this union. He died in 1718. Joseph, 
fourth child above, married Miss Adams ; children : 
Joseph, b. 1704; Martha, b. 1707; Ruth, b. 1709; 
Benjamin, b. 1712; Ebenezer, b. 1714; Beth, b. 1717; 
Caleb, b. 1720; and Adams, b. 1722. The latter, 
Adams Bailey, married in 1746, Sarah, fourth child 
of Jonathan and Sarah (Fields) Howard, of Bridge- 
water, who was born in 1726. Their children were 
Seth, b. 1747; Adams, b. 1749; Joseph, b. 1750; 
Charlotte and Sarah, twins, b. 1752 ; Charity and 
Jonathan, twins, b. 1756 ; Caleb, b. 1759 ; Ebenezer, 
b. 1760 ; Daniel, b. 1765 ; Caleb, b. 1768 ; and Paul, b. 
1770. The three first born in Scituate, all the rest in 
Bridgewater. Daniel Bailey, tenth child above, mar- 
ried Lucinda Perry, daughter of Capt. James Perry, 
of Easton, Bristol Co., Mass., who raised a company 
of soldiers as early as 1776, was elected their captain, 
and departed for the seat of war. He served under 
Washington three years, and was engaged in the 
battles of Trenton and Princeton. His father before 
him had been a captain in the colonial service, "a 
stalwart man of commanding presence." Mrs. Bailey 
was born in 1774. The children of Daniel and Lu- 
cinda Bailey were Achsah L., b. Nov. 10, 1789 ; Har- 
riet, b. 1791; Alfreda H., b. 1793; George B., b. 
1796; Leonard P., b. 1798; Lucinda P., b. 1800; 
Charlotte Adams, b. 1802 ; and James P., 1808. 

After marriage and birth of three children, the 
family moved from Bridgewater and settled in the 
township of Rostraver, at Budd's Ferry, on the Youg- 
hiogheny. Daniel Bailey died in 1849. His wife 
July 15, 1811. 

The children of Thomas and Achsah L. Robinson 
were Alexander, Lucinda, John Q., Thomas P., Mar- 
tha, Oliver H , Mary, James P., and Harriet. Lu- 
cinda is widow of Andrew Jackson Null, living in 
East Huntingdon township, four children; Thomas 
P., a widower, two children ; Martha, wife of H. L. 
Baer, of Scottdale, no children ; Oliver H., a farmer 
living in Rostraver. Thomas Robinson died Oct. 8, 
1S60, at the homestead in Rostraver. His wife died 
March 24, 1864. Both are buried at Rehoboth Church. 

Dr. John Q. Robinson spent his boyhood and to near 
his majority at home on the farm. He was educated 
at the common school, Greensburg Academy, and at 
Washington College, studied Latin under ex-United 
States Senator Edgar Cowan, then a teacher at West 
Newton. In the spring of 1840 taught the district 
school at Pleasant Hill, Elizabeth township, and con- 
tinued teaching off and on for about four years. Dur- 
ing this period, however, he continued his studies 
with special reference to his chosen profession. Sept. 
4, 1844, he commenced the study of medicine with 
Dr. Biddle at Monongahela City, and remained with 
him about one year. He then entered the office of Dr. 
Hasson, at West Newton, and studied with him until 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



367 



the spring of 1848. He then went to Philadelphia, 
where he took a spring course of lectures, and con- 
tinued a course of reading and clinical instruction 
at the Pennsylvania Hospital, remaining altogether 
eight months. His second course of lectures was 
taken at the University of New York, from which 
institution he received his medical diploma in 1849. 
The same year he commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession at West Newton, the first two years occupying 
an office with his old preceptor, Dr. John Hasson, 
and sharing his large and widely extended practice. 
Since 1851 he has not been associated with any other 
physician. He has been in the continuous practice 
of his profession at West Newton for over thirty-three 



committee in the construction of their fine edifice for 
worship. He married, Nov. 12, 1850, Catharine, 
daughter of Hon. Jacob F. and Eliza Kreps. Mrs. 
Robinson was born Oct. 28, 1831, in Greensburg, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. Their children are Ada V., 
Georgianna (deceased), Achsah, Eliza, Martha L., 
Clara B., and John Q., Jr. Herewith will be found 
representations of the coat-armor of the Bailey and 
Perry families. 

William J. K. Kline, M.D.— The father of Dr. 
Kline's great-grandfather was Peter Kline, who lived 
in Lancaster County, Pa., in that part subsequently 
organized as Lebanon County, but whether there na- 
tive born or an immigrant from Germany is not 




^ip^nte^ 





years, only one year less than Dr. Hasson's term of 
practice in the same place. He is a member of the 
Westmoreland County Medical Society. Though the 
doctor has been almost exclusively devoted to his pro- 
fession, he has always taken interest in the local af- 
fairs of the borough. He has been a member of the 
School Board of West Newton for eighteen years, was 
on its building committee in the erection of its fine 
school building, and its secretary for a number of 
years. He was president of the Farmers' Bank of 
West Newton from its organization to the winding 
up of its business. He has been a member of the 
Town Council three years and also its secretary. He 
has been a member of the Presbyterian Church at 
West Newton since 1872, and was on the buildiug 



known. He was the father of three sons, the eldest 
of whom was named John. The other two died 
young, and their names were forgotten. John grew to 
manhood, and took part in the Revolutionary war, 
immediately under the command of Washington, at 
Valley Forge, and after a season of service in active 
duty was taken seriously ill, and upon recovery was 
transferred to the commissary department, and placed 
in charge of foraging parties, or troops the duty of 
which was to collect supplies for the army. In the 
pursuance of this duty Kline and his men scoured 
the country seeking provisions, for which they prof- 
fered to pay, and which the rebels or patriots willingly 
sold or gave to the army. But there were numerous 
Tories in those days in the district of Kline's opera- 



368 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



tions, who believed tliat the war would terminate un- 
favorably to the rebel cause, and would not sell their 
goods or willingly contribute their quotas under levies 
made, saying to Kline, " Take : the king will repay 
us I" and he therefore did take. But the war termi- 
nating unfavorably to the patriotic Tories, they had no 
king to appeal to for reimbursement, and after the 
war they became the bitter foes of Kline and his 
comrades, and poured out their vengeance upon them 
by deeds of darkness, burning their houses and crops 
in the night season, etc. Kline, soon after the war, 
married a Miss Mace, and settled upon a farm near 
Millersburg, Lebanon Co., which farm he inherited 
from his father. There he remained for some time, 
becoming the father of several children, the oldest of 
whom was called John. The Tories nursing revenge 
bided their time, but finally visited upon him persecu- 
tions in the shape of the malicious destruction of bis 
crops, the burning of his outbuildings, etc., and made 
life there so uncomfortable that his wife became ter- 
rorized and entreated him to migrate westward and 
leave the farm in the possession of a tenant. He 
resolved to go to Kentucky, and started thitherward 
on horseback, carrying his boy John before him, his 
wife and family also riding horseback, and thus they 
traversed the Allegheny Mountains. Reaching a 
point four miles west of Greensburg, near what is 
now called Grapeville, on their way to Fort Pitt, 
they found the road there forked, and pursued the 
branch which seemed the more travel-worn, but 
which, however, led not to Fort Pitt, but to the 
Manor settlement, as they found on inquiring of " a 
woman and another person," as the chronicler states, 
who were making hay in a meadow. One of them 
asked, " What course, my friends?" Kline informed 
her that he wished to go to Fort Pitt en route to 
Kentucky. She replied, " Why, my dear friends, 
have you not heard of the recent murders committed 
on the frontiers'?" an Indian outbreak having then 
recently taken place. Kline said "No," and listened 
to the quick story of the slaughter of men, women, 
and children, and Mrs. Kline exclaimed, " If that's 
the case I shall go no farther !" The next thing was 
what to do, and Kline learned that he could live on 
" the Painter improvement," and settle there in his 
trade as a weaver for the time being, and concluded 
to do so. He sold his horses for want of feed, but 
not without regret interposed by " little John," who 
"owned" one of the animals, a beautiful mare. 

At that time Mr. Kline held a draft on a Mr. Boggs 
for £75, which was, however, lost by the failure of 
Boggs, a fact which, however, did not leave him en- 
tirely penniless. He loaned money to one John Mc- 
Kee, a frequent guest of his on his way to and from 
Philadelphia; ami McKee becoming much in debt, 
conveyed to Kline in part payment seventy-five acres 
of land in the centre of what is now McKeesport. 
But McKee getting on his feet again, desired to pur- 
chase back the land, and Kline agreeing, McKee soon 



laid out the tract into dwelling-house lots, of which 
he profitably disposed, founding the city now bearing 
his name. 

In addition to little John, whom we have noticed, 
the family of the elder John consisted of William, 
George, Samuel, Polly, and Catharine. William set- 
tled and raised a family in Adamsburg, where he 
died, George died single, and Samuel went to the 
Southwest, and was never heard from by his Pennsyl- 
vania friends. The daughters married,— one Peter 
Kemerer, the other Daniel Kemerer, — one of whom 
eventually settled in Illinois, and the other in Iowa. 
Mr. Kline was a conveyancer as well as farmer, etc., 
and made frequent journeys to Philadelphia to ex- 
amine titles. At last he made a trip to this city, as 
is supposed, and never returned, and was never after- 
wards heard of by his family. His absence left his 
family embarrassed, and they finally lost the farm he 
bad acquired in Manor District, and were thrown 
upon their own resources. 

Little John, now well grown, provided for the 
family as well as he could, and they moved to and 
settled in the vicinity of Adamsburg, Westmoreland 
Co., where John cleared away the forest. He eventu- 
ally married Miss Nancy Buchman, a native of Ha- 
gerstown, Md., by whom he had a large family, one 
of whom, John by name, was the father of Dr. Kline. 
He enjoyed the customary opportunities for education 
in those times, and grew up a farmer, subsequently 
settling in Manor District, Penn township. He was 
a man of great energy and industry, and was noted 
for his unswerving honesty in all the business affairs 
of life. In addition to his farm he became the owner 
of a mill property at Bouquet, and conducted the busi- 
ness of the mill for a time. He died when forty-six 
years of age, leaving a wife, whose maiden name was 
Elizabeth Knappenberger, a daughter of John Knap- 
penberger, a descendant of one of the earliest settlers 
of the Manor District. The death of her husband 
devolved upon Mrs. Kline the care of the family. 
She was at that time a woman of great energy, as 
well as mental strength, and now, when almost an 
octogenarian,, her mind is not only unimpaired but 
bright as in youth. With rare tact, good judgment, 
and the exercise of the Christian virtues, she reared 
her family well, always commanding their love. 

The family comprised ten children. The first was 
Hezekiah Joseph, who married, settled in Illinois, 
and died, leaving one son, now a resident of California, 
he completing the Western journey of the Klines, 
which was arrested in the person of his great-grand- 
father, compelled to settle in Westmoreland County, 
as related above. The second child was Hannah, 
deceased ; the third, William J. K. ; the next, Nicho- 
las, a surgeon dentist by profession, now residing in 
Scottdale ; the next, Mary Ann, married to David 
Snyder, and residing on the old homestead; the next, 
Henry, who entered the army during the Rebellion, 
and while faithfully serving his country died at New- 





Ls 




.JAMES T. K REPPS. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



369 



bern, N. O, in 1864, at about twenty-one years of 
age. Being drafted for the war, and some of his friends 
volunteering to take his place, he said, " No ; I recog- 
nize this as a proper call of my country, and I will 
let no other perform the duty which belongs to me to 
fulfill." The next in order of the family is Lydia, 
wife of Cyrus J. Snyder, residing in Penn township, 
on her grandfather Knappenberger's old farm ; the 
next, Amos, who after a thorough education in the 
select schools and academy in Westmoreland County 
took a course in and graduated from the Eastman 
Business College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and is now 
associate editor of the Westmoreland Democrat. The j 
next is Alpheus, who graduated from Franklin and 
Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., studied divinity in 
the theological seminary of that place, and is now 
a minister of the Reformed Church. Jacob, the last, 
died in infancy. 

Dr. William J. K. Kline was brought up on the 
homestead farm, attended the common and select 
schools, Glade Run Academy, and subsequently 
graduated from Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, 
in the class of 1860. During his senior years in col- 
lege Dr. Kline pursued the elective study of law. 
His health being at that time quite broken, he spent 
some time in the oil regions, at the outbreak of the 
oil excitement, hoping thus to recover his health, 
but without much avail. Leaving the oil regions he 
entered the office of Dr. H. G. Lomison, of Greens- 
burg, and with him read medicine, matriculated at 
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, took a course 
of lectures, and then entered Turner Lane Military 
Hospital, in that city, as a cadet, and subsequently 
completed his medical course at Long Island College 
Hospital, and graduated therefrom in 1864. The 
battle of Gettysburg being then in progress he pro- 
ceeded to Harrisburg with the intention of entering 
a surgical corps, passed examination by the State 
Medical Board, and was assigned to duty, and a large 
number of the wounded having been shipped to Har- 
risburg, he and Dr. J. S. King organized in that city 
the Walnut Street Hospital, of which they continued 
in joint charge for the period of nine months, at the 
end of which the emergency under which the hospital 
was organized was over. Near the close of his en- 
gagement there Dr. Kline contracted typhoid fever, 
which unfitted him for military duty, and on recovery 
went into private practice at Irwin Station, West- 
moreland Co., where he followed his profession for 
some years, being a portion of the time assistant 
surgeon, and during the absence of Dr. Lomison, the 
surgeon, in Europe, the acting surgeon for the West- 
moreland Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company. In 1868 Dr. Kline married Miss Emma 
Tinstman, daughter of the late John Tinstman, of 
Fayette County, Pa. In 1868-69 he took an extra 
course of medical lectures at the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, New York. In 1871 he removed to 
Greensburg, where he practiced his profession. He 



is one of the proprietors of the Westmoreland Demo- 
crat, and for the first few years of his residence in 
Greensburg shared with his copartners the editorship 
of that paper, in addition to his professional practice. 
In 1876, Dr. Kline was elected a member of the 
State Legislature, and served in the sessions of 1877 
-78. 

James Taylor Krepps, M.D., was born in Upper 
Middleton, Fayette Co., Pa., Aug. 4, 1847, the third 
in a family of seven children of Lewis and Sarah 
Ann (Lewis) Krepps. Jacob Krepps, his grandfather, 
emigrated with two brothers from Germany, and set- 
tled in Westmoreland County, Pa., and all who spell 
the name with a double " p" in this country are the 
descendants of these brothers. 

His grandfather Krepps raised a family of seven 
boys and three girls, eight of whom are living. All 
were married and settled in Western Pennsylvania. 
Lewis Krepps, his father, learned and followed the 
trade of a machinist, is retired from active business, 
a resident of Belle Vernon, Fayette Co., Pa. 

His mother was a native of the same county, and is 
still living. Their children were Hannah Elizabeth, 
Jacob William, James Taylor, Mary Allene, Ann 
Louisa, Eliza Jane, and Lewis Wilson, all married 
except Mary Allene and Lewis Wilson. When the 
doctor was a child his father moved from Upper Mid- 
dleton and settled in Fayette City, Fayette Co. Here 
the doctor lived until he was eleven years of age. 
He then left home, and hired out at three dollars per 
month to Joseph Krepps, at Allenport, Washington 
Co., Pa., where he remained five years, attending 
school during the winter seasons. At the age of six- 
teen he went for four seasons as cook on the steamer 
"Gen. George Washington," plying between Belle 
"Vernon and Pittsburgh, continuing his attention at 
school winters. AVhen twenty years of age he went 
to work in the ship-yard (Speer's) at Belle Vernon, 
where he remained two years. He then bought a 
livery stable in Belle Vernon, and ran it five years. 
During this period he commenced the study of med- 
icine with Dr. S. A. Conklin, then of Belle Vernon, 
now of Canton, Ohio. In the fall of 1872 he attended 
his first course of medical lectures at the University 
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his second course in 
the session of 1874-75 at the Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, Philadelphia, receiving his medical diploma 
from that institution in the spring of the latter year. 
On April 6, 1875, he located at Webster, and has 
practiced his profession at that place ever since. He 
carries on a drug-store iu connection with his practice. 
In politics he is identified with the Democratic party. 
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
at Webster, also a member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. 

He married March 14, 1871, Laura J., daughter of 
Thomas H. and Elma E. (Eberhart) Niccolls. Mrs. 
Krepps was born Oct. 26, 1848. Her grandfather 
Eberhart was among the first to manufacture glass in 



370 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Western Pennsylvania, and at one time was a large 
property-owner in Westmoreland County. He died 
in Redstone township, Fayette Co., March 2, 1882. 
Her uncle, Dr. Robert Niccolls, was surgeon-general 
in the army, now a retired physician, living in Bloom- 
ingtou, 111. Her grandfather, John Niccolls, was at 
one time sheriff of Westmoreland County. Dr. and 
Mrs. Krepps have children as follows : Allen Lewis, 
Laura May, Sarah Elma (deceased), and James 
Taylor, Jr. The doctor has been emphatically the 
" architect of his own fortune," has " made his own 
living" since he was eleven years of age, and by his 
own unaided efforts acquired his literary and medical 
education. Though among the younger members of 
the profession, he has attained a standing as a suc- 
cessful practitioner among the foremost in the county. 

Dr. John Davidson Milligan. — The great- 
grandfather of Dr. Milligan, John Milligan, emi- 
grated from the Highlands of Scotland to America in 
the early part of the last century, and settled in 
Chester County, Pa. He here married a Miss Mary 
Adams, a lady of the New England Adams family. 
He was a miller by occupation, and owned a mill and 
carried on his business at his place of location in the 
early part of the Revolutionary war. Being in sym- 
pathy with the cause of the colonies, he secretly and 
in a clandestine manner from time to time arranged 
that the Continental army should get rations of his 
flour. Being suspected in this he was in danger from 
the British at the time they occupied Philadelphia 
and the southeastern portion of the State. A de- 
tachment of the army sent for that purpose finally 
did destroy his mill, when he joined the army under 
Washington, and remained there till the close of the 
war. After the war he came to Westmoreland County, 
and took up the farm afterwards owned and occupied 
by Col. Israel Painter, known as " the Willow Tree 
Farm." He afterwards removed to and occupied the 
farm still in the possession of some of his descendants, 
situated west of Bell's Mills, Sewickley township, 
Westmoreland Co. On this farm he died. Before 
his death he held for a number of years the com- 
mission of justice of the peace. 

He left issue, — John, Alexander, and James C, of 
whom the latter was the grandfather of Dr. Milligan, 
and who was born in 1790. He married Deborah 
Eckels, a native of the county, of Scotch extraction. 
He was a farmer and carpenter, and occupied a por- 
tion of the Bell's Mills tract, upon which he still, 
witli his wife, resides in vigorous old age. His family 
are David, Mary, James M., Margaret, George, and 
Ellen. James M., the father of Dr. Milligan, was 
born on the 1st of January, 1819, and was married to 
Elizabeth Davidson, daughter of Samuel Davidson, 
in the fall of 1849. The issue of this marriage were 
John Davidson, Rosetta, Sarah, and Harry. 

John Davidson Milligan was born July 31, 1851, 
within a short distance of where he is at present 
located as a physician. He spent his boyhood on the 



farm of his father until he was seventeen. During 
this time he enjoyed no further benefits of schooling 
than were common to the boys of his locality at that 
time. But having advanced as far in his education 
as the facilities of the common schools allowed, he 
prosecuted his higher studies, including the classics, 
under competent private tutors. In his eighteenth 
year he creditably sustained an examination by the 
county superintendent, and received a certificate to 
teach. He taught two terms in succession, and still 
pursuing his studies became a student and graduate, 
July 17, 1872, of Iron City College, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Afterwards he again taught school in the same build- 
ing in which he had first gone to school. About this 
time he took up the study of medicine under the 
direction of Dr. Lewis Sutton, a practicing physician 
at Mendon, this county, and in 1874 attended a course 
of medical lectures at the Western Reserve Medical 
College, Cleveland, Ohio. From this institution he 
went to New York City, where he remained until he 
completed his course, and where, on March 1, 1876, 
he graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College. 
Returning home, he remained with his preceptor 
during the summer of 1876, and in October of that 
year again went East. On this trip, October 2d, he 
was married to Mrs. Martha J. Pinkerton, daughter 
of the late Col. Joseph Guffey, of Sewickley town- 
ship, Westmoreland. The marriage ceremony was 
performed in the Pennsylvania Room at Mount Ver- 
non, amid a throng of travelers, by the Rev. Mr. In- 
gersoll, of Washington City. 

Returning to New York, Mr. Milligan remained 
there during the closing session of that academic year, 
occupying his time in the study of clinical medicine 
and surgery in special, together with all available 
subjects incidental to the curriculum of the profes- 
sion. After properly qualifying he returned to Mad- 
ison, this county, in March, 1877, where he located to 
pursue the practice of the profession of his choice. 
Here his attention to business, clear conception, and 
honesty of purpose soon opened out to him a field of 
practice second to none in this county. Soon after 
locating at Madison he became a member of the 
Westmoreland County Medical Society, and in 1878 
was delegated to Pittsburgh to the meeting of the 
State Medical Society, of which he became a perma- 
nent member. 

It might be expected that it would be said that Dr. 
Milligan is still a devoted student, and so he is. He 
has devoted much time and study to the treatment of 
infantile and puerperal convulsions, and is at present 
preparing a work on that subject, together with clin- 
ical reports on all kinds of eclampsy. 

The Centennial year was one long to be remem 
bered by Dr. Milligan, for in that year he graduated 
from college, and in that same year was he married. 
The marriage ceremony was performed under pecu- 
liarly patriotic circumstances. On the 2d of October, 
1876, he was united in the bonds of wedlock to Mrs. 





~Mt&*'uc%tb) 




^Crz- <^L. fJt-t--^/^>-t-«> 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



371 



Martha J. Pinkerton, daughter of the late Col. Joseph 
Guffey, of Sewickley township, this county, at Mount 
Vernon, in the Pennsylvania room, in the midst of a 
throng of travellers, by the Rev. Mr. Ingersoll, of 
Washington City. This wedding ceremony was an 
impromptu one, and was hastened on under circum- 
stances which, the doctor says, were patriotic as well 
as romantic. 

Dr. Milligan is regarded as one of the foremost 
citizens of his community. He has filled all the 
offices of the borough corporation, and been selected 
school director; offices it is true of no distinction to 
a man, but capable of being made of some distinction 
by a man. 

The Milligan family has always been consistent 
Whig or Republican ; and in politico-clerical fields 
it has had one exponent well known in Western 
Pennsylvania. Rev. Dr. McLeod Milligan, pastor of 
the First Covenanter Congregation of Pittsburgh, is 
one of this family, and his eloquence and uncommon 
zeal are well known to Westmorelanders. Dr. Milli- 
gan has some reputation as a politician, having taken 
an active part in politics, and helping much to con- 
trol his party in local measures in this county. 

The biographical sketch of Dr. Lewis Sutton, whose 
portrait accompanies this chapter, appears in the bio- 
graphical department of South Huntingdon town- 
ship. 



CHAPTER XLV. 
COMMON SCHOOLS. 

Condition of Early Instruction in the Early Province and State — Mr. 
Sonierville's School at Greensburg — Country Schools — First Insti- 
tutes — The Superintendency and the Opinion of the last Genera- 
tion touching it — First Country Schools in the North of the County — 
List of County Superintendents : J. S. Walthour, H. M. Jones, J. Sil- 
liman, J. R. Spiegel — Present Status of the Common Schools — The 
County Institute of 1881. 

It is not possible for us to trace up a satisfactory 
history of the school system in this portion of the State 
from its settlement, as we have no data to work from. 
This want will doubtless be supplied by the publica- 
tion of the " History of the Common School System 
of Pennsylvania," now in preparation by Mr. Wicker- 
sham, late Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Some interesting observations on the early school 
system of the State may, however, be obtained in 
Lodge's " History of the English Colonies in Amer- 
ica," chap. xiii. We make room for a passage : 

"The Germans, as a rule, were far behind the English in point of in- 
formation, although they produced some distinguished men, like Ritteu- 
house and Muhlenberg ; and the same held true of the Swedes and 
Dutch, and in a less degree of the Irish. The German and Swedish 
pastors made great efforts to remedy this state of affairs by establishing 
schools in connection with the churches, but they met with little suc- 
cess. The Scotch and Irish Presbyterian clergy, more active and more 
zealous, fared better, and did good work with their country schools, 
known at this time as 'log colleges.' But the general condition of 



education in the rural districts was wretched in the extreme. School- 
houses were few and small, and rudely built of logs, and even these did 
not begin to appear much before the middle of the eighteenth century. 
The barest rudiments only were taught, and those badly and for small 
fees. There was little learning, loose order, and much whipping every- 
where. There was no public system of schools, and education was almost 
wholly in the hands of itinerant masters, who were frequently convicts 
and foreigners ; and even they generally abandoned a profession where 
the fee of a scholar was only five shillings a quarter. The case was a 
little better in the towns, such as Wilmington ; but the educational 
efforts of the English, who were the governing race, seem, except in the 
case of private schools kept by individual clergyman, to have been con- 
fined to the capital." 

We do not propose to give a biographical sketch of 
the life and public services of the race of defunct 
pedagogues in treating of this subject, any more than 
do we propose to make of the civil history of our 
county a gazetteer or directory. But the reader will 
readily perceive that we can illustrate any given sub- 
ject to better advantage by treating in detail a par- 
ticular branch or component part of it, and on this 
topic we recall a description of the " opening exer- 
cises" of the public school in Greensburg when Mr. 
Somerville was schoolmaster there, about 1830. 

When the school opened Mr. Somerville passed 
around among the scholars taking down their names 
and ages, and examining the books which they bad 
brought with them in which to pursue their studies. 
And here it may be premised that a series of very 
good readers had been compiled for the use of schools 
by the grammarian, Lindley Murray. They were 
named "The Introduction," "English Reader," and 
"Sequel." These readers were in common use, but 
after reading through them once or twice, boys were 
then allowed to read histories or the Holy Scriptures. 
On making inquiry about the books, one boy had 
brought Goldsmith's " History of Rome." Somer- 
ville said, " Let me hear you read." The boy read a 
few sentences, when the schoolmaster said, " Stop ! 
take that home and bring an 'English Reader.'" 
The boy replied, " Why, sir, I have read the ' Eng- 
lish Reader' and ' Sequel.' " Somerville sternly ex- 
claimed, " Do as I bid you ! Take that book home 
and bring the ' English Reader.' " Another boy had 
brought Grimshaw's " History of the United States." 
He was ordered to take it home and bring an " Eng- 
lish Reader." A third boy had brought the Bible. 
"Read a few verses," said the schoolmaster. The 
pupil read them. " Take that book home," cried the 
stern pedagogue, " and bring an ' Introduction.' " In 
short, he packed off Goldsmith, Grimshaw, Tytler, 
Plutarch, and the lives of Francis Marion and George 
Washington, and did not in his indignation spare 
even "King James' Translation of the Holy Scrip- 
tures." After repeated trials in reading he arranged 
all his scholars into three reading classes, known by 
the books they used, " Introduction," " English 
Reader," and " Sequel." 

Somerville being an Englishman, and probably an 
usher in England, had gotten his ideas of order and • 
system at home, and these he brought with him. He 



372 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



was generally regarded as ahead of his time, but this 
opinion we are bound to say was formed and promul- 
gated after he had left. In his teaching he appears 
to have laid much stress on reading, and evidently 
made an effort to teach the rudimentary branches 
well rather than hurry his pupils forward. In teach- 
ing reading he made his pupils read oftentimes the 
same sentence, that it might in the end be read cor- 
rectly in emphasis, articulation, and intonation. He 
would read aloud himself to teach them properly, and 
thus call their attention to their own defects. 

To the shame of ridicule, he added the dread of 
chastisement. The public schools then, and long 
after, closed on Saturday at twelve o'clock. Every 
Saturday afternoon Mr. Somerville strolled into the 
woods, and returned with a number of long, two- 
handed rods, which he wore out on the backs of the 
pupils during the following week. The parents had 
too much good sense to object, and indeed those 
mostly who wished their children to succeed at 
school imagined they made more rapid progress. 
With Solomon they were orthodox, and held that 
" to spare the rod was to spoil the child." 

All the boys who were advanced beyond a spelling- 
book used the dictionary of John Walker, which they 
were required or expected to study every day. Be- 
sides the ordinary method of teaching arithmetic, Mr. 
Somerville was among the first to arrange his pupils 
in classes and give instruction in mental and oral 
calculation. For a small compensation he, as all 
worthy teachers of his day, performed a great amount 
of labor. Blank paper and goose-quills were used in 
learning to write, and the schoolmaster had to set all 
the copies and make and mend all the pens. Thirty 
or forty copy-books had to be written in every day, 
and thirty or forty pens put in order. The school- 
master had often to remain after hours or go before 
school-time in order to get through with his irksome 
daily labor. 

And such, we take it, does not inaptly answer for a 
description of the manner in which the schools of the 
towns were in those days conducted. In the country 
schools, where the people were poorer, the roads bad, 
and the settlements scattered, the facilities for com- 
mon schools were greatly inferior to those we have in- 
dicated. To the public spirit and the influence of good 
citizens and men in nearly every locality the common 
people of the remote districts were indebted for all 
the advantages they possessed, such as they were. 

The qualifications of the " masters" who taught 
these schools were not high. Besides teaching spell- 
ing, reading, the Ten Commandments, and ciphering 
as far as the double rule of three, they were to show the 
youngsters how to sharpen quill-pens, and be able to 
cudgel the biggest and worst boy in the district. A 
successful pedagogue for a term of years might hope 
to be made a justice of the peace after many years' 
' service. If he could survey or clerk between times 
he could make a living. 



The following personal reminiscence of Col. John 
Bonnett, who lived between Laurelville and Mount 
Pleasant, preserves some information which we cannot 
afford to lose. Col. Bonnett was of French descent, 
of Huguenot extraction, and his only daughter was 
the wife of Dr. David Marchand, father of the Greens- 
burg family of Marchands. He was a man of ster- 
ling integrity, noble and generous-hearted, esteemed 
and respected by all who knew him, plain and unosten- 
tatious in his manners, but when roused had all the 
fire and flash of a Frenchman. His wife was a strong- 
minded woman of rare good common sense. They 
were known and generally called by the kindly name 
of " Uncle and Aunt Bonnett." One of his kind and 
generous acts probably eighty years ago or more 
(1800), was to set apart a plot of ground on one 
corner of his large plantation on which to erect a 
school-house, which was built by the neighbors 
throwing together, contributing largely towards it 
himself. This school-house, which was built about a 
mile east of Mount Pleasant, along the turnpike, 
served the community for many long years within a 
radius of five or six miles, and from a recollection 
extending over fifty years, was the only institution of 
learning there known. Quite a number from Mount 
Pleasant attended school there, of whom but few are 
now living. So celebrated was that old log school- 
house for the schools held in it, church and other 
meetings, that the late Daniel Shupe had it pho- 
tographed by A. N. Stauffer, of Mount Pleasant, be- 
fore it was torn down, and had a walking-cane made 
from one of the timbers. In those days the schools 
were supported by subscription, — no pay schools at 
that time, — and it was common to have a winter school 
for the larger ones, and a summer school for the 
smaller pupils. For the benefit of the smaller pupils, 
Col. Bonnett planted along the road opposite the 
school-house two rows of cherry-trees of different 
varieties, two or three of which are yet standing as 
monuments of his noble generosity. He lived to see 
them grow up and bear abundance of fruit to gladden 
the hearts of many a child. He seemed to live to 
impart good to others. The Bonnett farm is now 
known as the William Barnhart, Sr., farm. 

In the Gazette for March 25, 1825, is the following 
communication, which is of interest, as it reflects the 
public sentiment at that time on the matter of popular 
education. 

A correspondent writes us, so the editor says, 
from Rostraver township, in this county, as follows: 

"Mr. Editor,— It is requested that you would publish in your paper 
that the citizens of Rostraver township at their township election-ground 
agreed unanimously, by a publick vote, not to elect schoolmen for said 
township." 

The editorial comments upon this bit of informa- 
tion were in the following order : 

" At an election in this borough fifteen votes were given for school- 
men. No previous notice, agreeably to the school law, was given by the 
inhabitants. We know of no law or act of any legislative body so un- 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



373 



popular as this law has proven to be in this county. At the election in 
Hempfield township a scene of confusion and tumult occurred which iB 
represented as having been frightful. A person who witnessed part of it 
states that if any advocate of the school law had openly avowed himself 
as such he would have been literally torn to pieces. Expressions to this 
effect wore uttered by several person*. 

" Disorder on occasions of this kind is generally confined to a few in- 
dividuals who drink too freely, but in this instance it is not a little sur- 
prising to find a great majority of the people present openly opposed to 
the adoption of any measure having The least relation to the law in 
question. A greater number of persons were present than ever congre- 
gated at the same place before. 

"In Unity township, and, indeed, in every other township from which 
we have heard, a very decided disapprobation of the provisions of this 
law was manifested by the people. What could have produced such an 
unanimity of opinion upon the subject it is difficult for us to conjec- 
ture." 

FIRST INSTITUTES. 

At the June meeting, 1853, of the Westmoreland 
County Teachers' Association, John H. Hoopes, S. 
P. Shryock, and S. W. Greer were appointed a com- 
mittee to prepare an address lo the teachers and 
parents of the county on behalf of the association. 
The committee thereupon prepared and published in 
the county papers in July, 1853, the address, the 
opening portion of which is here given : 

"During the session of the 'Conemaugh Teachers' Institute 1 at 
Blairsville, Indiana Co., last October, a number of teachers from this 
county believing it high time to form a County Teachers' Association, 
held a meeting preliminary to such an organization. A committee was 
appointed to draft a constitution, and another to publish a ' call' for a 
meeting at New Alexandria on the 21st of November. Unfortunately 
this committee called the meeting for the 24th of December, and when 
the time (as fixed upon by the preliminary meeting) arrived only 
about twenty-five teachers were in attendance. These believing it proper 
to proceed to business, organized by adopting a constitution and electing 
officers, styling their organization as the 'Westmoreland County Teach- 
ers' Association.' After a spirited meeting of two days the association 
adjourned to meet at Madison on the 24th of June following. Those 
present believed that the most serious obstacles in the way of forming 
a union had now been removed, and that the meeting in June would be 
a joyous gathering of all the teachers in the county. 

u The 24th of June came ; timely notice in the public papers had been 
given of the meeting to be held on that day, and only eight teachers were 
in attendance. We confess it is with regret we publish this fact, but it 
is even so, that of more than two hundred professing teachers in this 
county only eight were interested enough to meet and consult together 
concerning the interests of their profession and for the welfare of those 
under their care. We are aware that the lime was not the most favor- 
able, being just at the commencement of harvest; but, making all due 
allowances, we think at least one hundred teachers might have been in 
attendance. Even that number would have been a poor representation 
of the county, but would have added permanency to the association." 

This statement of facts gave opportunity and occa- 
sion for the committee to describe at length the pecu- 
liar relations existing between the teacher and the 
people, and to deprecate the apathy of the profes- 
sional instructors and their lack of enterprise and 
aggression. A very eloquent and hearty appeal was 
made to the regular teachers to induce them to organ- 
ize, first in township associations, and again more 
especially in a county association, and it was asserted, 
with great truth, that whenever they should do so the 
body of the people, and especially the friends of pop- 
ular education, would come out and boldly and not 
timidly co-operate with them and assist them in their 
labors and in their efforts to elevate the standard of 
their honorable profession. 



The parents were specially requested to urge upon 
the teachers to effect local organizations, and to visit 
the schools. " There is," said the address, " too little 
visiting on the part of the parents ; it is a duty you 
owe your children and their teachers ; every good 
teacher will always welcome the parents of his 
pupils." 

The announcement was then made that a special 
meeting of the County Association would be held at 
Adamsburg on the first Friday of September, and a 
stated meeting at New Salem on the last Friday of 
November, and that the "Conemaugh Teachers' In- 
stitute" for the instruction of teachers would meet at 
New Alexandria on the 24th of October, and con- 
tinue in session one week. 

The common-school system, so far as regards its 
status in Westmoreland County, had in John H. 
Hoopes one of its most outspoken, ardent, zealous, 
and able friends and propagandists. Every move- 
ment in the interest of popular education was ably 
and warmly espoused and advocated by him, and he 
had a very happy faculty of presenting all the argu- 
ments in a practical as well as in an interesting 
manner. 

We think we do a favor to those who take an in- 
terest in this subject in recalling now some of his 
public expressions on the subject, which to the read- 
ers of that day were new. 

The following is taken from one of his contribu- 
tions to the Greensburg Democrat, in the issue of 
Sept. 6, 1855. As it is a teacher's opinion and a 
teacher's reflex of public opinion, and so ably delin- 
eates the situation of his profession at that day, we 
cannot think that our time and space are lost in 
giving it : 

"TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

" At last we are to have a Teachers' Institute in Westmoreland, even 
in the town of Greensburg, and we do hope that our teachers — a ma- 
jority of whom, for the first time, will have an opportunity of partici- 
pating in an institution established for their own benefit, and located 
in a central part of the county easy of access— will come up, enroll 
themselves as members, and take an active part in the proceedings. 

" Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania are of recent origin, but were 
established as long since a6 1840 in New England and Ohio. The object 
is to afford teachers an opportunity of assembling together and receiving 
instruction in the branches of education taught in public schools, and 
also in the theory and practice of teaching, the latter being an essential 
qualification to success, and one in which too many are sadly deficient. 

"Another advantage is also derived from these meetings: teachers are 
thus afforded an opportunity of meeting together and exchanging views 
on a Bubject which should interest them more than any other. This 
alone iB well worth the cost, and is of incalculable value. The teacher 
who has never yet met in association with bis fellow-laborers and con- 
versed on the duties of his profession has but little idea of the informa- 
tion derived from such intercourse. 

11 During the summer of 1853, Messrs. J. M. McElroy and J. M. Bar- 
nett, assistant principals of Elder's Ridge Academy, and a few other 
enterprising teachers made arrangements for holding an Institute at 
Blairsville, at which place in October of that year a large number of the 
teachers of Westmoreland and Indiana Counties met and organized the 
'Conemaugh Teachers' Institute.' Several distinguished educationalists 
from abroad were present as instructors, and after a spirited session of 
one webk the Institute adjourned to meet at New Alexandria in October 
of the next year. 

" We regard thai meeting as the great awaker of the teachers of Penn- 
sylvania ; there a spirit was aroused which will never r^st until the 



374 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



character of our public schools is elevated to the highest that can be 
attained. The Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, the untiring friend of educa- 
tion, and who has done more than any other man in the State for public 
schools, was present and took an active part in the meeting. After his 
return home he published in the Pennsylvania School Journal a glowing 
account of what had been done, which so aroused the teachers of several 
counties to a sense of duty that before the new year was ushered in a 
number of Institutes had been held in various sections of the State.and 
arrangements made for their coutinuance in future. Since that time 
nearly every county has held one or more Institutes. The ' Conemaugh 
Institute 1 convened at New Alexandria in October, 1853, and continued 
in session one week, and again at Siiltsburg in October, ISM, for one 
week. At this last meeting the connection between the teachers of In- 
diana and Westmoreland, so far as related to the 'Conemaugh, 1 was dis- 
solved by mutual consent, it being thought that the time had arrived for 
establishing two separate Institutes, one in each county, and that it was 
the duty of county superintendents to establish schools for the instruc- 
tion of teachers. In accordance with this view, our superintendent, Mr. 
McCormick, is now making arrangements for holding an Institute at 
Greensburg, tu commence on the 8th of October next, and continue one 
week. He has secured the services of Professor J. H. Stoddard, a true 
friend of education, and professor in the Normal School at Lancaster. 
Mr. J. P. Wickersham, superintendent of Laucaster County, has prom- 
ised to he present, if possible. Mr. BurroweB and other distinguished 
gentlemen are also expected to be with us. 

"Very mauy of the teachers of this county have been engaged in 
teaching for several years, remaining isolated beings, never meeting 
with their fellow-laborers, never exchanging views with other teachers 
on the duties of their profession. This is all wrong. No teacher is so 
well qualified that he cannot improve, and he who desires to teach in- 
telligently and succeed in the school-room must associate frequently 
with his brother teachers. Ideas will be advanced, modes of teaching 
pursued by others will be suggested, and, unless he he resolutely de- 
termined to learn nothing more, he will return to his school-room with 
a lighter heart, a better knowledge of his duties, and with a renewed 
zeal fur his profession. This is an age of improvement; there is a uni- 
versal demand for reform, — in religion, in politics, in education, in every- 
thing pertaining to our moral and social condition. The truly good 
teacher is beginning to be appreciated, and teaching is being elevated 
to its proper place. A majority of those who taught, or, rather, kept, 
school, say fifteen years ago, are no longer accounted worthy to oc- 
cupy the position of teacher; they remained isolated, were well enough 
qualified to teach school, and so they awoke one morning and found 
themselves ' behind the age.' And the ' drones," the machine-men, who 
are now intrusted with forming the character of the rising generation, 
unless they be up and doing, will soon meet the fate of their predeces- 
sors. We do not hesitate to say that the teacher who is unwilling to 
come out and meet his brother teachers face to face, who never expends 
a part of his salary in qualifying himself for his office, is unworthy the 
name of teacher, and had we the power to do so, we would strike the 
name of every such person from the roll. Much better would it be for 
the young minds of the present day if all such teachers, if they must 
be recipients of public funds, were paid to keep out of school-houses, as 
in that case our children, if not educated, would not be worse than un- 
educated. But we believe that a majority of the teachers of this county 
ore interested in this matter, and really do wish to Bee our schools ob- 
tain a more elevated character, and although they have stood aloof from 
the good work which has been going on, we cannot believe they have 
done so from choice, but ratlier have been actuated by feelings of modesty 
and a dislike of becoming known. Throw these feelings aside, and let 
us meet together to talk over our trials and difficulties, and have the 
dark places made bright. Let us meet and do each other good." 

THE SUPERIXTENDENCY. 
The act establishing the county superintendency 
was passed in 1854, and has consequently been in 
operation, at. this writing, twenty-eight years. The 
office was at first very unpopular, but its usefulness is 
now universally acknowledged, except where men fill 
it who are incompetent for the place. 1 Those ac- 
quainted with the history of the common schools in 
Pennsylvania for the last quarter of a century must 

1 Report of superintendent of public instruction for 1878. 



accord to it the high honor of being the principal 
agency in the movement that has revolutionized our 
system of public instruction, making it one of the 
most efficient in the Union. 

The Legislature of 1866 greatly strengthened the 
office by passing a law requiring all superintendents 
to be practical teachers, and to possess certain pre- 
scribed literary and professional qualifications. 

The school bill of 1854, in which was established 
the office of county superintendent, was received with 
marked feelings of disapprobation in some parts of 
the county. Like all advancements in any depart- 
ment of thought or action, it was opposed by that 
large portion of people who are constitutionally op- 
posed to innovation. 

But among the supporters of that bill was Mr. 
Hoopes, the ardent supporter of every movement and 
every law contemplated or passed in the interest of 
the common-school system. He published a lengthy 
article on "The Office of County Superintendent" in 
the current issues of the Greensburg papers, in which 
he answers the objections advanced by those opposed 
to the office. In this article he evinced a thorough 
knowledge, not only of the State legislation on the 
subject, but of the whole history of the school move- 
ment in the State in every phase and in every sec- 
tion. 

Touching upon that function of the county super- 
intendent, to pass upon the qualifications of teachers 
in both theory and practice, he uses the following 
language : 

" We have about two hundred and fifty schools; and of the teachers 
employed in these, I would like to know how many can publicly give 
their modus operandi of teaching? How many have any method at allT 
How many are mere machines, schoolmasters who teach altogether 
from the book, and do not know anything out of some particular text- 
books they have committed to memory? How many teachers have we 
who have ever thought for one moment that something more than a 
mere knowledge of some school reader, arithmetic, or grammar is ac- 
tually necessary in order to constitute a teacher capable of unfolding 
the infant mind and conducting it step by step up the rugged 'bill of 
science' ? These are grave and important questions, questions to which 
gloomy answers can only be returned, questious that deserve to be 
pondered seriously before we assert that our teachers and our schools 
are in need of no further improvement. 

"Can the superintendent in any way improve the condition of our 
schools? Most assuredly he can; and the more certainly to eradicate 
the great and prevailing evil the Law itself points out hie first duty, 
the examination of teachers." 

During 1858 and 1859 the great question which still 
agitated the peace of mind of the respectably inclined 
portion of country gentlemen, particularly those of 
that large class who are always looking about for a 
subject and an occasion which offers them a chance 
to be heard, was the question of the county superin- 
tendency, whether the office should be retained or 
vacated, whether it was of advantage or of disadvan- 
tage, whether, in choice terms, it was a good invest- 
ment or an unprofitable investment. Meetings were 
held in nearly every school district in the county. 
The foremost gentlemen in every community at- 
tended. Their names appear in the reports of these 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



375 



meetings as they were published in the county papers 
of the time. The great majority of these meetings 
indorsed resolutions which substantially pronounced 
the office of county superintendent a miserable fail- 
ure, inadequate to meet the ends sought, expensive 
and burdensome. The Legislature was requested to 
repeal the law and vacate the office. The men whose 
names figured most conspicuously would now be 
ashamed if they were made public. And well might 
they be, for they belong to that category which have 
from time immemorial been conspicuous for their 
opposition to innovations and to all advancement in 
the arts which have benefited the human race. They 
belong to that class which opposed the introduction 
of the press, of toll-paying turnpikes, of prepaid 
postage, of locomotives, of telegraphy, of the aboli- 
tion of the insolvent laws, and of vaccination. As a 
general remark, they were of narrow minds and of 
still narrower experience, selfish, ignorant, self- 
righteous, and covetous. And we know not of any 
who opposed the common-school system more de- 
serving reprehension or more the objects of well- 
merited contempt than those who tried to crush out 
the system in the infancy of its existence. 

That there were some plausible reasons upon which 
to found an expression of opinion in opposition to 
the office of county superintendent, and which at that 
time were apparent, will not be denied. The super- 
visory duties of that officer were not then thoroughly 
understood even by that officer himself. To have a 
public officer perform the functions of his office 
more things are necessary than the mere creation of 
the office and the induction of the officer. All jar- 
ring in the working part of the machinery must be 
stopped ; there must be an harmonious movement of 
all its parts. Such a condition of affairs did not then 
exist, nor was it possible for it to exist. But how few 
even at that day, friends of education and of the 
common-school system, as they called themselves, 
who, viewing the whole field carefully and critically, 
made up their minds unbiased by prejudice or un- 
controlled by ignorance. 

The report of Superintendent McAfee for the year 
previous contained the following : 

" I visited two hundred and two schools during the 
year, and although I had confidently expected to be 
able to visit all in the county during the winter, I 
was compelled, in consequence of the shortness of 
the school term, to leave over sixty unvisited. I 
made every effort to redeem my promise to the teach- 
ers at the public examinations to visit all, but 1 soon 
found that no person can visit so many schools in so 
short a time." 

For the latter part of the school year of 1859 (Feb- 
ruary), Mr. McAfee availed himself of the privilege 
allowed him by the law, and appointed Mr. R. S. 
Dinsmore, of Burrell township, and Mr. Austin Tay- 
lor, of East Huntingdon township, his assistants, to 
visit schools in the respective districts assigned them. 



Among the " Proceedings" of the citizens of Derry 
township, who met at School-House No. 8 on the 
evening of 10th February, 1859, is the following: 

" Resolved, That we consider our schools in a retrograde, in place of a 
progressive, condition. . . . We view the present law arbitrary, the power 
being all placed in the hands of school board and superintendent, the 
tax-payers having nothing to say. 

"That we view with indignation that feature of the law which em- 
powers the teachers and directors, absolutely combined, to force on any 
locality a series of books which they do not prefer, and to debar a series 
of hooks which it is the desire of the people to use. 

" That we will support no man for the office of school director that will 
not pledge himself, if called upon, to cut down the salary of the county 
superintendent, and use all honorable meanB to abolish the office." 

Previous to that meeting a similar meeting had 
been held at Hickory Spring School-House, Unity 
township, at which the following resolution, which 
had been made public, copied and indorsed by many 
other meetings in the neighborhood, was passed : 

"That we view with indignation and abhorrence that feature of the 
law which empowers the superintendent and directors, combined, to 
arbitrarily force on any locality a series of books when that locality is 
already supplied with a series they prefer. We believe that by an easy 
transition of such laws in their hands many would strike a d^atb-blow 
at the rights of conscience and triumph in our prostrate liberties " 

But this resolution was seriously condemned by 
other meetings in Unity township, particularly at a 
meeting held at No. 5 (Boyd's) about the same time 
of the meeting in Derry, above referred to. 

Petitions were in circulation in various portions of 
the county praying the Legislature to repeal that part 
of the school law of 1854 which relates to the county 
superintendency. 

But the system survived all this, and we have only 
to suggest a few observations before we note more 
minutely the progress and come to consider the 
present status of the system. There should not be 
any invidious distinctions drawn between the system 
of education common in the early period and that 
which was common in a later period, or which now 
prevails, to an utter contempt for the former system, 
as is sometimes done. In some respects our schools 
of to-day, in the subject matter taught and in the 
method of teaching, are not much, if at all, in advance 
of the schools of the generation preceding ours. For 
example, the discipline which is necessary for a mas- 
tery of the mathematics, of which elementary arith- 
metic is a branch, is said to be now wanting. So, too, 
has it been averred that object teaching does not in 
its method lay the solid foundation which the old 
system did. But leaving these things to right them- 
selves, it is apparent that the common-school system 
in its present degree of perfection is not the work of 
a day. The labor of those hauds who worked in the 
cause of popular and free schooling may be seen in 
the superstructure of the system itself. The present 
system of common-school education could only have 
been produced by a people who were trained up in it, 
and who towards a common end actively co-operated 
together. Such a system could not have been built 
up by any man or by any one set of men out of the 



376 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



incongruous elements at hand. A county institute of 
1881, with its trained instructors in all the practical 
and experimental sciences, in practice of teaching 
and in belles-lettres, in elocution and in vocal music, 
would have been in its ends and objects utterly in- 
comprehensible to our people of 1834. 

But there is one difference in the method of instruc- 
tion which will universally be admitted an improve- 
ment. This is in the manner of correcting the pupil 
by means of corporeal punishment. The rattan, the 
ferules, the long hickory switches, the dunce-caps, 
the high stools, the retaining the bad scholars in after 
school hours, these things have now about all passed 
out. There is consequently no further use for the 
charm that lies in the eyelash curled up in the 
youngster's hands, which was to shatter the accursed 
wood of the ferule the instant it came in contact, 
nor can the wicked truant show that Spartan firm- 
ness his prototype was wont to show when he took a 
whipping in his shirt-sleeves, and to the infinite grati- 
fication of the other wicked boys the master could 
not make him cry. 

FIRST COUNTRY SCHOOLS IX THE NORTH. 

For the following personal recollections and obser- 
vations we are indebted to H. M. Jones, Esq., lately 
county superintendent : 

" In regard to the schools of the county, my memory 
only carries me back to 1833. I remember very well, 
however, the appearance of the building and its sur- 
roundings. It was a log building, which stood in the 
woods near to a stream of water. The only windows, 
if such they may be called, were one on each side, 
consisting of a space between two logs with upright 
sticks some eighteen to twenty inches apart, and 
covered with greased paper so that the light might 
more easily penetrate within. The fireplace was of 
huge dimensions, into which logs of a very large size 
were rolled and fired, it being in the end of the build- 
ing. I remember of seeing small paddles on which 
the letters of the alphabet were pasted, and from 
which the little learner was expected to learn his A, B, 
C's. Cobb's Spelling-Book, the Old and the New Tes- 
tament, and the ' Western Calculator' were the books 
used. The master, as he was called, was stern, and 
seemed very much to prefer birch suasion to moral. 
A better class of buildings took the place of those log 
structures very soon after the adoption of the com- 
mon-school system of Pennsylvania. Just here I 
might say that among those who took an active 
part in favor of the system in this section of the 
county were Rev. Samuel McFarren, Samuel Kelley, 
Thomas W. McConnell, John Jones, William Moore, 
John S. Adair, William Marshall, John S.Sloan, and 
John Shields. I remember very well hearing Derry 
and Salem townships spoken of, when the system was 
in its infancy, as being fully up to the time, both in 
regard to houses and teachers. 

" Institutes.— The first teachers' institute held in 



the county of which I have any knowledge was held 
in the borough of New Alexander in October, 1853. 
It was looked upon with suspicion by many of the 
old fogies of the county. Some thought it a scheme 
of teachers to have their salaries increased. 

" Others thought new studies were about to be in- 
troduced which would be ruinous to pupils. Phonetic 
spelling was one of the new things discussed at that 
meeting. Township or district institutes were recom- 
mended. I do not remember the exact number of 
teachers in attendance at the meeting, but think it 
did not exceed fifty. The following are the names of 
some of those who were in attendance and took an 
active part, viz. : Samuel Shryock, D. L. Dickin, 
Lewis Seanor, H. M. Jamison, Joseph Jamison, 
George Kingsley, J. R. Beatty, and H. M. Jones. 
In the fall of 1854, district institutes were organized 
in a few of the townships, and reasonably well attended 
by teachers and a few friends of the cause. The next 
meeting of the teachers of the county convened in 
Latrobe in March, 1858. This meeting was called 
by Hon. J. R. McAfee, then superintendent of schools 
of the county. The number in attendance was not 
large, but the interest manifested was encouraging, 
and I am safe in saying that great good to the cause 
of education resulted from that convention. From 
this time up to the present county institutes have been 
held each year." 

Names of County Superintendents and 
Term of Office. — In 1854, Rev. Matthew McKins- 
try, of West Newton, was elected. He served one 
year and then resigned. James I. McCormick, of 
North Huntingdon township, was appointed to fill the 
vacancy and served two years. In 1857, J. R. Mc- 
Afee, of Latrobe, was elected and served three years. 
S. S. Jack, of Pleasant Unity, was elected in 1860, 
and re-elected in 1863 ; served six years. In 1866, 
Joseph S. Walthour, of Greensburg. was elected and 
served three years. H. M. Jones, of Salem township, 
was elected in 1869, and re-elected in 1872 ; served 
six years. In 1875, James Silliman, of East Hunt- 
ingdon, was elected, and he served three years. J. R. 
Spiegel, of Greensburg, was elected in 1878, and re- 
elected 1881. 

Matthew McKinstry, of West Newton, one year. 

James I. McCormick, North Huntingdon, two years. 

J. R. McAfee, Latrobe, three years. 

S. S. Jack, Pleasant Unity, six years. 

J. S. Walthour, Greensburg, three years. 

H. M. Jones, Salem, six years. 

James Silliman, East Huntingdon, three years. 

J. R. Spiegel, Greensburg, now in office. 

Sketches of the persons, their families, and the pub- 
lic services of these first superintendents will be found 
under appropriate heads in other portions of this book. 
Sketches of the later ones shall here be given as in 
proper place. 

Joseph S. Walthour was born in North Hunt- 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



377 



ingdon township, Westmoreland County, Feb. 5, 1829. 
His grandfather owned the old Walthour Fort, fa- 
mous in the local history of that region. During his 
boyhood he worked on the farm of his father in sum- 
mer, and in winter attended the school known as 
KunkePs. In the fall of 1846, at the age of seventeen, 
he commenced teaching school at the Barnes school- 
house, in the same township. His salary was eigh- 
teen dollars per month. Iu the fall of 1847 he came 
to Greensburg, and attended a high school there 
called the Muhlenburg Collegiate Institute, which 
was held in an old. frame building, still standing, on 
Bunker Hill. He remained at this school till 1849, 
at which time the school there under that manage- 
ment was abandoned, and removed to Zelienople, 
Butler Co., Pa. In the summer of 1850 he resumed 
the work of teaching, and taught his home school 
until the fall of 1852. 

After a short venture in the mercantile business he 
again began teaching, and taught the Byerly School 
in the winter of 1854, at a salary of twenty-two dol- | 
lars per month. In the spring of 1855 he was en- 
gaged as teacher in the boys' department of the 
Greensburg public schools, in the building still 
standing, and occupied by the sexton of the St. Clair 
Cemetery. From 1856 to 1859 he had charge of the 
New Salem schools. He then conducted various 
schools in different parts of the county, at the special 
solicitation of the citizens, and was one of the four 
teachers who opened the public schools in the present 
school building of Greensburg, and was engaged in 
this school when he was elected superintendent of 
the county in 1866. As superintendent he served 
three years, at a salary of eight hundred dollars per 
year. During the fall and winter of 1869, the year 
in which his term of office expired, he traveled 
throughout the State as an instructor at the various 
county institutes, and was regarded as a successful 
popular instructor. He attended seventeen different 
institutes in different parts. In the fall of 1870 he 
took charge of a graded school at Albion, Erie Co., 
Pa., at a salary of one hundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars per month. He remained here, however, only i 
eight months, on account of ill health and unfavor- 
able climate, and then went to Saegertown, Crawford 
Co., where he acted as principal of a graded school 
for nearly two years. Preferring Westmoreland above 
any other part of the State, he returned hither, and 
taught successively at Latrobe, New Derry, and 
Saltsburg, where he remained three years. He then 
again taught at Greensburg and in Hempfield town- 
ship. In 1880 .he visited the schools for County 
Superintendent Spiegel. 

Mr. Walthour began teaching thirty-six years ago, 
and, with the exception of some two years in which 
he was engaged in the mercantile business (counting 
the time of his superintendency), has been engaged 
in teaching continuously. The profession of teach- 
ing was the one of his choice, and he has had a nat- 



ural aptitude for imparting instruction to the youth, 
and his greatest ambition has been to use his influence 
and talents to the elevation of the system of common 
schools. 

The period which Mr. Joseph Walthour presided 
over the county school as their superintendent is one 
perhaps deserving of a more lengthy notice than 
usual, because it began shortly after the close of the 
civil war. We give these details from memoranda 
furnished by Mr. Walthour. 

When Mr. Walthour took charge of the public 
schools in 1866 we had two hundred and eighty-six 
schools in the county. It was his observation that 
the directors and citizens generally appreciated the 
system of education, and an honest and straight- 
forward manner of talk and demonstration in this 
regard were beginning to develop itself. There were 
six graded schools, and these, all but one, were in 
boroughs. Building was much retarded in conse- 
quence of the high price of labor and building ma- 
terial incident to the high rate of taxation existing 
immediately after the close of the war. But with all 
this quite a number of townships and boroughs en- 
gaged in building, and erected buildings which were 
far in advance of the majority of those then in ex- 
istence. In the erection of these houses grounds and 
locations were made a special object. In many other 
of the houses the old furniture was removed and new 
and more improved furniture put in its place, while 
the blackboards were everywhere enlarged. 

From 1867 to 1868 globes were bought out of the 
public money, and better blackboards were put in the 
rooms. This year the superintendent had 27 public 
examinations and 4 private ones. There were 365 
applicants for schools, 210 males and 105 females. 
Of these there were 19 males rejected and 27 females, 
in all 46. There were this year 32 professional cer- 
tificates and 9 permanent. 

Of the visits by the superintendent, there were 302 
schools visited once, 63 twice, 37 thrice, and 17 four 
times, an average of 3 per day, and he traveled 1440 
miles in this duty. 

The county institute met Oct. 1, 1867, and was in 
session five days. The greater part of the exercises 
was carried on and work done by our own teachers, 
with the assistance of Prof. B. Kidd, of Kentucky, 
Prof. Cooper, of Edenboro', Pa., and Gen. Frazer, of 
Bellefonte, Pa. There were 245 teachers present, out 
of 302 in the county. District institutes were held 
in each township once every two weeks, according to 
law. The text-books were confined to township uni- 
formity. Public sentiment was decidedly pronounced 
in favor of the common schools. The wages were: for 
males, from $28 to $55 per month, and for females, 
from $27 to $45. 

From June, 1868, to June, 1869, there were 16 new 
school-houses built, at an aggregate cost of $40,000. 
Graded schools were beginning to be formed all over 
the county. The comfort of the scholars was attended 



378 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



to in a more marked degree, and neatness was taken 
account of as well as durability. Modern desks and 
seats generally took the place of the old style of side- 
desks and benches. The walls were uniformly deco- 
rated with outline maps and charts, and a globe was 
put in each school-house built. There was an in- 
crease of 13 new schools, making in all 312 schools 
this year. More advanced pupils were in attendance, 
and the average attendance was 85 per cent. 

The public examinations were held in the districts. 
At most of these the attendance was large, and a gen- 
eral interest was manifested in the teachers' welfare. 

This school year the superintendent visited 315 
schools once, 87 twice, 28 thrice, and rode 2121 miles. 
In these visits, at nearly every school-house, lie was 
favored with the company of one or two of the direc- 
tors. The district institutes were held very generally 
and with tolerable success, but it was noticed that 
they were becoming unpopular among citizens and 
directors, on account, as was alleged, of the teachers 
neglecting their other duties and losing sight of the 
object they were instituted for. A hindrance was 
noticed and complaint made on account of the dis- 
tance many teachers had to travel to reach the place 
of meetings. This year 45 teachers held professional 
and 12 permanent certificates, the rest held provis- 
ional ones. On account of the low wages quite a 
number of the older teachers left their profession. 
Some dissatisfaction was caused by the employment 
of female teachers, so that in some districts they were 
entirely excluded from teaching winter terms. The 
average salaries were only thirty-five dollars per 
month. There were this year, for summer session, 
six normal training-schools, which continued in ses- 
sion 12 to 13 weeks. 

The county institute was held at Greeusburg, Dec. 
26, 1868. The principal lecturers and instructors 
were Professor Byerly, Rev. A. B. Fields, and Hon. J. 
P. Wickersham. 

While it was noticed and remarked by the super- 
intendent that the press was the best friend of the 
school system and the teachers, the pulpit did but 
little for their encouragement or advancement, and 
showed but little sympathy, and there were few visi- 
tations noted on the part of the clergy. 

Mr. Walthour, in furnishing this desirable informa- 
tion, thus concludes in a candid and earnest manner 
his observations : 

" Whilst we did not make all the improvement and 
advancement that our condition demanded, yet, all 
things considered, we did reasonably well, it having 
been my ambition in assuming the duties of the office 
of county superintendent to see the greatest possible 
improvement in those things pertaining to common- 
school work. But when I consider the enormous bur- 
dens imposed upon us at that time by the war, I can- 
not complain of the directors for not doing more. 
Taking the disadvantages into account, I can say that 
we all did well." 



Henry M. Jones was born in the eastern part of 
Salem township, Oct. 28, 1828. In the fall of 1832 
his father, Hon. John Jones, afterward an associate 
judge, bought a farm on Porter Run, in that township, 
and moved upon it April 1, 1833. He lived on this 
farm until May 21, 1872, when he died. In the fall 
of 1833, Mr. H. M. Jones commenced his common- 
school course in a school-house about half a mile 
north of his father's house, and continued going to 
school there during the winter season up to the spring 
of 1847. In the fall of 1847 he commenced teaching 
at the Elwood school, in the northern part of Frank- 
lin township. He taught this school two successive 
winter terms of six months e"ach. In the fall of 1849 
he took charge of the Concord school, in Loyalhanna 
township, and taught a term of six months. In 1850 
he taught a five months' term at Harmony Indepen- 
dent school. During this time, in the summer sea- 
sons, Mr. Jones prosecuted his studies in the higher 
branches of the mathematics and in the dead lan- 
guages, under the immediate tutorship of his elder 
brother, Rev. John M. Jones, a theological graduate, 
and at present a pastor of a Presbyterian congrega- 
tion in this county. 

In 1851 and 1852, Mr. Jones taught the Concord 
school again, and in 1853 a term of six months at 
Union Independent school. In 1854 he took charge of 
the Porter Run school, where he had received his pri- 
mary education, and this school he taught eleven terms, 
nine of which were public and two select. During 
the time he had charge of the Porter Run school, it 
Salem township, he also taught four summer terms at 
Concord, and from the fall of 1863 till the spring of 
1869 he had charge of this school. In 1869 he was 
elected superintendent of the common schools of the 
county for three years, at a salary of $800 per annum 
In 1872 he was re-elected without opposition, and his 
salary increased to $1500. 

His term of office as superintendent was eminently 
satisfactory. He worked with untiring zeal towards 
the development of the system which he had so much 
at heart, and during his terms the system advanced 
far in perfection. From time to time in his annual 
report he made suggestions which evince his practi- 
cal knowledge and his foresight. Some of the defects 
which he pointed out have been corrected, others in 
time will be. One of these defects which was patent 
he seasonably corrected. He insisted with the teach- 
ers that English grammar should take up some of the 
exclusive attention then given to mental arithmetic, 
and within a few years he was gratified to see the 
fruits of his zealous efforts all over the county. He 
also early advocated a uniformity in text-books 
throughout the county, the want of which is to this 
day regarded by educators as a defect. 

At the close of his official term, in 1875, he turned 
over the books and papers of his office to his succes- 
sor. He then retired from active school work for one 
year, which he spent in the mountains of Colorado. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



379 



In the fall of 1876 he again engaged in his favorite 
vocation at what he calls " our home school" (No. 
1, Salem township), which he has taught every year 
to the present time. He has thus been engaged in > 
public instruction since 1847, with the exception of 
the one year spent in travel and recreation. 

H. M. Jones entered upon the duties of the office 
of superintendent of schools of the county June, 1869. 
There were then 312 schools in the county. During 
the first year the number increased to 315 ; 200 male 
teachers were employed, and 115 females. The sala- 
ries of male teachers averaged $44.12, that of females 
$34.47 ; average cost of instruction per month, 92 
cents per scholar ; 382 applicants were examined, 28 
of whom were rejected. 

During his second year (ending June, 1871) 16 new 
houses were erected ; number of schools increased to 
321 ; 213 male and 108 female teachers were employed ; 
average salaries of male teachers, $43.85 ; that of 
females, $34.34; average cost of instruction, 92 cents 
per month ; 422 applicants were examined, 80 of 
whom failed to come up to the grade. 

Third year (ending June, 1872) : six new houses 
built ; schools, 322 ; males employed, 218 ; females, 104 ; 
average salaries of males, $44.08 ; average salaries of 
females, $35.61 ; average cost of tuition per month, 
90 cents ; 450 applicants were examined, 99 of whom 
were rejected. 

Fourth year (ending June, 1873) : 12 new houses 
built; schools, 329; male teachers employed, 197; 
females employed, 132 ; average salaries of males, 
$44.88 ; females, $34.60 ; cost of tuition per month, 81 
cents; 431 applicants examined, 90 of whom were re- 
jected. 

Fifth year (ending June, 1874) : new houses built, 
12; schools, 335; male teachers employed, 205; 
females, 133 ; average salaries of males, $45.55 ; 
females, $37.83 ; cost of tuition, 83 cents per month ; 
400 applicants examined, of whom 92 failed. 

Sixth year (ending June, 1875) : 15 new houses 
built ; schools in the county, 342; male teachers em- 
ployed, 212 ; females, 133 ; average salaries males, 
48.50 ; females, $38.95 ; cost of tuition per month, 83 
cents ; applicants examined, 475, of whom 102 were 
rejected. 

James Silliman was born in Lancaster County, 
Pa., Jan. 24, 1827. His father came from Ireland 
when a young man. His mother was of Quaker de- 
scent, born in America. He moved with his parents 
from Lancaster to East Huntingdon township, West- 
moreland County, in 1833, and he has since been a 
resident of that township. His mother having died 
when he was about seven years of age, he commenced 
work among strangers when he was about ten. His 
schooling until he was about nineteen was received 
at the common schools, he working nights and morn- 
ings in the winter for his lodging. From common 
schools he went several terms to high or graded 
schools, and subsequently to Mount Pleasant College. 



He commenced teaching when he was twenty-one, 
and continued in this profession until 1875, when he 
was elected county superintendent to succeed H. M. 
Jones, Esq. Mr. Silliman, while being a professional 
teacher, is also a practical surveyor, and he has con- 
tinued to teach and survey since the expiration of his 
official term. 

J. Rau Spiegel, the present superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction of Westmoreland County, was reared in 
East Huntingdon township, but born near Stuttgart, 
Aug. 27, 1847. His parents emigrated to this country 
in June, 1852, and settled in East Huntingdon town- 
ship, in which township they have been living ever 
since. 

William Spiegel, the father, is a descendant of 
Frederick Spiegel, German orientalist and professor 
of oriental languages for many years at Erlagen ; 
he served six years in the German army, and he has a 
brother who is holding at the present time a high 
position under the German government. 

Christina Rau, the mother, is a descendant of Karl 
Heinrich Rau, German political economist and pro- 
fessor of political economy and financial science for 
almost forty years at Heidelberg College. Mrs. Spie- 
gel is from one of the best German families. 

Superintendent Spiegel's parents were very poor 
when they came to this country ; the father kept a 
family of five persons on forty cents per day. This 
their children are not ashamed to acknowledge. When 
seven years of age he first attended the public schools, 
known as the Mennonite School, now Stonerville, 
ex-County Superintendent Silliman being his first 
teacher. In 1856 his parents moved to Bethany, into 
what is known as Pool's School District ; in this dis- 
trict he received his common-school education. Among 
his teachers are J. D. Cope, J. A. Stevenson, M. O. 
Lane, Rev. Peter Loucks. At the age of thirteen he 
was elected assistant teacher in Pool's School, James 
Silliman, principal. At fourteen taught one term 
as assistant in the same school, J. D. Cope, principal. 
Taught the first public term at the age of fifteen, in 
South Huntingdon township, Gaut's School. Taught 
next in New Stanton; then at Hillside, Mount Pleas- 
ant township, three years in succession ; then at 
Louck's, now Scottdale. The following prominent 
positions he has filled as teacher : Principal of Mount 
Pleasant Public Schools, principal teacher Titusville 
Soldiers' Orphans', principal of Wilcox Public Schools, 
Elk County; principal of Wiconisco Public Schools, 
near Harrisburg; principal of Greensburg Public 
Schools. He received calls from the Boards of Direc- 
tors and Trustees of Williamsport High School and of 
several of our Normal Schools. He was married to 
Miss E. Jennie Thomas, Dec. 19; 1876. Mrs. Spiegel 
is a native of Wilkesbarre, Luzerne Co., Pa., a teacher 
for several years. 

Mr. Spiegel educated himself entirely; teaching in 
the winter, and attending school in the spring and 
summer. He almost completed a course at West- 



MHO 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



moreland College, now Mount Pleasant Institute, and 
finished his course at Mount Union College, Ohio, at 
which college he graduated in 1871. 

PRESENT STATUS OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 

At the present time, 1882, there are 398 common 
schools in the county and 352 houses, of which two- 
thirds are seated with what is kuown as the " im- 
proved furniture," and one-half are supplied with the 
ordinary school appliances. There are 54 school dis- 
tricts and 324 school directors. The average length 
of the school term is five and three-quarters months. 
The average salary is $34 per month. The average 
number of annual examinations, based on the current 
term of the present superintendent, is 22. The super- 
intendent announces these examinations by publica- 
tion in the newspapers about three weeks before they 
are held. The examinations are conducted in both 
the written and oral method. To these examinations 
there come annually about 600 applicants. In 1881 
the superintendent granted only 382 provisional cer- 
tificates, being about 16 fewer than therewere schools 
in the county. This most certainly is an excellent 
indication of the high standard of qualification es- 
tablished by the superintendent. 

The educational progress of Westmoreland County 
within the last three years is largely due to the an- 
nual county institute and joint teachers' educational 
meetings held throughout the county. Superintend- 
ent Spiegel, in four years of his official life just 
passed, has expended almost $3600 towards the pro- 
motion of the teachers' work in having the leading 
lecturers and instructors of the land at the annual 
institute. The teachers and the large number of citi- 
zens who have attended have had the pleasure of 
hearing such lecturers as Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, Hon. Edgar Cowan, Theo- 
dore Tilton, Robert Burdette, and many other lec- 
turers and instructors of national reputation. The 
proceedings of the institute for 1881, which we give 
at length, will give an idea of the manner in which 
these have been conducted. 

During the four years of Mr. Spiegel's superintend- 
ency he has made 1623 visits to schools, averaging 
one hour and a quarter in each school ; traveled on 
an average twelve miles per day, which in these 
four years, including the annual examination tour, 
amounts to 7500 miles. 

The teachers evidently manifest a profound interest 
in educational meetings. During the sessions of the 
county institute in 1881 there were in attendance 
385 teachers out of 398. The citizens also manifested 
what might aptly be called an absorbing interest in 
these meetings. In many of the townships the direc 
tors allowed their teachers the time while attending 
the county meetings, — this before the late act of As- 
sembly allowing them the time so spent as part of 
their term. 

As an example of the hearty manner in which Mr. 



Spiegel conducts his work, and as a thing to be re- 
membered hereafter, the following " Remarks," as 
part of the programme of the twenty-fifth annual 
meeting of the institute, are retained : 

" I need say nothing in behalf of our programme; it is the strongest 
in the State. Directors, patrons, anil citizens, yon are cordially invited 
to attend. Teachers, yon are paid for the week; let all be present; let 
every teacher feel that it is his or her duty to participate in the exer- 
ciseB. How many of our teachers can awaken the energy that will 
bring out classes of the school-room to the institute, and the teachers of 
the respective classeB exhibit their method of instruction aud progress 
in a branch or branches prosecuted by the pupils? Specimens of pupils' 
work — free-hand, dictation, map, elementary projection drawing, ele- 
mentary design of primary schoolB, and specimens of penmanship — 
are solicited. Prizes will be awarded for the above work, passed upon 
by the committee. Course tickets rate as follows: Orchestra, S1.50 ; Dress 
Circle, $1.25; Gallery, $1.00. Single admission tickets; Orchestra, 50 
cents; Dress Circle, 35 cents; Gallery, 25 cents; except Thursday even- 
ing, when they will sell: Orchestra, 75 cents; Dress Circle, 50 cents; 
Gallery, 35 cents. Due notice of the Bale of tickets will be given. 
Secure your tickets aud boarding early. 

" J. R. Spiegel, County Superintendent." 

The day sessions of the institute were held in the 
court-house ; evening lectures in the Opera-House. 

COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 
Proceedings of Twenty-fifth Annual Session. 

Institute convened in Greensburg, December 26th, 
at two o'clock p.m., and was called to order by Su- 
perintendent J. R. Spiegel. Devotional exercises 
were conducted by Rev. W. W. Moorhead. The 
proceedings were interspersed at proper intervals 
with music and prayer. Professor George H. Hugus, 
of Latrobe, was chosen secretary, and E. B. Sweeney, 
of Irvin, assistant secretary. C. C. Griffith, of Li- 
gonier, E. B. McCormick, of Irvin, and J. P. Algire, 
of Greensburg, were chosen as reporters for the sev- 
eral papers of the town. Institute then fixed the 
time of holding sessions. Morning session, 9 a.m. 
to 12 m. ; afternoon session, 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. ; 
evening session (lectures), 7.30 p.m. 

Professor John J. Ladd, of Waynesboro', Va., was 
then introduced, who addressed the teachers with 
some very interesting remarks on schools aud insti- 
tute work, founded on an experience of thirty-eight 
years. Secretary Hugus then proceeded to the call- 
ing of the roll. A number was given to each teacher, 
to which they were afterwards to respond. The music 
of the institute was conducted by Professor John R. 
Francis, of Greensburg. 

Evening Session. — Superintendent Spiegel intro- 
duced to a very large and appreciative audience the 
Hon. John Latta, of Greensburg, who greeted the 
teachers in a lengthy address, referring in feeling 
terms to the importance of the teachers' work and 
the accountability of the teacher. Terse responses 
were then made by Messrs. Sharp, Deemer, Chamber- 
lain, Jones, and Silliman. 

The lecturer of the evening, Professor J. J. Ladd, 
was then introduced, and held the audience almost 
an hour on the subject of" parent, teacher, and pupil," 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



381 



in which he illustrated his firm belief in the opinion 
that men are born for their callings, not made. 

Tuesday Morning Session. — Institute convened 
at 9 a.m., Superintendent Spiegel in the chair, who 
appointed committees on journals of education, draw- 
ing, and spelling. 

Discussion — Is it good for a school to be frequently 
visited by strangers? Participated in by Professors 
Henry Hohenchell, Stevenson, Chamberlain, Dewalt, 
Bryan, Jones, and others. 

Professor J. J. Ladd then instructed the institute 
on communication in school, cause and prevention. 
Remarks by superintendent. Discussion — Does arith- 
metic consume more than its proper time in school- 
room work? Opened by Professor James Silliman, 
followed by Monroe, Hohenchell, and Graham. 

Afternoon Session. — Roll called and minutes 
read. 

Question— What are the duties of the directors of 
the common schools ? Discussed by J. G. Scorer. 
Methods of teaching primary reading were then il- 
lustrated by Mrs. Highberger, the Misses Hill, Law- 
son, and Reed, also by Messrs. Gardiner and McCon- 
nell. 

Professor J. H. Ryckman addressed the institute 
on the subject of literature. Instruction by Professor 
J. J. Ladd. Discussion. Question — What relation 
has the teacher to the pupils out of the school? Re- 
marks by the Messrs. Chamberlain, Morrow, and 
Sharp. 

Evening Session. — Institute convened in Opera- 
House, and at eight o'clock Eli Perkins was introduced, 
who lectured on "The Philosophy of Fun." 

Wednesday Morning Session, December 28. — 
Roll called, minutes read, music, etc. Devotional 
exercises by J. Chamberlain. Remarks by Superin- 
tendent Spiegel. The following-named teachers were 
previously appointed as committee on resolutions : 
The Misses Hill and Naly, Messrs. Sharp, Bingham, 
and Davidson. 

Discussion — Topic No. 2 was called for: Is there 
Room for the Elements of the Natural Science in the 
Common School Curriculum ? Remarks on topic 
by Miss Elma Ruff, Messrs. Bryan, Cope, Hutchinson, 
Chamberlain, Sharp, Vandyke, Sweeney, King, and 
Jones. 

How to teach local geography was then illustrated 

by J. L. Davidson and Riggle, Miss Brown, and 

Miss Bell Martin. 

Professor Ladd gave a talk on tardiness in school, 
cause and prevention. Secretary reports three 
hundred and seventy-two teachers present. 

Afternoon Session. — Roll called, minutes read, 
etc. Committee on spelling, Miss Lide Churns, 
Professors Mull and Graham. Said committee pro- 
nounced one hundred words. Superintendent Spiegel 
then appointed a committee to collect and examine 
manuscripts. 

Professor J. J. Ladd instructed institute. 
25 



Discussion — Is the Study of Grammar, as Taught 
in our Schools, a Proper Study? Discussed by Pro- 
fessor Wakefield. Recitation — The Schoolmaster's 
Guests, by Professor King. 

Professor J. H. Ryckman addressed institute on 
English Literature, and how it may be taught in our 
common schools to make it a pleasing and profitable 
study. Rev. E. D. Holtz was called, and addressed 
the very large audience then assembled. 

How to teach primary reading was discussed by 
Miss Elma Ruff, J. H. Ryckman, J. J. Ladd, J. D. 
Cope, and J. Silliman. 

Wednesday Evening Session. — Theodore Tilton 
was introduced to a very large audience assembled in 
the Opera-House, where he lectured on " The Problem 
of Life." 

Thursday Morning Session. — Institute con- 
vened in court-house at 9 A.M. ; three hundred and 
ninety teachers reported present. Primary reading 
illustrated by Miss Thomas, of Greensburg public 
schools, with class. 

Dr. E. E. Higbee, State Superintendent, was in- 
troduced, and addressed the institute in reference to 
good school directors, and the care which the teacher 
should exercise over the pupils' physical and intel- 
lectual powers. 

Instruction by Professor Young, of Indiana, Pa., 
on pronunciation of words. Drill on gymnastics, by 
Miss Sadie Morrow, of Manor. Address by Professor 
L. H. Durling, of Indiana, Pa. Greetings received 
from the Somerset County Teachers' Institute, three 
hundred and seven teachers present. Greetings re- 
turned by Westmoreland County Teachers' Institute, 
three hundred and ninety present. Report of com- 
mittee on spelling : James B. Wallace, of Painter- 
ville, missed sixteen words, first prize ; E. G. Hays, 
of Ligonier, missed twenty-one words, second prize. 

Afternoon Session. — Roll-call, etc. Recitation 
by Professor King. Reports made by committees on 
penmanship and drawing. W. P. Dewalt, followed 
by others, discussed the question, When shall perma- 
nent certificates be annulled? 

Election of committee on permanent certificates. 
Professor S. K. Henrie presented his class in English 
Grammar before the institute. The exercise was 
highly interesting. Professor J. H. Young gave in- 
struction on the subject of marking progress in school, 
and derivation of words. 

Instruction by Professor Ladd. 

Superintendent Spiegel then with regret read a tel- 
egram which announced that John B. Gough would 
not be present. 

Evening Session. — Institute met in Opera-House 
at 7.30 p.m. Professor King recited " Over the Hills 
to the Poor-House." 

Address by Professor Young. 

Professor King recited " Winter Winds" and " Lit- 
tle Lover." 

Address by Professor J. J. Ladd. 



382 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Friday Morning Session. — Institute convened 
in court-house at 9 a.m. Boll-call. Superintendent 
Spiegel read an article on school discipline, after which 
remarks were made on the care and general appearance 
of school property. Recitation by Professor Shields. 
Professor Young gave a talk on school organization. 
Professor J. H. Byckman gave a talk on English 
Literature. Instruction by Professor Ladd. Com- 
mittee elected on permanent certificates : J. Chamber- 
lain, H. M. Jones, W. H. Morrow (Manor, Pa.), J. J. 
Sharp, G. H. Hugus. 

Afternoon Session. — Boll-call, etc. Professor 
Young gave instruction on derivation of words. In- 
struction by Professor Ladd. Professor Young recited 
"Schneider's Jug." 

Professor James Silliman was then called to the 
chair, when the committee on resolutions made its re- 
port. The report was received and the committee 
discharged. Besolutions were adopted. A vote of 
thanks was tendered to Professors Ladd, Young, 
Byckman, King, and Francis for their valuable in- 
structions. Addresses were made by Bevs. Stevenson, 
Sheerer, Smith, Jones, Moorhead, and Houtz, and by 
Professors Young, Hugus, Byckman, King, Henry, 
and Ladd. Superintendent J. B. Spiegel then ad- 
dressed the institute with brief remarks, in which he 
thanked his secretaries, the citizens of the town, and 
all who assisted in the management of institute af- 
fairs. A vote of thanks was tendered to Superinten- 
dent Spiegel for his untiring zeal in the interests of 
our common schools. Music, " Sweet By and By." 
Benediction by Bev. Stevenson. 

Friday Evening Session. — Dr. Willits, of Phila- 
delphia, held a very large and appreciative audience 
in the Opera-House for one hour and forty-one min- 
utes while he delivered his celebrated lecture, " Sun- 
shine, or the Secrets of a Happy Life." 



CHAPTEB XLVI. 

MEXICO. 

Public Excitement on Declaration of War, May 13, 184G— Military 
Spirit — Companies in Greensburg — Promptness of the Young Men of 
Westmoreland in responding to the Call for Volunteers — "Westmore- 
land Guards" — Roll — Affairs about Greensburg before their Departure 
— The Company's Place in the Army — Account of the War in Mexico, 
and Particulars of the Campaign of Gen. Scott's Army — Services of 
the Second Regiment and the "Guards" from Vera Cruz to Mexico — ■ 
Honors paid the Company on its Return — Sketches of Capt. Simon H. 
Drum, Lieut. Richard Johnston, Andrew Ross, and other Members of 
the Company — Casualties and Deaths — Roll of the Company when 
discharged. 

When war was declared with Mexico, the genera- 
tion of that day knew of war only from the fame of 
it. The glories of the battles that were fought by the 
Texans for their liberation from Mexico were carried 
on the winds all over the republic, like as the fame 
of the Trojans had reached Carthage. Many years of 
peace had laid over the land, and of the terrors and 



anguish of war the young of that day knew nothing. 
Besides this there was something attractive in the 
thought and the expectation of waging a war in a 
foreign country, with a people who were not of the 
same blood, nor bound to us by any ties of affinity. 
Nay, the first popular knowledge of them was born in 
enmity. The highly-colored episodes of border his- 
tory, the romantic although inhuman destruction of 
those Americans who fought to the death at Goliad 
and the Alamo, the glories of San Jacinto, all con- 
spired to make popular the talk of war with Mexico. 
Besides that it was a country which lay remote, a 
journey of many days, either overbroad uninhabited 
plains or across the waters of theGulf. It was an em- 
pire in history, and its capital and larger cities were 
said to contain great stores and accumulations of 
costly materials. There still existed the marble baths, 
the lofty porticos, and the well-preserved palaces of 
the ancient Montezumas ; there were the remains of 
the temple dedicated to the sun, whom the old Tol- 
tecs worshiped, still magnificent in its decaying splen- 
dor, the stone basin used to catch the blood of the 
human sacrifices, the grand cathedrals of the modern 
Spaniards. This was the land which produced the 
luscious fruits of the tropics, where the clime was 
genial, and the fields were always ripening under the 
bright rays of an unchanging summer sun. 

The military spirit at that time was in the ascend- 
ant. There were militia companies, under the mili- 
tary-volunteer system of the State then in existence, 
in nearly every village, and almost everyplace of im- 
portance had two and three companies. There were 
two or three companies at that time in Greensburg. 
In these the best class of the community paraded 
regularly without distinction of social standing. At- 
torneys, clergymen, doctors, merchants, clerks, me- 
chanics, apprentices, and laborers were members of 
these companies. 

Westmoreland was prompt in responding to the 
call of the country, and sent more than one hundred 
of heryoung men to the battle-fields of Mexico. They 
were not of the class that generally compose the rank 
and file of an army, but were her choicest spirits, her 
favorite sons, the flower of the county. Hardship 
and toil and death terribly thinned their ranks, for 
nearly one-third of their number who followed the 
flag of their country to the war did not return to 
their friends. Some struggled home, it is true, but 
to die; some expired by the way ; the bodies of some 
were flung to the sharks of the Gulf; the bodies of 
others were buried in the sands of Vera Cruz, at Ja- 
lapa, Perote, Puebla, in the Valley of Mexico. It was 
the fortune of a few, and comparatively but a few, to 
fall on the field of battle ; the greater number sunk 
under the fatal diseases of a hostile country. The 
names of the dead, who had, in the words of a gallant 
comrade, the "privilege of dying in the fight," have 
thus attained the celebrity and insured the remem- 
brance which no public memorial can aid. 



MEXICO. 



383 



The roll of the company recruited at Greensburg 
follows: 

ROLL OF THE WESTMORELAND GUARDS. 

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. 

7 

Captain, John W. Johnston ; first lieutenant, James Armstrong; second 
lieutenant, Washington Murry; second junior lieutenant, James 
Coulter. 

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. 

First sergeant, Henry 0. Marchand ; second sergeant, Thomas J. Barclay; 
third sergeant, H. Byers Kuhns; fourth sergeant, James M. Mc- 
Laughlin; first corporal, James M. Carpenter; second corporal, 
Andrew Ross; third corporal, William Bigelow; fourth corporal, 
Daniel C. Byerly. 

MUSICIANS. 

Drummer, Andrew J. Forney ;_fifer, Michael J. Kettering. 



John Aikens. 
Andrew Bates. 
Hugh ¥. Brady. 
George W. Bounin. 
William A. Campbell. 
Humphrey Carsou. 
Richard Coulter. 
Archibald Dougherty. 
Henry Fishel. 
Samuel Gorgas. 
John R. Grow. 
Frederick Haines. 
James M. Hartford. 
James Hays. 
Andrew R. Huston. 
James Johnston.- 
Jacob Kagarize. 
John Kerr. 
Jacob Kuhn. 
Philip Kuhns. 
Jacob Linsebigler. 

• Macready. 

George (Buck) May. 
William H. Melville. 
Samuel Milner. 
Samuel C. Morehead. 
Peter McCabe. 
Samuel McClanen. 
James H. McDermott. 
Robert C. McGinley. 
Anion McLane. 
William McWilliams. 
Frederick Rexwood. 
Joseph Shaw. 
Thomas Spears. 
Henry Scickle. 
Nathaniel Thomas. 
James Underwood. 
William R. Vance. 



Lebbeus Allshouse. 
McClure Bills. 
Samuel Byerly. 
Henry Bloom. 
Hagen Carney. 
Milton Cloud. 
George Decker. 
James L. Elliott. 
Henry Geesyn. 
Andrew D. Gordon. 
George Haggerty. 
Edward Hansberry. 
George W. Hartman. 
Michael Heasely. 
Jacob Horfer. 
Richard H. L. Johnston. 
William Kelly. 
Henry Keslar. 
Daniel S. Kuhns. 
Edmund B. Laudon. 
Benjamin Martz. 
Jacob Marchand. 
David Mechling. 
Jacob P. Miller. 
Samuel H. Montgomery. 
Lewis Myers. 
Richard McClelland. 
John McCollam. 
Charles McGarvey. 
William Mclntire. 
James McWilliams. 
David R. M'Cutcheon. 
James Rager. 
Chauncey F. Sergeant. 
William R. Shields. 
Frederick D. Steck. 
John Taylor. - 
Israel Uncapher. 
Samuel Waters. 



At a public meeting held at Greensburg on the 23d 
of December, 1846, a committee was appointed to 
solicit subscriptions for the purpose of procuring con- 
veyances to carry the volunteers from the county to 
the rendezvous at Pittsburgh. 

They passed the holidays of 1846 at Greensburg. 
They were most hospitably and generously enter- 
tained by the citizens of the place. On Monday 
evening, Dec. 28, 1846, they were entertained by the 
ladies of the town, at which entertainment a superb 
supper was given them. On Tuesday afternoon the 
Rev. Mr. Brownson presented each member of the 
company with a handsome copy of the Bible, which 



were received by Andrew Ross, Esq., on behalf of his 
comrades. On Wednesday morning, at an early hour, 
the company started for Pittsburgh in carriages and 
coaches, expecting and intending to reach the city 
the same day. 

Liberal contributions were made by the citizens of 
Greensburg and of various places, and that nothing 
should be wanting for the comfort and welfare of the 
men, the county commissioners, at the request of va- 
rious citizens of the county, gave an additional dona- 
tion. At Pittsburgh, on the steps of the St. Charles 
Hotel, Capt. Johnston was presented with a beautiful 
sword. Mr. McCandlass made the presentation in a 
neat and patriotic speech, to which Capt. Johnston 
feelingly replied. 

The Westmoreland Guards were designated as Com- 
pany E, Second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, and were attached to Gen. Pillow's brigade, 
Gen. Patterson's division, in Gen. Scott's army. 
When they were mustered in they numbered ninety- 
four men all told. Mustered into service Jan. 1, 
1847, left Pittsburgh Jan. 8, 1847, landed at Vera 
Cruz March 9th, were engaged in all the principal 
battles from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, and 
were mustered out, forty-four men all told, July 14, 
1848. 

William B. Roberts was colonel of the Second Penn- 
sylvania when the regiment took the field, but Col. 
John W. Geary subsequently succeeded to the com- 
mand on the sickness and disability of Col. Roberts. 

In this war our armies operated upon three lines, 
and were known as " the Army of the West," com- 
manded by Stephen W. Kearney ; " the Army of Oc- 
cupation," under the command of Gen. Zachary Tay- 
lor; and " the Army," commanded by Gen. Winfield 
Scott. 

It is not of our province to relate the history of 
this war, nor to give in detail the campaigns of the 
several armies. But as any succinct history of this 
war is not to our knowledge within the reach of the 
ordinary reader, we shall give a short relation of the 
campaign of Gen. Scott's army, the one in which were 
the Pennsylvanians. 

VERA CRUZ. 

The forces designated to operate on the line from 
Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico had their rendezvous 
at the Island of Lobos, and proceeded thence to the 
shore west of the Island of Sacrificios. Early in 
March, the weather being propitious and the arrange- 
ments of the naval squadrons being perfect, the troops 
debarked on the Mexican shore in fine order. On the 
22d of March, the surrender of the city of Vera Cruz 
having first been demanded, the batteries opened fire. 
The fleet assisted. The fortress of San Juan, the 
gateway to the city and the West, held out; but ou 
the morning of the 26th, when arrangements had 
been made to carry the works by assault, the Mexi- 
can commander made overtures of surrender. On 



384 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the 29th the troops took possession of the city and 
castle. 

CERRO GORDO. 

On the 14th of April our army was in presence of 
the Mexican army, and for the purpose of a flank 
march and to close their line of retreat, Scott ordered 
a road to be cut to the right of the American army, 
but to the left of Cerro Gordo, which wound round 
the base of the mountain in rear of the Mexican forts, 
then rejoining the Jalapa road behind their entire 
position. It took three days to do the work, but on 
the 17th, while approaching the Mexican lines, our 
working party was discovered and fired upon. A part 
of one of the divisions of our army, under Harney, 
advanced up the hill and charged the enemy with such 
impetuosity that they drove them down the steep and 
up and over the neighboring heights. While our bat- 
teries from the heights which they now occupied in 
front of Cerro Gordo, and while Harney with his 
command rushed on to storm its heights, Shields 
pressed forward in the direction of the enemy's left 
to seize the Jalapa road and prevent the escape of the 
fugitives. The heights were captured, and the enemy, 
atDacked by Shields, were completely routed. They 
here lost twelve hundred in killed and wounded, and 
three thousand as prisoners. 

Jalapa was taken on the 19th, Perote on the 22d, 
and Puebla on the 5th of May. These all lay in the 
line of march. But of the fourteen thousand who 
assembled at Lobos, now on the 15th of May not 
more than five thousand effectives were on hand to 
march to the city of Mexico. Hence the delay in 
the forward movement until August. Successive 
reinforcements under Cadwalader, Pillow, and Pierce 
increased the army at Puebla to eleven thousand. 

On the 7th of August, 1847, Gen. Scott marched 
from Puebla with this force, divided into a cavalry 
brigade and four divisions. After a few days' inarch 
the army passed over the crest of the mountains, and 
when the weary soldiers were almost worn out a 
sudden turn in the road brought them in view of the 
splendid panorama of the rich Valley of Mexico. 
Far off they beheld the lofty steeples, the checkered 
domes, the silver lakes of the historic city, and behind 
it the volcanoes which threw up fire over the broad 
belt of snow that covers them even in summer. 

But the road thither was fortified at every height, 
at every bridge, and in every ravine. The attempt to 
advance by the National road was abandoned, and a 
passage that existed around the south end of Lake 
Chalo was sought to be made practicable for the 
army. This was successfully done. The divisions of 
the army lay within supporting distance of each other. 
This route was thought by the Mexicans to be im- 
practicable. On the 18th all the army was in posi- 
tion near San Augustine, on the farther side, and on 
the Acapulco road, nine miles from the capital. In 
their way, however, lay the pass of San Antonia. It 



being strong, and on a narrow causeway, the plan of 
attack was to turn San Antonio by taking 

CONTRERAS. 
On the 19th a portion of the army (four brigades), 
advanced and fought vigorously with the enemy until 
night. The superiority of the enemy's numbers and 
the nature of the ground enabled them to hold our 
army in check and prevent our advance upon their 
front. On the slope west of the village was the im- 
mense reserve of Santa Anna, about 10,000 men. 
But when the final arrangements were made, and 
when a route had been found for the infantry to gain 
the rear of the enemy's position, the combat began. 
At 3 o'clock in the morning the march began by 
the forces detailed to gain the rear ; at the same 
time the positions were taken by the rest of the di- 
visions in the flanks and in front. About sunrise the 
assault was made on the Mexicans' rear and both 
flanks. The whole army as here bestowed was com- 
manded by Gen. Smith, who had arranged the plan, 
although he was not the senior officer. The intrench- 
ments were stormed and the works carried. All this 
in seventeen minutes. In the whole war no more 
brilliant or decisive victory is recorded. It was here 
that the Fourth Artillery recaptured, with great joy 
and exultation, two of its guns which had been lost 
at Buena Vista. 

CHERUBUSCO 
lies about four miles east of Contreras, but is six miles 
distant by the road. Contreras being won, Gen. 
Worth's division was ordered to attack San Antonio, 
to open a shorter and better road to the capital for 
our siege and other trains, and, after carrying that, to 
move on and join the other divisions in attacking 
Cherubusco. The garrison of San Antonio retreated. 
The Mexican army under Santa Anna were concen- 
trated in and around Cherubusco. In the attack two 
battles raged at two different points of attack. The 
parapets were from all directions, ditches were crossed 
all fortified places were captured one after another, 
and at length the citadel itself, which crowned the 
heights, was entered sword in hand. Victory fol- 
lowed victory, and at length the American dragoons 
on the rear of the Mexicans, with the sword at their 
loins, drove the fugitive enemy to the very gates of 
the city of Mexico. In these engagements 9000 Amer- 
icans were engaged, whose loss was 1000 in killed and 
wounded, while the loss of the Mexicans, in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, exceeded 7000 out of 32,000. 
The five battles fought on this 20th of August were 
Contreras, San Antonio, the fete du pont, the Convent 
of Cherubusco, and the action with the right wing of 
Santa Anna's army. 

But the city was not yet to fall. An armistice was 
signed, negotiations for peace were begun, and our 
army was halted two miles and a half from the city to 
' await the result. ■ On the 6th of September these ne- 
gotiations ended fruitlessly. 



MEXICO. 



385 



MOLINO DEL REY. 

A stone building of thick and high walls, with 
towers at the end, was at the foot of the hill slope, to 
the west of Tacubaya, where Scott had established 
his headquarters. This itself was nearly a mile south 
of the hill of Chapultepec. West of Molino del Rev 
lies the Casa de Mata, another thick and massive 
building. Between these points were Santa Anna's 
forces, 14,000, in line of battle. On the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 3154 made the attack in three columns. The 
centre was pierced, then the small attacking force 
was driven back, but, supported, again rushed for- 
ward, penetrated through the lines of the enemy and 
isolated the two wings. Here on the left, at Molino del 
Rey, Drum's Battery did such excellent service, and 
here fell the gallant Dick Johnston. While this attack 
was being made here, a heavy column of Mexican 
cavalry and infantry defiled around Casa Mata upon 
our extreme left. These were met and routed. Casa 
Mata was abandoned. The field was ours, but the 
battle was the bloodiest battle of the whole war. 
Our loss was 787 killed and wounded, of whom 58 
were officers. That of the enemy, killed, wounded, 
and prisoners, was 3000. 

On the morning of the 12th of September our bat- 
teries opened fire upon 

OHAPTJLTEPEC, 

and continued it until night. The hill of Chapulte- 
pec is a steep, bluff, rocky height, rising one hundred 
and fifty feet above the surrounding grounds, and 
defended by a strong castle of thick stone walls. The 
fortress is about nine hundred feet long. The base 
of the hill was defended by a thick and high stone 
wall, and inside of it lay a considerable body of 
troops. The lower slope of the hill was mined. Be- 
yond the mines and about midway of the ascent was 
a strong redoubt clasping the entire front. This was 
also filled with troops. Above this redoubt was an 
inner wall, inclosing the crest of the hill with a wide 
and deep ditch. Inside of this wall was the main 
fortress or citadel, filled with troops under Gen. 
Bravo, and defended by eleven pieces of artillery. 
At 8 a.m. on the 13th the signal was given for assault 
on the cessation of fire of the heavy batteries. It 
was stormed on all sides, under a terrible shower of 
balls. They reach the ditch, bridge it with fascines ; 
the scaling-ladders are placed against the massive 
walls ; they mount and rush into the citadel. The 
South Carolina and New York Volunteers and the 
Second Pennsylvania, in which are the Westmore- 
landers, all on the left of Quitman's line, together 
with portions of the storming parties, crossed the 
meadows in front under a heavy fire, and entered the 
outer inclosure of Chapultepec just in time to join in 
the final assault from the west. A brief but fierce 
struggle occurred, the fortress was carried, its artil- 
lery was captured, and a large number of prisoners 
were taken. 



THE CITY OF MEXICO 
at, length lay open to attack. The army attacked in 
two columns under Worth and Quitman. The enemy 
fought in the suburbs, and gallantly defended their 
gates, but when the morning of the 14th of Septem- 
ber, 1847, dawned both columns marched into the 
city without resistance, and this wondrous battle- 
march from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico was 
history. 

The following sketch, being the epitome of an ex- 
tended diary kept by one of the members of the com- 
pany, Mr. Thomas J. Barclay, now deceased, gives in 
detail the part taken by the " Guards" in the cam- 
paign from their landing at Vera Cruz : 

" From that time things proceeded rapidly. Vera Cruz was invested; 
in three days after the trenches were opened the city surrendered, hav- 
ing only sustained a bombardment of twenty-four hours. The army at 
once proceeds to Cerro Gordo. On the 18th of April, 1S47, they make 
the attack. The position is taken by storm. Santa Anna sustains a 
crushing defeat. Three thousand prisoners, four thousand muskets, 
many battle-flags, abandoned artillery, and what remained of the Mexi- 
can army in flight, these are the trophies of this almost unparalleled 
act of Bkill and heroism. On the 2lst of April, 1847, three days after 
the battle of Cerro Gordo, Mr. Barclay was appointed first sergeant of 
Company E, commanded by Capt. John W. Johnston. Gen. Scott, 
towards the close of Api-il, sent back four thousand of his men whose 
term of enlistment had expired. The remaining troops advance, and on 
the 8th of July, 1847, the large city of Puebla surrenders without a bat- 
tle. The army of invasion now numbers only four thousand five hun- 
dred. In four short months the army had lost five thousand five hun- 
dred men by casualties out of a total of fourteen thousand, and four 
thousand by reason of expiration of term of enlistment had returned 
home. Company E, which left Pittsburgh with an aggregation of 
ninety-four men, now only numbers seventy. More than one-fourth of 
the entire number are gone. They will suffer other losses before the 
capital of Mexico is taken. The government of the United States for- 
warded other troops to make up for the losses, and the army is again 
raised to fourteen thousand five hundred. Six hundred able-bodied 
men and six hundred convalescents are placed in tire garrison at Puebla 
to guard that point and to take care of the twenty-five hundred sick 
confided to their care, and among the list of the sick is the captain of 
Company E. Gen. Scott leaving Puebla advanced with the balance of 
the army, numbering ten thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight men. 
He has now reached a point of great danger ; nearly a month of march- 
ing must elapse before the small invading army can reach the capital. 
A blazing sun in a tropical climate is pouring down his hottest rays. 
The army is cut off from its base, and is surrounded on all 6ides by hos- 
tile populations. Hungry and desperate guerrillas hang on the flanks 
of the army, as it advances. Santa Anna is organizing another army to 
make a last and desperate defense before tiie capital of the nation. It 
may be twenty or one hundred and fifty thousand men. He has had 
over four months to accomplish this. The little army is advancing into 
the jaws of certain death, or to a victory that will cover them with im- 
perishable glory. The national honor is in the keeping of that little 
band of brave men. Westmoreland County had a deep stake in that 
apparently forlorn march. Company E was mainly constituted of the 
Mite of the county. Having crossed the table-lands and mountains 
which separated Puebla from the capital, the army approached the capi- 
tal. From the ISth to 20th August the battles of Contreras, San An- 
tonio, and Cherubusco were fought. The Second Regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers came up on the 12th September, and formed part of the guard 
of Batteries Nos. 1 and 2. On the 13th September the rock of Chapul- 
tepec, crowned witli strong Spauish fortifications of the seventeenth 
century, which commanded all its approaches, was stormed and taken 
after a bloody resistance. The Second Pennsylvania Regiment Volun- 
teers, including Company E, formed part of the storming party, and on 
the same day this company assisted in the attack which carried the 
Mexican Batteries Nos. 1 and 2 on the causeway leading from the castle. 
The city fell into the hands of the invading army, and on the 14th Sep- 
tember, 1847, Company E formed part of the garrison of the city. Santa 
Anna retreated with the remnant of his army, soon after to fall upon 
the garrison at Puebla, where the sick and wounded had been left. In 



386 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the battles fought around the capital the invading army took thirty- 
seven hundred prisoners, thirteen of whom were generals and three ex- 
Presidents, and seventy-five cannon and many small-arms, and the in- 
vading army after leaving Puebla lost in the conflict twenty-seven huu- 
dred and three men, more than one-fourth of the invading force that 
left Puebla." 

The honors which Westmoreland paid to her chil- 
dren when they returned were heartfelt and substan- 
tial. They were feted and feasted wherever they went. 
A meeting had been held at Greensburg, which was 
attended by delegates from all sections of the county, 
at which arrangements were made to welcome home 
the returning members of the Guards. Accordingly, 
when Capt. Johnston's company arrived at the wharf 
at Pittsburgh, on the morning of the 11th of July, 
1848, they were there met when they put their feet 
on shore by the chairman of the committee of ar- 
rangements and cordially welcomed back. " A host 
of warm hearts from old Westmoreland," so says a 
Pittsburgh paper of the time, " were soon on the 
steamer ; fathers and sons, wives and sweethearts 
were found in happy communion." And again : 
" They were escorted to their quarters by a number 
of our citizens and some friends from Westmoreland. 
We got a fair look at them as they passed our office. 
We think them the best-looking fellows that have yet 
returned; this is the opinion of all. Capt. Johnston, j 
as well as his men, deserve great credit for the really 
good appearance they made." 

They were escorted from Pittsburgh by the com- 
mittee and citizens, and their entire progress was one 
constant ovation. The volunteers turned out, ad- 
dresses were made, dinners given, toasts drank, ball- 
rooms festooned, fiddlers pensioned, and the fair were 
ready, everywhere ready, to honor the returning 
brave. 

Nor did these demonstrations cease at the county 
town. Wherever a squad of these veterans came they 
met the same hearty welcome. A large meeting was 
held at Youngstown, near to which was the home of 
Capt. Johnston and of many who had accompanied 
him to the war. Arrangements had been made, a 
procession was formed with a chief marshal and as- 
sistant marshals, the military were in line, and the 
citizens in carriages. They were met a mile out of 
the town. As they approached they were honored 
with a national salute from the brass field-pieces. 
The town was hung with garlands, flags, streamers, 
and arches of evergreens. They were welcomed home 
in a neat speech, and conducted to a tavern at which 
had been provided abundance of refreshments. When 
the cloth was removed a meeting was organized : toasts 
were read in which the valor and bravery of the 
Guards were the principal theme. At night " bright 
eyes looked love to eyes again, and all went merry as 
a marriage-bell." 

Early in 1848 it was proposed to raise a plain but 
durable monument inscribed with the names of all 
the Westmorelanders that served in the war. For a 
time it looked probable that the project would be 



accomplished. But after the first expressions of re- 
gard the matter ceased to be agitated, and the fortu- 
nate moment passing, the memorial was abandoned 
by that generation and left to another. 

Simon H. Drum, who fell gloriously before the 
gates of the city of Mexico, Sept. 13, 1847, was a na- 
tive of Greensburg, son of Simon Drum, Esq., and a 
brother of Richard C. Drum, the present adjutant- 
general of the army. He was a captain in the Fourth 
United States Artillery in Mexico. By a desperate 
charge at Gontreras he recovered the cannon taken 
from his own regiment at Buena Vista. When he 
got a glimpse of the guns, he turned to his men and 
said, " See those guns, men : they belong to the Fourth 
Artillery, and we must take them." 

A prominent historian of the war thus mentions 
his services at Chapultepec : " Captain Drum's battery 
kept up a constant and destructive fire the whole day 
at Chapultepec. Quitman's division, consisting of 
the Second Pennsylvania and South Carolina and 
New York Volunteers, a battalion of United States 
marines, occupied a position in supporting distance 
of the battery." In every account of this battle the 
services and the gallant conduct of this artillery are 
highly and commendably spoken of. 

Amid the tempest of fire that preceded his death, 
being unable to move his guns on account of the loss 
of his men, he turned to the Westmoreland Guards, 
who lay in the arches of the aqueduct beside him. 
Many of them had been his schoolmates; and these 
were those who would carry back to Westmoreland 
the story of the glorious bravery of one of her sons. 
He turned to them and said, " Will not some of my 
Westmoreland friends lend a hand?" The response, 
so another one said who was not a Westmorelander, 
" did honor to old Westmoreland." His last words 
to his comrades were, " Forward the battery !" 

Some of his comrades or friends composed a beau- 
tiful poem upon the subject of his death, which was 
published in the Pittsburgh Morning Post late in 1847, 
and in it appeared these lines : 

" And Westmoreland, whose fearless sons 

Saw thee in death expire, 
Thou, and her brave, heroic ones, 
Whose fall she mourns, to her bequeath 
Glory's unfading laurel wreath, — 

And sacred patriot fire, — 
Which she will cherish while remains 

Each green hill of their native home, 
While living verdure crowns the plains, 
By honor hallow'd, where their names 

Have mouldered in the tomb." 

He was born June 8, 1807; entered the Military 
Academy at West Point, and graduated with distin- 
guished honor, July, 1829. He was on active duty in 
the Black Hawk war, and served for three years in 
the Florida war as an officer of artillery. In 1846 
he joined Gen. Wool in his long and arduous march 
through Mexico to Saltillo, performing duty as assist- 
ant-inspector-general. From there he marched, in 
command of his company, with Worth's division to 



MEXICO. 



387 



join Gen. Scott in the attack upon Vera Cruz. In the 
whole campaign he conducted himself with that cool 
and accomplished bravery for which he was so re- 
markably distinguished, and at Cerro Gordo and Con- 
treras his gallantry displayed itself in a conspicuous 
manner. 

The following observations were made upon the 
news of the death of Capt. Drum and Richard H. J. 
Johnston at Moliuo del Rev, and they show what a 
deep feeling of sorrow pervaded the community upon 
the occasion : 

" But what shall we say of the gallant but unfortunate Dick Johnston '.' 
He volunteered, as all know, as the private soldier of his country less 
than a year ago; was shortly afterwards appointed a lieutenant by the 
President, distinguished himself for his daring and courage, and fell, 
fighting gallantly, in view of the city of Mexico. How much he is re- 
gretted by all who knew him hero is more than we can express. Under 
a rough and blunt exterior he had a heart as kind and as fearless as 
ever beat in human breast. He was the youngest brother of three who 
went to Mexico together. One was stricken down by the disease of the 
climate and was barely able to reach home, where, thank Providence ! 
his health has been restored. The other, Capt. Johnston, is still in Mex- 
ico, suffering much from impaired health. And the gallant Richard, 
who followed the steps of his elder brothers to battle, escaped almost en- 
tirely the sickuess of the climate to fall in the sanguinary conflict of 
King's Mill, like a true soldier, ' with his back to the field and his feet 
to the foe.' 

"Capt. Drum and Lieut. Johnston were both natives of this county, 
and the sons of two of our oldest and most respectable families. Their 
friends have the deep sympathy of the entire community in their be- 
reavement. They have, besides, the consolation of knowing that these 
gallant meu fell nobly in discharge of their duty; that they fell where 
the brave and chivalrous soldier wishes to fall, if fall he must, in the 
thickest of the fight, and that their memories will be respected wher- 
ever patriotism is honored and the true soldier of his country has a 
friend." 

Andrew Ross died on board the steamer " New Or- 
leans," April the 30th. He was born in Allegheny 
township, graduated at Union College, New York, 
studied law at Greensburg, and had been admitted 
but a short time when the war broke out. He was 
among the first to volunteer. He died on shipboard 
from exposure and sickness contracted in the open 
campaign field. His body was thrown into the waters 
of the Gulf of Mexico. 

James Kerr, a native of Sewickley township, had 
just been prepared to enter upon his professional 
career, that of the law, when he enlisted into the 
Guards. His disease developed itself at New Orleans, 
yet he pressed forward to Lobos, and thence to Anton 
Lizardo, near Vera Cruz. Here he was unable to go 
on shore, but died on shipboard on the 11th of March. 

At a meeting of the bar, held at the sheriff's office 
on the 5th of June, 1847, suitable and appropriate 
resolutions of respect and condolence were passed in 
memory of these young men who died in Mexico. 

George May, of Youngstown, James M. Hartford, of 
Stewartsville, and Lewis Myers, of Carlisle, died at 
Vera Cruz before the march began. 

Lieut. Washington Murry died on the 16th of June 
(1847), on his homeward passage, between Cincinnati 
and Pittsburgh. He took part in the capture of Vera 
Cruz and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and in the 
battle of Cerro Gordo. He left Jalapa on the 28th of 



May, on a furlough to recruit his health in the United 
States. His remains were interred in the graveyard 
of the Long Run Church, near Stewartsville. 

Andrew Jackson Forney, drummer to the " Guards," 
died iu the Marine Hospital at Louisville on the 
18th of June. He had been discharged at Vera Cruz 
some time before, and was on his way home, wheu he 
became so ill he had to stop over at Louisville, where 
he died. 

Andrew R. Huston died in the hospital at Vera 
Cruz, of yellow fever, on the 18th of June. When 
the army moved forward from Jalapa he was left in 
charge of the sick, and thus himself fell a victim to 
disease. 

William A. Campbell, on account of ill health, re- 
ceived a certificate of discharge at Jalapa on the 8th 
of June. He arrived with much difficulty at his 
father's house near Blairsville, where he died on the 
12th of July. 

Henry C. Marchand was honorably discharged on 
account of ill health. Arriving home in May, 1847, 
he was compelled for a long time to keep his room 
and bed. 

James Johnston, assistant quartermaster's sergeant, 
and Corporal James M. Carpenter were honorably 
discharged on account of sickness, and they both ar- 
rived home towards the middle of June. 

William Wentz took sick beyond the city of Jalapa> 
while the company were encamped there, and died in 
the garrison. 

Robert McGinley, from Salem township, died in 
the city of Mexico. 

Sergt. James M. McLaughlin, of Greensburg, son of 
Randall McLaughlin, died at home on the 30th of 
March, 1848, in the twenty-second year of his age. 
He took part in all the battles in which the " Guards" 
were engaged, from Vera Cruz to Mexico. After the 
battles of the city of Mexico he was disabled for duty 
by sickness, was discharged, and arrived home De- 
cember the 25th, 1847, and was compelled to keep 
his room almost constantly till the day of his death. 

Jacob Miller, a private, who was wounded in the leg 
at Cerro Gordo, left Jalapa on the 8th of June (1847) 
for home, where he arrived about the middle of July. 

George Decker, a private, was wounded at Chapul- 
tepec, 13th September, 1847, returned home, near 
Salem, and died 19th August, 1871, in Penn town- 
ship. 

The following list includes the volunteers who went 
from Westmoreland County with the Duquesne Grays, 
First Pennsylvania Regiment, as also a full list of the 
Westmoreland Guards, arranged under appropriate 
heads : 

DUQUESNE GRAYS (FIRST REGIMENT). 

John C. Gilchrist, Esq., killed in battle, 12th October, 1847. 
James Keenan, Jr., promoted second lieuteuant, 11th Infantry. 
Richard C. Drum, promoted second lieutenaut, 11th Infantry. 
Joseph Spencer, died at Perote, Mexico. 
Henry Bates, died at Perote, Mexico. 
William Burns, no return. m 



388 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



WESTMORELAND GUARDS (SECOND REGIMENT). 

Kilted in Battle— a.t Molino del Rey.— R. H. L. Johnston, promoted 
first lieutenant, 11th Infantry. 

Died in Mexico. — Samuel Gorgas, George Hagerty, James M. Hartford, 
Andrew R. Huston, John Kerr, Daniel S. Kuhns (in consequence of a 
wound), Jacob Linsenbigler, John McCollam, Robert 0. McGinley, Ed- 
ward McCredin, George May, William H. Melville, Lewis Myers, Joseph 
Shaw, Thomas Spears, Nathaniel Thomas, William R. Wentz. 

Discharged and Died coming Home. — Lieut. Washington Murry, Lieut. 
Andrew Ross (11th Infantry, promoted), Drummer A. Jackson Forney. 

Discharged and Died at Home. — William A. Campbell, Esq., Sergt. James 
M. McLaughlin, Michael Heasly. 

Discharged. — II. C. Marchand, Esq., J. M. Carpenter, John R. Grow, 
Edward Hansberry, James Johnston, William Kelly, Edmund B. Lan- 
don, Philip Kuhns, William Mclntire, Jacob P. Miller (wounded), Jona- 
than Pease, Frederick Rexroad, John Taylor, Henry Fishel. Jacob T. 
Wise, Archibald Dougherty. 

Promoted. — S II. Montgomery, assistant quartermaster. 

Promoted and Resigned. — H. Byers Kuhne, Thomas J. Barclay, second 
lieutenants, 11th Infantry. 

To Return. — Capt. J. W. Johnston, Lieut. James Armstrong, Lieut. 
James Coulter, David Mechling, Corp. William Bigelow, Fifer M. J. Ket- 
tering, John Aikens, Lebbius Allshouse, Andrew Bates, Hugh J. Brady, 
McClure Bills, Samuel A. Byerly, George W. Bonnin, Hagan Carney, 
Humphrey Carson, Milton Cloud, R. Coulter, Jr., George Decker, Samuel 
Elliot, James Underwood, Henry Geesyn, Andrew D. Gordon, Frederick 
Haines, George W. Hartman, James Hays, Jacob Hoffer, J. Kagarize, 
Henry Keslar, Jacob Kuhn, Benjamin Martz, Peter McCabe, Samuel 
McClaran, Anion McLain, Richard McClellaud, D. R. McCutcben, 
Charles McGarvey, James McWilliams, William McWilliams, Jacob 
Marchand, Samuel Miluer, Samuel C. Moorhead, James Rager, C. For- 
ward Sargent, William R. Shields, Frederick D. Steck, Henry Stickle, 
Joseph Smith, Israel Uncapher, Samuel Walters. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

The Gall to Arms — The Response from Westmoreland — The Eleventh 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers — History of its Colors — Biographi- 
cal Sketch of Capt. K. H. Gay— The Fourteenth Regiment— The 
Twenty-eighth Regiment — The Fortieth Regiment (" Eleventh Re- 
serve")— Forty-first Regiment ("Twelfth Reserve")— The Fifty-third 
Regiment — Sixty-fourth Regiment (Fourth Cavalry! — Seventy-fourth 
Regiment — Eighty-fourth Regiment — One Hundredth Regiment 
("The Round-Head Regiment")— The One Hundred and Fifth Regi- 
ment — One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regiment (Nine Months' Ser- 
vice) — One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Regiment (Drafted Militia) — 
Two Hundred and Sixth Regiment (One Year's Service) — Two Hun- 
dred and Eleventh Regiment lOne Year's Service) — Two Hundred and 
Twelfth (Sixth Artillery) Regiment— The Militia of 1862— Militia of 
1863— Colored Troops, etc. 

The roar of Sumter's guns as it rolled northward 
along the Atlantic coast, and westward across the 
prairies, awakened the nation from its peaceful dream 
of half a century to the startling reality of armed 
rebellion and civil war. Following close upon the sur- 
render of Fort Sumter came the call from Washing- 
ton, not less startling than the report of the first 
cannon-shot, for volunteers to defend the rightful 
authority of the government. Every Northern State 
sent back the same enthusiastic response. Party lines 
were obliterated and political differences forgotten in 
the common danger. Cities, towns, and villages 
rivaled each other in their patriotic offers of men and 
means. Such an uprising had perhaps never before 
been witnessed. The State capital became the mili- 
tary rendezvous of Pennsylvania, and to Harrisburg 



her sons flocked from their shops and farms, from 
their stores, offices, and counting-rooms. Rapidly as 
the troops arrived they were organized into regiments 
and sent to the front, each regiment distinguished by 
the number that marked the order of its organization. 

THE ELEVENTH REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS. 

One week later than President Lincoln's call for 
troops, ten companies, representing six different 
counties and containing in all a thousand men, were 
united and formed into the Eleventh Regiment. Com- 
panies A, D, and G represented Lycoming County; 
B and C, Clinton County ; E, Luzerne County ; F, 
Northumberland County ; H, Montour County ; and 
I, Capt. Richard Coulter, and K, Capt. W. B. Coulter, 
Westmoreland County. The election for field-officers 
that followed this union of companies resulted in the 
choice of Capt." Phaen Jarrett for colonel ; Capt. 
Richard Coulter, lieutenant-colonel ; and William D. 
Earnest, major. To complete the regimental organi- 
zation, Lieut. A. F. Aul was appointed adjutant; W. 
H. Hay, quartermaster ; Dr. W. F. Babb, surgeon ; 
and Dr. H. B. Buehler, assistant surgeon. It was 
mustered into the United States service April 26, 
1861, and mustered out August 1st, having been re- 
cruited for three months' service. During this time 
it was actively engaged along the front lines on the 
Upper Potomac, repelling the advance of the then 
audacious enemy, and, in conuection with the First 
Wisconsin Regiment, finally met and defeated them 
in their first fair, open field fight, at the battle of 
Falling Waters, where the afterwards famous name of 
"Stonewall" Jackson was first heard. While stationed 
at Martinsburg the conduct of the regiment so won 
the esteem of the citizens that the ladies of that place 
presented it a neat, substantial flag. Before the close 
of the " three mouths' service," on the application of 
a number of the officers, and through the personal 
solicitation and exertions of Col. Coulter, the Secre- 
tary of War continued the organization of the regi 
ment, and permitted it to return to Harrisburg to 
recruit for the three years' service. It was finally 
recruited and mustered into service for three years* 
chiefly through the personal influence of Col. Richard 
Coulter. There was some dispute among the State 
officials as to the number to be given the regiment, 
most of them desiring to designate it the Fifty-first, 
which the officers refused to accept. The dispute was 
finally settled by an order from Governor Curtin, 
dated Harrisburg, Oct. 26, 1861 : 

"The regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers commanded by Col. Coul- 
ter will continue to be known as the Eleventh Regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers. It is just to the officers and men that the regiment should 
have future opportunities of displaying the courage and gallantry of 
Falling Waters, which is now a part of the military history of the State, 
under their original designation." 

On November 20th, Governor Curtin presented to 
the regiment its stand of colors provided by the State, 
and side by side with the flag presented by the Mar- 



WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



389 



tinsburg ladies it was carried until after the close of 
the war. On November 27th it left for Baltimore, 
and reported to Gen. John A. Dix. 

The regimental roster of field- and staff-officers was 
as follows : 

Colonel, Richard Coulter, rack from July 19, 1861; appointed brevet 
brig.-geu. Aug. 1,1804; wounded at Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and 
Spottsylvania; must, out with regt. July 1, 1865. 

Lieutenant-colonel, Thomas S. Martin, rank from Sept. 21,1861 ; killed 
at Bull Run, Va., Aug. 30, 1862. 

Lieutenant-colouel, Henry A. Frink, rank from Aug. 30,1862; ap- 
pointed to col. 186th Penna. Vols., March 21,1864 ; wounded at Second 
Bull Run. 

Lieutenant-colonel, Benjamin F. Haines, rank from Dec. 13, 1864 ; ap- 
pointed brevet col. Marcli 13, 1865; must, out July 1, 1865; wounded at 
Second Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Hatcher's Run. 

Major, Heury A. Frink, rank from Aug. 1, 1S61 ; pro. to lieut.-col. 

Major, John B. Keenan, rank from Aug. 30, 1862; wouuded at Thor- 
oughfare Gap; killed at Spottsylvania, May 8, 1864. 

Major, Benj. F. Haines, rank from Sept. 5, 1864; pro. to lieut.-col. 

Major, John B. Overmyer, rank from Dec. 13, 1864; appointed brevet 
lieut.-col. March 13, I860, and brevet col. April 1,1865; wounded April 
1, 1865 ; must, out July 1, 1865. 

Adjutant, Israel Uucopher, rank from Jan. 17, 1862 ; resigned Nov. 28, 
1862. 

Adjutant, Arthur F. Small, rank from January, 1863 ; disch. Sept. 27, 
1S63. 

Adjutant, John A. Stevensou, rank from Sept. 28, 1864; wounded 
April 1, 1865; must, out July 1, 1865. 

Quartermaster, George W. Thorn, rank from Sept. 30,1861; hou. disch. 
May 30, 1863. 

Quartermaster, Alleu S. Jacobs, rank from June 3, 1863 ; died Oct. 18, 
1863. 

Quartermaster, Samuel P. Lightcap, rank from June 30,1865; not 
mustered. , 

fS Quartermaster, Robert Anderson, rank from Nov. 22, 1864; pro. to] 
' capt. Co. G. ' 

Surgeon, R. S. M. Jackson, rank from Sept. 9, 1861; resigned April 7, 
1863 ; pro. to surg. U. S. A. ; died in service at Chattanooga, Jan. 18, 1865. 

Surgeon, James W. Anawalt, rank from May 26, 1863 ; must, out July 
1, 1865. 

Assistant surgeon, James W. Anawalt, rank from Oct. 15, 1861 ; pro. to 
surg. 132d Regt. Sept. 15, 1862. 

Assistant surgeon, Thomas G. Morris, rank from Sept. 17, 1862; re- 
signed Nov. 26, 1862. 

Assistant surgeon, W. C. Phelps, rank from Aug. 4, 1862 ; pro. to surg. 
22d Cav. April 4, 1864. 

AsBi>tant surgeon, W. F. Osborn, rank from Nov. 24, 1863 ; pro. to surg. 
117th Vols. Jan. 21, I860. 

Assistant surgeon, John M. Rankin, rank from Jan. 24, 1865 ; must, 
out July 1, 1865. 

Assistant surgeon, Charles D. Fortuey, rank from Feb. 25, 1865 ; must, 
out July 1, 1865. 

Chaplaiu, William H. Locke, rank from Nov. 5,1861 ; resigned Dec. 19, 
1863. 

Sergeant-major. Edward H. Gay, must, in Nov. 27, 1861 ; pro. from pri- 
vate Co. K to sergt.-maj. Jan. 15, 1862 ; to 2d lieut. Co. F, March 10, 1862. 

Sergeant-major, John Ingram, must, in July 3, 1862; disch. March 30, 
1865. 

Sergeant-major, William J. Willyard, must, in Oct. 1, 1861 ; pro. from 
sergt. Co. K May 30, 1865; must, out with regt.; veteran. 

Quartermaster-sergeant, William R. Huber, must, in Oct. 4, 1861 ; pro. 
from 1st sergt. Co. E Oct. 18, 1861 ; disch. on surgeon's certificate March 
15, 1863. 

Quartermaster-sergeant, Samuel W. Phelps, must, in Nov. 27, 1861 ; 
pro. from private Co. D to com.-sergt. March 1, 1863; to q.m.-sergt. April 
1, 1863 ; to 2d lieut. April, 1864 ; veteran. 

Quartermaster-sergeant, Samuel P. Lightcap, must, in Nov. 8, 1861 ; 
pro. from private Co. H Oct. 1, 1864; com. regt. q.m. June 30, 1865; not 
mustered; must, out with regt. July 1, 1865; veteran. 

Commissary-sergeant, Charles H. Clifford, must, in Oct. 4, 1861 ; pro. 
from private Co. E Dec. 1, 1863 ; disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

Commissary -sergeant, N. B. Dilhorn, must, in Nov. 26, 1861 ; pro. from 
sergt. Co. A to com.-sergt. Dec. 24, 1864, to 2d lieut, Co. H May 20, 1865 ; 
veteran. 



Commissary-sergeant. Lewis P. Hays, must, in Oct. 1, 1861 ; pro. from 
Corp. Co. K May30,]s65; must, out July 1, 1865 ; veteran. 

Hospital steward, P. F. Hyatt, must, in Nov. 27, 1861 ; pro. to hosp. 
steward U.S.A. Jan. 23, 1863. 

Hospital steward, J. J. Briggs, must, in Oct. 4, 1861; pro. to hosp. 
steward March 1, 1S63; to 2d lieut Co. E March 28, 1664; veteran. 

Hospital steward, E. S. Stephenson, must, in March 1, 1865; must. out 
with regt. July 1, 1865. 

The regiment was engaged in provost guard duty, 
guarding railroads, etc., at Annapolis, Md., until 
April 18, 1862, when it was sent to the front, and sta- 
tioned for some time along the Manassas Gap Rail- 
road. During the summer of 1862 it was actively 
engaged in the campaign under Gen. Pope, and was 
in the battles at Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock 
Station, where it bore the brunt of the battle, Thor- 
oughfare Gap, where, supported by part of Gen. Rick- 
etts' division, it held the Gap against Hill's whole 
corps, and prevented the annihilation of Pope's army, 
Second Bull Run and Chantilly, after which it took 
part in the battles at South Mountain and Antietam. 
To write the history of the regiment from this time 
on would be to write a history of the Army of the 
Potomac, as it continued actively engaged in that 
army until it was finally dissolved, and space will 
only permit a brief mention of the principal engage- 
ments and actions it participated in, which are as fol- 
lows: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, 
Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, 
Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, Bethesda Church, Norfolk 
Railroad, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, raid to Hick- 
ford, Dabney 's Mills, Hatcher's Run, Boydtown Plank- 
Road, Gravelly Run, Five Forks, and finally at Ap- 
pomattox, where Gen. Lee's army surrendered. On 
Jan. 1, 1S64, it re-enlisted as a veteran regiment for 
three years more, and came home in February, 1864, 
on furlough to recruit. Its thinned ranks were ra- 
pidly filled, and it again returned to the front. It 
left Harrisburg in November, 1861, with nine com- 
panies, numbering in the aggregate about seven hun- 
dred men. The tenth company joined it Aug. 27, 
1862. The whole number belonging to the regiment 
and taken upon its rolls was nineteen hundred and 
eighty, showing that about eleven hundred and fifty 
joined as recruits or were transferred to its ranks after 
its organization. When it was finally discharged, 
July 6, 1865, it only numbered three hundred and 
thirty-two, showing that about sixteen hundred and 
fifty were lost by deaths, losses in battles, discharges, 
etc. This was the oldest regiment in the service from 
Pennsylvania, being the only one whose old organi- 
zation and number was continued, and there being 
the Eleventh Reserves and Eleventh Cavalry in the 
field from this State, this regiment was generally 
known and distinguished from the others as the " Old 
Eleventh." Of the gallantry and general good sol- 
dierly conduct of the officers and men of this veteran 
regiment, the long list of battles and the great num- 
ber killed and wounded therein speak more forcibly 
than language. Of Col. Coulter we shall not speak in 



390 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



too high terms of praise ; but his reputation is safe 
with the men he commanded, and they and the offi- 
cers under whom he served will always commend him 
for his personal disregard of danger, his kindness of 
heart, and his excellent management of the regiment 
under all the trying circumstances to which it was 
exposed. His vigorous constitution was seriously 
shattered by three severe wounds, received respec- 
tively at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Spottsylva- 
nia, and for his gallant course in action he received 
the sobriquet of " Fighting Dick Coulter," by which 
he was almost universally known both in the Con- 
federate and Union armies. 

For the rosters of the Westmoreland companies of 
this regiment, see Appendix "R." 

The Regimental Colors. — The State flag was 
presented to the regiment by Governor Curtin, Nov. 
20, 1861, and placed in the hands of Sergt. Charles 
H. Foulke, of Company A, who carried it until 
Aug. 11, 1862, at Cedar Mountain, where he was acci- 
dentally wounded in the foot, when it was placed in 
the hands of Sergt. Robert H. Knox, of Company C, 
who carried it August 21st to 24th, at Rappahannock 
Station, August 28th, at Thoroughfare Gap, and Au- 
gust 30th, at Second Bull Run, where he was severely 
wounded, losing his right leg, the flag passing on the 
field into the hands of 1st Sergt. Samuel S. Bierer, 
of Company C, who was immediately wounded. 
It was then taken by 2d Lieut. Absalom Schall, of 
Company C, who was severely wounded, when it was 
again taken by Sergt. Samuel S. Bierer, of Company 
C, who carried it to Centreville. Daniel Matthews 
carried it September 1st, at Chantilly, September 14th, 
at South Mountain, September 16th and 17th, at An- 
tietam, where he was severely wounded, and it was 
taken by Private William Welty, of Company C, who 
was almost immediately killed. It was then delivered 
to Corp. Frederick Welty, of Company C, who was 
soon severely wounded and obliged to leave it on the 
field, where it remained some time, all of the men 
near it having been killed or wounded. It was next 
carried by 2d Lieut. Edward H. Gay, of Company F, 1 

1 Capt. Edwahd H. Gay, born in Donegal townBhip, Westmoreland 
Co., Pa., 29th October, 1842, was the son of John and Elizabeth Gay. In 
the year 1858 he entered the Republican printing-office at Greensburg, 
and on the next day after his apprenticeship had expired enlisted for 
the three months' service in Capt. Richard Coulter's company. At the 
end of this service he re-enlisted at Yonngstown on the 27th November, 
1801, nnder Capt. John B. Keenan, and was mustered into the United 
States service at Harrisburg. In January was appointed sergeant- 
major, in March he received the appointment of second lieuteuant in 
Company F, and on the 15th of October (1861) he was commissioned as 
captain, all within eleven months, and when he was not twenty years of 
age. During the last three years in which he was in the service he was 
in thirteen engagements and was wounded three times. The engage- 
ments and dates are as follows: Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9, 1862; Rappa- 
hannock Station, Aug. 21, 1862; Thoroughfare Gap, August 28; Bull 
Run, August 30; Chantilly, September 1 ; South Mountain Gap, Septem- 
ber 14; Antietam, September 17; Fredericksburg, December 13; with 
Burusiile's advance, Jan. 20, 1863; Rappahannock, April 30 to May 2 ; 
Chancellorsville, May 2-6; Gettysburg, July 1,2; Morton's Ford, Octo- 
ber 10; Mine Run, November 28 to December 1. 

At Antietam he was twice wounded, iu the arm and in the side, but 



who received two gunshot-wounds, and most bravely 
passed the flag to Sergt. Henry Bitner, of Company 
E, who retained it until the close of the action. 
Dec. 12 and 13, 1862, at the battle of Fredericksburg, 
it was carried by Corp. John V. Kuhns, of Com- 
pany C, until he was three times severely woundedi 
losing his left leg. It was then borne by Cyrus W. 
Chambers, of Company C, who was killed, when it 
was taken by Corp. John W. Thomas, of Company C, 
who was also severely wounded. It was brought off 
the field by Capt. Benjamin F. Haines, of Company 
B. Corp. John H. McKalip, of Company C, was 
next made color-bearer, who carried it April 30th to 
May 5, 1863, at Chancellorsville, and July 1st at 
Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded in a 
charge upon Iverson's North Carolina brigade, the 
flag falling among some bushes, where it was after- 
wards discovered by Private Michael Kepler, of Com- 
pany D, who carried it during the remainder of the 
engagements, July 1st, 2d, and 3d, and also at Mine 
Run, Dec. 1, 1863. In April, 1864, he being sick and 
absent, it was delivered to Corp. J. J. Lehman, of 
Company D, who carried it May 5th and 6th, in the 
Wilderness, and May 8th at Spottsylvania, where he 
was killed, and the flag was brought off the field by 
2d Lieut. McCuthen, of Company F. The next color- 
bearer, whose name has not been ascertained, was 
severely wounded in the foot May 12th, at Spottsyl- 
vania. Corp. William Matthews, of Company C, car- 
ried it during the remainder of the engagement at 
Spottsylvania, and at North Anna, Cold Harbor, 
Bethesda Church, in front of Petersburg, Weldon 
Railroad, and bore it in the Hickford raid until 
December, 1864; Feb. 6 and 7, 1865, at Hatcher's 
Run and Dabuey's Mills; March 28th, Quaker Road; 
March 30th, White Oak Ridge; April 1st, Five 
Forks; April 9th, Appomattox Court-House, and until 
May 28, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. 
John C. Scheurman, of Company A, then carried it 
until the regiment was mustered out of service, July 
7, 1865. It was delivered to the State authorities at 
Harrisburg, and July 4, 1866, it was formally returned 
to the Governor at Philadelphia upon the occasion 
of the public return of all the State flags. 

such was his interest in his men and in the engagement that his superior 
officer had to order him peremptorily from the field before he would go, 
though his wounds were severe. At Gettysburg he was badly wounded 
in the hand, and in the fight his sword was shot from bis grasp and his 
hand very much shattered. He was only absent on leave twice, a period 
of ten days each time. ' 

He bad come home on a short furlough, but detailed on the recruiting 
service, he went at once to work without giving himself the necessary 
amount of rest from his arduous labors. In the midst of his duties he 
was taken sick with smallpox, two weeks before his death. He gradu- 
ally suqk under the disease, and on Saturday, the 12th of March, 1864, 
he died at Greensburg, aged twenty-one years, four months, and twelve 
days. His remains, accompanied by relatives, many members of his 
company and other companions in arms, and a vast concourse of citizens, 
were conveyed to the St. Clair Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, where, 
with other becoming services, they were interred with the honors of 
war. A fine marble shaft covered with appropriate emblems and in- 
scriptions rises over his remains. 



WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



391 



FOURTEENTH REGIMENT {Three Months' Serrice). 

This regiment was formed at Camp Curtin, of 
companies raised in various sections of the State. 
The men had been recruited, or rather accepted, for 
the outpouring everywhere was at the flood tide, at j 
periods varying from the 15th to the 30th of April. 
John W. Johnston, of Youngstown, former captain 
of Company C, and who had been a captain of volun- 
teers in the Mexican war, was colonel. The regiment 
organized at Harrisburg, April 30, 1861, and was mus- 
tered out of service August 7th following. It served 
under Gen. Patterson in the region of Martinsburg, 
Charleston, and Bunker Hill, in which region it was 
when news was received of the battle of Bull Run. 
After its term of service, nearly all of its officers and 
men re-entered the service in various Pennsylvania 
organizations. 1 Captain Johnston's company from 
Youngstown, for the most part, entered the Eleventh 
Regiment upon its organization, and are identified 
with its history. 

TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT ( Th, ee Yean' Service). 
Early in June, 1861, Col. John W.Geary (who had 
served in the Mexican war, was a native of this 
county, and afterward Governor of the State) ob- 
tained permission from President Lincoln to raise in 
Pennsylvania a regiment of volunteers to serve three 
years. He accordingly established a camp at Oxford 
Park, in Philadelphia, and on the 28th of that month 
the Twenty-eighth Regiment, which was uniformed 
and equipped at his own expense, was mustered into 
the service of the United States. It re-enlisted as a 
veteran organization, and was mustered out Jul\ T 18, 
1865, near Alexandria, Va. This regiment partici- 
pated in the battles of Bolivar, Front Royal, Second 
Bull Run, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, 
Chancellorsville, Lookout Mountain, Peach -Tree 
Creek, and in Sherman's march to the sea, and 
achieved a name for its gallantry and services hardly 
surpassed by that of any other organization in the 
Union army. At Lookout Mountain, Capt. E. R. 
Geary (son of the old colonel of this regiment), of 
Knapp's Battery, attached to the Twenty-eighth, was 
killed while sighting his gun, pierced by a rifle-ball 
through his forehead. The officers and men from 
this county were : 

Colonel, John W. Geary, rank from June 28, 1861 ; pro. to brig.-gen., 
U. S. V., April 25, 1862; wounded at Bolivar, Cedar Mountain, and 
Chancellorsville; pro. to niaj.-gen. Jan. 12, 1865. 

Major, Robert WardeD, muBt. in June 29th as capt. of Co. B; pro. to 
major April 25, 1862; died in Winchester, Va., June 30, 1862. 

Assistant surgeon, William Logan, with rank from June 28, 1861 ; re- 
signed Sept. 26, 1862. 

FORTIETH REGIMENT — "ELEVENTH RESERVE" — 
( Three Years Service), 

The companies comprising this regiment were re- 
cruited, A in Cambria, B and E in Indiana, C and D 



1 For roster of the Westmoreland soldiers in this regiment, see Ap- 
pendix " E." 



in Butler, F in Fayette, G in Armstrong, H and I in 
Westmoreland, and K in Jefferson County. Most of 
them were raised for the three months' service, but 
failing of acceptance still preserved their organiza- 
tions, and when the call for the Reserve Corps was 
issued marched to the rendezvous at Camp Wright, 
near Pittsburgh. It was mustered in July 1, 1861, at 
the park, Washington City, where it had arrived June 
26th. It was mustered out June 14, 1864, at Pitts- 
burgh, and its veterans and recruits transferred to the 
One Hundred and Ninetieth Regiment. It bravely 
participated in the following battles : Mechanicsville, 
Gaines' Mill, Charles City Cross-Roads, Malvern Hill, 
Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fred- 
ericksburg, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Bristoe Station, 
Rappahannock Station, New Hope Church, Mine 
Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvauia, North Anna, Beth- 
esda Church, and other smaller engagements. It was 
assigned to the Second Brigade, Brig.-Gen. George G. 
Meade, of the Reserve Corps, Maj.-Gen. George A. 
McCall, and was thus associated with the Third, 
Fourth, Seventh, and Thirteenth ("Bucktail") Re- 
serve Regiments, which with it composed this cele- 
brated brigade. The field-officers from Westmoreland 
County were: 2 

Colonel, Thomas F. Gallagher, rank from July 2, 1861; disch. Dec. 12, 
1862, for wounds received at South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1861 ; pro. brevet 
brig.-gen. March 13, 1865. 

Quartermaster, Hugh A. Torrence, rank from June 21, 1861 ; pro. from 
2d lieut. Co. E to q.m. July 2, 1861 ; to 1st lieut. March 1, 1863 ; to 
brevet capt. March 13. 1865. 

Chaplain, Adam Torrence, from Sept. 8, 1862, to Nov. 10, 1863 ; re- 
signed. 

FORTY-FIRST REGIMENT—" TWELFTH RESERVE"— 
( Three Years' Service). 

The companies raised for this regiment, raised 
primarily for the three months' service, but not ac- 
cepted, rendezvoused at Camp Curtin. It was organ- 
ized July 25, 1861, mustered into service Aug. 10, 

1861, and mustered out June 11, 1864, and its veterans 
and recruits transferred to the One Hundred and 
Ninetieth Regiment. Its first colonel was John H. 
Taggart, of Philadelphia, who was succeeded July 8, 

1862, by Martin D. Hardin, of the State of Illinois. 
Its chaplain was Rev. Obadiah H. Miller, of this 
county, appointed June 18, 1862, and who resigned 
June 9, 1863. It was first attached to Col. John S. 
McCalmont's Third Brigade of Gen. McCall's di- 
vision, in connection with the Tenth, Sixth, and 
Ninth Pennsylvania Reserve Regiments. Its gal- 
lantry was exhibited on many battle-fields, and 
particularly at Drainesville, Mechanicsville, Chicka- 
hominy, Charles City Cross-Roads, South Mountain, 
Antietam, Gettysburg, and in the campaign under 
Gen. Grant at Wilderness, etc., that led to the sur- 
render of Lee and the Confederate forces. For roster 
see Appendix "R." 

2 For list of men from this county serving in the Fortieth, see Ap- 
pendix "R." 



392 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT ( Three Year,' Service). 

On Aug. 21, 1861, John R. Brooke, of Montgomery 
County, was commissioned colonel of this regiment. 
On November 7th it moved to Washington, and en- 
camped north of the Capitol. On the 27th it crossed 
the Potomac, went into camp near Alexandria, and 
was assigned to a brigade commanded by Gen. Wil- 
liam H. French, in the First Division of Maj.-Gen. 
Israel B. Richardson, Second Corps, Maj.-Gen. E. V. 
Sumner. It remained here during the winter of 
1861-62, and was with the army of the Potomac in 
its advance in March, 1862, arriving at Manassas Junc- 
tion, which had been evacuated by the rebels, the 12th. 
It participated in the battles of Fair Oaks, York- 
town, Gaines' Mill, Savage's Station, White Oak 
Swamp, Malvern Hill, Autietam, Bristoe Station, 
Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Mine 
Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spottsylvania, North 
Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, Strawberry Plains, 
Ream's Station, and Deep Bottom. It was organized 
Nov. 7, 1861, re-enlisted as a veteran organization, 
and was mustered out June 30, 1865, near Alexandria, 
Va. Lieut. -Col. George C. Anderson, promoted from 
second to first lieutenant, Sept. 17, 1862 ; to major, 
Sept. 20, 1864 ; to lieutenant-colonel, Nov. 10, 1864 ; 
mustered out with regiment. 1 

SIXTY-FOURTH REGIMENT— FOURTH CAVALRY— 
( Three Yearn' Service). 

This regiment was recruited under the direction of 
David Campbell, of Pittsburgh, in compliance with 
authority granted by Governor Curtin, Sept. 4, 1861. 
Company A was recruited in Northampton County; 
B, E, and G in Allegheny; C and D in Westmore- 
land and Indiana ; H, I, K, and L in Venango ; and 
M in Luzerne. The State colors were presented 1>\ 
Governor Curtin, in person, at Camp Campbell, Sept. 
20, 1 861. It was organized at Harrisburg from August 
to October, 1861, re-enlisted as a veteran organiza- j 
tion, and was mustered out of service July 1, 1865, i 
at Lynchburg, Va. It took part in the Peninsula 
campaign, and participated in the following engage- 
ments: Gaines' Mill, Charles City Cross -Roads. 
Hedgesville, Antietam, Markham Station, Kelly's 
Ford, Middleburg, Gettysburg, Upperville, Shep- 
herdstown, Trevilian Station, Todd's Tavern, Sulphur 
Springs, Deep Bottom, St. Mary's Church, Ream's 
.•station, Stony Creek Station, Boydton Roads, Wvatt's 
Farm, and Bellefield. At St. Mary's Church, June 
24, 1864, the gallant Col. Covode, while issuing his 
orders and directing the fight, was shot down by a 
party of the enemy, whom, in their partial conceal- 
ment, he had mistaken for his own. He was carried 
from the field, and much against his own will, nearly 
three miles to the rear, but in a desperate final rally 
of the enemy he fell into their hands. His wounds 
were mortal, and he expired on the following day. 

1 See roster in Appendix " R." 



Darkness put an end to the contest, and enabled the 
division to retire in safety. This regiment here lost 
eighty-seven in killed, wounded, and missing. After 
crossing the James River, a scouting party, headed 
by Lieut. John C. Paul, penetrated the enemy's lines 
to ascertain the place of burial of the remains of Col. 
Covode. This having been discovered and reported 
to Gen. Gregg, he ordered a party of thirty with am- 
bulances to proceed under cover of darkness and 
bring in his body and any of our wounded who could 
still be found. Capt. Frank H. Parke volunteered to 
accompany the party, which successfully accomp- 
lished the object assigned it without molestation. 

Colonel, George H. Covode, pro. from captain of Company D to major 
March 12, 1862; to lieutenant-colonel Dec. 8. 1863; to colonel May 28, 
1864 ; killed at St. Mary's Church, Va., June 24, 1864. 

Major, James H. Trimble, resigned Aug. 6, 1862. 

Major, James Y. Peale,pro. from captain of Company D to major Sept. 
9, 1864 ; to brevet lieutenant-colonel March 13, 1865. 

Major, N. J. Horiell, pro. from captain of Company C June 8, 1865. 

Adjutant, William B. McElroy, pro. to sergeant-major June 14, 1865 ; 
veteran. 

Chaplain, Henry Q. Graham, from Nov. 22, 1863, to Sept. 22, 1864. 

SEVENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT (Three Tears' Service). 

Early in the summer of 1861, when the government 
was in pressing need of troops, the design was formed 
of recruiting in Pittsburgh and vicinity a regiment to 
be composed of German citizens. A spirited appeal 
for pecuniary aid to prosecute the enterprise in an edi- 
torial in the Evening Chronicle so aroused the people's 
feelings that in a single day the requisite funds were 
secured, the Economy Society contributing, unasked, 
the sum of five hundred dollars. Having received 
the proper authority from the War Department, the 
committee in charge, headed by I. I.Siebuck, Joseph 
Abel, Joseph G. Siebuck, and Charles McKnight, 
citizens of Pittsburgh, commenced recruiting, and in 
three weeks' time had a regiment of nearly the requi- 
site number ready for acceptance by the government. 
A portion of the regiment re-enlisted, seven new com- 
panies were assigned to it in March, 1865, and it was 
mustered out of service Aug. 29, 1865, at Clarksburg, 
West Va. It participated in the battles of Chancel- 
lorsville and Gettysburg, in the latter of which its 
loss was one hundred and thirty-six. It afterwards 
saw service in South Carolina, and was subsequently 
stationed at Forts Ethan Allen and Marcy, where it 
performed duty as heavy artillery. 

EIGHTY-FOURTH REGIMENT [Three Tears' Service). 

This regiment was organized at Harrisburg from 
Nov. 22, 1861, to Oct. 1, 1862. Its re-enlisted men, 
recruits, etc., were transferred to the Fifty-seventh 
Regiment Jan. 13, 1865, and mustered out of service 
witli that organization June 29, 1865, near Washing- 
ton, D. C. It participated in the battles of Win- 
chester, Front Royal, Fort Republic, Second Bull 
Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Kelly's Ford, 
Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, 



WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



393 



Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Strawberry 
Plains, Deep Bottom, and Poplar Spring Church. 1 

COMPANY c. 

The following sketch of Company C of the Eighty- 
fourth Regiment, the only company of Westmoreland 
troops in that command, has been specially prepared 
for this volume from materials in possession of some 
of its surviving members: 

When the call came for volunteers and every com- 
munity manifested that restlessness incident to war, 
no place was more moved than the western portion of 
Ligonier Valley, comprising Ligonier, Cook, and 
Donegal townships. J. J. Wirsing and W. Logan 
concluded to raise a company, and rode through the 
country and solicited enlistments. This canvass re- 
sulted in the enlistment of forty men. James J. 
Wirsing was offered the captaincy in consideration of 
services in securing the enrollment, but on account of 
his youth he would not accept, and W. Logan was 
chosen captain, A. Douglass first, and J. J. Wirsing 
second lieutenant. Before the company, however, 
had seen active service J. J. Wirsing became its com- 
manding officer. 

The following is a full list of the members of Com- 
pany C at its organization : 

Captain, William Logan, resigned. 

Lieutenant, A. Douglass, resigned. 

Lieutenant, J. J. Wirsing, promoted to captain, and mustered out a pris- 
oner of war. 

Sergeants. 

William Hays, promoted to second lieutenant; wounded; discharged. 

Joseph HcMasters, promoted to second lieutenant ; wounded ; returned 
with company. 

John Stone, promoted to second sergeant: wounded; discharged. 

Robert R. Roberts, discharged. 

Charles McCleeve, discharged. 

Matthew Campbell, transferred to Invalid Corps; returned. 

Barman Hines, discharged. 

CoBPOBALS. 

John Felgar, returned. 

Moses Clark, returned. 

Jacob B. Barrone, wounded; discharged. 

George Hoffer, returned with company. 

Peter J. Kesler, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. 

Eli Johnston, returned with company. 

Jeremiah Wirsing, disabled and discharged. 

Joseph S. Hood, discharged. 

Deummer. 
Austin Ringler, returned with company. 



Michael Fry, discharged. 



Wagoner. 
Privates. 



Norman Ankeny, returned with company. 

William Akei-s, transferred from Company A ; killed. 

Aaron Brougher, wounded and returned. 

Jacob Binkey, wounded and discharged. 

Josiah Baldwiu, returned. 

Adam Bales, returned. 

Isaiah Campbell, discharged. 

John E. Campbell, returned. 

John Cramer, returned. 

Reed A. Douglass, returned. 

John Douglass, returned. 

George S. Freeui:m, killed at Chancellorsville. 

Michael Fry, Jr., discharged. 






1 See roster in Appendix " R.' 



John Geisey, returned. 

Jesse Hoffer, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. 

EH Harmau, returned. 

George Hays, killed at Chancellorsville. 

Clement H. Hays, discharged. 

Jeremiah Hoffer, killed at Spottsylvania. 

John Heins, wounded; returned. 

Samuel Hoffer, returned. 

John Johnston, returned. 

Jacob JohnstoD, killed before Richmond. 

Uriah Johnston, discharged. 

James Kesler, died. 

Samuel Kunkle, returned. 

Daniel Kubns, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. 

Henry Knox, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. 

Jacob M. Knox, discharged. 

George Kissell, discharged. 

Daniel Kern, discharged. 

Isaac A. Moore, returned. 

Robert McLevaiu, died. 

George A. Miller, died. 

Robert C. Moore, discharged. 

Edward Montecue, returned. 

William Miller, returned. 

Martin Miller, killed at Fredericksburg. 

Josiah Moore, returned. 

Adam Moul, died. 

Noah Miller, returned. 

Daniel M. Miller, died. 

James Martheny, discharged. 

Marshall Moody, died. 

John Mickey, died. 

John Matthews, died. 

Henry Nedrow, returned. 

Edward Nickols, died. 

William C. Payne, returned. 

William Paden, discharged. 

William Queer, wounded and returned. 

Perry H. Roadman, discharged. 

Thomas Richards, wounded and discharged. 

George D. Reece, died. 

Henry H. Smith, returned. 

Henry Stone, wounded and died at Chancellorsville. 

Paul Shawley, discharged. 

Jonathan Shawley, wounded at Chancellorsville; returned. 

John Shultz, wounded ; discharged. 

Joseph Showman, discharged. 

Jno. W. White, discharged. 

William G. Wissiuger, discharged. 

Harrison Wissinger, returned. 

Edward Walters, returned. 

The company was ordered to Harrisburg, but re- 
ported too late to be accepted in the call. Lieut. 
Wirsing called on Hon. H. D. Foster, of Greensburg, 
and secured his aid in getting the company passed 
into service. Mr. Foster telegraphed A. G. Cur- 
tin, then Governor of Pennsylvania, who answered 
that the company could not be received. He then 
sent to the Secretary of State with the same result, 
then telegraphing to the Secretary of War the com- 
pany was accepted and allowed to recruit its number 
to the maximum, eighty men. Mr. Foster, for this 
kind service, not only gratuitously but cordially ren- 
dered, was kindly remembered, for by a unanimous 
vote Company C was named the " Foster Guards." 

Company C then pitched its first tents near the 
grounds of a religious camp-meeting at Stahlstown, 
Westmoreland Co. Here the company received en- 
listsments rapidly, and soon numbered seventy men. 
There it was that the first march was taken, viz., from 



394 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Stahlstown to Ligonier. After an additional increase 
of twenty men the company was taken to Latrobe in 
wagons furnished by the kind citizens of Ligonier. 
At Latrobe the company took the cars for Harris- 
burg, the rendezvous of Pennsylvania troops. Here 
the company was drilled and became soldiers of the 
camp. The duties of camp life, the drill, and, most 
of all, a soldier's diet, worked a change ; home-sick- 
ness, after the excitement wore away, made the boys 
long for the front, and it was the universal wish of 
the members of this company to join an old regiment 
which had seen active service, and they concluded to 
join the Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
which had fought under Pope and Shields. 

The regiment was originally commanded by Col. 
Murry, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., who was killed at Win- 
chester in an engagement with the rebels under Gen. 
" Stonewall" Jackson. At this time the regiment 
was lying at Arlington Heights, opposite Washing- 
ton City, and at the former home of the illustrious 
rebel chieftain, Gen. Robert E. Lee. The regiment as 
well as the entire army presented a dilapidated ap- 
pearance as it lay scattered over the Heights. It had 
just returned from Pope's retreat from Winchester 
without half of the necessary clothing for comfort, 
and if any one entertained an opinion that a soldier's 
life was a round of pleasure, he modified that opinion 
without notifying his comrades. 

In September, 1862, the regiment inarched into 
Washington and took the cars for Point of Rocks, 
where they crossed the Potomac, and inarched to 
Fredericksburg, Va. On the 13th day of December 
they crossed the Rappahannock and engaged in the 
battle of Fredericksburg. In this terrific battle quite 
a large number of the men were killed, wounded, and 
missing. The historian has already written the his- 
tory of this terrible engagement, the crossing of the 
army, the encounter, the stealthy retreat. Company 
C, notwithstanding the defeat, entered the dwellings 
vacated by the rebels and played on the pianos, 
cooked their meals on their stoves, and, although un- 
welcome tenants, made themselves at home. They 
were among the last to recross the river and go into 
camp, which proved to become their winter-quarters. 
It was from here they could view the sign-boards 
erected and painted with inscriptions to further hu- 
miliate and deject the Union army. The company 
also took part in Burnside's fruitless attempt to march 
a second time. At the battle of Chancellorsville the 
company fought on the enemy's right. The Eleventh 
Corps breaking left Jackson on the rear, changed 
front to rear, Saturday night, May 2, 1863. On Sun- 
day morning New York troops broke, and the Eighty- 
fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, with two other small 
regiments, retook the position and drove the enemy 
back, and for the first time fought from behind 
breastworks. At about noon the enemy moved 
around to the left and surrounded the command 
spoken of on three sides, and firing into the rear 



within fifty yards. Finding it impossible to hold the 
position, in attempting to move the enemy captured 
at least half of the Eighty-fourth, but with the aid of 
some troops the enemy was taken prisoners, and when 
being marched off the rebels were reinforced, and in 
a hand-to-hand conflict the rebels captured their own 
men which had been captured by the Union troops, 
besides taking many prisoners. This was a disas- 
trous conflict for the Eighty-fourth, going into the 
battle with four hundred men, and coming out with less 
than one hundred and fifty. Company C had several 
killed, two officers and five men wounded, and nine 

1 taken prisoners. After this battle, which lasted sev- 
eral days, the army found itself on the north side of 
the Rappahannock, and in a short time set out for 
Pennsylvania, marching through Virginia, crossing 

j the Potomac River at Edmunds' Ferry, marching at 
night up the tow-path. During all this time it was 
raining incessantly, and when the regiment arrived 
at Menohessy Creek, at about 2 o'clock p.m., the men 

j nearly all had "given out," and only twenty were 

| there to stack arms when the regiment stopped. 

: After resting at this place for some time, they marched 
with the army through Frederick, Md., and then to 

; Taneytown, and at Gettysburg, Pa., the regiment 
was selected to guard the wagon-trains of the great 
army, the regiment being one of the smallest, having 
lost so heavily at Chancellorsville. A month prior 
to this the commanding officer had ordered the regi- 
ment to guard the train, and this was almost disastrous 
to the men. A spy came into the camp near Man- 
chester, Md., and, after surveying the ground, was 
just in the act of leaving to bring the rebel cavalry, 
who were posted at South Mountain, to destroy the 
train, when he was discovered, and on being arrested 
passes from General Lee were found under a secret 
bottom of his tin cup. A court-martial was hastily 
convened, he was tried, found guilty, and sentenced 
to death. He was hung on an apple-tree west of 
Frederick City, where he was still hanging when the 
army marched back into Virginia. He confessed his 
guilt, and said that all the time he wanted was five 
hours, and he would have had the entire train of the 
Army of the Potomac destroyed. 

The army was now on the march back after Lee, 
and brought up at United States Fording on the Rap- 
pahannock River. Here the company lay in camp 
until October, 1863, when the army fell back towards 
Washington ; the enemy followed and destroying the 
railroad again fell back. The Union army rebuilt 
the road up to Culpeper, and the Eighty-fourth 
Regiment went into camp near Brandy Station, and 
after building winter-quarters in the month of No- 
vember, they broke camp and marched across the Rap- 
pahannock and had a skirmish with the enemy. The 
regiment moved to left, and the division and two 
divisions of Warren's corps were selected to charge 
the enemy's works under the command of Warren. 
This was what was called Mine Run battle. The 



WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



395 



enemy had built fortifications and felled trees in front, 
forming an abatis. Tbis was to be made at daybreak, 
but fortunately it was postponed. All day long 
tbe boys would go out in front of tbe line and look 
at the enemy's works, which were not far distant, and 
speculate on the hazard of the undertaking. The 
command was agreeably surprised to be ordered 
back, when they recrossed the river and marched back 
to camp, and remained during the winter of 1863 
and 1864. It was in this camp the brigade's field and 
line officers built a large hall and had several balls ; 
the wives and sisters of the members of the command 
participated. After tbis the hall was turned over to 
the boys, who converted it into a theatre, and the 
minstrel troupes were largely attended. The army 
again broke camp May 1, 1864, burnt the hall that 
had seen so many pleasant events, laid aside festivity, 
and prepared for the march and battle. At this time 
Gen. Grant had taken charge of the army. The 
march was over the Rappahannock, and was soon 
again at Germania Fording and the old battle-ground 
of Fredericksburg. The company then examined the 
field to see traces of the former conflict, but found 
few places they could recognize. After resting for the 
night the command was again in motion, with loaded 
knapsacks, sixty rounds of cartridges, and five days' 
rations. This amount of rations was by no means a 
load ; it consisted of a few crackers, a little coffee, 
and piece of salt pork. They were not long in find- 
ing the enemy. The advance engaged them about 
noon, and the company came on them in the field 
or rather wood. This was the beginning of the 
Battle of the Wilderness. This battle-field was a 
hedge of small trees and underbrush. The boys 
threw up a breastwork of logs, stumps, and anything 
that would stop a bullet ; the sound of musketry was 
heard, but the line of battle was not visible. On the 
oth of May the company weut into the fight about 
four o'clock P.M. ; had several men killed and wounded. 
On the morning of the 6th the battle opened furiously, 
and the Eighty-fourth Regiment advanced at daybreak, 
drove the enemy back, and held the position until 
about noon. During this fight the lines were formed so 
near the enemy that a member of Company C, George 
Hoffer, captured a rebel flag. The regiment was 
flanked about noon, and this caused the whole line 
to fall back pell-mell until it reached the log breast- 
works that they left in the morning. After reaching 
the works the boys collected together and had a lunch. 
A few shots from a thicket sent back the pickets with 
the cry that the enemy was advancing with their line 
of battle. The enemy had advanced so close on the 
Union pickets that the latter had scarcely crossed the 
works until the main line opened fire. Little artil- 
lery could be used owing to the trees, and the battle 
was waged by the use of small-arms. 

On the afternoon the regiment lost its commander, 
Col. Milton Upp, a grand soldier and a good officer, 
who was shot down while driving the enemy back. 



This fight lasted to nightfall, and the enemy fell back ; 
the boys engaged in burying their dead. They then 
threw up works near the plank-road and lay behind 
them all night. On the 9th moved to Todd's Tavern, 
and fought but little until May 12th. A detail of 
about one hundred men from different regiments was 
sent out to skirmish. They came up with the enemy's 
line and were shelled all afternoon. Next morning, 
May 12th, the Second Corps, commanded by the gal- 
lant Hancock, with the Sixth Corps, charged the ene- 
my's works at daybreak. The morning was wet, and 
a heavy fog rising; the pickets were driven in with 
but few shots and raised the yell. The company 
charged on with the command until they reached the 
enemy's works. The enemy, taken by surprise, were 
routed and lost seven thousand prisoners and eigh- 
teen pieces of artillery. Among the prisoners was 
Gen. Johnston. 

Fighting continued all day long with a loss to the 
Eighty-fourth of fourteen killed and twenty-four 
wounded. Company C had two killed and several 
wounded. Marching and fighting then became the 
order or events of the day. This continued until the 
army arrived at Cold Harbor. Capt. J. J. Wirsing 
with a detail from a half-dozen regiments, nearly ail 
strangers, was sent to establish a line, there being a 
break between our infantry and cavalry. Scarcely 
had the line been formed, prior to advancing, when 
the enemy sent their shells and opened battle, but the 
Union army crossed the James on transports and 
marched in front of Petersburg. 

Here it would be too tedious to recite the conflicts. 
One continuous conflict tells the history of the army 
before Petersburg. On the 15th of August, when the 
Eighty-fourth was crossing, the troops marched to the 
north side of the James, to wdiat was known as " Deep 
Bottom," and engaged the enemy and suffered severely 
in killed -and wounded. This movement was made 
to lead the enemy to move his force from in front of 
Petersburg and leave Burnside to blow up the famous 
mines, which proved a failure. The regiment at the 
time the mine was sprung was in the front line, on 
the right of which the troops were slaughtered. Com- 
pany C did a great deal of hard marching during 
this time. Their right was with the Second Corps 
(Hancock's) in the Weldon Railroad battle. They 
were nearly surrounded by the rebels ; and on October 
the 2d, when within fifty yards of the works, Capt. 
Wirsing was severely wounded and left the field and 
taken prisoner, having been shot through the shoulder 
and thigh, and his comrades left him for dead. The 
regiment was repulsed. Col. Zinn was wounded with 
several of the command. 

Capt. Wirsing was taken to Richmond as a pris- 
oner, and never got back to his company. Company 
C, with its regiment, the same fall went on the 
" Apple Jack" raid, when they tore up miles of the 
Weldon Railroad. The regiment was afterwards 
consolidated with the Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania 



396 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Volunteers. Both regiments were nearly annihi- 
lated. They took an active part in the battle and 
marches that resulted in the surrender of Gen. Lee. 

In the spring of 1865 they were marched to Wash- 
ington, when transportation was furnished them to 
Harrisburg, and at that place were mustered out of 
service. Those who were left returned to their West- 
moreland homes, and were again honored citizens of 
our staid old county. 

ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT ( Three Yean' Service). 
The One Hundredth, or, as it was more commonly 
known, the " Round-Head Regiment," was recruited 
in the northwestern counties of the State, originally 
settled by the Round-Heads of the English Revolu- 
tion, and by Scotch-Irish covenanters. Daniel Leas- 
ure, of New Castle, who had since 1832 been con- 
nected with the militia as a private or an officer, had 
served as captain and adjutant of the Twelfth Regi- 
ment, received authority from the Secretary of War 
Aug. 6, 1861, to recruit a regiment of infantry from 
among the descendants of the Covenanters and of the 
men who had followed Cromwell, whose leading 
characteristics had been a devotion to the principles 
of liberty of person and conscience. It was organ- 
ized at Pittsburgh, Aug. 31, 1861, for three years, re- 
enlisted as a veteran organization, and was mustered 
out of service July 24, 1865, at Harrisburg. It 
nobly maintained the reputation of its time-honored 
name l3y gallant fighting at James Island, Second 
Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, 
Fredericksburg, siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Blue 
Springs, Campbell Station, siege of Knoxville, Wil- 
derness, Spottsylvauia, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, 
Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, and 
Hatcher's Run. Lieut.-Col. David A. Leckey, pro- 
moted from captain Company M to major, Oct. 9, 
1861; to lieutenant-colonel, July 12, 1862; resigned 
Dec. 30, 1862. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH REGIMENT [Three Years' 

Service). 

Early in August, 1861, Amor A. McKnight, of 
Brookville, who had for some time previous com- 
manded a militia company, and who during the 
three months' service had led a company in the 
Eighth Regiment, received the requisite authority 
to raise a regiment for three years. Recruiting was 
immediately commenced, many re-enlisting from the 
returning regiments, and by the close of the month 
its ranks were full. It served three years, re-enlisted 
as a veteran organization, and was mustered out July 
11, 1865, at Washington, D. C. Its men were prin- 
cipally from the Congressional district then popularly 
known as the " Wild-Cat District," embracing the 
counties of Jefferson, which was most largely repre- 
sented, Clarion, and Clearfield, with one company from 
Westmoreland, were well formed and stalwart, and in- 
ured to hardships and privations in their struggles to 



subdue the forests. It was at once assigned to Jami- 
son's brigade of Heintzelman's division (afterwards 
Kearney's). In March following it marched with the 
Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, and crossed 
the Chickahominy, where, on May 31st, it took part 
in the battle of Fair Oaks. Headley, in his War His- 
tory, says, " Napoleon's veterans never stood firmer 
under a devastating fire" than the officers and men of 
this regiment in this action. It lost forty- one killed, 
one hundred and fifty wounded, and seventeen miss- 
ing. It went into the battle of Gettysburg reduced 
in numbers to two hundred and forty-seven, out of 
whom one officer and fourteen men were killed, 
thirteen officers and one hundred and eleven men 
wounded, and nine missing, — a loss of more than half 
its entire strength. It participated in the following 
other battles: Yorktown, Williamsburg, Glendale, 
Malvern Hill, Bristow Station, Second Bull Run, 
Chantilly, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Kelly's 
Ford, Mine Run, Po River, Spottsylvania, North 
Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, Strawberry Plains, 
Deep Bottom, Poplar Spring. Church, and Boydton 
Road. 

Lieutenant-colonel, J. Yv*. Greenawalt, pro. from capt. of Co. E to maj., 
Nov. 29, 1862, to lieut.-col., May 4, 1863; died May 17, of wounds received 
at Wilderness, May .5, 1864. 

Major, Mungo M. Dick, pro. from capt. of Co. E, Sept. 20, 1861 ; res. 
Aug. 9, 1862. 

Assistant surgeon, George W. Ewiog, rank from Aug. 4, 1862 ; pro. to 
surg., 115th Eegt., April 7, 1863. 

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT 

(Nine Month*' Service). 

Its regimental organization was effected Aug. 19, 
1862, at Camp Curtin, and on the same evening went 
to Washington, and reported to Gen. Wadsworth. 
He assigned it to provost-guard duty by detachments 
in that city and Georgetown, where it remained until 
Feb. 16, 1863. It was then assigned to the First 
Brigade, Third Division, First Corps, and until the 
opening of the Chancellorsville campaign was en- 
gaged in guard and picket duty. At the battle of 
Chancellorsville, although not actively engaged, it 
performed valuable services. It was mustered out 
May 24, 1863. The only field-officer from this county 
was Lieut.-Col. David L. McCulloch, promoted from 
captain Company F, Aug. 19, 1862. (See Appendix 
"R" for roster.) 

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT 
( Three Years' Service). 

This regiment was organized at Harrisburg in Au- 
gust and September, 1862, for three years, and mus- 
tered out May 29, 1865, near Washington, D. C It 
participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Fredericks- 
burg, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Wilderness, Peters- 
burg, and several other engagements. 

Chaplain William D. Moore, from Oct. 1, 1862, to 
Jan. 25, 1863. (See Appendix " R" for rosters.) 



WESTMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



397 



ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT 
{Drafted Militia, Nine Month*' Service). 

This regiment was raised in the counties of West- 
moreland, Fayette, Greene, Beaver, Allegheny, and 
Erie. The men rendezvoused at Camp Howe, near 
Pittsburgh, during the latter part of October, 1862, 
where the companies were organized. On December 
2d it left for Fortress Monroe, from whence it was or- 
dered to Newport News, where it remained two weeks, 
with the command of Gen. Corcoran. 

It was then ordered to Suffolk, Va., and was there 
assigned to Spinola's brigade, subsequently known as 
the " Keystone Brigade." From there the brigade 
went to Newberne, N. C. It was out upon several ex- 
peditions against the enemy, but did not come to 
battle. It afterwards relieved the garrison of Little 
Washington, where it remained until June 28th, when 
it was sent to Fortress Monroe, and thence to White 
House, to co-operate with forces under Gen. Dix in a 
demonstration towards Richmond. For nearly a week 
the troops were out upon this duty, and here the in- 
telligence was first received of the invasion of Penn- 
sylvania. It was then turned homeward towards the 
State, and occupied Maryland Heights, at Harper's 
Ferry, and joined Meade's army at Boonsboro' after 
the battle of Gettysburg. It was mustered out July 
2."., 1863. 1 

Colonel, Joseph Jack, rank from Nov. 28, 1862. 
Adjutant, Isaac R. Beazell, rank from Nov. 23, 1862. 

TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTH REGIMENT 
{One Year's Service). 

This regiment was organized at Pittsburgh, Sept. 8, 
1864. Most all the field and line officers had seen 
service in other regiments, aud the greater part of the 
men who served in the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth 
Regiment, nine months' service of 1862-63, now re- 
turned to service again in this regiment. Proceeding 
to the front, it was attached to the Eighteenth Corps, 
near Bermuda Hundred, but soon after moved to the 
north side of James River, and was assigned to duty 
with the Engineer Corps, and built Fort Brady, north 
of Dutch Gap. In the latter part of October it was 
assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division, Tenth 
Corps, and went into winter-quarters. Upon the re- 
organization of the army corps it was attached to the 
Twenty-fourth Corps, and continued on duty with the 
Army of the James under Gen. Orth. Upon the 
evacuation of Richmond it was the first regiment to 
enter the city, and for a time did provost-guard duty 
there, aud afterwards at Lynchburg. 

Lieutenant-Colonel, John T. Fulton, pro. from captain of Co. E, Sept. 9, 

1864; must, out June 26, 1865. 
Assistant surgeon, David Alter, must, out June 26, 1865. 
Chaplain, John C. High, must, out June 26, 1865. 

TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH REGIMENT 
( One Year's Service). 

This regiment was organized at Camp Reynolds, 
in September, 1864, aud soon after its organization 






1 See roster in Appendix " R." 



moved to the front, and on the 20th was placed in the 
intrenchrnents at Bermuda Hundred, where it was 
incorporated with a provisional brigade in the Army 
of the James. On November 27th it joined the 
Army of the Potomac, on the south side of the Appo- 
mattox, and was assigned to the Second Brigade (Col. 
Matthews'), the Third Division (Gen. Hartranft's), 
Ninth Corps. It gallantly participated in the fight- 
ing around Petersburg, where, April 2, 1865, it lost 
four officers and seventeen men killed, four officers 
and eighty-nine men wounded, and twenty-one miss- 
ing, an aggregate loss of one hundred and thirty-five. 
It was mustered out June 2, 1865, at Alexandria, Va. 

Colonel, James H. Trimble, hon. dish'd March 18, 1865. 

Major, Augustus A. Mechling, com. 2d lieut. March 19, 1865; not mus- 
tered; disch. May 3, 1865. 

Chaplain, John \V. Plannett, rank from Oct. 5, 1864 ; must, out with 
regt.2 

TWO HUNDRED AND TWELFTH REGIMENT— " SIXTH 
ARTILLERY"— ( One Year's. Service). 

This regiment was organized at Camp Reynolds, 
near Pittsburgh, Sept. 15, 1864, and two days later 
moved to Washington, where it was assigned to the 
Second Brigade of De Russy's division, which was 
garrisoning the defenses of the capital. On the 29th 
it was detached from the division and ordered to duty 
in guarding the portion of the Orange and Alex- 
andria Railroad lying between Alexandria and Man- 
assas, the several companies being stationed at inter- 
vals along the line, with headquarters at Fairfax 
Court-House. About the middle of November, Sheri- 
dan having cleared the Shenandoah Valley of the 
foes, this line was abandoned, and the regiment was 
ordered back to the defenses of Washington, being 
posted at Forts Marcy, Ward, Craig, Reno, Albany, 
Lyons, and others. It was mustered out June 13, 
1865. 

Chaplain, William D. Moore, from Sept. 17, 1864, to June 13, 1865. 

xMILlTIA OF 1862. 
The militia organizations of the county in 1861 
were but few, but, such as they were, they formed the 
basis of organization of some of the companies of 
men recruited that year for the national service. 
The rebel army had no sooner achieved its triumph 
in the second battle of Bull Run than it hastened 
forward to the north and commenced crossing the 
Potomac. The southern border of Pennsylvania lay 
in close proximity, all unprotected, and by its rich 
harvests invited invasion. The Reserve Corps, which 
was originally organized for the State defense, had 
been called away to the succor of the hard-pressed 
army of McClellan upon the Peninsula, and was 
now upon the weary march, with ranks sadly thinned 
in the hard-fought battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' 
Mill, Charles City Cross-Roads, and the second Bull 
Run, to again meet the foe, but powerless to avert 
the threatened danger. The result of the struggle on 

- See also roster in Appendix " R." 



26 



398 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the plains of Manassas was no sooner known than 
the helpless condition of the State, which had been 
apparent from the first, became a subject of alarm. 
September 4th, Governor Curtin issued a proclama- 
tion calling on the people to arm and prepare for de- 
fense. He recommended the immediate formation of 
companies throughout the State, and, for the purpose 
of drill and instruction, that after three p.m. of each 
day all business houses should be closed. On the 
10th, the danger having become imminent, the enemy- 
being already in Maryland, he issued a general order, 
calling on all able-bodied men to enroll immediately 
for the defense of the State, and to hold themselves in 
readiness to march at an hour's notice, to select offi- 
cers, to provide themselves with such arms as could 
be obtained, with sixty rounds of ammunition to the 
man, tendering arms to such as had none, and prom- 
ising that they should be held for service for such 
time only as the pressing exigency for State defense 
should continue. 

On the following day, acting under the authority 
of the President of the United States, the Governor 
called for fifty thousand men, directing them to 
report by telegraph for orders to move, and adding 
that further calls would be made as the exigencies 
should require. The people everywhere flew to arms, 
and moved promptly to the State capital. On the 
14th the head of the Army of the Potomac met the 
enemy at South Mountain, and hurled him back 
through its passes, and on the evening of the 16th 
and day of the 17th a fierce battle was fought at An- 
tietam. In the mean time the militia had rapidly 
concentrated at Hagerstown and Chambersburg, and 
Gen. John F. Reynolds, who was at the time com- 
manding a corps in the Army of the Potomac, had 
assumed command. Fifteen thousand men were 
pushed forward to Hagerstown and Boonsboro', and 
a portion of them stood in line of battle in close 
proximity to the field, in readiness to advance, while 
the fierce fighting was in progress. Ten thousand 
more posted in the vicinity of Greencastle and Cham- 
bersburg, and " about twenty-five thousand," says 
Governor Curtin, in his annual message, " were at 
Harrisburg, on their way to Harrisburg, or in readi- 
ness and waiting for transportation to proceed 
thither." The Twenty-fifth Regiment, under com- 
mand of Col. Dechert, at the request of Gen. Hal- 
leck, was sent to the State of Delaware to guard the 
Dupont powder-mills, whence the national armies 
were principally supplied. But the enemy was de- 
feated at Antietam, and retreated in confusion across 
the Potomac. The emergency having passed, the 
militia regiments were ordered to return to Harris- 
burg, and, in accordance with the conditions on 
which they had been called into service, they were 
on the 24th mustered out and disbanded. Gen. Mc- 
Clellan, in a letter to Governor Curtin, thanking him 
for his energetic action in calling out the militia, 
said, — 



"Fortunately, circumstances rendered it impossible for tlie enemy to- 
set foot upon the soil of Pennsylvania, but the moral support rendered 
to my army by your actiou was none the less mighty. The manner in 
which the people of Pennsylvania responded to your call and hastened 
to the defense of their frontier no doubt exercised a great influence 
upon the enemy." 

Four companies of militia were raised in West- 
moreland, gathered together between September 4th 
and 12th, eight- days. There were men in some if 
not all of them who had already seen service in the 
early campaigns of the war, and while they were not 
called upon to contend with the foe in deadly strife, 
the uprising of an army in the space of a week in the 
State of Pennsylvania had an equally encouraging 
effect upon the weary troops of the Army of the Po- 
tomac, and an equally disheartening effect upon the 
rank and file of the Confederate forces, beaten and 
driven back from the bloody field of Antietam. 1 

MILITIA OF 1863. 

In the spring of 1863, Gen. Lee, after repulsing the 
Federal attacks upon his stronghold at Fredericks- 
burg, planned a second invasion of Maryland and 
Pennsylania, the blow being mostly struck at the 
latter. Lee was several days in advance of the Union 
army, finding no considerable force in his way, cap- 
turing a portion of Gen. Milroy's force at Winchester, 
and compelling the balance to seek safety in the 
works on Maryland Heights, opposite Harper's Ferry, 
he triumphantly marched into Pennsylvania. The 
small force in the way at all was that under Gen. 
Couch, with headquarters at Harrisburg, and Gen. 
Brooks' small force on the border of Western Penn- 
sylvania and extending to the Ohio. The general 
government seeing the danger called for troops from 
the nearest States, asking of Pennsylvania 50,000 
men. The people having become disheartened by 
rebel successes South responded slowly, no consider- 
able force of militia being organized until Lee's army 
was on Pennsylvania soil, levying contributions of 
money and material upon its defenseless towns, asking 
the town of York alone for $100,000 cash, of which 
it actually paid 828,000, besides food and clothing 
furnished. Very few regiments were raised until the 
decisive battle of Gettysburg was fought, from July 
1st to 3d. There was some dissatisfaction on the part 
of some of the troops on account of being mustered 
into United States service, and Governor Curtin, be- 
ing called upon, assured the troops that they would 
be discharged as soon as the danger to the State was 
averted, and, more than this, gave them the choice to 
elect to serve six months or during the emergency. 
There was not much demurring among the Westmore- 
land County men, whose companies, among the very 
first raised in the State, were sworn into the United 
States service on the plighted faith of the Governor 
that they would not be detained beyond the exigency 
calling them to arms. It furnished two cavalry and 



1 See roster of Twenty-second Regiment in Appendix " K." 



WESTiMORELAND IN THE CIVIL WAR. 



399 



seven infantry companies, the latter being in the 
Fifty-fourth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-eighth Regi- 
ments. The Fifty-fourth and Fifty-seventh were both 
assigned to the command of Gen. T. H. Brooks, and 
rendezvoused near Pittsburgh. The rebel cavalry 
leader, Gen. John H. Morgan, then on a raid through 
Indiana and Ohio, had by this time gone so far north 
as to make his escape somewhat doubtful, and the 
more so after Lee had been driven back defeated into 
Virginia. The Fifty-fourth and Fifty-seventh were 
both moved down the Ohio and posted at fords of the 
Ohio River, by some of which Morgan had hoped to 
make good his escape, the gunboats having effectually 
stopped him from crossing the river lower down, and 
he was also closely pursued by a land force under 
Gens. Shackleford and Hobson. Attempts to cross 
were made at several points, and some five hundred 
of his men had effected a crossing at different points 
on the river. These, with the loss of six hundred 
men as prisoners in the engagement at the ford above 
Pomeroy, had reduced his force very much, and made 
his chances of escape still less, and with the loss in 
prisoners at Belleville left him with scarcely a thou- 
sand men. In the race for life his scouts were con- 
stantly trying the passes to the fords if possible to 
find a way of escape, but found the militia regiments 
so posted at each as to make it very hazardous to 
attempt even crossing. 

These regiments were rapidly moved from one ford 
to another by railroads, making quicker time than 
the rebels on horses, and consequently were well 
posted at each ford in good time. At one point the 
Fifty-seventh Regiment captured the scouts sent to 
examine the fords. At Warrenton it was feared Mor- 
gan would cross, but the Fifty-seventh Regiment by 
a quick movement of some three miles reached the 
place, and being the first on the ground, Col. Porter 
so disposed his men that any force attempting a pass- 
age of the river must have done so under a concen- 
trated fire of the regiment in a space where not over 
six abreast could have formed to charge the obstructed 
path. Morgan then tried the position of the Fifty- 
fourth Regiment, but found it impracticable. The 
Ohio militia in the mean time were pressing the rebel 
chieftain closely, as also Gens. Shackleford and Hob- 
son in his rear. Being thus closely pursued and en- 
vironed, he surrendered to Gen. Shackleford, and the 
work and duties of the Pennsylvania regiments over, 
they were soon disbanded, save Col. Lininger's inde- 
pendent battalion, which was retained in service seven 
months, doing duty on railroad guard and at cross- 
ings on the Upper Potomac River, with headquarters 
at Green Spring Run, W. Va. It is to the credit 
of these hastily-summoned troops for State defense 
that there was a willingness to move out of the State 
when necessary for the welfare of the country, and 
there is no doubt but the militia force mustered at 
this time had a wholesome effect upon the general 
result, and had it been in the field promptly at the 



call of the President, might have added very materi- 
ally to the amount of material captured from Lee on 
his retreat, for there was but a small force in the Army 
of the Potomac in fit condition to follow and harass 
Gen. Lee in his retreat. Couch's militia, as well as 
Brooks', may have been laughed at as worthless, but 
we must not forget "what Washington, Gates, and 
Jackson severally did with militia; but though they 
had only been held in reserve or set to guarding 
trains, their presence would have had a wholesome 
moral effect," and we do know they did good service 
in the campaign, those in the West rendering effectual 
help in the capture of Morgan and his troopers, and 
those in the East disputing every foot of advance of 
Lee's detached forces there, and we believe they would 
have prevented the crossing of the Susquehanna, even 
if Lee had not ordered his detached force under Gen. 
Early to return to the main body for the struggle with 
the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. Many of 
the men in these Westmoreland County companies of 
1863 had seen service before, having been discharged 
from regiments in the Army of the Potomac for 
wounds received in action, and had now so far recov- 
ered as to be able for duty on a short term ; others, to 
whom this service was the beginning, enlisted in regi- 
ments that went to the front, and proved by their 
future service that they had soldierly qualifications. 

FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE MILITIA. 
This regiment was organized at Pittsburgh, July 4, 
and mustered out Aug. 17, 1863.' Colonel, Thomas 
F. Gallagher; Major, John McClintock. 

COLORED TROOPS. 
No colored companies were recruited in Westmore- 
land County, but a large number of its colored resi- 
dents enlisted in the United States service and served 
in the war. They went into several different organi- 
zations, but the largest part were assigned to the One 
Hundred and Twenty-seventh United States Colored 
Regiment. It was formed from men enlisted and 
drafted in the State of Pennsylvania to serve one, 
two, and three years. It was organized at Camp Wil- 
liam Penn during the period extending from Aug. 
23 to Sept. 10, 1864. On arriving at the front it was 
incorporated with the Army of the James. It par- 
ticipated in the battle at Deep Bottom, and after the 
war was sent with other troops to Texas and posted 
on the Mexican frontier. On Sept. 11, 1865, it was 
consolidated into a battalion of three companies, 
which was mustered out October 20th following. 

For rosters of troops of the regiments mentioned 
in this chapter, and others from Westmoreland 
County, see Appendix "R." 

1 See roster of this regiment in Appendix "R." 



400 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

CANALS AND RAILROADS. 

Remarks on the subject of Transportation— How it was regarded in 
Pennsylvania— Canals in Pennsylvania— Public Works of the State- 
First Canal-Boat west of the Mountains— Advantages of the Canal 
here— Dickens' account of Canal-Boating along the Conemaugh— 
Steam Railways— The First Railroads in Pennsylvania— A Continuous 
Line through the State projected— It is finally Constructed— Stations 
and Distances— Western Pennsylvania Railroad— Pittsburgh and 
Connellsville Railroad— Southwest Pennsylvania Railway. 

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 

Under the head of modern improvements we shall 
in this chapter dwell at length upon those interests 
which have contributed to the prosperity of our peo- 
ple, and have been so instrumental in the develop- 
ment of our county. Of each of these interests we 
shall speak in detail. 

The problem of transportation and traffic has 
always exercised the inventive talent of men, and 
called into requisition the treasures and the labor of 
nations. At this day it is one of the greatest of the 
divisions of civil occupations. The number of men- 
who are in the employ of the railways of the world, 
from the office of president to the occupation of road 
laborer, added to those who are in the employments 
of navigation, and of the many expediencies in the 
great cities devised for the moving of men and goods, 
the number of these exceeds the number of men who 
are enlisted in all the armies of the world, while the 
talent, the skill, the capital, and the resources which 
are within the reach and under the control of this 
great estate are far in excess of those of any other. 

Immediately after the close of the Revolutionary 
war the people very generally turned their attention 
to the subject of internal improvements, and chiefly 
to the matter of facilitating internal transportation. 
The steady tide of emigration from the seaboard to 
the Ohio Valley gave promise of an immense popu- 
lation in those regions. The channel of the Missis- 
sippi was then closed to Americans, because it was in 
the hands of a foreign nation, and this nation was one 
not on friendly terms with Americans. It was there- 
fore a subject which interested not only individuals 
and localities alone, but our State and the Union of 
States as well. 

As early as 1791 a " Society for Promoting the Im- 
provement of Roads and Inland Navigation" was in 
existence in Pennsylvania, and it devoted much at- 
tention to the exploration of the various routes con- 
sidered most feasible for connecting the Delaware 
with the waters of the Ohio and the lakes. 

The discovery of new worlds, and the impetus 
given to the commerce of the ocean, stimulated the 
inventive faculties of modern Europe to introduce 
internal canals, after the manner of the Egyptians 
and Chinese, in whose countries this kind of high- 
way had been in successful use from the remotest 
times. Many of the plans which in the last century 



were introduced into Western Europe, although in- 
genious in their conception, were not practicable or 
successful. Of all these none were so valuable as 
those of our own Robert Fulton, whose name is in- 
separably connected with the introduction of steam 
navigation. 

Towards the latter part of the last century, in our 
own State, from time to time examinations were made 
of the courses of the principal rivers under the au- 
thority of the Assembly, and reports made thereon 
and submitted. Similar reports were made by neigh- 
boring States. All these investigations had in view 
the construction of a continuous work from one end 
of the State to the other by slack- water and canal, 
the waters of the East and West to be connected by 
means of roads over the Alleghenies. These roads 
were to be common turnpikes, and much ingenuity 
was exhausted to select the shortest route for a 
portage. 

The Union Canal, connecting the Schuylkill with 
the Susquehanna, was incorporated in 1791 and com- 
pleted in 1827. It was intended as part of a system 
to run to the lakes, but the design was never carried 
out. 

In 1824 the Assembly authorized the appointment 
of three commissioners to explore a route from Phila- 
delphia to Pittsburgh for a canal. On the 11th of 
April following a board of canal commissioners was 
established. In 1826 the Legislature provided for the 
construction of the " Pennsylvania Canal" at the ex- 
pense of the State. It was to be commenced at the 
river Swatara, near Middletown, where the Union 
Canal ended, and built to the mouth of the Juniata, 
and from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskimin- 
etas. The design appears to have been to make both 
the Kiskiminetas and the Juniata navigable by slack- 
water. Three hundred thousand dollars was appro- 
priated in order to allow the canal commissioners to 
commence work. 

The committee which had been appointed by the 
Governor in pursuance of this act of Assembly to 
explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg to Pitts- 
burgh had reported the Juniata and the Conemaugh 
to be the most practicable route. The report was 
adopted and the work let. In the fall of 1827 water 
was let into the levels at Leechburg from the Seven- 
Mile or Leechburg Dam. But on account of in- 
numerable difficulties, arising from the incomplete- 
ness of the work, it took the balance of the fall and 
winter to remedy the defects. 

In 1825 the Schuylkill Navigation Canal, which had 
been projected about thirty years previous, but not 
commenced till 1815, was completed. 

The main line of the public works from Philadel- 
phia to Pittsburgh was completed in 1831. It was 
composed of one hundred and twenty-six miles of 
railroad and two hundred and ninety-two miles of 
canal. The entire expenditure for the improvements 
authorized amounted to over thirty-five millions of 




@@53E5!a,&y®KI WOA®iy©T ©K) [PIMS^a^.ftKiaA KaQB»K©AB u 



CANALS AND RAILROADS. 



401 






dollars. These internal improvements were managed 
entirely by the board of canal commissioners, three 
in number. 

The first canal-boat ever built or run west of the 
mountains was the " General Abner Lacock." She 
was built at Apollo, Armstrong Co., by Philip Dally, 
under the auspices of Patrick Leonard. She was in- 
tended as a freight and passenger packet, but had 
berths and curtains, after the style of the steamboats 
of those days. 

In the fall of 1834 the Philadelphia and Columbia 
and the Allegheny Portage Railroad was completed, 
and the same month an emigrant's boat from the 
North Branch of the Susquehanna, with the family 
in it, passed over the inclined planes and trucks, 
landed at Johnstown, reached Pittsburgh, was run 
into the Ohio, and was finally towed up the Missis- 
sippi to St. Louis. 

At the time this event was much talked of, and it 
is, indeed, even in this day of wonders, a matter for 
notice. From the time Noah's ark rested on Ararat, 
probably no other boat of the same tonnage had 
ever reached such an altitude. 

The opening of this through route tended largely 
to open up the mineral resources of Western Pennsyl- 
vania, and of course was the natural cause which 
brought into existence a number of the villages along 
its banks, and which increased the population and 
enhanced the value of the real estate of the section 
through which it passed. The salt of the Kiskimin- 
etas became marketable and merchantable in the East, 
and the manufacturing of it gave employment to a 
large number of hands. Blast-furnaces, bloomeries, 
and ore-pits sprang into existence along its line in the 
regions next the mountains, where iron ore is known 
to exist. Capital became more plentiful, and all busi- 
ness was stimulated. The business man of the day l 
who had not stock in some of the lines of canals, 
steamboats, or stages was not regarded as wealthy or 
enterprising. 

The canal running with' and crossing the Cone- 
maugh and the Kiskiminetas, followed the northern 
boundary of the county from the village of Cone- 
maugh Furnace Station, at the western base of Laurel 
Hill, and passing through and near to Nineveh, Flor- 
ence, Lockport, Bolivar, Blairsville, Bairdstown, Liv- 
ermore, Saltsburg, Leechburg, touched the north- 
western limits of the county at Freeport. Some of 
these places, it is true, owe their present existence to 
the Pennsylvania or the West Pennsylvania Rail- 
roads, but most of them owed their existence to the 
Pennsylvania Canal. On our side of this line its di- 
rect benefits were extended in a perceptible manner 
to the whole of the lower part of Ligonier Valley, 
and as far south as New Derry, New Alexandria, and 
New Salem. 

Some of the structures erected by the Board of Pub- 
lic Works for the use of the canal are still in existence, 
although they now subserve a different purpose. The 



Pennsylvania Railroad came into the possession and 
the enjoyment of most of them. But the bed of the 
old canal itself is to-day as dry and barren as the turn- 
pike, and it contains for navigation puposes not so 
much water in its stagnant pools as would be suf- 
cient to drown a litter of blind puppies. 

CHARLES DICKENS' EXPERIENCE IN CANAL-GOATS. 
The most interesting reminiscence connected with 
the old canal travel in Western Pennsylvania is that 
which remains of record in " American Notes for 
General Circulation," by Charles Dickens, made dur- 
ing his first visit to America in 1842. Speaking for 
himself, in the tenth chapter thereof, he says, — 

" The canal extends to the foot of the mountain, and there of course 
it stops, the passengers being conveyed across it by land-carriage, and 
taken on afterwards by another canal-boat, the counterpart of the first, 
which awaits them on the other side. There are two canal lines of 
pasBage-boats ; one is called the Express, and one (a cheaper one) the 
Pioneer. The Pioneer gets first to the mountain, and waits for the 
Express people to come up, both sets of passengers being conveyed 
across it at the same time. We were the Express company, but when 
we had crossed the mountain and had come to the second boat, the pro- 
prietors took it into their heads to draft all the Pioneer's into it like- 
wise, so that we were five and forty at least, and the accession of passen- 
gers was not at all of that kind which improved the prospect of sleeping 
at night. . . . One of two remarkable circumstances is indisputably a 
fact with reference to that class of society who travel in these bo»ts, 
—either they carry their restlessness to such a pitch that they never sleep 
at all, or they expectorate in dreams, which would be a remarkable niing- 
lingof the real and the ideal. All night long and every night on this canal 
there was a perfect storm and tempest of spitting. . . . Between five 
and six o'clock in the morning we got up, and some of us went on deck 
to give them an opportunity of taking the shelves down, while others, 
the morning being very cold, crowded round the rusty stove, cherishing 
the newly-kindled fire, and filling the grate with those volunteer contri- 
butions of which they had been so liberal at night. The washing ac- 
commodations were primitive. There was a tin ladle chained to the 
deck with which every gentleman who thought it necessary to cleanse 
himself (many were superior to this weakness) fished the dirty water 
out of the canal, and poured it into a tiu basin secured in like manner. 
There was also a jack-towel. Hauging up before a little looking-glass 
in the bar, in the immediate vicinity of the bread and cheese and bis- 
cuits, were a public comb and a hair-brush. . . . Aud yet, despite these 
oddities,— and even they had, forme at least.a humor of their own,— there 
was much in this mode of traveling which I heartily enjoyed at the 
time and look back upon with great pleasure. Even the running up 
bare-necked at five o'clock in the morning from the tainted cabin to the 
dirty deck, scooping up the icy water, plunging one's head into it and 
drawing it out all fresh and glowing with the cold, was a good thing. 
The fast, brisk walk upon the towing-path between that time and break- 
fast, when every vein and artery seemed to tingle with health, the ex- 
quisite beauty of the opening day, when light came gleaming off from 
everything; the lazy motion of the boat when one lay idly on the deck, 
looking through rather than at the deep blue sky ; the gliding ou at 
night so noiselessly, past frowning hills, sullen with dark trees, and 
sometimes angry in one red, burning spot high up where unseen men 
lay crouching round a fire; the shining out of the bright stars, undis- 
turbed by noise of wheels or steam or any other sound than the liquid 
rippling of the water as the boat went on, all these were pure delights " 

RAILROADS. 

At the time when the large appropriations were 
made for the completion of the canals, there was little 
faith put in the practicability of steam railways. The 
faith and hope of those who desired anything better 
than turnpikes was in water communication. 

But while yet canal navigation was in its incipiency 
in the United States the practical application of steam 
had been pronounced favorable, and a successful be- 



402 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ginning had been made of steam as a motive-power 
on the tramways of the mines of Cornwall. 1 In 1813, 
George Stevenson, the English engineer, began the 
construction of a modern locomotive. The Liverpool 
and Manchester Railroad, in operation in 1825 and 
completed in 1829, was the first railroad in the world 
built for the transportation of passengers and for gen- 
eral traffic. 

During 1828 several railroads were commenced in 
the United States. The most important of these was 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

Satisfied that railroads were a success, but doubting 
the power of private capital to accomplish the result, 
and satisfied of the impracticability of a successful 
water communication over the mountains, the Legis- 
lature, in 1827, authorized the canal commissioners to 
make examinations for such a road through the coun- 
ties of Chester and Lancaster to connect with the 
canal. The following year (1828) they were directed 
to examine a route for a road from Huntingdon to 
Johnstown over the Allegheny Mountains. 

This was the actual commencement of the Colum- 
bia and the Portage Railroads, one of which, the 
Portage, is yet regarded as one of the most successful 
of engineering feats, and one of the greatest marvels 
of practical science in the world. 

The main line of canals from Columbia to Holli- 
daysburg, on the eastern side of the mountain, and 
from Pittsburgh to Johnstown, on the western side, 
was rapidly pushed forward to completion. 

In 1834, by the completion of the Columbia Road, 
with a double track, the Portage, with a single track, 
and the main line of the canal, the entire line from 
Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was opened to traffic and 
travel. 2 

The line being thus broken, and consequently re- 
quiring the reshipmeut of freight consigned through, 
it was both difficult and expensive to operate. Like 
nearly all the public works of the State, it never 
proved remunerative to the State. It was, however, 
of great benefit to the country through which it 
passed, and contributed vastly towards the develop- 
ment of the State's resources. 

On March 6, 1838, a general convention assembled 
at Harrisburg to urge the construction of a continu- 
ous railroad from there to Pittsburgh. Delegates 
were present from twenty-nine counties. Memorials 
to the Legislature were drawn, and addresses pre- 
pared. The same year a survey, under authority of 
the State, was made of a route through the counties 
of Franklin, Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland, and 
Allegheny. The next year, under authority of the 
canal commissioners, a similar survey was made from 

1 The " Pennsylvania Railroad," by W. B. Sipes, 1875, p. 2. 

2 This road as finished consisted of the Columbia Railroad, 82 miles, 
from Philadelphia to Columbia, on the Susquehanna River; the Eastern 
Division of the canal, 172 miles in length, from Columbia to Hollidays- 
burg; tho Portage, from Holliday6burg to Johnstown, 36 miles; the 
Western Division of the canal, from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, 104 miles 
in length. 



Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. In 1840 a report of this 
survey was made. Three, routes were projected. The 
"Third" route, by way of the Juniata and Cone- 
maugh, was pronounced the most feasible, and in all 
respects the best. 

On the 13th of April, 1846, the act incorporating the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, now one of the most gigantic 
corporations in the world, was passed. 3 On the 25th 
of February, 1847, the Governor granted it a charter. 
On the 22d of July, 1847, fifteen miles east of Pitts- 
burgh was put under contract. Work was pushed on 
the Eastern Division, and in August, 1851, twenty-one 
miles of the road west of Johnstown was finished, 
which with the portion built east of Pittsburgh left 
but a gap of twenty-eight miles to complete the line. 
This was closed up during the following year, and on 
the 10th of December, 1852, the jcars were run through 
from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. 4 

When the line of the railroad through the State 
was finished it became the course of the telegraph 
lines. In time the lines which had been put up along 
the turnpikes were abandoned for the railroad routes. 
The telegraph along the Stoystown and Greensburg 
turnpike was in operation in 1842. 

By act of 16th May, 1857, the main line of the 
public works of the State were directed to be sold. 
They were sold on the 25th of June, and on the 31st 
of July the whole line of public works between 
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was transferred to the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company for seven million 
five hundred dollars. 

DISTANCES. 

The following are the distances between stations on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad: 

Three hundred and fifty-three and one-tenth miles 
between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. 

Two hundred and eighty-four and three-tenths 
miles between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. 

One hundred arid sixteen and seven-tenths miles 
between Pittsburgh and Altoona. 

Eighty-five and six-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and Altoona. 

Forty-six and nine-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and Johnstown. 

Thirty-seven and five-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and Nineveh. 

Thirty-three and four-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and New Florence. 

Twenty-two and two-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and Blairsville Intersection. 

Fourteen and eight-tenths miles between Greens- 
burg and Derry Station. 

Nine and seven-tenths miles between Greensburg 
and Latrobe. 

3 On the 6th of July, 1846, as the county papers show, books were 
opened for subscription to the capital stock of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company at " Hugu^' Hotel" (late Col. Rohrer'a). 

* It was not till Feb. 1">, 1854, that the first trains passed through 
Pennsylvania without using the inclined planes. 



COKE. 



403 



Seven and three-fourths miles from Greensburg to 
Manor. 

Nine and five-tenths miles from Greensburg to 
Irwin. 

Fourteen and three-tenths miles from Greensburg 
to Stewart's. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad runs fifty-five and three- 
tenths miles through Westmoreland County, extend- 
ing forty and nine-tenths miles east of Greensburg, 
and fourteen and four-tenths miles west of Greens- 
burg. 

NORTHWESTERN, NOW WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 
RAILROAD. 

The Northwestern Railroad Company was char- 
tered by act of Assembly approved Feb. 9, 1853. It 
extended from Blairsville, Indiana Co., down the 
valley of the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas Rivers, 
through Indiana aud Westmoreland Counties, to Free- 
port, in Armstrong County. At this point it left the 
Allegheny and ascended the Big Buffalo to Rough 
Run ; thence up Rough Run to head- waters of Coal 
Run ; thence down Coal Run, through Butler and 
Lawrence Counties, to New Castle, where it connected 
with the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, the in- 
tention being to form a continuous railroad route, 
without break of gauge, to Chicago, St. Louis, and the 
West. At that time there was a break of gauge of one 
and a half inches on all roads in Ohio. 

The Northwestern Railroad Company, after grading 
that part of the road from Blairsville to Allegheny 
Junction and completing the masonry, failed, and was 
sold out at Philadelphia in May, 1859, and purchased 
by a committee of the bondholders. These bondhold- 
ers reorganized as the Western Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company, under a charter approved March 22, 1860. 
The work of completing the road was begun in the 
spring of 1863. The track was laid each way from 
Blairsville west, and Allegheny Junction east. Passen- 
ger trains were put on in the fall of 1864, and run from 
each end. The high bridge over Wolford's Run was 
finished in 1865, and through trains immediately put 
on, running between Blairsville and the Allegheny 
Valley Railroad at the mouth of the Kiskiminetas 
River. The bridge over the Allegheny was completed 
in 1865. In 1866 the road was completed from Free- 
port to Allegheny City. 

PITTSBURGH AND CONNELLSVILLE RAILROAD. 

About the middle of June, 1847, subscription books 
were opened in West Newtou for the capital stock of 
the " Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad." The 
formal opening of the road between West Newton, in 
Westmoreland County, and Layton Station, in Fay- 
ette County, a distance of thirteen miles, was made 
on Thursday, May 7, 1855. This was a big day at 
the latter place, and the residents there most hospit- 
ably entertained their visitors. The road-bed lies 
close to the Youghiogheny River the whole distance, 



I but the grades are easy, and the road is smooth and 
well ballasted. Layton is eight miles from Mount 

| Pleasant, and twelve miles from Connellsville. 

Other information touching these roads may be 
found in the local departments of this work. 

THE SOUTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA BRANCH 

from Greensburg, the point of intersection with the 
main line, extends to Uniontown, Fayette Co., through 
the very heart of the Connellsville coke region. It 
extends through the county to where it crosses Jacobs 
Creek on the north side of Everson. Books were 
opened out for subscription to the capital stock of the 
company on Tuesday, 11th April, 1871, and kept open 
till the 21st. A. E. Wilson, C. S. Sherrick, James A. 
Logan, Israel Painter, and Samuel Dilliuger were 
named in the act as corporators. The places desig- 
nated to receive subscriptions were Greensburg, 
Bethany, Painter's Mills, Connellsville, Stauffer's, and 
Uniontown, in Fayette County. The road was 
speedily finished, and in 1873 was leased by the 
Pennsylvania Company. 

The stations on the road, with their distances from 
Greensburg, are these: Huff's, three miles; Foster- 
ville, four miles ; Youngwood, six miles ; Painters- 
ville, eight miles; Hunker's, nine miles; Bethany, 
twelve miles; Tarr's, thirteen miles; Stonersville, 
fifteen miles ; Hawkeye, sixteen miles ; Scottdale, 
seventeen miles ; Everson, eighteen miles. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 
COKE. 

Features of the Coke Region — Connellsville Coke Begion — Pioneers in 
the Coke Business — Description of the Coal Business — The Properties 
of Coked Coal — Questions of Cost — Other Veins of Coal within the Con- 
nellsville Region — Growth of the Coke Industry — Statistics — Mount 
Pleasant Region — Moorewood Mines — Coke Crushing — Standard Mines 
— Other Companies about Mount Pleasant — East Huntingdon Town- 
ship Region — Scottdale Iron-Works — Scottdale Coke Region — At 
Stonersville — Latrobe Region — The Monastery Coke-Works — Latrobe 
Works — Soxmau's Works — Loyalhanua Works — Ridgeview Works — 
St. Clair Works — Millwood Works — Irwin Region — Westmoreland 
Coal Company — Penn Gas-Coal Company — Sewickley Region — Coke- 
ville Region. 

The geographical features of the "Connellsville 
coke region" afford useful suggestions to the statis- 
tician and economist. Like a mole near the left- 
hand corner of the lower jaw sits the coke-producing 
section on the brunette cheek of Pennsylvania, an 
elliptical mole about forty miles long, measuring 
northeast aud southwest. Fairchance Furnace, at the 
southwest end, looks out across Mason and Dixon's 
line over the lumpy expanse of West Virginia, point- 
ing to the portly hills that hold buried under rocks 
and earth from the creating hand, aud under the in- 
dolent conservatism of the laziest created people, 
more worth and energy than all the glowing acres to 
the north of it. From Fairchance Furnace F. H. 



404 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Oliphant, in 1835, took specimens of iron smelted 
from blue lump ore with the use of coke, and ex- 
hibited them at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. 
He was not the primitive coke-user in this section, 
that honor belonging traditionally to old Col. Isaac 
Meason, who had a furnace near the Plum Rock Mill, 
in Fayette County ; but Mr. Oliphant was among the 
first to hold up to outside capital the prospect of 
profitable investment. It was a decade and a half 
later before the influx of money from the East and 
North began to waken the blaze which is now roaring 
in thousands of ovens. The coke-burning section 
proper was towards the northeast, in a broken semi- 
circle of ovens about Latrobe, on the main line of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, about forty miles east of 
Pittsburgh ; southwest of Latrobe the black belt of 
country includes the flourishing towns of Connells- 
ville and Uniontovvn at the farther end, in Fayette 
County, Mount Pleasant near the centre, and Scott- 
dale not far from it. 

CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION. 

In the summer of 1841, Messrs. William Turner, 
Sr., P. McCormick, and James Campbell employed 
Mr. John Taylor (father of Mr. Jesse Taylor, a mer- 
chant of Connellsville) to erect two ovens for the 
burning of coke on his farm, lying on the Youghio- 
gheny, a few miles below Connellsville, the lands now 
owned by the Fayette Coke-Works at Sedgwick Sta- 
tion. These ovens were built after the bee-hive pat- 
tern, with a fourteen-inch rise and flat crown, and 
held but sixty-five bushels of raw coal. During the 
summer a number of experiments .were made with 
these ovens, but with unsatisfactory results. Nobody 
in the neighborhood knew anything about the manu- 
facture of coke, or had any but the crudest idea or 
theory about it. The construction of the ovens pre- 
sented the most serious difficulties; they had not suf- 
ficient draught, nor held they a sufficient body of coal 
to make good coke. However, after repeated failures 
and reverses, one by one the faults were remedied and 
a tolerably fair quality of coke was produced with a 
show of certainty and regularity. This first good 
coke manufactured of Youghiogheny coal was made 
conjointly by the above-mentioned persons, having 
in their employ to operate the ovens four persons: 
William Kenear, J. R. Smith, George B. Norris, and 
David McFarland. So much for the employers and 
the employed, the time being the early part of the 
winter of 1841-42. 

During the winter of 1841-42 these parties kept up 
the manufacture of coke until the spring of 1842, 
when they had enough to load a coal-boat ninety feet 
in length. At the first suitable rise in the river this 
boat was run down the Yough, down the Mononga- 
hela, and down the Ohio as far as Cincinnati in search 
of a purchaser for the new applicant for favor as a 
fuel. The search, moreover, seemed likely to be in 
vain, and disappointment and dejection added weight 



to the samples hawked about the foundries of Cin- 
cinnati in coffee-sacks. At length, however, Mr. 
Turner found a purchaser in Mr. Greenwood, the 
wealthy foundryman and wine merchant, at six and 
one-fourth cents per bushel, half cash and half in old 
mill irons. Such was the introduction of Connells- 
ville coke into the commerce of the world. 

The success of this first enterprise was a stimulus 
not only to repetition but competition. In the fall 
of 1842, Mr. Mordecai Cochran and his brother's sons 
began the manufacture of coke in the ovens operated 
the winter before by the parties above mentioned. 
They too were successful, not only in the manufacture 
but also in the sale of their ware, and Cochran is one 
of the kings of coke to-day. In the fall of 1842, 
moreover, Mr. Richard Brookins began mining on the 
western side of the river, opposite the original ovens, 
and built five ovens on the same plan as the original. 
He likewise was successful. Brookins also manufac- 
tured coke on the ground, but gave up this mode for 
the preferable ovens. 

The next step forward in the coke business was in 
1844. In the summer of this year, Col. A. M. Hill, 
one of the most famous coal operators of the Yough, 
bought the Dickerson farm, and erected thereon seven 
ovens after an improved plan, the diameter enlarged, 
and the crown raised, so that the charge was increased 
to about ninety bushels. Hill's energy and success 
gave great impetus and character to the business, 
which is felt to this day. 

The lay of the country follows the lay of the coal 
basins. An old mining engineer whom we asked to 
define the extent of the coking coal field in this sec- 
tion said, " It's simple enough. Just imagine a fleet 
of canoes strung out ahead and astern along the valley 
west of the Chestnut Ridge and you have it. The 
basin is not a basin, it is a succession of canoes laden 
to the gunwales with earth and rocks and a little 
coal." The figure is not inapt. The coal vein which 
is tapped for coking purposes lies from sixty to one 
hundred and fifty feet underground along its longi- 
tudinal axis. As it approaches the Chestnut Ridge 
to the east it bends rapidly and then abruptly toward 
the surface, and crops out along the western slope of 
the ridge. The eastern gunwale of the imaginary 
canoe is in view of the geologist for miles as he stands 
on some peak of the ridge and lets his scientific eye 
ramble along the rocky slope. The other side of the 
canoe turns up against Dry Ridge, to the west. The 
bows of the subterranean craft are separated by the 
valley of the little streams tributary to the Monon- 
gahela and the " Dare-Devil Yough," which cut 
across the sides of the larger valleys. The cargo which 
weighs down this supposititious fleet is valueless of it- 
self, but the vessels themselves are worth more than 
all the galleons that ever sailed through the Spanish 
Main. The vein which supplies the coke-ovens of 
Fayette, Westmoreland, and Allegheny Counties with 
the soft coal necessary to the manufacture of coke is 



COKE. 



405 



the same which supplies hard fuel to the stoves and 
ranges and engines of Pittsburgh, although the people 
of this section are backward to believe the geologists' 
assurance of this fact. Knowing that they had a rich 
inheritance in their ten-foot vein of soft coal, they 
were like a family with a rich bachelor uncle, anxious 
that he should remain single. What has caused the 
difference in constitution between the two sections of 
the vein, divided only by a narrow, barren stretch, is 
yet a problem for scientists. 

The coking coal is soft and porous, and yields easily 
to the miner's pick. It is comparatively free from 
sulphur, and can - be shoveled into the ovens as it 
conies from the mine, without any preliminary pro- 
cess. 

Gas-coal is hard and unyielding ; little of it is 
made into coke, as it must be crushed and the sul- 
phur washed out of it before roasting. It costs from 
twenty-five to thirty cents a ton to mine coking coal, 
and about three times as much to get out gas-coal. 
Before coking, the coal mined in this section is value- j 
less for smelting purposes. Thrown into the furnaces, 
with the enormous weight of ore and limestone upon 
it, it crumbles, and soon becomes a compact mass, 
through which there can be no draught and no distri- 
bution of heat. Besides it contains a percentage of sul- 
phur large enough to lower materially the quality of 
the iron produced. But put into the ovens and roasted, 
the sulphur disappears, and the soft, friable, black 
coal comes out a tough, spongy, gray coke, which 
bears heavy pressure without crumbling, burns with 
a hot fire, and by its open composition furnishes a nat- 
ural draught through it. This coke, manufactured by 
the simple roasting for a few hours of soft black coal in 
a bee-hive oven, is without a rival in the furnaces of 
Western Pennsylvania, and, except the anthracite coal 
in the eastern part of the State, almost without a com- 
petitor on this continent. It heats the iron furnaces of 
the near West, and has regular purchasers among those 
who smelt gold and silver from the Pacific hills. It 
has driven charcoal out of the market as a fuel for the 
manufacture of pig iron, and is every year crowding 
the anthracite into a narrow field of usefulness. It is 
used along with the natural hard coal in the furnaces 
of Eastern Pennsylvania, and with the aid of the 
new crushing-machines to reduce it to a convenient 
size, bids fair, in time, to supplant it for domestic use. 
It is simply a question of cost. 

The known anthracite region is eomparativelysmall. 
The yearly discoveries of prospectors are just begin- 
ning to open the eyes of geologists to the vast extent of 
the bituminous beds. As consumption creates a natural 
corner in the anthracite, prices will go up until the 
manufactured product of the soft-coal fields will go 
to the doors of the anthracite furnace at a price so 
much below the hard coal that no iron-manufacturer 
can use the anthracite and sell his pig at a profit. 
With coke the only fuel for the furnaces of America, 
it is a question of only a few years until, at the rates 



ovens are multiplying, the coke-producing territory 
now developed is exhausted. It is a prospect which 
the coke operators are loth to took at, and they one 
and all contend that the day is far distant when the 
last oven shall be lighted in the Youghiogheny Val- 
ley ; so distant that no one now living need be fright- 
ened at a spectre which will not materialize until 
their grandsons are grandsires. How nearly their 
comfortable position is justified by the logic of supply 
and consumption, or how much self-interest there is 
in the brave front which they bear, is beyond our 
knowledge. 

Let him who would study the country as it deserves 
climb to the top of Chestnut Ridge and turn back with 
the finger of science the earthen leaves of the book 
which nature has buried at his feet. Like the in- 
scription of the tower of Pharos, the maker's name 
stands out in deep engraving when the crust of clay 
is worn off, and the jealous hands of nature herself 
have rubbed off the dirt, and left the specimens of her 
better handiwork visible upon the western slope of the 
ridge, making the highest hill the best point from 
which to see the under side of the valley. According 
to the more or less certaiu traditions of geology, not 
only the Pittsburgh coal vein, but the upper coal meas- 
ures above it once spread in unbroken sheets from 
Middle Pennsylvania to Middle Ohio and far into 
Virginia. Little patches of these veins, and frag- 
ments of the less destructible rocks which are their 
geological neighbors, are still found scattered through 
all this stretch of country, where now the lower coal 
measures are near the present surface. Whether the 
general height of the continent was at that time so 
much above sea level is questionable. The ocean 
then flowed over the now rich farming counties of 
Bucks, Adams, York, and Lancaster, and the wide- 
mouthed marine monsters of that age grazed over the 
flat acres where the frugal Pennsylvania Dutch now 
pasture their mild-eyed milkers. That section of the 
State was afterwards lifted up many hundred feet, but 
the lift seems, by the geological structure of the State, 
to have been confined to the southeastern counties. 
Western Pennsylvania may have been higher above 
sea level, but could scarcely have been lower than it 
is now, considering the formations. But considered 
with relation to the surrounding surface, Western 
Pennsylvania must have been several thousand feet 
higher than its present elevation, from which height 
] it has been degraded by the ceaseless wearing of its 
i countless streams. No reason has been given to doubt, 
! according to geologists, that the upper barren meas- 
ures lying high above the upper coal measures and 
the Pittsburgh vein once spread over the top of what 
is now Chestnut Ridge. If so, when that far-back 
convulsion of the growing earth heaved up the ridge 
that now borders the eastern side of the Connellsville 
coke region, it lifted not the present puny range of 
hills, less than fifteen hundred feet above the level of 
the river at Connellsville, and only two thousand two 



406 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



hundred feet above ocean level, but a sharp, ragged 
mountain chain almost five thousand feet above tide 
level. The western side of the ridge must have then 
had a fall of four hundred and twenty feet per mile, 
and it was down this tremendous slope that the moun- 
tain torrents began to tear away the hillsides and wash 
down the weather-worn debris from the summit. 

Standing on Elk Rock, a weather-worn fragment 
of conglomerate lying on the top of the ridge, about 
three miles from there, 1 the observer is geologically 
between one thousand and two thousand feet be- 
low the valley which stretches away westward from 
the foot-hills. The layers of coal, limestone, sand- 
stone, and shale, in various stages of decomposition, 
which compose the valley at his feet turn up at a 
sharp angle as they approach the ridge, and their 
more or less regular outcrop marks the periods of the 
earth's growth as plainly to his geological eye as a 
genealogical table. The surgery of nature has here 
cut down to the bones of the earth, and standing upon 
the vertebral column of Western Pennsylvania he 
can trace the layers of flesh and veins and skin that, 
although now covering only the valleys, was formerly 
continuous over the spot upon which he is standing. 
His feet are among the early conglomerates that 
form the solid foundation upon which the vegetation- 
bearing superstructure was built. About two miles 
below him — beyond the outcrops of the Freeport coal 
veins, the lower coal measures and the lower barren 
measures — he can see, with the aid of a scientific 
imagination and a strong field-glass, the outcrop of 
the rich Pittsburgh vein, the coking coal, a long, 
bleached black line, rising and falling with the undu- 
lations of the strata, but keeping about the same dis- 
tance from the top of the ridge. The smoke from 
hundreds of coke-ovens will mark the outcrop in 
places where the coal is gotten out by drifting. His 
geological memory will carry his eyes back to the 
time, so far back that it seems almost eternity, when 
the trees which have been digested into coal in the 
cannibal stomach of their mother were bred upon 
the earth under the amorous kisses of the sun. He 
can trace with his mind's eye this black vein of con- 
served heat and energy as it dips down as if its back 
were broken under the weight of rock and earth, the 
upper barren measures upon it, and see it showing 
at the surface again along the rolling sides of Dry 
Ridge, towards the Monongahela River. About five 
hundred feet below the Pittsburgh vein, and cropping i 
out correspondingly nearer the ridge, lie the Freeport j 
veins, upper and lower, which in Tioga County are 
found in the tops of the high hills, and are now being 
drifted and the coal made into coke. The vein im- 
proves as it goes north, and the rocks overlying it are 
much harder than here. Still below the Freeport lies 
the Kittanning coal. Between the upper Freeport and 
the Pittsburgh veins stretch the lower barren meas- 

1 Conuellsville. 



ures, five hundred and six hundred feet thick, con- 
taining shales, limestone, and sandstone, with a little 
fire-clay and a few thin seams of coal. From fifty to 
seventy feet above the Pittsburgh vein, Prof. J. J. 
Stevenson, of the University of New York, to whom 
we are indebted for much valuable and accurate infor- 
mation, found the Redstone or "Four-Foot vein," con- 
taining considerable sulphur. Seventy-five to one 
hundred feet higher, geologically, is the Sewickley 
vein, three feet thick, lying just beneath the lower 
division of the Great Limestone, which is eighty feet 
thick, in layers with clay between. From forty to 
fifty feet above the top of the Great Limestone is the 
Uniontown coal vein, about three feet thick, never 
being good in quality and thinning out to nothing as 
it goes north. Still above that a hundred feet or 
more lie the Little Waynesburg and the Big Waynes- 
burg veins, mined in Washington and Greene Coun- 
ties. 

The most accurate conception of the wonderful 
growth of the coke industry in Western Pennsylvania 
is to be obtained from a comparison of the number of 
ovens and the production of coke in the past few 
years. A short column of cold figures is more con- 
vincing than a page of general description. In 1870 
one train a day, of the ordinary size of coke trains, 
would have been amply sufficient to carry the coke 
manufactured in the entire Connellsville region. 
Now there is one works which turns out on an aver- 
age 60 cars daily, and about 1700 private cars owned 
by the operators are employed exclusively in the 
transportation of coke. While the industry increased 
rapidly from 1870 to 1879, its growth in the past three 
years has been almost phenomenal. In 1876 there 
were 3260 ovens in the Connellsville region. On the 
1st of May three years later the number had in- 
creased to 4114, and to-day there are 8091 ovens in 
active operation. The following table gives an accu- 
rate and careful count of the number of ovens at 
each works in the recognized Connellsville region, 
with the names of the operators and the railroads by 
which the products of each are shipped : 

MAIN LINE, BALTIMORE AND OHIO. 

Ovens. 

J. N. Schoonmaker, Sterling 159 

Jackson Mines Co., Jackson u4 

James G'ocliran, Fayette 100 

Laughlin & Co., Tyrone 130 

Sample Coctiran. Sons & Co., Washington 32 

485 
MOUNT PLEASANT BRANCH. BALTIMORE AND OHIO. 

Ovens. 

II. O. Frick Coke Co., Henrv Clay 100 

H. O. Friok Coke Co., Frick 106 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., Morean 164 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., White 148 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., Foundry 74 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., Eagle 80 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., Summit 142 

H. C. Erick Coke Co., Tip Top 56 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., Valley 152 

Mullon/Strickler & Co., Mullen 82 

Boyle & Rafferty, Boyle's 252 

J. M. Cochran's estate, Buckeye L16 

J. M. Cochran's estate, Star. 20 

Jos. R. Stauffer & Co., Dexter 40 

J. D. Boyle, Fountain 50 

McClure & Co., Diamond 66 



COKE. 



407 



McClure & Co., Painter'B 228 

Cbarlotte Furnace Co 60 

W. A. Keiler 40 

B. F. Keister Jt Co., Frankliu 50 

A. A. Hutchinson & Bio., Standard 360 

James Cochran & Co., Clinton 44 

2430 

OTHER BALTIMORE AND OHIO BRANCHES. 

Ovens. 

J. M. Schoonmaker, Jinitown 303 

Cochran & Keester, Spurggon 100 

John Newmyer, Cora 42 

W. J. Ranuey * Co., Fort Hill 88 

Dunbar Furnace Co., Hill Farm 89 

A. 0. Tintsnian, Mount Braddock 127 

Percy Mining 69 

Stuart Iron Co 120 

931 

Total ovens shipping by Baltimore and Ohio 3846 

SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD. 

Ovens. 

Dillinger, Rafterty & Co., Enterprise 50 

Hurst, Stunet & Co., Union 70 

S. W. Coal and Coke Co 138 

Dillinger, Tarr & Co 66 

Joseph R. Stauffer, Home 20 

A. O. Tintsnian A Co.. Penusville 70 

W. J. Rainey & Co., Eldorado 225 

Pittsburgh and Connellsville G. C. & C. Co 295 

Cambria Iron Co., Morrell 400 

Cambria Iron Co., Wheeler 100 

Dunbar Furnace Co., Furgeson * TO 

Mahoning Cuke Co. (limited), Mahoning 100 

Morgan, Layug & Co., Anchor 100 

Reed & Bro., Uniondale 76 

Colviu Si C 80 

Youngstowu Coke Co. (limited) 240 

Leniont Furnace Co., Lemont 150 

Chicago and Connellsville Coke Co 170 

J W. Moore Si Co 170 

Fairchance Iron Co 36 

Fayette Coke and Furnace Co 130 

2756 
BRANCHES FROM THE SOUTHWEST. 

Ovens. 

Markle & Co., Rising Sun 103 

J. W. Overholt, Agent.Emnia 36 

C. P. Markle & Sons, Bessemer 170 

Morewood Coke Co. (limited), Morewood 470 

J. M. Schoonmaker, Alice 200 

A. C. Overholt* Co, West Overton 110 

Connellsville Coke and Iron Co., C. C. & I. Co 200 

Connellsville Gas-Coal Co., Trotter's 200 

1489 

Ovens shipping by Pennsylvania Railroad 4245 

Total oveus in the region 8091 

In this table is included only the territory which 
the strict constructionists call " the Connellsville 
region." Besides these there are on the outskirts 
of the region, as bounded by the exclusive Connells- 
ville people, the works at Smithton, Scott Haven, 
Shanor, Alpsville, and Saltsburg, aggregating 194 
ovens, and the group of works at the northern end 
of the basin towards Latrobe. At the majority of 
these works the coal is crushed and washed, and the 
slack only is coked. Add these 1000 ovens, whose 
coal comes from the same Connellsville vein, to 
those tabulated above and you have a grand total 
of 10,000 ovens. Each oven will produce eight and 
a half tons of coke per week. Quite a number of 
operators say nine, but this is probably too high. 
The 10,000 ovens, then, now burning in the region 
yield 85,000 tons of coke per week, or 4,420,000 tons 
a year, of fifty bushels to the ton, making a produc- 
tion for 1882 of 221,000,000 bushels. If this quantity 
of coke were to be loaded on one train of cars, it 



would require 250,000 cars of the ordinary railway 
size, and make a train almost two thousand miles 
long, enough to make six trains reaching from Pitts- 
burgh to Philadelphia. And this upon the present 
basis, allowing nothing for the ovens which will be 
built before the first of January next. Contracts are 
now let for over eight hundred ovens to be built be- 
fore the first of June, and it is a safe estimate that 
before the close of the current year there will be ten 
thousand ovens in the Connellsville coke regions 
proper, taking no account of the nine hundred scat- 
tered about the outskirts. The completion of the 
Youngwood Branch of the Southwest Railroad, which 
is now building, will develop a large part of the coal 
area which is still un worked. 

Coke-making is a young industry, and notably a 
work of young men. Beardless boys have responsi- 
ble positions as book-keepers and managers in the 
company stores, that feed, clothe, and furnish, some 
of them 1000 persons. Young men who, according 
to Holy Writ, should still be tarrying at Jericho, in 
this country superintend the operations of works 
whose employes are numbered by the hundred, and 
whose market includes all the manufacturing belt of 
the United States. The owners of many of these ex- 
tensive coke-yards are still in the early prime of life, 
and have earned fortunes almost before they have won 
wives. They are approachable people, and have not 
the hard-shell conservatism and secretiveness of older 
men in an industry of older growth. But the infor- 
mation they will furnish will only give him a super- 
ficial acquaintance of the country of to-day. 

MOUNT PLEASANT REGION. 
MOREWOOD MINES. 

One can well spend a day in a tour of the More- 
wood Coke- Works alone, from the farthest under- 
ground room, where scores of little lamps twinkling 
on the foreheads of the swarthy miners look like an 
undersized torchlight procession that has been buried 
to await the resurrecting trumpet of the next cam- 
paign, from the dark passages where the smothered 
clink of the picks tells how the little atoms of hu- 
manity are scratching under the skin of the big round 
earth, up the shaft to where the fresh-dug coal is 
dumped into the ■" larry," the one-hundred-bushel 
car that a little locomotive hauls back and forth along 
the railroad upon the top of the row of ovens, from 
which the coal is dumped directly into the ovens, one 
hundred bushels to each oven, to be raked out silvery 
gray glistening coke twenty-four hours later and 
packed, still steaming, into the cars for shipment. 
Or a part of the time may be employed in a visit to 
the great company's store that supplies food, clothing, 
and furniture for one thousand people, the inhabitants 
of a town that has five hundred full-grown men, of 
whom scarcely half are American citizens, a conden- 
sation of Europe, with a strong extract from Asia and 
a faint flavor of Africa. 



408 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



These works make and ship daily about one thou- 
sand tons of coke, averaging about sixty cars of about 
sixteen and a quarter tons each. Turning over less 
than half a dozen pages of their shipping book shows 
the initials of forty-seven different railroads, giving 
an index to the scope of their trade. The bare state- 
ment that one thousand tons of coke are manufac- 
tured at one place daily gives but an unsatisfactory 
notion of the output, but when that amount of in- 
animate energy is ciphered into human muscle the 
look of it is different and better understood. To make 
one ton of coke requires one and six-tenths tons of 
coal. The one thousand tons manufactured here daily 
mean, therefore, sixteen hundred tons of coal mined 
in the same time. Rogers estimates that one pound 
of coal applied to the production of mechanical power 
through the agency of steam will exert a power equal 
to that obtained from ten hours' continuous labor of 
a strong man on a tread-mill. A later writer, and one 
who has evidently given the subject much thought, 
holds that a ton and a half of coal, used to make 
steam, will produce a power equal to one man's work 
for a whole year. Taking this, the smaller estimate, 
then the sixteen hundred tons of coal dug daily at 
Morewood are equal to a year's labor of almost eleven 
hundred men. 

A thousand strong men dug out of their bed, where 
they went to sleep when the twilight was strangled in 
the swamp vapors of the carboniferous age, and have 
slumbered peacefully ever since with never a snore, 
although the coverlets became dirty and veins of rock 
took the place of layers of cotton in their quilts, to 
stir this idle host into industry with their sharp picks, 
to serve notice on all these idlers that they have had 
their " nooning," and that the nineteenth century is 
an age of labor, not loafing, looks like a pretty good 
day's work for the Morewood miners. The story of 
the dragon's teeth springing up armed men isn't 
worth mentioning in comparison. Eleven hundred 
men working one year will do as much as one man 
laboring eleven hundred years. If Adam had kept 
on spading, allowing no time for strikes, he would 
only have been getting along towards the evening of 
the fourth day's work, measured by the Morewood 
standard, when the dawn of the new dispensation 
broke on his bald head. Methusaleh could not have 
done one such day's work in bis long lifetime, even 
if he had been born with a pick in his hands and 
dropped at the edge of the grave. This awakening 
process is daily going on, and the world moves, be- 
cause modem mechanics are binding the strong 
shoulders of the long-sleeping giants to the yoke. 

On the Hungarian .peasant's mental map of Amer- 
ica " Morewood" is doubtless larger than all the 
Southern States together, better known than Penn- 
sylvania. Here the first large colony of them was 
brought a couple of years ago, and hither hundreds 
have drifted since. Many of the early colonists have 
gone back to the old country, following the fashion 



of the Chinese, whose cousins they are. Others have 
floated out upon the prairies of the West, for they 
have a keen eye to their profit, and if they see a 
chance of making money are quick to go after it. 

Among the miners underground Hungarian men 
are plenty enough. Above surface their wives and 
daughters share their labor with the men. Broad- 
backed and brawny, the women handle the long, 
heavy iron scraper at the hot mouth of the oven, and 
their burly, dumpy figures arc seen between the han- 
dles of the big wheelbarrows as they trot from the 
oven to the car with five or six bushels of coke, 
weighing from two hundred to two hundred and forty 
pounds. Their principal employment, however, is 
forking coke in the cars. They all wear boots ; that 
is, for a few months in the winter. In the summer 
they go barefoot, and even thus early are fouud the 
strong imprint of plenty of pink toes in the yellow 
mud. Their skirts are scant, and leave room for about 
two feet of sunburn below. A distinctive feature of 
their costume is their head-dress, which usually con- 
sists of a shawl, not wrapped turban fashion, but 
pinned under the chin. Men and women are alike 
short, almost squat in stature, but broad and strongly 
built. The thick-set, grimy coke-drawers do not re- 
mind one forcibly of the famous Magyar cavalrymen, 
but the grandfather of some of these laborers charged 
with Kosciusko at Raclawicek, and heard with his 
own ears the alleged shriek of Freedom when he fell. 
If he did, however, it is long odds that his grand- 
mother attended to the stabling of his steed. The 
women are accustomed to hard work in their own 
country, and the men seem to be willing to let them 
do it. 

Col. Schoonmaker, the manager at Morewood, does 
all in his power to keep them out of the coke-yard, 
but nothing but a cordon of police could do it. Driven 
out of the yard repeatedly, they return whenever the 
yard-boss turns his back towards them. 

The company keeps no account with them, and 
their time is computed with that of their husbands, 
fathers, or brothers. Constant labor has developed 
their muscles, and a sculptor might find some of the 
finest model arms among the coke-forkers. 

Among the novel and curious industries developed 
in the coke region is that of "coke crushing," now in its 
infancy, and carried on by a company which has the 
exclusive monopoly. Their crusher is situated about 
a mile from the borough limits of Mount Pleasant. 

COKE CRUSHING. 

As you approach the crusher you are struck by the 
very odd shape of the building, with its tower one hun- 
dred feet high, and the rnanv extensions and changes 
in the roof. Yet the peculiar structure is necessary for 
the machinery used in crushing the coke. The supply 
of coke is hauled on truck-wagons from the Standard 
Mine Coke-Works, located but a few yards distant. It 
is weighed and run on the cage. Then it is hoisted to 



COKE. 



409 



the top of the tower, while an empty one is lowered. 
The wagon is dumped hy machinery, and the coke 
falls on metal bars below. All that is already fine 
enough falls between the bars, while the rest rolls 
over the bars into the first pair of rollers, where it is 
partially crushed, and then another set of bars sep- 
arates the fine coke from the coarse, which passes 
between a second set of rollers. The crushed coke 
enters two large iron revolving screens. There the 
dust and dirt are first taken out, next the nut or 
smaller size of coke, next small stove size, next stove 
size, and lastly all that passes out at the end of the 
screen is called egg size. Thus four sizes of crushed 
coke are obtained. There are in all three screens, 
two for the crushed coke and one for the coke that is 
fine enough without passing through the crusher, and 
is separated by the iron bars spoken of before. This 
separation, if the coke already is fine enough, is to 
save waste from the coke being ground more or less 
into dust. 

After the coke passes through these screens it falls 
into huge basins below, from which shutes carry the 
coke into the cars ready for shipping. Every part of 
the machinery does its work well. The whole struc- 
ture is on an entirely new plan. This is the only coke- 
crusher of the kind in the world. About fifteen cars 
of coke can be crushed daily, the product of about 
a hundred ovens. 

The crusher is owned and controlled by the Penn- 
sylvania Crushed Coke Company. The officers and 
directors are all Pittsburgh men. 

There is quite a demand for crushed coke cleaned 
and divided into sizes as it is made at these works. 
This crushed coke, it is claimed, is as good if not- 
better for domestic purposes, and even for manufac- 
turing purposes, than the anthracite coal. 

STANDARD MINES 

adjoin the borough of Mount Pleasant, and were 
opened in 1879. They are owned by A. A. Hutch- 
inson & Brother, of Pittsburgh. The superintendent 
is Charles Cunningham, who here and at other points 
has been connected with this firm since 1873. This 
company has five hundred and sixty-nine coke-ovens, 
and employs five hundred and fifty men. It carries 
on a large store, of which D. M. Pigman is foreman. 
It owns fifteen hundred acres of coal lands, of which 
two hundred is surface. It operates fifteen miles of 
railroad under ground and seven outside. Its daily 
production of coke is ten hundred and sixty-five tons, 
or seventy-one cars, at fifteen tons per car, and has 
connections with the Baltimore and Ohio and South- 
western Pennsylvania Railroads. The company has 
one hundred and fifty houses for its hands. There 
was erected in 1881, at its works, by the Pennsylvania 
Coal and Coke Company, a coke-crusher, which is the 
principal one in this region. Its superintendent is J. 
C. Dysart. It makes five sizes of coke. 
Boyle & Rafferty's coke-ovens are located at Bridge- 



port, and number several hundred, giving employment 
to hundreds of hands. 

Mullin A Strickler have extensive coke-ovens and 
mines near the above. 

The Cochran Heirs mines and ovens are situated at 
Bridgeport and near the others before mentioned. 

Rafferty's mines and ovens are at Painter's Station, 
and are very extensively carried on. 

Joseph R. Stauffer's ovens are located near West 
Overton. 

Morewood Mines are owned by Schoonmaker & H. 
Clay Frick, and are very extensive. 

Alice Mines is the property of the Schoonmakers. 

Hecla Coal Company has just been started. 

The United Coal and Coke Company was organized 
in 1882, and is now in operation. 

The Rising Sun and Bessemer Coke-Ovens are 
owned by C. P. Markle & Sons, of West Newton. 
F. M. McClain is superintendent of the Bessemer. 

EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP REGION. 
Since the building of the Southwestern Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad to Scottdale in 1872, the township of 
East Huntingdon has been revolutionized in its busi- 
ness, and where before were only the peaceful haunts 
of the tillers of the soil have become the marts of 
large manufacturing establishments, with coal-mines 
and coke-ovens scattered all over its limits, giving 
employment to thousands of hands. Where were 
only fields of grain now stand busy factories, and 
where the farmers' herds once grazed in quiet, hun- 
dreds of miners are digging out coal or making coke. 

SCOTTDALE IRON-WOEKS. 

Everson, Macrum & Co.'s rolling-mill was estab- 
lished in 1872, before the railroad was completed to 
Scottdale. The firm was then Everson, Graff & Co., 
who purchased of William A. Kifer the old "Foun- 
tain Mill" and distillery, on which site they erected 
their new rolling-mill. The firm is now Everson, 
Macrum & Co., composed of W. H. Everson, John 
Q. Everson, David S. Macrum, Christopher L. Graff, 
Walter T. Brown, and Edwin Miles. The first firm 
also bought of Col. Israel Painter a tract of land in 
Fayette County, on the other side of Jacobs Creek, 
the Frick farm below it. and some ten acres of Peter 
S. and Jacob S. Loucks, on this side of the creek. 
On the latter they made an addition to the town and 
erected thirty dwellings for their hands. The mill 
was started in operation May, 1873. It then made 
annually three thousand tons of sheet iron, which it 
now still manufactures, besides eight thousand tons 
of muck-bar. The foundry was added in 1875, and 
makes all kinds of castings for this mill and the one 
in Pittsburgh, the latter established in 1842 by Ever- 
son, Preston & Co. William H. Everson has been 
the general manager since 1873,— the commencement. 
The rolling-mill and foundry employ two hundred 
hands. The company's office stands where W. A. 
Kifer's residence was. The selection of its site for 



410 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the rolling-mill made the town of Scottdale ; other- 
wise the town would have been at Everson, the 
centre of the coke-oven industries. The rolling-mill 
company started also an extensive store, which with 
the mill made the nucleus around which has arisen 
the flourishing borough. 

Everson, Macrurn & Co.'s " Charlotte Furnace" 
was built in 1873, and blown October 14th of that 
year. The firm of the furnace was then Everson, 
Knap & Co. The first year its product was thirty- 
five tons daily, but is now between fifty-five and sixty 
tons. It employs seventy-five men. The furnace is 
considered one of the best in the country, and is under 
the efficient superintendency of Edwin Miles. The 
company has the " Greenlick Narrow Gauge Railroad" 
from its mines to the Mount Pleasant Branch of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, from which it gets 
daily sixty tons of ore. In connection with the na- 
tive ores mined on the company's property, ores from 
Lake Superior and Blair County, Pa., are also used. 

Hill & Keuney's foundry and machine-shop was 
erected in August, 1880, and has been in operation 
fifteen months. The partners are J. D. Hill and T. 
C. Kenney. The latter is a practical machinist, for- 
merly employed by " Charlotte Furnace Company." 
They employ twenty men, and are doing a business of 
$40,000 per year. The firm purchased the land on 
which to erect their buildings of Everson, Macrum & 
Co., part of the old Loucks place. They are ma- 
chinists and brass and iron founders, and make spec- 
ialties of coke manufacturers' supplies, viz. : larries, 
pit and machine-bolts, coke-barrows, pit-wheels and 
axles, pit-wagons, frogs, turnouts, railroad frogs, etc., 
and keep a full line of brass and iron fittings, brass 
castings, and machinery supplies. Their shop is well 
equipped and with first-class workmen. 

SCOTTDALE COKE REGION. 

The coal-mines of Everson, Macrum & Co. are 
on the opposite side of Jacobs Creek, and com- 
prises one hundred and twelve acres of land. Fifty 
miners are here employed, and fifty thousand tons 
of coal are annually produced for their rolling-mill 
and blast furnace. Several railroad tracks run from 
the mines over the creek to the mill and furnace. 
This firm has coke-ovens, of which fifty were started 
in 1873. They make nearly seven thousand bushels 
per day of coke. 

Stauffer's coke-ovens are situated northwest of 
Scottdale, towards Mount Pleasant, and immediately 
opposite are those of Blake & Co. Some four miles 
north of Scottdale are those of C. P. Markle & Sons, 
called the '' Bessemer" and " Rising Sun," of which 
George A. Markle and Mr. McClain are superintend- 
ents. 

The Home coke-ovens are operated by Stauffer & 
Co. 

Frick & Co. operate the "Valley Works" and 
"Tip Top Coke-Mines." 



Tarr's Station. Here are the coke-works of Peter 
Tarr, embracing eighty-one ovens, and the South- 
West Coal and Coke Company of Frick & Co., suc- 
cessors to Stoner, Hitchman & Co. The latter have 
eleven hundred acres of coal lands, and employ two 
hundred men, and have fifty dwellings for their men. 
It has another opening at Stonersville. Here, too, 
are sixty-four coke-ovens of Samuel Dillinger & Sons, 
erected in 1879. 

Hawkeye Station. At this point Samuel Dillinger 
& Sons have fifty-one coke-ovens, built in 1871-72. 

West Overton. Just north of this village are the 
one hundred and thirty coke-ovens of A. R. S. Over- 
holt & Co., of which sixty-two were started in 1873 
and the others in 1878. 

These give employment to over a hundred men, 
and produce one hundred and eighty tons of coke 
daily. 

AT STONERSVILLE. 

In 1872, Hurst, Stoner & Co. (Braden Hurst, B. B. 
Stoner, Mr. Shaw, and W. B. Neal) established their 
coke-works, and laid out thirty lots on which they 
built dwellings for their men. They now have seventy 
ovens. The firm-name is yet the same, but the part- 
ners are Braden Hurst and Messrs. Rafferty and Mc- 
Clure. In 1873, S. Warden opened their coke-works, 
and erected twenty company dwellings. This com- 
pany (three-fourths of whose stock is owned by the 
Southwest Coal Company) has seventy-two coke- 
ovens in full operation. 

LATROBE REGION. 
The general business outlook in this neat little 
town, located on the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, 
forty miles east of Pittsburgh, never was so bright as 
at present. All the various industrial establishments 
and coke-works surrounding her are in full blast, with 
cheering prospects. The steadily-increasing demand 
for coke is causing capitalists to secure all the coal ter- 
ritory from which this valuable article can be manu- 
factured. This is not only true of the Connellsville 
region, but for many miles surrounding it. Latrobe 
is coming in for a large share of this rapidly-increasing 
industry. Several large new coke-works and mines 
have been opened up during the year 1881, and are 
now in full blast, adding to their facilities as rapidly 
as circumstances will admit, while all the old works 
have made large additions and improvements. In 
addition to this a new branch has been surveyed and 
will be built from Latrobe, running through a large 
coal-field, striking the Southwestern road some miles 
back. Wealthy companies of business men have se- 
cured this coal, and as soon as the road is built it will 
be lined with coke-works. 

THE MONASTERY COKE-WORKS. 

A short distance west of town we find the large 
mines and coke-ovens of Carnegie Bros., 1 under the 

1 This company baa lately been reorganized, but Carnegie <& Bros, still 
have a controlling interest. 



COKE. 



411 



general supervision of Mr. Robert Ramsey, formerly 
of Shafton. During the past year this company have 
made many improvements and additions to their 
works, among them the building of one hundred new 
coke-ovens, a new crusher and washer, besides extend- 
ing the capacity of their mines. They have now two 
hundred and forty ovens. The mine is reached by a 
slope three hundred feet in length, in which about 
ninety miners are employed, getting pretty fair work, 
as the ovens will be kept steadily in blast supplying 
coke for the Lucy Furnace and the steel-works. The 
coal averages about six feet. The miners receive 
thirty-five cents per wagon for run of mine. About 
two hundred men are given steady employment in 
the mines and about the coke-ovens and crushers. 

THE LATROBE COAL AND COKE WORKS. 

This is a new work, or rather an old work opened 
previous to the panic, on the opposite side of the rail- 
road from the Monastery Works, now being operated 
by this company under the general supervision of 
Mr. D. W. Jones. They have built new chutes, put' 
up new machinery, and built sixteen coke-ovens, in 
which they coke all the slack and ship the coal, aver- 
aging at present about ten cars daily. The under- 
ground workings, in charge of Mr. Alexander Sned- 
den, are reached by a slope one hundred and fifty feet 
in length. The coal runs from seven to eight feet. 
About fifty men are now employed, and more will be 
added as the trade increases. The miners receive 
thirty-five cents per wagon for run of mine. 

M. SOXMAN, JR., & CO.'S WORKS. 

About half a mile east of the town are located the 
coke-works and mines of this company, under the 
general supervision of Mr. Francis Kiernan. The 
mine at present has a drift entrance, and the coal is 
brought forward and hauled up quite a steep grade 
on to their chutes. The coal will average about seven 
feet. The miners receive forty cents per ton for run 
of mine. Last year they built and put in operation 
thirty coke-ovens, to which thirty more new ovens 
have recently been added, having now in blast sixty 
ovens. A large amount of coal is also shipped daily 
from the mine. A shaft is being sunk to the coal 
alongside of the ovens, from which the coal will be 
hoisted in the future. It will be seventy feet to the 
coal. Hoisting machinery, etc., will be erected as 
soon as the shaft is completed. They have a fine 
piece of coal, and will increase their shipping facili- 
ties. They employ at present forty miners, and thirty- 
five day men about the mine and ovens, giving them 
steady work. 

THE LOYALHANNA COAL AND COKE-WORKS 

The extensive works of this company are located 
on the opposite side of the road, a short distance east 
of the Soxman works. Mr. Morris Ramsey, formerly 
of the Franklin mines, at Houtzdale, has charge of 
the works as general superintendent. They have also 



made many improvements during the year. One hun- 
dred additional ovens have been built, giving them a 
total of two hundred and forty ovens, one hundred 
and forty of which have been in blast. The new 
ovens are now being lit up. The mine is entered by 
a shaft one hundred and forty-six feet deep. The 
coal averages seven feet, the miners receiving thirty- 
eight cents per ton for run of mine coal. Besides 
manufacturing coke they have their chutes built for 
coaling engines on the Pennsylvania road, and supply 
considerable coal for that purpose. About ninety 
miners, besides seventy-five other hands, are employed 
by the company. They own quite a number of 
houses, and are now erecting enough to accommodate 
thirty more families. 

RIDGEVIEW COAL AND COKE-WORKS. 

This company, which is presided over by Mr. James 
P. Scott, son of the late Col. Thomas A. Scott, has 
opened a new works at St. Clair Station. Mr. D. C. 
George, of Latrobe, is the general superintendent. 
They have made a drift opening into a fine piece of 
coal, averaging from six and a half to eight feet in 
thickness. They are shipping and manufacturing 
coke, having now thirty ovens in blast, and are grad- 
ing for a plant of eighty more. They are shipping 
about ten cars of coal daily to Philadelphia for steam 
purposes, and will increase the output as fast as open- 
ings are made. They employ about fifty-five men at 
present. The miners receive thirty-eight cents per 
ton for oven coal and forty cents per ton for shipping 
coal. 

THE ST. CLAIR COAL AND COKE-WORKS. 

This is also a new opening, recently made by a 
Pittsburgh company, Preston, Davis & Co., with Mr. 
Matthew Preston in charge as superintendent. They 
have fifty coke ovens up, thirty of which are in blast, 
and Mr. J. C. Watt is working on a contract of twenty 
more. Their mine is entered by a slope, the coal 
averaging from six and a half to seven and a half feet. 
They will also ship coal. About twenty miners are 
at work, and others will be added as fast as room can 
be made. The coke will be shipped to the different 
works of the company. 

THE MILLWOOD COAL AND COKE COMPANY. 

The chutes of this company are at Millwood Sta- 
tion, seven miles east of Latrobe. The mine is located 
back about three miles from the road, and is reached 
by a tram-road over which a small locomotive brings 
the coal. Mr. Albert Ford has charge, and has made 
many improvements during the year, among which 
was a change in the mining cars. Formerly the large 
cars that were run to the chutes were sent down the 
shaft and to the rooms for loading. This he has 
changed by putting in the regular mine-wagon and 
dumping into the other cars at the top, enabling them 
to get the coal forward with more speed. New steel 
rails are also being laid on the tram-road. The un- 



412 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



derground works, in charge of Mr. John E. Morrison, 
are reached by a shaft two hundred feet deep. They 
have experienced considerable trouble with water and 
faults, causing heavy expense, but they have now got 
them in good shape, being dry throughout the workings. 
A large pump is placed near the bottom of the shaft 
which will throw three hundred gallons of water per 
minute. The very best of machinery has been erected, 
and everything is working smoothly. The works are 
kept running steadily the year round, and just at pres- 
ent are well supplied with orders, shipping coal to 
Philadelphia. They also supply the locomotives on 
the Pennsylvania road, which requires a large amount 
of coal day and night. A number of comfortable 
houses have been built near the shaft for the accom- 
modation of the employes. Several new blocks were 
built during the summer. About one hundred and 
twenty men are employed in and about the works. 
The miners receive forty cents per ton for run of 
mine, the coal ranging from five to six feet in thick- 
ness. 

IRWIN REGION. 

The appearance of the coke region along the line 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad is thus described by a 
stranger : 

" Five miles west of Greensburg are the dominions 
of the Penn Gas-Coal Company, where the railway 
runs alongside another little stream. Here they get 
the gas-coals that are shipped over the mountains to 
supply the Eastern cities. The mining is done by 
shafting on an extensive scale, the coal being raised 
to the surface by steam-power and loaded in cars for 
shipment. Branch lines of railway extend through 
the hills in all directions to the mouths of the shafts, 
and from Penn they will ship a thousand tons a day. 
Thus we run through the gas-coal region, through 
Manor, which is located on one of Penn's original 
manor tracts, past Shafton and Irwin. Here are 
more lands of the Penn Company, and also mines of 
the Shafton and Westmoreland Coal Companies. The 
entire region is full of coal-cars, mines, and shafts, 
while the little streams, in the yellow hue of their 
beds, show the presence of iron springs. Within a 
space of ten miles along this part of the railroad will 
be mined and sent to market probably a million and 
a half tons of gas-coal annually. Irwin is probably 
the chief village of this great settlement. The sur- 
face land is fertile, but the coal-mines do not permit 
a great amount of cultivation, though some good 
farming is done. As we run swiftly by these great 
coal measures there are also lines of smoking coke- 
ovens, and the railway occasionally darts through a 
short tunnel. There is a big nest of coke-ovens at 
Larimer, a mile beyond Irwin. 

"Punning a few miles farther welcome to Walls, 
where they make up the accommodation trains for 
the suburbs of Pittsburgh, fifteen miles from that 
city. As at Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Railroad 
here runs a great number of local trains for the ac- 



commodation of suburban residents, and the railway 
is dotted at every mile by pretty stations. The coal- 
mines are thick, and at Turtle Creek we enter Alle- 
gheny County, the stream alongside the road zig- 
zagging so that we have to frequently cross it. The 
characteristics of Pittsburgh are evident as we ap- 
proach the city through the deep valleys in the even- 
ing, amid the overhanging clouds and smoke." 

WESTMORELAND COAL COMPANY. 

The first coal mined near Irwin was in 1840, on the 
Steele farm, just north of the present borough, which 
was sold for twenty-five dollars in fee. In 1852, Cole- 
man, Haleson & Co. (William Coleman, Mr. Haleson, 
and Thomas A. Scott) began mining operations, after 
the Pennsylvania Railroad was finished to Pittsburgh. 
In 1855 this firm was succeeded by J. Edgar Thom- 
son and Thomas A. Scott, who, in 1857, sold out to 
the Westmoreland Company then organized. The 
first superintendent was William F. Caruthers up to 
1872, when he was succeeded by the present incum- 
bent, F. C. Shallenbarger. The paymaster from 1872 
to 1877 was William F. Caruthers, then followed by 
the present official, G. R. Scull. The president of the 
company is E. C. Biddle, of Philadelphia, and the 
book-keeper at the Irwin office, W. C. Richey. Its 
mines are: 1, the Foster mine at Penn, a slope not 
now in operation; 2, Shafton, employing 120 men; 
3, Shaft No. 1, near Manor, employing 300 men ; 4, 
North Side mine, at Irwin drift, employing 150 men ; 
here a locomotive runs inside of the mine and hauls 
the coal 1} miles; 5, South Side mine, at Irwin drift, 
employing 300 men ; 6, Larimer No. 1, not in opera- 
tion ; 7, Larimer No. 2, drift, and runs road to the 
railroad on a plane, employing 85 men ; 8, Larimer 
No. 3, at Stewartsville drift, employing 160 men, not 
now running; 9, Spring Hill drift, runs coal on plane 
to the railroad, employing 25 men. The company 
has in all about 1200 men in its various works, offices, 
etc. Its annual product of coal is 480,000 tons, mostly 
shipped eastward and for gas purposes. 

PENN GAS-COAL COMPANY 

was organized as a eorporation in 1857, and its first 
mine opened at Penn Station. It was a slope mine, 
but is not now in operation. The company still keeps 
its shops at Penn Station for rebuilding and repairing 
its cars, etc. Its second mine is Coal Run, a drift in 
North Huntingdon township, in full running, with 
250 men. It is located just north of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, and is reached by a branch railroad. Its 
third mine is Shafton No. 1, three-eighths of a mile 
east of Irwin, and employs 250 men. The fourth 
mine is Shaft No. 2, one mile south of Irwin, on the 
Youghiogheny Railroad, employing 250 men. This 
railroad from Irwin to intersect the Pittsburgh Divis- 
ion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Sewickley 
was built in 1873 by this company, which still owns 
and operates it. The fifth mine, Shaft No. 3, at Mar- 



COKE. 



413 



Chanel's Station, on Youghiogheny Railroad, is not 
now in operation. 

The sixth mine, Youghiogheny, No. 4, is at the 
junction of the Youghiogheny and Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad, is adrift, and employs 250 men. The 
annual product of this company is over 500,000 tons 
of coal, chiefly shipped to the Eastern markets, and 
for gas-coal purposes exclusively, save what is used 
by its railroad. Its first superintendent was Emmett 
McGowan, but its present incumbent, William Wil- 
son, has been in office since 1862, and has been 
connected with the company since its organization, 
twenty-five years ago. The president of the company 
is F. A. Dingee; Secretary, S. T. Billmyer; and its 
Board of Directors are F. A. Dingee, of Philadelphia ; 
Mr. Richey, Trenton, N. J. ; Dr. David Hostetter, of 
Pittsburgh ; H. Stiles, and Mr. Hocker. Its chief 
engineer is John F. Wolf. It pays for mining coal 
seventy cents per ton, save at Baltimore and Ohio 
Junction (Sewickley), where the miners receive three 
and a half cents per bushel. The company has 
erected at its mines substantial buildings and neat 
dwellings for all its employes. It employs between 
twelve and thirteen hundred men in various capaci- 
ties, and with the Westmoreland Company form the 
two largest coal companies (bituminous coal) in the 

State. 

SEWICKLEY REGION. 

Probably one of the richest coal-fields in Pennsyl- 
vania, and consequently in the United States, is located 
in Sewickley and adjoining townships. In Sewickley 
township alone there are eight thousand acres of the 
Youghiogheny or Pittsburgh vein, or the six-foot vein, 
of coal for sale. The Youghiogheny vein of coal un- 
derlies the whole of Sewickley township. Underneath 
this vein lies another vein of varying thickness, from 
ten to thirteen feet. There are from three to four 
thousand acres of the six-foot vein already purchased 
by capitalists. Of the ten-foot vein there is yet none 
on the market, so that of this vein there are from 
eleven to twelve thousand acres awaiting the hand of 
capital to turn it into riches greater than the wealth 
of Croesus. Including these two veins this one town- 
ship contains more than twenty thousand acres, all of 
which can be had for a reasonable price, and some of 
which can be had for a trifle. It is a noticeable fact, 
and one painfully felt by some of the large companies, 
that every attempt so far to strike the " drawing 
point" or basin of the coal has been a failure. The 
Penn shaft is not far from one point of it, and another 
point is on the Yough River, above West Newton. A 
line from one of these points to the other is about on 
the plane of the coal basin. The point where it 
strikes the Little Sewickley Creek, being a little above 
the point where the Mount Pleasant and Pittsburgh 
pike crosses it, is the principal point. This point 
is likely crossed by another depression of the coal, 
running at right angles to the former. The Yough 
coal is known to be the best coal of its kind in the 
27 



market. Why companies will mine such coal as is 
mined in some of the northern counties of the State, 
and in some parts of adjoining States, while such vast 
quantities of the best are lying here, doing the country 
no more good than the millions of dollarsofgold stored 
away in iron vaults, is not explainable. The first mine 
opened in this township was that owned by the late 
Charles Armstrong about thirty years ago. It was 
opened by the Fulton Brothers, now of Irwin. Then 
William Hays and Thomas Moore each opened works 
on the Yough. Then came the works along the Cen- 
tral Railroad, and on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville 
Railroad. The Hempfield Railroad was projected 
and partly built in 1853 and 1854. This road would 
have tapped the centre of the entire field, running as 
far as Wheeling. That company, however, was un- 
able to build the road. The Penn Gas-Coal Company 
attempted to get at the heart of this field by building 
the Youghiogheny Railroad, but only partially suc- 
ceeded. A railroad constructed to the very centre of 
this coal-field would furnish the means to almost 
double the coal production, and add immensely to the 
value of the State. 

COKEVILLE REGION. 
Concerning the extensive coke-works of the Isabella 
Iron Company at Cokeville, Westmoreland Co., the 
following appeared in Seward's Circular of a recent 
date: 

" The extensive coke-works belonging to this company are situated 
near the eastern terminus of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad, in 
Westmoreland County, just across the Conemaugh River from Rlairs- 
ville, Indiana Co., at a distance of sixty miles from the blast-furnaces. 
At this point over six hundred acres of coal have been purchased, and 
a considerable extent of surface property. The number of ovens at 
present built is two hundred, which are of the ordinary ' bee-hive' type, 
thirteen and one-half feet in diameter, and seven feet from hearth to 
crown, built of fire-brick laid in loam. One hundred and sixty of these 
are disposed in a line along the side of an ancient bank of the river, And 
are bound together in front by a stone wall three feet thick, laid in mor- 
tar, with openings for the working doors, the sides of which are pro- 
tected by iron frames. The upper surface of this wall is on a level with 
the top of the ovens. The side of the hill, which has been cut down 
vertically in order to prepare the foundation-bed for the ovens, forms 
this back wall, and all the space around and between them is filled with 
earth. When the ovens are working the door is closed with a temporary 
brick wall. 

"The yard in front of theovens falls two feet in its width of forty feet. 
Its lower side is sustained by a retaining-wall two and one half feet thick, 
in front of which, ami eight feet below its upper surface, run the broad- 
gauge coke tracks, two in number, which connect with the main road. 

" An immense amount of excavation and embankment was required 
in constructing the oven-yard and the roadway for the coke tracks. It 
was endeavored, its far as possible, so to locate the line that the former 
should furnish sufficient material for the latter, and so successfully was 
this accomplished that no barrow-pits were found necessary. 

"Owing to the intersection of the side hill by a raviue it became 
necessary to separate the remaining forty ovens from the others. They 
were therefore placed in a line on the farther side. The coke track being 
brought across the ravine upon trestle-work, was continued along in 
front of the ovens, and to some distance beyond tliein as a ' spur' track. 

"On a terrace above the ovens, at nearly the summit of the bank, is a 
line of trestle-work, between the consecutive bents of which coal-bins 
are constructed capable of holding about one hundred anil fifty bushels 
of coal. The coal is brought from the miues, about a mile distant, in 
small miue-cars, holding about thirty bushels apiece, hauled by a light 
locomotive over a narrow-gauge (thirty-six inches) track, which is con- 
tinued out over the trestle-work. The cars discharge their load at the 



414 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



bottom into the bins, which are provided with doors at the side opposite 
to the centre of the ovens, from which the coal is let into the opening at 
the top of the ovens as desired by means of iron chutes. In this way all 
unnecessary handling of material is avoided. The narrow-gauge rail- 
road is a model of neatness in construction, and on its way to the mines 
passes over a bridge and trestle-work nearly forty feet from the ground. 
" Upon the top of the hill, above the ovens, is a reservoir built of brick, 
forty-two feet in diameter and six feet deep, capable of holding sixty-two 
thousand gallons, which is filled with water from the river by a large 
Cameron pump. On the bottom land below the ovens a number of 
blocks of houses and a large store have been erected for the use of the 
miners and coke-burners, and already quite a respectable village is 
springing up in the vicinity. 

"The coal searu now worked is the Pittsburgb or Connellsville, which 
is here over six feet thick, quite pure, and exceedingly soft and bitumi- 
nous in its nature, containing thirty per cent, of volatile matter and 
sixty percent, of fixed carbon. It is intersected by two distinct planes 
of cleavage at right angles to each other, technically termed the line of 
' butts 1 and the line of the 'face.' The hearing of the latter is here 
N. 72° W., or nearly perpendicular to the line of upheaval of the Alle- 
gheny chain. It had the same bearing at Connellsville, and at Innis 1 
Station, at the mines of the Pennsylvania Gas-Coal Company, bore N. 
62° W. 

" Each oven is charged with one hundred and twenty-five bushels of 
coal, and yields one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty bushels 
of coke, the operation lasting thirty-six hours, one hundred ovens, or 
half the entire number, being discharged and recharged every day. The 
coke produced is very hard and compact, and steel-gray in color, con- 
taining from ten to fifteen per cent, of ash, and very closely resembling 
the Connellsville coke, which has been proved to contain an equal 
amount of ash. 

"About fifteen thousand bushels of coke can be produced per day. 
This is brought to the furnace in cars of plate iron and vf wood, holding 
from six hundred to six hundred and fifty bushels apiece. 

" Car-loads of this coke have been sent to Omaha and Salt Lake City 
for use in smel ting-works." 



CHAPTER L. 



CIVIL HISTORY. STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 

Changes in the Territorial Limits of Westmoreland prior to the erection 
of Washington and Fayette Counties — Purchase of 1784, ami changes 
in Township and County Lines subsequent thereto — Mississinawa 
Township, — Election Districts, 1881 — Tables of Population — List of 
Judges, Associates, Justices, and County Officers — County Expenses — 
Big Frost of 1859 — Centennials of 1873 and 1875— Resolutions of 1875. 

We shall now touch upon the changes which have 
heen made in the civil and political history of our 
county since it embraced the whole of Western Penn- 
sylvania claimed by the Penns. 

By the purchase of 176S, as we have seen, the line 
of the Allegheny Mountains, as it now divides Bedford 
from Somerset, Blair from Cambria, and thence runs 
in an irregular line through Centre County, and so on 
to the Susquehanna, was the line which marked the 
eastern side of the purchase. 

From that date, Nov. 5, 1768, those parts of West- 
ern Pennsylvania which acknowledged the authority 
of the Penns was under the civil jurisdiction of Cum- 
berland County, that county being at that time the 
westernmost county of the Province, and on the fron- 
tiers in this direction. 

When the' county of Bedford was created by act 
of Assembly, March 9, 1771, for erecting a part of the 
county of Cumberland into a separate county, the 



reason assigned was " the great hardships the inhab- 
itants of the western parts of the county of Cumber- 
land lie under from being so remote from the present 
seat of judicature and the public offices." The boun- 
daries of Bedford embraced in turn the entire south- 
western portion of the Province, from the West Branch 
of the Susquehan na and the Cove (or Tuscarora Moun- 
tains) westward to the Ohio or Virginia line. 

When Westmoreland was formed out of Bedford, 
Feb. 26, 1773, it was separated from Bedford by the 
line of the Laurel Hill and Allegheny Mountains. 1 
These were its nominal boundaries, not increased or 
extended until in 1785, when part of the purchase of 
1784 was added to the northern side, but against that 
time, as we shall see, some alteration had been made 
on its southern and southwestern boundary by the 
erection of new counties. 

After the southern line of Pennsylvania had been 
determined and designated, the Legislature proceeded 
to organize the country thus detached from Virginia 
into a new county. This county thus taken off West- 
moreland was the county of Washington, and it was 
created by act of March 28, 1781. It was bounded 
by Virginia on the south and west, the Ohio River 
on the north, and the Monongahela River on the' 
east. 

The severance of Washington County from the 
parent county was no loss. The region of country 
that was embraced within its limits was, as a matter 
of fact, never a part of Westmoreland. The Mason 
and Dixon line was not run farther west than Dun- 
kard Creek till 1767, and this was the trivial and 
flimsy pretext for the lawless community gathered 
there to avoid civil and military obligation, the pay- 
ment of taxes, the support of the Continental govern- 
ment, and the cause of independence, and it gave them 
time and prolonged the opportunity of making and 
hoarding the money they made by selling their whiskey 
and cattle to the half-clad militia under Brodhead, 
to erect school-houses, attend church meetings, and 
murder Indians whom they beguiled into their cabins 
for the scalp bounty. The larger proportion of their 
early men distinguished for worth and humanity were 
of Virginia extraction, and were of a different race 
than the great majority of its inhabitants of that 
period. 

This region west of the Monongahela was for all 
general purposes, as we said, outside of Westmore- 
land. It might be that a few living near the borders 
of the rivers were amenable to the civil 'obligations 
resting upon them as citizens of Westmoreland. Some 
of them sat on the grand jury, but the most apparent 
evidence of their being a part and parcel of the politi- 
cal division of which they had legally been made a 
part, which is to be seen among the judicial records 
of the parent county, is in the list of slaves which 

1 The commissioners appointed " to run, mark out, and designate the 
boundary lines between the said counties of Bedford and Westmoreland" 
were Abraham Keble, Thomas Smith, and Alexander McClean. 



CIVIL HISTORY, STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



415 



their slave-holding inhabitants were obliged, by act 
of Assembly, to have filed in the Court of Sessions. 
But as a people or an integral part they were con- 
nected with the early county history of Westmoreland 
little more than the red men beyond the Allegheny. 1 

It must not be taken either that Westmoreland had 
an actual or even a territorial jurisdiction over that 
part of Pennsylvania which was beyond the limits 
described in the terms of the purchase of 1768. 

Fayette County, by act of Assembly of September 
the 26th, 1783, was erected out of Westmoreland, with 
the Youghiogheny between as the division line, to 
which that part of the county now northeast of that 
river was added by the act of Feb. 17, 1784. 

The jurisdiction of Westmoreland over the southern 
part of Fayette County prior to the running of the 
Mason and Dixon line was merely nominal. 

The only territorial alteration made in the matter 
of townships within that part of Westmoreland which 
was now made Fayette County was in the erection of 
the two townships of Wharton and Franklin. At 
January sessions, 1781, the court erected Wharton 
township, and then also in 1783 at the July sessions. 
In these cases the boundaries are different, and it is 
probable that the first order was inefficacious and did 
not operate. The date of 1783 is the one Judge 
Veech, a very good authority, gives for its formation. 
Little mention is made in the court records of the 
townships of Wharton and Franklin further than the 
names given of the constables and overseers of the 
poor. The first notice of officers exercising their 
functions is at July sessions, 1780, when the constables' 
names are given for the townships before mention is 
made of their existence. Curiously, too, the word 
"Franklin'' was first written " Frankland," then 
afterwards overlined and corrected. 2 



1 The territory of that which by the act of its erection was made 
Washington County was, according to all evidence, a part of the district 
of West Augusta. In 1720 Spottsylvania County was taken from West 
Augusta, with Williamsburg as its county town. In 1734 Orange 
County was taken from Spottsylvania, and comprised what is now known 
as Western Virginia. When in 1738 Frederick aud Augusta Counties 
were erected from Orange, Augusta County was to constitute all tluit 
portion of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. Then in 1774, Dunmore, 
Governor of Virginia, organized a county at Fort Pitt, which was claimed 
by Virginia. On Nov. 8, 1776, West Augusta was divided into the three 
counties whose names are familiar to us, — Yohogania, Ohio, and Monon- 
galia. Yohogania County embraced the northern part of the Wash- 
ington County of 1781, Ohio County the southern part, and Monongalia 
a large part of Fayette. In 177S the lines of these three counties were 
adjusted by a committee of which William Crawford was one. 

2 The office of sheriff was held by appointment until 1839, when it be- 
came elective. 

For mure than three years after Fayette became a separate county it 
remained under the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Westmoreland. Ref- 
erence to this, as well as to t lie fact that the other county offices were at 
first held in common with Westmoreland, is found in the following 

extracts fr lettera written by Ephraim Douglass to President John 

Dickinson, of the Supreme Executive Council, viz: 

"Uniontown, February 2, 17-^4. 

"... From an unhappy misconception of the law for dividing West- 
moreland, this county has not an officer of any kind except such as were 
created or continued by the act or appointed by the Council. Denied a 
separate election of a member in Council and representative in Assembly 



Wheatfield township, erected in the northern part 
of Ligonier Valley, and subsequently stricken off when 
Indiana County was formed, is first named in October 
sessions of 17S0. 3 



till the general election of the present year, they unfortunately con- 
cluded that this inability extended to all the other elective officers of the 
county, and in consequence of this belief voted for them in conjunction 
with Westmoreland." 

" Union Town, 11th July, 1784. 

" Sir, — In obedience to the commands of your honorable Board of the 
5th of June last, 1 take this opportunity of informing Council that there 
has yet been no sheriff for the county of Fayette separate from that of 
Westmoreland, the sheriff of that county continuing to do the duty of 
that office in this as before the division, and no bond has been taken for 
his performance of it in this county distinct from the other. . . ." 

At the time of the erection of Fayette County, Matthew Jack was 
sheriff of Westmoreland. On the 2Sth of October, 17s:;, Robert Orrwaa 
appointed by the Court deputy sheriff of Westmoreland, to act as sheriff 
of Fayette. He continued to act in that capacity till the appointment 
of James Hammond as sheriff of Fayette. 

The following from the Fayette County records bears upon the first 
iron suspension bridge ever erected : 

March 12, 1801. — The commissioners addressed a letter to the com- 
missioners of Westmoreland County on the subject of a proposed iron 
bridge across Jacobs Creek. 

April 9, 1801. — Letter received from the commissioners of Westmore- 
land, requesting a meeting of the two boards, with Col. Isaac Meason, 
on the hank of Jacobs Creek, on the next following Tuesday, " to con- 
sult and complete contract relative to James Fiuley, Esq., undertaking 
to erect an Iron Bridge over Jacobs Creek, and it is agreed that John 
Fulton and Andrew Oliphant proceed to business.' 1 

April 14, 1801. — The commissioners of Fayette and Westmoreland 
Counties met and completed contract with James Finley to build a 
bridge supported with iron at or near Isaac Measou's, over Jacobs Creek, 
for the sum of six hundred dollars, one-half to be paid out of the treas- 
ury of Fayette, and one-half out of the treasury of Westmoreland. 
The bridge to be "a patent iron chain suspension" structure of seventy 
feet span, and to be completed ready for use on or before Dec. 15, 1801. 
This bridge over Jacobs Creek, on the turnpike road between Connells- 
ville and Mount Pleasant, was the first iron suspension bridge erected 
in the State of Pennsylvania. The plan on which it was built was in- 
vented and patented by Judge James Fiuley, of Fayette County. An- 
other bridge of this kind was built a few years later over Durilap's 
Creek at Bridgeport. The plan, however, proved defective and ilie 
bridges unsafe, the one last named falling under tno weight of a team 
and ordinary wagon-load, after having been in use less than ten years. 

Corroborating our statement is the following authority: 

James Fini.ey, the Inventor of Suspension Bridges. — The Ameri- 
icni Railway Times contains the folio wing hit of history: " In an old book 
occurs the following sentence : ' The invention of suspension bridges by 
Sir Samuel Brown sprung from the sight of a spider's web hanging 
across the path of the inventor, observed in a morning walk, when his 
mind was occupied with the idea of bridgiug the Tweed. 1 The artifice 
of tin' web which really guided Sir Samuel Brown was the American 
engineer. James Finley, of Fayette County, Pa. He, in the year 1796, 
built the first re<jithtr suspension bridge across Jacobs Creek, on the turn- 
pike from Uniontown to Greensburg, in this State. He obtained the 
first patent on this object from the government of the United States, and 
the hook, ' Treatise on Bridge Architecture, by Thomas Pope,' published 
in New York in the year 1S11, spread its ingenious invention all over 
the whole world. Some English and French authors, and even Pope, 
tried to diminish Finley's merits by attributing this invention to the 
Chinese and Indians, but these people used only ropes or common chains 
fastened to the trees, aud the path was directly on the catenary, without 
suspending floor. 1 ' 

3 At the January sessions, 1781, "On motion the Court do hereby erect 
that part of West'd Co. Included within the following Boundaries into a 
Township, that is to say. Beginning at the west side of the Monougahela 
River, at the mouth of Peters Creek, thence up the said Creek to the 
Head thereof, thence with a straight line to the Head of Saw-Mil! Creek, 
thence down Saw-Mill Creek, thence up the Ohio River to the mouth of 
Monongahela, thence up this last River to the Place of beginning, and 
to hereby name the same ' Wharton.' Lodowick Louderback appointed 



416 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



PURCHASE OF 17S4. 

In October, 1784, after the close of the Revolution- 
ary war, another great and now a final treaty was 
held between Pennsylvania and the natives. This 
was the treaty of Fort Stanwix. The commissioners 
at this treaty purchased the residue of the Indian 
lands within the limits of the State. The chiefs of 
the Six Nations put their marks to the deed Oct. 23, 
1784 ; the Wyandots and Delawares confirmed the 
deed early the next year. 

The last accession of territory was called the " New 
Purchase," a designation used specifically to distin- 
guish it, although the same designation had very 
generally been applied until this time to the pur- 
chase of 1768. 

Part of this purchase of 1784 was added to West- 
moreland, for up unto this time the region north and 
west of the Allegheny River, and north of a straight 
line from Kittanning eastward, was never within or 
of Westmoreland. That part lying beyond those 
rivers to the north and west was then known, and 
long after continued to be known, as the "Indian 
Country." The region now known and included in 
the counties of Butler, part of Armstrong, Clarion, 
Jefferson, and half of Clearfield was not open to 
settlers until the date of this treaty, October, 1784. 
Therefore the jurisdiction of Westmoreland over 
those parts is not to be named. 

One incident of this treaty was the settlement 
of the northern part of the boundary line of the 
funnel' treaty of 1768, which had been in doubt and 
mistake. These bounds between Northumberland 
and Westmoreland were ascertained April 8, 1785. 

This new region began to be speedily settled, but 
the settlers were much harassed and lived far away 
from law. 

In 1788, September the 24th, the county of Alle- 
gheny — in the act spelled Allegany — was erected out 
of portions of Westmoreland and Washington. The 
line dividing Allegheny from Westmoreland is this : 
" Beginning at the mouth of Becket's Mill Run, on 
the Monongahela River, in a straight line to opposite 
the mouth of'Sewickley Creek, on the Youghioglieny 
River ; thence from the mouth of Crawford's Run, on 

constable and John McDermot and James Hulliday, overseers of the poor 
for said township." 

At this court was Franklin township (in Fayette County) also organ- 
ized. The record is as follows : "The Court, considering the large extent 
of the Township of Tyrone, do hereby erect that part of the said Town- 
ship lying smith Of Yohogania Kiver into a separate Township, hereafter 
to be called ' Franklin.' " Samuel Sword was nominated constable, and 
Matthew Wyley and James Patterson, overseers of the poor. 

July sessions, 1783. 

"The Court taking into consideration the extent of Springhill town- 
ship, and finding it too large and inconvenient, proceeded to divide the 
same and to lay off a New Township, Beginning where Mason & Dixon's 
Line intersects the top of the Laurel Hill, thence along the summit of 
said Hill to Yohogania River, thence along said River to the Stab- Lin,', 
thence along said line to the place of Beginning, and call, and to be 
known by the name of, Wharton Township. 

"Constable of said Twp., Andrew McOrary. 

"Supervisors " '" James Dougherty, Moses Hall." 



said river, to the mouth of Brush Creek, on Turtle 
Creek ; thence up Turtle Creek to the main fork 
thereof; thence by a northerly line until it strikes 
Puckety Creek." 

The commissioners to run the boundary lines be- 
tween the counties of Washington, Allegheny, and 
Westmoreland were Eli Coulter, Peter Kidd, and 
Benj. Lodge. The return as above given, signed by 
Eli Coulter and Benj. Lodge, is of record in the re- 
corder's office of the county. It was certified Dec. 
24, 1788. From Puckety Creek to the Kiskiminetas 
the Allegheny River divides the counties. 

Westmoreland still continued to have territorial 
jurisdiction over the region north of the Kiskimin- 
etas, which is now embraced within the counties of 
Armstrong and Indiana, until those counties were 
erected, Armstrong by act of March 12, 1800, and 
Indiana by act of March 30, 1803. This region was 
largely colonized and populated by emigrants from 
Westmoreland. Colonies went out from here after 
the date of the New Purchase and settled throughout 
all the northern parts thereof, and particularly along 
the Allegheny River. By this severance the town- 
ships of Armstrong and Wheatfield were totally taken 
from the mother-county. This was not fully con- 
summated till act of 30th of March, 1803, erecting 
Indiana County, when the Kiskiminetas was made 
the dividing line between those counties to the north 
and west and to the south. 

By this same act Indiana was annexed to West- 
moreland for judicial purposes, and the courts of West- 
moreland were to levy and collect the taxes. By act 
of 10th of April, 1806, it was declared a part of the 
Tenth Judicial District. 1 

This was the last inroad made on the territory of 
the original Westmoreland. By the loss of these 
various portions of territory the county lost the whole 
of the townships of Springhill, Manallin, Tyrone, 
Wharton, Franklin (in Fayette), Armstrong, Wheat- 
field, and part of Pitt and Rostraver. 

The township of Wheatfield had been erected early in 
the history of the county. At a court held at Robert 
Hanna's on the second Tuesday of April, 1776, it was 
ordered that the line between Fairfield and Donegal 
should be the Laurel Run, the run next Ligonier, 
this side Robert Laughlin's plantation, and adjoining 
the same. The court also ordered that that part of 
Fairfield township, beginning at Galbraith's Run 
near his house, being the same house that John 
Hinkston formerly occupied, to the west side of 
Squirrel Hill, should be erected into a township and 
to be called Wheatfield, and the run should be the 
division line between the same township and Fair- 
field. 



1 The counties forming the district were Somersrt, Cambria, Indiana, 
Armstrong, and Westmoreland. 

The boundary line between Westnmreland and Somerset was ascer- 
tained March 23, 1798, and that between Westmoreland and Fayette was 
accurately fixed March 1, 1806. 



CIVIL HISTORY, STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



417 



The townships in the county after Fayette was 
erected, 1784, were Fairfield, Donegal, Huntingdon, 
Mount Pleasant, Hempfield, Rostraver, Armstrong, 
Derry, Wheatfield. 

In 1801, while yet Westmoreland extended beyond 
the Kiskiininetas, by its jurisdiction over Allegheny 
township, the court erected the township of Cone- 
niaugh, as will be seen by the record at June sessions, 
1801, which is as follows ; 

" On petition for the division of Allegheny town- 
ship. — On the petition of a number of the inhabitants 
of Allegheny township, in the county of Armstrong, 
within the jurisdiction of Westmoreland, praying for 
a division of said township, as the same in their 
opinions is too extensive for township officers to do 
their duty therein, and suggesting the following 
boundaries for a new township, viz. : Beginning at 
the Allegheny River, thence up the Kiskiminetas 
River, being the line of Armstrong County, to the 
corner of said county line, thence along the east line 
of Armstrong County to the old purchase line, thence 
along the old purchase line to the Allegheny River, 
thence down said river to the place of beginning. 
Which said petition being read and continued under 
advisement, September sessions continued, Decem- 
ber sessions. 1801, the court confirms the aforesaid 
division, and direct that part adjoining to the Cone- 
maugh River to be hereafter known by the name of 
Conemaugh township. 

The present townships in Westmoreland which by 
name were created at the organization of the county 
are Hempfield, Fairfield, Donegal, Rostraver, Mount 
Pleasant, and that part of Huntingdon which is now 
designated as North Huntingdon. 

The first township erected within the limits of the 
county as it is now — and henceforth in this chapter in 
speaking of the bounds of the county we have refer- 
ence to its present bounds unless otherwise noted — 
the first townsliip erected was Derry, in April, 1775; 
then follow in order Washington, in July, 1779 ; 
Franklin and Salem, some time between 1785 and 
179(1, the exact date being uncertain ; Unity, in Jan- 
uary, 1789 ; South Huntingdon, 1790 ; Allegheny, 
June, 1795; East Huntingdon, 1798; Ligonier, 1822; 
Loyalhanna, 1833; Sewickley, 1835; Burrell, 1852; 
subdivided into Upper Burrell and Lower Burrell, 
1879 ; Bell, 1853 ; Cook, 1855 ; Penn, 1855 ; and St. 
Clair, 1856. 

MISSISSINAWA TOWNSHIP. 

There was a township of short existence and of no 
history created by act of Assembly, which act was 
repealed within three years thereafter. This township 
— Mississinawa — was a separate election district in 
the election of 1847, and polled 175 votes, and by the 
census of 1850 it contained a population of 802. The 
following is its legal existence and boundaries : By 
the act of Assembly, 16th of March, 1847, the limits 
contained within the following boundaries were 
erected into a township, to be called MISS ISS INA- 



WA, to wit: Beginning at the mouth of Myers' Run, 
on the Big Sewickley Creek ; thence embracing the 
farms of Adam Vandyke, Henry Dougal, Robert Mc- 
Guffey, John J. Robertson, Adam Pose (formerly J. 
Robertson, Jr.), Robert Boyd, Thomas Hannah, 
Paul Warden, Henry Shupes, Wible farm, George 
Hough's property, Thomas Williams, Thompson lot, 
Charles Hewitt's property, Boy & Wallace's, Mc- 
Key property. Smith's part of the Bennett farm, and 
Samuel Smith's property, on the Youghiogheny 
River; thence down said river to the West Newton 
borough line; thence round said line to the river; 
and thence down said river to the mouth of the Big 
Sewickley Creek; and thence up the same to the 
place of beginning; and the qualified voters therein 
were thereafter to hold their general and township 
elections at the house of William Miller, in said 
township ; that at the election to be held on the third 
Friday of March, 1847, William Plumer was to act 
as judge, and William Ross and John Frick as in- 
spectors. This act was repealed by act of 25th of 
February, 1850. 

ELECTION DISTRICTS. 
By act of Assembly of 13th of September, 1785, 
Westmoreland was divided into the following election 
districts, and the places of holding the elections were 
designated : 

"The elections for the county of Westmoreland, which for that pur- 
pose is divided into five districts, shall he holden at five places, to wit : 

" The freemen of the said county who reside on the north side of the 
Kiskiininetas and Conuemauch, heing the first district, shall hold their 
elections at the dwelling-house of Samuel Dixon. 

"The freemen of the said county hounded hy the Laurel Hill, Conue- 
mach, the Chestnut-ridge, and Fayette County line, heing the second 
district, shall hold their elections at the house occupied by William 
Jameson. 

" The freemen of the townships of Huntingdon and Rastrover, being 
the third district, shall hold their elections at the dwelling-house of 
William Moore, in the township of Rastrover aforesaid. 

" The freemen of the township of Fort Pitt, heing the fourth district, 
shall hold their elections at the dwelling-house of Devereux Smith, in 
the town of Fort Pitt. 

" Aud all the freemen residing in the said county who are not in- 
cluded in the aforementioned districts shall hold their elections at 
Hanna's Town." 

The act of 19th September, 1786, changed the place 
of holding the elections from Hanna's Town to 
Greensburg by the following enactment. 

"Whereas the commissioners who were appointed to ascertain and 
fix the proper place for holding the courts of justice, etc., etc., have fixed 
that the same courts be hereafter holden at Greenshurgh, otherwise 
Newton : Be it enacted, etc.. That Greensburg shall hereafter be the 
place of election of the Fifth district of Western County, and that at all 
future elections for the same county the electors residing within the 
same district shall attend aud vote at the court-house in Greensburg 
aforesaid; and that the returns to be made of inspectors elect be made 
at the said court-house in Greensburg, and not at Hanna's Town." 

By act of 29th September, 1789, all that part of 
Rostraver township which remained within the 
county of Westmoreland was erected into a separate 
election district, known by the name of the Fourth 
District, and it was lawful for the freemen of the said 
district to meet at the house occupied by Samuel 
I Wilson to vote. 



418 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



By the same act the parte of Huntingdon and 
Franklin townships remaining within the county after 
the division line was run between Allegheny and 
Westmoreland were annexed to the Fifth District, 
and were to vote at Greensburg. 

By act of Assembly of 29th of September, 1779, it 
was said that, "Whereas the inhabitants of Derry 
township are subject to great difficulties in crossing 
waters, and attending the place of their election at 
so great a distance, and have expressed a desire of 
being erected into a separate district, therefore be 
it enacted that the said township of Derry is hereby 
erected into a separate election district, and that it 
shall and may be lawful for the freemen of said town- 
ship to meet at the house now occupied by Moses 
Donald, and there give in their votes at the general 
election." 

In 1823, fifty years after the organization of the 
county, there were but seventeen election districts in 
it, and of these some three had been erected by the ! 
act of the Legislature preceding, namely, Youngs- 
town, Ligonier, and Salem. The election districts were 
the following : Greensburg, Hempfield, Unity, Mount 
Pleasant, Mount Pleasant District, Salem, Rostraver, 
Washington, South Huntingdon, Fairfield, Ligonier, 
Franklin, North Huntingdon, Donegal, Allegheny, ' 
Youngstown, and Derry. 

ELECTION DISTRICTS AND PLACES OF VOTING FOlt 
THE FALL ELECTION OF 1881. 

For Adamsburg Election District and borough, at 
the public school-house in Adamsburg. 

For Alters District, at the house of the late Jacob 
Alters, in Derry township. 

For Allegheny township, at the house of William 
Vogle, in Shearersburg. 

For Bolivar borough, at the house of D. Coulter, in ! 
said borough. 

For Burrell township, Lower Burrell District, at j 
school-house No. 5. 

For Upper Burrell District, at the house of Jacob 
H. Byerly. 

For Bell township, at the carpenter-shop of Labana 
Carnahan, in the village of Perrysville. 

For Coketon Election District, at Coketon school- 
house, Derry township. 

For Derry Election District, at the house of Fred- 
erick Wineman, in New Derry. 

For Derry Station Election District, at the public 
school-house at Derry Station. 

For Bradenville Election District, at the shoe-shop 
of David Braden, in St. Clair City. 

For Donegal borough and township, at the public 
school-house in said borough. 

For Cook township, at the house of George Camp- 
bell, in said township. 

For Fairfield township, at the house of John Gra- 
ham, in West Fairfield. 

For Franklin township, as follows: 



In District No. 1, or"Sardis District," being all 
that part of Franklin township lying within the fol- 
lowing boundaries, to wit: Commencing at the Alle- 
gheny County line on land of Peter Dice, near the 
tenant-house now occupied by John Beighley, Jr. ; 
thence by lands of said Peter Dice, Samuel Watt, 
Armstrong Wilson, Reuben Walp, William Morgan, 
John Remaley, Jr., and Jacob Dible, southeast course 
to bridge on lands of said Jacob Dible; thence east 
through lands of William Morgan, Anthony Remaley, 
John W. Elwood, and David Steele to line of Wash- 
ington township, on lands of James C. Christy ; thence 
by line of Washington township to Allegheny County 
line at Hamilton's mill ; thence south by line of Alle- 
gheny County to place of beginning. The place for 
voting will be at Sardis public school-house. 

In District No. 2, or "Murrysville District," being 
that part of Franklin township embraced within the 
following boundaries, to wit: Beginning on the Alle- 
gheny County line on lands of Peter Dice, near the 
tenant-house now occupied by John Beighley, Jr. ; 
thence southeast by lands of said Peter Dice, Samuel 
Watt, Armstrong Wilson, Reuben Walp, William 
Morgan, John Remaley, Jr., and Jacob Dible to 
bridge on Murrysville and Poke Run road ; thence 
south through lands of said Jacob Dible, Jacob Hall, 
Anderson's heirs to a post near barn of said Ander- 
son's heirs; thence southwest through lands of said 
Anderson's heirs, Josiah Glunt, George Hobaugh, 
Michael Haymaker, heirs of George Haymaker, Rich- 
ard Coulter, David Keister, and Jackson Keister to 
the line of Franklin and Penn townships ; thence by 
said line and Lyon's Run to the mouth of Lyon's 
Run ; thence north by the line of Allegheny and 
Westmoreland Counties to the place of beginning. 
The place for voting will be the Murrysville school- 
house. 

In District No. 3, or Manor Dale District, being 
all of Franklin township not included in the above- 
described districts, the place of voting will be at Re- 
maley's mill. 

For Greensburg borough, at the court-house. 

For-Hempfield Election District, at the court-house 
in Greensburg. 

For Huntingdon East (which has been divided 
into the east and west election districts by the line of 
the Southwest Pennsylvania Railway), at the public 
school-house (No. 7) at Stonerville. 

For Huntingdon North (First District), at the 
school-house in the village of Jacksonville. 

For the Second District, called the Larimer's Dis- 
trict, at the store-house of J. S. Thompson, at Lari- 
mer's station. 

For the Third District, called Shafton District, at 
the school-house at Shafton Station. 

For Huntingdon South, at school-house No. 10. 

For South Huntingdon township, Wayne District, 
at public school-house No. 2. in said township. 

For Irwin borough, at the public school-house. 



CIVIL HISTORY, STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



419 



For Kuhn's Election District, at the house of Ma- 
th ias Bridge. 

For Latrobe borough, at the public school-house in 
said borough. 

For Ligonier borough and township, at the public 
school-house in said borough. 

For Livermore borough, at the public school- 
house. 

For Loyalhanna township, at public school-house 
No. 1 (Carson's). 

For Ludwick borough, at the new public school- 
house now being constructed. 

For Madison borough, at public school-house in 
said borough. 

For Mount Pleasant borough, at the Church Street 
public school-house in said borough. 

For Mount Pleasant North Election District, at the 
Ridgeview school-house in said district. 

For Mount Pleasant South Election District, at the 
Texas public school-house. 

For New Stanton Election District, at the public 
school-house at New Stanton. 

For New Alexandria borough, at the public school- 
house. 

For New Florence borough, at the public school- 
house in said borough. 

For North Bellevernon borough, at the public school- 
house in said borough. 

For Penn borough, at the public school-house. 

For Penn township, at the public school-house in 
Harrison City. 

For Parnassus borough, at the public school-house. 

For Rostraver township, as follows : 

In District No. 1, or " Cross-Roads District," at the 
public school-house at " Cross-Roads." 

In District No. 2, or " Concord District," at the 
" Concord" public school-house. 

In District No. 3, or " Webster District," at the 
" North Webster" public school-house. 

In District No. 4, or "Lagrange District," at the 
" Lagrange" school-house. 

For Salem Election District, at the house of Robert 
Job, at Harvey's Five Points. 

For Salem borough, district, and balance of town- 
ship, at the building owned by said borough, and known 
as the weighmaster's house in said borough. 

For Sewickley township as follows : 

The First District (called Sewickley), at the tenant- 
house belonging to the United Presbyterian Church. 

The Second District (called Youghiogheny), at 
school-house No. 1 in said district. 

The Third District (called Logan), at a tenant-house 
of Samuel Smith, in the occupancy (at present) of N. 
N. Fullerton. 

For St. Clair township, at the house of Widow 
O'Connor, in New Florence. 

For Scottdale borough, at the public school-house. 

For Pleasant Unity Election District, at the public 
school-house in Pleasant Unitv. 



For Washington township, at the house of David 
Walters. 

For West Newton borough, at the West Newton 
council-rooms. 

For Youngstown Election District and borough, at 
the public school-house in said borough. 

POPULATION OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY. 
The following table exhibits the total population 
of each township and borough in Westmoreland 
County according to the census of 1810, 1820, 1830, 
1840, 1850 : 



Townships and Boroughs. 


1810 


1820 


1830 


1840 


1850 











263 






1388 
2301 
2564 
1757 
2685 
770 
3885 
1383 
2217 
2004 


2058 
3890 
2052 
2168 
2422 
810 
4565 
1516 
3170 
2294 


2642 
3722 
2261 
2320 
2035 

Sim 
4772 
1776 
1878 
2793 

294 
2204 
1130 

554 
2123 
1SSII 

204 
1892 
1573 
3003 
2004 


3329 




238U 
2147 
1542 
1973 
685 
3441 
1267 
2345 
1656 


5567 




2527 




2560 




3352 




1051 




5935 




1873 




2570 




1470 




378 








l'.HC 


2582 








1258 










534 




17S0 
1786 


2060 
1679 


2381 
1721 


2576 
2087 




299 




1518 


1965 


2294 


2065 


C ' 1 1 


1689 




2174 
1695 


2436 
1478 


2890 

2153 


4152 




2076 




771 












862 










427 















TABLE OF POPULATION IN 1860 AND 1870. 

As the enumeration districts were different at these 
censuses this table is given separate from the others : 

I860. 1870. 

Allegheny Township 1888 1710 178dec. 

Burrel Township 1779 1819 40 inc. 

Bell Township 901 810 91 inc. 

Cook Township 1043 878 103 dec. 

Donegal Township 1 1389 ( , „ \ 112 dec. 

Donegal Bor.mgh I J 1™ ) 

Derry Township ].4 70 3 | 4 ,„?V 561 inc. 

New Alexandria Borough J I 300 J 

Franklin Township 1760 1797 37 inc. 

Bolivar Borough I SOU {,„?[■ 119 inc. 

Fairfield Township i l 1 ??!' 

Greensburg Borough 1388 1642 2o2 inc. 

Hempfiekl Township 1.5686 -P iSo !■ 134 inc. 

Adamsburg Borough ) C.rr ' 1on ■ 

Huntingdon East.. 1915 2134 182 inc. 

Huntingdon South 2264 2210 o4 doc. 

Irwin Borough 12798 JoJolr 1528 inc. 

North Huntingdon I 13493 J 

Latrobe Borough 758 1127 369 inc. 

Ligonier Township J.2730 l'~-n- , 21 inc. 

Ligonier Borough \~ I 31' J 

Livermore Borough 165 211 46 inc. 

Loyalhanna 867 814 43dec. 

Ludwick Borough 299 533 234 inc. 

Mount Pleasant Borough 1 "690 { ■!„ \ 300 inc. 

Mount Pleasant Township f ' \\vvA 

Penn Township (-2109 -, :^ r 1145 inc. 

Penn Borough J I £f") 

Rostraver 2450 2786 336 inc. 

Salem Borough 1.2551 I „fj, 1 21 inc. 

Salem Township J i -1^4) 

St. Clair Township I 956 (ill} 154 inc. 

New Florence Borough j I 333) 

Sewickley 1936 2372 436 inc. 

Unity Township 1 3760 . 3624 \ J65 inc 

Youngstown .Borough j I 3U1 ) 

Washington 1389 1416 27 inc. 

West Newton Borough 949 819 42 inc. 

Total 53,304 58,699 

Increase in 10 years 5,39o 



420 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The total population of the county in 1790 was 
16,018; in 1800, 22,726; in 1810, 26,392; in 1820, 
30,540; in 1830, 38,500; in 1840, 42,699; in 1850, 
51,726. 

POPULATION OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY BY THE 

CENSUS OF 1S80. 
TOWNSHIPS. 

There are twenty-three townships, with the follow- 
ing population, which includes all the villages that are 
located within the boundaries of each, viz. : 



Derry 6964 

North Huntingdon 6:i41 

Hempfield 62S6 

East Huntingdon 4404 

Mouut Pleasant 4224 

Unity 4079 

Sewickley 3469 

Rostraver ''211 

South Huntingdon ".nil". 

Penn 2809 

Ligonier 264 1"> 

Allegheny 2050 



Salem 1831 

Franklin 1704 

Fairfield 1612 

Washington 1604 

Cook 1256 

Donegal 1242 

Bell 1064 

Lower Burrell 940 

St. Clair 795 

Upper Burrell 714 

Loyalliauua. 848 



BOROUGHS. 



Greensburg 2500 

Latrobe 1813 

West Newton 1475 

Irwin 1444 

Scottdale 1278 

Mount Pleasant 1197 

Ligonier 635 

8. Penn 604 

9. Ludwick 603 

10. New Florence 532 



11. Parnassus 520 

12. Salem 460 

13. Bolivar 378 

14. New Alexandria 335 

15. Youugstown 294 

16. North Belleveruon 208 

17. Adamsburg 199 

18. Madison 190 

19. Donegal 183 

20. Livermore 164 



From the foregoing it will be seen that Greensburg 
stands at the head of the list of boroughs in regard to 
population, and Latrobe stands second, and that Derry* 
township stands at the head of the list of townships, 
North Huntingdon second, and Hempfiuld third. 

VILLAGES IN THE ORDER OF THEIR POPULATION. 

West Latrobe 159 

Spring Garden 153 

Millwood 150 

Cireleville 149 

Jacksonville 132 

Grimtown 128 

Fairfield 119 

New Stanton 118 

Paradise 110 

Lockport li>o 

Kelleytown 99 

Grapeville 92 

Miirrysville 81 

East Greensburg 53 

Stewartsville 44 

Ragentown 33 

Perry ton 29 



Derry Station' 777 

Bridgeport 635 

Webster 560 

Westmoreland City 527 

Suterville 493 

South Side Village 484 

Hahntown 432 

Texas 410 

Warden town 359 

Shafton 34:'. 

Bunker Hill 327 

Paintertown 299 

Pleasant Unity ... 298 

Harrison City 247 

St. Clair 221 

Gibsonton 180 

Salina 172 



Thirty-six villages not named, — Stahlstown, Laugh- 
linstown, Mechanicsburg, Waterford, Seward or Ve- 
rona, Lucesco, North Washington, McLaughlinsville, 
Markle, Shearer's Cmss-Koads, Mendon, Bethany, 
West Overton, Hannastown, Mansville, Bottsville, 
Hillside, Cokeville, Congruity, Newlensburg, Char- 
tiers, Smithton, Middle-town, Oak Grove, Jones' Mills, 
Laurelville, Stonerville, Tarr's Station, Bull's Head, 
Painterville, — the populations of which are not sep- 
arately given, which makes sixty-six villages in this 
county. 

In the foregoing table the population of some of the 
townships is made up of villages and of the country. 
In order to show what villages are accounted to make 

1 Incorporated a borough since census was taken. 



up the total, the following table with explanation is 
given : 

Names of villages are indented aud placed under 
the township in which they are respectively situated, 
and the population of the township includes in every 
case that of all villages within it. The villages 
marked with an asterisk (*) are unincorporated, and 
their population is given only approximately, as their 
limits cannot be sharply defined : 

Adamsburg borough 199 

Allegheny township 2050 

Bell township, including the following villages 1064 

* Grimtown village 128 

Perry town village 29 

* Salina village 172 

Bolivar borough 378 

Cook township 1256 

Derry township, including the following villages 6964 

* Derry Station village 777 

* Millwood village 150 

* St. Clair City village 221 

Donegal borough 183 

Donegal township 1242 

East Huntingdon township, including village of Reagantown. 4404 

* Reagan ttiwn village 33 

Fairfield township, including the following villages 1012 

* Fairfield village 119 

* Lockport village 105 

Franklin township, including village of Miirrysville 1704 

* Miirrysville village 81 

Greensburg borough 2500 

Hempfield townsliip, including the following villages 6286 

* East Greensburg village 53 

* Grapeville village 92 

* Paradise village 110 

* Stanton village 118 

Irwin borough 1444 

Latrobe borough 1813 

Ligonier borough 634 

Ligonier township 2646 

Livermore borough 164 

Lower Burrell township 940 

Loyalhanna townsliip 848 

Ludwick borough 603 

Madison borough 190 

Mount Pleasant borough 1197 

Mount Pleasant township, including the following villages... 4224 

* Bridgeport village 635 

* Bunker Hill village 327 

* Spring Garden village 153 

* Texas village 410 

New Alexandria tmrough 335 

New Florence borough 532 

North Bellevernon borough 208 

North Huntingdon townsliip, including the following villages. 6341 

* Cireleville village 149 

Hah ns town village 432 

* Jacksonville village 132 

* Kelleytown village 99 

* Paintertown village 299 

* Shafton village 342 . 

* Souths id e village 484 

* St ewartsville village 44 

* Warden town village 359 

* Westmoreland City village 527 

Parnassus borough 520 

Penn borough 604 

Penn township, including village of Harrison City 2809 

* Harrison City village 247 

Rostraver townsliip, including the following villages 3231 

* Gibsonton village 180 

* Webster village 560 

Salem borough, or New Salem 460 

Salem township 1831 

Scottdale borough 1278 

South Huntingdon township 3005 

St. Clair township 795 

Sewickley township, including the village of Suterville 3469 

* Suterville village 493 

Unity township, including the following villages 4079 

* Pleasant Unity village.. 298 

West Latrobe village 159 

Upper Burrell township 714 

Washington townsliip, including the village of Paulton 1604 

* Paulton village 90 

West Newton borough 1475 

Youugstown borough 294 

The population of all the counties which were 
formed out of the original Westmoreland in 1790 
was 63,018. These were Allegheny, 10,309 ; Fayette, 
13,325; Washington, 23,866 ; Westmoreland, 16,018. 



CIVIL HISTORY, STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



421 



1785. John Moore. 
1791. Judge Alex. Addison. 
1803. Samuel Roberts. 
1806. John Young. 
1837. Thomas White. 
1847. Jeremiah M. Burrell. 



PRESIDENT JUDGES. 

1848. John 0. Knox. 
1851. Jeremiah C. Burrell. 
1855. Joseph Buftington. 
1871. James A. Logan. 
1870. James A. Hunter. 



1801. William Jack. 

John Irwin. 

James Barr. 
1806. William Jack. 

John Irwin. 

Jacob Painter. ■** 
1821. John Loliingier. 

Thomas Pollock. 
1841. James Bell. 

John Moorhead. 



ASSOCIATE JUDGES. 

1851. James Bell. 
David Cook. 

1856. Samuel L. Carpenter. 

G. R. D. Young 
1861. Robert Given. 
*^ John Jones. 

1866. Robert Given. 

51. P. McClanahan. 
1871. John W. Biddle. 

M. P. McClanahan. 



JUSTICES. 
The first justices appointed by the proprietary 
(Penn) for the county on its erection in 1773, with 
the advice of its Council (Joseph Turner, William 
Logan, Richard Peters, Lynford Landner, Benjamin 
Chew, James Tilghman, Andrew Allen, Edward 
Shippen, Jr.), were William Crawford, Arthur St. 
Clair, Thomas Gist, Alexander McKee, Robert 
Hanna, William Wilson, William Thompson, Eneas 
McKay, Joseph Speer, Alexander McClean, J. 
Bracken, James Pollock, Samuel Sloan, and Michael 
Rugh. 

PEOTHONOTARIES. 



1773. Gen. Arthur St. Clair. 
1776. Michael Huffnagle. 
1779. Archibald Loehry. 
1793. Thomas Hamilton. 
1809. John Morrison. 
1818. James Reed. 

John H. Wise. 

Eli Coulter. 
1821. David Marchand. 
1830. Randall McLaughlin. 
1836. James B. Oliver. 
1839. John Clark. 
1842. David Fullwood. 
1848. James McCallister. 



1S49. Samuel B. Ramsay. 

Andrew Graham, Sr. 
1852. Joseph Gross 
1855. William McCall. 
1858. Wm. J. Williams (4 months). 

Bales McColly. 
1861. George Bennett. 
1864. John Zimmerman. 
1867. Lewis A Johnston. 
1S70. John Zimmerman. 
1873. R. W. Singer. 
1876. John H. Highberger. 
1879. H. P. Hasson. 



1773. 
1775. 
1781. 
1785. 
1789. 
1790. 
1792. 
1795. 
179S. 
1801. 
1804. 
1S07. 
1810. 
1813. 
1816. 
1819. 
1822. 
1825. 
1828. 



John Proctor. 
James Carnahan. 
Matthew Jack. 
Robert Orr. 
William Perry. 
James Guthrie. 
John Brandon. 
James Brady. 
John Kuhns. 
John Brandon. 
John Sloan. 
Alexander Johnston. 
Robert Stewart. 
John Fleming. 
Humphrey Fullerton. 
John Klingensmith. 
John Niccolls. 
Morrison Underwood. 
John Klingensmith. 



SHERIFFS." 
] 1831. 

1834. 

1837. 

1840. 

184::. 

1846. 

1849. 

1852. 

lS. r .3. 

1856. 

1859. 

1862. 

1865. 

1868. 

1871. 

1874. 

1877. 
| 1880. 
I 



Samuel L. Carpenter. 
David Fullwood. 
William McKinuey. 
James Harvey. 2 
Michael L. Hays. 
David Kistler. 
John Hugus. 
John Welsh. 
William Welsh. 
Valentine Elliott. 
William Huston. 
William Bell. 
Robert M. Reed. 
Daniel F. Steck. 
Alexander Killgore. 
John Guffey. 
James Borlin. 
Henry Kethering. 



RECORDERS OK DEEDS AND REGISTERS OF WILLS.! 

1790. James Guthrie. 
1S09. Robert Dickey. 
1812. James Montgomery. 



1818. Robert Montgomery 
1830. Alexander Johnston. 
1836. Jonathan Row. 
1839. Jacob S. Steck. 
1S42. Archibald B. McGrew. 
1843. David Cook 
1849. James Keenan, Jr. 
1853. Randall McLaughlin. 

CLERKS OF THE ORPHANS' COURT.* 
1836. George T. Ramsay. 1870 Joseph Gross 



1854. Jacob M. Miller. 
1857. Edward J. Keenan. 

1860. William L. Evans. 
1863. William 0. Guffey. 
1866. Samuel Rock. 
1869. Clark F. Warden. 
1872. John M. Laird. 
1875. William B. Snodgra63. 
1878. James Dennison. 
1881. William Hugos. 



1839. William Gorges. 
1855. Joseph Gross. 
1858. Robert W. Singer. 
1864. Joseph W. Blair. 



1788. 



1789. 



1774. Christopher Truby. 
1779. Benjamin Lodge. 

Robert Clark. 
1783. Joseph McGanah. 

Alexander Barr. 

William Jack. 
1785. William Moore. 

James Lawson. 

John Nesbit 
1787. William Moore. 

James Lawson. 

William Jack. 

James Lawson. 

William Jack. 

Eli Coulter. 

William Jack. 

John Giffeni. 

Eli Coulter. 
1790. John Giffem. 

Robert Clark. 

Benjamin Lodge. 

1792. Robert Clark. 
Benjamin Lodge. 
George Smith. 

1793. George Smith. 
Alexander McDonald 
James White. 

1794. John Kirkpatriok. 
James White. 
George Smith. 

1795. John Kirkpatrick. 
James White. 
Barton Loffer. 
Jacob Smith. 
Robert Dickey. 
James McGreary. 
Henry Allshouse. 
Jeremiah Murry. 
James Smith. 
James Parr. 
John Bounett. 
James Smith. 

1803. James Parr. 

John Bonnett. 

Isaac Wager. 
1805. James Parr. 

John Bonnett. 

William Freidt. 



1ST:'.. George W. Frick. 
1876. James W. Wilson. 
1879. John R. Bell. 

COMMISSIONERS.' 

1806. Thomas Pollock. 



1798. 



1800. 



1802. 



John Bonnett. 
William Fiei.lt. 
1SII7. Thomas Pollock. 
William Paiks. 
Jacob Tinstman. 

1808. James Kelly. 
William Parks. 
Jacob Tinstman. 

1809. James Kelly. 
John Sheaffer. 
Jacob Tinstman. 

1810. Thomas Culbertson. 

1811. Andrew Findley. 
1814. James Caldwell. 

Robert Williams. 

1816. John Milligan. 

1817. Jacob Rugh. 

1819. James Clarke. 

1820. Samuel Bushtield. 

1822. David Ryall. 
Neal Boyle. 

1823. Jacob Turney. 6 

1849. James Shields. 
Levi Kempf. 
John Horrell. 

1850. John W. Marshall. 

(One elected each year for 3 
years.) 

1851. Henry Swartz. 

1852. Simon Detar. 

1853. Jesse Walton. 

1854. Alexander Hanna. 

1855. George Albert. 

1856. F. B. McGrew. 

1 857. G. W. Ross. 

1858. Samuel McCleau. 

1859. John Larimer. 

1860. John Severn. 

1861. James Menoher. 

1862. W. J. Reed. 

1863. Abraham Hays. - 

1864. James H.Clark. 

1865. M.G. Keener. 

1866. Michael Keffer. 

1867. John H. Highberger. 

1868. John M. Bierer. 

1869. George Bridge. 



1 Sheriffs were appointed until 1839. 

- Upon the death of James Harvey in 1843, David Newingham was 
appointed sheriff until the next election. 



3 Before 1790 the prothonotary also filled thiB office. 

< Up to 1836 the office of clerk of the Orphans' Court and of prothon- 
otary were filled by the same person, as they were later, between 1842 
and 1855. 

5 Given sb far as their records show. 

No records accessible in which the succession of these officers is kept 
up until 1849. 



42i 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



1870. Isaac Irwin. 

1871. Hugh Ryan. 

1872. William Deverter. 

1873. John Herbert. 

1874. Henry Keely. 

1875. John L. Bierer. 

1876. Clark Butlerfield (died and 
R. P. Arnold appointed in Ilia 
place). 



1876. J. C. West. 

SI. M.Dick. 
1879. Henry Keely. 

Henry Taylor. 

John H. Townsend. 
1882. S. G. Breechbill. 

II. II. Byers. 

William Taylor. 



Election Expenses : 

Ballot-boxes 

Fuel and light for holding elections.. 

Pay of election officers 

Constables attending election 

Registry of voters 

Commissioners' Pop : 
Henry Keeley.. 



COUNTY EXPENSES. 
A writer in the Gazette, March 5, 1825, in criticising 
the public expenditure of the county, has the follow- 
ing : " Economy indeed ! Let these disciples of econ- 
omy bring their observances home to themselves. I 
am told they charge for commissioners' and clerks' 
pay, in the lump, $667, which, allowing to the clerk 
$130, would leave to each commissioner *17G pay for 
sitting one-third of the year. Let them render an 
account of how much each received, as is customary 
in other counties, that the people may see how much 
each apostle of economy has put into his own pocket." 

STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF WEST- 
MORELAND COUNTY FROM JAN. 3, 1881, TO JAN. 2, 1882. 

J. J. Wiksino, Treasurer, in Am, in, I niih Walmordand County. 

Dr. 

To whole amount of money received from all sources 8152,768.25 

Ce. 

By amount paid on county orders 871,755.96 

By amount paid on poor-house orders 62,216.79 



Treasurer's commission 



3,463.02 



treasury 15,322.48 

Dr. 

To balance in treasury at last settlement 853.096.93 

To amount received from collectors for 1881 

Pursuant to election laws, 1881 ■ ■ 

To outstanding taxes for years 1876, '78, '79, and '80.. 

Interest on same 

To amount pursuant to election laws, 1879 and 80 



46.48 
21,174.62 

292.74 
140.70 



John H. Townsend.. 
William Taylor 



Commissioners' Clerk: 

D. Mnsick 

Commissioners' Counsel : 

V. E. Williams..... 

Edgar CVwan (extra) 

A. M. Sloan 

County Engineer : 

W. F. Miller 

Janitor: 

C. Wnnamaker 

Commissioners' expenses ■••■ 

Compensation of poor-house directors (extra).. 
County Institute 

Court-Bouse Expenses : 

Court-house and jail repairs. 



To unseated land ^ales °-t in 

" " prior to sale 

To docket costs per John R. Bell, clerk of courts 

To office rent per J. H. McCullough 

A. M. Sloan, from Aug. 18, 1SS1 

To jury fees per Jas. Wilson, clerk of courts 

To jury fees per John R. Bell, clerk of courts 

To jury lee- per Henry Kettering, sheriff 

To costs in commonwealth case per Peyton Greenlow 

To costs in commonwealth case per Lewis Ross - 

To costs in commonwealth case pel Peyton Greenlow 

To gas for use of private individuals ■••■ 

To Ligonier bridge for use of Ligonier borough per N. M. 

Marker 

To Nine-Mile Run bridge per M. Kubns, supervisor 

To Stauffer's bridge, Fayette County 

Received of F. C. Gay as per statement ' .',,n 

To old lumber *■"" 

To lines per Henry Kettering SI " M " 



278.10 
33.55 
15.0(1 
28.00 

112.00 

124.00 
' 

1.19.00 

13 79 

25.00 

9.00 

60.00 
100.00 
26.60 



8152,708.25 



Cr. 



By amount paid 

Assessors and assistants i- n 

Auditor of State account ,;,;,,,„ 

Auditors of county account >**>• '"' 

Bridge-building and repairs 



Blank books and stationery.. 



719.24 



Court Expenses : 

Boarding jurors obrH? 

Commonwealth costs iiiSrw 

l opying testi uy and stenographing i-Rsi 

Constables' quarterly return 

District attorney's fees 

Pay of grand and travels jurors 

Jury commissioner, J. Long 

" " W.Chambers •... 

Clerk to jury commissioner, W. Keener, 1876 

Prothonotary's fees 

Clerk of courts 



89.00 
210.00 

2,305.76 
417.20 

1,375.33 



7Sil.nu 
755.00 
760.00 



232.71 
50.00 
69.71 



450.00 
81.10 
300.00 



\_-UWI 1-IIi.rilDO una J"»* ' ^f«" — ■- _..„ q. 

Coke and coal oari. 

Gas for court-bouse and jail 

Architect for court-house and jail 



99.05 
1,075.00 



Prison Expenses : 

Guarding jail 

Medical attendance 

Shaving prisoners 

Inquest on dead bodies 

Horse and livery hire • ■•""•■; 

Judgment iu Common Pleas, J. J. Wirsiug is. Westmore- 
land County ■•■■; ■■ ;■• s " 

Merchandise, clothing, bedding, and medicines lor pns 

oners, etc 

Miscellaneous 

Road and bridge views 

Redemption money aud tax refunded 

Road damages 

Rewards. 

State tax (extra for 1879 and '80) .......... 

Transcribing records (commissioners office) ............ lll.uu 

Transcribing unseated laud records as per act of 18o9 (J. 

W. Wilson) 

Transcribing fees on unseated land sales ;Y"w 

Transcribing fees on widows' appraisement docket (J. W 

Wilson) 

Telegraphing ' 



268.50 
85.00 
16.90 
S8.18 
35.00 



1.92 



349.79 
21.96 
708.28 
200.31 
153.60 
106.24 
562.67 



238.87 



320.00 
15.43 



Maintenance at 

Pennsylvania 



Reform School li°lj>. 



Western Pennsylvania Hospital.. 
Allegheny County work-house.... 



00 
433.51 
867.85 



Printing and Advertising ; 

Westmoreland Democrat 

Pennsylvania droits 

Tribune and Herald ■ • 

J.J. Whsing, for advertising lands in winch sales were 

revoked 

Road and school-tax on unseated lands Siyr'si 

Refunding orders oTaon 

Fox-scalps : - 1J ' iu 

Poor-house orders out of county fund as per poor-house 

statement ■■ o'"-n'oo 

Treasurer's commission on $75,000 at 3 per cent 

Treasurer's commission on 858,972.75 at l 1 .. per cent 

Extra commission on poor-house orders as treasurer of 

poor fund 

Extra commission on poor-house statement 

Balance in treasury 



415.84 
189.10 
390.92 

23.75 



884.68 

311.08 

27.36 

15,322.48 



Tipstaves and court-criers, 



446.00 

11,566.87 

136.14 

141.54 

24.00 

9.95 

653.11 

1,249.50 



Sheriff's feeB and boarding prisoners z.iai.io 



8152,768.25 

L. P. Hays. 
John B. Horhach. 
J. Hiram Ringer. 
Auditor*, 

lilt! FROST OF 1859. 
On the night between the 4th and 5th of June, 
1859, occurred the most memorable unseasonable frost 
in the annals of Western Pennsylvania. All vegeta- 
tion and fruit was almost totally destroyed. The 
region of country over which the frost extended was 
from the Northwestern lakes southeastward through 



CIVIL HISTORY, STATISTICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



423 



portions of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania 
into the States of Maryland and Virginia, being 
bounded on the east by the Allegheny Mountains, and 
on the southwest by the Ohio River from Wheeling 
South westward. 

The wheat, rye, and cornfields were cut down and 
ruined. In a few hours after the sun came out the 
sprouts withered and fell dead. Nor could any- 
thing be expected from the growth of the wheat, as 
the seed was entirely destroyed. In most of the 
county the wheatfields and cornfields were plowed 
up and buckwheat very generally was sowed, but in 
some instances potatoes were planted in their stead. 
Great excitement prevailed throughout the whole 
county, and in the rural districts arrangements were 
made to prepare for a famine. This apprehension and 
fear were increased by senseless men, and sometimes 
by designing men, who had nothing else to talk about 
but war, famine, and the latter end of all things. 
Suddenly the price of all the grains and all vegetables 
went up to an amazing figure. Men in some localities 
who were in well-to-do circumstances invested all 
they had and borrowed more to buy grain in expec- 
tation of more exorbitant prices, and with hopes in 
some instances to make much money. Some of these 
men were broken up by the venture, and they received 
but little condolence from their neighbors, for the 
prices as suddenly fell. The granaries in the West 
were full ; those who had purchased old flour which 
had got musty in the commission houses at Pittsburgh 
at prices from ten to twenty dollars the barrel, and 
who had refused to sell at any price, were now glad 
to sell at two or three dollars. 

All garden vegetables shared the same fate as the 
grain. Apples, cherries, peaches, grapes, and all 
kinds of wild fruits came to nothing. The year was 
long called the year of the frost, and no doubt would 
have long remained a marking-time in local annals 
had not a more noteworthy epoch occurred the next 
year. 

On the 23d of April of that year snow fell to the 
depth of over fourteen inches on the level by actual 
measurement in this region of country. 

CENTENNIAL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 
COUNTY, 1873. 

On Wednesday night, Feb. 26, 1873, in pursuance 
of a previous announcement, a large number of the 
citizens of the county and of invited guests came to- 
gether in the " Kettering House," and after a sump- 
tuous banquet in the due form celebrated the one 
hundredth anniversary of the organization of the 
county. The meeting was organized by calling the 
Hon. Edgar Cowan to the chair. Messrs. Daniel 
Welty, John M. Bierer, D. W. Shryock, F. J. Cope, 
Lewis Cline, M. Underwood, S. S. Turney, Samuel 
Alwine, John W. Turney, H. C. Marchand, Alex- 
ander Kilgore, E. F. Houseman, I. Uncapher, W. H. 
Markle, R. W. Singer, and John L. Bierer were ap- 



pointed vice-presidents, and Messrs. Frank Cowan, 
S. A. Kline, F. V. B. Laird, and D. G. Atkinson, 
secretaries. 

Judge Veech delivered a speech, and after the ora- 
tion the following toasts were responded to by the 
gentlemen named : 

" Old Westmoreland, Mother of Counties, her Off- 
spring," by Hon. Edgar Cowan. 

" The Courts and Bench of Westmoreland County," 
by Hon. James A. Logan. 

" The Greensburg Bar," by Hon. Jacob Turney. 

"Our Pulpit, Press, and Schools," by Mr. D. S. 
Atkinson. 

" Westmoreland's Honored Dead," by Hon. James 
A. Hunter. 

"Our Physicians," by Dr. J. W. Anawalt. 

" Westmoreland's Daughters," by Mr. W. K. Kling- 
ensmith. 

" The County Officers," by Mr. C. F. Warden. 

"Our Mining, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Com- 
mercial, and Agricultural Interests," by Dr. Kline. 

"Our Railroads," by Hon. James C. Clarke. 

"Westmoreland's Battle-Fields, " by Dr. Frank 
Cowan. 

" Posterity," by E. J. Keenan, Esq. 

" Our Next Centennial," by Gen. Richard Coulter. 

This meeting gave evidence of the feelings of local 
pride which exists in the present generation, and be- 
gan a series of inquiries into our local history which 
had never been evidenced before that time. Enthu- 
siastic as it was, it was but preparatory to the cele- 
bration of the anniversary of the signing of the Han- 
nastown Resolutions, which ushered in the series of 
anniversary meetings commemorative of the Rev- 
olutionary period. 

CENTENNIAL OF THE HANNASTOWN RESOLUTIONS, 
MAY 16, J875. 

By the successful celebration of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the date of the Hannastown Resolu- 
tions, celebrated on the 15th of May, the 16th falling 
on Sunday, the series of Revolutionary anniversaries 
was inaugurated. W T e give the preliminary and the 
final incident connected with this joyful occasion, 
from Frank Cowan's Paper of May 1, 1875 : 

WESTMORELAND'S CENTENNIAL. 

"In view of an appropriate public celebration of 
the centennial of the first declaration of inde- 
pendence of the people of the United States of 
America, namely, the one hundredth anniversary of 
the meeting held on the 16th day of May, 1775, at 
Hannastown, the then capital of Westmoreland 
County, embracing the southwestern .part of Penn- 
sylvania, the people of Greensburg assembled in the 
court-house on Wednesday evening last (Feb. 28, 
1875), and effected an organization by calling His Ex- 
cellency Lieutenant-Governor Latta to the chair, and 
electing Dr. Cowan as secretary. The chair in a neat 
speech stated the object of the meeting, the import- 



424 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



ance of the first step taken in the Revolution by the 
people of old Westmoreland one hundred years ago, 
and the great propriety of perpetuating the glorious 
principles of our ancestors in appropriate observances 
on such an auspicious day as an hundredth anniver- 
sary of their deliberate declaration in public. He 
was followed by H. C. Marchand, Esq., in response 
to inquiries about the meeting at Hannastown and 
the resolutions adopted, both meeting and resolu- 
tions but recently resurrected from the tomb of for- 
gotten lore. Hon. Edgar Cowan then spoke on the 
prospective celebration, suggesting a commemorative 
medal or other token to be sold, and the proceeds ap- 
plied to the national centennial next year. Col. Ege, 
E. J. Keenan, Esq., and Judge Logan participated 
in the proceedings. On motion, the chair appointed 
the following committee, to which was delegated the 
power of the meeting to increase their number and 
appoint sub-committees as they see fit: H. C. Mar- 
chand, chairman ; Edgar Cowan, Judge Logan, E. J. 
Keenan, D. S. Atkinson, Col. Ege, Dr. Kline, F. V. 
B. Laird, Frank Cowan, E. F. Houseman, Dr. Piper, 
Gen. Coulter, T. J. Barclay, and F. J. Cope. The 
meeting then adjourned. 

"The committee met immediately afterwards. Dr. 
Cowan was elected secretary. After discussing the 
matter at great length without coming to any definite 
conclusion with respect to a programme for the cele- 
bration, the committee appointed a sub-committee, 
consisting of Gen. Coulter, Judge Logan, Dr. Piper, 
E. F. Houseman, Dr. Kline, Col. Ege, and Frank 
Cowan, to report at an adjourned meeting to be held 
in the grand jury room on the following evening 
(Thursday) at half-past seven. 

"The sub-committee agreed to meet in the grand 
jury room at II a.m. on the morrow. 

" The sub-committee met at the time specified, and 
after discussing at length the project of a public cele- 
bration, the preparations for which are limited to 
only sixteen days, made the following suggestions, to 
be reported at the meeting of the committee in the 
evening. 

" That there be a mass convention organized at the 
court-house in Greensburg on Saturday, May 15, 
1875, in commemoration of the meeting held at Han- 
nastown on the 16th day of May, one hundred years 
ago, by the people of Westmoreland County, at which 
meeting certain resolutions were passed (as recorded 
in the American Archives, Fourth Series, vol. i., page 
615) which are in effect a declaration of independ- 
ence and severance by force of arms from the sover- 
eignty of England, and supposed to be the earliest 
authentic declaration of like import on record. 

" That a president be appointed to preside at said 
mass convention, and one vice-president from each of 
the fourteen counties of Southwestern Pennsylvania 



originally comprised within the limits of Westmore- 
land County. 

" That the officials and people of the several coun- 
ties originally comprised within the county of West- 
moreland be invited to be present, also all others in 
the State and country interested in commemorating 
the events of the Revolution. 

"That the military organizations of Southwestern 
Pennsylvania be invited to be present. 

"That the programme of the day be a parade in 
the streets of Greensburg in the forenoon, a national 
salute fired at twelve o'clock meridian, and the or- 
ganization effected at one o'clock in the afternoon in 
the court-house. 

" That the expenses of the convention be defrayed 
by subscription. 

"The committee on resolutions appointed at the 
meeting last Saturday in Greensburg — consisting of 
H. P. Laird, Judge Sterrett, Judge Junkin, Col. F. 
A. Rohrer, John W. Riddle, H. C. Marchand, Judge 
Trtinkey, Hon. John Williamson, R. G. Orr, William 
Jack, Rev. W. T. Cain, David Shaw, D. S. Atkinson 
— have reported the following as adopted by them : 

"Resolved, That the resolutions of the citizens of Westmoreland 
County unanimously adopted one hundred years ago at Hannastown, 
the then county .seat of Westmoreland County, are equally marked with 
dignity, firmness, intelligence, and wisdom ; and that now, after the la|ise 
of a century, in the ligh t of the great events that have since taken place, 
we can discern in the language and tone and thought of these moment- 
ous utterances the hand of that overruling Providence who shapes the 
destinies of nations, and who saw and determined the end in the begin- 
ning. Hence, then, 

" Resolved, That the first duty of this great assemblage, representing 
all the counties that originally formed a part of ' Old Westmoreland,' is 
reverently to acknowledge the debt of gratitude we owe, and in deep 
sincerity to invoke the continued protection and guidance of the God of 
our fathers, and that He would give us wisdom and virtue to enable us 
to tread in the footsteps of those worthy ancestors, who with such feeble 
means have raised so great an empire, whilst we preserve with difficulty 
an inheritance so gloriously acquired. 

"Resolved, That, in the absence of any historical evidence to the con- 
trary, the resolute, brave, undaunted men who met at Hannastown on 
the HUli of May, 1775, deserve the immortal honor of having first of all 
the American colonists placed upon record and published to the world 
their firm and unchangeable purpose that Britain should cease the 
usurped claim of right to impo6e taxation on the colonists without 
their consent or fight. Abandoning all temporizing measures of non- 
importation, at a single bound they leaped over the abyss that separated 
peace from war, and in the interest of liberty and rightful independence 
unanimously staked their ' lives and their fortu lies' on the issue of war, 
to the end that they might maintain their own 'just rights and transmit 
them entire to their posterity.' 

" Resolved, That the resolution of allegiance to the British throne on 
the terms of ajust observance of the rights of the colonists was wise and 
statesmanlike and necessary to place in bold relief the true cause that 
was about to plunge the country into a long and bloody war. It was not 
impatience of government nor a mere desire to he independent of the 
British throne that urged the colonists into a fierce contest of doubtful 
issue, but to maintain the fundamental principle of Magna Charta. 

" Resolved, That the several Courts of Common Pleas of the counties 
that were in 1775 a part of Westmoreland County be respectfully re- 
quested to direct a copy of the Hannastown resolutions, and also a copy 
of these resolutions, together with the names of the officers of the meet- 
ing, to be entered on the records of the courts in perpetuam rei memo- 
riam." 




©@urt-h@(U>82, 

)iaisiKi8iB!yj5©, wggT5ia©[fiELairoB ©®„, pj\. 



COUNTY BUILDINGS. 



425 



CHAPTER LI. 

COUNTY BUILDINGS. 

Acts relating to Couuty Buildings — The Old Court-House — Present 
Court-House — Sheriff's House and County Jail— Poor-House, now 
County Home — Tables of Expenditures, etc., for County Home — The 
Cattle Show — Wool-Growers' Association — Westmoreland County 
Agricultural Society. 

The act of 13th September, 1785, is as follows : 

■' Whereas, the seat of justice for the county of Westmoreland hath 
not heretofore heen established by law, for want of which the inhabit- 
ants of said county labor uuder great inconveniences; for remedy 
whereof 

" Be it enacted that, etc.. That it shall and may be lawful for Benjamin 
Davis, Michael Rough, John Shields, John Pomroy, and Hugh Martin, 
of the county of Westmoreland, or any three of them, to purchase and 
take assurance, in the name of the commonwealth, of a piece of land, 
in trust for the use of the inhabitants of Westmoreland County. Pro- 
vided Baid piece of land be not situate farther east than the Nine-Mile 
Run, nor farther west than Brushy Run, farther north than l.oyalhanna, 
nor farther south than five miles south of old Pennsylvania road leading 
to Pittsburgh, on which piece of ground said commissioners shall el ect 
a court-house and prison sufficient to accommodate the public service 
of the said county." 

By an act of the 27th of December, 1786, the pow- 
ers given to the commissioners by the above act, and 
the acts passed on the 26th of February, 1773, and 
the 22d of March, 1784, to purchase land and erect 
thereon a court-house and jail for this county, were 
superseded until the Legislature should further and 
otherwise direct, and the mode of settling their ac- 
counts was prescribed. But this suspending law was 
repealed by act of 14th of February, 1789, which in 
its preamble and enacting clause throws light upon 
the subject of which we are considering. This reads 
as follows : 

" Whereas a law, passed on the 13tb day of December, 1785, empow- 
ering certain trustees, therein named, to purchase a piece of ground 
within certain prescribed limits and bounds, and thereon to erect a 
court-house and prison for the use of the county, and in aid thereof the 
commissioners of said county were authorized to levy the sum of one 
thousand pounds, which was accordingly levied and collected for the 
purposes aforesaid ; 

" Ami whereas the said trustees found it expedient to proceed im- 
mediately in erecting a small wooden building to accommodate the 
public business of the county, as a temporary convenience until proper 
materials could be procured for a substantial and permanent court-house 
and prison; 

"Anu whereas by a subsequent law, passed the 27th of December, 
1780, entitled ' An act to suspend the powers of the trustees of West- 
moreland County,' the powers of the said trustees, and all further pro- 
ceedings by them intended, respecting the substantial and permanent 
building aforesaid, were suspended until a Legislature should further 
and otherwise direct concerning the same; 

"Ano whereas the sheriff, the justices of the peace, and other officers 
of the county of Westmoreland have, by their petition, stated the great 
deficiency of the small wooden building, which was only intended for 
temporary purposes, and the many inconveniences which the officers of 
the court, as well as the prisoners iu confinement, are subject to from ! 
the present uncomfortable state of the small building, and pray that the 
same suspending law may be repealed ; 

"ANn whereas it appears just and reasonable that the said county of 
Westmoreland should be accommodated with decent, sufficient, and 
permanent buildings, calculated to answer all the important purposes 
of a court-house and prison ; and that the money which has been levied I 
and collected for these purposes should be applied agreeably to the in- 
tentions of the law by which it was granted ; therefore 

" Be it enacted, etc.. That the said suspending law, by which the powers 
of the trustees of Westmoreland County were suspended, is hereby re- ^ 



pealed, made null and void, to all intents and purposes; and that the 
said trustees are hereby authorized ami required to proceed iu applying 
the remaining part of the money so levied and collected to the express 
purposes for which it was granted." 

COURT-HOUSE. 

The court-house usually known as the old court- 
house was a two-story brick building, located on the 
square of the present court-house. It fronted towards 
the east, and its entrance from that side was about 
where the entrance of the present one is. The door 
of this entrance, with another and smaller one which 
opened into the jail-yard, was the only means of in- 
gress and egress. A paved yard extended from the 
street to the house, and the floor of the first story was 
reached by two steps. The whole of this story was 
used for a court-room. A high balustrade extended 
the length of the room north and south, and separated 
it into two parts. In the middle of the balustrade 
was a gate, and on each side of the gate were columns 
of wood which supported the lofty ceiling. On the 
western side of this partition were the judges, lawyers, 
jurymen, and criminals. The judges sat against the 
wall facing the east; the jury box was on their right. 
The eastern side of the room, or that part outside of 
the balustrade, was reserved for the public. 1 

In the upper story was the grand jury room. This 
room was large, lofty, well aired and well lighted. 
In it, as well as in the ball-room of the Dublin Hotel, 
were held theatrical performances by amateur socie- 
ties and by strolling minstrels, "where the king was 
welcome, and the lover did not sigh gratis." 2 It was 
the fittest room in the town, and commodious enough 
for its auditory. The students of the Greeusburg 
Academy in 1812, as before that, were publicly ex- 
amined in Greek and Latin and delivered orations 
and discourses in the grand jury room. This was the 
court-house proper, and it was reserved for the pur- 
poses of the court when in session. None of the 
public offices were in this building. The sheriff's, 
register and recorder's, prothonotary's, and clerk of 
the courts' offices were kept in a two-story brick build- 
ing which stood north of the court-house, and between 
it and the building still standing, which was best 
known as the Dr. Morrison property. On the south 
of the court-house was a one-story brick building, in 
which was the commissioners' office. This was the 
building in which, tradition reports, were first kept the 
records, and where court was first holden on the re- 
moval of the county-seat from Hannastown. 

Behind the judge's bench in the old court-room 
were placed two rams' heads with ponderous horns 
moulded out of plaster, while lesser ones moulded out 
of clay and colored white were fixed against the col- 
umns which supported the ceiling. A pious and 

1 According to the seal of the burgesses and corporation of Greens- 
burg, which was intended to represent the old court-house, it stood with 
the gable front to the street; the door was round arched. It was two 
stories high. 

- Hamlet to the players. 



426 



HISTORY OF WESTiMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



iconoclastic generation demolished these memorials 
of an ancient art, and in the new court-house, under 
the inspiration of the modern renaissance, had painted 
on the walls of the new court-room some horrible 
daubs, which were said to be intended for Maj. Alex- 
ander and Judge Coulter, for Washington and Jack- 
son, but which bore no more resemblance to their 
prototype than a cow bears to a canal-boat, a hawk 
to a hernshaw. 

The bell which hangs in the belfry of the present 
court-house hung in the old one. It hung there 
until Friday, the 6th of May, 1854, when it was taken 
down in the process of removing the public buildings. 
It had been originally cast for a church-bell, as the 
inscription circling its mouth would indicate, "I will 
sound and resound unto Thy people, O Lord, and call 
them to Thy word !" It is one yard in diameter 
across the mouth, and was cast by George Hedderly, 
Philadelphia, in 1813. It has rung out with many 
strains for more than two generations. It was used 
fir a long time to call the children to school and the 
people to church. It has been rung for war meetings 
and for peace meetings. It has tolled for sorrow and 
pealed for joy. It was rung on the termination of the 
war of Eighteen-Twelve, the Mexican war, and the 
civil war. Its tones, as all will distinguish, are beau- 
tiful rather than loud, but remarkably sonorous. It 
is said by travelers and connoisseurs to compare, in 
this respect, with the most famous bells of America 
«>r Europe. 

The old court-house stood until it was demolished 
in 1854. In pursuance of a presentment from the 
grand jury, under the advice of the court, the com- 
missioners of the county prior to that time had taken 
incipient measures for the erection of a new court- 
house and for the demolition of the old. The courts 
from the time the old house was torn down till the 
new one was ready for occupancy were held in the 
Methodist Church. The present one was first occu- 
pied in 1856. 

In 1853 a contract was made between the commis- 
sioners and Bell & Arnold to build a new court-house 
and jail for the sum of thirty-nine thousand six hundred 
and fourteen dollars, according to a plan furnished by 
an architect named J. Edgar. On further consultation 
the plan of Mr. Edgar was rejected, and a plan fur- 
nished by Samuel Sloan, of Philadelphia, was adopted. 
This plan required a greater expenditure of money, 
and so another contract was made in 1854, by which 
terms the county of Westmoreland agreed to pay the 
builders forty-six thousand seven hundred dollars, 
besides additional sums for adventitious work. It 
was, moreover, stipulated that the architect should 
decide whether the compensation for the whole work 
was just and proper according to the estimate of cost 
ami labor, arid in the manner in which the workman- 
ship of all parts was executed. 

On the 24th day of October, 1854, the corner-stone 
of the new court-house was laid with all due cere- 



mony and formality. Notice of the event was given, 
and a number of the most intelligent and respectable 
citizens of Westmoreland were invited to be present. 
Prayers were offered to the throne of grace by the 
Revs. Geisy and Valentine, and addresses were de- 
livered by the Hon. Henry D. Foster and the Hon. 
Edgar Cowan. A copper box, containing copies of 
the census, of all the papers published in the county, 
a description of the burning of Hannastown from the 
pen of Judge Coulter, and a number of other things 
that may be instructive and amusing to remote pos- 
terity, were placed in the corner-stone. The stone 
was then laid on the southeast corner of the diagram, 
in the right position indicated by the great mystery 
of Masonry. 

Disputes arose between the commissioners and the 
contractors about the proper understanding of the 
contract, and the non-fulfillment of some of its 
specifications, and hence, in August, 1855, the con- 
tract with Bell & Arnold was rescinded by the mu- 
tual consent of both the contracting parties. In the 
same month another contract was made with John- 
ston & McFarland for the completion of the public 
buildings. By the conditions of this contract they 
stipulated that the court-house should be finished in 
time to hold the session of the court in the next May, 
and that all the public buildings should be completed 
by August, 1856. In return for this work the stipu- 
lated price was twenty-seven thousand six hundred 
and eighty-eight dollars. The contract was executed, 
and in 1856 the law was administered in the new tem- 
ple of Themis. 

It is very difficult to give the exact sum which the 
new public buildings of Westmoreland cost the 
county treasury. There were a number of contracts 
separate and apart from the main one, such as con- 
tracts for shelves, wainscots, railing, and pavements. 
Itis, however, estimated that all the expense connected 
with the public buildings from the inception to the 
completion amounted to a sum between ninety and 
one hundred thousand dollars. 

The new court-house stands about the middle of 
the town, at the corner of Main and West Pittsburgh 
Streets. It has its facade to the south on Pittsburgh 
Street, and extends northwards in a longitudinal man- 
ner along Main Street, with a space of some twenty 
feet between it and the common pavement. It is one 
hundred and thirty feet in length and sixty-two in 
breadth. It comprises a deep and extensive basement, 
first and second floors, with halls and apartments, in 
part a third floor, garret, and belfry. Two sides, the 
eastern and southern, are built of stone. The north- 
ern and western sides are built of brick and covered 
with cement. This is so moulded by the trowel as to 
resemble stone. The walls are very massive, and pre- 
sent an appearance of great durability. The inside 
of the house is plastered, painted, frescoed, and wain- 
scoted. Although in some instances the materials 
were not good, and although there were some defects 






COUNTY BUILDINGS. 



427 



in the arrangement, the construction appears to have 
been good, and the house united style ami durability 
with fine proportions and handsome ornamental 
workmanship. 

The basement of the building is large and deep. In 
a wide passage that runs lengthwise throughout the 
middle of it are placed three large furnaces, by which 
the whole building is warmed through flues and 
gratings in the side walls. For the furnaces coke is 
used, which is burnt and prepared for this purpose by 
the paupers and help at the county home. On each 
side of the passage where the furnaces are placed 
there is a row of ten heavy stone arches, making in all 
twenty arches. The basement is as cool as a cellar in 
summer, and very warm and comfortable in winter. 

The approach to the main entrance to the court- 
house on the southern side is by a series of a dozen or 
more heavy stone steps, which extend along the whole 
front, and reach from the pavement to a stone plat- 
form. Several more steps lead from the platform to 
three large double doors, which open into a wide 
vestibule. Two massive pillars, more than a yard 
square, support the arched ceiling at the back of 
the vestibule, and offer access by three openings to 
the main passage of the edifice. 

The main passage is cruciform. The stem of the 
cross runs from south to north, and the transept from 
east to west. On passing the pillars of the vestibule, 
within recesses to the right and left hand are two 
flights of stairs that ascend and wind about the walls 
until they reach the second floor and the lobby before 
the court-room. At an advance of some few feet from 
the bottom of the stairs, and south of the transept, on 
the right hand, are two doors that open into the offices 
of the treasurer and commissioners. North of it, and 
on the other side of the transept, are two doors that lead 
into the offices of the clerk of the courts and prothono- 
tary. On the left baud side of the stem of the cross, 
and south of the transvere arm, are the two doors of the 
arbitration-room, opposite those of the treasurer's and 
commissioners' offices. North of the transept are two 
doors that open into the offices of the sheriff and 
register. A stairway at the northern end leads to the 
jury-rooms and court-rooms on the second floor. As 
you enter from Main Street into the transept, a door 
on the north side opens into the clerk's office, and one 
on the south side into the commissioners' office. Both 
the stem and the transept have doors at all the ends, or 
cardinal points of the compass, and both are paved 
with small square and octagonal colored English 
tiles, which are intended to represent counterpanes. 
The arbitration-room is also thus paved. The cruci- 
form passage is ten feet wide and about fifteen feet 
high, and is brilliantly lighted in every part by gas 
through the means of pendants. 

On a level with the second floor, and above the 
vestibule, is a portico, whose roof is supported by four 
large fluted columns, with ornamented cast-iron capi- 
tals. The portico is about thirty feet in length, 



twelve in width, and twenty in height. The floor is 
flagged, and the roof covered with metallic fire-proof 
sheeting. There is no access into this fine, airy, 
handsome portico except through windows that open 
through the main wall of the building from the lobby 
before the court-room. In summer-time innumerable 
birds, sparrows, martins, and pigeons roost here, and 
even build their procreant cradles under the over- 
hanging eaves of this temple of justice. 

After passing the lobby on the second floor one 
enters the court-room. It is about sixty feet in 
length, forty-five in width, and twenty-four in height. 
The room is not well adapted for a display of ora- 
tory, for which many reasons have been assigned, the 
most probable of which is that it is so high, and 
there are so many angles, caused by the recesses of 
the windows, that the voice is lost or broken, and 
reverberates upon itself. The platform where the 
judge sits is at the north end of the room. At this 
end about one-third of the floor of the room is ele- 
vated above the remainder, so as to form a kind of 
dais or estrade. The dais is surrounded with balus- 
ters, and upon it are chairs for lawyers, clients, and 
jurymen. Outside of the balustrade the rest of the 
room is occupied by nave, aisle, and pews, like those 
in churches, only that the hinder pews are elevated 
about the height of a foot above those in front. On 
entering the room, at the south side a nave of the 
width of five or six feet leads nearly to the bottom of 
the balustrade. Along the walls on the east and 
west sides are aisles, and between the nave and them 
are double rows of pews, makiug four rows in all. 
Each pew will comfortably contain nine persons. 
There are sixty-four pews, and so seats are provided 
for five hundred and seventy -six persons, exclusive of 
those who can be seated within the balustrade. 

The room is lighted at night with two gas candel- 
abra on the judge's bench, and with three chandeliers. 
There are from six to ten globes on each chandelier. 
By day it receives light from fourteen windows, being 
seven on each side. The windows are fifteen feet in 
height and four in width. 

The original frescoing of this room was very tasty, 
and cost the county four hundred dollars. It was 
done by a foreign artist, Signor Michel. But the 
mortar of the walls being defective it gave way, and 
necessitated a new coating, the frescoing of which 
was executed in an inferior manner. At present the 
ceiling is lined with boards, and it and the walls now 
carry the third coat of colors. 

The belfry is some twenty feet in diameter, and the 
floor and roof are both covered with fire-proof iron 
and tin plates. The view from the belfry is noble 
and beautiful. 

Ou the eastern and western sides of the court-house 
runs a stone wall surmounted by a handsome iron 
railing. Along Main Street the wall is from three to 
six feet in height, and is twenty feet distant from the 
house. Along the western or alley side the wall rises 



428 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



to fifteen or twenty feet in height, and on both sides 
it is some twenty or thirty feet longer than the court- 
house itself. Between the wall and the court-house 
on both sides terraces have been formed, walks paved 
with stone, and the remaining space has been sown 
with grass and planted with shade-trees. The entire 
railing cost eleven hundred and seventy-nine dollars. 
This is the court-house, a grand and handsome 
and costly building, which is an ornament to the 
town of Greensburg, and a matter of honest pride to 
the public-spirited citizens of Westmoreland. 

SHERIFF'S HOUSE AND JAIL. 

Intimately connected with the court-house are the 
sheriff's house and the common jail. Prior to 1854 
the sheriffs rented their own houses, but then, in ac- 
cordance with the provisions of an act of Assembly, 
a public or official house was erected for the use of 
the sheriff. 

The sheriff's house of Westmoreland stands on 
West Pittsburgh Street, with only an alley interven- 
ing between it and the wall of the court-house. It is 
a plain two-story brick building. Behind and con- 
nected with it is the county jail. A large iron grating, 
with a grated door inside, separates the entry of the 
sheriff's house from that of the jail. The jail is small, 
badly lighted, and ill ventilated. There are four dun- 
geon cells in the basement, ten cells on the first floor, 
and ten on the gallery. It is indeed a miserable place, 
and is said to be far inferior to the old jail in all that 
respects security, size, salubrity, ventilation, light, and 
convenience. The whole place is so marked by vile- 
ness and meanness that a Christian man could wish 
his worst enemy no worse quarters. It is, moreover, 
so insecure that it has led to the remark that those 
who had the planning of it must have been thieves 
in their hearts, and intended at some future day to 
escape from it, and thus avoid the consequences of a 
felonious taking of somebody's goods and chattels. 
It has been regularly condemned by every grand-jury 
who have inspected it, and it is an eye-sore and a dis- 
grace to the people of the county. 

POOR-HOUSE. 
" The poor ye have with you always." The old 
system of maintaining the paupers of the county was 
so liable to objections on the ground of inhumanity, 
inconvenience, trouble, and litigation that some citi- 
zens, moved by considerations of charity and public 
spirit, obtained the passage of an act by the Legisla- 
ture to provide for the erection of a house for the ac- 
commodation and employment of the poor, if the 
project was approved by the sense of the people of 
the county, expressed in regular form at the ordinary 
annual election. The act was passed and approved 
on the 5th of April, 1849, by the Governor of the 
Commonwealth. It consists of nineteen sections, and 
its provisions are full, clear, and stringent, embracing 
the purchase of farm, erection of buildings, election 



of directors, appointment of physician, matron, and 
steward, management and treatment of poor, and 
penalties for neglect of or non-compliance with offi- 
cial duties. 

By the first section Benjamin Byerly, John Kuhns, 
Sr., John Trout, Samuel Hill, Thomas Trees, John C. 
Plumer, Henry McBride, Robert Hitchman, Joseph 
Budd, John McFarland, John Hill, Joseph Cook, 
Joseph Jack, John A. Hays, and Jacob Dible were 
appointed commissioners, and charged with the duty 
of purchasing, on or before the 1st of January, 1850, 
such real estate as they may deem necessary for the 
accommodation of the poor of Westmoreland. 

By the last section it is provided that the vote of 
the people be taken at the election in October, 1849, 
on the subject matter of the act, by tickets labeled 
on the outside " For a Poor-House" and "Against a 
Poor-House," and if, on casting up the ballots by the 
return judges, a majority be found in favor of a poor- 
house the act was to take effect, but if a majority 
was against it the act was to be considered null and 
void. 

As the people, actuated by good sense and benevo- 
lence, decided in favor of the erection of a poor- 
house, the commissioners recited in the act proceeded 
to discharge the duties enjoined upon them. On the 
30th of November, 1849, they entered into and mu- 
tually signed articles of agreement with William 
Snyder, of Hempfield township, for the purchase of 
a tract of land situate in the same township and con- 
taining one hundred and eighty acres, for the sum of 
six thousand dollars. Snyder agreed to give posses- 
sion on the 1st of April, 1850, and to make the com- 
missioners who acted on behalf of the county a good 
and sufficient deed of warranty. According to the 
provisions of the act of Assembly, three directors 
were elected in the fall of 1850, who, in discharge of 
their official duties, proceeded to procure the erection 
of a building suitable for the reception of the poor of 
the county on the tract of land bought by the com- 
missioners. The whole amount expended in the 
erection of the first poor-house was $9092.24; $1375 
were paid to Ramsey for brick, $7350 to Bryan on 
contract, and $367.24 for extra work. 

These buildings were totally destroyed by fire on 
the 20th of August, 1862. The fire originated a little 
before noon from a spark from a chimney, which ig- 
nited the cupola. Notwithstanding all efforts to save 
it the interior part of the building was consumed. The 
contents of the house, however, were saved, excepting 
a cooking-stove, which had fire in it, and two or three 
old bedsteads. 

On the next day a number of the paupers were 
brought to Greensburg, and domiciled in the county 
jail until arrangements had been made for their wel- 
fare elsewhere. 

Immediately after the destruction of the buildings 
a contract was made with Lyon & Bierer for the 
erection of a new, or rather the rebuilding of the 



COUNTY BUILDINGS. 



429 



former house; for the brick walls hail been but 
slightly injured by the fire. The new house cost in 
all, including both main contract and extra work, 
$5716.50. It thus appears that in the purchase of 
the poor-house farm, the original erection and subse- 
quent rebuilding of the house, more than $20,000 
have been expended. 

That building in its turn was destroyed by fire in 
December, 1878. We shall, however, say something 
of it, as in its day it was regarded as a great institu- 
tion. 

The house extended one hundred feet in length from 
north to south, by fifty feet in breadth from east to 
west. It was built of brick, and was three stories in 
height. It was regarded as possessing many advan- 
tages of light and ventilation, which, however, closer 
scrutiny and comparison would not justify us in re- 
peating. In addition to the windows in the gable 
ends, there were three rows of large windows on each 
side of the two main sides. Besides the wide doors 
by which one entered into the halls, there were ten 
windows in the rows of the first, twelve in the second, 
and thirteen in the third stories. In addition to the 
garret and attic, the house contained three principal 
divisions. The entrance to the first or basement part 
was by doors level with the ground at the gable ends, 
or by stairs which descended from the upper portions 
of the house. In this part was a large room, furnished 
with huge chests or bunks for Hour and other provisions, 
and kitchen for the family of the steward, a general 
kitchen, washing- and baking-rooms, and an entry 
with five cells on each side, intended for the confine- 
ment of very refractory inmates, or for those insane 
paupers whose conduct made it necessary to keep 
them separate from the other inmates and occa- 
sionally to keep them in close custody. On the west 
side of the hall was a large dining-room, where all 
the paupers, except the sick, could eat at the one 
time. There also were the steward's office, a store- 
room for dry-goods, clothes, groceries, and a room for 
women. On the eastern sides were two rooms for 
the private apartments of the steward, and four rooms, 
with four beds in each, for women. In the third 
part there was a large hall exactly similar to the one 
in the story below it, with five doors on each side 
that opened into the bedrooms of different sizes, in- 
tended for the use of the male paupers. Each room 
had a fireplace, and was supplied with from three 
to half a dozen of beds, with tables and chairs. A 
large room on the northwest corner in this division 
was used as an infirmary. The beds of the sick were 
placed in a row, with chairs between for clothes, and 
small tables at the foot. 

A writer, in an account of the condition of the old 
poor-house, written in 1865, gives the following facts: 

" As there is abundance of both wood and stone-coal 

on the farm, the poor-house is as well warmed in 

winter as it is ventilated in the summer. There are 

large stoves in the infirmary, and in the hall before the 

28 



sleeping-rooms of the male paupers. There are grates 
and stoves in all the rooms, and immense fires are 
kept up in the general kitchen and washing-room. 
The inmates are furnished with coarse but very com- 
fortable clothes and shoes whenever they need them. 
Their food is better in quality and cookery than that 
of many poor families. They are allowed three full 
meals every day, consisting of bread, flesh, soup, and 
vegetables. At two of the meals they are furnished 
with fresh meat and coffee. One plug of tobacco is 
given every week to those who use the weed, and to 
the working-men more is given, according to their 
labor and apparent wants. In harvest and at thrash- 
ing and other heavy work the more generous stew- 
ards, at their own expense, have been accustomed to 
give whiskey in moderate quantities to those whose 
former habits made them require some stimulation 
under the pressure of labor. 

" At the present time there are," he continues, " some 
one hundred and fifteen men, women, and children 
in the poor-house. This number is from time to time 
increased or diminished by admissions and discharges, 
and in the winter season it usually rises to one hun- 
dred and fifty or thereabouts. Of the present inmates 
forty-four are women, fifty men, and the remainder 
children. There are ten women with young children. 
The paternity of these is not certainly known, and it 
may be safely presumed that they are all illegitimate. 
There are twelve insane and idiotic women and girls; 
and six insane and idiotic men and boys. Among the 
women are some clean and good-looking girls, whose 
virtue having become too relaxed, and having suffered 
in consequence, they are undergoing a course of 
material and moral astringents." 

By section third of the act of the 5th of April, 
1849, relative to the Westmoreland poor-house, the 
directors elected by the people are constituted a body 
politic, with all the powers incident to an incorporate 
existence. They are empowered annually to appoint 
a treasurer, who shall give bond and security, and to 
employ and remove at pleasure physicians, surgeons, 
stewards, matrons, and all other attendants that may 
be necessary for the health and comfort of the poor. 
They are empowered to bind out as apprentices all 
such poor children as may come under their authority, 
provided that the apprenticeship of the male ceases 
at the age of twenty-one years, and that of the 
females at the age of eighteen years. By section 
tenth provision is made to guard the poor against 
any tyranny, harsh treatment, carelessness, or mis- 
conduct on the part of the officials who have the 
daily superintendence of the paupers. It is as fol- 
lows: 

" A quorum of said directors shall, and they are 
hereby enjoined and required to, meet at the said 
house of employment at least once in every month, 
and visit the apartments, and see that the poor are 
comfortably supported, and hear all complaints and 
redress, or cause to be redressed all grievances that 



430 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



may happen by the neglect or misconduct of any 
person or persons in their employment or other- 
wise." 

The mode of keeping the poor now is a great im- 
provement on the old plan, under which paupers 
were sold out to the lowest bidders in their respective 
townships, and kept on the coarsest and worst food 
in garrets and outhouses. The erection of a house 
for their keeping and employment was a design 
worthy of an elevated benevolence and enlightened 
Christianity. In it they have warm clothing, good 
shelter, abundance of wholesome food, and a phy- 
sician, medicines, and attendance in sickness. To 
these things are added the solace of company and 
the consolations of religion. The poor often are not 
criminal, but simply imprudent and unfortunate. 
There are many worse men and women prosperous in 
the world and respectable in society than any of those 
within the walls of the poor-house, and the gate of 
heaven is not more easily entered by the rich than it 
is by these poor, humble penitents in this monastery 
of St. Lazarus. 

The Westmoreland poor-house is about two miles 
and a half south of the town of Greensburg, and 
within a hundred yards of the Southwest Railway 
and of the road which leads to Mount Pleasant. 
The present building is built near the site of the 
former one, upon the eastern verge of a level space 
' of ground that descends on the east into a vale 
through which runs a brook, and ascends on the west 
into undulating and hilly ground. The house faces 
to the rising sun, and commands a fine and pleasant 
prospect, especially in a southern direction. The 
situation of the house is commendable, not only on 
account of the view, but on account of the ample 
ventilation. It is reached from the platform of the 
railroad by several flights of stairs, which have along 
either side protecting rails. The home is a station 
for all trains of the Southwest Railway, and on its 
schedule is known as " County Home." 



STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY 
HOME FOR THE TEAR 1881. 

Credits of J. J. Wirsing, Treasurer of Poor Fund. 
By amount paid as follows : 

Apple butter 839.00 

Attorney's salary 130.00 

Beef and beef cattle 1,145.13 

Buuts and shoes 311.34 

Blacksniithing 71.93 

Brooms 1100 

Conveyance of paupers 407.43 

Constables' fees 462.20 

Coffins 431.79 

Cobbling 2-87 

Coats in Quarter Sessions 15.15 

" Common Pleas 20.93 

Clothing 392.03 

Carpenter-work 7.25 

Cook 50.00 

Carpenter and window-shades 612.70 

Clocks 21.65 

Cabbage plants 11.60 

Drugs and medicines 342.18 

Directors' Salary : 

John Shrum 376.50 

George Freeman 396.00 

Daniel Monahan - 382.50 



Directors' Traveling Expenses: 

John Shrum $52.38 

• Daniel Monahan 81.01 

George Freeman 100.09 

Board 110.36 

Miscellaneous : 

Digging coal 298.47 

Dry goods 960.15 

Flour 131.06 

Freight 49.33 

Farm implements 19.10 

Farmer 230.00 

Furniture 1,579.76 

Feed 150.57 

Groceries 1,463.77 

Grave-digging 23.50 

Hosiery 35.60 

Hats and caps 18.58 

Home physician 300.00 

Hardware 340.66 

Harness 22.50 

Insane paupeis 2,663.45 

Insurance 1,037.50 

Justice fees 209.68 

Lumber 204.92 

Labor 202.57 

Liverv hire 28.00 

Locust posts 269.30 

Marketing 324.69 

Miscellaneous 72.55 

Matron of Home 131.00 

New County Home : 

Architects— Drum & Stien 300.00 

Steam heating— W. J. Butler 10,785.10 

Window screens — Marshal & Bio 1,122.15 

Building— R. & H. Fulton 20,500.00 

Grading— James White 456.65 

Terra Coita pipe — Lang & McCullougb 131.76 

To sundry persons 3,860.96 

Oil 23.01 

Out-door relief 5,327.06 

Out-door medical relief 1,312.07 

Potatoes 12.53 

For Printing : 

Kline & Bro 130.90 

Laird & Sons 113.35 

McAfee & Atkinson 101.06 

Postage 41.00 

Queensware 107.40 

Salt 14.85 

Stationery. 45.23 

Steward of Home 600.00 

Steward's expenses 27.60 

Surveying 23.00 

Seamstress 71.00 

Engineer 167.76 

Tobacco 303.90 

Telegraphing 6.78 

Thrashing 24.74 

Whiskey 60.00 

Wheat 635.92 

By whole amount for 1881 62,046.40 

By orders of 1880 $171.39 

$62,216.79 
STEWARD'S STATEMENT FOR 1881. 
Statement of F. C. Gay, Superintendent of County Home, from Jan. 3, 1S81, 
to Jan. 2, 1882. 

Products of Farm. 

Bushels of wheat 546 

" oats 557 

" corn in ear 1,950 

" potatoes 430 

" onions 73 

" turnips 22 

" beets 22 

" tomatoes 135 

" beans 25 

" rutabagas 2 

" peas 16 

Tons of hay 60 

Heads of cabbage 4,200 

Barrels of sauerkraut 6 

" Boap 116 

" pickles _ 1 

Cans tomatoes 70 

Gallons tomato butter 5 

Pounds pork 6,148 

" beef slaughtered 15,273 

Number of inmates 186 

11 deaths 40 

" births 9 

" indentured 10 



COUNTY BUILDINGS. 



431 



Stock on Farm : 

Work horses 4 

Milch cows 6 

Head beef cattle 10 

Head stock cattle 

Head stock hogs 25 

MATRON'S STATEMENT. 

Statement of Mrs. H. L. Gat, Matron. 
Men's Wear : 

Pairs of pants 9 

" drawers 28 

Shirts 81 

Blouse 1 

Undershirts 8 

Boys' Clothing : 

Coats 3 

Pants 20 

Shirts 13 

Waists 12 

Women's Wear : 

Dresses 138 

Chemises 81 

Drawers 14 

Skirts 37 

Aprons 86 

Night-gowns 4 

Bonnets 13 

Girls' Chilling: 

Dresses 65 

Skirts 13 

Aprons 14 

Chemises 11 

Drawers 7 

Bedding : 

Haps 91 

Bedticks 94 

Bolsters 33 

Bolster-cases 11 

Pillows 79 

Pillow-cases 181 

Sheets 121 

Bedspreads 15 

Towels 60 

Pairs of stockings 31 

Pairs of socks 57 

Children's stockings 15 

Yards of carpet 51 



THE CATTLE SHOW. 

The first effort of the agricultural people of the 
county to effect an organized society resulted in what 
was called " The Cattle Show." 

In the Gazette for October 31, 1823, appears the fol- 
lowing notice of the first meeting of the society: 

"The Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Domestic Manu- 
factures for Westmoreland County held their first annual exhibition in 
this place on Wednesday last. It rained almost the whole day, and it 
was extremely unpleasant to be out; notwithstanding, an immense 
number of people were present. Many persons were prevented from 
bringing stock to the exhibition from the unfairness of the weather; 
but we are happy to say that, for the first, it will bear comparison with 
many others. There were some fine cattle, and Bonie very fine hogs, 
among which we noticed one of Gen. Markle's, which weighed five hun- 
dred and seventy-four pounds. The specimens of domestic manufactures 
were exceedingly fine. The gypsy hat manufactured by Miss Weigley 
from the spear-grass was the prettiest thing of the kind imaginable." 

Of this society A. W. Foster, Esq., was president, 
and John I. Scull, secretary. 

At the second meeting of the society, Oct. 20, 1824, 
Andrew Findley, Jr., got the premium of five dollars 
for the greatest quantity of Indian corn raised on five 
acres, being seventy-four bushels of shelled corn per 
acre. Robert Jamison got two dollars and a half for 
the greatest quantity of potatoes raised on half an 
acre, being two hundred and two bushels. 

Accordingly in the county papers for August the 



24th, 1854, advertisements appeared with the follow- 
ing headings in display lines : " Westmoreland County 
Agricultural Society. The first annual fair of the West- 
moreland County Agricultural Society will be held at 
Greensburg on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 
11th, 12th, and 13th of October next. Premiums to 
the amount of five hundred dollars and upwards will 
be awarded for the best and second-best stock horses 
and mares ;" and so on for other horses, mares, cattle, 
sheep, swine, and poultry, for other specified products 
of the field, dairy, or shop. It also further set forth 
that besides the above, " the several committees have 
power to award discretionary premiums on all meri- 
torious articles not enumerated in the premium list," 
and that " any person, by paying into the treasury of 
the society the sum of fifty cents, may become a mem- 
ber, which gives him and his family (this includes 
only the children in their minority) the privilege of 
admission into the fair-grounds at any time during the 
fair. It also gives him the privilege of entering his 
stock or other articles for exhibition without further 
charge." 

It was further announced that a ladies' riding 
match was to come off on the second day of the fair 
at ten o'clock ; that an address would be delivered on 
the second day at two o'clock p.m. ; that a plowing 
match would come off on the last day of the fair ; and 
that a brass band had been secured for the occasion. 
It was also announced with great gravity that compe- 
tition for premiums was open to all the States. This 
announcement was signed by John Eichar, J. C. 
Rankin, and J. W. Turney, committee of arrange- 
ments. 

Some time later an effort was made to establish a 
local agricultural society at Mount Pleasant. 

WOOL-UROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 

On Feb. 17, 1866, a meeting of some of the princi- 
pal farmers of the southwestern portion of the county 
was held at Mount Pleasant to organize a wool- 
growers' association. At the meeting a constitution 
was adopted and promulgated. The object of the 
association was declared to be to advance the interests 
of wool-growers in the district represented, and to co- 
operate with other similar societies in aid of State 
and national associations. The officers elected for 
the then ensuing year were : President, John D. Mc- 
Caleb; Vice-Presidents, Mount Pleasant township, 
Amos Trout ; East Huntingdon township, Tobias F. 
Landis ; South Huntingdon township, O. P. Fulton ; 
Rostraver township, E. F. Houseman ; Sewickley 
township, P. S. Pool ; Hempfield township, J. Charles 
McCausland ; Unity township, Alexander Culbert- 
son ; Donegal township, William Kessler ; Salem 
township, James Dickie ; Ligonier township, Hugh 
Little; North Huntingdon township, John Blair; 
Bell township, Maj. James Paul ; Derry township, 
Jesse Chambers; Allegheny township, David Carr; 
Corresponding Secretary, Daniel S. Tinstman ; Re- 



432 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



cording Secretary, Jacob B. Sherrick ; Treasurer, 
William B. Neel. 

WESTMORELAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

The following 'is the act to incorporate the West- 
moreland County Agricultural Society : 

" Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and 
is hereby enacted by the authority of the 6anu>, That George Rhey, I). 
W. Shryock, Thomas Donohoe, David Tinsman, George F. Huff, James 
C. Clarke, William S. Jackson, Alexander Kilgore, Isra el Paint er, John 
A. Byers, Amos Trout, William Bennett, Thomas C. Pollock, John Harg- 
nett, John Agnew, C.R. Painter, Joseph Jack, ('. S. Overholt, Alexander 
Culbertson, James A. Dick, John P. Kilgore, George Gallagher, George 
T. Paul, James Dickie, John Hugus, A.M. Fultou, Joseph Shepler, Rob- 
ert Seaton, James Graham, Samuel Warden, John Irwin, Robert Smith, 
J. C. McCausland, F. Y. Clopper, John L. Bierer, C. H. Stark, William 
Donnelly, John L. Smith, Win. B. SnollgrassTJohn W. Turney, John C. 
Rankin. Dauiel Reamer, their successors and associates, be and the same 
are hereby made and constituted a body politic and corporate by the name 
and style of the Westmoreland County Agricultural Society, and by the 
said name they and their successors shall and may have perpetual suc- 
cession, aud shall be in law capable of sueing and being sued in all courts 
andjudicatories whatever, and also of contractingand being contracted, 
with relation to the business and objects of said corporation, as herein- 
after declared; they may have a common sea], and shall have power to 
lease aud purchase, in fee simple or otherwise, such real estate in the 
•county of Westmoreland as may be necessary for carrying on the busi- 
ness of said corporation or society; Provided, That they shall not at auy 
one time hold more than one hundred acres of land; And provided fur- 
ther. That the land so held shall be exempt from county aud all other 
municipal taxes. 

"Sec. 2. The object of said society is, aud shall be exclusively, to ad- 
vance the interests of agriculture in said county. 

"Sec. 3. That the capital stock of said society shall be thirty thou- 
sand dollars, to be divided into shares of five dollars each, for which cer- 
tificates shall be issued, sealed by the seal of said corporation, and signed 
by such otBceror officers as may be designated by the by-laws, and which 
shall be assignable under such regulations as the directors may establish 
for the same, and each share of stock shall entitle the holder thereof to 
one vote in all meetings and elections, and may be cast by duly consti- 
tuted proxj ; Provided, That no person shall at any time hold more than 
one hundred shares in his own right. 

'• Sec. 4. The foregoing named corporators, or a majority of them, shall, 
as soon as three thousand shares of stock are subscribed, give at least 
two weeks' previous uotice in all the newspapers published in said 
county of the time and place, to be by them appointed, for the sub- 
scribers to meet in order to organize said society, and to choose by bal- 
lot, by a majority of the votes of subscribers to be cast at said election, 
nine managers, to serve until their successors shall be duly elected, 
which shall be annually on the first Monday ol February thereafter, and 
Baid managers shall select one of their number president, and shall se- 
lect a secretary and treasurer to serve for the 6a term ; the treasurer 

shall be required to give bond in such sum and with such securities as 
the board of managers shall approve; Provided, That al said first elec- 
tion no pereon who is not, in the opinion of a majority of the said cor- 
porators present, a bona fide and responsible subscriber shall be entitled 
to vote, and at all subsequent elections only Buch as may have paid their 
Btock in full, or such portion as may have been called for by the man- 
agers. 

" Sec. 5. That the board of managers of said society shall have power 
to make by-laws for the regulation and well-being of the society not in- 
consistent with the laws of the Commonwealth, and shall keep minutes 
of their proceedings, which shall at all proper times be open to the in- 
spection of the stockholders, and at the annual meeting aforesaid they 
Bhall make a full report of their transactions, and the condition of the 
society ; and they shall also have power to declare dividends of so much 
of the net profits of the society as shall appear to them advisable, aud 
at such times and payable when the by-laws may fix. 

" Sec 6. That every person who shall have subscribed and paid the 
sum of teu dollars or upwards to the association known as the Agricul- 
tural Society of Westmoreland County shall be entitled to one share or 
the capital stock of this corporation or society for each sum of five dol- 
lars bo paid ; aud every person who shall have paid the sum of one dollar 



to the same shall be entitled to one share of said stock upon payment 
to this society the Bum of four dollars. 

" Sec 7. That the said board of managers shall have power to alter or 
change the location of any public road or highway which may pass 
through or over any land leased or purchased by them ; Provided, That 
they make and construct for the use of the public aB good and conveni- 
ent a road in every respect as the roads so altered and changed; And pro- 
vided further, That no such road shall be obstructed or interfered with 
until the said road shall have been examined by three disinterested view 
ers, to be appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions of said county, who 
shall make report thereof, and such report shall be approved by said 
court, and the costs and expenses of said view shall be paid by said so- 
ciety. 

" John Clark, 
" Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

" WlLMER WORTHTNGTON, 

" Speaker of the Senate. 
" Approved the seventeenth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-uine. 

"John W. Geary." 



CHAPTER LII. 

NOMENCLATURE. 



The subject of the origin and derivation of the 
names common to the nomenclature of our country 
hereabout is not wholly, as we apprehend it, without 
some interest. The names of nearly all our streams, 
mountains, and villages may be traceable to either an 
English or an aboriginal origin. 

The names first given by the British to localities 
and places which were named by them generally 
commemorated that of some prominent military officer 
or some civilian for the time being in favor. Thus 
Bouquet called the stockade fort which he erected at 
the Loyalhanna after Sir John Ligonier, an officer of 
distinction of French extraction, but in the service of 
England, with whom he had served in the Continental 
wars of Europe. This gave name to the village sub- 
sequently built near the old fort, and to the whole 
valley, a region of country which has always been 
regarded as a prominent, and indeed for certain occa- 
sions in early times, as a separate, if not an independ- 
ent, portion of the county, cut off from the rest by 
great natural barriers. 

The names of the original townships are but echoes 
of European names, and they involuntarily recall 
one's attention back to localities of an older date and 
more ancient history. These names, it must be remem- 
bered, were designated for the chief part by the Scotch- 
Irish, who for that matter here had carte blanche. 
This one fact, rightly considered, evidences the domi- 
nation of that race. These names are mostly the rep- 
etition of the names of townships of the Scotch-Irish 
colonies in the eastern part of Pennsylvania and in 
the adjacent parts of Maryland. " Hempfield" was 
the name of a township in Lancaster County, Pa., 
and also the name of a township in Mercer County. 
" Mount Pleasant" is the name of a township in 
Adams (formerly York) County, and of a hundred in 
Cecil County, Md. This name was transferred to 
Washington County, aud to other Pennsylvania 



NOMENCLATURE. 



433 



Scotch-Irish settlements. " Huntingdon," an En- 
glish Cromwellian name, no doubt sacredly treasured 
by the descendants of the defenders of Londonderry 
and Enniskillen as the name of the manor-home of 
the Protector, was given to a township in Adams 
(formerly York) County. " Rostravor," " Rosstra- 
vor," or " Rostrevor," changed to " Rostraver," was 
a seaport town and watering-place in the County 
Down, Ireland. There is a monument erected there 
to the memory of Gen. Ross, who was killed at the 
battle of North Point, near Baltimore, September, 
1814. "Menallen" and " Springhill," now two Fay- 
ette County townships, but first known as Westmore- 
land townships, were named, the former after a town- 
ship in Adams (formerly York) County, the latter 
by Col. George Wilson in commemoration of the lo- 
cality in West Augusta County, Va., whither he had 
removed. 1 

With probably the exception of Westmoreland, 
Fayette, and Greene Counties, there are no other 
counties in Western Pennsylvania the names of whose 
townships or boroughs would alone indicate whence 
their first settlers came. 2 

Of the first three townships formed after the orig- 
inal ones that of " Derry" is in its name purely North 
Irish. "Salem" and "Unity" probably took their 
designation from the respective settlements about the 
churches of those names, which were the most prom- 
inent settlements within their limits at the date of 
their formation. Both the latter names are old and 
strictly orthodox. The name of " Donegal," too, was 
a favorite one in Scotch-Irish settlements, and is trace- 
able to Ireland. It was the name of one of the con- 
gregations of the Old Redstone Presbytery, which has 
since been changed to that of Pleasant Grove. So, 
too, have the names of the earlier churches and con- 
gregations sometimes been perpetuated in those of set- 
tlements, of communities, of post-offices, and of vil- 
lages. Hence is there " Congruity," " Chartier," 
" Bethel," " Sardis," and " Mount Pleasant," the last 
as it is applicable to the name of the borough of Mount 
Pleasant. That the old Mount Pleasant Church, a 
most noted landmark, was called after the name of 
the village is an erroneous notion to entertain. The 
truth is that Mount Pleasant congregation was some- 
thing of an old congregation under the pastorate of 
Rev. Mr. Power when there certainly were not more 
than two or three cabins on the whole site of the 
present town. But the opposite to this, without any 
show of authority, has long obtained. 

But the presence of that strange race of red men 
will never be effaced or forgotten among us so long as 
we retain the memorials of our written history or call 
our mountains and streams by the names they gave 
them. i 



1 See Judge Veecli in Centenary Memorial, A pp. No. 4. 

2 A township in Fayette is called "German 1, because settled by the 
Germans. 



" Ye say they all have passed away, 

That noble race and brave ; 
That their light canoes have vanished 

From off' the crested wave ; 
That 'mid the forests where they roamed 

There rings no hunter's shout; 
But their names are on your waters, 

Ye may not wash them out." 

The names of most of our streams in Western Penn- 
sylvania are of Indian origin ; so, too, are the names 
of most of the more prominent mountains of the 
State. It has been remarked from a general observa- 
tion that the most important contribution made by the 
aborigines to our language has been in their bestow- 
ing the names upon natural objects, — upon mountains, 
lakes, and streams. 

Most of these Indian names in the region of West- 
ern Pennsylvania are from the dialect of the Lenni 
Lenapes, or Delawares, whose pronunciation was less 
abrupt, and whose idioms were more sentimental than 
that of their conquerors, the Iroquois, or Mingoes, 
whose ideas and words, on the opposite, partook of a 
warful character. 

The origin of the name of one of our local streams 
has been the subject of much contention. The name 
of the Loyalhanna Creek has been variously accounted 
for, and we are not familiar with any that has been so 
maltreated, one so replete, as a philologist would say, 
with homonyms. 

Some with ignorance and stupidity trace it to an Eng- 
lish original, saying, for example, that it was named 
for Robert Hanna ; others erroneously purport that 
the old Indian name signifies " Clear-running water;" 
" while the legend," in the words of Dr. Frank 
Cowan, " which attributes the name to the faithful 
daughter of the last of the Indians who resided in 
the gorge, a certain ' Loyal Hanna' (mirable dictu /), 
who supported her father in the extremity of age 
with her bow and arrow (after he had been abandoned 
by the rest of his tribe), is on a par with the popular 
origin of the word Ligonier, namely, that an early 
hunter, shooting at a deer while the animal was 
scratching its ear with its hind foot, by chance killed 
it, perforating at the same time the Leg an' ear." 3 

The name Loyalhanna, from the best authorities, 
which are now recognized as satisfactory, is derived 
from an Indian compound word, " La-el Han-neck," 
which means Middle Creek. The word " Hanneck" is 
evidently the generic name for stream, creek, or river, 
and is to be found in Susquehanna, Meshannon, 
Mahoning, and in other names of streams throughout 
the State. The Loyalhanna appears to have been 
known by that name before the arrival of Bouquet 
there in 1758, as is evidenced in many old records, 
and by the narrative of Capt. James Smith, and the 

8 " Poems, etc." By Frank Cowan. 

The " faithful daughter" story appeared on a placard inviting pleasure- 
seekers, in the interest of the Ligonier Valley Railroad, to go to Idle- 
wild. The leg-aod-ear account was imparted to me in great confidence 
as an item of local information not nearly so generally known as its 
importance justified. 



434 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



narrative of John McCullough. With Capt. Smith's 
narrative most readers are familiar; of McCullough's 
not so much is popularly known. 

John McCullough was taken by the Indians in 
July, 1756, near Fort Louden, in York County. At 
that time he was quite young. He says 1 that the 
morning before they came to Fort Duquesne they 
came to Kee-ak-kshee-mannit-toos (Kiskiminetas), 
which signifies Cut Spirit, 1 an old town at the junction 
of La-el-han-neck, or Middle Creek, and Quin-nim- 
mough-koong, or Can-na-maugh (Conemaugh), or 
Otter Creek. 3 

McCullough in his narrative divides the words into 
syllables, and labors to give the pronunciation as like 
as possible to that of the Indian. Thus wigwam he 
writes weik-a-waum, and tomahawk, tim-ma-keek- 
can. 

The name Loyalhanna is variously spelled by dif- 
ferent authors and in old papers, as there was no uni- 
form method of spelling proper names, and in the 
absence of any standard authority the writer made 
an effort to conform to the sound of the word. 

Forbes in his letters and reports writes "Loyalhan- 
non." In Washington's correspondence in Sparks' it 
is written " Loyal Hanna." Smith in the narrative 
has " Loyal Hannah." Smollet in his continuation of 
Hume's " History of England" calls it the stream 
" which was called by the aborigines the " Lyel An- 
ning." Some old warrants and surveys have " Lyel- 
anna" and " Lyel-anning." In Frederick Post's Second 
Journal (1758) it is " Loyal Hanning." In so late a 
publication as the " St. Clair Papers" its ancient name 
is reproduced as " Lyal henning." 

Kiskiminetas, as we now have it, was an old Indian 
name. The stream is called by Conrad Weiser (1748) 
" Kis-ke-min-e-toes." He was good authority, for he 
was Indian interpreter for the colonial government. 
" Kickena-pawling Old Town," called by Post (1758) 
" Keck-kek-ne-pol-in," was the site of an Indian set- 
tlement at the junction of Stony Creek with the 
Conemaugh. On this site is now the city of Johns- 
town, Cambria Co., which got its name from Joseph 
Jahns, a hardy German, who settled there near a hun- 
dred years ago, and gave his name to the place, which 
the Welsh changed from Jahnstown to Johnstown. 
"Kis-ke-men-e-co" is also mentioned by Post (1758), 
as well as by McCullough, as an old Indian town, 
opposite the site of Saltsburg, but then lying waste. 4 
These were Shawanese names and settlements. Among 
its many forms it has assumed these ■ " Kiskiminites," 
"Kiskimintes," " Kiskiomeanity," " Kiskaminetas." 

• See narrative in "Border Life. 1 ' 

- We confess ignorance of any such tutelary divinity among the abo- 
rigines, unless it was Indian for "Old Scratch." 

3 If there was anything in the phonetics of a language by which one ' 
could establish the motive of those people in naming places and objects, 
one might suspect that this region of the Conemaugh and Kiskimine- 
tas indicated " the place of large and small bull-frogs." 

4 Rev. W. W. Woodend, D.D., a local historian and a scholar, in his 
centennial speech, delivered at Saltsburg, Indiana Co., 1876, says, "Even 



Not less various, however, have been the forms in 
which Monongahela has appeared. In Washington's 
letter to Governor Hunter, 27th April, 1754, it is 
" Monongialo " In Scarroyady's address to the Pro- 
vincial Council (1755) it is " Minongelo." In Albach's 
"Annals of the West" there are two spellings, — 
" Monongiala" and " Mohongely." It was also some- 
times written " Mongolia," and many of the common 
people of Virginia corrupted it into " Monigehale," 
as they called Conococheague " Connikegig." The 
versatile Brackenridge has furnished the translation of 
several of the Indian names of the Western streams, 
sometimes with accuracy, and sometimes with a 
liberal poetic license. He says that Monongahela 
means falling-in banks or mouldering banks. Rather 
different, however, is the interpretation which is 
given by some other writers. 

Writing of the derivation and the signification of 
these river names, Brackenridge says the word "Ohio" 
in some of the Indian languages means bloody, and, 
literally interpreted, the " River of Blood." As well 
established as is the fact that the name which the 
French gave it, " La Belle Riviere," has no affinity 
with the Indian name " Ohio," yet many persist in 
associating the meaning of the one name with the 
other. The Indian word " Ohio," whatever it orig- 
inally may have meant, certainly was not their word 
used for beautiful. 5 The word, in the language ot 
the Senecas, was " O-hee-yuh." 

When McCullough was taken prisoner by the In- 
dians, he narrates that when they came to the Alle- 
gheny River the Indian who claimed and adopted 
him took him by the hand and led him down to wash 
his white blood out in the water of the " Al-lee-ge- 
con-ning," as he writes it, and which he. says signifies 
" the impression made by the foot of a human being ; 
for the reason, said they, that the land is so rich about 
it that a person cannot travel without leaving the 
mark of his feet." 6 According to Loskiel, the Alle- 
gheny was called by the Delawares, who inhabited 
the region about it, " Alligewisipo ;" but the Iroquois, 
or Mingoes, regarding it as a continuation of the 
larger stream, called it the Ohio. Most authorities 
trace the name Allegheny to a designation of the 
mountains, previously known to that of the river. 
Some writers and geographers, yet observing a dis- 
tinction without a difference, write the last two syl- 
lables of the word which they use to designate the 
mountains "gha-ny," and the last two when they 



the untutored aborigines of the country were not slow to discover the 
natural beauties and advantages of the place, and planted here amid the 
native forests one of their towns. Like its builders, every vestige of 
this ancient village has disappeared, and even its very name has been for- 
gotten." 

This is ornate, but not correct. The name of the Shawanese Indian 
town still lives in the name of their river. 

5 We are inclined to believe that "Ohio," in some form, is part of 
" Voughiogheny." 

6 Qnere. If this was the case, must not the Allegheny Mountains 
have been named after the stream and taken their name from it? 



NOMENCLATURE. 



435 



designate the river " ghe-ny." The spelling of the 
word varies now, and some good authorities write 
" Allegany," some "Allagany," and the same name 
for a county in New York is spelled differently in 
Pennsylvania. In the earlier documents it appears 
in sundry grotesque forms. We recall " Allegaening" 
in the " Message taken down by Edmund Cartlidge 
for Governor Thomas, April, 1730." ' 

In some examples these earliest forms of the abo- 
riginal names are probably the most correct, for the 
reason they were written thus with the special pur- 
pose of retaining their Indian designations. Thus 
it is asserted that Kittochtiuuy, the name of a famous 
landmark, a mountain, in one of the first purchases 
is more correct than Kittatiny, the name by which it 
was known on the deed to the whites ; and that the 
Indians could not recognize it by the name which 
Penn's officers gave it. It is likely that " Cat-tan- 
yan," the name of the Indian village on the Alle- 
gheny River, as Smith in the narrative has it, ap- 
2)roaches the original more nearly than " Kittanning." 

No name, however, appears to have so misled our 
predecessors, and those who had occasion to use the 
word in writing, as the spelling of the river " Youghio- 
gheny." 

In the diary of a soldier who was in Braddock's 
army in the expedition in 1755, which diary is vol. 
212 of the King's Library, London, it is spelled 
" Yoxhio Geni." 

On Governor PownelFs map of the British Middle 
Colonies prior to the American Revolution it is 
spelled " Yochio Geni," and it would seem to have 
so designated a tribe of Indians about the lower por- 
tion of the stream, for when the river itself, or the 
creek, as he denominates it, is marked, as it is above 
Confluence or Turkey Foot, it is " Yaw-yaw-ganey," 
an orthography which savors faintly of a Teutonic 
original. 2 On this map Stewart's Crossings is called 
Stewart's Rift. 

On a map in Ponchot's " Memoirs of the Late War 
in America," called Carte des Frontieres Francoises, 
etc., it is spelled " Oxiogany." 

In many of the earlier letters to and from the pro- 
vincial authorities, and particularly in George Cro- 
gan's letters to Governor Morris, 1755, it is spelled 
and written " Yohiogain." In Crogan's Journal, 1751, 
it is " Yogh-yo-gaine." 

In a deed between some Indians and others and 
Capt. Henry Monton, H.M.S. (His Majesty's ser- 
vice), recorded in Bedford County, 10th September, 
1772, it is spelled " Yaughyagain." 

A letter from Samuel Sackett (settled in Union- 
town, 1781, in 1778 removed to Georges Creek, Fay- 
ette Co., Pa.) published in the Pittsburgh Commercial 
Gazette, Oct. 26, 1880, is dated " Shirtee (Chartier) 
Settlement, ' Yougang' County." 



1 See Egle's " History of Pennsylvania," 319. 

2 Although this was in Somerset County it was before the Revolution. 



Hildreth, in his " History of the United States," 
spells it " Youghiogeny." 

Among the petitions to the earlier courts are the 
following various renderings : " Youghiagana," " You- 
gagany," " Youghiogeny." In the description of the 
first townships it is " Youghiogena." 

A localism once obtained, which had its origin in 
convenience, if not in necessity. This was the naming 
of streams, which were at certain distances in partic- 
ular directions from prominent points. The streams 
which flowed into the Loyalhanna were designated 
as Two-Mile Run, Four-Mile Run, Nine-Mile Run, 
Twelve-Mile Run, Fourteen-Mile Run, and so on, 
because they were nearly those distances respectively 
from Fort Ligonier, and that either at where they 
flowed into the Loyalhanna or where they were crossed 
by the main road. A person who resided near one of 
these streams was then addressed on letter by the 
name of the stream, and he dated his letter under the 
same name. Thus St. Clair sometimes writes from 
Loyalhanna, William Proctor and Archibald Lochry 
from the Twelve-Mile Run. So, too, was this method 
of naming streams followed by the settlers along the 
Monongahela and the Youghiogheny. 

It will probably be admitted without dissension 
that the aboriginal names of these streams, both in 
sound and sense, are superior and preferable to the 
majority of the names of those designated by the 
practical first settlers. Of these we have Brush Creek, 
Bushy Run, Turtle Creek, Crooked, French, Mill, 
Tub, Pine, Stony, Redstone, Redbauk, Crab, Goose, 
to which may be added the beautiful and ornate 
names of Whiskey, Tinker, Barren, Bloody, Roaring, 
Possum, Wild-Cat, and Hypocrite Runs. 

The names given to streams and places by the first 
whites who named them were often done for conven- 
iency. Thus names of camping-places and of passes, 
of mountains and springs, had for the most part to be 
coined by the officers and soldiers who came out in 
the first expeditions, and most of those who kept jour- 
nals of their progresses, or diaries, or wrote letters 
while on their march, have, in the absence of certain 
authority, given different and original appellations to 
designate such places. In a journal of a soldier in 
Braddock's army, in the King's Library, before 
quoted, a small stream in their route is called 
" Thickety Run." Turkey Foot, sometimes called 
Crow Foot, as in Braddock's letter to Governor Mor- 
ris, July 6, 1755, was an appropriate designation of 
the three streams which form the Youghiogheny, in 
Somerset County, and it was thus long known to the 
first settlers thereabout, and has been fixed in en- 
during annals. It was thus named from a fancied 
resemblance. It is now known as Confluence. Cat- 
fish was the ancient name of Washington Town, and 
was derived from the name of a Delaware chief who 
had his home there. That whole settlement was 
known as the Catfish settlement. The creek which 
flows past the town is called Catfish Creek. 



43(1 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Jacobs Creek, in Westmoreland County, is called 
for Capt. Jacobs, a noted Indian chief, who had his 
lodges and pappooses betimes near it. Jacobs Swamp 
was the designation of a large body of land in East 
Huntingdon township, about Ruffsdale, and is the 
name by which a portion of the land was patented. 
This stream in Governor Pownell's map of the 
colonies, 1776, is called Salt-Lick Creek. This 
Capt. Jacobs is the same gentleman whose name was 
such a dreadful one to the frontier settlers after Brad- 
dock's defeat, who headed more than one marauding 
excursion, and who figured in the capture of Kittan- 
ning by Col. Armstrong in 1756. l 

The names by which some of the older landmarks 
and settlements were known to the first settlers have 
been in later times changed and altered. This has 
been done sometimes by corrupting them in an invol- 
untary manner, sometimes by the common consent of 
those of the vicinage, and sometimes by legislative 
enactment. And in some instances it does not appear 
to have been done for the better, neither in the inter- 
est of good taste nor with a spirit of veneration, which, 
if it is apparent in a people at all, is apparent in a 
pride in and an attachment to old names for the asso- 
ciation of ideas, and which must necessarily belong to 
the names of old places. 

In some instances the beautiful and appropriate 
names given by the Indians have been abandoned, 
and in their stead have been substituted the names of 
cities, of mountains, and of divinities of the heathen 
mythology. And these we now use to designate rail- 
road stations, post-offices, ferries, and cross-road vil- 
lages. What shameless taste, partaking of effrontery, 
did it evidence to substitute Logan's Ferry to desig- 
nate the crossing of the Allegheny River for the In- 
dian name Pucketo, and to call a thrifty business 
town, noted chiefly for its trade in lumber, after that 
mountain in Greece sacred to one of the Muses, Par- 
nassus. So, too, we now have Apollo for Johnson's, 
which was itself a bad name for Kiskimineto. Then 
we have Bethany, which was long used for the name 
of a village whose chief claim to notoriety was in the 
whiskey distillery then in operation within its sacred 
precincts, and Lycippus, the name of a celebrated 
sculptor of antiquity, for a post-office on a spur of 
the Chestnut Ridge, a name wholly inappropriate to 
the locality, and which has suffered beyond endurance 
at the hands, or rather mouths, of an unappreciative 
populace, who by a concatenation between words and 
ideas are forever associating it with a certain scorbutic 
disease, calling it Erysipelas, and, more horrid still, 
Lycippius. Neither is there any congruity in calling 



1 This heroic personage might have been to the Indians a "great 
chief," but as a "captain"' ho was one of Doll Tearsheet's kind. The 
body of the Indian killed there was identified by a pair of long military 
boots which he had un, and which had belonged to Lient. Alexander. 
He could not escape with them on, and was slain in trying to get them 
off. At that time he wa-s not in " good Btamling." He was a small man. 
There was, however, another Capt. Jacobs, probably his sou. 



one suburb of Greensburg Mudtovvn, and another 
Paradise ; one suburb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, and 
another, Bunker Hill. 

It was a custom of the Land Office to designate tracts 
of land in the patents from the State by certain and 
several names. If this subject should be followed up 
it would be a diversion enjoyable. Thus a tract of 
land near the Ridge Church, in Mount Pleasant town- 
ship, upon which Mr. Isaac Smail has been boring for 
oil, is called " Shakespeare." The lands of the Bene- 
dictine monastery of St. Vincent, wherein are the 
cloisters of the celibates, was patented under the 
name of "Sportsman's Hall." 

Beaver Run and Beaver Dam, a landmark on Jack's 
Run, were evidently named after the presence of those 
rodents, which in early times were numerous in all 
our streams. Their "slides" have been seen at 
Beaver Dam by many persons still living. Post, in 
1758, mentions the fact that there were numerous 
beaver-dams in this part of the country, and particu- 
larly one of them near their camp, not far from 
Laurel Hill. 

After the Revolution the names partook of a dis- 
tinct American characteristic, and then Washing- 
ton, Franklin, Greene, Adams, Jackson, and the rest 
came in. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 

John Covode — Alexander Johnston — William Freame Johnston — John 
White Geary — Hun. James Keenan — Richard Coulter Drum — Commo- 
modore John ltonnett Marchand — Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner. 

HON. JOHN COVODE. 

The Hon. John Covode was one of the most re 
markable men whom Pennsylvania has ever produced. 
It is not the purpose of this sketch to present a minute 
record of his life, tell " the long story of struggles 
and triumphs" which marked his way from boyhood 
to the grave, and go into the analysis of his character 
by the comparison of it with that of other men of 
force and distinction, or speculate upon the value of 
Mr. Covode's services to his constituents and the 
country during his congressional career. A plain 
statement of the most prominent facts of his career 
must for the most part suffice the reader of this. 

Mr. Covode, who died Jan. 11, 1870, was born in 
Westmoreland County, March 17, 1808. His father 
was Jacob Covode, a son of Garret Covode, a native 
of Holland, who was, when a child, kidnapped in the 
streets of Amsterdam by a sea-captain, who brought 
him to Philadelphia, and under then existing laws 
sold him into bondage as a " redemptioner," in which 
condition he was held for some years after arriving 
at manhood, and was employed as a domestic servant 
in the household of Gen. Washington. He died in 
1826 at the advanced age of ninety-four years. The 






^~7y~t^^e^ 



SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



437 



name of Garret Covode does not necessarily represent 
that of the Hollandish family from which he was 
born, for it was coined or originated by the sea- 
captain who stole him, and by him conferred upon 
the boy. 

The mother of John Covode, and whose maiden 
name was TJpdegraff, was a Quaker, and it is among 
the traditions of her family that two of her ancestors, 
together with a person named Wood, prepared and 
published a protest against the decision of William 
Penn recognizing the legality of negro slavery. This 
protest is said to have been the first anti-slavery mani- 
festo published in this country. 

Mr. Covode received only a limited education in 
the schools. He was brought up on a farm, and after- 
wards learned the trade of woolen manufacturing, 
which business he conducted for forty years, but he 
pursued other avocations at the same time. He was 
a contractor early in life, connected with the public 
works of the State, was one of the first to encourage 
the building of the State canal, and after its comple- 
tion he engaged in the transportation business, and 
commanded the first section boat which went over it 
from Philadelphia to the interior of Ohio. In short, 
his was an active, earnest life of varied labor before 
he became a public man, as well as after he entered 
upon the career of politics which made his fame 
national. 

The first note we have regarding Mr. Covode as a 
candidate for political office indicates the date of 1845, 
and states that he was then the Whig candidate for 
the State Senate in a very strong Democratic district, 
and that the second time he was nominated he came 
so near being elected that the Democracy, then in 
power in the State, alarmed at his growing popularity, 
changed his district. He was then taken up by his 
party and was elected to Congress in 1854 from the 
Twentieth District, and was re-elected in 1856, 1858, 
and 1860. In 1866 and in 1868 he was sent to Con- 
gress from the Twenty-first District (under the new 
apportionment). In 1860 he was a prominent candi- 
date for nomination for Governor, and also in 1863. 
In 1860 he was president of the convention that nomi- 
nated Governor Geary. In 1869 he was chairman of 
the Republican State Committee, and held that posi- 
tion when he died. 

Mr. Covode was conspicuous in connection with 
stirring events prior to and throughout the period of 
the Rebellion. As chairman of the Lecompton In- 
vestigating Committee in 1858 he won a national 
reputation, which was made more secure by his ser- 
vices as member of the committee of Congress to in- 
quire into the conduct of the war, and by his con- 
spicuous and valuable services in support of the gov- 
ernment. Few men labored as zealously as did he in 
behalf of the government during the trying times of 
the Rebellion, or had better knowledge than had he of 
the interior workings of the immense enginery em- 
ployed by the government to suppress the Rebellion. 



He had the confidence of many of the most import- 
ant actors in that eventful period, and by his great 
energy, quick perception, and knowledge of human 
character was able to render many important services 
to the nation, which were recognized and appreciated 
by those in power. 

Mr. Covode was a man of strong sense, and pos- 
sessed the faculty of combination to an unusual de- 
gree ; that is, he was what is known in the vernacular 
of politicians as a "wire-puller" of extraordinary 
capacity ; could pull more wires, and pull them more 
persistently and cleverly, than most men. He was 
fruitful in resources and untiring in whatever he 
undertook. He was a good neighbor and a fast 
friend. 

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON. 

The paternal ancestors of Alexander Johnston, 
Esq., were originally from Annandale, Scotland, where 
they at one time possessed the estates of Bracken- 
side ; but the head of the house, Alexander John- 
ston, being killed at the battle of Fontenoy, on the 
30th of April, 1745, where he was serving as a captain 
of Welsh Fusiliers in the British service, the estate 
fell into dispute, and finally, through political strife, 
was lost, and the family settled in Ireland. There 
Alexander Johnston was born on the 10th of July, 
1773, in County Tyrone, Barony of Omagh, and parish 
of Killskerry, at a place called Scar Brae, which is 
two miles from Lowtherstown, five miles from Ennis- 
killcn, and near the border of the County Fermanagh, 
and died at Kingston House, near Youngstown, July 
16, 1872, aged ninety-nine years and six days. He emi- 
grated to America in 1797, just one year before the 
great rebellion of 1798. Departures for America were 
then rare to what they are at present, and so, owing 
to this, to personal friendship and the ties of kindred, 
Mr. Johnston was accompanied on his road for some 
miles by the members of the Masonic brotherhood, to 
which he belonged, and also by a company of cavalry, 
of which he had been a member. He sailed from 
Londonderry and landed in Philadelphia; from thence 
he went to Carlisle, Pa., where a cousin, Gen. William 
Irvine, lived, who, having commanded at Fort Pitt, 
and knowing Western Pennsylvania, advised him to 
go to that part of the State. In pursuance of his ad- 
vice he crossed the Allegheny Mountains to West- 
moreland, and after a short time went to Butler 
County, where he located himself on a tract of pre- 
emption lands then offered to actual settlers. Be- 
coming dissatisfied he returned to Westmoreland, 
made the acquaintance of William Freame, a Belfast 
Irishman, which led to his marriage with Mr. Freame's 
second daughter, Elizabeth, and located himself in 
Greensburg. 

William Freame had been a private in the British 
army in 1776, and came to America in the army under 
Wolfe. At the peace of 1763 between Great Britain 
and France he accepted, with many of his comrades, 
the proposition of the English government to remain 



438 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



in the colonies. He settled first in Lancaster County, 
where he married Elizabeth Johnston, who had emi- 
grated from Ireland with her father in 1782. This 
branch of the Johnston family settled in Kentucky 
and North Carolina. 

The issue of the marriage of Alexander Johnston 
with Elizabeth Freame was eight sons and two daugh- 
ters. The two eldest sons were educated at West 
Point, and served as commissioned officers in the 
regular army. The youngest, Richard, was a volun- 
teer in the Mexican war. Before its close he was ap- 
pointed a lieutenant in the regular army, and was 
killed at the head of his company, while storming the 
enemy's works at Molino del Rey. Hon. Edward 
Johnston resides in Iowa. The remaining sons living 
are residents of this State and county. The biogra- 
phies of two of them, Hon. William F. Johnston and 
Col. John W. Johnston, will be found elsewhere in 
this work. The physical stature of the sons was re- 
markable, varying in height from six feet to six feet 
six inches, and in weight from two hundred to two 
hundred and fifty pounds. 

After residing a number of years in Greensburg he 
removed to Pittsburgh and engaged in the mercan- 
tile business. In this he was prosperous, but tempted 
by the high price of iron, owing to the prospect of 
war and its actual effects, he bought up a large tract 
of mountainous land in Unity, Derry, and Ligonier 
townships, Westmoreland Co., erected a forge and 
rolling-mill, removed to Kingston, and became an 
ironmaster. His iron-works were called " Kingston," 
because the name of the tract of land on which they 
were located had been so designated in the patent. 
The enterprise did not succeed. Kingston iron was 
not estimated at full price in the market. Iron fell 
in price, and Mr. Johnston became not only disheart- 
ened at the result but involved in pecuniary affairs. 
The turnpike road being located alongside of his 
mansion house, he rented his works and converted 
his house into a tavern. 

After some years he returned to Greensburg, and 
acted as justice of the peace until his appointment as 
register and recorder by Governor Wolf. Mr. John- 
ston had, indeed, been quite an active politician. He 
acted with the Federal party till its final dissolution, 
voting for Andrew Gregg, the last Federal candidate 
in Pennsylvania. He became a Jackson man in 1824, 
and acted and voted with the Democrats against the 
anti-Masons and National Republicans. He held 
several offices, — sheriffby election, justice of the peace, 
treasurer, and register and recorder by appointment. 
The dates of his commissions for these respective 
offices are as follows: sheriff, Nov. 4, 1807; justice 
of the peace, Oct. 24, 1822 ; treasurer, Dec. 27, 1826- 
27 ; register, etc., Jan. 21, 1830. In the latter office 
he served for six years, when he returned to his moun- 
tain home, Kingston, a place peculiarly adapted to 
retirement, and where he resided until his death. 

He is said to have been at his death the oldest 



living Mason in the United States. As one of that 
fraternity he was admitted in Ireland ; walked in a 
Masonic procession as early as 1795, on the festival 
of St. John the Baptist. He organized, under special 
authority from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 
the lodge at Greensburg, and also, by deputation, the 
lodge at Somerset. 

Having been honored by his fellow-citizens with 
offices of honor and profit, he never transcended his 
trust or stopped short in his line of duty. Having 
their confidence, he was always foremost in anything 
projected for their welfare and the advancement of 
common interests. In his business connections he 
was exact to the cent, and of all his many employes 
not one, perhaps, can say but that he got his due. 
His own comfortable fireplace felt better as he knew 
that those connected with him were likewise from 
want. Occupying public positions as he did, and 
having many depending upon him as he had through 
such a long life, he exercised great influence, and cer- 
tainly great influence for good. His manners were 
most affable. It mattered not whether to rich or poor, 
woman or child, he had to all an agreeable way ; not 
stiff and dignified, but urbane and unassuming. 
Neither did infirmity or any untoward cause make a 
change in his demeanor. His disposition was social, 
and, especially in his latter days, nothing pleased him 
so much as agreeable company. It is natural of old 
age to seek rest, Nestor-like, in the bosom of their 
family, or in communing with people of their own 
years, but he took great pleasure in converse with 
the young, an evidence of the vigor of his mind, aud 
always to their advantage, for he had encouragement 
and advice through which one might see high moral 
principle, patriarchal patriotism, and the wise experi- 
ence of three generations of men. Thus, courteous in 
his manners, benevolent in his acts, charitable to the 
poor, Christian in his walk, he wore with venerable 
simplicity the dignity of " spotless gentleman," — a 
dignity that needs no robe of office to make it honor- 
able. 

His memory was stored with personal anecdotes, 
and replete with historical reminiscences, drawn in 
part from reading, and in part from personal recol- 
lections. He took great pleasure in conversing on 
these subjects, and having been a close observer, his 
mind was a microcosm of the greatest historical 
century in the annals of time. He remembered the 
ringing of the bells and the shouts and the bonfires 
by which the people in Ireland rejoiced when they 
heard the news of the signing of the treaty of peace 
at Versailles and the termination of the Revolution- 
ary war. Speaking to the writer of this notice, he 
said he distinctly recollected hearing the watchmen 
of their native town call out the hour of the night 
and the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington at 
Yorktown, which was joyful news, as many Irishmen 
were on both sides. And this was after the surrender 
of the empire at Sedan. So great was his age that 




ALEX. JOHNSTON. 



SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



439 



he could have heard the first click of the musket on 
that spring morning at Lexington that startled the 
world, and after deluging it in blood ceased not to rev- 
erberate till the sinister sun went down on that June 
evening on the shattered columns of the Imperial 
Guard at Waterloo, an epoch that will always fill a 
page in the history of the world. When the Corsican 
Napoleon died he was entering vigorous manhood. 

The most casual observer could see as a predomi- 
nant trait in his character a strong love for his 
adopted country and its institutions, and although 
he warmed with native patriotism in recalling the 
dead — Emmett, Grattan, Burke — men cotemporary 
with himself, yet Ireland was not to him as America. 
For the one he grieved ; in the other was his most 
ardent expectation. He was truly American. When 
he set his foot in America he shook off the rust and 
moth of prejudice and felt himself a free man. 

The evening of his life was such as old age might 
ever wish for. He possessed all his faculties unim- 
paired, and physical decline came slowly as he neared 
his rounding century. All his children, and many 
of his grandchildren, stood around his death-bed. 
Death itself stole gradually over his limbs till, on the 
evening of the 16th of July, as the day went out the 
light went out, and with the closing shadows the 
spirit of the patriarch walked into the shades among 
his fathers. 

"Of no distemper, of no blast lie died, 
But, fell like autumn fruit t lint mellowed long, 
Even wondered at because he dropt no sooner. 
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years, 
Yet freshly ran he twenty winters more, 
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time, 
The wheels of weary life at last stood still." 

WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON, 

William Fr'eame Johnston, the third Governor of 
Pennsylvania under the constitution of 1838, from 
July 9, 1848, to Jan. 20, 1853, was born at Greeusburg, 
Westmorelanl Co., on the 29th of November, 1808. 
He was the son of Alexander Johnston, Esq., of Kings- 
ton House, Unity township, and of his wife, Eliza- 
beth Freame, and an account of his ancestry will be 
found in the sketch of Alexander Johnston, which 
has just been given. The subject of this sketch 
was in early boyhood taught by a kind and good 
mother that the cardinal duties were to obey God's 
commands, to honor parents, and to love native coun- 
try. His common school and academic education was 
limited, but he had from youth an ardent taste for 
reading, and being blessed with vigorous powers of 
mind and body, he was enabled by great diligence to 
acquire a vast fund of information, which served him 
instead of elaborate training. He studied law under 
Maj. John B. Alexander, and was admitted to the bar 
in May, 1829, in his twenty-first year. Shortly after- 
wards he removed to Armstrong County, where he 
engaged in the practice of law, soon rising to a posi- 
tion of commanding influence. He was appointed 



by Attorney-General Samuel Douglass, and subse- 
quently by Attorney-General Lewis, district attorney 
for Armstrong County, which office he held until the 
expiration of Governor Wolf's first term. For several 
years he represented the county in the Lower House 
of the Legislature, and in 1847 was elected a member 
of the Senate from the district composed of the 
counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, and Clear- 
field. 

As a legislator, Mr. Johnston was bold and original, 
not beholden to precedents, and was an acknowledged 
leader. During the financial crisis which arose dur- 
ing the Presidency of Martin Van Buren many expe- 
dients were adopted and many plans proposed to al- 
leviate the wide-spread effects of that disaster. Then 
Mr. Johnston came forward with a proposition to 
issue relief notes, for the payment or refunding of 
which the State pledged its faith. This he advocated 
with his usual energy and logical acuteness, and 
though a majority of the Legislature was politically 
opposed to him, it was adopted and gave instant re- 
lief. It was designed as a temporary expedient, and 
as such was remarkably successful. As the originator 
of this measure and its special advocate, he acquired 
a reputation for financial skill and ability throughout 
the Commonwealth, its fortunate result serving only 
the more widely to circulate his fame. 

In 1847, Mr. Johnston was elected president of the 
Senate. By a provision of the constitution, if any 
vacancy occurred by death or otherwise in the office 
of Governor, the Speaker of the Senate should be- 
come the acting executive officer. Governor Shunk, 
in the extremity of an incurable disease, resigned his 
office on the last day possible to allow of anew choice 
at the ensuing fall election, and that day was Sunday. 
From this complication of affairs arose questions of 
great constitutional importance. It appeared to be a 
good opinion that the Speaker of the Senate could 
hold the office of acting Governor until the election 
of the next year, but not wishing to hold the office 
one moment longer than the popular will seemed to 
dictate, he determined to avoid every occasion of a 
charge of selfishness and ordered the immediate 
election. The election thus ordered resulted in the 
choice of Mr. Johnston for the full term of three 
years. 

He early and persistently, as Governor, took an 
active and very material interest in the development 
of the mining and manufacturing interests of the 
State, and his messages evince the solicitude he had 
for the public prosperity, and are standing memorials 
of his practical business and financial views. In all 
things he was jealous of the honor and renown of the 
Commonwealth, but he was particularly solicitous for 
the safety of the records of the Colonial and State 
government, which until his time existed only in man- 
uscript. In his message of 1851 he recommended that 
those records worth preservation should be arranged, . 
edited, and printed at the expense of the State. In 



440 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



compliance with this recommendation, an act was 
passed authorizing the appointment of a suitable 
agent to select and superintend their publication. 
Mr. Samuel Hazard, a gentleman of taste and ability 
well suited to the execution of the trust, was dele- 
gated, and under his supervision twenty-eight volumes 
of "Colonial Records" and "Pennsylvania Archives," 
containing a vast amount of original papers of incal- 
culable value and interest, were published. 

Governor Johnston deserved much credit for the 
successful manner in which he managed the financial 
affairs of the State during his administration. Upon 
his accession the debt was over forty millions, having 
been increased eighteen millions during the preceding 
nine years. The interest on this vast sum was regu- 
larly paid. 

His political course during his first term had been 
so satisfactory to the party by whom he was supported 
that he received the nomination for re-election, but 
was defeated by a small majority. Upon retiring 
from office he entered upon an active business life, 
and was engaged at different periods in the manu- 
facture of iron, boring for salt, the production of oil 
from bituminous shales, and latterly in refining petro- 
leum. Under his presidency the Allegheny Valley 
Railroad was constructed from Pittsburgh to the town 
of Kittanning. During the civil war he took an ac- 
tive part in organizing troops, and, as chairman of the 
Executive Committee of Public Safety, superintended 
the construction of the defenses at Pittsburgh. In 
connection with Mr. John Harper, he became respon- 
sible for the ammunition which was sent to West Vir- 
ginia at a critical juncture in the fortunes of that 
State, and which materially aided in preserving it 
from being overrun by the Confederates. He was 
appointed by President Andrew Johnson collector of 
the port of Philadelphia, the duties of which office 
he for several mouths discharged, but through the 
hostility of a majority of the Senate to the President l 
he was rejected by that body, though ample testimony 
was given that the office was faithfully and impar- ; 
tially administered. 

He was married on the 12th of April, 1832, to Miss 
Mary Monteith. The offspring of this marriage were ; 
five sons and two daughters. 1 

JOHN WHITE GEARY, 
Governor of Pennsylvania from Jan. 15, 1867, to Jan. 
21, 1873, was the youngest of four sons, and was born ! 
near New Salem, 2 in Westmoreland, on the 30th of 
December, 1819. The family was originally Scotch- 
Irish, but for several generations his ancestors had 
enjoyed the privileges of American birth. Richard 

1 We have drawn largely in this sketch from the very valuable and 
interesting " Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania," etc., by William 
C. Armor. Philadelphia, 1872. 

2 Mr. Armor, in his " Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania," says 
Gen. Geary was born near Mount Pleasant. On tins point there is not 
a unanimity of opinion. 



Geary, his father, a native of Franklin County, had 
received a liberal education, and was a man of re- 
fined tastes, amiable disposition, and superior moral 
excellence. His mother, Margaret White, was born 
in Washington County, Md., and was in all respects 
a worthy companion and helpmeet of her husband. 
His father had engaged in the manufacturing of iron 
and had failed, when in this trying situation he fell 
back upon the resources of his early education and 
opened a select school in Westmoreland County. The 
remainder of his life was devoted to this profession, 
at all times honorable. 

Being himself possessed of liberal culture, it was 
the earnest desire of his father that his sons should 
receive a collegiate education. Prompted by paternal 
love, every sacrifice possible was made to compass 
this end, and after passing the usual course of pre- 
liminary studies the youngest son was entered a 
student at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pa. By 
the sudden death of his father his career was thus in- 
terrupted. To suitably provide his mother he left 
college and opened a school on his own account. He 
then subsequently returned to college. 

On leaving college he turned his thoughts on com- 
mercial pursuits, but soon evinced a preference for 
civil engineering. This he intended to adopt as his 
fixed vocation. With this end he went to Kentucky, 
where he was engaged, partly in the employ of that 
State and partly in that of the Green River Railroad 
Company, to make a survey of several important lines 
of public works. Returning to Pennsylvania, he 
soon after became assistant superintendent and en- 
gineer of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. While 
thus engaged the war with Mexico broke out. In a 
short time he raised a company in Cambria County 
called the American Highlanders. At Pittsburgh 
the command was incorporated with the Second Penn- 
sylvania Regiment, commanded by Col. Roberts, of 
which regiment Geary was elected lieutenant-colonel. 
Shortly after the surrender of the capital Col. Roberts 
died, and he was elected to succeed him. The services 
of the regiment in Mexico are well known to all. 

Ou the 22d of January, 1849, being in political 
sympathy with the administration in power, President 
Polk appointed him postmaster of San Francisco and 
mail agent for the Pacific coast, with authority to 
create post-offices, appoint postmasters, establish mail 
routes, and make contracts for carrying the mails 
through California. On the 1st of the next April he 
entered upon the duties incident to his appointment. 
President Polk's successor, President Taylor, ap- 
pointed Jacob B. Moore Geary's successor. But 
eight days after his removal he was elected first 
alcalde, though there were ten different tickets sub- 
mitted to the choice of the electors. Shortly after he 
was appointed by Brig. -Gen. Riley, the military Gov- 
ernor of the Territory, Judge of First Instance. These 
offices were of Mexican origin, and they imposed 
onerous and important duties. The alcalde was 



SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



441 



sheriff, probate judge, recorder, notary public, and 
coroner. The Court of First Instance exercised both 
civil and criminal jurisdiction throughout the city, 
and, besides this, adjudicated all those cases arising 
under the port regulations which usually fall within 
the cognizance of Courts of Admiralty. 

On May the 1st, 1850, in a vote upon the first city 
charter and for its officers, Judge Geary was elected 
the first mayor of San Francisco by a large majority. 
He declined a re-election, but accepted a place on the 
Board of Commissioners, which had been created by 
the Legislature for the management of the public 
debt of the city, and was made its president. As 
chairman of tiie Democratic Territorial Committee, 
he was instrumental in securing the Free State clause 
in the constitution of the State, and the reference of 
that instrument to the people for their sanction. 

In February, 1852, he returned to Westmoreland, 
where his wife, in failing health then, soon after died. 
He engaged in farming interests here, and specially 
directed his attention to the rearing of stock. In 
1855 President Pierce offered him the Governorship 
of Utah Territory, which he declined. He, however, 
accepted the Governorship of Kansas, and was com- 
missioned iu July, 1855. He arrived at Fort Leaven- 
worth September 9th, and his administration extended 
only from that date to March, 1857, at which time the 
Presidency of Buchanan commenced. 

Gen. Geary was in Westmoreland when the civil 
war commenced. Immediately on receipt of the 
attack on Fort Sumter he opened an office for recruits, 
and offered his individual services to the President. 
They were accepted, and he was commissioned a 
colonel, and authorized to raise a regiment. In the 
course of a few weeks he received applications from 
sixty-six companies, soliciting permission to join his 
command. On account of the numerous and urgent 
appeals he was permitted to increase his regiment to 
sixteen com] anies, with one battery of six guns, 
making the full complement to consist of fifteen 
hundred and fifty-one officers and men. The artillery 
company was that which subsequently became the 
celebrated Knapp's battery. 

The services of Gen. Geary in the civil war on the 
part of the Union army were so varied and so distin- 
guished that they may be relegated by us with pro- 
priety from a provincial history to the history of the 
nation, to which they belong. The general reader 
has at hand so many varied and comprehensive his- 
tories of this struggle that we are sure that whatever 
we might say here would be useless verbiage. 

Gen. Geary, who was a Democrat until the break- 
ing out of the war, at the ending of it became a Re- 
publican, and in 1866 was elected by that party 
Governor. He was inaugurated on the 15th of Jan- 
uary, 1867. On the expiration of his first term he 
was renominated without much show of opposition 
and re-elected by something of a reduced majority. 
He served out his term and died. 



Governor Geary was married on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1843, to Margaret Ann, daughter of James R. 
Logan, of Westmoreland County. By this marriage 
he had issue three sons, one of whom died in infancy, 
and another was killed in the battle of Wauhatchie; 
the third is an officer in the regular army. Mrs. 
Geary died on the 28th of February, 1853, and in 
November, 1858, he was married to Mrs. Mary C. 
Henderson, daughter of Robert R. Church, of Cum- 
berland County, and had issue several children. 

Governor Geary through life was a man of good 
habits and strong physical powers, and greatly owed 
his success to great energy, prudence, and temper- 
ance. He was a Presbyterian in religion, and be- 
longed to a number of secret societies. He was proud 
of his military titles and somewhat fond of show and 
ostentation. 

HON. JAMES KEENAN 
was born in the ancient village of Youngstown. He 
struggled in early life with many adversities. These, 
however, only served to make him self-reliant, and to 
bring into greater activity traits of character which 
were in after-life of no inconsiderable importance to 
his success. When war was declared by the United 
States against Mexico he was among the first to offer 
his services, and on 1st of December, 1846, volunteered 
as a private in Capt. Herron's company, the " Du- 
cpuesne Grays," of Pittsburgh, First Regiment Penn- 
sylvania Volunteers. In 1847 he returned from Mex- 
ico, laboring under a severe chronic disease which he 
had contracted by exposure on the field. He, how- 
ever, rapidly recovered, and soon after received the 
appointment of a lieutenant in the Eleventh United 
States Army Infantry, and opened a recruiting-office 
in Greensburg. Again, in the spring of 1848, he 
started with his command for Mexico, and remained 
in the service until the close of the war, when 
his commission expired. His gallantry in the ser- 
vice, and his bold and daring adventures at the head 
of his command, brought him prominently into no- 
tice, and after his return from Mexico he was, in 
the fall of 1849, elected register and recorder for 
Westmoreland County. At the expiration of his 
term he was again re-elected to the same office, in 
1852, for another period of three years. During 
the period that Gen. Keenan was register and re- 
corder he introduced various improvements in the 
manner of keeping the books and papers of the office, 
which were followed by his successors, and which 
have proved highly beneficial to the public. On the 
2d of February, 1852, while he held the office of regis- 
ter and recorder, he was appointed by Governor Big- 
ler adjutant-general of Pennsylvania. In June of the 
same year President Pierce tendered him the position 
of consul to Hong Kong. This latter appointment 
was held under consideration for some time, which he, 
however, finally concluded to accept, and in the fall 
of 1853 resigned the offices of register and recorder 



442 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and adjutant-general, and sailed in October, 1853, for 
Hong Kong, China. During the first year of Mr. 
Buchanan's administration, Gen. Keenan paid a visit 
to his friends in this country, and while here was mar- 
ried to Miss Elizabeth Barclay, an estimable lady of 
Greensburg, with whom he immediately left the 
United States for his consulate in Hong Kong, 
which position he occupied until the 22d of Jan- 
uary, 1862, when he with his family sailed in the 
ship " Surprise" for the United States, and arrived in 
New York on the 16th of the next May, very ill, 
having been confined to his berth in the ship for 
six weeks previous to the end of the voyage. On 
the day after his arrival he was removed with much 
difficulty to Blanchard's Hotel, on Fourth Avenue, 
where he remained until Thursday evening, the 22d. 
Although lie seemed to revive somewhat for the first 
forty-eight hours after landing, yet the best medical 
skill and kindest attention was unavailing against 
the deep-seated disease, which had got such a firm 
hold on him, and he afterwards commenced sinking, 
which continued until it terminated in death. 

His mortal remains, under the care of James C. 
Clarke, his brother-in-law, were brought to Greens- 
burg on the next Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon 
interred in the cemetery at Greensburg in the presence 
of the largest concourse of citizens that perhaps ever 
assembled in this place on such an occasion. 

Gen. Keenan was a young man, but he possessed 
endowments, both mental and physical, which enti- 
tled him to a very high position in the estimation of 
his fellow-citizens. From his first entry into public 
life until his final end, his career had been upward 
and onward, and although he had not reached the 
zenith of life, yet no young man in Western Penn- 
sylvania had a more brilliant career before him. 

A warm personal friend, who published this sketch 
of his life, had this further to say, which is not an 
overdrawn characterization : 

" From a long and intimate acquaintance with the 
deceased of the most unreserved character, first 
formed in 1846, the writer of this notice can say, 
without exaggeration, that Gen. Keenan was pos- 
sessed of many of the noblest qualities that endow 
human nature. He was generous, brave, intrepid, 
and courageous, yet gentle, kind, and humane ; his 
knowledge of human character was very accurate, 
and his confidence was consequently seldom mis- 
placed ; his manners were courteous, easy, and grace- 
ful, not assumed for the occasion, but natural, the 
generous overflowing of a happy disposition and be- 
neficeut heart. He was not surprised or disconcerted 
by sudden danger, but only roused to cool and in- 
trepid action. He had many of the qualities of a 
great commander, and if events had drawn him into 
that channel he would doubtless have greatly distin- 
guished himself. 

" Without the aid of either friends or fortune, ex- 
cept those whom he endeared to him by the excel- 



lence of his own character, he rose rapidly, step by 
step, without a single reverse or defeat, to a position 
of great public importance, and if God had spared 
his life many predicted for him a still more brilliant 
career. The excellence of his person, the counter- 
part of his mortal organization, was in perfect har- 
mony with his mental structure. Nature is seldom 
so lavish of her gifts. An intimate friend may say 
that, within the limits of his knowledge, he never 
used these glorious gifts, ready passports to a confid- 
ing heart, to ensnare innocent and unsuspecting inno- 
cence. Being an elder brother, many of the responsi- 
bilities both of a father and a brother were cast upon 
him in early life. With what unceasing fidelity and 
tenderness he provided for his widowed mother, and 
with what wise counsels he guided the steps of his 
young and inexperienced brothers, their bleeding 
hearts will now recount. May we not trust and hope 
that these noble traits of character, preserved in the 
midst of so many temptations, were evidences that 
the hand of God was upon him, and that the glory 
of His power and the munificence of His grace will 
be magnified throughout all eternity by grateful 
homage of his ransomed spirit, perpetually rendered 
for undeserved mercy. 

He died on Thursday evening, May 22, 1862", aged 
thirty-eight years, eight months, and six days. 

RICHARD COULTER DRUM. 

Richard Coulter Drum was born in Greensburg, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa., in 1825, and from the Greens- 
burg Academy graduated to Jefferson College, where, 
after spending a short time in the acquisition of the 
higher studies, he commenced the study of the law, 
having managed in the interim to pick up the very 
exemplary trade of the printer. From these pursuits 
he was awakened by the sound of the bugle from the 
Rio Grande, where his brother, Capt. Simon H. 
Drum, was already serving with the Fourth Regular 
Artillery, and shouldering his musket as a private 
soldier on the 8th of December, 1846, he entered the 
Mexican war as a member of Company K of the 
First Pennsylvania Volunteers. Scarcely two months 
later, on the 18th of February, 1847, he was commis- 
sioned a second lieutenant of infantry and assigned 
to the Ninth, in which he performed such gallant and 
meritorious services before Chapultepec on the 13th 
of September as to gain him a brevet, an event that 
was saddened by the untimely death of his brother, 
who met his death the same day in the famous assault 
upon the Belen Gate. At the close of the war he 
was transferred to the Fourth Artillery and ordered 
to Florida, his regimental comrades including such 
names as Pemberton, Getty, A. P. Howe, Garesche, 
Garnett, Mansfield, Lovell, Fitz-John Porter, Couch, 
and Gibbon, and where he awaited his promotion, 
which met him at Fort Sumter on the 16th of Sep- 
tember, 1850. During the next decade his services 
were marked by stirring episodes and flattering marks 



SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



443 



of approbation. He fought with Harney in the peril- 
ous Sioux expedition, and as aide-de-camp to that 
gallant veteran aided to maintain the peace during 
the Kansas disturbance of 1855. In November of 
the following year he was appointed an aide to Gen. 
Persifer F. Smith, and acting assistant adjutant-gen- 
eral of the Department of the West, and at his death, 
two years later, he rejoined his battery at Fort Mon- 
roe, where he was made adjutant of the post, and on 
the 16th of March, 1861, was transferred to the ad- 
jutant-general's department with a captaincy by 
brevet. This merited promotion, which sent him 
with Gen. Sumner to the Presidio, was unfortunate in 
the respect that it removed him from the scenes where 
his knowledge of the practical tactics of war would 
have been of the greatest value to the government, 
to an isolated command where the duties and dan- 
gers were great, requiring management of the most 
delicate character. 

The necessity of holding open the overland route 
to travel, of repressing the tendency of the Indian 
tribes to revolt at a time when the resources of the 
government were severely strained in the States, of 
watching the covert hostility of the Mormons, and 
holding the Mexican frontier against incursions from 
the South, where Maximilian and Bazaine had se- 
cured a threatening foothold, were duties that called 
for the most dextrous management and the most 
thorough comprehension of the situation. How well 
he performed these duties, and with what satisfaction 
to the people of the Pacific coast, was shown by the 
fact that at the termination of his service, on the 1st 
of October, 1866, a sum of money exceeding $40,000 
was raised at San Francisco and presented him as a 
testimonial of their appreciation. While in Cali- 
fornia he was promoted, on the 3d of August, 1861, 
to the rank of major in the adjutant-general's depart- 
ment, and on the 17th of July, 1862, to lieutenant- 
colonel. 

Returning East, he was made adjutant-general to 
Gen. Meade, whom he accompanied a month later to 
the Third Military District, where he rendered no un- 
important aid in the arduous duties attending the re- 
construction of the States of Georgia and Alabama. 
After turning over these States to the civil authorities 
Gen. Drum attended Gen. Meade to the new Depart- 
ment of the South, where he remained until March 
20, 1869, having been promoted to a colonelcy on the 
22d of February, and later to the Division of the At- 
lantic, with headquarters at Philadelphia. On the 
death of Gen. Meade he continued as adjutant-gen- 
eral to Gen. Hancock, who succeeded him, where he 
remained until the 26th of November, 1873, when he 
was sent to the Division of the Missouri at Chicago, 
where he remained until the 2d of May, 1878. Dur- 
ing the labor riots of the summer of 1877, Gen. Drum 
again found occasion for an exercise of that personal 
judgment and sound discretion which had character- 
ized his administration at San Francisco. The threat- 



ening emergency found both Gens. Sherman and Sheri- 
dan absent on the plains, far beyond the reach of the 
telegraph, a howling mob in the streets of Chicago, 
crazy with the tidings of the success of their fellows 
at Pittsburgh, and a like impending fate hanging over 
the city. Aware of his ability, the War Department 
placed upon Gen. Drum the full power and responsi- 
bility of maintaining the public peace. Without an 
instant's hesitation he collected all the regular and 
militia forces within reach, seized the gas and water- 
works, planted Gatling guns at strategical points, and 
patroled the city with bristling bayonets, and by such 
prompt and vigorous measures checked and dispersed 
the mob without firing a gun, and before it could ef- 
fect the slightest damage to person or property. For 
these services he received the public thanks of the 
people and the highest commendation of the War De- 
partment. On the 2d of May, 1878, he was ordered 
to Washington, where he remained until the retire- 
ment of Adjt.-Gen. Townsend on the 15th of June, 
1880, when, without political influence or personal ef- 
fort, he succeeded to the vacancy amid general appro- 
bation of the appointment. 

Gen. Drum signalized his entrance into office as 
adjutant-general of the army by one of the most im- 
portant moves in the history of the War Department. 
Recognizing the importance of the uniformed State 
militia as the nursery which in time of war must be 
called upon to furnish the officers to organize and 
command the volunteer forces, and with a view to as- 
similate the rules and forms governing both the reg- 
ular army and the militia, he addressed a letter to the 
adjutants-general of the States, in which he expressed 
the warmest desire to be of service to the State forces, 
and intimating the propriety of sending them copies 
| of all general orders issued from the War Department. 
I The responses to this overture of friendship and co- 
I operation were most hearty and unanimous. " It is 
a happy augury for the future of this country," re- 
marked Gen. Jones, of North Carolina, "when high 
officials of the government begin to recognize the true 
relations between the regular army and militia or Na- 
tional Guard. It is an indication that the men who 
now shape and control public affairs are returning to 
the wisdom which prevailed with those who laid the 
foundations of this republic, and leads me to believe 
that the militia may yet become what it was originally 
intended to be, a thoroughly organized, disciplined, 
effective force, ' a sure and permanent bulwark of na- 
tional defense.' " " I have to thank you for your ex- 
treme courtesy in this matter," writes Gen. Berry, of 
Massachusetts, "and to express again my pleasure at 
the interest taken by you, an interest which is so much 
needed, and which will tend to raise the standard of 
the organized militia throughout the country." " Your 
arguments and conclusions," said Gen. Backus, of Cal- 
ifornia, " are worthy of the distinguished officer and 
gentleman who now presides over the adjutant-gen- 
eral's department of the United States army, and are 



444 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



such as would be expected from a gentleman who, 
while assistant adjutant-general of the Department of 
California, so successfully administered affairs as to 
leave pleasant remembrances and a host of friends." 

A year later this initiatory step was followed by 
issuing to the States, upon requisition, the tactical 
works and blank forms and books prescribed for the 
regular army, as still further assimilating the man- 
agement, drill, and internal government of the two 
forces, while regular officers have been detailed to in- 
spect the camp and troops of the militia at-their an- 
nual musters. The importance of this step cannot 
be overestimated, and the progress of the National 
Guard towards that discipline and development 
which is imperatively demanded of the great factor 
of success will date from the moment when Gen. 
Drum, as adjutant-general of the army, extended the 
helping hand of the national government. 

In private life Gen. Drum presides at the head of 
one of the most charming households in Washington. 
He married, during his subaltern days in Louisiana, 
the daughter of Gibbs Morgan, of Baton Rouge, a 
notable Southern family, our present minister to 
Mexico being a brother to Mrs. Drum, who is now one 
of the most popular and accomplished ladies in so- 
ciety, and has two daughters, one a widow and the 
other a recent debutante. Their home is a large and 
substantial pressed-brick house, situated on K Street, 
between Fifteenth and Sixteenth, in the centre of 
fashionable Washington, and is an attractive example 
of the modern architecture, involving carved brown- 
stone and brick trimmings, stained window-glass, 
with halls and parlors finished in natural wood, and 
the whole furnished with elegance and taste. 

It remains to be added that the general is about 
five feet nine inches in height, with a complexion that 
is florid, and hair and moustache gray and grizzled as 
becomes a soldier, and will weigh not far from one 
hundred and forty. To quote from a recent sketch, 
" he dresses in extreme good taste in civil costume, 
is quick in his movements, writes rapidly, decides 
quickly, knows a soldier when he sees him, works 
hard, is cautious in his manners, has a friendly smile 
and a quick frown, is not particularly religious, is 
given to fishing as a diversion, does not quarrel with 
the good things of this wicked world, and, take him 
all in all, he is a charming gentleman, a good officer, 
a true friend, and an admirable adjutant-general." 1 

Military History of Brig-Gen. Richard C. Drum, Adjutant-General of the 
United Stales Army.— Enrolled as a private in Company K, First Penn- 
sylvania Volunteers, Dec. S, 1846, and was mustered into service Dec. 16, 
1840. Served with his regiment in the war with Mexico (being engaged 
in the siege of Vera Cruz) until discharged at Vera Cruz, Mexico, March 
17, 1847, having heen appointed a second lieutenant, United States In- 
fantry, Feb. IS, 1847 ; second lieutenant, Ninth Infantry, April 9,1847; 
transferred to the Fourth Artillery, March 8, 1848; promoted first lieu- 
tenant. Fourth Artillery, Sept. 16, 1850; brevet captain and assistant 
adjutant-general, March 16, 1861 ; vacated comniisssiou of first lieuten- 
ant, Fourth Artillery, May 14, 1801; major and assistant adjutant-gen- 
eral, Aug. 3, 1861 ; lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general, 

l " Army and Navy Register," Feb. 4, 1882. 



July 17, 1862; colonel and assistant adjutant-general, Feb. 22, 1869; and 
brigadier-general and adjutant-general, June 15, 1880. 

Breveted first lieutenant Sept. 13, 1847, for gallant and meritorious 
conduct in the battle of Chapultepec; colonel, Sept. 24, 1864, for meri- 
torious and faithful service during the war, and brigadier-general, 
March 13, 1865, for faithful and meritorious service in the adjutant-gen- 
eral's department during the war. 

Service: Joined the Ninth Infantry, May 19, 1847, and served there- 
with in the war with Mexico (engaged at the battles of Contreras, 
Churubusco, Molino del Itey, Chapultepec, and Garita de Belen) to July, 
1848, when he joined the Fourth Artillery, and served with that regi- 
ment en route from Mexico to Fort Monroe, Va., to Aug. 14, 1848; at 
Fort Monroe, Va., to Oct. 21, 1848 ; Fort Pickens, Fla., to April 25, 1849 ; 
Baton Rouge, La., to June 4,1850; on leave to Oct. 20, 1850; on detached 
service with light battery to March 11, 1851; with regiment at Fort 
Columbus, N. Y. H., to May 23, 1851; on detached service conducting 
recruits to Fort Kearney, Neb., to July 21, 1851 ; with regiment at Fort 
Columbus, N. Y. H., to Aug. 12, 1851 ; Fort Johnston, N. C, to June 6, 
1852; Fort Brady, Mich., to October, 1853 ; Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to 
May 25, 1855; on detached service as acting commissary of subsistence 
of a battalion of the Sixth Infantry en route to Fort Kearney, Neb., to 
July 1, 1855; with regiment in the field, Nebraska Territory, on expe- 
dition against hostile Sioux Indians (being engaged at the action of Blue 
Water, Neb., Sept. 3, 1855), to Oct. 20, 1855 ; aide-de-camp to Gen. W. S. 
Harney, commanding the Sioux expedition, to Nov. 10, 1856; aide-de- 
camp to Gen. P. F. Smith, commanding the Department of the West, 
also acting assistant adjutant-general at headquarters of that department, 
to May, 1858 ; with regiment at the artillery school, Foil Monroe, Va., 
from June 4, 1858 (al60 post-adjutant of school from September, 1858, 
to Jan. 9, I860, and ordnance officer to April 21, 1860i, to April 3, 
1861; awaiting orders aud en route to California to May 6, 1861; on 
duty as assistant adjutant-general at headquarters Department of the 
Pacific, San Francisco, Cal., to June, 1865; headquarters Department 
of California, to Oct. 1, 1866; headquarters Department of the East, New 
York City, from Dec. 27, 1866, to Jan. 6, 1868; headquarters Third Mili- 
tary District, Atlanta, Ga., to Aug. 1, 1868, and of the Department of the 
South to March 20, 1869 ; at headquarters Military Division of the At- 
lantic, Philadelphia, Pa., from April 3, 1869, to Dec. 16, 1872, and at New 
York City to Nov. 26, 1873; headquarters 'Military Divibion of the Mis- 
souri, at Chicago, III., from Nov. 28, 1873, to May 2, 1878 ; on duty in the 
adjutant-general's office, Washington, D. C, to present date, June 16, 
1880. 

COMMODORE JOHN B0NNETT MARCHAND 
was born on the 27th day of August, 1808, on the banks 
of the Sewickley, in Hempfield township, Westmore- 
land Co., Pa., on a farm located by his grandfather, 
Dr. David Marchand, in 1770, nine miles from Greens- 
burg. His father, Dr. D. Marchand, was elected pro- 
thonotary of the courts iu 1823, and at the age of 
fifteen years young Marchand entered the office as 
clerk. 

In December, 1828, he went to Philadelphia, and 
entered the United States navy. His appointment 
being dated in May previous, was sent to Greene 
County in mistake, thus causing the delay. In 
1837 he was promoted to master, immediately after 
which he was put in charge of the expedition sent to 
survey the Savannah River. On the loth of Septem- 
ber, 1841, he was put in command of the schooner 
"Van Buren,"and on the 3d of September sailed from 
Baltimore to operate against the Seminole Indians in 
Florida. In this war he took a conspicuous part, and 
was frequently exposed to great danger in the swamps 
and bayous. On July 8, 1842, the Indian war being 
then over, he sailed from Indian Keys for the North. 
From this date on until 1843 his services were varied, 
the greater portion of the time being spent on board 
ship. On the 4th of May, 1843, he sailed from Hamp- 



SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



445 



ton Roads in the U. S. S. " Brandywine" for a cruise ' 
in the East Indies, but before completing this duty he 
received orders from the Navy Department to make 
a cruise of the world, and immediately sailed in pur- 
suance thereof, in which expedition he visited many 
places of interest, and professionally examined the | 
waters of the European and Asiatic seas. He re- 
turned to the United States Sept. 17, 1845, which he 
touched at Norfolk, Va., having completed the cir- 
cuit of the globe. On the 25th of November, 1846, 
war having been declared against Mexico, he sailed 
in the ship " Ohio" to join the American squadron in 
the Gulf of Mexico. He participated in the celebrated 
action in which the American ships of war bom- 
barded the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, under the 
cover of the fire of which the army of Scott debarked 
at Vera Cruz. On the 29th of March, 1847, Vera 
Cruz surrendered, and possession was taken of the 
city and fortifications by the Americans. 

From the close of the Mexican war till the begin- 
ning of the civil war, the country being at peace, the 
professional life of Commodore Marchand was not 
varied from ordinary routine duty. He was engaged 
in the interim in visiting foreign courts and perform- j 
ing duty abroad. On Dec. 15, 1858, he left New 
York to join the Paraguay expedition in command 
of the " Memphis," returning to the United States 
the following spring. 

At the outbreak of the civil war he was on light- 
house duty in Detroit. During this time an incident 
occurred which illustrates the devotion he had for the 
profession which he had chosen from among all others, 
the navy. While here he was offered the command 
of a Michigan regiment, which he refused to accept, 
though he gratefully acknowledged the honor con- 
ferred upon him, but he made application at once to 
the Department for immediate sea duty. He was 
given the "James Adger," and put in command of ! 
the blockade naval forces at Charleston and George- 
town, S. C. On the 16th May, 1862, he was wounded 
off the mouth of the Stone River. On the 24th of 
October following he was ordered to command the 
" Lackawanna," and in February following reported 
for blockade duty off Mobile. From this time until 
the 5th of August, 1864, the date of the battle of 
Mobile Bay, he was engaged in blockade duty, during 
which time he captured many of the vessels engaged 
in assisting the Confederates, among them being the I 
British steamer " Neptune" and the rebel steamer 
" Planter." 

We will now turn to the battle of Mobile Bay, which 
can best be described in the commodore's own words, 
which I copy from his journal : 

"On the 5th of August, 1864, the vessels took posi- 
tion alongside, and lashed to each other as required. 
The ' Lackawanna,' with the ' Seminole,' was in the 
centre of line of battle. Fort Morgan opened fire 
upon us first, and the rebel boats ' Tennessee,' ' Mor- 
gan,' ' Gaines,' and ' Selma,' inside of the bay, raked 
29 



our vessels with shot and shell. It was a magnificent 
sight, every vessel with ensigns at their mastheads 
and peaks, the shot and shell flying through the air 
with their piping sound, the dense volumes of smoke 
from the guns sometimes hiding the nearest ships, 
then floating away towards the forts, ami the loud 
cheers of all hands. Although shot and shell were 
flying around none struck the ' Lackawanna's' hull, 
doing serious injury, till we were within four or five 
hundred yards of Fort Morgan, when a heavy, elon- 
gated shot from the fort passed through the ship's 
side, killing and wounding sixteen men at the 150- 
pound rifle, when it carried away two stanchions of 
tin' taffrail, passed through the foremast, and carried 
away the head of the sheet-cable bits, and then pass- 
ing through the other side of the ship fell into the 
water. Blood and mangled human remains for a 
time impeded the working of the 150-pounder. The 
firing of shells from our fleet was so continuous that 
the enemy were driven away from their guns. At 8.30 
o'clock a.m. our fleet had passed beyond the range of the 
guns of Fort Morgan, when the ram ' Tennessee' was 
seen approaching. The admiral made signal to the 
' Monongahela,' as being nearest, to run her down, 
and instantly the same was made to me. The ' Mo- 
nongahela' struck her angularly near the stern and 
glanced away. I was more fortunate, striking her at 
right angles to her keel. The concussion was tre- 
mendous, and we rebounded, but soon after drifted 
against her broadside to broadside, head and stern, 
when our marines and some of the crew, with muskets 
and revolvers, opened fire into her ports, preventing 
the reloading of their guns, which had been fired into 
our bows when almost touching, exploding two shells, 
and sending one solid shot in^o her berth-deck, kill- 
ing and wounding many of the powder division and 
the already wounded. 

"In ramming the 'Tennessee' we had done her no 
perceptible injury except demoralizing her crew, but 
our stern was cut and crushed far back of the plank 
ends. 

" Our guns had been pivoted on the opposite side, 
in anticipation of swinging head and head, so that 
but one ix. gun could be sufficiently depressed to bear 
upon the ' Tennessee,' which was fired nearly into one 
of the ports, causing the port shutter to jam, becom- 
ing useless during the remainder of the engagement. 
We then separated in different directions by her 
going ahead, and we having nothing to hold on by, 
I ordered the helm hard over, to bring the ship 
around to make another attempt at ramming the 
' Tennessee,' but our great length and the shoalness 
of the water, which sometimes was not more than a 
foot under the keel, prevented our turning rapidly, 
and in going around we collided with the flag-ship, 
the ' Hartford,' knocking two of her quarter-deck 
ports into one, although every effort was made on my 
part, by backing the engine, to prevent the occur- 
rence. We sustained no injury by the collision. As 



446 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



soon as we cleared the ' Hartford' I again started to ' 
run down the ' Tennessee,' but before reaching her 
she had hauled down her flag, hoisted a white one, ! 
and surrendered to the fleet, which had by that time 
gotten around her." 

Thus closed one of the hardest-fought naval en- 
gagements of which the annals of America contain 
record. 

On the 28th of November, 1864, he resigned com- 
mand of the " Lackawanna," and arrived at Hampton 
Roads Dec. 11, 1864. On July 11, 1865, he was or- | 
dered to the Philadelphia Navy- Yard as executive 
officer, and on the 25th of July, 1866, was promoted 
to commodore for meritorious services, and put in 
command of the navy-yard at Philadelphia. 

On the 27th of August, 1870, he was placed on the 
retired list, under the longevity law. The Army and 
Navy Journal, commenting on his retirement, says, 
" The operation of a general law only by a few weeks 
deprived him of the highest rank in his profession." 

He died April 13, 1875, at his residence in Carlisle, 
Pa., and is buried in Ashland Cemetery. 

In stature he was five feet nine inches in height, 
being stout, but not corpulent, and always wearing a 
clean-shaved face. When in active service he wore 
his uniform only when absolutely necessary, but after ' 
he was retired it was never seen. A correspondent ' 
writes, " It is said of him by those who sailed with 
him that no profane word was ever heard from his 
lips ;" and when on shipboard and without a chap- 
lain he always read the Episcopal service every Sun- 
day to his crew. 

At the age of forty-eight years he married Mar- 
garet Donaldson Thornton, daughter of Paymaster 
Francis A. Thornton, U.S.N. 

JOSEPH MEREDITH TONER, M.D. 
Of distinguished men now living and taking an 
active part in the higher affairs of the world, who are 
bound by ties of birth or blood, to the county of which 
we write, must not be forgotten Dr. Joseph M. Toner, 
of Washington City, one of the foremost gentlemen in 
his profession in America. Dr. Toner was born in Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., April 30, 1825, and is the elder of two sons, 
the only surviving children of Meredith and Ann 
(Layton) Toner. His brother, Hon. James L. Toner, 
resides in Deny township. Dr. Toner received his 
early education in the common schools of Pittsburgh, 
and of Westmoreland County, whither his parents 
removed while he was yet young, and where other 
relatives of theirs lived. He subsequently attended 
the Western Pennsylvania University for a year, 
and was sent to Mount St. Mary's College, where he 
continued his studies for two years longer, but left 
without having completed a classical course. He 
began the study of medicine in 1847 with Dr. John 
Lowman, the leading physician of Johnstown, Pa., 
attended Jefferson Medical College in the winter of 
1849-50, and at the close of his term entered Ver- 



mont Medical College, at Woodstock, and received 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine from that insti- 
tution in June, 1850. In July of that year he began 
practice at Summitsville, in Cambria County. He, 
however, shortly after attended Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege a third term, and received his degree of M.D. 
from that seat of learning in 1853. He was in practice 
in Pittsburgh during the cholera epidemic of 1854. 
After that, passing the summer on the farm with his 
mother, he, in 1855, removed to Harper's Ferry, Va., 
but observing that there was not sufficient room 
for any considerable professional advancement there, 
he in November of the same year took up his present 
residence in Washington. 

We can scarcely do more in this short sketch than 
advert to the fact that Dr. Toner has made for him- 
self in the medical profession of the United States 
and in the domain of natural science a reputation of 
the very highest degree. He has labored for his pro- 
fession with untiring zeal. Of the many instances in 
which his learning and the results of his own labors 
have been freely offered to the public for public good 
we shall instance but one. Prompted by a desire to 
encourage students to aspire to a higher and more 
scientific education in the profession, and being im- 
pressed with the idea that much remained to be ef- 
fected for the encouragement of special and original 
studies, perhaps through other means than those in 
vogue, Dr. Toner founded in 1872 by endowment, in 
the District of Columbia, the "Toner Lectures." "Be- 
lieving," writes the founder, " that the advancement 
of science (that is, a knowledge of the laws of nature 
in any part of her domain), and especially such dis- 
coveries as contribute to the advancement of medi- 
cine, tend to ameliorate the condition of mankind," 
he therefore set aside a fund, the interest of which 
was mainly to be used in maintaining the "Toner 
Lectures," to be delivered annually in Washington, 
to consist of a series of discoveries, memoirs, or lec- 
tures, which " should contain some new truth or dis- 
covery, based on original investigation," which were, 
if approved, to be published. This fund has been 
placed under the control of five trustees. One of his 
biographers says that the doctor has perhaps been 
the most successful biographer, thus far, of the medi- 
cal profession of the United States. " He is an au- 
thority in nearly all matters relating to the history of 
medicine, medical biography, and the local history of 
the District of Columbia." 

Sketches of his life have appeared in Allibone's 
" Dictionary of Authors," Johnson's " New Encyclo- 
pedia," the Northwestern Medical and Surgical Jour- 
nal, etc. He is a member of the Medical Society of 
the District of Columbia, of the Medical Association 
of the District of Columbia, of the American Medi- 
cal Association, (since 1864), of the American Public 
Health Association, of the Philosophical Society of 
Washington, and of the Alumni Association of Jef- 
ferson Medical College, an honorary member of the 



APPENDICES. 



447 



California State Medical Society, of the New York 
State Medical Society, of the Wisconsin Historical 
Society, of the Detroit Academy of Medicine, a cor- 
responding member of the Gynecological Society of 
Boston, of the Virginia Historical Society, of the 
Albany Institute, of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Little Rock, a visitor to the Government 
Hospital for the Insane, and patron of the Toner 
Scientific Circle of Georgetown College. 

A list of Dr. Toner's chief publications may be found 



in the " Catalogue of the Surgeon-General's Library." 
They are so numerous as to be of themselves a library. 
He has been working for years on a " Biographical 
Dictionary of Deceased American Physicians," which 
when finished will be one of the most complete works 
of its kind ever published. The doctor's library is 
the most extensive of any private medical library in 
the United States, with possibly one exception, and 
is, without doubt, the largest of any south of Phila- 
delphia. 



APPENDICES. 



APPENDIX "A." 

[See Chapter XI.] 
A LIST OF NEGRO AND MULATTO SLAVES 

Registered in Westmoreland County pursuant to an Act of Assembly of the 

State of Pennsylvania, entitled "An act for the gradual abolition of 

slavery" passed the 1st day of March, A.I). 1780, and to an Act of As~ 

sembly e>ttitled " An act to redress certain grievances within the counties 

of Westmoreland and Washington," passed the 13(/i day of April, A.D. 

1782.1 

Sept. 25, 1780. 

James Gray. Female, 25, Beck. 

Oct. 12, 1780. 

Edward Cook. Male, 45, Jame ; female, 35, Sail ; male, 24, Davy ; male, 

22, Joshua; female, 17, Esther ; female, 16, Nelly ; female, 1, Sue. 
Providence Mountz. Male, 28, Sam ; female, 22, Let; female, 2, Phillis. 
Vajj Swearingen. Male, 25, Will; male, 30, Tony; male, 23, Winn; 

female, 13, Wester or Hester; female, 9, Feby; male, 4, Harkless ; 

male, 16, Jack ; male, 18, Tom ; male, 1, Wilt, Jr. 
Josepu Jones. Female, 17, Cloe; female, 15, Bridget; male, 1, Dick. 
Devereux Smith, Pittsburgh. Female, 43, Suck ; female (mulatto), 7, 

Lucy. 

Oct. 16, 1780. 
Thomas Galbraith, Fairfield township. Male, 20, Ben ; male, 13, George. 

Oct. 18, 1780. 
Joseph Dorsey. Male, 30, Charles; male, 32, Phil; male, IP, Aaron; 
male, 19, Tom ; male, 25, Casse ; female, 28, Jane ; male, 12, Pompey ; 
female, 6, Rachel ; female, 4, Phillis; male, 2, George; male, 1}4, 
Frederick ; male, \< t James ; male, 5 months, Warmer. 
Oct. 18, 17B0. 
John Hamal. Male, 40, Bigion ; female, 30, Phillis ; female, 8, Armice; 
female, 6, Dorrah; female, 4, Chisiah ; female, 2, Hanna. 
Oct. 22, 1780. 
Henry Husk, Mount Pleasant township. Male, 45, Friday ; male, 45, 
Monday; female, 35, Jane; female, 30, Madam; female, 11, Suck ; 
female, 14, Bay well; male, 8, George; male, 6, Bob; female, 2, Gob; 
male, 3, Harry; female, 16 mouths, Phillis. 
Oct. 22, 1780. 
Moses Watson. Male, 30, Jame. 
Arthur O'Haka. Male, 6, Bob. 

Oct. 26, 1780. 
Arthur Frazer. Female, 23, Jude; female, \\A, Pat. 

Dec. 28, 1780. 
John McKibbins. Male, 15, Lidge. 
Zaciariah Gomel. Male, 32, Tom ; female, 40, Luce. 



\ 



1 The date of entry is first given, then the names of owners in small 
capitals, followed by the sex, age, and name of the slave. 



Henry Heath. Male, 45, Peroks; female, 40, Judea ; a mulatto, name 

nor sex ascertained, 14. 
Andrew Heath. Male, 11, Dick. 
William Conwell. Female, 14, Gin. 
Andrew Robertson. Female, 39, Elizabeth. 

Oct. 28, 1780. 
Walter Briscoe. Male, 39, Mudd ; male, 36, Roger ; male, 65, Tom; 

male, 70, Fortymore ; female, 14, Phillis ; female, 14, Dinah; male, 

15, Jacob; female, 39, Heagor; female, 9, Esther. 
Edmund Freeman. Male, 35, George; male, 27, Harry; female, 41, 

Charlotte ; male, 17, Ned. 
George Swan. Male, 17, Pryor; female, 35, Kate ; female, 12, Jean; 

male, 9, Luke; female, 5, Violetta ; female, I, Betty; female, 25, 

Penelope ; male, 5, Gerard ; female, 2, Sibia. 
John Swan. Male, 35, Jack ; male, 12, John. 

David Duncan. Male, 18, Peet ; female, 21, Sue ; female, 10, Cate; fe- 
male, 11 months, Cook ; male, 2^, Frank. 
David Sample, Esq. Male, 14, Tom ; male, 12, Nero ; female, 12, Vine ; 

female, 14, Dinah. 
Soskey Wright. Male, 22, Toby; female, 20, Sine; male, 9 months, 

Cuff. 
Benjamin Kirkindall. Male, 28, Sam; male, 13, Ned; female, 9, 

Nance. 
Zedick Wright. Male, 15, Ben. 

Oct. 29, 1780. 
Francis McGinnis. Male, 12, Tom. 

Oct. 30, 1780. 
xEneas Mackay. Male, 31, Pompey. 
Nathaniel Hurst. Male, 35, Sam: female, 35, Def; female, 3, Sal; 

female, 1, Hanna. 

Nov. 10, 1780. 
Charles Campbell. Female, 40 ; male, 15. 
John McDowel. Male, 13, Pompey. 
John Nevil. Male, 32, Harry ; male, 30, Jack ; male, 33, Lennon ; male, 

25, Jerry ; male, 24, James ; male, 27, Cato : mate, 19, Jacob ; female, 

48, Nan ; female, 35, Esther; female, 24, Pegg; female, 23, Pendey; 

female, 22, Vilet; female, 23, Doll; male, 7, Will; female, 6, Sail ; 

male, 4, Putnam; female, 2, Beck; female, 3, Liz; male, month 1, 

Jack ; male, months 3, Lemon ; male, days 18, Anthony. 
Nov. 10, 1780. 
John Decamp and Nehemiah Stokely. Male, 35, Syres; female, 40, 

Nan ; female, 14, Melsey ; male, 6, Prince ; female, 4, Nance ; female, 

1 and 11 months, Pegg; female, 10 months, Frank. 
John Ryan. Male, 18, Frank ; female, 16, Suck. 

Jan. 10, 1781. 
Robert Bell. Male, 50, Pompey, Sr. ; female, 45, Mary; male, 35, 

John; female, 20, Rachel; female, 21, Dorrety ; male, 19, Pompey, 

Jr.; male, 13, Benjamin; female, 10, Margaret; female, 8, Jean; 



448 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



female, 6, Ann; female, 5, Sinah; female, 9, Lydia ; male, 7, Cato ; 

female, 4, Dinah ; male, 3, Nace ; female, 2, Lucy ; male, 4, Samuel ; 

female, 3, Faney. 
Edmund Rick. Male, 26, Gay. 
James Buckston. Male, 34, Boswrine; male, 55, Sam; female, 16, Bett; 

male (mulatto), 8, Sam. 
Margaret Vance. Female, 27, Priscilla; male, 7, Harry; male, 3, 

Daniel. 
John Winter. Female, 23, Sail; female,*6, Suck ; male, 4, Sam. 
Marcus Stephenson. Male, 45, Suder; female, 18, Luce; female, 4, 

Poll. 
James Stephenson. Male, 55, Fortune. 
John Stephenson. Male, 22, Harry ; female, 21, Poll ; male, 12, Jeffrey ; 

female, 10, Jenny : female, 5, Betty. 

March 26, 1781. 
Ebenezer Finley. Male, 13J^, Primus. 

Oct. 10, 1781. 
Samuel Evalt. Male, 30, Moses. 
Andrew McFarland. Female, 17, Bett. 

Oct. 11, 1781. 
Richard Stephens. Male, 21, Simon; female, 14, Phillis; female, 5. 

Daphney; female, 18, Jin. 
Andrew Lynn. Male., 26, Jupeter; female, 30, Doll ; female, 10, Roge; 

male, 7, Need ; male, 5, Reuben ; male, 3, Nace ; male, 1, Frank. 

Dec. 10,1781. 

Van Swerinoan. Male, 24, Harry ; male, 24, Peter, female, 13, Tamer; 

female, 8, Bett. 
Richard Finley. Male, 12, Sampson ; female, 40, Moll ; female, 15, 

Luce; female, 13, Jude ; female, 9, Sarah ; female, 7, Priss. 
Dec. 14. 1781. 
James Whiteacre. Female, 45, Nell; female, 39, Sue; female, 17, 

Dinah ; female, 1, Cash ; male, 37, Orange ; male, 12, Hampton. 
Dec. 20, 1781. 
William McGrew. Male, 30, Tom ; Male, 17, Isaac. 

Dec. 18,1781. 
Thomas Clere. Female, 8, 6 mo., Heager. 
Ann Burgess (widow). Female, 28, Matty; female, 14, Nelly; male, 13, 

Harry; male, 10, Batchelor; female, 10, Dinah ; male, 10, Ben. 
Elizabeth Burgers. (Not given) 3, Jessima. 

Dec. 19, 1781. 
Isaac Finley. Female, 25, Fortune ; male, 14, George; male, 6, Ned ; 

female, 30, Crils ; female, 13, Samh ; female, 12, Lid ; female, 4, Jin ; 

female, 2, Suck. 
Sarah Matterson. Female, 37, Fill ; male, 16, Tom. 
Paul Lash. Male, 35, Sequire. 
Samuel Kinkade. Female, 28, Tenea ; female, 10, Sue ; male, 7, Isaac ; 

male, 5, Pitt; female, 10, Grace. 
Aaron Moore. Female, 19, Priss. 

Mark Harden. Male, 34, Reuben ; female, 40, Elizabeth. 
John and Marten Harden. Male, 20, James; female, 15, Casner ; 

female, 13, Jude. 
John McMahan. Male, 32, Elleuder; female, 9, Hannah; male, 7, 

George; male, 5, Benjamin; male, 3, Sambough. 
Theophilus Philips. Female, 17, Susannah; male, 2, Harry. 

Dec. 23, 1781. 
Robert Orr. Male, 18, Benn ; female, 15, Sook ; male, 3, Turn. 

Dec. 24, 1781. 
Gaither Simpson. Male, 26, Peter. 
Sallee Evans. Female, 24, Rachel. 
Isaac Pearce. Male, 18, Yock; female (mulatto), 21, Jude; male, 5, 

Isaac ; female, 1, 3 mo., Rhodey. 
James Finley. Female, 7, Sail. 

Philip Shuit. Fomale, 18, Patt; male, 11 months, George. 
Samuel Stephens. Male (age not given), Robert. 
John Coe. Male, 30, Keziali ; female, 17, Delia ; female, 15, Susan ; male, 

14, Peter. 
Benjamin Stephens. Male, 38, Jem ; male, 30, George ; male, 17, Will ; 

female, 26, Nan ; female, 4, Fanny ; female, 2, Charity. 
Charles Stephens. Female, 17, Chloe. 

Dec. 20, 1781. 
Dorsey Pentecost. Male, 15, Jack ; male, 40, David ; female, 18, Sail; 
female, 20, Patt; female, 14 monthB, Flora; female, 18 years, Jem; 
male, 21, Dick; male, 32, Tom ; male, 14, Will ; female, 12, Hanna; 



female, 15, Linda; male, 25, Sam : male, 20, Joe ; male, 19, Harry ; 
male, 13, Gilbert. 
Christopher Hays. Male, 28, Peter. 

Dec. 24, 1781. 
John Murphy. Male, 25, Nerrow; male, 5, Jerry ; female, 35, Onner; 
female, 17, Cato ; female, 9, Fan ; female, 7, Fanner. 
Dec. 10, 1781. 
Jonathan Reese. Male, 20, Will. 
Zekel Moore. Female, 38, Frank. 
Philip Pearce. Male, 15, Jack. 

Charles Wickliffe. Female, 50, Frank ; female, 30, Frank or Fung ; 
female, 17, Amey; female, 7, Hanna; male, 5, George; male, 2, 
Joshua. 
Sarah Harden. Male, 36, Frank; female, 21, Hanna; female, 42, 
Philis; female. 5, Minea; male, 5, Nace; female, 3, Elizabeth; fe- 
male, 2, Garner. 
Mary Wickliffe, widow of Robert Wickliffe:, deceased. Female, 45, 
Cairon ; male, 21, James; female, 19, Esther; female, 17, Sarah; 
female, 14, Nan. 
Samuel Pair. Male, 4, Weine. 

James White, Springhill. Male, 20, Abraham ; male, 12, Jonas; female 
(mulatto), 10, Ellender. 

Dec. 24, 1781. 
Charles Cain. Male, 16. David. 

Dec. 29, 1781. 
John Gibson. Female, 50, Nell. 

Dec. 14, 1781. 
Rev. James Finley. Male, 12, Primus. 
Rev. James Wright. Female, 14, Jean. 
Rev. Samuel Irwin. Male, 10, Ben ; female, 17, Patty ; female, 22, 

Jack ; female, 23, Will ; female, 18, Poll. 
Gabriel Cox. Female, 15, Hannah ; male, 26, Squash ; male, 20, Job ; 

male, 21, Jack ; female, 19, Sail. 
Joseph Becket. Female, 25, Beck ; male, 18 months. Tom; male, 29, 
Harry ; female, 22, Esther ; female, 12, Violet ; female, 16, Bett ; 
male, 32, Moses. 

June 4, 1782. 
Augusta Moore. Male, 11, Abnxhaiu. 
William Harrison. Male, 40, Larrow ; female, 17, Sail; female, 15, 

Jacob. 
Thomas Moore. Male, 40, Simon ; female, 17, Snll ; male, 15, Jacob. 
Joseph Graybill. Male, 21, Dick ; female, 22, Hanna; female, 2 years, 

4 months, Nelly. 
Benjamin Davis. Male, 23, Pomp ; female, 25, Hanna ; male, 7, Milton ; 

female, 4, Sue. 
Joseph Hill. Male, 23, Tom ; female, 22, Florence; female, 8, Susan- 
na ; female, 6. Dinah ; male, 4 years 3 months, George; female. 2 
years 4 months, Lucey. 

July 6, 1782. 
Thomas McGinnis. Female, 25; Jane; male, 5, Andrew; male, 4, 
Jack. 

July 11, 17S2. 
Dennis Springer. Male, 33 ; Dave; female (mulatto), 22, Poll; male, 
5, Frank. 

July 26, 1782. 
David WHITE. Female, 20, Sail. 
Robert Vance. Male, 4, Tom. 

Aug. 26, 1782. 
Rev. James Finley. Male, 30, Plato ; female, 30, Bett ; female, 12, Nan ; 
male, 10, Toby ; female, 9, Betts; male, o, Plato ; male, 40, Jemes. 
Sept. 4, 1782. 
J amis McCulloch. Male, 11, Essex. 

Sept. 21, 1782. 
John Taylor. Male, 12, Brier; female, 4, Bet. 

Oct. 8, 1782. 
Joseph Hill. Male, 18, Jack. 

Jacob Machling. Male, 20, Tom ; female, 9, Bets. 
John Meason. Female, 30, Milea; male, 4, Bill. 

Oct. 9, 1782. 
Michael Campdell. Male, in, Bub; female, 8, Jin ; female 4, Cate. • 

Oct. 10, 1782. 
Hezekiah McGruder. Male, 34, Robert; male, 28, Tobias; malt 24, 
Erasmus; male, 23, Edward ; male, 23, William; male, 5, Abraham; 
male, 2 years 6 months, Benjamin ; female, 38, Rachel ; female, 32, 



APPENDICES. 



449 



Elizabeth ; female, 27. Hanna; female, 22, Eleanor; female, 10, 
Teraminta; female, 9, Alice: female, 9, Charily; female, 2, Cas- 
sandra; female, 2 years 4 months, Leah. 

Margaret Hutton. Male, 37, Jeremiah ; male, 20, Thomas; male, 16, 
Isaac; male, 14, Philemon ; female, 57, Hannah ; female, 40, Cath- 
arine; female, 19 ; Susanna; female, S, Henrietta; female, 5, Ra- 
chel. 

Richard Noble. Male, 22, Joshua ; male, 9, John ; male, 4, John ; male, 
21, Ignatius ; female, 29, Lucey ; female, 15, Patience ; female, G, 
Dinah. 

William Goe. Male, 27, James: male, 24, Anthony; male, 11, Scot- 
land ; female, 45, Jane ; female, 36, Ann ; female, 18, Dye ; female, 
14, Daphuey ; female, 8, Priscilla ; female, 5, Hannah ; female, 2' L ., 
Lucey. 

John Goe. Female, 2m, Jane. 

Margaret Goe. Female, 24, Rachel. 

Edward Cook. Male, 12, Ben. 

Levi Stephens. Female, 18, Elizabeth. 

James Stephenson. Male, 70, Fortune; female, 12, Bet. 
Oct. 11, 1782. 

Sarah Bradley. Man, 22, Jack. 

John Pierce Devalt. Female, 45, Ciish. 
Oct. 12, 1782. 

Henry Spears. Male, 39, Cronibo; male, 28, Ohonora; male, 21, Sambo; 
male, 15, James; male, 7, York; male, 5, William; male, 5, David ; 
male, 4, Jeremiah ; male, 3, George; male, 2 years 4 months, An- 
drew ; male, 2 years 2 months, Daniel ; female, 39, Sungra; female, 
35, Obina; female, 23, Flora; female, 9, Barbara; female, 6, Jane; 
female, 4. Ann ; female, 2 years 3 months, Pheby ; female, 2 years 2 
months, Elenor. 

Peter Reasoner. Female, 14, Dina. 

Oct. 14, 1782. 

John Waddle. Male, 27, Butler; female, 14, Dinah. 

Thomas Warring. Male, 30, Charles ; female, 36, Nell ; female, 13, Gin; 
female, 11, Nenbe ; female, 5, Bett. 

Oct. 15, 1782. 
Gasper Gayer. Male, 20, Jim. 

Oct. 23, 1782. 
John Carr. Male, 23, Bass. 

Nov. 12, 1782. 
John Lind6ey. Male, 26, Job ; female, 25, Hannah ; male, 14, Samboe ; 
female, 9, Judea ; female, 8, Abby. 

Nov, 17, 1782. 
Charles Harra. Female, 22, Rose. 
Michael Shillys. Female, 22, Phillis. 

Nov. 25, 1782. 
Charles Foreman. Female, 17, Amynta. 
Thomas Gist. Male, 32, Jesse. 
Robert Ross. Male, 22, Gabe ; male, 30, Dubbiu. 
Benjamin Powers. Male, 25, Peter. 
James Death, Jr. Male, 18, Tom; fomale, 16, Polldore; female, 12, 

Flora ; male, 8, C;esar ; female, 7, Sale ; female, 5, Rachel. 
Christian Rodenbaugh. Male, 19, Frank. 
Samuel Fulton. Male, 15, Hercules; female, 15, Milley. 
James Lynch. Female, 25, Jude ; female, 6, Dinah : male, 3, Peter. 
James Gray. Female (age not given), Neel. 
George Clark. Male, 18, Ben ; male, 4, Tom ; female, 16, Suck. 
Gilbert Simpson. Male, 55, Orson; male, 20, Dufley; male, 18, Simon ; 
male, 19, Daniel; female, 22, Ann; female, 20, Jean; female, 18, 
Lucy; male, 7, Joseph ; female, 5, Alle; female, 3, Lydia; male, 3 
Philip; female, 1, Darcus. 

Nov. 26, 1782. 
William Steel. Malt, 18, Phil!. 

Nov. 30, 1782. 
James Cross. Male (mulatto), 24, James ; female, 26, Susanna ; male, 22, 
Bill; female, 30, Lett; female, 5, Edy ; female, 5, Lucy; female, 3, 
Maffy ; female, 2, Mary. 

Dec. 3, 1782. 
Daniel Elliot. Female, 12, Hannah. 

Dec. 5, 1782. 
John Neal. Male, 12, Prince. 

Dec. 10, 1782. 
Eli Coulter. Female, 19, Lucy ; male, 35, Guilbert. 
James Laughlin. Female, 30, Pegg. 



Hugh Laughlin. Female, 25, Moll ; female, 14, Jean ; male, IS, Jacob j 

female, 5, Kett. 
John Laughlin. Female, 40, Margere ; female, 15, Dinah. 

Dec. 17, 1782. 

James Sterret. Male, 35, Bob; male, 10, Moses; female, 32, Sib; fe- 
male, 4, Lydia; male, 8, Dick. 

John Hall. Male, 30, Frank ; female, 25, Fillis ; mulatto (age notgiven), 
9, Hick ; male, 7, Wapping ; female (mulatto), 5, Jude ; male, 3, Sam. 

Jacob Hewit. Male, 30 (age not given) ; female, 20, Esther ; male, 1, Ben. 
Dec. 19, 1782. 

John Kidd. Male, 15, Bob. 

John Wright. Male, 22, Jack ; male, 14, Abraham ; female, 22, Eaffe ; 
female, 16, Hanna; female, 16, Jean. 
Dec. 20, 1782. 

Jonathan Johnston. -Male, 28, Toby ; female, 26, Chloe; male, 20, La- 
tum; female, 12, Rachel; female, 3, Patty ; female, 1, Esther. 

William Bi.ackmore. Male, 21, Bush ; female, 20, Peter. 

William Price. Male, 38, Francis; male, 19, Natt ; boy, 7, Dick; boy, 
9, Thorn. 

Isaac Meason. Female, 30, Vanac; female, 10, Febe; fomale, 4, age not 
given ; male, 22, Jack ; male, 13, Joseph ; male, 9, Ben ; male, 20, 
Harry; male, 9, Dick. 

Mary Meason. Male, 30, Solomon. 

Elizabeth. Female, 20, Pb ilia; male, 3, Peter. 

John and James Perry. Female, 27, Belinda; female, 30, Phillis; male, 
4, Amos; male, 3, Bill; female, 10, Fortune; female, 6, Bett ; female, 
2, Sail; male, 1, Nise ; male, 18, Tom; male, 15, Sam; male, 20, 
Jack. 

Edward Freeman.' Male, 28, Jack; male, 27, Dick; female, 19, Char- 
lotte ; male, 4, Ned. 

Reuben Kemp. Female, 40, Flora. 

James Rutta. Female, 20, Jenny. 

Benjamin Coe. Male, 15, Titus. 

John McKibbins. Male, 26, Daniel ; male, 12, David ; male, 18, Jarret ; 

male, 20, Jack. 

Dec. 22, 1782. 

William Pitts. Female, 18, Rachel ; male, 25, Luke ; male, 16, George ; 
male, 3, Saul ; male, 17, James. 

Dec. 23, 1782. 

John Irwin. Female, 30, Hager; male (mulatto), 12, Tom ; female, 10, 
Venus. 

William Irwin. Female (mulatto), 16, Vail. 

John Johnston. - Male, 17, Boast; male, 30, Jack. 
Dec. 26, 1782. 

James Smith. Male, 11, Jesse. 

Dec. 27, 1782. 

Thomas Brown. Female, 29, Susanna ; female, 26, Margaret ; male, 20, 
Abner; male, 18, Doreby ; female, 6, Phillis J male, 3, Richard. 

Otho Brashears. Male, 28, Henry ; female, 23, Reheccah. 

Naoy Brashears. Male, 40, Moses ; female, 37, Sarah ; female, 38, Dinah ; 
male, 20, Peter; female, 21, Cloke; female, 13, Pegg; male, ^.Gard- 
ner ; male, 11, Jully ; male, 8, Edesen ; female, 4, Hanna ; female, 3, 
Dilly; female, 3, Catharine. 

Leven Wilcox. Female, 30, Chloe; male, 22, Tom ; male, 15, Aaron ; 
female, 7, Susanna; male, 7, Samuel ; female, 6, Jean ; male, 4, Jef- 
fry ; female, 3, Ann. 

James Hammond. Male, 17, Sam; male, 21, Nick; male, 7, Frank ; fe- 
male, 4, Milley. 

Rezin Virgin. Male, 15, Will ; male, 7, Tom. 

Jonathan Arnold. Male, 19, Bobb ; female, 3, Bett. 

James McMachan. Male, 7, Wright. 

Armstrong Porter. Male, 33, Sam. 

Dec. 28, 1782. 

Richard Stephens. Male, 17, Agaday ; feDiale, 14, Eve. 

Joseph Bracken, Jr. Male, 65, London. 

John Wells. Female, 14, Kate; male, 12, Dick; female, 10, Poll. 
Dec. 29, 1782. 

Edward Mills. Female, 21, May. 

Peter Laughlin. Male, 25, Sam ; female, 18, Lydia ; female, 10, Fane ; 
male, 2, Mich; male, 2 months, Toby. 

Robert Harrison. Male, 15, Ned ; female, 9, Rachel ; female, 7, Hager. 

John Harrison. Female, 45, Sue. 

IsaacNewman. Male, 27, Richard ; female, 27, Hanna; male.ll.George- 

Thomas Gorham. Male, 45, Sam ; male, 30, Jey ; male, 19, Tom ; male, 
8, James; female, 40, Betty ; female, 14, Dyner. 



450 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



John Gorham. Male, 9, Tobe. 

William Tyleb. Male, 11, Bobbard. 

Daniel Stephens. Male, 4, Nathan. 

John McClelland. Male, 16, Bob. 

John Poweb. Male, 7, Quintus. 

William Goe. Male, 22, Sam. 

Dec. 30, 1782. 

William McCormick. Male, 23, Sumson; female, 30, Chloe; female, 
11, Sail ; male, 8, Peter; female, G, Sail. 

Benoni Dawson. Female, 36, Doll; male, 14, John; male, 11, Chris- 
topher; female, 11, Lucy; female, 9, Priscilla; male, 6, Joseph; 
male, 3, Smith. 

Dec. 31, 1782. 

Nicholas Dawson. Male, 27, Sam. 

Elenor Dawson. Male, 37, Scipio. 

Chables Griffin. Male, 14, Jack. 

John Brown. Female, 9, Else. 

George Swan.- Female, 37, Kate; male, 12, Luke; female, 11, Jane; 
female, 6, Lette ; female, 2}..j, Ann. 

Samuel Burns, female, 11, Sook. 

Frequent allusions to these " servants" are found in letters addressed 
to Col. Washington in 1774 and 1775 by Valentine Crawford, who re- 
sided on Jacobs Creek, and acted a* general agent in charge of Wash- 
ington's lands and affairs of improvement in this region. An extract 
from one of those letters is given below, viz. : 

"Jacobs Creek, July 27, 1774. 
"Dear Colonel, — On Sunday evening or Monday morning, William 
Orr, one of the most orderly men I thought I had, ran away, and has 
taken a horse and other things. I have sent you an advertisement of 
him. I am convinced he will make for some ship in Potomac Kiver. I 
have sent two men after him, and furnished them with horses and 
money. I have also written to my brother, Richard Stevenson [a half- 
brother of Crawford's], in Berkeley, and James McCormick to escort the 
men I sent, and to forward this letter and advertisement to you. ... I 
have Bold all the men buttwo, and Ibelieve Ishould havesold Ihem but 
the man who ia run away had a very sore foot, which was cut with an axe 
and was not long well, and John Smith was not well of the old disorder he 
had when he left your house. I sold Peter Miller and John Wood to one 
Mr. Edward Cook for £45, the money to be applied to the use of build- 
ing your mill. I sold Thomas McPherson and his wife and James Lowe 
to Maj. John McCulloch and Jones EnniBfor £65, payable in six months 
from the date of sale. To my brother I sold William Luke, Thomas 
White, and the boy, John Knight. He is either to pay you for them or 
he loses them in case you can prosecute your designs down the river 
[the opening of a plantation on the Virginia side of the Ohio, between 
Wheeling and the Little Kanawha]. I took John Smith and William 
Orr on the same terms ; so that, in justice, I am accountable to you for 
the man if he is never got. I should have sold the whole of the servants, 
agreeable to your letter, if I could have got cash or good pay, but the 
confusion of the times put it out of my power. ... I only went down 
to Fort Pitt a day or two, and two of my own Bervanta and two militia- 
men ran away. I followed them and caught them all down at Bedford, 
and brought them back. While I was gone two of your men, John 
Wood and Peter Miller, stole a quantity of bacon and bread, and were 
to have started that very night I got home, but a man of mine discovered 
their design. I sold them immediately, and would have sold the whole 
if I could, or delivered them to Mr. Simpson, but he would not be con- 
cerned with them at any rate." 

The following is a copy of the advertisement referred to : 
"Five Pounds Reward. 

" Run away from the subscriber, living on Jacobs Creek, near Stew- 
art's Crossing, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on Sunday night, 
the 24th instant, a convict servant man named William Orr, the prop- 
erty of Col. George Washington. He is a well-made man, about five feet 
ten inches high, and about twenty-four years of age. He was born in 
Scotland, and speaks that dialect pretty much. He is of a red com- 
plexion and very full-faced, with short, sandy-colored hair, and very re- 
markable thumbs, they bulh being crooked. He had on and took with 
him an old felt hat bound with black binding, one white cotton coat and 
jacket with black horn buttons, one old brown jacket, one pair of snuff- 
colored breeches, one pair of trowscrs made in sailor's fashion, and they 
are made of sail-duck, and have not been washed, a pair of red leggins, 
and shoes tied with strings, two Osnaberg shirts and one Holland shirt 
marked 'V. C.,' which he stole, and a blanket. 

" He stole likewise a black horse, about fourteen hands high, branded 



on the near shoulder and buttock ' R. W.,' and shod before. He had 
neither bridle nor saddle that we know of. I expect he will make to 
some seaport town, as he has been much used to the seas. Whoever 
takes up said servant and secures him, so that he and horse may be had 
again, shall receive the above reward, or three pounds for the man alone 
and reasonable charges if brought home paid by me. 

" Val. Crawfobd, 
" For Col. George Washington. 
"July 25, 1774. 

"N. B.— All masters of vessels are forbid taking him out of the coun- 
try on their peril. 

" V. C." 



APPENDIX "B." 

[See Chapter XVI.] 
THE HANNASTOWN MEETING OF 1775. 
The following is transcribed from the "American Archives," fourth 
series, volume ii. page 615: 

"Meeting of the Inhabitants of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. 

" At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the County of Westmore- 
land, held at Hannu's Town the 16th of May, 1775, for taking into con- 
sideration the very alarming situation of this country, occasioned by the 
dispute with Great Britain, 

"Resolved unanimously, That the Parliament of Great Britain, by sev- 
eral late Acts, have declared the inhabitants of the Massachusetts- Bay to 
be in rebellion, and the Ministry, by endeavoring to enforce those Acis, 
have attempted to reduce the said inhabitants to a more wretched state 
of slavery than ever before existed in any state or country. Not content 
with violating their constitutional and chartered privileges, they would 
strip them of the rights of humanity, exposing lives to the wanton and 
unpunishable sport of licentious soldiery, and depriving them of the 
very means of subsistence. 

" Resolved unanimmisly, That there is no reason to doubt but tlie same 
system of tyranny and oppression will (should it meet with success in 
the Massachusetts- Bay) be extended to every other part of America : it is, 
therefore, become the indispensable duty of every American, of every 
man who has any publick virtue or love of his Country, or any bowels 
for posterity, by every means which God has put in his power, to resist 
and oppose the execution of it; that for us, we will be ready to oppose it 
with our lives and fortunes. And the better to enable us to accomplish 
it, we will immediately form ourselves into a military body, to consist of 
Companies to be made up out of the several Townships under the follow- 
ing Association, which is declared to be the Association of Westmoreland 
county: 

"Possessed with the most unshaken loyalty and fidelity to His Ma- 
jesty King Geor>je the Third, whom we acknowledge to be our lawful 
and rightful King, and who we wish may long be the beloved Sovereign 
of a free and happy people throughout the whole British Empire; we 
declare to the world, that we do not mean by this Association to deviate 
from that loyalty which we hold it our bounden duty to observe; but, 
animated with the love of liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and 
defend our just rights (which, with sorrow, we have seen of late wan- 
tonly violated in many instances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupted 
Parliament) and transmit them entire to our posterity, for which pur- 
pose we do agree and associate together: 

"1st. To arm and form ourselves into a Regiment or Regiments, aud 
choose officers to command us in such proportion as shall be thought 
necessary 

"2d. We will, with alacrity, endeavor to make ourselves masters of 
the manual exercise, and such evolutions as shall be necessary to enable 
us to act in a body with concert; and to that end we will meet at such 
times and places as shall be appointed either for the Companies or the 
Regiment, by the officers commanding each when chosen. 

"3d. That should our Country be invaded by a foreign enemy, or 
should TroopB be sent from Great Britain to enforce the late arbitrary 
Acts of its Parliament, we will cheerfully submit to a military disci- 
pline, and to the utmost of our power resist and oppose them, or either 
of them, and will coincide with any plan that may be formed for the 
defense of America in general, or Pennsylvania in particular. 

"4th. That we do not wish or desire any innovation, but only that 
things may be restored to, and go on in the same way as before the era 
of the Stamp Act, when Boston grew great and Avierici was happy. As 
a proof of this disposition, we will quietly submit to the laws by which 



APPENDICES. 



451 



■we have been accustomed to be governed before that period, and will, in 
our several or associate capacities, be ready when called on to assist the 
civil magistrate in carrying the same into execution. 

"5th. That when the British Parliament shall have repealed their lute 
obnoxious Statutes, and shall recede from their claim to tax us, and 
make laws for us in every instance, or when some general plan of union 
or reconciliation has been formed and accepted by America, this, our 
association, shall be dissolved; but till then it Bhall remain in full 
force ; and to the observation of it we bind ourselves by everything dear 
aud sacred amongst men. m 

44 No licensed murder! no famine introduced by taw ! 

" Resolved, That on Wednesday, the 24th instant, the township meet to 
accede to the said Association and choose their officers." 

THE PITTSBURGH MEETING OF 1775. 
Augusta County (Vibginia) Committee. 

14 At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta County that 
lies on the west side of the Laurel Hill, at Pittsburgh^ the 16th day of 
May, 1775, the following gentlemen were chosen a committee for the 
said district, viz.: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, 
Thomas Smallman, John Cannon, John Mc'.lillongli, William Gee, 
George Valandigham, Johu Gibson, Dorsey Penticost, Edward Cook, 
William Crawfnrd, Devereux Smith, John Anderson, David Rodgers, 
Jacob Vanmetre, Henry Enoch, James Ennis, George Willson, William 
Vance, David Shepherd, William Elliot, Richmond Willis, Samuel Sam- 
ple, John Ormsby, Richard McMaher, John Neville, and John Swear- 
ingen. 

"The foregoing gentlemen met in committee, and resolved that John 
Campbell, John Ormsby, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, Samuel 
Sample, John Anderson, and Devereux Smith, or any four of them, be a 
Standing Committee, and have full power to meet at such times as they 
shall judge necessary, and in case of any emergency, to call the commit- 
tee of this district together, and shall be vested with the same power and 
authority as the other standing committee and committees of corres- 
pondence are in the other counties within this colony. 

"Resolved unanimously. That the cordial and most grateful thanks of 
this committee are a tribute due to John Harvie, Esquire, our worthy 
representative in the late Colonial Convention held at Richmond, for his 
faithful discharge of that important trust reposed in him ; and to John 
Neville, Esquire, our worthy delegate, whom nothing but sickness pre- 
vented from representing us in that respectable assembly. 

"Resolved unanimously, That this committee have the highest sense of 
the spirited behavior of their brethren in New England, and do most 
cordially approve of their opposing the invaders of American rights and 
privileges to the utmost extreme, and that each member of this commit- 
tee, respectively, will animate and encourage their neighborhood to fol- 
low the brave example. 

" The imminent danger that threatens America in general, from min- 
isterial and parliamentary denunciations of our ruin, and is uow carry- 
ing into execution by open acts of unprovoked hostilities in our sister 
colony of Massachusetts, as well as the danger to be apprehended to this 
colony in particular from a domestic enemy, said to be prompted by the 
wicked minions of power to execute our ruin, added to the menaces of 
an Indian war. likewise said to be in contemplation, thereby think to en- 
gage our attention, and divert it from that still more interesting object 
of liberty and freedom, that deeply and with bo much justice hath called 
forth the attention of all America, for the prevention of all or any of 
those impending evils, it is 

" Resolved, That the recommendation of the Richmond Convention, of 
the 20th of last March, relative to the embodying, arming, and disciplin- 
ing the militia, be immediately carried into execution with the greatest 
diligence in this country, by the officers appointed for that end; and that 
the recommendation of the said Convention to the several committees of 
this colony, to collect from their constituents, in such manner as shall 
be moBt agreeable to them, so much money aB shall be sufficient to pur- 
chase half a pound of gunpowder and one pound of lead, flints, and 
cartridge paper for every tithable person in their county, be likewise 
carried into execution. 

" This committee, therefore, out of the deepest sense of the expediency 
of this measure, most earnestly entreat that every member of this com- 
mittee do collect from each tithable person in their several districts the 
sums of two shillings and six pence, which we deem no more than suffi- 
cient for the above purpose, and give proper receipts to all such as pay 
the same into their hands, and the sum so collected to be paid into the 
nands of Mr. John Campbell, who is to give proper security to this com- 
mittee or their successors, for the due and faithful application of the 



money so deposited with him for the above purpose, by or with the ad- 
vice of this committee, or their successors; and this committee, as your 
representatives, and who are most ardently laboring for your preserva- 
tion, call on you, our constituents, our friends, brethren, and fellow-suf- 
ferers, in the name of God, of everything yon hold sacred or valuable, 
for the sake of your wives, children, and unborn generations, that you 
will, every one of you, in your several stations, to the utmost of your 
power, assist in levying such sum, by not only paying yourselves but 
by assisting those who are not in a condition at present to do so. We 
heartily lament the case of all such as have not this sum at command in 
this day of necessity; to all such we recommend to tender security to 
such as Providence has enabled to tend them so much ; and this commit- 
tee do pledge their faith and fortunes to you, their constituents, that we 
shall, without fee or reward, use our best endeavors to procure, with the 
money so collected, the ammuuition our present exigencies have made 
so exceedingly necessary. 

" As this committee has reason to believe there is a quantity of ammu- 
nition destined for this place for the purpose of government, and as this 
country on the west side of the Laurel Hill, is greatly distressed for want 
of ammunition,and deprived of the means of procuring it, by reason of its 
situation, as easy as the lower counties of this colony, they do earnestly 
request the committees of Frederick, Augusta, and Hampshire, that they 
will not suffer the ammunition to pass through their counties for the 
purpose of government, but will secure it for the use of this destitute 
country, and immediately inform this committee of their having done so. 

44 Resolved, That this committee do approve of the resolution of the com- 
mittee of the other part of the county, relative to the cultivating a 
friendship with the Indians, and if any person shall be so depraved as to 
take the life of any Indian that may come to us in a friendly manner, 
we will, as one man, use our utmost endeavors to bring such offender to 
condign punishment. 

44 Ordered, That the standing committee be directed to secure such arms 
and ammunition as are not employed in actual service or private prop- 
erty, and that they get the same repaired and deliver them to such cap- 
tains of Independent Companies as may make application for the same, 
and take such captain's receipt for the arms bo delivered. 

" Resolved, That the sum of fifteen pounds, current money, be raised by 
subscription, and that the Bame be transmitted to Robert Carter Nicho- 
las, Esq., for the use of the deputies sent from this colony to the general 
Congress. Which Bum of money was immediately paid by the commit- 
tee then present."— Oai^'s History of Pittsburgh. 



APPENDIX "C." 

[See Chapter XVII.] 
We give herewith a list of the names of those taking the foregoing 
oath, and returned by Hugh Martin, Esq. Martin was a substantial 
citizen in his day, was early appointed one of the county justices, and | 
was by reappointment a justice of the peace nearly all his life. Among 
the county records his name is met with often. He was one of the com- 
missioners designated by the Assembly to locate the county-seat, when 
the report was made in favor of Greensburg. He resided on the Sewickley. 
This list was found among others in the department buildings at Harrifl- 
burg, when the compilers of the new series of the Pennsylvania Archives 
were ransacking for material, and thus, as we understand, at the desire 
of a Westmorelander, at the time there, was inserted among others of a 
similar kind to be found in the third volume of that series. 

44 The Names of TJiose that have taken the Oath of Fidelity Before Me, To- 
gether taith the Years, Months, and days of the Months when Taken, pr. Me y 
Hugh Martin, Esq. 

" September ye 11, 1778. Samuel Glasgow. 
23, John Griffin. 

23, Moses Lotta (Latta). 

23, Samuel Robinson. 

23, Alexander Maxwell. 

23, Samuel Serrels. 

24, Isaac Miller. 
26, Jacob McLain. 

October ye 3, 1777. Isaac McHendry. 

3, Joseph Hutchison. 

9, Clements McGerry. 

9, Joseph Eager (Eicher). 

9, William Robinson. - 

9, James McQuiston. 

9, John Kilgore. 



452 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



10, 


George Latimer. 


13, 


Robert Waddle. 


13, 


John Robinson. - 


13, 


James Martin. 


14, 


John Moore, Esq. 


14, 


Alexander Young. 


14, 


John Brandon. 


14, 


Robert Robinsom- 


14, 


WilHam Youug. 


14, 


Ch.'irles Siskey. 


14, 


Robert Jamison. 


14, 


Abraham Leasure. 


14, 


David Perry. 


14, 


John Cortney. 


14, 


James Waddle. 


14, 


Francis McGinnice. 


14, 


John Stachal. 


November ye 1, 1777. 


William Ferguson. 


1, 


James Furguson. 


1, 


John Jack. 


1, 


John Speelman. 


1, 


James Clark. 


3, 


George Sulear. 


3, 


John Jamison. 


20, 


David Sheerer. 


21, 


Thomas Patton. 


December ye 27, 1777. 


Nicloss^Whitsal. 


27, 


John Willy. 


March ye 24, 1778. 


Frederick Dumbal. 


24, 


Mathias Stockbergur 


Aprile ye 23, 1778. 


George Huber. 


23, 


Michain McKendry. 


25, 


John Fiskey. 


25, 


Christopher Reiner. 


March ye 9, 1778. 


Richard Young. 


13, 


John Millar. 


16, 


John Davis. 


16, 


James Giver. 


25, 


William Lechery. 


27, 


Robert Fleeman. 


27, 


James Wilson. 


29, 


James Steel. 


29, 


Samuel Luis. 


June ye 2, 1778. 


George Ryan. 


2, 


John Beck. 


19, 


Garet Fiskey. 


19, 


George Stockberger. 


19, 


Joseph Craford. 


21, 


John Persbon. 


21, 


Jacob Dydich. 


July ye 3,1778. 


James Parr. 


7, 


Robert Marshal. 


7, 


John McHee. 


23, 


Arthur Ohorow. 


30, 


Thomas Winter, 


August 19, 1778. 


William Waddle. 


29, 


Peter Gross. 


31, 


Daniel Armal. 


September ye 9, 1778. 


Benjamin Eakin. 


11, 


James Cliford. 


21, 


Jacob Powers. 


October 9, 1778. 


John Telor. 


12, 


Casper Weaver. 


13, 


George Findly. 


30, 


Hendry Bair. 


January ye 1,1779. 


John Beer. 


2, 


Johu McEraciu. 


4, 


John Neele. 


5, 


George Otr. 


5, 


Edmond Cochel. 


5, 


Joseph Hussburne. 


5, 


Samuel Glasgow. 


5. 


James Egneu. 


5, 


George Swap. 


5, 


Charles Johnston, 


5, 


Nathaniel Miller. 


'Ninety-four in number. 



" Westmoreland County: 

"I do certify the within accunnt of 94 persons, having taken and sub- 
scribed the Oath of Allegiance before Hugh Martin, is recorded accord- 
ing to law. 

" James Kinkeab, Recorder." 



APPENDIX "D." 

[See Chapter XVII.] 

DEPUTIES TO THE PROVINCIAL CONVENTION HELD AT 
PHILADELPHIA, July 15, 1774. 
Robert Hauna. James Cavett. 

COMMITTEE OF 'THE PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE HELD AT 
CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA, June 18, 1775. 
Edward Cook. James Perry. 

COUNCIL OF SAFETY FROM Oct. 17, 1777, to Dec. 4, 1777. ALSO 
MEMBER OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 

Thomas Scott. 

ASSISTANT FORAGE-MASTER FOR WESTMORELAND, April 5, 

1780. 
Archibald Steele. 

PURCHASER OF FORAGE AND PLACES OF DELIVERY. 
Johu Allen, Fort Ligonier aud Fort Pitt. 

TO TAKE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE CONTINENTAL LOAN (Ap- 
pointed by the Assembly, Dec. l(i, 1777). 
Charles Foreman. Edward Cook. 

COMMISSIONERS TO SEIZE THE PERSONAL EFFECTS OF 
TRAITORS. 
Col. John Proctor. Thomas Galbraith. 



COUNCILORS. 
John Proctor, March 10, 1777. 
Thomas Scott, Nov. 18, 1777. 
Christopher Hays, Nov. 13, 1780. 
Matthew Jack, Dec. 24, 1781. 



Isaac Meason, Oct. 2S, 1783. 
John Beard, Nov. 18, 1786. 
William Findley, Nov. 25, 1789. 



Johu Smiley, Oct. 2IJ, 1783. 



CENSORS. 

William Findley, Oct. 20, 1783. 



JUDGES OF THE COMMON PLEAS. 



Prothonotary, June 11, 1777. 
Michael Huffnagle, Dec. 24, 1781. 
George Wallace, May 25, 1784. 
Christopher Trueby, Aug. 18, 1784. 
John Moore, Aug. 18, 1784. 
Matthew Jack, Aug. 18, 1784. 
Abraham Hendricks, Aug. 18, 1784. 
Hugh Martin, Nov. 13, 1784. 
George Baird, Nov. 16, 1784. 
Johu Moore, Nov. 20, 1784. 
John Hughes, Oct. 24, 1784. 



James Hamilton, Oct. 31, 1784. 
Charles Campbell, June 24, 1786. 
Jacob Reiser, March 2, 1787. 
Andrew Graff, March 3, 1787. 
Alexander Mitchell, Sept. 11, 17S7. 
Matthew Jack, Sept. 11, 1787. 
James Findley (resigned June 14, 

1788). 
John Pomroy, Sept. 30, 1788. 
William Lochrey, Dec. 9, 1789. 
George Finley, March 10, 1790. 



OFFICERS OF THE COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS. 
President, John Moore, Oct. 24, 1785. 

OFFICERS OF THE ORPHANS' COURT. 
President, Johu Moore, Oct. 24, 1785. 

PROTHONOTARIES. 

Michael Huffnagle (preceded by | Andrew Lochrey, March 21, 1777. 
Mr. Lochrey). i Michael Huffnagle, Dec. 24, 1782. 

REGISTIiR OF WILLS. 
James Hamilton, March 11, 1786. 

RECORDER OF DEEDS. 
James Hamilton, March 11, 1780. 

CLERKS OF COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS. 
Archibald Lochrey, Feb. 27, 1778. Michael Huffnagle, Dec. 24, 1781. 

CLERKS OF ORPHANS' COURT. 
Archibald Lochrey, Feb. 27, 1778. Michael Huffnagle, Dec. 24, 1781. 



APPENDICES. 



453 



SHERIFFS. 
William Perry, Nov. IS, 1777. | William Perry, Nov. 28, 1786. 

Matthew Jack, Nov. IS, 1780. James Gutrey (Guthrie), Nov. 9, 

Kohert Orr, Oct. 28, 17S3. 1789. 

CORONERS. 

John Griffin, June 27, 1777. William Waddle, Oct. 28, 1783. 

William Wad.lell, Nov. 18, 1777. John Gibson, Nov. 28, 178G. 

Michael Rough (Rugh), Nov. 13, Robert Dickey, Oct. 31, 1788. 
1780. 

COLLECTORS OF EXCISE. 



William Perry, Jan. 1, 177S. 
Wendal Ourry, Nov. 27, 177s. 
John Allen, Nov. 25, 1780. 
David Renkin, Nov. 24, 1781. 
Anthony Thompson, May 13, 1783. 

JUSTICES OF 
Edward Cook, June 11, 1777. 
John Guthrie, June 11, 1777. 
Charles Foreman, June 11, 1777. 
John Moore, June 11, 1777. 
James Marshall, June 11, 1777. 
Christopher Truby, July 11. 1777. 
Philip Rogers, June 11, 1777. 
Joseph Huston, June II. 1777. 
Robert Adams, June 11, 1777. 
James Bair, June 11, 1777. 
Hugh Martin, June 11, 1777. 
James McGarraugh, June 11,1777. 
John Beard, June 11, 1777. 
Andrew Robb, June 11, 1777. 
Robert Richy, June 11, 1777. 
John Allen, May 12, 1779. 
Alexander Mitchell, May 1, 17SO. 
John Allen, June 16, 1780. 
James Terrens, June 16, 1780. 
Providence Mounts, Sept. 15, 1780, 
Nehemiah Stokley, March 28, 1782, 
James Guthrie, Feb. 27, 1783. 



John Stokely, Nov. 21, 1783. 
William Graham, April 7, 1783. 
John Griffin, March 3, 1787. 
Robert Hunter, Jr., Sept. 16, 1789. 

THE PEACE. 
John Miller, Sept. 1, 1783. 
John Hughes, Sept. 17, 1783. 
Michael Hnffnagle, Sept. 30, 1783. 
George Wallace, May 25, 1784. 
Christopher Truby, Aug. 18, 1784. 
John Moore, Aug. 18, 1784. 
Matthew Jack, Aug. 18, 1784. 
George Baird, Oct. 9, 1784. 
Abraham iTendricks, Nov. 13,1784. 
Hugh Martin, Nov. 15, 1784. 
James Hamilton, Oct. 24, 1786. 
Charles Campbell, March 2, 1787. 
Jacob Ruger, March 3, 1787. 
Andrew Graff, March 3, 1787. 
Michael Rugh, Sept. 7, 1787. 
Alexander Mitchell, Sept. 11, 1787. 
Matthew Jack, Sept. 11, 1787. 
James Findley (resigned), June 

14, 1788. 
John Pomroy, Sept. 30, 1788. 
William Lochrey, Dec. 9, 1789. 
George Findley, March 10, 1790. 



DEDIMUS POTESTATEMS. 
Archibald Lochrey, June 11, 1777. Christopher Hayes, July 24, 1782. 
Edward Cook, June 11, 1777. Dorsey Peutecost, July 24, 1782. 

John Moore, June 1 1, 1777. Edward Cook, July 24, 1782. 

DEPUTY SURVEYOR. 
James Hamilton, April IS, 1785. 

COUNTY LIEUTENANTS. 
Archibald Lochrey, March 21, 1777. Charles Campbell (vice Cook). 
Edward Cook, Jan. 5, 1782. 

SUB-LIEUTENANTS. 
Charles Campbell, March 21, 1777. Col. Samuel Hays, March 2: 
James Pollock, March 21, 1777. 
James Perry, March 21, 1777. 
Edward Cook, March 21, 1777. 
Christopher Hays, March 21, 1777, 
William Cochran, Dec. 3, 1777. 
George Reading (vice Pollock, de- 
clines oath), June 2, 1778. 

COMMISSIONERS OF PURCHASES. 
John Gourla, May 2, 1778. John Perry, Aug. 31, 1780. 

John Allen, April 3, 1780. i David Duncan, March 12, 1781. 

William Anderson, June 1, 1780. ' Michael Rough, Dec. 21, 1781. 

PAYMASTER OF MILITIA. 
Col. John Proctor, Sept. 13, 1777. 

WAGON-MASTER. 
Andrew Lynn, Jan. 9, 1778. 

INSPECTOR OF FLOUR. 
Hugh Gardner, April 22, 1785. 

AGENTS FOR FORFEITED ESTATES. 
Col. John Proctor, May 6, 1778. I Michael Huffnagle, Dec. 27, 1783. 
Thomas Galbraith, May 6, 1778. I Robert Galbraith, Dec. 27, 1783. 



>, 1777. 
James Perry, June 2, 1780. 
Edward Cooke, June 2, 1780. 
George Reading, June 2, 1780. 
Christopher Hayes, June 2, 1780. 
Alex. McCIean (vice Cooke), Jan. 
5, 1782. 



APPENDIX "E." 

[See Chapter XVIII.] 

ROLL OF CAPT. JOHN NELSON'S INDEPENDENT COMPANY OF 

RIFLEMEN. 

A resolution of Congress, dated Jan. 30, 1776, directs that Capt. Nel- 
son's company of riflemen, now mined, consisting of one captain, three 
lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, and seventy privates, be en- 
listed for the service in Canada, on the same terms as the other troops 
ordered for that service. It was ordered to New York March 13, 1776. 
It was, by Gen. Arnold's orders, attached to Col. De Haas' battalion 
in Canada, and after De Haas' battalion left Ticonderoga, Nov. 17, 1776, 
it was attached to the Fourth battalion, Col. Wayne's, and on the 24th 
of March, 1777, was attached to Col. Francis Johnson's Fifth Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Names, rank, etc., from Jan. 30 to Nov. 30, 1776. 

Captain. 
Nelson, John, of Westmoreland County, com. Jan. 30, 1776. 

First Lieutenant. 
Oldham, William, com. Jan. 30, 1776. 

Second Lieutentmt. 
Ott, Adam, com. Jan. 30, 1776. 

Third Lieutenant. 
McCollom, Robert, com. Jan. 30, 1776 ; resigned July 12, 1776. 
Archer, Joseph (or Joshua), com. July 12, 1776, vice R. McCullom, re- 
signed. 

. Sergeants. 

Price, Richard, app. Feb. 15, 1776 ; died at Fort George, Oct. 30, 1776. 
Hartley, Thomas, app. Feb. 7, 1776. 
Smith, Andrew, app. Feb. 6, 1776. 
McCowen, Robert, app. Feb. 7, 1776. 
Carr, John, app. Oct. 30, 1776. 

Corporals. 
Preston, Edward, app. Feb. 15, 1776 ; died Sept. 20, 1776. 
Bonner, Joseph, app. Feb. 22, 1776. 
Brown, Jesse, app. Feb. 21, 1776. 
Fugate, John, app. Feb. 13, 1776. 

Carr, John, app. Sept. 21, 1776; promoted Oct. 31, 1776. 
Nelson, Thomas, Sr., app. Oct. 31, 1776. 

Privates. 
Bird, Thomas, enl. Feb. 28, 1776; deserted May 2, 1776. 
Bower, Francis, enl. Feb. 19, 1776. 

Brooks, Robert, enl. Feb. 7, 1776; deserted May 2, 1776. 
Bradley, Edward, enl. March 1, 1776; sick in hospital. 
Campbell, Baruett, eul. Feb. 10, 1776; sick in hospital. 
Caldwell, James, enl. Feb. 18, 1776. 

Cunningham, John, Feb. 17, 1776; furloughed by Gen. Gates. 
Carr, John, enl. Feb. 14, 1776; promoted corporal Sept. 21. 
Collins, Joseph, enl. Feb. 15, 1776 ; deserted March 15, 1776. 
Coffman, Isaac, eul. Feb. 9, 1T76 ; deserted April 1, 1776. 
Cox, John, enl. Feb. 20, 1776. 

Clipper, Valentine, enl. Feb. 21, 1776; deserted May 2, 1776. 
Corbett, John, enl. Feb. 28, 1776; furloughed by Geu. GateB. 
Campbell, William, enl. March 5, 1776. 

Carmichael, , enl. March 8, 1776. 

Davis, Morgan, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 
Deal, Jacob, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 
Ditch, Philip, enl. March 12, 1776. 
Downey, John, eul. March 14, 1776. 
Downey, Thomas, enl. Feb. 10, 1776. 
Eakle, Henry, enl. Feb. 17, 1776. 

Easter, Nicholas, enl. March 8, 1776 ; deBerted March 18. 
Eastley, Charles, eul. Feb. 7, 1776; deserted April 14. 
Edminston, Robert, enl. Feb. 19, 1776. 
Ebersole, Christian, enl. Feb. 8, 1776. 
FiBher, Samuel, enl. Feb. 10, 1776 ; deserted March 27. 
Fitch, Joseph, enl. Feb. 17, 1776. 
Flack, George, enl. Feb 19, 1776. 
Forsyth, Abraham, enl. March 11, 1776. 
Fuller, Christian, enl. Feb. 22, 1776. 

Gridley, Jasper M., Feb. 15, 1776 ; joined Donnell's artillery company 
Nov. 21, 1776. 



454 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Gowd, John, enl, Feb. 13, 1776; deserted May 2, 1776. 


Corporals. 


Gutting, Andrew, enl. March 13, 1776. 


McKee, George. 


Hand, William, enl. Feb. 23, 1776. 


Bennett, Abraham. 


Harrigan, Michael, enl. Feb. 10, 1776. 


Kelso, John. 


Harris, George, enl. Feb. 7, 1776. 


Webb, William. 


Holland, Henry, enl. Feb. 11, 1776. 


Private*. 


Holt, William, enl. March 17, 1776. 


Branch, Elijah. 


House, Michael, enl. Feb. 6, 1776. 


Brown, John. 


Jameson, Samuel, enl. March 22, 1776. 


Calagan, James. 


Johnston, James, enl. Feb. 10, 1776. 


Carothers, John, enl. at Carlisle; wounded in the left hand at Three 


Kelley, James, enl. Feb. 9, 1777. 


Rivers; re-enl. under Richard Butler, and Berved three years; re- 


Kirkpatrick, William, enl. Feb. 17, 1776; furloughed to Maryland. 


Bided in Butler County, Pa., in 1817. 


Lemon, Isaac, enl. Feb. 19, 1776; deserted May 8, 1776. 


Coil, Charles. 


Love, William, enl. Feb. 23, 1776; deserted March 12, 1776. 


Conner, John. 


McCullock, David, enl. Feb. 9, 1776 ; killed at Fort Ann, May 29, 1776. 


Cowley, William. 


McGuire, Daniel, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 


Craig, James. 


McGuire, Thomas, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 


Davis, Amos. 


McManus, William, enl. Feb. 19, 1776. 


Davis, Robert. 


Mitchell, John, enl. Feb. 14, 1776; deserted April 14, 1776. 


Dixon, Robert. 


Morgan, Evan, enl. March 1, 1776. 


Doyle, Bryan. 


Mullady, Robert, enl. Feb. 7, 1776; deserted April 2. 


Ewin, William. 


Murphy, Arthur, enl. Feb. 14, 1776. 


Fleming, George. 


Nelson, Andrew, enl. Oct. 25, 1776. 


Fleming, Henry. 


Nelson, Thomas, Jr., enl. Oct. 25, 1776. 


Forbes, James. 


Nelson, Thomas, Sr., enl. Feb. 10, 1776; pro. to corp. Oct. 31, 1776. 


Futhey, Robert. 


Nixdorff, Samuel, enl. March 7, 1776. 


Gordon, Andrew, in 1820, residing in West Nantmeal township, Chester 


O'Brian, John, enl. Feb. 19, 1776; deserted May 2. 


County. 


Onsell, Abraham, enl. Feb. 10, 1776. 


Hanna, David. 


Phyfer, Emanuel, en!. Feb. 16, 1776. 


Hamilton, James. 


Pooder, Tobias, enl. Feb. 5, 1776. 


Henry, John. 


Ralston, .Tames, enl. Feb. 7, 1776. 


Heron, Patrick. 


Reed, Thomas, enl. Feb. 20, 1776. 


Jones, Hugh. 


Rerick, George, enl. Feb. 14, 1776; deserted March 14. 


Jordon, Garret. 


Roach, Morris, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 


Kennedy, James. 


Slucer, John, enl. March 6, 1776 ; furloughed by Gen. Gates. 


Kinsey, James. 


Smith, John, enl. Feb. 10, 1776; deserted May 2. 


Kyle, William. 


Smith, W r illiam, enl. Feb. 24, 1776. 


Laferty, Patrick. 


Stonemyer, John, enl. Feb. 2, 1776. 


Leas, Edward. 


Stuckey, Michael, enl. Feb. 19, 1776; deserted May 2, 1776. 


Lindsey, John. 


Teel, William, enl. Feb. 12, 1776. 


Lucas, William. 


Tingle, George, enl. March 9, 1776; deserted April 22, 1776. 


Martin, William, Jr., enl. at Carlisle; re-enl. in Third Pennsylvania. 


Trepner, George, enl. Feb. 21, 1776. 


Martin, William, Sr. 


Wallace, James, enl. Feb. 12, 1776; acting as butcher at Mount Inde- 


Matthews, William. 


pendence. 


McCarrel, Dennis. 


Wells, Richard, enl. Feb. 26, 1776. 


McConnel, James. 


Williams, John, enl. March 14, 1776. 


McCord, Matthew. 


Wolf, John, enl. Feb. 13, 1776. 


McFadden, Thomas. 




McGill, James. 




McKenzie, John. 


APPENDIX "F." 


McMillan. John, eul. at Greensburg, March 1, 1776; re-enl. Third Penn- 
sylvania. 


[See Chapter XVIII.] 
ROLL OF CAPT. WILLIAM BUTLER'S COMPANY. 


Meyer, Dennis. 
Navel, Edward. 
Patterson, William. 


From Jan. 5 to Nov. 25, 1776, as they stood at Ticonderoga. 


Roberts, Jonathan. 


(EnliBted ui the vicinity of Greensburg, Westmoreland County. Many of 


Roddy, Isaac. 


the company re-enlisted in Third Pennsylvania, Capt. Jas. Chrystie.) 


Rucraft, George. 

Stover, John. 


Captains. 


Smith, John. 


Butler, William, com. Jan. 5, 1776; pro. major Oct. 7, 1776. 


Stimble, Isaac. 


Chrystie, James, com. Nov. 11, 1776. 


Sutherland, John. 


First Lieutenant. 
Butler, Thomas, com. Jan. 5, 1776. 


Sweeney, James. 
Verner, Robert. 
Wilson, Samuel. 


Second Lieutenant. 




Seitz, Charles, com. Jan. 5, 1776; dropped Sept. 20, 1776. 


APPENDIX «G." 


Ensigns. 


[See Chapter XVIII.] 


McCully, George, com. Jan. 5, 1776; pro. 2d lieut. Sept. 20, 1776, vice 


ROLL OF CAPT. STEPHEN BAYARD'S COMPANY. 


Lieut. Chambers, discharged. 


(Jan. 5, 1776, to Nov. 25, 1776.) 


McMullan, Nathan, Sept. 20, 1776, vice Parke, discharged. 


Captain. 


Sergeants. 


Bayard, Stephen, com. Jan. 5, 1776. 


McCully, Robert. 


First Lieutenants. 


Jack, Thomas. 


Chrystie, James, com. Jan. 5, 1776; afterwards captain Third Pennsyl- 


McClanen, Hugh. 


vania. 


Carrell, Thomas. 


Craig, John, com. Nov. 11, 1776. 



APPENDICES. 



455 



Second Lieutenant. 
Dunn, Isaac Budd, com. Jan. 5, 1776 ; pro. July 4, 1776. 

Ensigns. 
Black, James, com. Jan. 5, 1776 ; pro. July 4, 1776. 
Marshall, John, pro. Nov. 11, 1776. 
Oates, James, pro. Nov. 11, 1776. 

Sergeants. 
Shepherd, John. 
Philips, Barney. 
Coegrove, Andrew. 
Points, Joseph. 
Boyd, Thomas. 

Jones, Thomas, re-eul. April 8, 1777, in Capt. Coren's company of artil- 
lery; trans, to artillery artificer, Capt. N. Irish's company, where 
he served three years. 

Drummer. 
Maxwell, John. 

Fifer. 
Dougherty, George. 

Corporals. 

Woo<j, Thomas. Barret, James. Brown, Patrick. 



Privates. 



Allen, Patrick. 
Baggs, John. 
Black, Benjamin. 
Burris, James. 
Campbell, Alexander. 
Cox, William. 
Coyle, Robert. 
Donohoe, Patrick. 
Dougherty, William. 
Duffield, John. 
English, Joseph. 
Greer, George. 
Harkins, Thomas. 
Holliday, John. 
Hollis, John. 
Johnson, Patrick. 
Leech, William. 
Lackey, Patrick. 



Martin, William. 
McCord, William. 
McClennon, Robert. 
McConuell, Andrew. 
McCracken, William. 
McEvoy, Daniel. 
Melroy, Edward. 
McFadden, Connel. 
McKinley, Charles. 
Moor, William (died March 13, 

1776). 
Murphy, Thomas. 
U'l'gg) John. 
Ruttledge, James. 
Thompson, James. 
Weary, John. 
Wiley, Robert. 
Work, Aaron. 



APPENDIX "H." 

[See Chapter XVIII.] 
ROLL OF CAPT. JOSEPH ERWIN'S COMPANY. 

This company was raised in Westmoreland County, joined the regi- 
ment at Marcus Hook, subsequently included in the Thirteenth Pennsyl- 
vania Regiment, then in the Second, and finally discharged at Valley 
Forge, Jan. 1, 1778, by reason of expiration of term of enlistment. En- 
gagements were Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Quib- 
bletown, Brandywine, and Germantown. 

Captain. 
Erwin, Joseph, Westmoreland County, app. March 9, 1776; commission 
dated April 6, 1776; pro. capt. in Ninth Pa. 

First Lieutenant. 
Carnaghan, James, from second lietit. ; missing since the battle, Aug. 
27,1776; after release he repaired to headquarters in December, 
1776, and served as a volunteer at Trenton and Princeton; pro. first 
lieut. in Eighth Pa. on Jan. 15, 1777. 

Second Lieutenants. 
Carnaghan, James, app. March 16, 1776; pro. first lieut., Oct. 24, 1776. 
Sloan, David, pro. third lieut., Aug. 9, 1776; killed in battle, Aug. 27, 

1776; left a widow Mary, and daughter Ann, aged eleven, in 1789 

residing in Westmoreland County. 

Third Lieutenants. 
Sloan, David, app. March 19, 1776; pro. second lieut., to date from Aug. 

9, 1776. 
Brownlee, Joseph, commission dated April 15,1776; pro. second lieut. 

Oct. 24, 1776 ; missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 



Sergeants. 

Lindsay, William. 
Roddy, Samuel. 

Dugan, James. 
Justice, John. 

Drum and Fife. 

Howard, George. 
Gunnon, John. 

Geyer, John, drummer-boy (eleven years of age), son of Peter Geyer t 
below ; wounded in the heel at Germantown ; disch. Jan. 1, 1778, at 
Valley Forge; was a stone-mason, residing in Metal township, 
Franklin County, in 1821. 

Privates, 

Anderson, Martin. 

Bentley, .lames. 

Brown, Andrew. 

Brownfield, Daniel, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Brownlee, John, April 1,1776; disch. Jan. 1, 1778 ; resided in Donegal 
township, Washington County, in 1814. 

Bryson, Andrew, April 1, 1776 ; drafted into the artillery at Brandywine; 
disch. Jan. 1. 1778; resided in Bedminster township, Bucks County, 
in 1816. 

Carnahan, Joseph. 

Dunnough, William. 

Doyle, Sylvester. 

Fitzgerald, Henry. 

Forsyth, James. 

Gunnon, Jeremiah, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Guthry, John, miBsing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Guthry, William, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Geyer, Peter, enl. at Hannastown; disch. at Valley Forge, Jan.l, 1778; 
wounded by a bayonet in the groin, and by a ball in the leg at Ger- 
mantown. His wife, Mary, went with his company as washerwoman, 
with her son John, above mentioned, and accompanied the regiment 
in all its march ; she was eighty-six years of age in 1821, then re* 
siding in Cumberland County ; she had three other children, Jacob, 
Mary, and Catharine. 

Henders'Ui, Edward. 

Hennan, David. 

Hennan, John. 

Henry, John, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Heslet, Robert. 

Holiday, William. 

Johnston, Robert. 

Kelly, Philip. 

Leech, Archibald, disch. Jan. 1, 1778 ; resided in Armstrong County iu 
1811. 

Lee ( ch, James. 

Leonard, James, disch. Jan. 1, 1777 ; resided iu Warren County, Ohio, in 
1831, aged eighty-seven. 

McClelland, David. 

McCollister, James. 

McCord, William. 

McKenzie, Andy, " a volunteer," missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Miller, Peter, resided in Bedford County in 1819. 

Moor, William, missing Bince the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Mull, William, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Nail, James. 

Nelson, James, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Nelson, William, "wounded in the left knee;" resided in Westmoreland 
County in 1789. 

Orr, David. 

Riddle, John. 

Riddle, Robert. 

Roddy, Patrick. 

Sims, John. 

Singlewood, Stephen, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Stamper, Charles, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Stone, Allen. 

Stoops, John, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Twifold, William, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Waddle, William, April, 1776; disch. Jan.l, 1778; resided in Westmore- 
land County in 1819. 

Wattereon, John. 

Wead, Maurice. 

Wilkinson, Angus, missing since the battle, Aug. 27, 1776. 

Three sergeants were also captured, but the roll does not indicate 

which. 






456 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



APPENDIX " I." 

[See Chapter XVIII.] 


Gageby, James. McCrank, Edward. 
Galbraith, James. McCurdy, Alexander. 
Gilmore, Thomas. McMullin, Neal. - 


ROLL OF CAPT. JAMES CARMAHAN'S COMPANY. 
(March 1, 1777, to May 1, 1777. Must, at Red Bank, May 9, 1777.) 


Harper, Samuel. MitrhHl, Alexander. 
Hodge, John. Mitchell, John. 
Hoof, Jacob. Moor, Hampton. 


Carnahan, James; lived 
after the war. 

Hoffuer, George. 
Dugan, James. 
Fitzgerald, Henry. 


Captain. 
in Washington County, Pa., for many years 

First Lieutenant. 
Ensign. 

Sergeants. 
Waddle, William. Justice, John. 


Jacob, John. Murdagh, Patrick. 
Keaton, John. Nickelso, James. 
Kelly, Matthew, enl. Feb. 23, Orpet, Richard. 

1777. Pots, Hance. 
Kennedy, Thomas, enl. Feb. Quindlin. John. 

'1G, 1777. Riley, James. 
Kerrigan, John. Salter, John. 
Lean, John. Sharp, Andrew. 
Lewis, David, enl. Feb. 24, Shearer, Thomas. 

1777. Woods, Hugh. 




Drummer. 


Maffot, William. Wright, Aaron, enl. Feb. 24, 


Guyher, John. 




1777. 


Macklen, John. 

Brownlee, John. 
Bryson, Andrew. 


Fifer. 

Privates. 

Kenny, Thomas. 
Leech, Archibald. 


For muster-roll of Capt. Matthew Scott's company of foot in the 
Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment, in the service of the United States, 
commanded by Col. Walter Stewart, for the mouth of Juue, 1778, see 
vol. x., p. 771, Pa. Arch. N. S. 


Carnaluin, Joseph. 
Chapman, George. 
Colter, William. 
Cooke, John. 


Leech, James. 




McClelland, David. 
McGauhey, Philip. 
Miller, Peter. 


APPENDIX "L." 


Been, Rexs. 


Mills, Andrew. 


[See Chapter XVIII.] 


Doherty, Andrew. 
Dolen, Charles. 


Moore, William. 
Mulvauey, Patrick. 


ROSTER OF FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS. 


Gagger, John. 


Murphy, Arthur. 


Colonels. 


Grea, James. 
Gunnou, Jeremiah. 


Riddle, John. 
Sense, John. 


Mackey, JEneas, of Westmoreland County, July 20, 1776; died in ser- 
vice, Feb. 14, 1777. 


Guthry, William. 
Guyer, Peter. 
Hartagrove, Samuel. 
Heslet, Andrew. 


Sims, John. 
Singlewood, Stephen. 
Smith, Thomas. 
Southerland, William. 


Brodhead, Daniel, from lieut.-col. Fourth Pa., March 12, 1777; joined 
April, 1777; trans, to First Pa. Jan. 17, 1781. 

Lieutenant-Colonels. 


Heslet, Robert. 


Stewart,'James. 


Wilson, George, July 20, 177G; died in service at Quibbletown, February, 


Horneck, Daniel. 


Swerths, Ferdinand. 


1777. 


Howard, John. 


Tryne, Peter. 


Butler, Richard, from maj., March 12, 1777; ranking from Aug. 28,1776; 


Hunter, James. 


Weeble, George. 


trans, to lieut.-col. of Morgan's rifle command, June 9, 1777; pro. to 


Johnson, Robert. 


Wilkinson, Angus. 


col. of Ninth Pa., ranking from Juue 7, 1777; by an alteration sub- 


Kennan, Roger. 




sequent to March 12, 1777, Richard Butler was placed in the First 
Pa. and James Ross in the Eighth Pa. 






Ross, James, from lieut.-col. First Pa.; res. Sept. 22. 1777. 


APPENDIX "K." 

[See Chapter XVIII.] 


Bayard, Stephen, from maj., ranking Sept. 23, 1777 ; trans, to Sixth Pa., 
Jan. 17, 1781. 

Majors. 
Butler, Richard, July 20, 1776; pro. to lieut.-col., March 12, 1777. 


ROLL OF CAPT. MATTHEW SCOTT'S COMPANY. 
(March 1, 1777, to May 1, 1777.) 


Bayard, Stephen, March 12, 1777, ranking from Oct. 4, 1776; pro. to 

Heut.-col., to rank from Sept. 23, 1777. 
Vernon, Frederick, from capt.. Fifth Pa., ranking from June 7, 1777; 


Scott, Matthew, April 18 


Captain. 

1777. 


trans, to Fourth Pa., Jan. 17, 1781. 

Captatiix. 


First Lieutenant. 
Brownlee, Joseph, rea. June 22, 1777, on account of promotion of Thomas 


Kilgore, David, died July 11, 1814, aged sixty-nine years, four months, 
and twelve days; buried in the Presbyterian graveyard of Mount 


Johnson. 




Pleasant (Middle Church), Westmoreland County. 




Second Lieutenant. 


Miller, Samuel, died in service, Jan. 10, 1778; left a widow, Jane Cruick- 


McCracken, William. 




shanks, who resided in Westmoreland County in 1784. 




Ensign. 


Tan Swearingen, Aug 9, 177G. Van Swearingen had been in command 


Gregg, Robert, Feb. 1777, 

Wallace, Thomas. 
Viney, Pattan. 
Boyd, William. 

Howard, George. 


from sergeant. 

Sei'geants. 

McKinsey, Andrew. 
Boyl, Daniel. 

Drum and Fife. 

Hann, David. 


of an independent company in the pay of the State from February 
until Aug. 11, 1776, in defense of the frontiers in Westmoreland 
County. 

Piggott, James ; on return June 9, 1777, he is marked sick in camp. 

Ourry, Wendel. 

Mann, Andrew; on return of June 9, 1777, he is marked sick in quar- 
ters since May 2. 

Carson, Moses, left the service April 21, 1777. 




Privates. 


Minrs, Eliezer. 


Adams, William. 
Archer, Zach. 


Doherty, Barnabas. 
Dowdfl, James. 


[The foregoing captains were recommended by the committees of 
Westmoreland and Bedford Counties, and directed to be commissioned by 


Caven, William. 


Dunfey, Michael, enl. Feb. 28, 


resolution of Congress of Sept. 14, 1776. The nameB of the captains ap- 


Coffee, James. 


1777. 


pear on the first return we can find in the order indicated (as remarked 


Dennis, James. 


Elliot, John. 


by the compilers of the archives), but date of commissions cannot be as- 


Dixon, Patrick. 

Dixon, Samuel. 


Fargher, Charles. 
Flinn, Patrick. 


certained. Probably they were all dated Aug. 9, 1776, as Van Sweariu- 
gen's.] 



APPENDICES. 



457 



Montgomery, James, died .Vug. 2G, 1777; his widow, Martha, resided in 

\\ estmoreland County in 1824. 
Huffnagle, Micliael, died Dec. 31, 1810, in Allegheny County, aged sixty- 
six. 
Jack, Matthew, from 1st lieut.; became supernumerary Jan. 31, 1779; 

resided in Westmoreland County in 1835, aged eighty-two. 
Stokely, Nehemiah, Oct. 16, 1777; became supernumerary Jan. 31, 1779; 

died in Westmoreland County in 1811. 
Cooke. Thomas, from 1st lieut.; became supernumerary Jan. 31,1779; 

died in Guernsey County, Ohio, Nov. 5, 1831. 
Damon, Samuel, from Eleventh Pa., July 1, 1778; died at Fort Pitt, 

Sept. 6, 1779; buried in First Presbyterian churchyard in Pitts- 
burgh. 
Moore, James Francis, from Thirteenth Pa., July 1, 1778. 
Clark, John, from Thirteenth Pa., July 1, 1778; trans, to First Pa., July 

17, 1781. 
Oarnahan, James, from Thirteenth Pa., July 1, 1778; trans, to Fourth 

Pa., Jan. 17,1781. 
Finley, Joseph L., from Thirteenth Pa., July 1,1778; brigade-major, 

July 30, 178U; trans, to Second Pa., Jan. 17, 1781. 
Finley, John, from 1st lieut, Oct. 22, 1777 ; trans, to Fifth Pa., Jan. 17, 

1781. 
Crawford, John, from 1st lieut. Aug. 10, 1779; trans, to Sixth Pa., Jan. 

17, 1781. 
Brady, Samuel, from capt. -lieut., August, 1779 ; trans, to Third Pa., Jan. 

17, 1781, 

Capta in-Licit tena nt. 
Brady, Samuel, commission dated July 17, 177G; from Sixth Pa.; pro. 

to capt. Aug. 2, 1779. 

First Lieutenants. 
Moseley, Robert (written Moody in the return), res. May 10, 1777; re- 
sided in Ohio Co., Ky„ in 1820, aged sixty-nine. 
Cooke, Thomas, pro. to capt. 
Finley, John, pro. to capt. Oct. 22, 1777. 
Jack, Matthew, lost his left hand by the bursting of his gun at Bound 

Brook, N. J.; pro. to capt. April 13, 1777. 
Hickman, Ezekiel. 

Carson, Richard, left the service in 1777. 
McGeary, William, res. April 17, 1777. 
McDolo, Joseph, left the service in 1777. 

[The foregoing first lieutenants were commissioned under the resolu- 
tinii of Congress of Sept. 10, 1776.1 

Richardson, Richard, returned June 9,1777, as recruiting. 
Prather, Basil, returned Nov. 1, 1777, as on command with Col. Morgan 

from June 9; res. April 1, 1779. 
Hughes, John, Aug. 9, 1770; res. Nov 23, 1778; res. in Washington 

County in 1813. 
Crawford, John, from second lieutenant, April 18. 1777; pro. capt. Aug. 

in. 177.'; pro. to Second Penna. with rank of captain from April 18, 

1777. 
Hardin, John, July 13. 1777; Nov. 1, 1777, returned as on command 

with Col. Morgan ; res. in 1779; afterwards Gen. John Hardin, of 

Kentucky ; murdered by the Indians near Sandusky, Ohio, in 1791. 

— Wilkin*,.,,'- M- amirs. 
Mickey. Daniel, became supernumerary Jan. 31, 1779. 
Peterson, Gabriel, July 26, 1777: tiled in Allegheny County, Feb. 12, 

1832. 
Stoteshuiy, John, from Old Eleventh Pa.; commission dated April 9, 

1777; he was a prisoner in New York for some time ; trans, to the 

Second Pa. Jan. 1781. 
Neilly, Benjamin, from ensign, Oct. 4, 1777. 
Finley, Andrew, on return of Nov. 1, 1777, marked sick since Oct. 16; 

retired in 1778; resided in Westmoreland County, 1813. 
Amberson, William ; in 1779 he was deputy muster- general ; resided in 

Mercer County in 1835. 
Read, Archibald, rice Joseph Brownlee, Dec. 13, 1778; died in Alle- 
gheny County in 1833. 
Graham, Alexander, rice Basil Prather, April 1, 1779. 
Ward, John, April 2, 1779 ; trans, to Second Pa., Jan. 17, 1781. 

Second Lieutenants. 
Thompson, William, Aug. 9, 1776 ; res. May 17, 1777. 
Simrall, Alexander, Aug. 9, 1776; left the army in 1777; resided in 

Jefferson Co., Ohio, in 1834, aged eighty eight. 
Guthrie, James, Aug. 9, 1776. 
Rogers, Philip, Aug. 9,1776. 



Smith, Samuel, Aug. 9, 1776 ; killed at Germantown, Oct. 4, 1777. 

Montz, William, Aug. 9, 1776; res. April 17, 1777. 

Beeler, James, Jr., Aug. 9, 1776. 

Crawford, John, Aug. 9, 1776; pro. first lieutenant, April 18, 1777. 

[The foregoing second lieutenants were commissioned under resolu- 
tion of Congress Sept. 14, 1776, dating as above.] 

Owine, Barnabas; marked on return of Nov. 1, 1777, as command in in- 
fantry, 
Carnahan, John, res. in 1779. 

Ensigns. 
Neilly, Benjamin, pro. to first lieutenant, Oct. 4, 1777. 
Kerr, Joseph. 
Simmons, John. 
Wherry, David. 

Mecklin, Dewalt, res. April 17, 1777. 
Weaver, Valentine. 
Reed, John. 

AVhite, Aouila, left the army Feb. 23, 1777 ; resided in Montgomery 
Co., Ky., in 1834. 
[The foregoing ensigns were commissioned under a resolution of Con- 
gress of Sept. 14, 1776.] 
Forshay, Thomas, left the service in 1777. 
McKee, David, left the service in 1777. 

Peterson, Gabriel ; on a return of June 9,1777, he is marked absent, 
wounded, from April 17, 1777 ; pro. to first lieutenant July 26, 1777. 
Guthrie, John, app. Dec. 21, 1778. 
Morrison, James, app. Dec. 21, 1778. 
Wyatt, Tin-mas, app. Dec. 21, 1778; resided at St. Louis, Mo., in 1834, 

aged eighty. 
Cooper, William, app. April 19, 1779. 

Davidson, John, app. April 19, 1779 ; resided in Brown Co., Ohio, in 1833, 
aged eighty-one. 

Chaplain. 
McClure, Rev. David, app. Sept. 12, 1776. 

A djutants. 
Huffnagle, Michael, app. Sept. 7, 1776. 
Crawford, John, lieut., 1780. 

Paymaster. 
Boyd, John, July 20, 177G. 

Quartermasters. 

Douglass, Ephraim, Sept. 12, 1776 ; taken prisoner while acting as aide- 
de-camp to Gen. Lincoln, March 13, 1777; exchanged Nov. 27, 1780; 
prothonotary of Fayette County in 1783; died in 1833. 

Neilly, Benjamin, app. in 177S. 

Snrgeons. 
Morgan, Abel from Old Eleventh ; res. in 1779; died in 1785. 
Morton, Hugh, March 7, 1780. 

* Surgeons Uate. 

Saple, John Alexander, 1778. 

Clothier. 
Read, Archibald, 1778. 

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND PRIVATES OF THE 
EIGHTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT, CONTINENTAL LINE. 

[Those marked (e) are taken from a list in the secretary's oflBce of sol- 
diers whose depreciated pay escheated to the State.] 

Sergeants. 

Allison, John, died in Versailles, Ky., June 16, 1823, aged seventy-five. 

O-rporal. 



Drummer. 



Fifer. 



Adams, Robert. 

Atkinson, Joseph. 

Adams, George. 

Privates. 
Abrams, Gabriel, Kilgore's company, 1776-79. 
Aikius, Robert, resided in Bedford County, 1790. 
Alcorn, James, trans, to Invalid Corps, July, 1780. 
Allen, William, deserted August, 1778. 
Amberson. Johnson. 
Amberson, William, resided in Mercer County, 1809. 



458 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Anderson, George, resided in Westmoreland County, 1835, aged eighty- 
four. 
Armstrong, George. 
Askius, George. 

Askins, James, deserted August, 1778. 
Atkins, Isaac. 

Sergeants. 
Baker, Michael, died in Greene Co., 111., Sept. 13, 1831. 
Blake, William. 
Byels, JoBeph, of Piggott's company. 

Fifer. 

Bond, John. 

Private** 

Bacon, John. 

Bannon, Jeremiah. 

Beard, John, deserted August, 1778. 

Berkett, Robert. 

Berlin, Isaac, died in Crawford County, June 16, 1831, aged seventy- 
seven. 

Blake, Luke William. 

Blake, Nicholas, enl. August, 177G. 

Blakeney, Gabriel, private at Long Island ; lieut. in Flying Camp ; cap- 
tured at Fort Washington ; resided in Washington County, 1817. 

Bodkin, James. 

Booth, George. 

Boveard, James, Kilgore's company, 1776-79; died in 1808 iu East Buf- 
falo towuBhip, Union Co. 

Boyer, Oziel, killed iu action. 

Brandon, Michael. 

Bright, John. 

Bristo, Samuel. 

Broadstock, William. 

Brothers, Matthew. 

Brown, John, resided in Armstrong County, 1825. 

Burbridge, Thomas, Kilgore's company; taken December, 1780 ; in cap- 
tivity three years; resided in Westmoreland County, 1805. 

Burket, Christopher. 

Burns, Pearce, trans, to Invalid Corps, August, 1777. 

Byar, David, August, 1777-79, Capt. Piggott's company; served at Sara- 
toga under Van Sweariugen; went West with regiment, 1778; at the 
building of Fort Mcintosh and Fort Laurens; Pennsylvania pen- 
sioner, 1813. 

Sergeants. 

Cavenaugh, Barney. 

CheBelden, Edward. 

Clarke, James. 

Cooper, William, Kilgore's company. 

Crawford, Robert, Aug. 20, 1776, to Sept. 15, 1779; resided in Venango 
County, 1825. 

Fifer. 

Clark, David (e), Capt. Kilgore's company, April, 1777. « 

Privates. 

Cain, Bartholomew. 

Cain, John. 

Calahan, John. 

Call, Daniel, resided in Westmoreland County, 1821. 

Campbell, George, Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland Co., 1786. 

Carr, Daniel. 

Carregeu, Martin. . 

Carswell, Joseph. 

Carty, Richard. 

Casevey, Patrick, deserted August, 1778. 

Castile, Samuel. 

Cavenaugh, John. 

Cavenaugh, Patrick, enl. at Carlisle, in Capt. Huffnagle's company ; he 
saved Gen. Lincoln from capture by the British in New Jersey ; after- 
wards express-rider for Gen. Greene; died in Washington County, 
April 5, 1823, aged eighty-three. 

Chambers, Andrew. 

Chambers, Moses, from Ligonier; deserted August, 1778. 

Chriswell, Joseph. 

Churchfield, John, enl. July, 1776; wouuded in the leg in the battle of 
Germantowu; resided in Westmoreland County, 1S35, aged eighty- 
six. 

Clark, Benjamiu, Kilgore's company; wounded at Bound Brook, 1777; 



also in 1778 on march to Fort Mcintosh ; resided in Steubenville, 

Ohio, 1815. 
Close, Robert. 
Coleman, Joseph. 
Conner, John. 

Conner, Bryan, enl. July 2, 1777. 
Conway, Joseph, deserted August, 1778; died Jan. 16, 1823, in Bedford 

County, aged sixty-eight. 
Cooper, Leonard, from Maryland; deserted August, 1778. 
Cooper, William, Aug. 17, 1776, to September, 1779; resided in Venango 

County, 1810. 
Corner, Felix. 
Coveney, Felix. 
Cripps, John. 
Critchlow, James, enl. August, 1776, in Capt. Moses Carson's company; 

served in all the Saratoga engagements under Lieut.-Col. Butler; 

resided in Butler County, 1835, aged seventy-eight. 
Crosley, Timothy. 
Ciuiksliank, Andrew, Miller's company, Aug. 17, 1776, to September, 

1779 : resided in Butler County, 1810. 
Curtin, John. 

SergeanU. 
Dennison, James. 
Donaldson, William. 

Corporal. 

Davis, William, died in Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1834, aged eighty- 
two. 

Privates. 

Darragh, John. 

Davis, John, died in Holmes County, Ohio, June 7, 1830, aged 6ixty-four. 

Dempey, Thomas. 

Dennis, Michael. 

Dennis, Thomas, killed in April, 1779. 

Dennison, Joseph (e), trans, to Seventh Regt. 

Desperett, Henry. 

Dickerson, Henry, enl.l776,in Van Swearingen's company, at Saratoga, 
etc.; resided in Washington County iu 1813. 

Dickson, William. 

Dolphiu, Joseph. 

Dougheriy, James, alias Capt. Fitzpatrick, deserted August, 1778, and 
executed for robbery. 

Dougherty, Mordecai, brother of above, deserted August, 1778. 

Dowdeu, John. 

Du Kinson, Joseph, killed in action. 



Evans, Arnold (a). 
Edwards, John. 



Sergeant. 

Drummer, 

Fifer. 



Evans, Anthony, pro. to fife-major, Third Pa. 
Privates. 



Quartermaster-Sergeant. 
Sergeants. 

Corporal. 



Edwards, David (c). 
Everall, Charles. 

Fletcher, Simon. 

Font, Matthew. 
Forbes, William. 

Fitzgibbons, James. 

Privates. 

Faith, Abraham, Capt. Mann's company, Aug. 15, 1776, to Nov. 19, 1' 
resided in Somerset County in 1825, aged seventy-four. 

Faughey, James, deserted August, 1778. 

Fime, Joseph, trans, to Invalid Corps. 

Fitzgibbons, David. 

Fossbrooke, or Frostbrook, John, resided in Bath Co., Ky., in 1834, i 
one hundred and four. 

Fulton, Joseph, July 4, 1776. 

Corporal. 

Gladwin, John. 

Privates. 

Gallagher, Michael, June 7, 1770; deserted before he reached the i 

ment. 
Gallahar, John. 
Germain, Henry. 
Gibbons, David. 



APPENDICES. 



459 



Gibson, Henry. 

Gill, William, wounded in the hand at Bound Brook; resided in Mercer 

County in 1833, aged eighty-four. 
Girdler, James. 

Glenn, Hugh, killed in action. 
Graham, Alexander, deserted August, 1778. 
Graham, William, Capt. Kijgore's company; resided in Westmoreland 

County in 1811. 
Greenland, James. 
Grimes, Johu. 

Guthery, Archibald, killed August, 1779. 
Gwyoe, Joseph, June 7, 1776; served three years; resided in Greene 

County in 1808. 

Corporal. 

Halpen, Joseph. 

Privates. 

Hamill, Hugh, Finley's company, 1776-79; resided in Westmoreland 
County in 1809. 

Hancock, Joseph («), Capt. Mann's company, 1777; resided in Wayne 
Co., Ind., in 1834, aged seventy-seven. 

Hanley, Michael. 

Hardesty. Obadiah, resided in Lawrence Co., III., in 1833, aged seventy- 
one. 

Harman, Conrad, died in Muskingum Co., Ohio, June 9, 1822, aged sev- 
enty-five. 

Harvey, Samuel. 

Hezlip, Rezin, Stokely's company; resided in Baltimore in 1813. 

Hayes, Jacob, from Braudywine, deserted August, 1778. 

Hayes, Joel, from Brandy wine, deserted August, 1778. 

Hiere, David, deserted August, 1778. 

Hobach, Philip, resided in Madison Co., Iud., in 1820, aged sixty-four. 

Hockley, Richurd, Capt. Clarke's company; resided in Westmoreland 
County in 1813. 

Hotten, John, Aiig. 2, 1776, to Sept. 17, 1779; resided in Westmoreland 
County in 1812. 

Humbar, Nicholas. 

Hunter, Nicholas (e). 

Hunter, Robert, John Finley's company; wounded at Bound Brook and 
Paoli; resided in Westmoreland County in 1808. 

Hutchinson, John. 

Sergeant. 

Jamison, Johu, Capt. Miller's company; enl. in 1776, at Kittauniug; 
resided in Butler County in 1835, aged eighty-four. 

Privates. 

Jennings, Benjamin, Sept. 9, 177G, to Sept. 9. 1779, in Kilgore's company ; 
drafted into rifle regiment; died in Somerset County in 1807. 
"Johnson, Peter («), resided in Harrison Co., Va., in 1829. 

Jones, Benjamin, resided in Chanipaigue Co., Ohio, in 1833, aged seventy- 
one. 

Jordan, John, Westmoreland County. 

Justice, Jacob, resided in Bedford County in 1820. 



Kerns, Robert. 



Kidder, Benjamin. 



Sergeant. 



Fifer. 



McKinney, or Kenney, Peter, Capt. Clarke's company, 1776-79 ; resided 
in Butler County in 1835, aged seventy. 

Privates. 
Kain, John. 
Kairns, Godfrey. 
Kean, Thomas, Aug. 23, 1776, Capt. Montgomery's company ; he was an 

indented servant of William Rankin. 
Kelly, Edward. 
Kelly, Robert. 
Kemble, Jacob. 
Kerr, Daniel. 
Kerr, William, Capt. Miller's company, August, 1776, to Sept. 9,1779: 

resided in Westmoreland County in 1823. 
Kildea, Michael, paid from Jan. 1, 1777, to Aug. 1, 1780. 

Sergeant'Major. 
Lee, William, died in Columbiana Co., Ohio, Jan. 6, 1S28, aged eighty- 



Corporal. 
Lewis, Samuel. 
Lucas, Henry. 

Privatei. 
Lacy, Lawrence. 
Lacount, Samuel. 
Landers, David. 
Lawless, James. 
Lacron, John. 
Lewis, William, of Brady's company ; resided in Morgan Co., Ohio, in 

1821. 
Lingo, Henry, resided in Trumbull Co., Ohio, in 1834, aged seventy-one. 
Long, Gideon, resided in Fayette County, 1835, aged seventy-nine. 
Long, Jeremiah. 
Luckey, Andrew, of Westmoreland County ; Miller's company ; became 

teamster to Eighth Pa.; discharged at Valley Forge; resided in 

Fayette County in 1822, aged sixty-eight. 



Sergeant-Major. 
Sergeanti. 

Corporals. 



Drummer. 



McClean, . 

McClii'-e, John. 
McGregor, John. 

McAfee, Matthew. 
Mairman, George. 

Miller, John, killed in action. 

Privates. 
McAlIy, Edward. 

McAnany, Patrick. 

McCarty, Jeremiah. 

McCaulley, Edward. 

McChristy, Michael, Capt. Van Swearingeu's company, October, 1777. 

McClean, Abijah. 

McComb, Allen, of Mann's company, 1776-79; resided in Indiana County 

iu 1810. 
McConnell, John, Huffnagle's company, Aug. 28, 1776, to August, 1779 ; 

died in Westmoreland County, Dec. 14, 1834, aged sevonty-eight. 
McFee, Laughlin, killed in action. 
McGill, James. 
McGlaughlin, Patrick. 
McGowau, Mark, enl. in 1775, in Capt. Van Swearingen's company, for 

two years ; Aug. 9, 1776, this company was broken up, and he re- 

enl. under the same captain in the Eighth Pa., and served three 

years; resided in Mercer Co., Ky., in 1830. 
McGuire, Andrew. 
Mclniimay, Patrick. 

McKee, John, resided in Bath Co., Ky., in 1830. 
McKenney, Peter. 

McKinney, John, Capt. S. Miller's company ; enl. March, 1778. 
McKissick, Isaac. 

McKissick, James, Miller's company ; resided in Maryland in 1828. 
'McMullin, Thomas, August, 1776-79; died in Northampton County in 

1822. 
Martin, George. 
Maxwell, James, 1776-79, Capt. Montgomery's company; resided in 

Butler County in 1822. 
Mercer, George. 
Merryman, William. 
Miller, Isaac. 
Miller, John. 
Mitchell, James, Mann's company, 1776-79 ; resided in Somerset County 

in 1810. 
Mooney, Patrick. 
Moore, John. 

Moore, William, Capt. Jack's company, November, 1777. 
Morrison, Edward. 

Morrow, William, transferred to Invalid Corns, August, 1780. 
Howry, Christian. 
Murphy, Michael. 
Murray, Neal, August, 1776, Miller's company; taken at Bound Brook, 

April 17, 1777 ; released, and rejoined at Germantown, where he was 

ag;iiu takeu and made his escape. -*- 

Fifer. 



460 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Sergeants. 
Parker, John. 
Porter, Robert, resided in Harrison County, Ohio, 1834, aged seventy-one. 

Privates. 
Paris, Peter, Invalid Corps, Aug. 2, 1779. 

Parker, Charles, 1776-79; resided in Armstrong County, 1818. 
Pegg, Benjamin, Piggott's company, Aug. 13, 1776, to September, 1779; 

resided in Miami County, Ohio, in 1834, aged eighty-two. 
Penton, Thomas. 

Perry, Samuel, Invalid Corps, September, 1778. 

Pettitt, Matthew, resided in Bath County, Ky., 1834, aged seventy-four. 
Phillips, Luke, Aug. 28, 1776. 
Phillips, Matthew. 
Reed, Samuel. 
Ridner, Conrad. 
-Robinson, Simon. 
Rooke, Timothy. 
Rourk, Patrick. 

Sergeants. 
Sample, William. 
Smith, John, 1776 to Sept. 20, 1779; died in Indiana County, 1811. 

Corporal. 
Swan, Timothy, resided in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1834. 

Privates. 

Seaton, Francis. 

Sham, Michael, resided in Rowan County, N. C, in 1834, aged eighty- 
six. 

Shedacre, Jacob, Finley's company ; killed by the Indians near Potter's 
Field, Centre Co., July 24, 1778; had served under Morgan at Sara- 
toga. 

Sliedam, Jacob. 

Sheridan, Martin. 

Sherlock, Edward, died in Ross County, Ohio, Feb. 11, 1825, aged Bixty- 
eight. 

Shilliammer, Peter, resided in Westmorelaud County in 1824. 

Sinister, Martin. 

Simmons, Heury, June 12, 1776, Huffnagle's company. 

Smith, Heury, resided in Rush County, Ind., in 1834, aged sixty-nine. 

Smith, John, Sr., resided in Frederick County, Va., in 1834, aged ninety. 

Smith, John, 2d, resided in Westmoreland County in 1835. 

Smith, John, 3d, from Mifflin County; in Ourry's company, October, 
1777; re-enl. from Third Pennsylvania, Capt. Cook's; taken and 
scalped at Tuscarawas. 

Steel, Thomas. 

Stephen, Patrick, Capt Kilgore's company, October, 1777. 

Stewart, Charles. 

Stewart, Francis. 

Stewart, Samuel. 

Stevenson, Samuel. 

Stokely, Thomas, August, 1776; resided in Washington County in 1823. 

Straphan, William. 

Stuhbs, Robert. 

Sutton, David. 

Swift, John. 

Taggert, William, trans, to Invalid Corps, July, 1780. 

Tea, John. 

Tharp, Perry, resided in Marion County, Ky., in 1834. 

Turner, William, in Stokely's company, Sept. 17, 1776-79; resided in 
Connellsville, Fayette Co., in 1835, aged eighty-one. 

Tweedy, George. 

Van Doren, Thomas, Finley's company; served at Saratoga; killed by 
the Indians near Potter's Fort, Centre Co., July 24, 1778. 

Vaughn, Joseph, enl. in Capt. Samuel Moorhead's company, April 24, 
1776; served two years and six months; then drafted into Cupt. 
Miller's, and served bix months; resided in Half-Moon township, 
Centre Co., in 1822, aged sixty-two. 

Verner, Peter, Invalid Corps, Aug. 2, 1779. 
Sergeants. 

Woods, John, trans, to Invalid Corps. 

Wyatt, Thomas, pro. ensign, Dec. 21, 1778; shoulder-bone broken at 
Brandywino. 

Corporal. 
Ward, Matthias. 



Drummer. 

Whitman, John. 

Privates. 

Wagoner, Henry, 1776-79; resided in Cumberland County in 1819. 

Waiue, Michael, deserted August, 1778. 

Waters, Joseph, 1776-79. 

Watson, John, July 4, 1777. 

Weaver, Adam, 1776-79, Kilgore's company; resided in Westmoreland 
County in 1821. 

Wharton, William, resided in Pendleton County, Ky., in 1834, aged 
eighty-seven. 

Wilkey, David, deserted August, 1778. 

Wilkie, Edward. 

Wilkinson, William. 

Williams. John, Invalid Corps, Aug. 2, 1779. 

Williams, Lewis, resided in Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1834, aged 
ninety-two. 

Williums, Thomas, killed in action. 

Wilson, George, Capt. Huffnagle's company, October, 1777. 

Wilson, William, resided in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1820, aged sixty- 
eight. 

Winkler. Joseph. 

Wolf, Philip, resided in Bedford County in 1790. 

Wyatt, Thomas, pro. sergeant. 

Wyllie, Owen. 

Wynn, Webster. 

ROLL OF CAPT. JOHN CLARK'S COMPANY. 
"In adr-tachment from Penna. Line, Commanded by Stephen Bayard, 
Esq., Lt.-Colo., for the mouths of Feb., March, & April, 1783." 





Captain. 


Clark, John. 






Lieutenants. 


Peterson, Gabel. 




Crawford, John. 




Bryson, Samuel. 




Everly, Michl. 






Sergeants. 


McCline, John. 




Baker, Mich 1 . 




Blake, Will™. 






Major. 


Lee, W». 






Corporals. 


Gladwin, John. 




Jonston, Peter, disch. March 17, 1783. 


McAfee, Math". 




Marmon, George. 






Drummers. 


Kidder, Benjamin. 




Edwards, Johnson. 






Fifers. 


Bond, John. 




Kenny, Peter. 






Privates. 


Amherson, Johnston. 


Girdler, James. 


Atchinson, Joseph, deserted Sept. 7, Harmon, Conrad. 


1783. 


Holtzley, Richard. 


Biggert, Robert. 


Hutchinson, John. 


Boothe, George, 


Jones, Benjm. 


Cardwell, Joseph, deserted April 1, Kerns, Godfrey. 


17S3. 


Kerr, Daniel. 


Caringer, Martin. 


Landers, David. 


Carty, Rich d . 


Lingo, Henry. 


Casteel, Sam 1 . 


Lucas, Henry. 


Chalmers, And". 


Maxwell, James. 


Clark, James. 


McAuley, Edward 


Conner, John. 


McCristall, Michl. 


Conway, Felix. 


McGill, James. 


Cripps, Johu. 


McGuire, Andrew. 


Diunis, Michael. 


Mercer, George. 


Dinuison, James. 


Miller, Isaac. 


Dixon, Willm. 


Mooney, Patrick. 


Dorough, John. 


Morrison, Edward. 


Fossbrook, John. 


Murphy, Michl. 


Gibson, Henery. 


Ox, Michael. 



APPENDICES. 



461 



Parker, Charles. 


Stuart, Charles. 


CAPT. 


THOMAS STOKELY'S 


COMPANY. 


Rooke, Timothy. 

Sherlock, Edward, prisoner of war ; 

joined Feb. 5, 17S3. 
Smith, John. 


Thorpe, Perry. 

Wharton, Willm. 
Willson, Willm. 
Winkler, Joseph V. 


Stokely, Thomas, 


Raised i 
Feb. 10, 


* the County of West 

Captain. 
1781. 


nnrel'tml. 


Steed, Janies, deserted 27th March, 










Lieutenant. 




1783. 




Cummings, John 
Hooper, William 






J'liti'jit. 




APPENDIX «M." 




[See Chapter XVIII.] 

TTYTTT A PTS FROM THP. TUTNTJTRS OF THR ROATtT) OF WAR 


Albridge, John. 






Privates. 

Justice, 


Peter. 



£9 


7s. 


6,1. 


19 


08. 


0d. 


5 


1«. 


Oci. 


13 


2«. 


M. 


23 


08. 


3d. 



March 22, 1777. — Moses Young was directed to pay Capt. Joseph Mit- 
chell £40, for amo't of Blankets appraised for the use of his company of 
the First Batt'u of Westmoreland Militia; £25 of which to be charged 
to Congress. 

Moses Young was directed to pay Captain Pomeroy £10 15 6, for 
Blankets appraised for the use of his company, of Col. Lochry's West- 
moreland Batt'ti £ of wh. to be charged to Congress for 4 Blkts. lost 
in actual service, the remainder being delivered into the State store, and 
taken at the appraisement. 

Moses Young was directed to pay the following Persona of Col. 
Lochry's Batt'n, of Westmoreland Militia, for Blankets appraised for 
their respective compauies, £ of wh. to be charged to Congress for 

Blks. lost in actual service: 

Captain John Shields, 
Capt. Alex'r Thompson,' 
Capt. John Perry, 
Capt. Robert Knox, 
Capt. Samuel Shannon, 

Moses Young was directed to pay James Moore £1 for 5 days' service 
in taking no'r of associators in Donegal Township, Westmoreland 
County, to be charged to Congress. 

March 27, 1777. — Moses Young was directed to pay Capt. Beard, of 
Westmoreland County, 2 Battalion, £81 8 0, for subsistence of 47 men, 
to be charged to Congress. 

Col. Ric'd Dallam was requested to pay Capt. Joseph Hueston A Lieut. 
Thos. Mason, of Westmoreland Militia, £35 17 S, for their wages as offi- 
cers while on their march from Home & Back, they having received pay 
as Privates while at camp. 

Mr. Moses Young was directed to pay George Hendry £454 6 for 1 
Gill of spirit per man per day, for 308 men of Colonel Lochry's Battalion 
of Westmoreland Militia, for 59 days at 6d. per Gill, to be charged to 
Congress. 

April 1,1111. — Mr. Moses Young was directed to pay Colonel John 
Proctor £12 0, for Expence of an Express sent by the Committee of 
the County of Westmoreland, to the late Convention, for Arms & Am- 
munition. 

May 29, 1777.— An order was drawn on Mr. Nesbitt, in favour of Capt. 
Michael Huffnagle, of the Eighth Penna. Regiment, for 300 Dollars, to 
be charged to Col. Danl. Broadhead. 

CAPT. MOSES CARSON'S RANGING COMPANY. 

Pay-roll of Capt. Moses Carnon's Company of Westmoreland County, to 
range on the frontiers, July 9th, 177G, to August 9th, 1776. 

Captain. 



Carson, Moses. 








Lieutenants. 


Finley, John. 


Ensign. 


Sunrad, Alexander 


Kerr, Joseph. 


Privates. 




Beatty, Joseph. 




Jones, Ben. 


Berry, James. 




Lindsay, Joseph. 


Burt, Patrick. 




Long, Matthew. 


Byerley, Francis. 




Long, George. 


Clark, John. 




Madden, James. 


Crawford, Rob. 




McCan, John. 


Cronifeyer, Lawrence. 




McAffee, Matthew 


Darragh, \\' m . 




McBride, Henry. 


Dilwoith, John. 




Nailer, John. 


Funt, Matthias. 




Sampson, Thos. 


Hall, James. 




Stalt, Peter. 


Hutton, John. 




Sampson, W™. 


Hughy, Thomas. 




Sloan, David. 


Jolly, Luke. 




Young, W m . 


30 




" 



Beatly, John. 

Burns, John. 

Butler, John. 

Crossly, John, 

French, Arthur. 

Gibson, John. 

Heamy, David Honey Bee. 

Hilles, George. 

Houdgsoti, William. 



McDonald, James. 
Mars, William. 
Miller, Michael. 
Murphy, Patrick. 
Patton, Isaac. 
Pheason, John. 
Trindle, John. 
Watson, Robert. 



APPENDIX «N." 

[See Chapter XIX.] 
PART OF THE Y0H0GANIA COUNTY RECORDS. 
(From Appendix to The Secular History, by Judge James Veech.) 
The following are the "gentlemen justices" who "swore into" their 
commissions : Joseph Beelor, Joseph Becket, Johu Campbell, John Can- 
non, Isaac Cox, William Crawford, John Campbell, Zachariah Connell, 
John Decamp, Thomas Freeman, Benjamin Frye, John Gibson, William 
Goe, William Harrison, BeDjamin Kirkendall, John McDowell, John 
McDonald, George McCormick, Oliver Miller, Samuel Newell, Dorsey 
Pentecost, Matthew Richie, James Rogers, Thomas Smalhnan, Andrew 
Swearengen, John Stephenson, George Vallandingham, Edward Ward, 
Joshua Wright, and Richard Yeates. And the following did not "swear 
in": Thomas Brown, James Blackiston, John Carmichael, Benjamin 
Harrison, Jacob Haymaker, Isaac Leet, Sr., James McLean, Isaac Meason, 
John Neville, Philip Ross, and Joseph Vance. 
Clerk.— Dorsey Pentecost; Deputy, Ralph Bowker. 

Sheriffs.— William Harrison (Isaac Leet his deputy), George McCormick 
(his deputies, Hugh Sterling, Joseph Beelor, Benjamin Van Metre, 
and John Lemon), and Matthew Ritchie (John Sutherland, deputy). 
County Lieutenant. — Dorsey Pentecost. 
Colonels. — John Cannon, Isaac Cox, John Stephenson. 
Attorneys. — George Brent, William Harrison, Samuel Irvin, Philip Pen- 
dleton. 
Legislators. — John Campbell, William Harrison, and Matthew Ritchie. 

ADDITIONAL EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS OF THE YOHO- 
GANIA COUNTY COURT, HELD UNDER AUTHORITY OF VIR- 
GINIA IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Stocks and Whipping-Post. 
1777, June 25th. — Ordered, that the sheriff cause to be erected a pair 
of stocks and a whipping-post in the court-house yard by next court. 

Court Held in a Private Residence. 
1777, August 25th .—Ordered, that for convenience of sitting and ex- 
pediting business, that the court be adjourned to the house of now occu- 
pied by Andrew Heath. 

Early Birds. 
Same day.— Ordered, that the court be adjourned until to-morrow 
morning six o'clock. 

A Woman's Wages for One Year, One Thousand Pounds of Tobacco. 
1777, August 2Gth.— David McClure, by his attorney, complains that 
Sarah Brusling, an indented servant, was delivered of a bastard child 
within her said time of service, and the said Sarah Brusling being called 
came into court and confessed to the charge. It is therefore ordered by 
the court, that the said Sarah Brusling doth serve her said master the 
term of one whole year from the tenth day of October next (being the 
expiration of her service by indenture) to reimburse her said master for 
his loss and trouble for the same, or that she pay her said master the 
sum of one thousand pounds of tobacco in lieu of said service. 



f 



462 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Prisoners Confined in Fort Pitt. 
Same day.— That any prisoner or prisoners the sheriff have shall be 
confined in the guard or some other room in Fort Pitt, with the acquies- 
cence of Gen. Hand, until such time as a proper gaol can be provided 
for the county. 

How Water-Mills Were Built. 

1777, September 23d.— Upon the petition of Adam Wickersham, set- 
ting forth that he is desirous of building a water-mill on Mingo Creek, 
about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth, and that he owns all the 
lands that will he effected or overflowed by the building of the said mill : 
It is therefore considered by the court that the said Adam Wickersham 
have leave to build and complete a mill at the place aforesaid. 

Same day.— Upon the petition of Adam Froman, setting forth that 
he is desirous of building a mill at the mouth thereof, and praying an 
order to view and condemn one acre of land on the opposite side of the 
creek to said Froman's land for that purpose. Ordered, that the sheriff 
be commanded to summon twelve good and lawful freeholders of the 
vicinage to meet on the premises aforesaid, and being first sworn shall 
diligently view and examine the said lands which may be effected or 
laid under water by the building said mill, with the timber and conven- 
iences thereof, and that they report the same to next curt under their 
hands and seals, with the true value of the one acre of land petitioned 
for, and of the damage done to the party holding the farm. 



APPENDIX <0." 

[See Chapter XXI.] 
The following interesting papers relate to the frontiers of Westmore- 
land during the Revolution : 

A. LOCHUY AND JOHN MOORE TO THOMAS WHARTON, PRESI- 
DENT COUNCIL OF SAFETY, 1776. 

Westmoreland County, 26th Dec, 1776. 

g IR) _By the removal of Col. Mackay from the Kittauing, the fron- 
teers of this County is laid open and exposed to the Mercy of a faithless, 
uncertain Savage Enemy, and we are Inform'd by Andrew McFarland, 
Esq., who lives at the Kittaning, that he is much afraid that the Min- 
goes will plunder the Country, and that he will not think hiniBelf Safe 
if there is not a Company of Men Stationed there, and if he RemoveB a 
number more of the Inhabitants will follow. 

By order of the Council of July 15, 1778, Col. Brodhead's regiment 
was included in those enumerated for the frontier detense (Archives F. 
3., vol. vii. 645). 

ARCHIBALD LOCHRY TO PRESIDENT WHARTON, 1777. 
Westmoreland, ye 20th May, 1777. 

Honored Sir,— On my arrival Ou the forth of April I found this 
County In a Confused situation. The Alarm of Simpsons Being Kill'd 
and Moorhead being Missing, Struck such Terror on the minds of the 
People that the fruntears Waire Entirely fleed Into the Hart of the 
Settlement and a greate Numbers Over the Mouutains. In Order to Put 
astop to the Peopels Entirely Evacuating the Countery I Ventured to 
Raise Sixty Men and Stationed them On the fiontears Between two licks 
and the Mouth of Kiskamenitus In fore Divitious under the command 
of To Captains and Two Lieuts, Which covered that frnntier so well that 
the People are In general Gou Back to their Plantations and fell to their 
Leabours. I flatter Myself when your Excellency Is Enform'd What 
Beunefit these Raingers HaBS Been to this Destrest fruntior, you Will 
Not Hesitate One Moment In Allooing them to Be Paid By the State— 
they are Engaged for two Months if not sooner Discharged By Bregedear 
General Hands Order and Promised the same Pay and Rations of Conti- 
nautal Troops. Which if your Excellancy W'ill Please to, Alow the 
favour Will Be Ecknowledged By the fruntears In general and In Par- 
ticular 

By your Excelleancys most Obedn't Humble Servt, 

Favour'd By A. Lochry. 

Col. John Proctor. 
LIEUT. ARCHIBALD LOCHRY TO PRESIDENT WHARTON, 1777. 
Honored Sir,— The Distressed situation of our Country is such, that 
we have no Prospect But Disolation aud Distruction, the whole county 
On the North side of the Rode from the Alegany Mountains to the 
River is all kept close in forts ; and can get no subsistence from their 
Plantations; they have made application to ub requesting tu be put 
under Pay aud Receive Rations, and as we could see no other way to 
keep the People from flying & Letting the country be evacquiated we 



were Oblidged to adopt them measures (Requesting your Excellancy to 
give the necessary orders to enable us to put them in Execution if these 
very measures Is Not adopted I see no other Method that can secure the 
People from giving up the Country, these People while they support 
these fruntear Posts are entirety serving the Publick) it cartainly can- 
not continue Long so to do unless supported by the Publick. 

Lieut. Coi. Charles Campbell and fore other persons is maide Prisoners 
on the waters of Blackleigs creek, fore other men kill'd and scalped 
near the same place, one man killed near Wallaces fort on Cnnnomoch, 
Eleven other Persons kill'd and scalped at Palmers fort, near Logonear 
amongst which is Ensign Woods — at the Place where Col. Campble was 
maid Prisoner, fore raskely Proclamations wass left by the Savages 
from the Governor of Detroit Requesting all Persons to come to him, 
or any other of the Garrisons occupied by His Majesties Troops and they 
should Receive Pay & Lodgings as they rank with us, every Private Person 
for encouragement to have 200 Acres of Laud. In short there is every 
few Days there is not some murder committed on some part of our frun- 
tears (if your Excellency would Please to adopt our measures and give 
the necessary orders for Putting them into Execution: I Hoop with 
Divine assistance we shall be able to Hold the countery till we are en- 
abled by the more Effectual Meashurs that is carrying an Expedition 
In their country) we have likewise Ventured to erect two Stockade 
forts at Logenear and Hannahs Town at the Publick expense, with a 
Store House in each to secure Both Publick and Private Property in 
aud Be a place of Retreat for the suffering fruntears In case of need- 
cessity which I flatter myself will meet with your Excellancys appro- 
bation, and Beigs Leave to subscribe myself 
Your Excellancys 

most obliged most 

Humble servt, 

A. Lociirt, Lieut. 

Westmoreland, ye 4th Novr. 1777. 

COUNCIL OF SAFETY TO DELEGATES IN CONGRESS. 

In Council of Safety, 

Lancaster, 14th November, 1777. 

Sir, — This council is applied to by the people of the county of West- 
moreland, in this Commonwealth, with the most alarming complaints 
of Indiau depredations. The letter, of which the inclosed is a copy, will 
give you some idea of their present situation. 

We are further informed by verbal accounts that au extent of sixty 
miles has been evacuated to the savages, full of stock, corn, hogs, and 
poultry; that they have attacked Palmer's fort, about Beven miles distant 
from FortLigonier, without success; and, from the information of White 
Eyes and other circumstances, it is feared Fort Ligouier has by this time 
been attacked. There is likewise reason to fear the ravages will extend 
to Bedford and along the frontier. We shall order out the militia of 
Bedford County, and take such other steps as may be immediately neces- 
sary for the relief of those settlements, but we find they are greatly defi- 
cient in the articles of arms, and especially ammunition and flints. In 
Fort Ligonier, when our informants left it, there was not more than forty 
pounds of powder and filteen pounds of lead ; fliuts are sold at a dollar 
a piece. 

We must beg the assistance of Congress in these articles. Arms we 
dare hardly ask, but ammunition and Hints we hope may be supplied by 
Congress both to Westmoreland and Bedford ; and we must also entreat 
the attention of Cougress to the general defense of the frontier. We 
know not the situation of Gen. Hand, his forces, or his views; but we 
have reserved the militia of Bedford aud Westmoreland for the purpose 
of co-operating with him in those parts of the States and the neighbor- 
hood. Mr. Thomas Galbraith will call on you in a few days on his way 
to Ligonier, the supplies should bo furnished to him from Carlisle, to be 
carried from thence on pack-horses. He will explain more at large their 
situation, and it might not be amiss to communicate to him what may 
be expected from Gen. Hand, as well as what Congress shall direct. — 
Archives, F. S., vi. 3. 

ARCHIBALD LOCHRY TO PRESIDENT WHARTON, 1777. 
Westmoreland, y« 6th Decern., 1777. 
Honnored Sir, — I wrote to your Excellency by Col 1 . Shields, giving 
a State of the Ravages Committed by the Indians on the Inhabitants of 
this County; they have still Coutinucd to Destroy and Burn Houses, 
Barns, and Grain, as you will see more Particular in a Patation from the 
People which he Declared, as you may see His Letter of the 18th Octo- 
ber; if our Measures Had not been adopted, I am very certain there 
would not been Many Persons on the North Side the Greate Roado now 
[i.e., he means the Forbes or Hanuastown road], if there Is not Stors 



APPENDICES. 



463 



Laide In this Winter. In Spring they must undoubtedly Leave the 
Oountery ; they Have no Salt ti> Lay Up Meat, of which there is a greate 
Plenty, their Grain is all Burn' 1 A Destroy 11 on the North of ('imnemoch ; 
if there is No Store of Provision for Next summer, and the People Kin- 
dred from Getting Spring Crops the Countery is undoubtedly Broke up. 
The Plan we Have adopted Has Been Putin Execution at the Expense of 
a few Individuals, which cant Be Long Continued without supported by 
the Puhlick. I Have Sent five Indian Scalps taken by One of our 
Scouting Party, Commanded by Coll. Barr, Coll. Perry, Coll. Smith, A 
Oa.pt Kingston, Being to the Honnorable Assembly, Praying Relieft 
(My Situation Hass Beeu Critical; Genneral Hand required more men 
than I could Possebly furnish from Two Batalions, which is all I can 
Pertend to Have jurisdiction over, on acct. of the unsettled Boundery 
between this State and Virginia.) I sent One Hundred Men for the Ex- 
pedition, some of them Reached the Genneral at fort Pitt, the Remain- 
der was Stopt by His Order, at the same time the frontearsof Our County 
Lay Exposed to the Marcy of the Sevages ; Not a Man on Our frontears 
from Logenear to the Alegenia River, Except a few at fort Hanna, on 
Continental Pay. I was oblidged, by the Advice of the eub-Heutenants 
& other Principal People of the County, to adopt the measures I Before 
Laide Down to your Excellency : I Requested Genneral Hand's approba- 
tion on the Plan, Volentears in the Action. The Action Hapned Near. 
Kittaning, they Retoock Six Horses the Savages Had Taken from the 
suffering fruntears, for Encourgement to other Partys I Hoop your Ex- 
cellency will make a Retaliation for these Scalps, And subscribe myself, 
&c, &c. Ar. Lochry. 

— Archives, F. S , vi. 68. 
PRESIDENT WHARTON TO COL. ARCHIBALD LOCHRY. 
Ix Council, Lancaster, December 29, 1777. 

Sir, — Altho' it is not understood that the Expence of supplying the 
Militia with provisions, while they are engaged in the service of the 
United States, is to fall on this State in particular, Yet Council desirous 
of doing everything in their power have sent you, by Colonel John 
Proctor, the sum of five hundred pounds, to purchase provisions with. 
It is expected that the provisions be purchased on the lowest terms and 
at first hands. I am, sir, your very humble servant, 

Thomas Wharton, Junr., Prest. 
—Archives, F, S., vol. vi. 143. 

ARCHIBALD LOCHRY TO PRESIDENT WHARTON. 

Westmoreland, May 13, 1778. 

Honrd Sir, — Agreeable to your Excellencies Instructions I do hereby 
send you a Just and True Return of the Puhlick Arms in our county 
which I have in my care. 

75 stand I purchased myself; 27 Stand I received of the Militia that 
went to the Jersey from this County in the year 1777; 72 Stand I re- 
ceived by Col'l John Shields, and Cnl. Hayes Informs me of 80 Stand 
being on the Way, not yet come to Hand, which is in all 254 Stand ; but 
when we Reduce 12 Stand that we lost by the Enemy, and 3 Carried 
away by Deserters, there remain 239 stand. There is a Considerable 
number of Old English Muskets, which Geu'l St. Clair formerly had in 
his care, belonging to this State, and Distributed in this County ; they 
are all Unfit for service and hard to be Collected, as the Person that 
Possesseth them is under Obligation by Bond to Return them to Gen'l 
Siukler [St. Clair ?1. The Arms or the most of them may be Repaired fit 
for Garrisons. My Notice is short, the Arms Private Property I cannot 
assert, tho' they are Exceeding Scarce, Yet, Notwithstanding I can Pur- 
chase some from the Poor, distressed by the Enemy, but not without cash. 

On the 28th Aprile the Indians came into the Settlement at and about 
Wallace's fort, Attacted 20 of our men which was Reconnoitering the 
woods, and killed 9 of our Men, and wounded Capt. Hopkins slightly, 
and we lost 9 gunB. 

In short, I am sorry to inform you that the Frontiers of this County 
is more Distressed by Reason of this Last Scrimmage than they ever 
were before, as by appearance there was a larger Body of the Enemy 
than ever before appeared at once, and with much more Vigour; the 
Great Road is now the frontier, and being dissapointed in their Expecta- 
tions of an Early Campaign into the Indian Country, I am Sorry to In- 
form you that I doubt a General Evacuation of the Posts on the frontiers 
(fort Pitt only Excepted), on the first or next appearance or Attact of 
such a body of the Enemy. I am also to Inform you that fines Laid in 
this Couuty on Delinquents (tho' strict measures are used) I have on Re- 
ceived £0O, and all the Publick money I have ever Received I have paid 
for Guns, Substitutes, and other Publick Uses, as will appear per acc't 
at Settlement, and in the Interim I beg leave to subscribe myself, etc. 

A. Lochry. 
— Archives, F. S., vi. 495. 



Gen. Mcintosh, in a letter to Col. Lochry, dated Foi t Pitt, Jan. 29, 
1779, says, " I am just informed that Capt. Clark, of the Eighth Penn- 
sylvania Regiment, who was sent to command an escort to Fort Laurens, 
as he was returning with a sergeant and fourteen men, three miles this 
side of that fort, was attacked by Simon Girty and a party of Mingoes, 
who killed two of our men, wounded four, and took one prisoner. I 
am also informed that a large party of the same people are s«-t ofT to 
strike the inhabitants about Ligouier and Black Leg [Blu< k Lick] Creek, 
and send you this express to inform you of it that you may acquaint the 
neighborhood, and be upon your guard." — Archives, F. S., vii. 173. 

Capt. Joseph Erwin, in a communication to President Reed, dated at 
Hannastown, July 20, 1779, says, " In obedience to the orders of the 
Council, with infinite pains and difficulty I have enlisted forty-five men 
for the service of our frontiers, and have them now at the place of their 
destination and endeavouring to be serviceable to the distressed inhab- 
itants. 

"As an officer in the service of our State, I should be guilty of the 
highest neglect were I not to inform Council of the hardships I have 
encountered, and I fear without the assistance of Council it will be no 
hard task to tell what my poor men are to suffer. 

"Destitute of the resources of the public stores, I have now these 
men on your frontiers totally destitute of blankets, shoes, and every 
necessary cloathing ! Guns we have, but those we have are the refuge 
[re/use f] of the military store at Fort Pitt ; and to sum up the whole, 
we are nearly destitute of every necessary." 

In a postscript he adds that his subaltern officers who had been first 
appointed for that service had declined their appointments, and that 
Col. Lochry, agreeable to former instructions, had nominated John 
Jameson first lieutenant and Henry Armstrong second lieutenant. 

Col. Lochry, in a letter to President Reed, dated Hannastown, July 20, 
1779, says, "All the arms we had have been constantly in actual ser- 
vice, and by militia deserters and emigrants, when we lost a stand of 
arms we lost the man. What few arms we have still left are so outof re- 
pair that they are almost useless, and it is out of my power to get them 
repaired in this quarter. 

" The two companies raised by Genl. Mcintosh's orders are nearly com- 
pleated and are now at Kittanning or scouting in that neighbourhood; 
but I am sorry to inform you that times will shortly expire, so that it 
will be necessary for Council to give directions concerning them." 

COL. JOHN PROCTOR TO PRESIDENT WHARTON. 

Westmoreland County, Aprr. ye 26, 1778. 
Hounoreh Sir: 

I an in gieait need of a larg sum of Cash. I hope you will send me 
by the Bairar, Mr. George Hendry, foure thousand Pounds if Posable ; 
he is a safe Hand, and what Ever sum you send me by him I will be an- 
swerable for. I would a ben Down myself, but thought it unsafe to lave 
Home at this time. 

Sir, I am able to iuform you that Capt. Alexander McKee with sevin 

other Vilons is gon to the IndianB, and since there is a 6ergt. and twenty 

od men gon from Pittsburgh of the Soldiers. What may be the fate of 

this County God only knowes, but at Prisent it wears a most Dismal 

aspect. I am, sir, etc., 

John Proctor. 
— Archives, F. S., vol. vi. 445. 

In an answer to this letter (ibid, 45S), May 2, 1778, the Council sent 
£3500, which they hoped was sufficient to pay off the arrearages. 

THOMAS SCOTT TO T. MATLACK, SECRETARY TO THE COUN- 
CIL, PHILADELPHIA. 

Wfstmorehnp, Aug. 1, 1778. 
. . . The Indians have made several breaches on the inhabitants of 
late in different parts of this country. Capt. Miller, of the 8th Penna. 
Regt. with a party of nine men, chiefly Continental soldiers, were 
Bringing grain from the Neighborhood to a Fort called fort Hand, about 
14 miles north of Hannas Town, on the seventh of last month, and on 
their return were surprised by a party of Indians, who lay in wait for 
them, and killed the Capt. & seven others. — Archives, F. S., vi. 673. 

PRESIDENT REED TO BOARD OF WAR, 1779. 
Inclosed we send you a copy of a Letter forwarded to us by the Lieu- 
tenant of Westmoreland Couuty, with the information that in Pursuance 
thereof two companies of 60 men each are nearly complete, & to serve 
for 6 months, with a Request that the Appointments of the Officers may 
be confirmed & the Men put under the 6ame Footing as other temporary 
Troops are. We have delayed any Answer because we were not ac- 
quainted with Genl. Mcintosh's powers. But as the Frontiers are in a 



464 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



most deplorable Condition & we find it very difficult to give them effect- 
ive Assistance by Militia, we have concluded to support &. Countenance 
the measure. And we are induced thereto more strongly as his Excell e 
Gen. Washington has made a Requisition of COO militia to co-operate 
with the troops on the proposed Expedition. We find it impracticable 
to comply with this Demand in any season & the Period of 2 months 
being too short for real service have encouraged these temporary Iulist- 
ments as being more permanent ft producing letter Troops. We find 
that including the 5 Companies already ordered by Congress, there will 
be about 7U0 men raised on this Plan in Westmoreland and Northum- 
berland, and probably Bedford may follow the Example; if so they will 
make up 800 at least. — Pa. Archives, vii. 404. 



APPENDIX "P." 

[See Chap. XXIV.] 

(1.) To show the estimation in which Brady was held by Gen. (then 
colonel) Brodbead we give a few extracts from his correspondence, found 
among the Pennsylvania Archives: 

COL. D. BRODHEAD TO PRESIDENT REED, 1780. 
Capt. Brady with five men and two Delaware Indiana set out for San- 
dusky with a view to bring off a British prisoner or some Indian scalps. 
•One of his Indians left him and returned to this place sick or cowardly. 
He has been out ten days, and in as many more I expect him back again, 
if be is fortunate. I beg leave to recommend Capt. Brady to the notice 
of the Hon. Ex. Council as an excellent officer, and I sincerely wish he 
may not leave the service for want of the promotion he has merited. 

SAME TO SAME. 

Fort Pitt, June 30, 1780. 
Capt.- Lieut. Brady has just returned from Sandusky. He took priso- 
ners two young squaws within a mile of their principal village. One of 
them effected her escape after six days march, the other he brought to 
Cuscusky, where he met seven warriors, who had taken a woman and 
child off Chartiers Creek. He fired at the captain and killed him, and 
has brought in the woman and the Indian's scalp, but the squaw made 
her escape at the same time. When Capt. Brady fired at the Indian he 
had only three men with him, and but two rounds of powder. He was 
out 32 days, 6 of which he was quite destitute of provisions of any kind, 
but he has brought his party safe to his place. 

THE TRIAL OF CAPT. BRADY. 

(2.) On Monday last, the 20tb of this month (May, 1793), a Court of 
Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery, and of Nisi Prius, for the county 
of Allegheny was held at this place^Pittsburgh) by the chief justice and 
Judge Yeates. 

The only criminal business that came before the judges was the trial 
of Capt. Samuel Brady, who, when the judges were last here, had been 
indicted for murder, in killing certain Indians, near the mouth of Beaver 
Creek, iu the spring of the year 1791. 

It was proved to the satisfaction of the court that, notwithstanding 
the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Mcintosh, Muskingum, and Miami, which 
established peace between the Indians and the people of the Uuited 
States, and obliged the Indians to surrender all who should commit any 
murder on our frontiers, certain banditti of them had from time to time 
infested the western frontier, stolen horses, taken boats, aiid murdered 
our citizens; that recently, before the killing of the Indians, for which 
Brady was now tried, several people from Ohio County, particularly 
Boggs, Paul Riley's family, and Mrs. Vanbuskirke, had been put to death ; 
that to pursue the Indians who had committed these murders, and to 
recover some property stolen, a party of volunteers from Ohio County, 
of which Brndy was one, crossed the Ohio, and led by the trail of the 
Indians towards the pla.ce where the killing happened, fired and killed 
those for whose death Brady was tried. It was proved by the oath of 
Keyashuta, an Indian chief, that the Delawares had long before let go 
the chain, that they, the Shawanese, Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandots, 
and some renegade Mingoes, were in the battle against Gen. Harmer, 
1790. It was also proved that the attack and firing of Capt. Kirkwood's 
house was by Delawares, that some of the instances of murder and 
rapine above mentioned were by Delawares, that the persons killed were 
Delawares and had in their possession some of the property just before 
taken from Ohio County, manifested an intention of proceeding to com- 
mit other murderB on our citizens, and when fired on by those who at- 



tacked them, and whom they had just discovered, were in the act of 
siezing their guns; and, moreover, the relation of John Hamilton, a 
trader on the spot, satisfied the court of the malignant and hostile temper 
of those very Indians. 

The chief justice, in a charge distinguished not less by learning than 
humanity, explained the laws of war and the light of putting enemies 
to death, urged the impropriety of killing those who might with safety 
betaken prisoners, and the baseness of killing women, lamented that 
any acts of outrage by our citizens should occasion retaliation on them- 
selves; but stating that, in his opinion, the Indians killed were hostile, 
directed, if the jury concurred iu hiB opinion, of which he had no doubt, 
they should acquit the prisoner without leaving the bar. The jury did 
so, and the court ordered Capt. Brady to be discharged on payment of 
fees.— Letter dated Pittsburgh, 25th May, 1793. 

In relation to the testimony of Guyasutha, or Kyashuta, in this case 
the late James Ross, Esq., who was Brady's counsel, told a characteristic 
story. The testimony of that Iudiau was so very strong in favor of the 
defendant that even his counsel was abashed. After the trial was over 
he spoke to Guyasutha, and rather expressed his surprise at the decided 
tone of his testimony, upon which the chief clapped his hand upon his 
breast and exclaimed, " Am I not the friend of Brady f" It seems obvious 
that he considered himself as much bound to swear for his friend as he 
would be to fight in his defense. 



APPENDIX "Q." 

[See Chapter XL.] 
(1.) COPY OF A MUSTER-ROLL 

of a Company of United States Volunteers, Riflemen, under the Command of 
Capt. John B. Alexander, of the Pennsylvania Line, in the service of the 
United States from the date last mustered to the 2\st of December, 1812, 
inclusive. 



No. 



Rank. 



Date of Ap- 
pointment 
or Enlist- 
ment. 



Captain. 
Lieutenant. 
Ensign. 
Sergeant. 



Corporal. 



John B.' Alexander... 

Christian Drum 

Peter Drum ;. 

Richard Hardin 

John Jamison , 

Peter Fleegar 

H enry Hawkins 

Adam Kitring , 

Samuel Linger , 

William Richards — 

Edward Shelletts 

Jacob GoBsart I Drummer. 

Henry Barton ' Private. 

William Cassady , 

John Collins 

Solomon Dehaven.... 
Benjamin Jamison.. 

Isaac Keck 

William Kerns 

Henry Miller 

Daniel Miller 

Leonard Miller 

George Myers 

Samuel McLain 

JohnMitchel 

Jonas Keereamer... 

Jacob Pluck 

Jacob Kupert 

John Rice 

Jacob Sickafuos 

George Sickatoos 

Frederick Stewart.... 

George Sheffler 

\\ illiam Singer 

Robert Thomson. ... 

James Thomson , 

James Taylor 

Adam Williams 

John Wingart 

Jacob Wingart 

Abraham Weaver.... 

Peter Walters 

William Vandyke.... 
John Shirey * 



Sept. 11,1812 



To what 
Time En- 
gaged or En- 
listed. 



12 months. 



1 A waiter employed by Capt. Alexander. 



APPENDICES. 



4G5 



(2.) MUSTER-ROLL 
Of a Troop of Tieehe-Month Volunteers, Light Dragoon*, wider the Com- 
mand of Capt. Joseph M<irk-le, in the Squadron of Light Dragoons Com- 
manded by Lieul.-Col. James V. Ball, in the service of the United States, 
from thi Seventh Day of August, 1813, when last muttered at Camp Seneca, 
to the Nineteenth Day of August, 1813, when individually discharged <<t 
Fruukliuton, Ohio, pursuant to General Order of Any. 16, 1813: 



Rank. 



Dates of An- To whftt 
P°i?tment Titne Ell . 
or Engage- 
ment. 



Joseph Harkle 

Humphrey Fullerton.. 

Jacob Markle 

William Thompson 

John 0. Plumer 

Samuel II. Daily 

Samuel Davis 

Samuel Miller 

Robert Skelly 

Henry Bienenian 

James Rvan 

Robert M. Griffin 

James Smith 

George Frigs 

James Alexander 

John Becket 

John Bennett 

James Breckenridge.... 

Robert Cooper 

Joseph Chambers.. 

James Conner 

John C. Carpenter 

Edward Cook 

Daniel Fleming 

Samuel Hamilton 

Juab Hissaue 

Stephen Lowry 

William Logue 

William McClurg 

Juniithan McOliutock-. 

John DfcGlain 

Nathan Mi-Grew 

William Miller 

John McCammont 

Isjtac McCammont 

Stephen Rowan 

Jonathan Robeson 

John Redick 

James Selby 

Samuel Selby 

Samuel Stoflet , 

Joseph Byrely 

James McBride , 

David Hall 

Samuel Rodger 

John Gilbert 

William Newsum 

Thomas Brandt 

William Mitchell 

Robert Thompson 



Captain. 
1st Lieut. 
•2d Lieut. 
Cornet. 
Sergeant. 



Corporal. 



July 14, 1812 

Dec. 18, 1812 
Moh.26,1813 

Sept. 12, 1812 Sept.12,1813 



Saddler. 
Farrier. 
Trumpeter. 
Private. 



Feb. in, 1813 
Sept. 12, 1*12 



Feb. 23, 1813 
Sept. 12, 1812 



Mch. 29, 1813 
,Feb. Id, 1813 
Sept. 12, 1812 

Feb. 10,1813 
Sept.12,1812 



Feb. 10, 1813 
Sept.12,1812 

Jan. 12,1813 
Sept.12,1812 
Mch. 1, 1813 
Sept.12,1812 
Feb. 10, 1813 



Mch. 1, 1813 
Mch. 12, 1813 
|Mch. 17,1813 
|Mch. 10,1813 
I May 1, 1S13 
Feb. 10, 1813 



(3.) DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE WAR OF EIGHTEEN- 
TWELVE. 

Harrisburo, Sept. 5, 1812. 
Ebenezer Denny, Esq., Contractor, Pittsburgh : 

Sir, — The President of the United States having required an additional 
detachment of 20(H) men from the State of Pennsylvania to those al- 
ready ordered into service, the Governor has issued general orders this 
day in compliance with the said requisition. 

The detachment will be composed of the militia from the counties of 
Washington, Greene, Somerset, Bedford, Westmoreland, Fayette, Alle- 
gheny, Armstrong, Indiana, and Cambria. You are requested to make 
arrangements for supplying the troops with rations on their march from 
the counties west of the Allegheny to the place of rendezvous, which will 
be at Pittsburgh, on the 2d day of October next. You will be informed 
by the proper officers of the time and place from whence the detachment 
■will commence their march to the place of rendezvous. 

Very Respectfully, sir, your obed't ser't, 

N. B. Boileau. 
P. S.— The classes ordered to march in the above detachment amount 
to 2273. 

JAMES TRIMBLE TO GEORGE ARMSTRONG. 

Harrisbvrg, Sept. 29. 1812. 
To George Armstrong, Esq., Inspector of the First Brigade, 13th Di- 
vision, Penna. Militia: 

Sir, — Your return of the 22d iust. came duly to hand, and for the 
officers therein mentioned I transmit commissions, except for John 



Burn, lieutenant of the Third Compaoy of the Sixty-third Regiment, 
Who has been commissioned some time since for the same office. 

As to Captain McCullough's company, I can only say that it never 
was returned into this office. You will therefore see the propriety of 
transmitting a return of his election to this department as early as pos- 
sible. 

I wrote to you on the 10th of June last relative to a company of rifle- 
men, commanded by John Morrow, attached to the Second Battalion of 
the Nineteenth Regiment, requesting you to certify that there are thirty 
men in complete uniform in his company, which has not yet been re- 
ceived. 

The above information is absolutely necessary before commissions can 
be issued for either of the aforesaid companies. * * * * 

James Trimble. 

GENERAL ORDERS (MILITIA). 

Harrisburg, March 31, 1813. 
The following instructions are given relative to the detachment of 
Pennsylvania militia to rendezvous at Erie, on Lake Erie, to the adju- 
tant-general, his deputy, and the Brigade Inspectors of the Eleventh, 
Twelfth, and " Thirteenth" divisions of the Pennsylvania militia. The 
detachment shall be organized and officered by the adjutant-general, or 
by his deputy, as follows, viz.: One Colonel Commandant (already ap- 
pointed), the marching lieutenant-colonel, and marching major of the 
First Brigade of the Thirteenth division. . . . etc. From the Eleventh 
division are to be drafted 419, from the Twelfth division 100, and from 
the "Thirteenth" division 490 men, including officers. The Brigade In- 
spectors respectively will order captains designated by law to march, 
each of them with one hundred men, including officers, as aforesaid. 
The marching-lieutenant and two supernumerary lieutenants, to serve 
one as second, the other third lieutenant, who are to draw for rank at 
the place of rendezvous, and the marching ensign. As it is of the ut- 
most importance that some force be stationed at Erie as early as cir- 
cumstances will permit, and at all events on the 20th day of April next, 
the companies as .soon as formed will march, as directed by the Secre- 
tary at War, by the most direct route to Erie, the place of rendez- 
vous. . . . 

JOHN KIRKPATRICK TO NATHANIEL B. BOILEAU. 

(Secretary of the Commonwealth.) 
Salem Mills, Westmoreland County, Feb. 10, 1815. 

Sir, — I inclose you snndry election returns which have not been here- 
tofore transmitted: First, Capt. Abraham May; the first election set 
aside and May elected, which I approve. Second and third, the election 
returns of Capt. Samuel McColough and Capt. William Reynolds; both 
returns are approved by me. Both companies marched on the late call 
of the commander-in-chief. Fourth, Capt. Anthony Blackburn. His 
company is said to be full, which I have also approved. Fifth, an elec- 
tion return for the Congruity Rifle Company, which I do not approve 
as yet. The circumstances are briefly as follows: Part of this company 
had served a tour of duty at Fort Meigs, and returned, say twenty. 
The company immediately increased, on its return, to its present num- 
ber. As inspector, I applied to them to march under the Governor's 
general order, which they refused, alleging that some of them had 
served; the others that they could not be called unless they all went, — 
of course, none would go. They are, however, exceedingly anxious to 
be commissioned. I have not, under these circumstances, npproved their 
return as yet, but leave the whole to the discretion of the Governor 
Sixth, Capt. Samuel Hunter's election return I do not as yet approve, 
alleging it is not more than half-full. I have forwarded his return, 
which can lay over until it is ascertained whether he gets his number 
or not. Seventh and Eighth, I also inclose two returns for troops of 
horse, one for Capt. John C. Plumer, the other Humphrey Fullerton, 
captain. These returns of their election are submitted to the Governor. 
My renson for this is that the Governor seemed to disapprove of cavalry 
in his message to the Legislature at the opening of the present session. 
Of course, the whole is submitted to him. Capt. William McCormick's 
return, as captain of the class militia, was forwarded in my former re- 
turns, but has been overlooked at your office. His commission is not 
come to hand. I hope you will forward it with the others that are yet 
to come. I have received and distributed all the commissions for the 
field and company officers, as far as they have made returns of their 
companies to me, except Capt. William McCormick's alone, not for- 
warded from your office as stated above. 

Accompanying this you will receive a return of all the militia of thi 
brigade. They exceed the former returns, as received from Mr. Arm. 
strong, four hundred and twelve men. A doubt, however, remains in 



466 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



my mind whether some inaccuracies may not have taken place in 
forming the different rifle companies that were early formed. . . . 

Those companies that marched in November last were Capts. Wilson, 
Knott, Irvin Russell, Samuel McCulIough, and William Reynolds. 
Those ready and Anthony Blackburn ... I would be much gratified 
if those who did march would receive their pay. Many of them were 
poor. They laid out something more than they could well spare to equip 
themselves, expecting to be out all winter, and receive their pay, in order 
to discharge small debts. Would it be in the power of the Governor to 
pay them oue month? I think with this they would be satisfied. . . , 
I am persuaded their services would be much easier commanded in future 
if something like what I have suggested should take place. 

I am, sir, with sentiments of respect and esteem, 

Your obedient humble servaut, John Kirkpatrick. 

P. S. — I also forward a return fur Capt. Robert Campbell, which I do 
not approve. J. K. 

PENTLAND'S JOURNAL 
Extract from Mr. Charles PentlamVs Journal while performing a tour of 

twelve months' 1 service as a member of the "Pittsburgh Blues" commanded 

by Captain Butler, in the service of the United States. 

"September 10, 1812, encamped at Grant's Hill. — Sunday, 20th, de- 
camped under orders to join the Northwestern army; marched one 
mile over the Allegheny River. — 21 st, marched to the Ohio; waited for 
boats. — 23d, embarked on a boat; arrived at Beaver the 24th. — 25th, at 
Steubenville. — 26th, at Wheeling; remained till the evening of the 
27th. — October 1. arrived at Marietta. — 6th, at Galipolis ; remained till 
the 8th. — Sunday, 11th, Capt. Alexander's boat struck a snag and was 
abandoned. — 12th, arrived at Limestone (Maysville). — 13th, at night 
landed about two miles above Cincinnati. — 14th, marched into Cincin- 
nati, encamped below the town, and remained till the 28th; then 
marched five miles to " Hutchinson's." — 29th, marched twelve miles to 
Price's. — 30th, to Lebanon.— 31st, to Waynesville. — November 1, to 
Xenia. — 2d, to Yellow Springs. — 3d. to Springfield. — 4th, to Markle's. — 
5th, marched eleven miles, near Darby. — 6th, to Krauklintown, the 
headquarters of the Northwestern Army, and remained till November 
25 ; this day marched two miles on a secret expedition. — 26th, marched 
fifteen miles over Darby Creek. — 27th, marched twenty-one miles. — 28th, 
to Springfield. — 29th, near to Xenia. — 30th, into Xenia, and remained 
till December 5 ; then marched into Dayton, and remained till the 9th ; 
then crossed the Miami River.— loth, marched to New Lexington. — 12th, 
marched seventeen miles. The object of the expedition was promul- 
gated. Sunday, 13th, to Granville and crossed the river. — 14th, marched 
fifteen miles into the wilderness. — 15th, twenty miles. — 16th, marched 
all day, and after supper continued the march till daylight. — 17th, 
marched into the Indian town on the Mississinewa River, fifteen miles 
above the junction with the Wabash; captured a few defenseless In- 
dians, and encamped in the village. — 18th, the battle of Mississinewa 
was fought. The company lost one man, John Francis, killed; Elliott, 
Dodd, Read, and Chess wounded. Total loss of the detachment, viz: 
eight killed and from twenty-five to thirty wounded. Decamped and 
returned two miles. — 19th, marched ten miles on our return to the set- 
tlements. — Sunday, 20th, marched twelve miles. — 21st, fifteen. — 22d, 
this day met a reinforcement with a small supply of provisions. — 23d, 
marched to within ten miles of Greenville, and met another detachment 
with more supplies. — 24th, to Greenville. — 25th, remained till noon, and 
marched seveu miles. — 26th, to New Lexington. — 27th, to Dayton, and 
remained to January 4, 1813; this day marched ten miles. — 5th, to 
Springfield. — 6th, to Markle's. — 7th, to Darby.— 8th, to Frauklintown, 
and remained till the 3d of February ; then crossed the river to Colum- 
bus, and some deserted. — 4th, to Worthington. — 5th, to Delaware; N. M, 
Matthews joined the company. — 6th, seven miles. — Sunday, 7th, to 
Sciota Block-House. — 8th, to Upper Sandusky, and joined the command 
of Col. Campbell. — 9th, nine miles. — 10th, marched as usual, but were 
detained the greater part of the day by a false alarm ; made four miles. 
— 11th, to the Artillery Block-House. — 12th, to within one mile of Hull's 
road.— 13th, four miles, and the road almost impassable. — Sunday, 14th, 
remained, prepared sleds, cars, and procured forage. — 15th, road im- 
proved by severe frost, and reached Block-House Swamp. — 16th, to within 
four miles of Camp Meigs, and encamped on the bluff of the Miami 
River. — 18th, into Camp Meigs, headquarters situated at the Miami 
Rapids. — March 5, marched to Presque Isle, eighteen miles, to reinforce 
a detachment sent to burn the " Queen Charlotte," one of the enemy's 
vessels, supposed to be frozen up. and met the detachment returned, 
having been unsuccessful ; returned ten miles to Swan Creek. — 6th, 
returned to camp. — April 26, siege of Fort Meigs commenced by the 
enemy, who were employed in erecting batteries till the 1st of May, 



when they commenced cannonading, which they continued till the 5th, 
when a reinforcement consisting of United States volunteers arrived 
under the command of Gen. Green (?) [Green Clay], and we were ordered 
out to cover their entry into the garriBou, which was effected with 
some loss to the Kentucky troops. The same day the United StateB 
volunteers and several other companies of the Seventeenth and Eigh- 
teenth Regiments made a general sortie under the command of Col. 
John Miller, which resulted in the capture of about forty-two of the 
enemy's regiments [regulars t], and the routing of their Indian allies, 
with a considerable loss of American troops in killed and wounded. 
The Pittsburgh Blues has two men killed: James Newman and Mr. 

| Richardson; f\ve wounded: Willock, Ross, Williams, Dobbins, and 
Wahiendorff. The attack was made on the enemy's battery on the op- 
posite side of the river at the same time by Gen. Clay's Kentucky 

1 militia, commanded by Capt. Dudley, which terminated in a complete 
routing and capturing of that detachment and death of the command- 
ing officer. The enemy was quiet, and on the loth the siege was de- 
clared to be raised. — May 11, Maj. Ball's squadron moved off, and Gen. 
Harrison left for the settlement." 

As a curious reminiscence of this war we give the postscript to a letter 
written by the Rev. William Swan, then pastor of Long Run, to Capt 
Markle, Nov. 30, 1812. The letter, together with an open advice to the 
members of the company from Mr. Swan, who was personally acquainted 
with most of the company, is a very patriotic and worthy contribution: 
" P.S. — Capt. Markle will please inform Lieut. Fullerton and the 
other unmarried gentlemen of the troop that the wives of those who 
are married are not alone pleased with and proud of the patriotic con- 
duct of their husbands, but that the young ladies so admire the manly 
fortitude and patriotic spirit which they have manifested that some of 
them have expressed a determination to wait for husbands until their 
return; and that they would choose them for husband*, should they re- 
turn with but one eye and arm, in preference to those who, either dis- 
affected towards or unconcerned about the common cause, choose rather 
to abide among the sheepfolds and hear the bleatings of the flocks, as 
more safe and agreeable than the sound of trumpets and the clangor of 
arms on the field of Mars. W. S." 



APPENDIX «R." 

[See Chapter XLVII.] 
ROSTER OF COMPANY I, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUN- 
TEERS.— (Three Months' Service.) 
Company I was recruited at Greensburg, and mustered in April 24, 1861. 
Capt., Richard Coulter; 1st lieut., William R. Terry; 2d lieut, J. W. 
Greenwalt; 1st sergt., J. W. Goodlin; 2d eergt., W. J. Jones; 3d 
sergt, James McBride ; 4th Bergt., R. T. Story ; 1st corp., Benjamin 
Keighley ; 2d corp., Robert AndeTBonl 3d Corp., J. N. Thomas; 4th 
corp., Ed. H. Gay; musicians, Augustus Smith, M. G. Steck. 
Private*. 



John Beunett. 
James Biggert. 
"W. H. Bear. 
W. C. Bryant. 
Heury Bear. 
Amos Burker. 
J. O. Bovarde. 
William Casterwiller. 
M. II. Caldwell. 
D. R. Cook. 
J. T. Cook. 
George R. Cribbs. 
W. C. Cribbs. 
L. B. Caushey. 
Isaac Crowell. 
D. B. Crowell. 
Peter Coulen. 
D. H. Eicher. 
A. F. Frable. 
William Feightoner. 
W. T. Grier. 
William Gant. 
N. J. Harrell. 
D. II. Hartmau. 
Samuel Hitty. 



C. A. Harwick. 
Noval Hawk. 
J. H. Holtz. 

John Ilosack. 
John Jackson. 
Daniel Kellering. 
II. Byers Kuhns. 
Aaron Loughner. 
Josiah Long. 
Michael Low. 
Israel Lensebigler. 

A. Leopold. 
George Mellinger. 
Richard McClelland, 
Charles McClelland. 
William Mechling. 

B. F. Mechling. 
Robert McDonald, 
T. G. Painter. 
Ralph Pratt. 
Daniel Repass. 
Henry Reinhardt. 
Michael Schaney. 
Henry Simons. 
Philip Screur. 



APPENDICES. 



467 



Joseph Stayer. 
J. M. Smeltver. 
.luhn M. Sarver. 
W. M.Story. 
John Story. 
M. B. Seton. 
Albert Shipley. 



James Todd. 

H. B. Temple. 
David Willyanl. 
H. M. Wiliams. 
F. A. Weaver. 
William Woodcock. 
Isaac Weigley. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY K, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— {Three Months' Service.) 
Recruited at Greensburg, and mustered in April 24, 1861. 
Capt., William B. Coulter; lBt lieut., H. L. Donnelly; '2d Heat., Jacob 
0. Lowry; 1st sergt,, N. Bridenthall; 2d sergt., J. D. Weaver; 3d 
sergt., James White; 4th sergt., James McKinuey ; 1st Corp., Daniel 
McCarty ; 2d corp., A. J. Schall ; 3d corp.. A. Y. Fulton ; 4th Corp., 
C. F. Smith; musicians, Robert McCarty, P. A. Williams. 



Priihites. 



George C. Anderson. 
Cyrus Brinker. 
Oliver Beatty. 
E. R. Beebe. 
Jeremiah Blinker. 
Benjamin Brubaker. 
Henry Bituer. 
C. C. Brinker. 
J. S. Baker. 
J. J. Barger. 
John A. Baker. 
Euos Baker. 
Joseph Coulter. 
Eli Chambers. 
Noah Campbell. 
Alexander Cannon. 
J. S. Douglass. 
Peter Everett. 
W. G. Foster. 
J. W. Foster. 
H.W. Fulton. 
J.W. Gebhart. 
P. F. Graham. 
A. H. Hinckley. 
Jacob Hughes. 
Gabriel Hostler. 
George Hoon. 
George K. Johnston, 
Anthony Keltz. 
Alexander Keltz. 
William H. Kuhns. 
Joho A. Kerr. 



Benjamin Lowry. 
George Landis. 
Charles Lander. 
J. II. Moore. 
J. F. McNutt. 
W. B. McCheBney. 
Thomas McGough. 
John A. Mickey. 
James Mitchell. 
J. C. McCurdy. 
J. P. McCurdy. 
S. G. McWherter. 
Samuel Murdock. 
J. H. Newcomer. 
Joshua Newcomer. 
Alexander Nicely. 
J. T. Nicewonger. 
John Nicholls. 
John Omsler. 
H. B. Peiper. 
R. R. Roberts. 
Lewis Ross. 
John E. Reed. 
W. C. Strickler. 
Absalom Schall. 
Philip S. Skelly. 
Anthony Stump. 
Andrew Steel. 
Joshua Swartz. 
Lahan Smith. 
J. C. Vennata. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY C, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— {Three Years 1 Service.) 
Recruited at Latrobe. 
Capt. Jacob J. Bierer, must, in Sept. 9, 1861 ; wounded at Second Bull 

Run ; disch. April 2, 1864. 
Capt. Absalom Schall, must, in Sept. 9, 1861 ; wounded at Second Bull 

Run; pro. from 2d lieut. March 28, 1864; disch. July 5, 1864, for 

woundB received in Wilderness. 
Capt. William S. Ellis, must, in Dec. 20, 1861 ; trans, from Co. K, 90th 

Regt. ; disch. Dec. 19, 1864. 
lBt Lieut. John McCHntock, must, in Sept. 9,1861; wounded and cap- 
tured at Second Bull Run; disch. May 21, 1863, for wounds received. 
1st Lieut. W. H. McLaughlin, muBt. in Sept. 9, 1861 ; pro. to sergt. April 

1, 1864; to 2d lieut. Nov. 1, 1864; to 1st lieut. Dec. 5, 1864; com. 

capt. June 30, 1865; not must. ; must, out with company; veteran. 
2d Lieut. H. D. Weller, must, in Sept. 9, 1861 ; wounded at Antietam; 

pro. from private to sergt. April 1, 1864 ; to 1st sergt. ; to 2d lieut. 

Dec. 17, 1864 ; res. June 21, 1S65 j veteran. 
1st Sergt. Samuel S. Bierer ; wounded at Second Bull Run and Antietam ; 

disch. Sept. 28, 1864. 
1st Sergt. David P. Bricker, pro. to 1st sergt. ; must, out with company ; 

veteran. 
Sergt. W. D. Patterson, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. on surgeon's 

certificate April 17, 1863. 
Sergt. R. F. Knox, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. on surgeon's 

certificate Aug. 14, 1863. 



Sergt. Benjamin Johnson, trans, to Vet. Res. CorpB April 10, 1864. 

Sergt. A. A. Brinker, disch. by general orders June 9, 1865 ; vetoran. 

Sergt. John Bodder, pro. to sergt. ; must, out with company; veteran. 

Sergt. Daniel Dunlap, pro. to sergt. Jan. 14, 1865 ; must, out with com- 
pany ; veteran. 

Sergt. Daniel Thomas, pro. to sergt. June 14, 1865 ; must, out with com- 
pany. 

Sergt. James McDowell, wounded at Second Bull Run ; pro. to sergt. 
June 14, 1865; veteran. 

Sergt. Patrick McKenna, disch. March 25, 1865. 

Sergt. Daniel Rodgers, disch. Feb. 7, 1865. 

Corp. George E. Andersou, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

Corp. John II. Johnson, wounded at Fredericksburg ; disch. on surgeon's 
certificate Feb. 2, 1863. 

Corp. J. M. Thomas, must, out as private ; veteran. 

Corp. George A. Parks, disch. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 7, 1863. 

Corp. J. R. Nichols, Jan. IS, 1863. 

Corp. William Matthews, wounded at Second Bull Run ; died March 4, 
1865, of wounds received at Hatcher's Run ; veteran. 

Corp. F. B. Welby, disch. Nov. 13, 1S62, for wounds received at Antietam. 

Corp. J. A. McQuown, disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 

Corp. J. P. Noell, pro. to corp. June 14, 1865. 

Corp. W. H. Fritz, pro. to Corp. June 14, 1865. 

Corp. J. M. Mitchell, pro. to Corp. June 14, 1865. 

Corp. R. R. Madden, wounded at Fredericksburg; pro. to corp. June 14, 
1865. 

Corp. G. W. Kelly, pro. to corp. June 14, 1865. 

Corp. John H. McKalip, wounded at Antietam and Gettysburg; disch. 
Dec. 9,1864. 

Corp. John Carnes, disch. Jan. 31, 1865. 

Corp. Henry Seaton, disch. Nov. 2, 1862, for wounds received at An- 
tietam. 

Corp. E. S. Dennis, disch. Feb. 16, 1865. 

Corp. G. W. Bentley, disch. Feb. 16, 1865. 

Corp. J. W. Wardell, disch. Jan. 21, 1865. 

Corp. David Galloway, Jan. 18, 1863. 

Musician Robert McCartney, disch. on surgeon's certificate Oct. 11, 1862. 

Musician John R. Hull, disch. Sept. 10, 1864. 

Privates. 

W. J. AkeiiB, must, out with company July 1, 1865. 

John Adams. 

William Ankerman, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. on surgeon's 
certificate March 17, 1863. 

John Ansley, disch. by general order June 14, 1865. 

J. G. Anderson. 

Henry Brinker, wounded at Fredericksburg; trans, to Vet. ReB. Corps 
Feb. 15, 1864. 

George Bush, drafted. 

Jacob Blackston, disch. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 31, 1863. 

James W. Byers, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. on surgeon's cer- 
tificate Feb. 19, 1863. 

Cyrus Bowman, substitute ; disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 

Simon Ilrinker, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. by general order 
June 14, 1865; veteran. 

S. H. Byron, disch. Feb. 15, 1865. 

Frank Bair, substitute; disch. by general order June 5, 1865. 

Alexander Bell, disch. April 8, 1862. 

S. A. Brady, disch. Dec. 4, 1862. 

Henry Bollinger, wounded at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettys- 
burg ; disch. June 9, 1865 ; veteran. 

Henry A. Brinker, died June 5, 1864; buried in National Cemetery at 
Arlington. 

Henry Bodder, trans, to Vet. Res. CorpB Nov. 15, 1863. 

David Bailey, died July 6, 1864, of wounds received at Bethesda Church. 

R. J. Barr, died Sept. 3, 1864. 

David Brinker, died Nov. 15, 1861. 

A. J. Bates, died Oct. 17, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull Run. 

W. H. Bricker, Dec. 20, 1*62. 

Robert Black, died Sept. 18, 1864. 

S. H. Byrne, sick at must. out. 

George Coat, must, out with company. 

Cyrus Chambers, killed at Fredericksburg Dec. 14, 1862. 

J. B. Chamberlain, drafted. 

G. W. Curry, wounded at Antietam and Gettysburg; died at Cedar 
Mountain Jan. 2, 1864. 

John Conny, drafted. 



468 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



C. A. Campbell, died at Andersonville Oct. 26, 1864; veteran. 
Peter Connell, substitute. 

L. B. Correll, disch. April 29, 1862. 

Amos Campbell, killed at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

Joseph Cole, substitute ; disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 

James Conners, disch. by general order June 2, 1865. 

William Chambers, substitute; disch. by general order June 7, 1865. 

James Cole, disch. Dec. 22, 1864. 

A. Cooper, disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 

John Cain, disch. by general order June 14, 1865. 

Uriah Cannon, died May 27, 1864. 

Hugh Cannon, killed at Throughfare Gap Aug. 28, 1862. 

L. Clutter, died at Andersonville Sept. 13, 1864. 

Joseph Doan, wounded at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

Israel Dessinger, drafted ; sick at must. out. 

D. P. Dunkel, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Sept. 1, 

1863. 

William Dullinger, killed at Wilderness May 5, 1864. 

Andrew Dailey. 

James M. Farewell, drafted. 

John Fry, wounded at Antietam and Gettysburg ; disch. Dec. 15, 1864. 

James Green, disch. by general order June 26, 1865. 

Edward Grey, substitute; wounded at Five Forks April 1, 1865. 

George Groft, drafted. 

W. H. Griffith, disch. by general order June 14, 1865. 

Joseph Gibson, disch. on surg. cert. .Tune 12, 1862. 

John Gibson, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 1, 1865. 

Thomas E. Giffin, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

Daniel Hester, disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 

Jacob Huffman, wounded at Fredericksburg; veteran. 

John Henderson, wounded at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg; veteran. 

Warner Hacox, veteran. 

John Harper, veteran. 

Philip Hoffman, sick at muster out. 

David Halby, captured at Weldon Railroad Aug. 19, 1864. 

Michael Huffman, wounded at Gettysburg; veteran. 

Reuben Hughes, disch. June 12, 1862. 

Henry Hooker, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. April 30, 1863. 

James Hall, disch. April 14, 1863. 

Samuel Hope, disch. Oct. 13, 1861. 

1). E. Huffman, disch. Oct. 17, 1862. 

James Herbison, died at Salisbury Oct. 16, 1864. 

John S. Hice, died Dec. 6, 1864. 

James Hutchinson, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

Cyrus Hayes, wounded at Antietam. 

David B. Hughes, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1864, to March 3, 1865; disch. 
April 22, 1865. 

James A.Johnston, wounded at Second Bull Run and Antietam; disch. 
Feb. 20, 1863. 

George W. Johnstone, July 18, 1864 ; veteran. 

Michael King, substitute. 

John V. Kuhns, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. Jan. 24, 1863. 

Reuben Kuhns, died Aug. 23, 1864. 

John Kerns, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

G. J. Kreegher, Dec. 22, 1863. 

John P. Loudon, drafted. 

William Leslie, disch. Dec. 15, 1864 ; veteran. 

James F. Loughery, disch. March 25, 1862. 

William Lissinger, wounded at Gettysburg; disch. Dec. 16, 1863. 

William Locus, killed at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

A. H. Mowry, died at City Point Jnue 28, 1864. 

J. A. Mooreland, died at Salisbury Oct. 7, 1864. 

William Mitchell, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

J. B. McDowell, died Sept. 17, 1S62, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run. 

Jonathan Matthews, died Sept. 25, 1862, of wounds received at Thor- 
oughfare Gap. 

S. C. Myers. 

Christian Myers, substitute, wounded at Hatcher's Run Feb. 7, 1865; 
disch. by general order June 9, 1865. 

Robert McBurney, veteran. 

J. W. Martin. 

W. L. Moore, drafted. 

John Martin, drafted. 

M. D. C. Marsh. 

Levi McHenry, captured at Weldon Railroad Aug. 19, 1864. 

J. C. Merriman, substitute. 



William Matthews, disch. March 17, 1862, 

William Manges, disch. Dec. 22, 1864. 

David Malay, substitute, disch. by general order May 31, 1864. 

G. W. Matteison, substitute, disch. by general order May 31, 1864. 

Alexander Moore, wounded at Thoroughfare Gap Aug. 28, 1862; disch. 

by general order June 9, 1865 ; veteran . 
John H. Miller, disch. March 25,1863. 
Robert McDowell, disch. Oct. 28, 1863. 

John Marshall, wounded at Antietam; disch. Feb. 17, 1863. 
Jacob Miller, disch. June 12, 1865. 

Clay Mickey, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865 ; veteran. 
Daniel Matthews, wounded at Antietam. 
John A. McCartney, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 24, 1865. 
Israel Miller, trans, to 2d U. S. Cav. Nov. 20, 1862. 
Cephas McKelvey, wounded at Gettysburg; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps 

Nov. 15, 1863. 
C. L. McLaughlin, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps March 15, 1864. 
R. M. Mickey, died at City Point Jan. 24, 1865. 
J. A. McMillan, wounded at Gettysburg ; died Nov. 10, 1864. 
W. F. Mewherter, killed at Old Church, Va., June 1, 1864. 
Jonas Noel, veteran. 

O. Newcomer, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 
W. H. Nicely, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 
George Pilgrim, substitute, disch. by general order May 31, 1865. 
Fred Piatt, drafted, disch. by general order July 11, 1865. 
J. C. Perrigo, disch. May 31, 1865. 

J. C. Patterson, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Feb. 19, 1863. 
Daniel Parks, disch. Jan. 22, 1863. 
C. G. Perkins, disch. June 14, 1865. 
J. C. Parks, died Jan. 4, 1862. 
T. W. Reighard, drafted. 

J. Rifclinger, wounded at Second Bull Run ; veteran. 
Jacob Rose, substitute, disch. May 31, 1865. 
J. F. Riley, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Dec. 6, 1862. 
William Rook, disch. Feb. 20, 1863. 
W. H. Ramsey, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Feb. 15, 1863. 
A. Reiter, killed at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

M. P. Rough, died Oct. 9, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull Run. 
A. Rocche, drafted, prisoner from May 6, 1864, to Nov. 27, 1864; disch. 

Oct. 2, 1865. 
G. W. Saxer, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1864, to Sept. 24, 1864; disch. April 

8, 1865. 
R. M. Smith, veteran. 

II. M. Smith, wounded at Antietam : veteran. 
John Levans, disch. June 7, 1865. 

A. Shroup, wounded at Five Points April 2, 1865; disch. June 22, 1865. 
L. W. Shew, prisoner from May 6, 1864, to Dec. 13, 1864. 

F. P. Sheiry, disch. June 14, 1865. 

G. W. Scott, disch. May 31, 1865. 

William Stark, drafted, captured Aug. 19, 1864, escaped April 11, 1865; 
disch. June 1, 1865. 

A. Snyder, disch. June 5, 1865. 

Aug. Snyder, trans, to S7th Regiment June 22, 1865. 

Jacob Stresler, died at Salisbury Nov. 27, 1864. 

Allison Shields, died at Salisbury Nov. 29, 1864. 

J. A. J. Scott, killed at Laurel Hill May 10, 1864. 

A. S. Shedron, died at Warrenton, Va., July 30, 1862. 

John Stickle, died at Catlett's Station, Va.. Aug. 28, 1862. 

.lames Shanefelt, killed at Antietam Sept. 18, 1862. 

John Stebbins, Oct. 29, 1864. 

A. Stickle, Dec. 20, 1862. 

John Silvan, Dec. 1, 1862. 

C. N. Shephard, wounded at Petersburg; disch. May 18, 1865. 

F. M. Smith, died Nov. 29, 1861. 
i C. W. Thomas, wounded at Weldon Railroad ; veteran. 

Henry Towson, drafted ; wounded at WildernesB. 

J. W. Thomas, disch. Sept. 9, 1864. 
■ W.J. Topper, disch. Jan. 25, 1864. 

S. B. T ranger, killed at Gettysburg. 

Thomas Ward, disch. Jan. 4, 1865. 

James Williams, drafted. 

Aaron Woods, drafted. 

Emanuel Wear, disch. Dec. 24, 1864. 

George Walters, disch. June 14, 1865. 

J. B. Wilson, disch. June 7, 1865. 

J. Wadsworth, disch. Sept. 11, 1861. 

S. M. Welty, disch. May 30, 1862. 



APPENDICES. 



469 



Robert White, diach. June 14, 1865. 

W. B. Welty, killed lit Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

F. C. Weaver, Jan. 18, 1863. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY E, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— (Three Years' Service.) 

Recruited at Latrobe and Ligonier. 
Capt. J. C. MeCurdy, discli. on surgeon's certificate April 7, 1863. 
Capt. H. B. Piper, wounded at. Antietam and Gettysburg ; pro. from 2d 

to 1st lieut. Aug. 30, 1862; to capt. June 30,1863; disch. on surgeon's 

certificate Nov. 25, 1864. 
Capt. J. J. Briggs, pro. from hosp. steward 11th Regt. to 2d lieut. March 

28,1864; to 1st lieut. Oct. 30, 1864; to capt. Dec. 26, 1864; wounded 

at Wilderness; veteran. 
1st Lieut. G. R. Dalbey, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 
lBt Lieut. S.J. Hammill, pro. to 1st sergt. Oct. 18,1861 ; to 2d lieut. Aug. 

30, 1862; to 1st lieut. March 28, 1864 ; disch. Sept. 7, 1864, for wounds 

received at Wilderuess. 
1st Lieut. Daniel Bonbright, must, as musician ; pro. to sergt. ; to 2d and 

1st lieut.; veteran. 
2d Lieut. Jacob H. Murdoch, wounded and captured Aug. 28, 1862 ; pro. 

from corp. to sergt.; to 2d lieut. 
1st Sergt. W. R. Huber, pro to qr,-mr. sergt. Oct. 18, 1861. 
1st Sergt. J. Alconn, wounded at Gettysburg; pro. to 1st sergt; veteran. 
1st Sergt. D. C. Murphy, wounded at Gettysburg ; pro. to corp. and sergt. ; 

disch. June 9, 1865; veteran. 
1st Sergt. Jamea Thompson, pro. to sergt. and 1st sergt.; veteran. 
Sergt. C. S. Walker, killed at Fredericksburg. 

Sergt. Henry Bitner, wounded at Fredericksburg ; disch. April 20, 1863. 
Sergt. James Clark, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 26, 1864. 
Sergt. W. H. Zimmerman, pro. from corp. ; wounded at Second Bull 

Run ; died June 29, 1864, of wounds received at Wilderness ; veteran. 
Sergt. R. F. Skiles, prisoner at Gettysburg ; died Aug. 29, 1864, of wounds 

received at Weldon Railroad; veteran. 
Sergt. J. S. Liester, disch. Dec. 6, 1864. 

Sergt. W. H. Paul, wounded May 5, 1864; disch. Feb. 11, 1865. 
Sergt. J. B. Hamill, disch. June 7, 1865 ; veteran. 
Sergt. J. W. Mack, pro. from corp. ; prisoner at Gettysburg ; disch. June 

9, 1865; veteran. 
Sergt. H. Austraw, pro. to Corp.; to sergt; wounded Feb. 6, 18G5 ; 

veteran. 
Sergt. T. J. Davison, pro. to corp. ; to sergt.; veteran. 
Sergt. S. L. Anderson, pro. to Corp. ; 10 sergt. 

Sergt. D. Ambrose, prisoner at Second Bull Bun; wounded at Gettys- 
burg; pro. to corp. and sergt.; veteran. 
Sergt. E. S. Mevins, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps April 10, 1864. 
Corp. N. M. Piper, died Jan. 27, 1862. 
Corp. J. J. Hanger, wounded Aug. 28, 1862; died Dec. 19, 1862, of 

wounds received at Fredericksburg. 
Corp. Hugh Orr, wounded at Second Bull Run; trans, to Vet. Res. 

Corps. 
Corp. G. W. Brandt, wounded at Second Bull Run ; prisoner at Gettys- 
burg; killed at Weldon Railroad Aug. 19, 1864; veteran. 
Corp. Daniel Igo, disch. Jan. 12, 1863, for wounds received at Antietam. 
Corp. T. P. McKelvey, wounded at Antietam; disch. March 27, 1865. 
Corp. G. W. Reed, disch. June 24, 1865. 

Corp. R. A. Shearer, pro. to corp. ; wouuded May 10, 1864 ; veteran. 
Corp. S. N. Park, pro. to corp. 
Corp. J. B. Sweeney, pro. to corp. 

Corp. J. W. Mason, wounded at Gettysburg; veteran ; pro. to corp. 
Corp. J. D. Witherow, wounded at Second Bull Run ; veteran; pro. to 

corp. 
Corp. John Burke, wounded at Second Bull Run ; veteran ; pro. to corp. 
Corp. Jacob Pahel, pro. to corp. 
Corp. E. J. Reed, pro. to corp. 
Corp. C. H. Weimer, veteran. 

Musician Richard McHenry, disch. March 2, 1865. 
Musician Morris Burke, disch. April 2, 1865. 

Privates. 
William Ambrose, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 
W. H. Ashbaugh, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Sept. 1, 1863. 
Daniel Ashbaugh, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 
W. Barnes. 

J. H. Blair, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Oct. 29, 1862. 
Franklin Bell, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. June 8, 1863. 
H. H. Bralier, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Sept. 14, 1863. 



W. B. Blair, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. Dec. 13, 1864. 

Julius Boswell, disch. Dec. 2, 1664. 

J. H. Brinker, wounded at Fredericksburg ; disch. Feb. 25, 1865. 

John Badgely, disch. March 4, 1865. 

J. J. Bowser, disch. June 17, 1865. 

J. A. Bean, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps April 10, 1864. 

Robert Brady, died Sept. 21, 1862. 

S. R. Beam, died Sept. 16, 1862, »f wouuds received at Fredericksburg. 

Frederick Brant, died Feb. 1, 1865. 

Thomas J. Bell, died in Andersonville Aug. 23, 1864. 

W. W. Bailey, died in Salisbury Dec. 13, 1864. 

Jacob Boyer, wounded at Fredericksburg; died in Salisbury Jan. 31," 

1865; veteran. 
Daniel Batchelder. 
J. P. Clark, veteran. 
J. R. Clark. 

W. A. Cramer, wounded at Fredericksburg; veteran. 
W. A. Campbell, wounded July 1, 1863. 
E. S. Campbell, veteran. 

Philip Coyle, drafted ; wounded at Wilderness. 
William Craig, drafted. 
William Custard. 

J. S. Crawford, disch. Nov. 29, 1861, 
H. H. Craig, disch. Jan. 1, 1862. 
E. K. Caven, discli. May 26, 1862. 
Israel Clark, prisoner; veteran. 
Philip Callaver, disch. June 7, 1865. 
J. Cunningham, disch. Feb. 24, 1865. 
James Clark, disch. Feb. 27, 1865. 

C. H. Clifford, pro. to commissary -sergeant 11th Regt. Dec. 1, 1863. 
J. M. Campbell, died Nov. 26, 1861. 

R. D. Campbell, died at Andersonville Aug. 14, 1864. 

J. M. Campbell, died at Salisbury Nov. 5, 1864. 

John W. Campbell. 

Samuel Duwney, prisoner at Gettysburg; veteran. 

Victor Dungan, trans, to 90th Regt. 

J. C. Douglass, disch. Sept. 24, 1864; veteran. 

T. W. Davison, disch. March 16, 1864. 

Alfred Dunn, disch. Dec. 6, 1864. 

M. 0. Daily, disch. Dec. 16, 1864. 

John Dicker, disch. June 19, 1865. 

James Downey, died May 16, 1862. 

Jacob Donaho, died March 30, 1865. 

Cicero Ewing, disch. Oct. 17, 1861. 

James Elliott, disch. Dec. 2,1864. 

John L. Fees, wounded Feb. 6, 1865 ; disch. Feb. 27, 1865. 

Philip Freeman, disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

John Flanagan, disch. Jan. 6, 1865. 

D. F. Fry, disch. June 13, 1865. 
David Freidline, disch. June 13, 1865. 
William Farrow, disch. May 30, 1865. 

Samuel Felton, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps March 15, 1864. 

William Fink, wounded Aug. 28, 1862; died Dec. 24, 1864. 

A. C. Freeman, wounded at Gettysburg; died at Wilmington, N. C, 
March 18, 1865 ; veteran. 

Daniel Felgar, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

William Fay, died Jan. 5, 1863. 

David Green. 

J. L. Grove, disch. July 17, 1862, on surgeon's certificate. 

Andrew Grove, discli. Nov. 27, 1862, ou surgeon's certificate. 

John J. Grove, disch. June 14, 1865. 

W. C. Grove, prisoner at Gettysburg ; died July 26, 1864, of wounds re- 
ceived at Petersburg June 24, 1865. 

Charles Huber, substitute. 

Louis llitzman, substitute; wouuded Feb. 7, 1865. 

Samuel Homes, substitute. 

Antonio Hunt, drafted; wounded May 5, 1864. 

William Hazlett, disch. June 14, 1865. 

Benjamin Hysong, wounded at Thoroughfare Gap; disch. Feb. 11, 1863. 

Josiah Hanger, wounded at Gettysburg ; disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

John Hunter, disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

Samuel Harkness, disch. Feb. 24, 1864. 

A. A. Hennings, disch. March 2, 1865. 

George Harrington, disch. June 17, 1865. 

J. N. Halehold, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

R. H. Hood, died at Salisbury, Dec. 17, 1864. 

Jacob Halby, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1865. 



470 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



J. H. Harbison, Jan. 19, 1863. 

Noah Harman, March 21, 1865. 

Charles Jennings, drafted ; wounded at Wilderness May 5, 1864. 

E. A. Jew-art. 

Anthony Johnston, disch. June 9, 1865. 

James Jamison, disch. June 9, l*u5. 

Jeremiah Kulp, must, out with company. 

James King, must, out with company. 

C. H. Kennedy, disch. June 3, 1866. 

Porter Kelly, disch. June 9, 1865; veteran. 

Samuel Knox, killed at Weldon Railroad Aug. 19, 1864. 

Isaac Larimer, died at Andersonville July 9, 1864. 

Caleh Lancaster, drafted. 

J. H. Love, wounded at Fredericksburg; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Cyrus Lilley, died Nov. 29, 1861. 

E. W. Lenhart, died March 5, 1864; veteran. 
J. G. McCoy. 

Joshua McCraken. 

Samuel Miller, Jr., drafted; disch. July 3, 1865. 

John K. McChesney, disch. May 2, 1865. 

George J. McCreery. 

George H. Murphy, wounded and prisoner at Second Bull Run. 

John M. Mack, wounded at Thoroughfare Gap; disch. Jan. 31, 1863. 

John D. Mack, disch. Feb. 6, 1863. 

William McClelland, disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

T. A. McCullough, disch. Dec. 26, 1864. 

Martin McCormick, disch. Feb. 7, 1865. 

Ira F. Murphy, disch. March 3, 1865. 

H. H. Miller, disch. March 30, 1865 ; veteran. 

Jacob Mack, disch. March 21, 1865. 

James Mack, disch. Oct 6, 1864. 

George Magg, disch. May 25, 1865. 

Michael McCormick, disch. June 9, 1865. 

William Mortimer, drafted; disch. May 30, 1865. 

T. B. McKelvey, wounded at Autietam; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

T. Vv. McCreery, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

F. McConiiaughey, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 
William Mock, died of wounds received at Second Bull Run. 
John McDonald, died March 15, 1864; veteran. 

Samuel Mc Master, died Sept. 1, 1864, of wounds received at Weldon 

Railroad. 
J. J. McClaren,died Feb. 14, 1865. 
W. A. McCurdy, killed in Wilderness May 6,1864. 
John Mack, Sr., Jan. 20, 1863. 
Jacob Miller, died Dec. 7, 1864. 
Alex. Martin, died Sept. 16, 1862, of wounds received at Thoroughfare 

Gap. 
T. P. McKelvey, wounded at Gettysburg. 
Michael O'Neil, wounded. 

G. H. Ogden, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. Oct. 29, 1862. 
R. M. Phillipi, prisoner Aug. 31, 1862 ; veteran. 

John W. Park, disch. June 27, 1865. 

G. A. Park, missing April 1, 1865. 

Lewis Price, disch. Dec. 16, 1864. 

W. H. Phillips, disch. Dec. 30, 1864. 

J. H. Park, disch. June 15, 1865. 

T. E. Peoples, disch. Nov. 23, 1861 ; died Nov. 30, 1861. 

R. II. Phipps, died Sept. 15, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 

Run. 
David Rahel, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1864. 
Alexander Rahel, killed Dec. 7, 1864. 
Morgan Pile, deserted March 21, 1865. 
James Quigley, disch. May 11, 1865. 
Thomas Rhay, veteran. 
William Rector, veteran. 
John Rager. 

R. F. Richardson, wounded March 31, 1865. 
Robert Ramsey, disch. May 20, 1862. 

R. L. Robb, wounded at Fredericksburg; died March 11, 1864. 
J. M. Shirley, veteran. 
Jacob Sible, wounded Feb. 6, 1865. 
Joseph Smith. 

John Slaven, drafted; wounded at Spottsylvania. 
F. M. Shaffer, disch. April 11, 1862. 
J. H. Scroggs, disch. Jan. 6, 1863. 
James St. Clair, disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 
Robert Sagerson, disch. Oct. 3, 1864; wounded at Fredericksburg. 



J. S. Snodgrass, disch. Dec. 2, 1864. 

D. W. Sowders, disch. Jan. 7, 1865. 

George Singleword, disch. Feb. 27, 1865. 

O. H. Scott, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps April 10, 1864. 

P. S. Smith, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps March 20, 1865. 

George D. Smith, died March 17, 1864, of wounds received at Second 
Bull Run. 

Henry Stump, wounded at Cedar Mountain ; prisoner at Gettysburg 
killed at Spottsylvania. 

David Sbeldrou, died Dec. 19, 1861. 

C. F. Simpson, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1864, to March 19,1865. 

Alexander Tautlinger, disch. Dec. 14, 1864; veteran. 

William Tosh. 

Moses Thompson. 

John W. Thompson, disch. Feb. 15, 1865. 

John Taylor, disch. Dec. 23, 1862. 

Henry Taylor, killed at Bethesda Church June 3, 1864. 

J. B. Wissiuger, wounded May 5, 1864. 

Robert Walsh. 

John F. Wakefield, disch. May 13, 1865. 

0. E. Woodcock, disch. June 11, 1865. 

N. Wilkins, disch. Dec. 23, 1862. 

R. H. Wilt, wounded Aug. 28,1862; died Oct. 2, 1862, of wounds re- 
ceived at Antietam. 

Benjamin Bealey, disch. May 21, 1862. 

William Youug, disch. May 31, 1865. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— {T}iree Fears' Service.) 
Recruited at Salem. 

Capt. David M. Cook, res. Oct. 12, 1862. 

Capt. Edward H. Gay, pro. from sergt.-maj. to 2d lieut.; to capt.; 
wounded at Gettysburg and Antietam ; died March 12, 1864. 

Capt. James T. Chalfant, pro. from 1st lieut; captured in Wilderness 
May 5, 1864 ; disch. May 11, 1865. 

1st Lieut. Israel Uncapher, pro. to adjt. 11th Regt. March 10, 1862. 

1st Lieut. M. J. Kettering, pro. to 1st sergt ; to 1st lieut. ; wounded at 
Second Bull Run; disch. Oct. 31, 1862. 

1st Lieut Robert Anderson, wounded at Wilderness ; pro. from sergt. 
Co. K to 2d lieut.; to 1st lieut.; to qr.-mr. 11th Regt. Dec. 5,1864. 

1st Lieut. Samuel McCutcheu, pro. to corp. ; to sergt. ; to 2d lieut.; to 1st 
lieut.; wounded at Antietam; veteran. 

2d Lieut. William McCutcheu, died Feb. 17, 1862. 

2d lieut. James S. Cook. pro. to sergt. ; to 1st sergt. ; to 2d lieut. ; wounded 
at Second Bull Run; veteran. 

1st Sergt. M. G. Stock, trans, to Co. K June 12, 1862. 

1st Sergt. E. R. Wise, wounded at Gettysburg; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

1st Sergt. John Robsou, disch. March 1, 1865. 

1st Sergt. Jeremiah Tawney, wounded Dec. 13, 1862; pro. to sergt.; to 
1st sergt. ; veteran. 

Sergt. S. G. Thompson, disch. Dec. 20, 1862. 

Sergt. S. S. Williams, disch. Feb. 6, 1863, for wounds. 

Sergt. S. M. Hilty, disch. Feb. 20, 1863, for wounds received at Freder- 
icksburg. 

Sergt. J. L. Bash, disch. March 16, 1863, for wounds received at Freder- 
icksburg. 

Sergt. T. E. Berger, disch. March 28, 1865. 

Sergt. John Shields, disch. April 15, 1865. 

Sergt. C. G. Swoupe, pro. to corp.; to sergt.; prisoner; veteran. 

Sergt. S. G. Walthuur, wounded at Second Bull Run ; veteran. 

Sergt. G. W. Parker, wounded al Gettysburg; veteran. 

Sergt. M. L. Carnaban, pro. to sergt. May 1, 1865. 

Sergt. W. S. Williams, must, as musician ; pro. to Bergt. June 1, 1865 ; 
veteran. 

Corp. Charles Harvey, disch. Nov. 12, 1862. 

Corp. David Steel, disch. Dec. 30,1863. 

Corp. W. C. Bryant, disch. Dec. 30, 1863. 

Corp. T. F. Fenlin, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1864, to March 12, 1865. 

Corp. P. K. Faulk, disch. Nov. 4, 1864. 

Corp. Boaz Martz, disch. Jan. 12. 1865. 

Corp. Gideon Giuter, disch. Jan. 12, 1865. 

Corp. R. R. Mulford, disch. Jan. 22, 1865. 

Corp. A. M. Theiss, disch. Jan. 27, 1865. 

Corp. L. P. Bash, veteran. 

Corp. Philip Snow, wounded Feb. 6, 1865; veteran. 

Corp. W. H. Hotham, wounded March 31, 1865; veteran. 

Corp. James Hutchinson, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 



APPENDICES. 



471 



Corp. Abram Hysong, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. \V. E. Stauffer, pro. to corp. June 1, 1805. 

Corp. James Taylor, pro. to corp. June 1, 1865. 

Corp. John Kennedy, pro. to corp. June 1, 1865. 

Corp. John Hippard, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps April 10, 1864. 

Musician J. M. Keller, disch. March 22, 1865. 

Musician W. C. Robinson, disch. March 22, 1865. 

Privates. 

Daniel Apt, wounded Sept. 17, 1862. 

J. A. Anderson, wounded May 6, 1804. 

S. M. Anderson. 

Benjamin Adams, drafted; disch. July 6, 1865. 

T. C. Ashman, disch. March 28, 1865. 

Samuel Adams, trans, to Vet. lies. Corps Dec. 23, 1864. 

William Atchinson, died of wounds May 25, 1864. 

M. E. Alms, died at Salisbury ; veteran. 

David Ackison, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

Kirk Brown. 

Daniel Beard, disch. June 5, 1865. 

George Barber, disch. June 9, 1805. 

John H. Baker, disch. Oct. 29, 1802. 

Thomas Bedo, wounded at Autietam; disch. Dec. 19, 1863. 

P. W. Brenneman, wounded at Second Bull Run and Gettysburg; died 

May 12, 1804. 
S. P. Bridge, died June 20, 1864, of wounds received at Petersburg. 
John G. Bricker, died Dec. 10, 1861. 
Henry Brennemau, died Dec. 29, 1861. 

D. M. Bash, killed at Second Bull Run. 

Hugh Bleakley, died Dec. 16, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull Run. 

John A. Bear, killed at Autietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

John Bills, Dec. 11, 1862. 

George Boder, June 9, 1862. 

T. Buyer, died at Andersonville Oct. 29, 1864. 

Hugh Bleakney, died March 17, 1864. 

Thomas Bell, killed at Wilderness, May 6, 1861. 

William Carterwiler, veteran. 

Henry Caldwell. 

David Cowan, wounded May 6, 1864. 

Francis Clow, wounded May 0, 1804. 

James Cline. 

Jacob Crise, disch. Jan. 28, 1865. 

Samuel Criee, disch. June 9, 1805, veteran. 

W. H. Chorpenning, died of wounds June 3, 1864. 

Edward Coulter, died April 3, 1865, of wounds received at Gravely Run. 

William Crise, died May 12, 1864, of wounds received at Wilderness. 

John T. Coulter, May 24, 1864. 

Michael Cleary, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

J. M. Derby, wounded at Gettysburg ; veteran. 

Andrew Downy. 

Francis Dowerty. 

Thomas Dillen, drafted. 

Charles Dailey, disch. Jan. 23, 1805. 

Archibald Downey, disch. June 9, 1865 ; veteran. 

J. A. Dumbauld, wounded at Second Bull Run ; died March 28, 1863. 

George Dunbar, deserted April 4, 1865. 

William Emery, drafted. 

John A. Edman, disch. Jan. 28, 1865. 

Robert El wod, wounded at Second Bull Run; died May 6, 1864, of wounds 

received in Wilderness. 
C. Edwards, died May 21, 1864, of wouuds received in Wilderness. 
Henry Fisher, drafted. 
Theodore Fredericks, disch. Jan. 11, 1805. 
George S. Fellebaum, wounded at Antietam ; died July 2, 1863, of wounds 

received at Gettysburg. 
William Felton, Feb. 23, 1864. 
John A. Fitchett. 
Alexauder Flex, disch. June 23, 1865. 

E. W. Gould, drafted. 

David Gray, drafted ; wounded May 5, 1864. 

James Gillen, killed at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 

W. S. Greer, disch. Feb. 5, 1863. 

James Hoi lis, veteran. 

W. S. Harris, disch. July 3, 1865. 

James Halfpenny, drafted. 

Daniel Hutchinson, disch. May 13, 1865. 

David Heasley, disch. Dec. 19, 1863. 



Eli Hitty, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 23, 1865. 
Jacob Harrold, Nov. 8, 1861. 
John Healey, July 25, 1862. 
John Hobert. 
W. Hickenlooper. 

B. F. Jobe, disch. May 12, 1864, for wounds received in Wilderness. 
Harvey Kennedy, died Oct. 4, 1864. 

John 0. Koontz, veteran. 

E. F. Lesser, disch. March 28, 1805. 

C. Landsperger, disch. Feb. 23, 1805. 

It. M. Lauffer, prisoner March 31, 1865; veteran. 

John Lauffer, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1804, to March 2, 1865; veteran. 

James R. Long, wounded at Second Bull Run ; Dec. 11, 1862. 

John McCabe, wounded at Gettysburg; veteran. 

Archibald McCoy, must, out with company. 

M. Morganham, must, out with company. 

William Marks, must, out with company. 

James Moss, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Oct. 25, 1864. 

Charles Merrell. disch. June 9, 1865. 

John F. Magee, disch. June 9, 1865. 

Alexander McGraw, disch. June 7, 1865. 

John C. Mohr, disch. Feb. 6, 1863. 

M. P. McCall, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Jan. 17, 1863. 

John S. Martin, trans, to Vet, Res. Corps Jan. 17, 1865. 

J. J. McCutchen, died Dec. 10, 1801. 

George Madara, died July 9, 1802. 

Michael McCleary, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

James Mellon, drafted; wounded May 5, 1864. 

Peter Minim, Feb. 28, 1865. 

Thomas Newel. 

William Nichols, wounded at Gettysburg; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Jacob Nez. 

Henry Ott, disch. March 28, 1865. 

Fred Ovely, disch. June 12, 1865. 

J. H. Obert, disch. April 15,1862. 

Scott Oaks, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

C. H. Hatty, wounded May 11, 1864. 
Thomas Price, disch. June 7, 1805. 

D. R. Powell, disch. June 7, 1865. 

Eden Powell, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps June 12, 1865; veteran. 

Austin Piles, Dec. 11, 1862. 

John A. Romey, drafted. 

Thompson Rubinson, prisoner at Fair Oaks; disch. June 3, 1865. 

P. E. Rosenberger, disch. Feb. 12, 1863. 

William Robinson, died April 1, 1865, of woundB received at Gravelly 

Run. 
Joseph Rhodes, died Feb. 8, 1862. 
S. M. Rumbaugh, killed at Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862. 
John H. Shira, disch. June 16, 1865. 
Gottlieb Striker. 

Jonathan Snively, wounded Aug. 20, 1864. 
George Sentman, Jehill Sigafoos, drafted. 
George W. Souls, disch. Oct. 17, 1804. 
John Stoner, disch. June 12, 1865. 
Henry Sansburn, disch. June 12, 1865 ; drafted. 
John Stiffy, disch. June 9, 1865. 
John Story, disch. Dec. 10, 1803. 

William Shultz, wounded at Fredericksburg; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
John E. Stouffer, wounded at Antietam and Gettysburg; died Jan. 9, 

1865; veteran. 
Peter Stouffer, died Feb. 6, 1805, of wouuds received at Hatcher's Run. 
Lack T. Steele, died May 19, 1804, of wounds received at Wilderness. 
Henry Stoner, died July 24, 1864, of wounds received at Wilderness. 
W. H. Soxman, died April 1, 1865, of wounds received at Five Points. 
Michael Shaney, died April 12, 1864. 
Joseph Smettzer, died Jan. 27, 1863. 
Henry Smith, June 21, 1862. 
John Silvis, July 25, 1862. 

J. W. Strieker, died at Andersonville, Aug. 27, 1864. 
William Tall, veteran. 
Dennis Thomas, disch. April 13, 1862. 
David Thomas, disch. May 0. 1802. 
Michael Tawney, Dec. 31, 1803. 
William Uncapher, died Feb. 12, 1863. 
John Van, Nov. 12, 1863. 

David Williard, wounded at Fredt*rirksburg ; veteran. 
Daniel Waltotir. 



472 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



John Wolf. 

James C. Watt. 

James Wilson. 

William H.Wharton. 

Charles N. Wiley, disch. March 4, 1865. 

E. H. Weister, disch. March 26, 1866. 

Samuel Williard, disch. Dec. 4, 1862. 

Isaiah White, died May 12, 1864, of wounds received in Wilderness. 

George L. Wigle, July 22, 1862. 

Francis A. Weaver, Dec. 81, 1863. 

Thomas Williamson, drafted ; captured at Weldon Railroad Aug. 19, 

1864; disch. Nov. 18, 1865. 
D. D. Yates, trans, to Co. D, Jim. 1, 1865. 

ROSTER OP COMPANY I, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— (Three Yeara 1 Service.) 
Recruited at Grt'ensburg. 

Capt. George A. Cribbs, died Sept. 20, 1862, of wounds received at Sec- 
ond Bull Run. 

Capt. Jacob N. Thomas; pro. from 2d lieut.; disch. Jan. 17, 1863. 

Capt. Andrew G. Hopper, pro. from 1st lieut. Co. G; wounded at Wilder- 
ness; prisoner from May 6 to Oct. 7, 1864; brev. major March 13, 
1865; disch. Oct. 20, 1865. 

1st Lieut. James W. Goodlin, died Dec. 14, 1862, of wounds received at 
Fredericksburg. 

1st Lieut. Tobias G. Painter, wounded at Second Bull Run and Freder- 
icksburg; pro. from corp. to sergt.; to 1st lieut.; disch. Jan. 25,1864. 

1st Lieut. William A. Shrum, pro. from sergt. Co. K to 2d lieut, to 1st 
lieut.; wounded at Tolopotomy and Norfolk Railroad; disch. for 
wounds Oct. 20, 1864. 

1st Lieut. John L. Kyle, pro. from sergt. Co. K ; veteran. 

2d Lieut. Arnold Lobaugh, pro. from 1st sergt. ; died Sept. 26, 1862, of 
wounds received at Autietam. 

2d Lieut. Lewis Mechliug, wounded at Gettysburg; pro. from private to 
Bergt; to 1st sergt; to 2d lieut. ; veteran. 

1st Sergt. Hiram A. Delavie, wounded at Second Bull Run. 

Sergt. John W. Goodlin, disch. May 22, 1862. 

Sergt. W. C. Cribbs, killed at Autietam. 

Sergt. Richard McClelland, wounded at Antietam; disch. Feb. 7, 1S63. 

Sergt. William Frightner, wounded at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862; trans, to 
Vet. Res. Corps Nov. 2, 1863. 

Sergt. W. H. Gallop, wounded May 10, 1864. 

Sergt. John V. Smith, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Sergt. John S. Shi rely, wounded at Antietam and Fredericksburg; killed 
at Five Forks April 1, 1865. 

Sergt. W. W. Walthour, wounded at Second Bull Run; trans, to Vet 
Res. Corps. 

Sergt. James McKeever, disch. June 13, 1865 ; veteran. 

Sergt. John Zimmerman, wounded at Second Bull Run ; veteran. 

Sergt. Henry Frightner, wounded at Gettysburg; veteran. 

Sergt. William Stout, pro. from ranks ; veteran. 

Corp. R. J. Henry, killed at Secoud Bull Run. 

Corp. John A. Stough, killed at Antietam. 

Corp. J. M. Miller, killed at Antietam. 

Corp. R. F. Robinson, wounded and prisoner at Second Bull Run ; killed 
at Fredericksburg. 

Corp. Joseph Baughman, captured at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

I lorp. William McQuaid, killed at Spottsylvania May S, 1864. 

Corp. H. G. Reamer, died July 13, 1864. 

Corp. A. A. Altman, prisoner from Aug. 19, 1864, to March 30,1865; 
veteran. 

Corp. George W. Beck, disch. June 7, 1865. 

Corp. A. G. Frable, disch. June 8, 1865. 

Corp. John R. Henry, wounded at Second Bull Run and Autietam. 

Corp. William Cunningham, sick at must. out. 

Corp. D. B. Weutzel, pro. to corporal June 14, 1865. 

Corp. John Baughman, pro. to corporal June 14, 1865. 

Corp. H. Spiudler, pro. to corporal June 14, 1S65. 

Corp. Daniel Laughery, wounded at Antietam; veteran. 

Corp. John Hannerly, prisoner from May 30, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865. 

Musician J. G. Steiner. 

Musician G. W. Burges, disch. June 9, 1865. 

Privates. 
D. A. Altman, wounded May 8, 1864; veteran. 
George W. Ambrose, must, out with company July 1, 1865. 
Benjamin Altman, disch. Oct. 22, 1862. 



J. S. Armbrust, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. Jan. 31, 1863. 

W. H. Altman, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Jan. 20, 1863. 

Daniel Armbrust, disch. May 20, 1862. 

John G. Armbrust, disch June 13, 1865. 

Henry R. Armbrust, disch. June 9, 1865. 

Cyrus Armbrust, disch. April 6, 1863. 

Reuben Armbrust, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps June 10, 1865. 

W. R. Armbrust, killed at Thoroughfare Gap April 28, 1862. 

Joseph Altman, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1864; veteran. 

George W. Baker, must, out with company; veteran. 

Joseph Beck, must, out with company; veteran. 

Amos Beard, disch. June 21, 1865. 

Sanford Beard, disch. July 1, 1865, with company. 

Jacob Bear, wounded at Antietam; disch. Sept. 23, 1864. 

Jesse Black, drafted ; missing at Hatcher's Run. 

John G. Bear, disch. Dec. 22, 1862. 

John Bosh, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Feb. 23, 1862. 

Solomon Beard, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Oct. 8, 1862. 

J. R. Butler, drafted; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Peter Beard, wounded at Gettysburg ; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

David Bosh, died Nov. 6, 1862, of wounds received at Antietam. 

A. Butler, died March 5, 1862. 

David Beck, died April 19, 1862. 

M. Brabaugh, died Sept. 21, 1862. 

William Custard, sick at must. out. 

Benjamin F. Crusan, substitute ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Joseph Cash, disch. Feb. 17,1865. 

W. A. Cramer, trans, to Co. E, 11th Regt. ; veteran. 

Wilson Carnes, trans, to Co. E, llth Regt. 

Jacob Croch, killed at Secoud Bull Run. 

George R. Cribbs, died May 28, 1864, of wounds received in Wilderness. 

Samuel Caldwell, died March 8, 1865. 

James Dillon, drafted; disch. Feb. 1,1865. 

Jacob S. Errett. 

Henry Errett, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. April 6, 1863. 

J. Eisaman, disch. June 17, 1865; veteran. 

Alexander Everett, disch. June 23, 1862. 

Michael Errett, died April 16, 1862. 

John Einhart, killed at Hatcher's Run Feb. 7, 1865. 

A. H. Fithian, wounded. 

Geo. A. Fry, disch. Nov. 27, 1861. 

D. E. Fox, disch. Aug. 28, 1864. 

J. W. Farlow, killed at Secoud Bull Run. 

Fred. Gress, veteran. 

Isaac Gilmore, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Geo. Gibson, died Dec. 17, 1861. 

John Good, killed at Hatcher's Run Feb. 7, 1865. 

A. Gothey, Sept. 14, 1861. 

Robert Graham, not on muster-out rolls. 

Lucas Huffman, drafted ; sent to insane asylum. 

William Huffman, substitute; sick, at muster out. 

Reuben Haiues, wounded at Second Bull Run; veteran. 

John Houston, disch. Nov. 4, 1862. 

Josiah Hilo, wounded at Antietam; disch. Aug. 13, 1863. 

Hugh Henderson, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. Jan. 31, 1863. 

Thomas Hays, drafted; disch. June 2, 1865. 

Paul Henry, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps, Jan. 17, 1865. 

M. G. Hoops, died Dec. 27, 1861. 

Frederick Henry, died at Salisbury, Sept. 18, 1864. 

Joseph H. Henry, died May 16, 1864, of wounds received at Spottsyl- 
vania. 

Jacob Harrold, Nov. 8, 1861. 

James Herbiaon, not on muster-out roll. 

S. Horton, died at Andersonville, Oct. 18, 1864. 

R. Hammond, prisoner from May 5 to Nov. 30, 1864 ; disch. Dec. 6, 1864. 

Jacob Kelly, must, out with company. 

Michael Kennedy, drafted. 

Win. Kitner, disch. March 4, 1865. 

S. S. Kepple, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Dec. 22, 1862. 

Aaron Keppler, disch. Dec. 19, 1864. 

J. D. Keister, disch. May 11, 1865. 

Wm. Kay, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Albert Kennedy, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

John L. Keister, died May 10, 1S64, of wounds received in the Wilder- 
ness. 

Levi Kliugensmith, died Aug. 1, 1864. 

C. Klingensmith, not on muster-out roll. 



APPENDICES. 



473 



Ct. Klingensmith, not on muster-out roll. 

Wm. Lewis, veteran, 

James C. Longwell, veteran. 

Israel Loughnore, wounded Aug. 28 and Sept. 17, 1802, and disch, Fob. 
4, 1863. 

M. G. Leisure, disch. Nov. 4, 18G2. 

John Linch, disch. May 19, 1865. 

Harrison Linn, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Wm. Long, kilted at Spottsylvania May 8, 1864. 

S. P. Miller, veteran. 

F. P. Miller, veteran. 

F. P. Myer, substitute. 

Charles Martin, drafted. 

David Milhion, missing in action May 6, 1864. 

Josiah Miller, diech. March 7, 1862. 

Geo. F. Miller, wounded at Autietam ; disch. Feb. 6, 1863. 

Simon Mill iron, wounded at Autietam ; disch. Nov. 30, 1864 ; veteran. 

John McCall, disch. May 18, 1863. 

Elisha Mayhorn, substitute ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

James Mann, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Henry Miller, dratted ; disch. May 12, 1865. 

P. J. Miller, died Aug. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Philip Meehling, died Sept. 21, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run. 

James McKenna, died Sept. 18, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run. 

Joseph Nutting, substitute, disch. July 14, 1865. 

John Needham, substitute. 

Solomon Osterweiss, veteran. 

Michael Osterweiss, disch. Dec. 22, 1864. 

Lewis Osterweiss, wounded at Fredericksburg; traus. to Vet. Res. CorpB. 

F. L. Piukham, substitute. 

J. P. Phillips, drafted; disch. June 22, 1865. 

H. I'elissier, wounded; veteran. 

Samuel Painter, disch. May 30, 1862. 

J. S. Portzer, killed at Autietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

Jeremiah Portzer, Oct. 3, 1862. 

Jacob Rosensteel, wounded Aug. 21, 1862, at Rappahannock Station. 

Cornelius Ross, drafted ; wounded. 

J. M. Rumbaugh, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Nov. 11, 1862. 

W. J. Row, disch. Jan. 15, 1863. 

John L. Roose, disch. Oct. 4, 1864. 

John W. Robinson, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Feb. 1, 1SG4. 

Henry Reegar, disch. June 7, 1865. 

M. Rumbaugh, died Sept. 21, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run. 

Jacob Row, killed at Wilderuess May 6, 1864. 

Adam F. Sanders, J. L. Simpson, Adam Sanner, Daniel Shrader, John 
Stewart, George L. Stauuer, "William H. Stouffer. 

William Nicely, wounded at Antietam; veteran. 

Henry Smith, must, out with company. 

Noah Sheffler, prisoner from March 30 to May 5, 1865 ; disch. May 18, 1865. 

J. G. Stough, disch. Oct. 28, 1862. 

David Smith, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. June 1, 1863. 

Henry Strable, wounded at Antietam; disch. March 11, 1863. 

Samuel Steward, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. March 11, 1863. 

Patrick Sullivan, disch. Oct. 23, 1862. 

George Sarver, disch. June 13, 1865. 

J. A. Shook, died Dec. 6, 1861. 

W. Shrum, killed in Wilderness, May 6, 1864. 

Jacob Steiner, died May 10, 1865. 

S. P. Steiner, died May 9, 1865, of wounds received at Gravelly Run. 

D. K. ShetHer, prisoner; died June 1, 1864, of woundB received at Wil- 
derness ; veteran. 

II. It. Shook., died Nov. 19, 1861. 

Jacob Strable, wounded at Antietam; died July 5, 1863, of wounds re- 
ceived at Gettysburg. 

Alexander Story. 

Hiram Smith, July 22, 1SG2. 

Franklin B. Turney, killed at Wilderness May 6, 1864; veteran. 

J. W. Wentzel, D. K. Wible, J. L. Weaver. 

James Weister, disch. June 5, 1865. 

William Weaver, disch. April 10, 1865. 

John D. Weaver, wounded at Thoroughfare Gap and Gettysburg; disch. 
Sept. 8, 1864. 

William H. Williams. 

W. H. Willard. 



William A. Wood, wounded: disch. Dec. 20, 1864. 

John Wible, disch. Dec. 15. 1864; veteran. 

J. H. Weaver, disch. Dec. 18, 1862. 

H. T. Whitlow, disch. June 15, 1865; veteran. 

Edward Welty, trans, to V. R. C. Jan. 2, 1865. 

Simon L. Wigle, killed at Wilderness May 5, 1864. 

S. B. Wentzel, died June 30, 1862. 

George Webster. 

John F. Wilson, substitute; prisoner from Feb. 6 to 15, 1865. 

Reuben Yerger, wounded at Rappahannock Station, Second Bull Run, 

and Antietam; disch. April 27, 1863. 
John L. Zanders, killed at Rappahannock Station Aug. 21, 1862. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY K, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— {Three Years' Service.) 
Recruited at Youngstown. 

Capt. John B. Keeuan, wounded at Thoroughfare Gap; captured Aug. 
31, 1862 ; pro. to maj. Sept. 1, 1862. 

Capt. John Reed, pro. from 2d lieut. Aug. 30, 1862 ; died Oct. 2, 1862, of 
wounds received at Second Bull Run. 

Capt. Josiah B. Lauffer, wouuded at Five Forks. 

1st Lieut. Walter J. Jones, res. Aug. 3, 1862. 

1st Lieut. William A. Kuhus, wounded at Autietam and Wilderness; 
pro. to corp., 2d lieut., and 1st lieut. 

2d Lieut. Freeman C. Gay, pro. from corp. to 2d lieut. ; wounded at An- 
tietam and Fredericksburg; captured at Gettysburg July 1, 1863; 
disch. by S. 0. April 28, 1865. 

1st Sergt. F. R. Cope, wounded June 24, 1864; veteran. 

IstSergt. H.B. Temple, wounded at Gettysburg; pro. from corp.; veteran. 

Sergt. John S. Walker, wounded at Gettysburg ; disch. March 12, 1864. 

Sergt. James Mullen, killed at Second Bull Run. 

Sergt. Robert Anderson, pro. to 2d lieut. Co. F, Nov. 1, 1862. 

Sergt. T. T. Simpson, veteran. 

Sergt. W. A. Shrum, pro. from corp. to sergt.; to 2d lieut. Co. I, March 
1, 1863. 

Sergt. J. C. West, wounded at Fredericksburg; trans, to V. R. C. 

Sergt. J. L. Kyle, pro. to 1st lieut. Co. I, Nov. 24, 1864 ; veteran. 

Sergt. R. W. Penn, wounded at Five Forks; died May 25, 1865. 

Sergt. W.J. Willyard, wouuded Aug. 28, 1862; pro. tosergt.-maj.; veteran. 

Sergt. G. F. Ludwick, wounded Aug. 21 aud Sept.*17, 1862; veteran. 

Sergt. William Stevenson, wounded Aug. 28 and Sept. 17, 1862; veteran. 

Sergt. Jeremiah McMunn, wounded Aug. 28, 1862, and at Gettysburg ; 
veteran. 

Corp. David Robinson, died Nov. 19, 1861. 

Corp. Charles McConnell, wounded at Fredericksburg; killed at Gettys- 
burg July 3, 1863. 

Corp. David Siegfried. 

Corp. L. P. Hays, pro. to com.-sergt. ; veteran. 

Corp. George Beck, wounded April 30, 1863; veteran. 

Corp. James McWilliams, captured at Weldon Railroad; veteran, 

Corp. Jacob Jacobs, disch. Feb. 20, 1865. 

Corp. Charles Toon, disch. March 4, 1865. 

Corp. Beruard Leonard, disch. March 12, 1865. 

Corp. Charles Ely, disch. March 12, 1865. 

Corp. Martin Root, wounded May 8, 1864; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Corp. L. Gettyweller, disch. June 9, 1865 ; veteran. 

Corp. F. Pouler, drafted; captured at Weldon Railroad; disch. June 9, 
1865. 

Corp. Alexander Sady, drafted; captured at Weldon Railroad; disch. 
Juue !), 1865. 

Corp. Henry Kelly, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865 ; veteran. 

Corp. S. O. Lowry, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. John Keslar, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. W. F. Hays, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865; veteran. 

Corp. S. C. HoUingsworth, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. J. Bosburough, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. J. Barad, died March 2, 1863. 

Musician Cyrus Gross. 

Privates. 

Theodore Anderson. 

John Bitner, must, out with company July, 1865. 

Joshua Bailey, Bub. 

John Berry, disch. June 8, 1865. 

J. C. Bleackey, wounded at Gettysburg; disch. Sept. 8. 1864. 

Joseph Berlin, wounded at Second Bull Run and Fredericksburg; disch. 
March 11, 1S63. 

J. II. Blackburn, wounded at Second Bull Run ; Sept. 14, 1862. 



474 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Joseph Blair, April 13, 1862. 

L. B. Cox, drafted ; wounded May 5, 1864. 

J. F. Cassidy, wounded May 10, 1864; veteran. 

R. E. Cruthers, drafted; wounded Feb. 6, 1865. 

H. F. Cope, disch. Feb. 23, 1862. 

William Conner, disch. Nov. 19, 1861. 

F. J. Chessner, disch. June 10, 1865. 
William Cochran, disch. June 18, 1865. 
Franklin Cune, disch. May 31, 1865 ; substitute. 
William Caldwell, drafted; disch. May 31, 1865. 
S. S. Caldwell, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 
Hiram Corwell, substitute; disch. May 16, 1865. 

J. W. Churns, wounded at Cedar Mountain Aug. 9, 1862; trans, to Vet. 

Res. Corps. 
W. H. Coll, died Jan. 31, 1863. 
William Colwity, Oct. 27, 1862. 
Henry Carnahan. 
Robert C. Covey. 

David Dunn, substitute; wounded Feb. 6, 1865. 
J. Dunmire, disch. Jan. 31, 1864. 

G. M. Eicher, veteran. 

Joshua Eckman, disch. May 25, 1865. 

Robert J. Ewing, died April 22, 1864. 

George Faust, drafted; wounded May 5, 1864. 

Jeremiah Friz. 

Thomas Freeble, disch. June 30, 1863. 

Jeremiah Fillmore, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. Oct. 18, 1861. 

Samuel Fritz, disch. Nov. 19, 1861. 

Patrick Finuell, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

H. W. Getty, drafted; wounded May 8, 1864. 

J. H. Gardener, drafted; wounded May 8, 1864. 

Henry Gibson. 

Samuel Gordon. 

David Garber, disch. Dec. 4, 1864. 

J. P. Green, substitute; disch. May 11, 1865. 

Edward H. Gay, pro. to sergt.-maj. June o, 1862. 

Peter H. Gay, died Feb. 1, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg. 

William Hinkle, drafted; wounded Aug. 18, 1864, and March 31, 1865. 

H. B. Houser, disch. Jan. 28, 1865. 

John Hutchinson, Ma"y 26, 1862 ; returned Oct. 28, 1864. 

David Horner, must, out with company. 

Hiram Hoopes, disch. for wounds Jan. 28, 1863. 

Lewis Huber, disch. Dec. 14, 1864; veteran. 

Francis Hicks, disch. for wounds Jan. 24, 1863. 

James Handlin, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

George M. Hull, disch. May 18, 1865. 

J. D. Howell, disch. Sept. 28, 1864. 

P. Markelroad, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

J. A. Hutchinson, Dec. 10, 1862. 

M. Hart, died at Andorsonville Nov. 7, 1864. 

James Irwin, disch. June 10, 1865. 

William Jones, drafted ; wounded May 5, 1864. 

Samuel Jackaway, sick at muster out. 

S. Jackson, diBch. June 15, 1865. 

Henry Kennedy, captured at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 

H. Byers Kuhns, disch. June 15, 1865; veteran. 

Edward Kelly, disch. July 19, 1862. 

S. B. Kennedy, disch. June 9, 1865; veteran. 

W. H. Kesler, disch. June 10, 1865. 

Anthony Kieffer, disch. June 24, 1862. 

Hezekiah B. Kennedy, killed at Wilderness May 6, 1864. 

Joseph Keiffer, Dec. 10, 1862. 

Michael A. King, died at Andersonville Oct. 11, 1864. 

H. Kregle, died at Andersonville, Aug. 23, 1864. 

William G. Large, wounded April 30, 1863; disch. Dec. 19, 1864. 

H. Launders, drafted. 

John Laycock, disch. June, 1864. 

William C. Low, wounded at Antietam; disch. June 24, 1863. 

W. A. Loucks, disch. June 10, 1865. 

James W. Lowry, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1864. 

William McLaughlin, drafted; wounded March 31, 1865. 

John Mills, drafted; wounded May 5, 1864. 

C. J. McLean, wounded at Fredericksburg; veteran. 

John B. McCloskey, veteran. 

John G. Matthews, veteran. 

William Miller, disch. for wounds Nov. 26, 1863. 

John McAnulty, wounded at Gettysburg; disch. Oct. 4, 1864. 



Philip McKeever, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. Dec. 31^1862. 

John D. Miller, disch. May 25, 1865. 

J. S. Moorehead, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

Andrew Miller, drafted; wounded May 5, 1864; disch. Dec. 17, 1864. 

R. II. Mellon, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Feb. 26, 1864. 

John McAnulty, Sr , died Oct. 28, 1862. 

H. S. Marshall, died of wounds Jan. 15, 1863. 

David Montgomery. 

J. Mickles, died Sept. 25, 1864. 

J. H. Nightingale, drafted; prisoner from Oct. 13, 1863, to April 29, 186 

E. J. Noel, wounded at Second Hull Run; veteran. 

S. J. Noel, disch. Nov. 27, 1863. 

Samuel Nesbit, diech. Feb. 9, 1863. 

H. S. Newingham, disch. Feb. 1, 1863. 

Edward Nichols, disch. May 26, 1865. 

John Nichols, Sr., died March 12, 1865. 

D. Newingham, deserted Dec. 10, 1862. 

Jesse Powell, disch. Oct. 1, 18G4. 

Albert Peters, wounded at Fredericksburg; disch. May 31, 1865. 

J. F. Price, killed at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 

John C. Reed, wounded at Hatcher's Run Feb. 6, 1865; veteran. 

John Roberts, drafted. 

W. J. Randolph, prisoner Aug. 10, 1864 ; veteran. 

Robert A. Reed, disch. June 14, 1862. 

William Roof, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

John Ringer, died May 28, 1864, of wounds received at Spottsylvania. 

J. H. Russell, died Sept. 15, 1864. 

R. J. Robb, Sept. 19, 1862. 

Solomon Robb, Sept. 15, 1862. 

James Rolling, Nov. 28, 1861. 

James Sutton, veteran. 

R. W. Showers, sick at muster out. 

Henry Stone, drafted ; disch. June 22, 1865. 

George Savidge, absent at muster out. 

John Simon, wounded Aug. 30, 1862, and Aug. 18, 1864. 

Sebastian Smith, drafted. 

George Scott, disch. Sept. 24, 1862. 

Martin Shaum, June 9, 1865 ; veteran. 

William G. Stark, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Jan. 7, 1863. 

A. M. Steel, disch. May 18, 1805. 

Thomas W. Stoops, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

L. Schrenkengost, drafted; disch. May 31, 1865. 

A. D. South worth, drafted; disch. May 31, 1865. 

William D. Smith, disch. June 13,1865. 

L. R. Stewart, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps 1864. 

Jacob Stevens, died Sept. 27, 1862. 

James Stout, killed at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. 

William Shannon, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

M. G. Steck, prisoner Aug. 19, 1864 ; died at Salisbury June 5, 1865. 

Reuben Shrum, died Oct. 14, 1862, of wounds received at Antietam. 

Isaac Shipman, died March 4,1865. 

John Sniail, Oct. 27, 1862. 

Fiuley TempU-tou, drafted ; prisoner from Feb. 7 to 15, 1865. 

James Tall, disch. Oct. 3, 1864. 

Newlin Tissue, disch. June 14, 1865. 

Henry Tedrou, disch. June 6, 1864. 

Emanuel Thomas, died Dec. 25, 1864. 

Robert Tarry, prisoner from Oct. 14, 1863, to Nov. 20, 1864. 

George Weaver, drafted. 

Joseph Walters, sick at muster out. 

John Walter, drafted ; wounded Aug. 18, 1864 ; disch. June 29, 1865. 

Robert Walker, disch. for wounds Jan. 7, 1863. 

John Walker, drafted ; disch. May 31, 1865. 

W. II. Wolf, disch. June 9, 1865. 

Jeremiah Welsh, substitute; disch. May 31, 1865. 

C. M. Williams, killed at Second Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

Jonathan Wissiuger, died Nov. 2, 1862. 

W. H. West, killed at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 

John G. West, Oct. 10, 1862. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, FOURTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS —(Three Montlis' Service.) 
Recruited at Greensburg, and mustered in April 22, 1861. 

Capt., S. S. Marchand ; 1st lient., Humphrey Carson ; 2d lieut., Andrew 
Bavaird; l*t sergt., W. H. Sowash ; 2d, sergt., John B. Bair ; 3d 
sergt., Steward Carroll; 4th sergt., J. B. Lauffer ; 1st Corp., J. D. 
Tharp ; 2d corp., William Weigle; 3d corp., Thomas Williams; 4th 
Corp., James A. Painter; musicians, Jesse Geiger, John Tautlinger. 



APPENDICES. 



475 





Private. 


Jonathan Taylor. John Wangaman. 


Samuel Ayres. 


Daniel Keebert. 


Wesley Taylor. Peter Q. Wallace. 


George W. Brown. 


Alexander Keltz. 


James Thomas Joseph Wittemberger. 


E. F. Bankert. 


E. W. H. Kreider. 


John S. Walker. 


J. C. Botisel. 

Patrick Bra mom. 


Anthony Keltz. 
W. B. Ludwig. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY B, TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.— (2V« 


Thomas Billey. 


Jeff. Lewis. 


Years' Service.) 


R. E. Banks. 


William Littlefield. 


Capt. Robert Warden, pro. to major April 25, 1862. 


John Casterwiler. 


T. A. McAllister. 


Capt. William M. Jordan, pro. from 1st lieut. to capt. May 1, 1862; 


John Cochran. 


Simon Milliron. 


wounded at Antietam and Chancellorsville ; res. June 13, 1863. 


Thomas Charles. 


Daniel Marcband. 


Capt. George W. Newmeyer, pro. from 1st sergt. to 1st lieut.; to capt. ; 


David Cups. 


Samuel McCormick. 


res. Jan. 17, 1865. 


John Donald. 


William Mahoff. 


Capt. William C. Armor, pro. from lstsergt. to 1st lieut., to capt., to brev. 


George H. Dull. 


John McKetvey. 


major March 13, 1865; wounded at Autietam and Chancellorsville. 


William Decker. 


N. B.Nail. 


1st Lieut. Benjamin F. Mechling,pro. to sergt.; to 2d lieut. ; to 1st lieut.; 


T. T. Davis. 


John S. O'Brien. 


wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 


William Eakiu. 


John O'Gara. 


2d Lieut. Alfred Robertson, res. Jan. 5, 1862. 


Samuel Gisal. 


James Patton. 


2d Lieut. Joseph C. Markle, pro. to 2d lieut. June 5, 1862; killed at An- 


John Gebbart. 


David Parka. 


tietam Sept. 17,1862. 


Leander Grier. 


G. W. Robinson. 


2d Lieut. John S. Ghrist, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut.; wounded at An- 


J. W. Green. 


Thomas Richards. 


tietam; res. Dec. 8, 1863. 


L. B. Hush. 


Samuel Smith. 


2d Lieut. Charles H. Walker, pro. to sergt.; to 2d lieut.; wounded at 


H. E. Hyte. 


John A. Stau gh. 


Antietam ; veteran. 


Jonathan Howl. 


S. A. Smith. 


1st Sergt. Lester W. Boyd, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 


Albert Howl. 


Joseph Stott. 


Sergt. Sylvester Stiner, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 


J. K. Howl. 


John G. Smith. 


Sergt. L. C. Livingood, veteran. 


Lewis Histen. 


Absalom Scholl. 


Sergt. Martin L. Finch, veteran. 


John Huey. 


J. 0. Thompson. 


Sergt. David F. Ghrist, prisoner from March 27 to May 5, 1865; veteran. 


Washington Huey. 


J. H. Say lor. 


Sergt. George Eicher, disch. Oct. 24, 1862. 


Lewis Huslaey. 


Irvin Twitchman. 


Sergt. Joseph Starey, disch. Dec. 27, 1862. 


George Herten. 


D. S. Teuthers. 


Sergt. G. A. Mcllvain, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 


Joseph Hood. 


Bradbury Whitaker. 


Sergt. Ezra I. Welty, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 


John Irvin. 


William Wands. 


Corp. M. P. King, wounded at New Hope Church, Ga. veteran. 


John N. Johnstone. 


Henry WoodB. 


Corp. James Metzler, wounded at Antietam and Chancellorsville ; 


Samuel Keeler. 


H. A. Wilson. 


veteran. 


Jeremiah Kennedy. 


Albert Zaudel. 


Corp. J. B. Murmaw, veteran. 


Newton Kennedy. 




Corp. Heury L. Bare, veteran. 
Corp. Samuel Byerly, veteran. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY 


G, FOURTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA 


Corp. John Smith, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 


VOLUNTEERS.— {Three Months* Service.) 


Corp. George Harmon, veteran. 


Recruited in the county, and mustered in April 27,1861. 


Corp. Joseph W. Hough. 


Capt., John B. Keenan ; 1st lieut, Joseph West ; 2d lieut., James Carna- 
han ; 1st sergt., J. W. Churns; 2d sergt., Harmon Burd ; 3d sergt., 
James Mullen ; 4th sergt., Wesley Taylor ; 1st Corp., T. C. McGuire ; 
2d corp., Henry Stickle; 3d corp., Robert Knox; 4th corp., John 
Nicely; musicians, W.J. Aikins, William Kells. 


Corp. John Brier, disch. Dec. 27, 1862. 

Corp. George W. Mechling, disch. Jan. 5, 1863. 

Corp. H. W. Kurtz, trans, to Knapp's Battery Oct. 28, 1861. 

Corp. Thomas H. Lemon, wounded at Antietam ; disch. July 2, 1864. 

Musician C. W. Swartz. 

Musician James S. Carpenter. 




Privates. 


Musician James Milbee, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 


Edward Aman. 


Henry Kennedy. 


Musician George W. Gibb, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 


William Artist. 


John Larimer. 




William Baird. 


F. Lauffenberger. 


Priva&GB. 


George Beck. 


Michael Leap. 


Peter K. Arnold, drafted. 


John Beck. 


Jacob Long. 


Jackson Anderson, prisoner from March 2S to May 5, 1865. 


Joseph Berlin. 


William Lowry. 


Daniel Armstrong, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 


John Berry. 


Adam Martiu. 


C. S. Ackerman, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 


John Blackburn. 


Theodore Miller. 


John S. Booher, veteran. 


Simon Baird. 


William Mitchell. 


R. R. Butler, veteran. 


John Caten. 


Cornelius Moore. 


William Beck. 


J. B. Craig. 


George W. Moore. 


A. Billhimer. 


Thomas Culbertson. 


Shannon Nicely. 


David Billhimer. 


William Dougherty. 


Emanuel Noel. 


Solomon Butler. 


Jacob Fink. 


John Noel. 


J. M. Bare. 


Samuel Flint. 


John Parker. 


David Bare. 


Alexander Fritz. 


William Peden. 


Alex. Bashioum. 


Jeremiah Fritz. 


Robert Penn. 


Collin Bashioum. 


Peter George. 


John Ream. 


W. S. Brant. 


William Gibson. 


James Randolph. 


Simon Bltts, 


Benjamin Geiger. 


John Reising. 


Mauoah Beistel. 


Jacob Hill. 


David Siegfried. 


William Beistel. 


John Hill. 


Hiram Shtrey. 


David R. Beckner, disch. July 6, 1865. 


G. W. Hood. 


Benjamin Showers. 


S. S. Brown, prisoner March, 1865; disch. June 12, 1865. 


Isaac Hughes. 


Yarn Short. 


Albert Borlin, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to Co. G. 


Elias Irwin. 


William Stephenson. 


Jonathan Barrone, trans, to Co. H. 


George W. Jelly. 


Peter Stickle. 


Jordan Burgess, died July 11, 1864. 


John Keiffer. 


John Smith. 


Samuel Butler, died March IS, 1863. 


Joseph Kelly. 


Joseph Stoot. 


Conrad Beltz, died May 22, 1862. 


M. A. Kelley. 


George \V. Smith. 


1 Isaac Burroughs, dratted; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 



476 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



John Brown, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to Co. G. 

It. A. Cunningham. 

J. W. Cunningham. 

William I. Cams. 

Samuel Coffman. 

Abraham Coffman. 

Isaac S. Coffman, wounded at Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. 

Simon Conemay, wounded at Antietam; discli. Jan. 18, 1863. 

Franklin Crise, disch. July 6, 1865. 

John C. Cravens, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

Jesse Clair, died Sept. IS, 1862, of wounds received at Antietam. 

Joseph Cunningham, veteran. 

Solomon Cloud, June 29, 1865. 

"William Cobb, June 29, 1865. 

James A. Deeds, must, out with company. 

Nicholas Davis, drafted; must, out with company. 

John Dillinger, disch. June 30, 1862. 

John Duusmore, wounded at Antietam; discli. Nov. 27, 1862. 

George H. Deeds, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

Benjamin Dougherty, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

George Doss, June 29, 1865. 

Levi Ebert, disch. June 1, 1865. 

J. M. Eicher, wounded at Antietam; discli. Feb. 19, 1863. 

William Eicher, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 

Johu Elder, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 

Walter Evans, died Oct. 6, 1862, of wounds received at Antietam. 

L. L. Frazer, veteran. 

H. S. Fulkrith. 

William H. Fry. 

Jeremiah Finfrock, trans, to Co. K July 21, 1861. 

Diniel Fitzsimmons, drafted ; Oct. 18, 1863. 

John C. Grim. # 

A. L. Howard. 

Jacob Hooper, drafted. 

Thomas B. Hurst, disch. Oct. 17, 1861. 

Josiah Hohenshell, disch. Nov. 21, 1862. 

William Hughes, disch. Feb. 26,1863. 

William G. Hough, wounded at Antietam. 

Levi Hohenshell, died of wounds Feb. 3, 1865, in Georgia. 

Thomas G. Hodge, date unknown. 

Uriah S. Johnston, disch. June 24, 1862. 

C. C. Jordan, wounded at Antietam; trans, to Co. G. 
A. M. Kough, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 

A. J. Kessler, wounded at Antietam; veteran. 

D. M. King, veteran, 

Daniel W. Keister, wounded at Itesaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. 

Jackson Kilpatrick, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

Jacob Kettering, trans, to Co. H April 29,1864. 

Eli W. King, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

J. Low, veteran. 

James Leonard, veteran. 

Uriah Long, veteran. 

Nicholas Long. 

A. J. R. Lohr. 

T. F. Lemon, prisoner from March 28 to May 5, 1865 ; disch. June 22, 

1865. 
Peter Long, disch. June 30, 1863. 

D. J. Longsduf, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to U. S. Cav. 
J. H. Lippincott, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 
John Lisbon, trans, to Knapp's Battery Oct. 28, 1861.' 
T. C. S. Long, died Dec. 7, 1861. 
Franklin Miller, veteran. 
Thomas Miller, drafted; veteran. 
Charles Meyer, drafted. 
Lewis Meyan, drafted. 
Henry Martin, prisoner from March 28 to May 5, 1865 ; disch. June 5, 

1865. 
Jeremiah Morrow, sick at muster out. 
John L. Miller, disch. Dec. 19, 1862. 

David Miuehunt, drafted; prisoner from Oct. 28, 1863, to Dec. 13, 1864. 
Isaiah Meyers, disch. July 6, 1865. 

Abraham Martin, wounded at Antietam ; traus. to Co. H. 
Austin Morrison, died Nov. 2, 1862. 
Jacob H. Muman, died Sept. 10, 1862. 
Jacob Myers, veteran. 
Henry T. McKelvey.. 
John McCtmkey, trans, to Knapp's Battery Oct. 28, 1861. 



Thomas McArthur, died March 1, 1862. 

Samuel Null, disch. Oct. 17, 1861. 

Cyrus Null, disch. Jan. 22, 1863. 

J. J. Newmeyer, disch. June 1, 1*65. 

Hiram Nelson, trans, to Co. H April 29, 1864. 

George W. Overholt, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 

John Obley. John J. Overholt. 

Alexander A. Osburn, drafted. 

A. F. Overholt, wounded at Antietam; disch. Feb. 28, 1863. 

Smith Peterman, veteran. Samuel L. Peterson. 

Samuel Patterson, disch. June 1, 1866. 

Robert S. Powers, trans, to Co. D April 30, 1865. 

Thomas Pete, June 29, 1865. 

Walter Robertson, disch. date unknown. 

Isaac Rumbaugh, died Jan. 5, 1863, of wounds received at Antietam. 

Amos Rigger, died Sept. 28, 1864. 

Henry Reese, wounded at Antietam, died. 

George R. Rout, died Sept. 18, 1861. 

J. S. Stauffer. W. H. Sias. 

George Shoutz. S. L. Stinemann. 

Frederick Shoafe. Peter Stull. 

John Stern. 

James Smith, sick at muster out. 

W. S. Snyder, diBch. Dec. 28, 1862, for wounds received at Antietam. 

M. N. Stauffer, disch. July 6, 1865. 

Isaac Stauffer, disch. July 6, 1865. 

David Studebaker, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Feb. 17, 1863. 

David Slonicar, traus. to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

James Snyder, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to U. S. cavalry. 

Jacob R. Sbuler, wounded at Antietam; trans, to Co. G. 

Samuel R. Steck, wounded at Antietam ; trans, to Co. G. 

Adam Seibert, drafted; died July 27, 1864, of wounds received at Pine 
Knob, Ga. 

John B. Tarr, veteran. 

W. R. Thomas, wounded at Antietam ; veteran. 

D. B. Tarr, Alexander Tarr, Shadrack Thomas, John P. Thomas, Mat- 
thew J. Thompson. 

MelUer S. Tarr, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

Joseph Tetteu, trans, to Knapp's Battery Oct. 28, 1861. 

Levi Thomas, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

W. H. Taylor, died July 20, 1862. 

A. D. Vavelman, drafted; deserted June 30, 1865. 

Amos White, drafted. 

Thomas H. Weaver, trans, to Knapp's Battery Oct. 28, 1861. 

William Wright, wounded at Antietam and Chaucellorsville; trans, to 
Co. G April 29,1864. 

Harrison White, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

William Whinnery, drafted; Oct. 8, 1863. 

Jacob White, trans, to Co. G April 29, 1864. 

August Yeager, drafted ; disch. Oct. 11, 1864. 

John M. Zundell, sick at muster out. 

Jacob R. Zuck, wounded at Antietam ; disch. Jan. 22, 1863. 1 

ROSTER OF COMPANY II, FORTIETH PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS. 

Capt. Daniel Kistler, Jr., died Sept. 28, 1862, of wounds received at An- 
tietam. 

Capt. Lewis A. Johnson, pro. from 2d lieut. March 5, 1863; disch. Oct. 
5, 1863. 

Capt. B. Alpheus Job, pro. to sergt., to capt., to brev.-maj. March 13, 
1865 ; prisoner May 30, 1864 ; disch. March 12. 1865. 

lfct Lieut. Edward J. Keenan, res. Dec. 30, 1862. 

1st Lieut. James A. Fulton, pro. to sergt., to 1st lieut. ; disch. Oct. 3, 1863. 

2d Lieut. James McWilliams, pro. from corp. to sergt., to 2d lieut.; res. 
Feb. 1, 1864. 

1st Sergt. Patrick J. Hanlin, killed at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. 

1st Sergt. Henry C. Stone, trans, to 190th Regt. June 1, 1864; veteran. 

Sergt. Cyrus H. Rankin, killled at Gaines 1 Mill June 27, 1862. 

Sergt. W. J. Woods, prisoner from Nov. 27, 1863, to Nov. 21, 1864 ; disch. 
Nov. 28, 1864. 

Sergt. Joseph W. Miller, died Sept. 16, 1862. 

Sergt. Charles E. Hubbs, disch. Dec. 27, 1863. 

Sergt. S. M. Reed, trans, to Signal Corps U.S.A. 

1 Thirty-seventh Regiment (Eighth Reserve), Assistant Surgeon J. W. 
Hugh, from July 31, 1862, to May 16, 1863. 



APPENDICES. 



477 



Sergt. Jacob Earnest, prisoner from May 5, 18G4, to Feb. 27, 1865; disch, 

March 5, 1865. 
Sergt. S. A. Crawford, prisoner from May 6 to Dec. 11, 1864; disch. Dec. 

17, 1864. 
Sergt. Alfred O'Neil, trans, to 180th Regt. June 1, 18G4 ; veteran. 
Corp. John H. Reed, died of wounds received at Fredericksburg. 
Corps. Josiah Glunt, John Miller, William Sauretinan. 
Corp. D. K, Martz, died of wounds received at Wilderness May 5, 1864. 
Musician John M. Low, killed at Gainesville June 27, 1862. 
Musician Jared Loughner, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Privates. 

John L. Avery, Daniel Armalong, A. J. Armstrong, 

George Ashbaugh, trans, to 190th Regt. 

Amos Allshouse, died Jan. 30, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericks- 
burg. 

John C. Bowers, must, out with company June 13, 1864. 

John Bell, disch. March 6, 1862. 

D. W. Blackson, died Dec. 26, 1862, of wounds received at Fredericks- 
burg. 

John Bommer, died Sept. 18, 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run. 

Devi Baughman, killed at Gaines' Mills. 

Thomas Bannister, Oct. 8, 1862. 

James Brantenbur, June 27, 1862. 

Daniel Carr, prisoner from May 30, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865; disch. March 
5, 1865. 

W. J. Clark, disch. June 23, 1862. 

M. S. Collins, disch. May 16, 1863. 

Willis Collins, disch. March 16, 1861 (minor). 

F. M. Carnahan, disch. Dec. 23, 1862. 
M. A. Canders, disch. April 2, 1862. 
John S. Devers, disch. June 21, 1862. 
Henry Dunu, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Bernard Dunham, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
James Dunn, died Jan. 18, 1864. 

Samuel F. Earhart. 

George Earnest, trans, to 190th Regt. 

Francis Frey, prisoner from May 5 to Dec. 15, 1864; disch. Dec. 21,1864. 

George Fraas, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

G. G. Ginter, disch. Dec. 15, 1862. 
Leonard Graff, disch. June 19, 1862. 
Magnus Hebrank. 

John S. Haverstick, disch. June 13, 1863. 
Vincent Haaf, disch. May 17, 1863. 
Christopher Hubert, disch. Oct. 17, 1862. 
Isaac N. Hammitt, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
Adam Huff, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Christopher Henderson, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Theo. Hockeubaugh, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Francis Haley, killed at Bethesda Church May 30, 1864. 
John Hay, died Dec. 19, 1862, of wounds received at Fredericksburg. 
Josiah House, died May 20, 1862. 
H. V. Hnxar, July 4, 1861. 
William Jones, trans, to gunboat service. 
Reuben Kline. Andrew Kern. 

C. Klingensmith, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Adam Lochman, must, out with company Juue 13, 1864. 
Jared Lane, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Eliphuz Loughner, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Daniel Linsibigler, died July 28, 1862. 
Aaron Loughner, July 1, 1863. 
Augustus Lurk, died March 5, 1862. 
Cyrus J. Lose, died Juue 3, 1862. 
Joseph Milloch. 

Christopher Mallon, disch. April 18, 1862. 
Cyrus McCall, traus. to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
J. P. McCliutock, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
John Miller, 2d, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Joseph M. Miller, trans, to 190tb Regt.; veteran. 
James W. Morgan, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
Abraham Myers, Oct. 3, 1862. 
John Minster, Aug. 30, 1862. 
David Powell, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Lot Ralston, disch. June 21, 1863. 
John Sbanefelt, disch. Dec. 1, 1862. 
Joseph Styer, disch. July 15, 1863. 
31 



John E. Steinberg, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

George Spindler, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 

Anthony Theil, trans, to 190th Regt. 

John Tomlins, killed at Fredericksburg Dec, 13, 1862. 

L. C. Walb, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Conrad J. Weil, trans, to 19oth Regt. 

Robert A. West, killed at Gaines' Mills June 27, 1862. 

George W. Young, disch., date unknown. 

Henry E. Young, disch. May 17, 1863. 

Stephen B. Young, disch. to accept promotion, Dec. 6, 1862. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY I, FORTIETH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUN- 
TEERS. 

Capt. Thomas Spires, resigned Oct. 17, 1862. 

Oapt. Eli Waugaman, pro. from 1st lieut. to capt. April 10, 1863; to brev. 

maj. March 13, 1865; must, out June 13, 1864. 
1st Lieut. David Berry, pro. from 2d lieut. April 10, 1863 ; must, out 

June 13,1864. 
2d Lieut. J. D. Walkinshaw, pro. from 1st sergt. April 10, 1S63; must. 

out June 13, 1864. 
1st Sergt. Frank Hammerly, wounded in action May 13, 1864. 
Sergt. Joseph D. Davis, disch. to accept 1st lieut. Co. E, 178th Regt., 

Nov. 21, 1862. 
Sergt. David Kinkead, disch. Feb. 10, 1863. 
Sergt. George W. Baird, disch. Oct. 3, 1862. 
Sergt. A. J. Martin, died June 3, 1862. 
Sergt. John A. Hill, pro. to sergt.-maj. Nov. 16, 1861. 
Sergt. John Grumbling, pro. to sergt.; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Sergt. Isaac Curumings, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Sergt. William J. Hamilton, wounded May 23, 1864. 
Sergt. Henry A. Harkins, wounded and tAkun prisoner at Wilderness, 

May 23, 1864; released Dec. 6, 1864 ; disch. Dec. 12, 1864. 
Corp. David Jenkins, disch. Feb. 4, 1863. 
Corp. Washington Davis, disch. July 9, 1862. 
Corp. M. K. Brown, killed at Fredericksburg. 
Corp. David H. Reed, killed at Gaines' Mill. 
Corp. Daniel Harkins, disch. Jan. 29, 1863. 
Corp. William McClarren, disch. Aug. 19, 1863. 
Corp. John Hamerly, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Corp. George Jellisou, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Corp. J. W. McMaster, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Cornelius Harshmau, disch. June 24, 1862. 
William Harkins, disch. Sept. 17, 1862. 
John A. Hendricks, disch. Dec. 5, 1862. 
William Higgins, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps July 1, 1863. 
William Horsack, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
William Harris, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Abraham Harris, trans, to 190th Regt. 
William Hotham, Dec. 11, 1862. 
John Ingle, died Dec. 20, 1862. 
George Jones, trans, to 190th Regt. 
Matthew Jellison, died Oct, 12, 1862. 
John L. Kuhu, missing in action at Bethesda Church. 
James Kuhn, trans, to gunboat service. 
William C. Kyle, must, out with company. 
George Kepple, trans, to 190th Regt. 
William Kelly, killed at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. 
Joseph Kirkland, killed at Gaines' Mill Juue 27, 1862. 
William Kirkland, killed at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. 
John King, Aug. 25, 1862. 
Timothy C. Layton, disch. Feb. 7, 1863. 
John C. Layton, Nov. 9, 1862. 
Thomas S. Layton, Sept. 16, 1861. 
Robert H. Lewis, not on muster-out roll. 
John M. Moreland. 
George W. McCormick. 
John McCurdy, disch. Nov. 15, 1861. 
Samuel H. Murray, disch. Dec. 13, 1862. 
Edward McGuire, disch. Dec. 30, 1862. 
James McHenry, disch. March 13, 1863. 
William A. Murray, disch. May 17, 1863. 
H. Mundshower, disch. Jan. 2, 1863. 
Robt. McNulty, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
James MiBride, trans, to 190th Regt. 

W. B. Lowman, prisoner May 5 to Dec. 12, 1864; disch, Dec. 19, 1864. 
Lemuel Jenkins. 
Cyrus Eakman. 



478 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Privates. 
Jacob Adams, detached for artillery service April 3, 1862. 
J. A. Audei'Bon, dJBcli. June S, 1862. 
H. R. Amend, trans, to 190th Regiment; veteran. 
W. H. Anderson, died April 22, 1862. 
Alexander Bruce, died at Andersonville Oct. 23, 1864. 
Simon P. Bring, disch. Nov. 15, 1861. 
Amos Bitner, disch. Nov. 24, 1S62. 
Patrick Branigan, drafted; trans, to 190th Regiment. 
John Brandon, killed at Gaines* Mill June 27, 1862. 
Clark Cunningham, disch. June 19, 1863. 
Thomas K. Crusan, disch. Oct. 12, 1862. 
Washington Curry, disch. Aug. 30, 1861. 
Francis Cruise, Nov. 9, 1862. 

Levi Crouch, died at Andersonville, April 10, 18G4. 
Jacob Dell, must, out with company. 
Samuel W. Davis, disch. Feb. 10, 1863. 
Samuel Dickey, disch. Feb. 23, 1863. 
Peter Devinney, disch. Jan. 10, 1863. 
James P. Detrick, trans, to 190th Regiment; veteran. 
Sargeant Elliott, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Alexander Kverhart, Feb. 18, 1863. 
G. Eaton, died June 15, 1864. 
John A. Flickinger, trans, to U. S. A. Nov. 9, 1862. 
Thomas M. Graham, wounded at Wilderness May 5, 1864. 
Jacob Glessner, drafted ; trans, to 190th Regiment. 
George W. Griffith, died July 12, 1862. 
W. S. Hamilton, missiug.in action May 5, 1864. 
Joseph Henderson, must, out with company. 
Robert Hammond, missing in action May 5, 1864. 
Benjamin C. McDowell, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Henry Mundorff, killed at Bethesda Church May 30, 1864. 
Thomas Patterson, disch. April 9, 1864. 
William Pike, disch. June 24, 1862. 
Absalom Palmer, disch. June 4, 1862. 
Peter Palmer, trans, to 190th Regiment ; veteran. 
William M. Robinson, must, out with company. 
Jamea Robertson, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Walter Rugh, trans, to 190th Regiment ; veteran. 
William D. Rife, trans, to 190th Regiment; veteran. 
Jeremiah Reed, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Sept. 1, 1863. 
James G. Reed, killed at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. 
Thomas S. Rutherford, died June 9, 1862. 
Christopher A. Row, not on muster-out roll. 
Lawson Spiers, must, out witli company. 
William Spiers, sick at muster out. 
James H. Sloan, diseh. Nov. 15, 1861. 
Joseph Stump, disch. June 25, 1862. 
Samuel J. Stogden, trans, to 190th Regiment ; veteran. 
Adam Stump, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
George Stump, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Joseph Sides, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Nov. 15, 1863. 
John Suman, drafted ; trans, to 190th Regiment. 
William A. Toal, trans, to 190th Regiment ; veteran. 
Amos Uncapher, drafted ; trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Alexander Vauhorn, killed at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. 
John Venerable, Dec. 11, 1862. 
James Wright, disch. Jan. 17, 1863. 
William Wagle, disch. Feb. 17, 1862. 
James R. Wynn, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
Israel Waterman, trans, to 190th Regiment. 
John Wilkins, died Oct. 27, 1862. 
Samuel B. Wentzer, died March 21, 1864. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, FORTY-FIRST PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Capt. Andrew G. Oliver, from July 30, 1861. 
1st Lieut. John W. Krepps, resigned Sept. 10, 1861. 
1st Lieut. Chill W. Hazzard, pro. to 1st lieut. Sept. 10, 1861 ; to capt. Co. 

I April 20, 1863. 
1st Lieut. Thomas S. Linn, pro. to 1st lieut. April 20,1863; resigned 

July 31, 1863. 
2d Lieut. Henry D. P. Bell, pro. to 2d lieut. Sept. 10, 1861 ; resigned Nov. 

16, 1862. 
2d Lieut. John F. Thomas, pro. to 2d lieut. April 20,1863; must, out 

with company June 11, 1864. 
1st Sergt. Watson Muse. 



Sergt. James M. Davis. 

Sergt. William Fox, disch. May 7, 1862. 

Sergt. John Carson, disch. July 8, 1863. 

Sergt. Joseph W. Eckley, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 

Sergt. Augustus Hassler, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Sergt. John Uiick, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Sergt. Eben G. Smith, killed at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862. 

Corp. John C. Sykes. 

Corp. W. D. Jones. 

Corp. Daoiel Coughenuur. 

Corp. George A. Campbell, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

Musician William A. Fox, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 

Musician William Smith, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Privates. 
Vincent Applegate, must, out with company June 11, 1864. 
Robert Axton, disch. Feb. 28, 1863. 
Samuel Applegate, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Eli Applegate, died June 30, 1862, of wounds received at White Oak 

Swamp. 
Alexander Bayne, disch. September, 18G2. 
Hugh Bayne, disch. Dec. 30, 1861. 
Jeremiah Brubaker, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
William Billett, traus. to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Jacob Baldwin, disch. Feb. 13, 1863. 
George H. Baer, disch. Jan. 13, 1863. 
Calvin Baer, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 
William Bankhert, Aug. 7, 1861. 

James Canll, wounded at White Oak Swamp ; disch. Jan. 16, 1863. 
Allen Campbell, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Samuel Collins, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Theodore Campbell, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
James Chapman, trans, to 190th Regt, ; veteran. 
Humphrey Carson, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
James Collins, trans, to 190th Regt. 
John Campbell, trans, to 190th Regt. 
L. Carnaghau, July 31, 1861. 
Samuel Cravens, July 15, 1863. 
Jacob Culp, Dec. 17, 1861. 
Oliver Culp, Jan. 20, 1862. 
John M. C. Cravens, not on muster-out roll. 
George W. Clarke, not on muster-out roll. 
John W. Duttou, disch. Nov. 29, 1862. 
Henry Eisle, trans, to U. S. Cavalry Oct. 28, 1862. 
George Evans, traus. to Bat. B, 5th U. S. Art. * 
Finley Foster, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
William Foster, wounded at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862; disch. April 3, 

1863. 
John W. Fox, trans, to 6th U. S. Cavalry Oct. 28, 1862. 
Joshua Filmore, killed at White Oak Swamp June 30, 1862. 
Abiam Gross, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Lewis Ghems, trans, to 2d U. S. Art. Dec. 9, 1862. 
Theodore Hough, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
John Henderson, trans, to 2d U. S. Art. 
James Howard, disch. Dec. 9, 1861. 
Alfred Hurst, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Thomas Householder, trans, to 2d U. S. Art. 
James Halfin, trans, to 190th Regt. 

John Huber, killed at White Oak Swamp June 30, 1862. 
Theopolis Jones, trans, to Bat. B, 5th U. S. Art. 
Charles Jones, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 
David Kier, traus. to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
John Kyle, wounded at Second Bull Run; disch. Nov. 3, 1862. 
George Klinesnit, disch. Jan. 31, 1893. 
John Kane, trans, to 2d U. S. Art. 
James Lyons, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 
John McDowell. 
Asher Manis. 

John McCravius, disch. Aug. 13,1862. 
Clifford Mattox, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Adam McKelvey, trans, to 190th Regt. veteran. 
Joseph McKeeley, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Robert McKelvey, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
John D. Malone, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 
Geo. Murray, wounded at Second Bull Run ; disch. Dec. 30, 1862. 
Samuel Malone, wounded at White Oak Swamp ; disch. June 30, 1862. 
William Malone, wounded at White Oak Swamp; disch. March 10, 1863. 



APPENDICES. 



479 



John Mdntire, trans, to 190th Eegt. 

John Mattox, trans, to 190th Regt. 

Nelson Matthews, died of wounds received at "White Oak Swamp June 
30, 1862. 

Wm. McQuansy, died Dec. 14, 1861. 

Wm. McCready, Jan. 20, 1863. 

Charles Morrow, July 12, 1861. 

Christopher Neff, must, out with company. 

Emanuel Neff, Sr., trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 

John Neff, trans, to 6th U. S. Cavalry. 

Emanuel Neff, Jr., trans, to 6th U. S. Cavalry. 

John Oreley, disch. Feh. 14, 1863. 

John Prescott. 

Thomas Paden. 

William Painter, trans, to 190th Regt. 

Abraham Pennaman, died in insane asylum August, 1862. 

Robert Russell, absent at muster out. 

James Redmound, died Oct. 6 1862, of wounds received at Second Bull 
Run June 30, 1862. 

George Soles, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

Charles Shetlock, trans, to 190th Regt. ; veteran. 

Jacob Spidal, disch. Jan. 6, 1863, for wounds received at Antietam. 

Samuel Sloan, disch. Feb. 4, 1863. 

John Steis, trans, to 190th Regt. 

John Stoneman, died Feb. 12, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericks- 
burg Dec. 13, 1862. 

George Strohm, absent at muster out. 

Anthony Smith, July 28, 1861. 

Benjamin Tipton, trans, to 190th Regt.; veteran. 

John Tyler, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 

John Upton, trans, to 43d Regt. April, 1862. 

John L'mberger, died Dec. 27, 1862, of wounds received at Fredericks- 
burg Dec. 13, 1862. 

John Unrow, Aug. 8, 1861. 

George Webster, disch. June 2, 1862. 

Robert Whigham, died at Camp Pierpont, Va., Dec. 14, 1861. 

Eli Wilson, died at Richmond, Va., Jan. 22, 1863. 

FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service,) 
Asst. Surg. John M. Huston, from March 7, 1863, to June 25, 1863 ; re- 
signed. 

FIFTIETH REGIMENT.— (Three Years 1 Service.) 
Asst. Surg. James S. Miller, rank from Aug. 5, 1864; not mustered. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY K, FIFTY-THIRD PENNSYLVANIA VOL- 
UNTEERS.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Capt. Wm. B. Coulter, res. April 8, 1864. 
Capt. George C. Anderson, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut. Sept. 17, 1862; to 

maj. Sept. 20, 1864. 
Capt. D. B. Wiueland, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut.; to capt.; must, out 

with regt. 
1st Lieut. John D. Weaver, killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. 
1st Lieut. Charles F. Smith, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut.; to 1st lieut. 

April 23, 1864. 
2d Lieut. John A. Kerr, killed at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. 
2d Lieut. Jacob G. Hughes, pro. from 1st sergt. to 2d lieut. Jan. 17, 1865 ; 

veteran. * 

1st Sergt. Wm. G. Foster, killed at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864; veteran. 
1st Sergt. Wm. H. Kuhns, captured June 24, 1864; veteran. 
Sergt. James McLain. pro. tu corp. ; to sergt. ; veteran. 
Sergt. M. M. Brannock, pro. to corp. ; to sergt. ; to sergt.-maj. ; veteran. 
Sergt. O. W. Beatty, pro. to Corp.; to sergt.; veteran. 
Sergt. G. W. Kern, pro. to Corp.; to sergt.; veteran. 
Sergt. J. B. Stewart, drafted ; disch. March 30, 1865. 
Sergt. C. F. Beam, killed at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864. 
Sergt. D. Nurse (or Moose), killed in action March 31, 1865 ; veteran. 
Sergt. Tobias Siegle, died in Salisbury Jan. 15, 1865; veteran. 
Sergt. H. J. Kern, died Jan. 9, 1865 ; veteran. 
Corp. W. W. Heck, prisoner from June 22, 1864, to March 28,1865; 

veteran. 
Corp. James Haney, veteran. 
Corp. Wm. McAnulty, pro. to corp. Jan. 1, 1865. 
Corp. R. B. McDowell, pro. to corp. April 1, 1865. 
Corp. J. W. Burrell, captured; veteran. 
Corp. Cornelius Tall, pro. to corp. June 1, 1865. 
Corp. I. M. Hines, pro. to corp. June 1, 1865; veteran. 



( 



Corp. G. G. Craig, disch. May 26, 1865. 

Corp. L. H. Horback, must, out Nov. 7, 1864. 

Corp. James S. Baird, died June 5, 1864 ; veteran. 

Corp. Thomas Johnson, killed at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864; veteran. 

Corp. N. A. McClarren, killed April 7, 1865; veteran. 

Musicians J. E. Fry, Wilson P. Kinter. 

Privates. 
Christopher Armegott, must, out with company June 30, 1865. 
J. Ahpelby, drafted. 
George N. Allen. 

John Anderson, disch. June 5, 1865. 
Wm. Autest, disch. Nov. 4, 1864. 
R. S. Armor, captured June 3, 1864. 
L. Anthony, disch. May 31, 1865. 
Daniel Bower. David Blakely. 

W. D. Baker. 

David Beck, drafted ; sick at muster out. 
John C. Blakney, disch. Nov. 7, 1864. 
John Burrell, trans, to Vet. Res, Corps. 
Benjamin Bee, died March 21, 1864. 
Abraham Baker, died June 10, 1864, of wounds. 
John A. Bovard, captured June 16, 1864. 
Hiram Carl, substitute. 

Wm. Clark, substitute ; disch. June 16, 1865. 
Jacob Derr, drafted ; absent at muster out. 
W. H. Divens. Thomas Divens. 

J. C. Domworth. W. H. Domworth. 

Adam Dunmire. 

Josiah Diehl, drafted ; absent at muster out. 
James Divens, disch. June 6, 1865. 
A. Y. Douglass, must, out Nov. 7, 1864. 
Solomon Dunmire, died at Washington, D. C. 
J. Donahue, died Aug. 29, 1864. 
J. H. Douglass, died in Salisbury Nov. 8, 1864. 
Francis N. Elder. Adam Fry. 

George Fry, prisoner from June 22, 1864, to March 28, 1865 ; disch. June 

21, 1865. 
W. H. Fry, disch. June 8, 1865. 
Jacob Fisher, killed at Cold Harbor June 3, 1864. 
Joseph G. Funk, killed in action March 31, 1865. 
Thomas Furgesou, captured; died May 21, 1864. 
Alfred Gadd, captured; died Aug. 7, 1864. 
H. F. Giger. Thomas Giger. 

R. S. Gondon. James Garland. 

James Green, returned. 
W. H. Gilchrist, must, out Oct. 28, 1864. 
John Giger, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1864. 
Benjamin Giger, killed at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864. 
W. H. Hartley, veteran. 
Jacob Horner. 

J. Hershberger, substitute. Samuel Hover, substitute. 

S. Herrington, substitute. Thomas J. Hoffman, substitute. 

II. H. Hanlen, must, out Nov. 17, 1864. 
James Halihen, must, out Oct. 28, 1864. 
Jacob Hehn, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
William Henry, died at City Point June 22, 1864. 
W. II. Jones, drafted. John Johnson, substitute. 

J. C. Johnsonbaugh, returned. 
W. M. Kirkwood, wounded in action. 
George T. Kinter. W. D. Kuhns. 

J. W. Kelley. Seater Kluck. 

David A. Krotser. 

John Keenan, mustered out Sept. 22, 1864. 
Josiah Lentman, substitute. Harrison Long. 

Joseph Landers. II. W. Lyman, substitute. 

Samuel Lowry, killed at Spottsylvania May 10, 1864. 
Daniel S. Lewis, died at Audersonville Dec.2, 1864. 
Alfred Ladd. S. Lafferty. 

J. H. Marshall, disch. Aug. 16, 1865; veteran. 
Daniel Miller, returned. 

William Mears, mustered out with company. 
William Mahaddy, prisoner from June 16 to Nov. 15, 1864. 
James Morgan. Lewis Hayes. 

W. R. Morgey. Samuel Mearly. 

Joseph Millegan. 
John H. Miller, muBt. out Nov. 7, 1864. 



180 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Patrick Mansfield, disch. May 26, 1865. 

Samuel Miller, disch. June 23, 18G5. 

W. Mewherter, died April 27, 1864. 

John L. Miller, died at Audereonville Aug. 28, 1864. 

George Miller, died May 21,1865. 

L. Morely, prisoner from Aug. 28, 1864, to April 12, 1865. 

Isaac Morley, captured May 12, 1864. 

Christopher McKillips. 

J. 0. McKillips, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

William Mundorf. A. T. McChesney. 

Anthony McKinney. Jones McCormick. 

Alexander McLain, prisoner from June 4 to Nov. 24, 1864. 

Irwin C. McKil lip, disch. June 5, 1865. 

Porter McClune, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 

John McCrackin, died at Andersonville Aug. 19, 1864. 

John Noal, killed June 18, 1864. 

Adam Orr, captured June 16, 1864. 

A. S. Paul. Michael Phillips. 

G. W, Pritner. Isaac Hanson, veteran. 

J. K. Rhoads, drafted. . A. Riffle, drafted. 

John W. Richard, must, out with company. 

Jonas M. Ross, disch. May 31, 1865. 

M. W. Reddick, killed in action June 5, 1864. 

Isaac Rhoads, died Aug. 21, 1864. 

Jerome Richards, died at Andersonville Sept. 27, 1864. 

William Reed. 

D. J. Soxrnau. 

N. D. Shauer. 

T. G. Smith. 

P. W. Shields, drafted. 

M*. Spicher, substitute. 

John Suders, substitute. 

George B. Smith, disch. May 31, 1865. 

CyruB Stoffer, must, out Sept. 22, 1864. 

David Sanner, disch. June 1,1865. 

D. G. Smith, substitute; disch. by general order. 

Adam Silsley, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps Dec. 28, 1864. 

Josiah Shawlis, died Dec. 31, 1864 ; veteran. 

Thomas Simpson, died at Andersonville Sept. 6, 1864. 

John Switzer. 

W. B. Saughberry. 

Samuel Todd. 

Eli P. Tate. 

B. Tschopp, substitute; returned. 

J. D. Thompson, disch. June 21, 1865. 

J. N. Thompson, died at Washington, D. C. 

Frederick Tantlinger, died at Andersonville Aug. 19, 1864. 

Philip Updegraff. 

John Vanheriter. 

G. F. Wiant. 

W. E. Weckerley. 

J. R. West, drafted. 

H. W. Wentzel, disch. by general order June 6, 1865. 

William Wright, disch. by general order June 16, 1865. 

William Wilson, captured; died Nov. 18, 1864. 

Josephus Weaver, captured; died Nov. 13, 1864. 

Robert Williams, not on muster-out roll. 

James Young, died in field hospital June 1, 1S(j4. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY C, SIXTY-FOURTH PENNSYLVANIA 
VOLUNTEERS. 

Capt. John J. McCullough, died August, 1862. 

Capt. Robert D. Martin, pro. from 1st lieut. Sept. 1, 1862; died Aug. 23, 

1864. 
Capt. N. J. Horrell, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut.; to capt.; to maj. 
1st Lieut. John C. Paul, pro. from 1st sergt. to 2d lieut. ; to 1st lieut.; to 

capt. of Co. D. 
1st Lieut. Wilson Waigle, pro. to 2d lieut.; to 1st lieut. 
2d Lieut. Tobias Rosensteel, pro. to 2d lieut. Dec. 14, 1864 ; veteran. 
1st Sergt. George Rodock, pro. to 1st sergt. May 14, 1865; veteran. 
1st Sergt. II. J. Blaisdell, must, out at expiration of term, 
let Sergt. Aaron Wyatt, died. 

Sergeants. 
Henry Beer. John McGuire. 

H. Tillburgh. A. T. Malin. 

Samuel West. W. H. Van Tassel. 

Samuel Stouffer. William Duncan. 



George Fannsey, prisoner from Sept. 1, 1863, to March 1, 1865. 
Jeremiah Brinker, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
Charles A. Herwick, died. 

Corporals. 
John Fauzey. G. H. Netz. 

James Little. 

W. A. Thompson, com. 2d lieut. July 1, 18G5; veteran. 
J. H. Leassure. James McKelvey. 

M. G. Shorthill. 

Michael Bath, prisoner from July 30, 1864, to Feb. 22, 1865. 
J. K. McCunnaughty, disch. Jan. 20, 1864; veteran. 
L. McCullough, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
Thomas Daywalt, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
Thomas Armstrong, died. 
Jacob Horton, died at Richmond, Ya., Dec. 2, 1863. 

Buglers. 
Andrew J. Hise, veteran. 
A. A. Thompson, died at Andersonville June 19, 1864. 



Blacksmiths. 

L. B. Caushey. 



E. Hine, veteran. 

John C. Walters, veteran. 
Philip Scurder, discharged. 

Saddlers. 

Jeremiah George, disch. May 15, 1865. 

C. C. Kirkner, pro. to reg. saddler June 1, 1864. 

Privates. 
Simon Parbe, died at Andersonville April 27, 1864. 
Isaac Blackson. G. M. Boyle. 

T. J. Barber. Isaac Barber. 

James W. Barnett, muBt. out Sept. 12, 1864. 
Thomas Buckley, disch. May 15, 1865. 
John Barber, wounded May, 1864. 
Thomas Baird. 

G. W. Backhouse, died Sept. 4, 1862. 
Charles Dadloff. 

Obadiah Bailey, killed in action. 
N. Brindenthall. R. Binnaner. 

G. B. Cribbs, veteran. 
Samuel Cook. 

Benjamin Canida, must, out Sept. 12, 1864. 
William R. Clark, disch. May 15, 1865. 
William Case, died Aug. 29, 1864. 
John Carterwiler, died June 12, 1865 ; veteran. 
James Cannon, died at Andersonville July 4, 1864. 
Jacob A. Carmell, disch. for wounds received. 

D. L. Crawford, discharged. 
Christian Carter, discharged. 
J. A. Cunningham. 
Arthur Carson. 
James Duncan. 
Thomas Dunn. 
John Deitch. 
J. A. Donnel. 
William 0. Dunif, died Aug. 24, 1864. 
Robert Y. Elder, disch. May 15, 1865. 
John Elder, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 

H. L. Freeby. J. G. Frederick. 

Sirwell Fuller, disch. May 15, 1865. 

Simmi Fry, disch. Nov. 5, 1864. 

George Foley, died April 17, 1865. 

James M. Foster, died Jan. 17, 1865. 

William Featherstone, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 

James George, must, out with company July 1, 1865. 

William D. Glidden, captured March 31, 1865. 

John J. Green, disch. May 15, 1865. 

James Getty, disch. May 15, 1865. 

A. J. George, died April 28, 1864, of wounds received in action. 

William George, died Nov. 21, 1862. 

John Gordon, disch. on surgeon's certificate 

G. W. Geer. A.J. Horrell. 

Samuel Huey. W. J. Huey. 

M. C. Harding. 

O. M. Haymaker, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 



D. Campbell. 
Richard Durham. 
S. C. Dougherty. 
John Daywalt. 
John G. Doty. 
William C. Duncan. 



APPENDICES. 



481 



J. S. Haymaker, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 
F. L. Haymaker, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 
J. M. Hanna. H. II. Henian. 

S. V. Johns, veteran. •'■ W. Jenkins. 

F. Keener. D. M. Kelly. 
James Killgore. 

Hugh Kelly, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

G. A. Kenady. Eli Loughner. 
Samuel Loughner. 

Elias Moore, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

Martin Murphy, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

William Murphy, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

Michael Millaird, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

John Mills, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

Andrew Mills, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

Samuel Mills, disch. by surgeon's certificate Feb. 26, 1864. 

B. W. Means, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Nov. 26, 1864. 

W. H. Matthews, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 29, 1864. 

John A. Morrison, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 

George K. Mears, died at Andersonville Aug. 29, 1864. 

R. J. Mialon. 

James Mialon, died Nov. 4, 1862. 

J. A. Miller. Isaac Miller. 

N. H. Miller. W. G. Miller. 

Jacob Moore. Theodore Marshal], veteran. 

N. McCormick, veteran. J. A. McNeil. 

L. L. McWilliams, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

J. H. McClellan, disch. by general order July 18, 1865. 

W. S. McCurdy, must, out Sept. 12, 1864. 

Daniel McCarty, must, out Sept. 12, 1864. 

Alexander McCune, must, out Sept. 12, 1864. 

W. L. McWilliams, disch. by general order, May 15, 1865. 

D. W. McConibs, disch. by general order May 15, 18G5. 

L. M. McQuintian, died Sept. 17, 1864. 

Daniel McFadden, disch., date unknown. 

John McCutcheon, died at Andersonville. 

James McCracken, disch., date unknown. 

F. S. Nevling. 

Uriah Neptial, disch. by general order May 15, 1865. 

Thomas Nolen, died. 

Thomas C. Patterson, J. W. Powell, S. Passel. 

Daniel R. Powell, disch., date unknown. 

John Quinlan, J. Rosborough, A. Rahle, D. L. Rosensteel. 

Ralston Ruphard, disch. May 31, 1865. 

F. Reno, John Rolde, J. Ritchie. 

William Snidorft, veteran. 

George W. Shriner, prisoner from Dec. 10, 1864, to Feb. 5, 1865; veteran. 

H. B. Simons, veteran. 

George Simons, John Smith, A. J. Sloan, David Serena, W. A. Saudles, 

John B. Shelley, John Story, S. W. Stewart. 
Christian Snyder, disch. May 15, 1865. 
George R. Seese, disch. May 15, 1865. 

Daniel Stouffer, prisoner from July 16, 1863, to Nov. 20, 1864. 
John L. Stouffer, must, out at expiration of term. 
William Sloan, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 
• Albert Satora, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 
D. R. Stouffer, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 
J. C. Sams, died Dec. 20, 1864 ; veteran. 
A. II. Syndorf, killed Oct. 27, 1864. 
S. M. Stevenson, trans, to U. S. A. 
William Smith, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
Levi Sheffler, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
J. A. Scott, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
C. R. Smeed, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
William Tinsman. 

M. T. Thompson, must, out Sept. 12, 1864. 
W. D. Trout, trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 
Alexander Templeton, killed May 11, 1864; veteran. 
John L. Taylor, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
James F. Toten. 

A. L. Updegraph, killed May 8, 1864. 

S. P. Vansyper, Samuel Williard, Joseph Williard, William Wise, Wil- 
liam Wright. 
Thomas H. Walker, disch. on surgeon's certificate. 
John A. Whary. trans, to Co. D Oct. 1, 1864. 
Silas E. Wright, died Oct. 17, 1864. 
John R. Weaver, Charles T. Yoder. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY D, SIXTY-FOURTH PENNSYLVANIA 
VOLUNTEERS. 

Capt io-nrge H. Covode, pro. to major March 12, 1862. 

Ciipt. James T. Peale, pro. from 2d lieut. to capt. June 4, 1862; to major 
Sept. 11, 1864. 

("'apt. David P. Smith, pro. to 1st lieut. Nov. 21, 1863; to capt. Sept. 9, 
1864; killed Sept. 29, 1864. 

Capt. John C. Paul, pro. from 1st lieut. Co. C to capt. Nov. 1 , 1864 ; com. 
m.ij.ii May 18,1865. 

1st Lieut. John B. Ogden, disch. March 6, 1803. 

1st Lieut. John M. Coulter, pro. from lBtsergt. to 1st lieut. Dec. 13, 1864; 
veteran. 

2d Lieut. George M. Blair, pro. to 2d lieut. May 1, 1864; disch. on sur- 
geon's certificate Sept. 7, 1864; veteran. 

2d Lieut. Albert W. Martin, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut. March 28, 1865 ; 
veteran. 

1st Sergt. W. H. Slick, pro. to 1st sergt. May 5, 1865 ; veteran. 

lBt Sergt. W. B. McElroy, pro. to 1st sergt. March 18, 1865; veteran. 

Sergt. Jacob Robertson, pro. to sergt. Nov. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Sergt. David Scully, pro. to sergt. Nov. 1, 1864 ; veteran. 

Sergt. Robert W. Jow, pro. to sergt. Nov. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Sergt. Samuel Sides, pro. to sergt. Nov. 1, 1864 ; veteran. 

Sergt. R. F. Clark, pro. to sergt. Jan. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Sergt. Joseph Brantlinger, pro. to sergt. March 28, 1865 ; veteran. 

Sergt. John Harbaugh, pro. to sergt. May 1, 1865 ; veteran. 

Sergt. George Cams, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Aug. 20, 1864. 

Sergt. Philip Lichenfelt, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Aug. 20, 1864. 

Sergt. Isaac J. Robb, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Aug. 20, 1864. 

Sergt. Philip B. McCune, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Feb. 28, 1865. 

Sergt. S. B. Shamo, captured Oct. 12, 1863; died at Andersonville July 
30, 1864. 

Sergt. William Brantlinger, captured Oct. 12, 1863; died at Anderson- 
ville June 15, 1864. 

Sergt. Thomas Hanna, captured Oct. 12, 1863 ; died at Andersonville July 
20, 1864. 

Corp. Alexander M. Hill, pro. to corp. Nov. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Corp. James Ogden, pro. to Corp. Nov. 1, 1S04; veteran. 

Corp. Thomas McCullough, pro. to Corp. Nov. 1, 1864; veteran. 

Corp. W. P. France, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Feb. 28, 1865. 

Corp. J. A. Morrison, pro. to Corp. May 1, 1865. 

Corp. M. W. Brown, pro. to corp. May 1, 1865 ; veteran. 

Corp. Hiram R. Smith, pro. to Corp. Nov. 1, 1864 ; veteran. 

Corp. Peter Winebriner, pro. to Corp. June 1, 1865. 

Corp. Samuel Hull, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Feb. 27, 1865. 

Corp. William Blake, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Nov. 20, 1864. 

Corp. William E. Cook, must, out Sept. 15, 1864. 

Corp. Joseph Fry, died at Andersonville June 15, 1864. 

Corp. David Tewell, died at Andersonville Aug. 13, 1864. 

Corp. John R. Wallace, died April 29, 1805, of wounds. 

Buglers, Joseph Wiley, John G. Robinson. 

Farrier, Lancolet Henderson; veteran. 

Saddler, Emmett Louther; must, out with company. 

Privates. 
William Ambrose, died at Richmond, Va., March 9, 1864. 
Josiah Arbaugh, died Oct. 16, 1864. 
T. D. Albright, Lucius Adams, F. Bradley. 
W. H. Black, disch. May 15, 1865. 
W. D. Blackburn, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Cornelius Bowman, Joseph Bowman (substitute), Alexander Bennett, J. 

M. Black, Thomas Biggerstaff. 
William Beekman, must, out Sept. 15, 1864. 
John H. Beekman, must, out Sept 15, 1864. 
Thompson Bills, died March 23, 1865. 
William Bolerby, died April 27, 1864; veteran. 
George Buckingham, died Sept. 16, 1864. 
Joseph Cook, Benjamin Cabel (veteran). 
Jacob Covode, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to April 28, 1865. 
James Caldwell, prisoner from Oct. 12, 1863, to Dec. 13, 1864. 
Joseph Dunmire, Samuel F. Decker. 
Daniel F. Dick, died May 16, 1865. 
John Decker, killed at Lee's Mills March 27, 1865. 
John Elder, disch. by general order June 15, 1865. 
Silas Eckman, John Enirick. 
Henry Enis, died May 31,1864. 

W. P. Fergasus, disch. by general order June 27, 1865. 
Robert Frace, died at Andersonville Sept. 13, 1864. 



482 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Lewis Fry, died at Andersonville April 28, 1864. 
Henry Fry, died at Andersonville Aug. 16, 1864. 

William Gibson (veteran), Robert Gibson (veteran), P. F. Graham (vet- 
eran!. 
G. S. Geary, died at Danville, Va., Feb. 18, 1865. 
Alexander Gunn, died at Andersonville June 21, 1864. 
William Galvin, George Horn ('veteran), U. D. Hackney (veteran). 
H. C. Hartman, disch. July 5, 1865. 
It. F. Hamill, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Thomas Hill, G. W. Hoover, J. G. Hunter, J. M, Haskinson. 
Nathaniel Hendricks, died at Andersonville June 15, 1864. 
Frederick Hill, died April 28, 1865, of wounds. 
Henry Irvin, killed May 23, 1861. 
Alexander Irwine, sick at muster out. 

John H. Jones, wounded and pris. from June 24, 1864, to Feb. 28, 1865. 
Thomas Joyce, Samuel Johnston. 
Oliver Jones, died at Andersonville June 7, 1864. 
Isaac Johns, disch. by general order Aug. 8, 1865. 
J. C. Kirkpatrick, veteran. 
James Knox, veteran. 
William Kirkner. 
Robert Long, veteran. 

J. R. Long. Henry Lope. 

H. W. Lester, must, out Sept. 15, 1864. 
O. E. Lester, must, out Sept. 15, 1864. 
William Logan, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
John T. Lutz, killed June 11, 1864. 
Simon Mitchell, disch. July 10, 1865. 
William Miller, veteran. 

W. H. Moss. S. H. Murray. 

S. D. Murphy. Adam Mangis. 

T. C. Mitchell. William Murphy. 

J. Y. Martin. 

James T. Moore, died at Andersonville July 25, 1864. 
S. B. McCord. 

J. M. McCurdy, must, out Sept. 15, 1864. 
William McDowell, pris. from Oct. 12, 1863, to Feb. 28, 1865. 
Michael McCullough, captured Oct. 27, 1864; died. 
William McClarren, disch. May 15, 1865. 
William Nummer. 

Joseph Neff, died at Andersonville Sept. 21, 1864. 
Andrew Orr, killed March 13, 1865. 
J. M. Parks, died at Salisbury Oct. 29, 1864. 
W. J. Paden, disch. May 30, 1865. 
Benjamin Reed, veteran. W. J. Ray. 

John D. Reynolds, died at Andersonville Aug. 24, 1864. 
Samuel Reed, died at Andersonville March 15, 1864. 
Frederick Russell, died at Andersonville April 27, 1864. 
Elijah Reilly, disch. Aug. 26, 1864. 
J. C. Sham. William Shields. 

J. M. Seese, disch. Aug. 28, ls65. 
J. S. Sensabaugh, disch. July 6, 1865. 
Peter Strausbaugh. W. H. Serene. 

William Sloan. Albert Scott. 

Albert Satora. Elias Shipman. 

Jacob A. Sides, pris. from Oct. 12, 1863, to Dec. 16, 1864. 
R. J. Smith, disch. May 29, 1865. 

Cornelius Sullivan, disch. March 25, 1865, for wounds received. 
Henry Serena, died at Andersonville May 10, 1864. 
W. A. Stokes, died July 5, 1864, of wounds received. 
George B. Scott, died at Andersonville Aug. 24, 1864. 

D. A. Stevens. Israel Shurley, substitute. 
R. Sullenburg. John Sheep, substitute. 
Samuel Trimble, missing in action June 24, 1864. 

E. Taylor. J. N. Tantlinger, veteran. 
Samuel Thomas. 

Moses J. Tewell, must, out Sept. 18, 1864. 

Jacob Tracy, died Oct. 27, 1864. 

E. W. Teoples, died April 10, 1864. 

W. D. Trout, died April 1, 1865. 

Thomas Taylor, died Oct. 23, 1864. 

J. G. Utsler, disch. June 21, 1865. 

Johnston Vermata, captured Oct. 12, 1863; disch. July 1, 1865. 

Watson Vermata, disch. on surgeon's certificate June 7, 1864. 

William Wright. D. J. Wakefield. 

Stepheu Walker. II. C. Wak. -field. 

Joseph Willerd. J. .In, A. Wherry. 



John Wallace, veteran. R. A. Walker. 

George A. White. 

George Wersham, died at Andersonville Aug. 17, 1864. 
James Wainer. Beujamin Yealsy. 

SIXTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Quartermaster Samuel Flint, from May 1, 1865, to July 14, 1865. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY B (OLD COMPANY). 
1st Lieut. Joseph Greer, from S-pt. 1, 1862, to Sept. 12, 1864. 

COMPANY H. 

1st Lieut. Joseph Smith, from June 16, 1863, to March 12, 1865, having 

been promoted from 2d lieut. of Company K. 

A part of the men of Company E were recruited in Westmoreland 

County, but their names cannot be ascertained as separate from those 

of the two other counties that made the major portion of the company. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, SEVENTY-FOURTH PENNSYLVANIA 
VOLUNTEERS. 
Recruited and assigned to it March 11, 1865. 
Capt. Garvin A. McLain, disch. May 8, 1865. 
Capt. Johu Kinter, pro. from 1st lieut. July 20, 1865, 
1st Lieut. John McWilliams, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut. 
2d Lieut. M. S. Ray, pro. from 1st sergt. 
1st Sergt. John W. Shields, pro. from sergt. Aug. 10, 1865. 



Peter Froch 
A. J. Stumpf. 

W. C. Dilts. 
Alexander Walker. 
W. P. Rowe. 
Samuel Wissinger. 



H. L. Kinter. 



Sergeants. 

T. S. McLain. 
W. H. Kinter. 

Corporals. 

W. Thompson. 
D. T. Faith. 
H. H. Shields. 
J. G. Barr. 
W. G. Myers. 

Musicians. 

H. K. Shields. 



J. S. Agey. 

ThoB. Anderson, died May 19, 

S. Bothel. 

Alexander Blun. 

J. W. Brown. 

Johu Brown, of D. 

William Butterbaugh. 

G. M. Butterbaugh. 

J. Butterbaugh. 

L. Butterbaugh. 

S. Butterbaugh. 

James Baker. 

Thomas Bemnger. 

J. L. Berringer. 

D. H. Brady. 

Samuel Clawson. 

William Craig. 

Henry Craig. 

W. A. Connor. 

William Degarmin. 

Samuel Donahey. 

George Donahey. 

J. A. Dickey. 

C. W. Davidson. 

S. M. Fails. 

William Faith. 

John Faith. 

J. W. Findley. 

M. J. Fleming. 

S. Gibson. 

Robert Galbraith. 

R. C. Hopkins. 

Albert Howe. 

Andrew Harman. 

G. W. Hanna. 

John Hunter. 



Privates. 

W. H. Harrison. 
366. Andrew Hoovor. 
Joseph Johnson. 
T. A. Johnson. 
A. Kiuter. 
Alexander Kimnel. 
John Lowman. 
Thomas C. Laughery. 
J. K. Lightcap. 
J. S. Longwell. 
S. Munshower. 
H. Munshower. 
H. M. Myers. 
David Myers. 
J. K. Myers. 
Abe Moor. 
R. M. Morris. 
John McQuown. 
Thomas H. McQuown. 
William McQuown. 
M. McLaughlin. 
W. McLaughlin. 
John McCnnn. 
J. McLeister. 
R. 0. McCaughey. 
John McCoy. 
Alexander McMillen. 
James McMillen. 
H. K. McAllister. 
A. S. McCall. 
J. W. McHenry. 
Frederick Peifer. 
A. Pease. 

W. H. H. Price.died April 24, 1865. 
William Ray. 
M. J. Rhodes. 



APPENDICES. 



483 



J. J. Rowe. 
D. H. Rowe. 
W. B. Short, 
D. A. Short. 



John Sheiffer. 
H. Stuchel. 
S. S wager. 
Caleb Snyder. 
Henry Weiss. 



SEVENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT.— {Three Year? Service.) 

Co. A, 1st Lieut. T. J. Armstrong, from March 11, 1865, to July 18, 1865, 
Co. G, 2d Lieut. J. S. Harinan, from March 10, 1865, to July IS, 1865. 

SEVENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Co. B, Capt. John W. Kreps, from Jan. 0, 1863, to Oct. 29, 1863; was 1st 

lieut. from Sept. 28, 1861, till pro. capt. 
Co. B, 1st Lieut. Frank A. M. Kreps, from Jan. 9, 1863, to Jan. 24, 1865. 

when made capt. ; whs 2d lieut. from Dec. 10, 1862, to Jan. 9, 1863. 

SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Asst. Sur. O. P. Bollinger, from March 28 "to June 22, 1865. 
Co. G, Capt. W. J. Williams; 2d lieut. from March 22, 1864, to April 13, 
1864, when made capt.; must, out Nov. 4, 1864. 

EIGHTY-THIRD REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Asst. Sur. William S. Stewart, from May 22, 1863, to Sept. 24, 1864. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY C, EIGHTY-FOURTH PENNSYLVANIA 

VOLUNTEERS. 
Capt. A. J. Crissman, res. July 15, 1862. 

Capt. B. M. Morrow, pro. from 1st lieut.; res. Sept. 29, 1862. 
Capt. William Logan, disch. Aug. 28, 1863. 
Capt. James J. Wirsing, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut. Jan. 12, 1863 ; to capt. 

Nov. 16, 1863; wounded at Chancellorsville. 
1st Lieut. Archibald Douglass, res. Jan. 11, 1863 
1st Lieut. Charles Mummey, pro. from 1st sergt. Dec. It, 1863; captured 

at Chancellorsville May 3, 1863. 
2d Lieut. Charles O'Neil, res. April 30, 1862. 
2d Lieut. W. M. Gwinn, res. Sept. 19, 1862. 
2d Lieut. William Hays, pro. from l^t sergt.; wounded and captured at 

Chancellorsville; disch. Aug 27,1863. 
2d Lieut. Joseph McMaster, pro. to 2d lieut. July 21, 1864. 
Sergts. R. R. Roberts, Charles McClune, M. Campbell, Harrison Hines. 
Corp. Eli Johnston, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Corps. John Felgar, J. Wirsing, Joseph Hood. 
Corp. John Stern, wounded at Chancellorsville. 

Corp. Moses Clark, captured at Chancellorsville; trans, to 57th Regt. 
Corp. John Douglass, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Corp. Peter J. Kesler, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Musiuians, A. Ringler, John Cramer (trans, to 57th Regt.). 

Privates. 
John Ayers. J. A. Albert. 

W. 0. Akers, died ; veteran. 
Norman Ankney, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Josiah Baldwin, trans, to 57th Regt. 

J. D. Barron, trans, to 57th Regt.; wounded at Chancellorsville. 
Aaron Boughner. John Bechtel. 

H. W. Banner. 

Owen Bui lard, died Jan. 5, 1862. 
William Blumroder. Isaac Boose. 

John Bair. C. D. Bowers. 

Herman Beissert, captured at Chancellorsville. 
J. Berkstresser. C.Curry. 

John Berry. Michael Collina. 

Adam Boles. William Crothera. 

C. Cookensburg. John Clark. 

Isaiah Campbell. J. T. Campbell. 

Lewis Cruse. D. Camerer. 

M. Cruse. Thomas Carroll. 

William Campbell, trans, to 57th Regt. 
John Camerer, tranB. to 57th Regt. 
C. W. Curry, disch. for wounds received at Winchester. 
Charles Cornmesser, died at Davidsburg, Pa. 
Reed A. Douglas, trans, to 57th Regt. 
M. Duffey. Michael Fry, Sr. 

M. Fry, Jr. 

George S. Freeman, killed at Chancellorsville. 
Summerfield Flegal, not accounted for. 
John Geisey, trans, to 57th Regt. 
John Grimes. Henry Grimes. 



Juhn McGraw. 
James McGirr. 
Patrick McCoy. 
J. W. McKinney. 
M. McCartney. 
M. B. Miller. 



Jacob Grimes. 

Jesse Hoffer, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Eli Barman, trans, to 57th Regt. 
George Hays, killed at Chancellorsville. 

C. H. Hays. Jeremiah Hoffer. 
John Hines. 

George Hoffer, trans, to Co. H, 57th Rsgt. 
Samuel Hoffer, trans, to Co. H, 57th Regt. 
W. C. Hileman, died of wounds received at Winchester. 
W. K. Hileman, not accounted for. 

Ab. Hertzler, disch. for wounds received at Winchester. 
John Johnstnn, captured at Ghuncellursville. 
Jacob Johnston. J. Jennings. 

Uriah Johnson. James Kesler. 

Samuel Konkle, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Daniel Kuhns, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Henry Knox. George Kissel 1. 

J. M. Knox, trans, to 57th Regt. 

Leo Keech, killed at Winchester, Va., March 3, 1862. 
Terrence Kinney. John Lever. 

D. A. Kephart. Thomas Lahey. 
Thomas Long. 

Josiah A. Moore, captured at Chancellorsville. 
George A. Miller. Robert C. Moore. 

Edward Montacue, trans, to 57th Regt. 
AVilliam S. Miller. Adam Miller. 

Noah Miller, trans, to 57th Regt. Adam Moul. 
David M. Miller, died Dec. 9, 1862. 
James Martheny. 
J. S. Mickey. 
J. Murphy. 
Robert Mason. 
George Musans. 

Marshall Moody, killed at Chancellorsville. 
John Matthews, died Dec. 23, 1862. 
Peter Morningstar, trans, to 57th Regt. • 
Robert Mcllvaine, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Joseph H. Moore, trans, to Co. A. 
Adam Mort, not accounted for. 
Henry Nedrow, trans, to 57th Regt. 
Edward Neckles. William S. Pane, 

Charles Noel. W. J. Padan. 

William Osborne. Lewis Pickle. 

Henry Pickle, trans, to Co. A ; veteran. 
Robert Pickle, unaccounted for. 
William Queer, trans, to 57th Regt. 
George B. Reese. P. H. Roadman. 

Thomas Richards, trans, to 57th Regt. 
William Rodskey. L. S. Reed. 

Felix Rick. Jacob Rinehard. 

Henry H. Smith, captured at Chancellorsville. 
Henry Stum, died July 20, 1863. 
Paul Shaw ley. 
Conrad Shawley. 
Joseph Showman. 
H. Satterfield. 
Jonathan Shawley, wounded at Chancellorsville. 
John L. Shultz. wounded at Chancellorsville. 
Nathaniel Sharp, died June 29, 1862. 

Samuel Teeter. Robert Taylor. 

John Teeter. 

John Trainor, trans, to Co. A; veteran. 

R. Templeton. J. W. White. 

W. A. Thomas. W. G. Wissinger. 

Harrison Wissinger, wounded at Chancellorsville. 

Edward Walters, trans, to Co. E. 

Aaron Waight, killed at Winchester March 23, 1862. 

H. R. Wilson. Edward White. 

Jacob Wise. James White. 

William Whittaker. Silas White. 

W. R. Wimer. 

J. Russell Wingate, trans, to Co. D. 

Martin Young, disch. for wounds received in action. 

EIGHTY-FIFTH REGIMENT.— (Three Year? Service.) 
Co. H, 1st Lieut. Isaac R. Beazell, from Sept. 23, 1861, to June 24, 1862, 
when resigned. 



David Stalman 
David Scott. 
J. W. Shreeder. 
Jacob Spidel (wounded) 



484 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



NINETY-THIRD REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Lieut.-Col. John W. Johnston, from Sept. 14, 18G1, to July 10, 1862; res. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY M, ONE HUNDREDTH PENNSYLVANIA 
VOLUNTEERS. 

Capt. David A. Leckey, pro. to maj. Oct. 9, 1861. 

Capt. A. B. Campbell, pro. from 2d Lieut. ; res. Jan. 5, 186'i. 

Capt. James L. McFeeters, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut. ; to 1st lieut. ; to 
capt.; wounded at Second Bull Run. 

Capt. J. W. Allen, pro. from corp. to sergt.; to 1st sergt. ; to capt. ; pris- 
oner from July 30 to Oct. JO, 1864 ; veteran. 

Ut Lieut. Jesse C. Taylor; disch. March 8, 1862. 

1st Lieut. J. R. McQuaid, pro. from corp. tu sergt. ; to 1st lieut. ; wounded 
at Cold Harbor. 

l6t Lieut. Charles Oliver, pro. from sergt. to l6t sergt. ; to 1st lieut.; vet. 

2d Lieut. John C. Dougherty, pro. from sergt. to 2d lieut. ; wounded at 
Petersburg. 

2d Lieut. William Oliver, pro. to sergt. ; to 2d lieut. ; wounded at South 
Mountain, Spottsylvania, and Petersburg. 

1st Sergt. Joel Pancoast, veteran. 

1st Sergt. C. L. Powers, wounded; discharged. 

Sergt. J. T. Kirkland, veteran. 

Sergt. John W. Bradley, veteran. 

Sergt. Alex. Haney, veteran. 

Sergt. W. R. Collins, must, out at expiration of term. 

Sergt. John H. Merrick, killed at James Island. 

Corp. John McClure, veteran. 

Corp. J. A. Abraham. 

Corp. G. D. Barclay, substitute. 

Corp. David Ross, substitute. 

Corp. J. Crouch. 

Corp. Peter Culp, substitute. 

Corp. C. F. Anderson, veteran. 

Corp. Wm. Wi^ley, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Corp. Benj. Taylor, James Mahaffey. 

Musician W. F. Cline, veteran; W. S. Abrahams, veteran. 

Musician Thos. Eba. 

Privates. 

"Wm. Adams, drafted ; disch. July 19, 1865. 

Josiah Applegate. 

John Addison, prisoner from July 29, 1864, to Feb. 23, 1865. 

J. S. Athertou, drafted ; died March 31, 1865. 

Thos. Albright, substitute; May 16, 186"). 

David Arnold, substitute ; June 4, 1865. 

C. Abrahams. A. Rretz, substitute. 

A. Altaian. Thos. Berry, substitute. 

Isaac Amnion. Wm. Bacon. 

Samuel Alton. Samuel Barton. 

O. H. Burdette. D. Beverage. 

A. A. Bathnr-st, not on muster-out roll. 

A. Buckalew, disch. by general order June 7, 1865. 

John W. Bradley, killed at Spottsylvania. 

Peter Boyle, substitute; March 24, 1865. 

P. G. Bannon, substitute ; May 15, 1865. 

John Cassiday. L. Cameron, substitute. 

James Chesnut, substitute. Joseph Gary. 

John Crooks, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 

John Cox, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 

F. G. Craighead, died July 22, 1864. 

P. Cregan. Wm. Dale. 

John Curry. J. F. Craighead. 

Wm. Cowan, substitute, June 17, 1865. 

J. W. Cocaine, twice, Dec. 9, 1862, ami June 9, 1865. 

James Day, drafted. 

J. S. DeWalt, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 

John Donaldson, substitute ; disch. June 6, 1865. 

W. S. Dunn, killed at Spottsylvania. 

Charles Dawson, died at Andersonville June, 1865. 

Lewis Erhard, drafted. John Echelberger. 

John Engle, substitute; June 25, 1865. 

O.W. Elliott. Henry Fisher. 

S. Fenwick, drafted. 

Ward Foster, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 

J. D. Fowler, killed at Spottsylvania. 

Michael Flyuu, substitute ; April 4, 1865. 

John Flint. E. W. Gay, substitute. 



0. C. Jackson, substitute. 

Jacob Jordan. 

Thos. W. James, substitute. 



Samuel Grist, veteran. Leonitus Hayden. 

J. C. Gordon, drafted. John Hair, substitute. 

Patrick Hickey. 

James Hayes, substitute ; captured at Petersburg. 

Isaiah Houseman, must, out Sept. 5, 1864, 

James Healy, died at Andersonville Dec. 11, 1S64. 

Wm. Harris, substitute ; May 15, 1865. 

Michael HotT, substitute ; May 15, 1865. 

Win. Hickey, substitute ; May 16, 1865. 

John Hale, substitute ; May 23, 1865. 

John Hogan, substitute ; June 4, 1865. 

G. W. Healey. Peter Harrison. 

Alex. Henry. I. Ibiuseman. 

I Richard Hopkins. 

Wm. Irwin, disch. June 30, 1865. 
] James Jester. 
' Wm. Johnson. 
I Wm. Jacob, substitute. 
j Jonathan H. Jones, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Johu Johnston. Martin Jordan, died. 

Joseph Kreps. Geo. Kerr. 

Henry E. Kemble. 

Wm. Kinney, died April 18, 1865, of wounds received at Petersburg, 
March 25. 

John Lewis, drafted. W. Linkard, substitute. 

Joseph Lower, substitute. 

Fred. Libalt, disch. June 7, 1865. 

Michael Lape, disch. on surgeon's certificate ; veteran. 

Anton Langsdorf, drafted ; disch. July 3, 1865. 

George Lucy. J. S. Marshall. 

Samuel Lytle. G. W. Mogle, drafted. 

William Madge, substitute. 

John R. Moss, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 

Robert Matley, drafted ; disch. May 7, 1865. 

John Mulligan, must, out Oct. 7, 1864. 

Isaac Myers, drafted ; died April 21, 1865, of wounds. 

Patrick Martin, substitute; May 15, 1865. 

Janus Malone, substitute; May 19, 1865. 

Charles Miller, substitute; died; buried iu National Cemetery, Rich- 
mond, Va. 

David Meredith. Thomas McMurray, substitute. 

Robert McClure, disch. on surgeon's certificate June 24, I860. 

John W. Connell, died May 31, 1864, of wounds received. 



John Nicholson. 
Dauiel Odamar, substitute. 
Lawrence O'Brien, substitute. 
Frank O'Carrie, substitute. 
Elias Powell, veteran. 
J. N. Parker, veteran. 
Cyrus Peterson, drafted. 
. C, Nov. 28, 1862. 
John Ritz, substitute. 
Henry Ragon, substitute. 



Johu W. Connell. 
Samuel McClure. 
S. McCaughan. 
Mark McCanders. 
Robert V. McQuaid. 
John Natman, substitute. 
Charles Newell, drafted. 
James Piles, died at Hilton Head, S. 
J. W. Penny. 
J. Renninger, drafted. 
J. W. Rouch, drafted. 
Charles W. Richards, died Feb. 19, 1865. 
William Rothrock, died March 12, 1865 ; veteran. 
George Rudge, died Sept. 24, 1863. 

John Rankin. George W. Sellars, drafted. 

John Shedden, substitute. Hiram Swisher, drafted. 

James Stewart. 

Hiram Saddler, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 
Solomon Stroupe, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 
R. H. Sickles, must, out Sept. 5, 1864. 
George Smith, substitute ; Feb. 23, 1865. 
Jacob Smith, substitute; May 2, 1865. 

Jacob Seigle. George Thompson, substitute. 

James Saddler. James Thompson, substitute. 

Philip Saddler. Benjamin Thomas. 

John Thomas, substitute ; June 9, 1865. 
Samuel Thorp. R. H. Thomas. 

Joseph Ulam,must. out Sept. 5, 1864. 
Jacob Wilt, drafted. Henry Wray. 

JameB Wilson, drafted. Barnes White. 

Aaron Weddle. 

Charles H. White, disch. on surgeon's certificate May 24. 1863. 
John West, wounded at Bull Run Aug. 28,1862; prisoner from Sept. 30, 
1864, to March 2, 1865; veteran. 



APPENDICES. 



485 



H. P- Williams, drafted June 25, 18G5. 




Sergeant*. 


John C. White, April 15, 


1864; veteran. 


G. B. Potts. 




W. T. Russell. 


William Woods, substitute ; April 3, 1865. 


0. B. Robertson. 




J. W. Anderson. 


William Waddlngton. 


John Young. 








Charles Warns. 


Adam Zimmerle. 




t brporais. 


Isaac Walters. 


Adam Zimmerman. 


S. W. McMichael. 




Simon Eisaman. 






John Harman. 




Alexander Snow. 


Thomas Williams. 




R. 0. Hurst. 




John Shirey. 


ONE HUNDRED AND 


FIRST REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 
Company B. 


Francis Andrews. 




J. F. Earnest. 








Musicians. 


This was a new company, raised and assigned to the regiment March 


II. Reagan. 




Alexander Kiinmel. 


15, 1865, and mustered ou 


t June 25, 186:.. 








Capt. William S. Harrah 


; 1st lieut., J. D. Kettering ; 2d lieut, JameB 




Pri 


latet. 


McCauley; 1st sergt. 


J. M. McKelvey. 


John Albing. 
William Abig. 




T. B. May. 
B. F. May. 




Sergeants. 


John Anderson. 




George Moyers. 


M. K. Hensel. 


James Carnahan. 


Abraham Albert. 




Albeit McIIenry. 


J. A. Matterson. 




A. F. Barr. 




Joseph McNelley. 




Corporals. 


J. F. Buttermore. 




Samuel McMichael. 


Oliver Cope. 


W. A. McKnight. 


J. J. Baker. 




B. A. McBryer. 


William McCurdy. 


R. Dresser. 


D. C. Baker. 




M. Porteger. 


John Hurst. 


Hugh Best. 


Emauuel Barr. 




George H. Porch. 


J. Q. A. Beistel. 


J. J. Anderson. 


J. A. Baker. 




W. H. Ruff. 




Musicians. 


George Crise. 




J. B. Reynolds. 




Obadiah Eisaman. 




J. S. Rayger. 


G. W. Reed. 


W. E. Welsh. 


S. M. Fry. 




John Rough. 




Privates. 


A. B. Findley. 
D. Z. Frick. 




C. P. M. Riley. 
Eli Roadman, 


William Anderson. 


T. J. Bell. 


S. T. Fry. 




Daniel Reynolds. 


Joshua Burkey. 


G. M. Brant. 


Joseph Franey. 




Michael Swartz. 


D. B. Boynton. 


George Balentiue. 


C. F. Foss. 




David Shirey. 


Samuel Blair. 


George Barger. 


Simon Feitner. 




J. B. Sample. 


Henry Byers. 


George Bellinger. 


Jeff. Freeman. 




J. B. Sinister. 


G. B. Brown. 


H. F. Beistel. 


A. J. Gallagher. 




Eli Stairs. 


Jacob Beistel, died at Newberne, N. C, July 5, 1865. 


John Hufl'er. 




David Sheets. 


H. Beisel. 


Samuel Koodman. 


S. D. Hensel. 




William Sible. 


David Beatty. 


S. Liuuinger. 


L. Henry. 




S. Shiebler. 


Henry Bossart. 


Basil Lewis. 


Abel Hewitt. 




Franklin Smith. 


J. R. Berry. 


Carl Myers. 


J. R. Hough. 




John Sherrow. 


John G. Campbell. 


George W. Myers. 


J. J. Hile. 




Josiah Sherrow. 


M. M. Campbell. 


J.M.Marshall. 


Revel Hays. 




S. G. Shiebler. 


Philip Carnes. 


Thomas Martin. 


Erwin Hays. 




Daniel Smeltzer. 


A. C. Cramer. 


William McMillam. 


S. G. Hensel. 




Henry Sheets. 


J. S. Campbell. 


J. M. Matthews. 


W. C. Hanna. 




George H. Thomas. 


James Cribbs. 


David Mardis. 


Emauuel Kuhns. 




Alexander Tarr. 


I. F. Chesnut. 


J. C. Morrison. 


G. A. Keener. 




Barnett Thomas. 


D. S. Croft. 


T.P. B. Mikesel. 


Samuel Keller. 




John L. Weaver. 


Z. Clemm. 


R. S. Magill. 


Eli Kelley. 




Henry Wilks. 


P. A. Deemer. 


W. M. Piper. 


John Kayne. 




A. J. Wilson. 


Henry Deemer. 


Daniel Parks. 


M. B. Kettering. 




F. F. Wolf. 


James Dougherty. 


J. W. Ross. 


Henry Lane. 




Alexander C. Walker. 


James Donaldson. 


H. Russel. 


Henry Lower. 




John Wilkins. 


J. Drummond. 


Samuel Roadman. 


John Leasure. 




J. F. Zimmerman. 


A. Darr. 


W. E. Robbins. 


B. F. Lauffer. 






Milton Foreshoe. 


Thomas Robbins. 








James Freeman. 


Jesse Rector. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY E, 


ONE 


HUNDRED AND FIFTH PENN- 


J. M. Getty. 


Adam Roger. 


SYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 


John Guy. 


Jacob Ross. 


Capt. Mungo M. Dick, pro. to 


maj. 


Sept. 20, 1861. 


A. H. Hurst. 


John Shaffer. 


Capt. J. W.Greenawalt, wounded at Fair Oaks; pro. from 1st lieut. Sept. 


W. S. Harris. 


Thomas Stimmel. 


20, 1861 ; to maj. Nov. 29, 


1862. 




Samuel Henry. 


John S. Stewart. 


Capt. Cassius M.Markle, pro. 


from 2d to 1st lieut. Sept. 20, 1861 ; to capt. 


J. G. Hessinger. 


Hiram Shirey. 


Nov. 29, 1862; wounded at Fa 


r Oaks, Va., May 31. 1862; disch. by 


Jerome Hartzeh. 


Bennett Stadtmiller. 


special order Sept. 3, 1864 






John Helm. 


John G. Watt. 


1st Lieut. A. J. Shipley, pre 


. from sergt. to 2d lieut., to 1st lieut. ; 


John Hanger. 


Samuel Wadsworth. 


wounded at Fair Oaks ; disch. 


Dec. 19, 1863. 


H. Jacobs. 


John A. Wolford. 


1st Lieut. J. M. Shoaf, pro. from corp. to 1st sergt., to 1st lieut. ; must. 


M. Kunkel. 


Samuel Young. 


out with company; veteran. 




James Kakoe. 


Cyrus Qealy. 


2d Lieut. George C. Patterson, pro. from Corp. to sergt., to 2d lieut. ; 


T. T. Keibler. 


Hiram Yealy. 


disch. Sept. 22, 1864. 






D. M.Kimmel. 




2d Lieut. George E. Dennick, 


pro. to corp., to sergt., to 2d lieut.; must. 






out with compauy ; veteran. 
1st Sergt. Lewis G. Dom, veteran. 




ONE HUNDRED AND 


THIRD REGIMENT.— (Three Years' Service.) 




Company F. 


—(Second company of this letter.) 


1st Sergt. J. H. Gray, wounded at Fair Oaks ; disch. Sept. 29, 1863. 


This company was assi 


;ned to the regiment in March, 18G5, and mus- 


Sergt. William R. Christy, veteran 




tered out Juno 25th following. 


Sergt. Joshua Fulnier, veteran. 




Capt., Cyrus Thomas ; 1st lieut., Caleb M. Row ; 2d lieut., S. A. Bryan ; 


Sergt. R. F. Bankert, veteran 






1st sergt., F. B. Boyle 




Sergt. John Shaner, veteran. 







486 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Sergt. John Barr, killed at Fair Oaks. 

Sergts. W. A. McLain, R. D. Brown, R. H. Dawson, Joseph Fritchman, 

Josiab Geiger, J. M. Hays, J. H. Taylor, William W. Newton, 

Matthias Bankert. 
Corp. Thomas Perkins, veteran. 
Corp. J. B. Hurst, veteran. 
Corp. J. W. Rike, drafted. 
Corp. Joseph Schrack, drafted. 
Corp. Peter Eimer, substitute. 
Corp. William Snyder, drafted. 
Corp. Adam Tomer, veteran. 
Corp. J. ML Dinsmore, veteran. 
Corp. Amizi Parks, killed at Wilderness; veteran. 
Corps. J. I. Campbell, J. M. McLarimer, George Weddle. 

Privates. 

Judson Armor, disch. March 25, 1863, for wounds received. 

J. A. Armstrong, disch. March 4, 1863, for wounds received. 

Emanuel Burkett, drafted. William Byerly. 

W. J. Binder, drafted. 

Henry P. Bitts, killed at Fair Oaks. 

John Beaumont, died of wounds June 6, 1864. 

J. A. Bateman, lost in action Oct. 27, 1864. 

R. R. Burchfield, drafted; lust in action June 22, 1864. 

Henry Bowers, drafted ; missing in action May 12, 1864. 

George Blethreu, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 23, 1862. 

Henry Baughman, disch. Dec. 9, 1862, for wounds. 

Clark L. Brant, disch. Feb. 10, 1863, for wuunds. 

Jacob Brewer, disch. Aug. 8, 1862, lor wounds. 

J. F. Boyd, diBch. June 12, 1865. 

J. E. Bottomly, disch. Oct. 20, 1861. 

Samuel Burkbart, disch. Sept. 4, 1864, expiration of term. 

J. G. Byerly, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

W. J. Crise. Thomas Coffin. 

J. K. Clark (substitute). 

James Campbell, killed at Gettysburg. 

A. McK. Campbell, died of wounds July 8, 1863. 

A. M. Creighton, drafted; missing in action May 5, 1864. 

D. M. Coley, disch. May 15, 1863, for wounds. 

William Cochenour, disch. on surgeon's certificate April 4, 1862. 

Hugh Cunningham. P. Dean. 

August Dierkes. John Deitle, killed at Fair Oaks. 

William Dougherty, died at Salisbury, Nov. 25, 1864; veteran. 

W. L. Dady, drafted ; missing in action Sept. 9, 1864. 

D. J. Delancy, drafted; missing in action Sept. 9, 1864. 

Charles C. Douglass, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 29, 1862. 

Francis Dunbar, must, out Sept. 4, 1864. 

W. B. Dermick, disch. on surgeon's certificate April 20, 1863. 

Rinebart Eisel, drafted. 

John D. Elliott, died Jan. 9, 1862. 

John W. Frazer, veteran. Charles W. Fox, drafted. 

Thomas Fbiig, substitute ; killed at Fort Davis. 

J. G. Felgar, disch. Sept. 4, 1864. 

W. P. Fritchman, disch. Sept. 4, 1864. 

George R. Fultz, disch. Jan. 16, 1864, for wounds. 

J. T. Fleming, disch. Sept. 4, 1864. 

James Finley, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

D. H. Gould, veteran. W. Guhl, substitute. 

W. H. Godfrey, drafted. 

Peter Griffith, killed at Wilderness. 

William Gregory, died Feb. 9, 1863. 

R. G. Greenawalt, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 9, 1862. 

W. S. Greer, drafted. G. A. Garries, drafted. 

H. J. Rogere. J. C. Bought, died June 2, 1862. 

John Heist, died at Richmond a prisoner. 

Robert Henry, missing in action May 12, 1864. 

Charles Higgins, drafted; missing in action May 5, 1864. 

Thomas Hodgeson, disch. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 13, 1862. 

Alexander Hurst, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 9, 1862. 

Roger Hurst, disch. Sept. 4, 1864, expiration term. 

John Hudspath, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

John Irwin, died March 26, 1862. 

George Johnston, substitute; May 28, 1865. 

J. S. Johnston, disch. Sept. 4, 1864, expiration term. 

Christian Kreps. Thomas Kelly. 

H. A. Kissinger. T. A. Kenly. 

Frederick Keck. Francis Kelly. 



Michael Kelly, missing in action May 12, 1864. 

Francis Keck, substitute; missing in action Dec. 7, 1864. 

W. M. Kelly, disch. on surgeon's certificate June 11, 1862. 

Elias Kunkle, discli. Sept. 4, 1864, expiration term. 

Archie A Kuhn, disch. July 3, 1862, for wounds. 

William Kreps, disch. April 25, 1865, expiration term. 

Nicholas Kroff, substitute; disch. June 22, 1865. 

Daniel Kettering, trans, to Signal Corps Aug. 1, 1863. 

J. M. Kincaid, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Julius Lauf, substitute. W. H. Lacy, veteran. 

William Long, drafted. Placidus Lucbuck. 

Charles Long, disch. Aug. 5, 1865. 

Job Layton, killed at Fair daks. 

John Measure, disch. Oct. 7, 1862. 

C. W. Lightner, disch. June 6, 1862. 
Moses Lowers, disch. Sept 4, 1864. 

W. H. Lawson, pro. to 1st sergt. Co. K Jan. 1. 1862. 
J. P. Miller. J. C. Moore, drafted. 

Frederick Meek, substitute. William Moyer, drafted. 

George Metter, drafted. 
F. Miller, substitute. 
John T. Miller, killed at Fair Oaks. 
John T. Milleuden, died Sept. 27, 1862. 
A. J. Miller, May 8, 1864. 

George M. Means, disch. on surgeon's certificate July 31, 1862. 
Alexander Means, disch. for wounds received. 
Frederick Mysic, disch. for wounds received May 31, 1862, 
Michael Mysic, disch. for wounds received May 31, 1862. 
James Mews, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 16, 1862. 
Francis Mooney, disch. Sept. 4, 1864, expiration of term. 
Joseph Markle, prisoner from Sept. 9, 1864, to April, 1865 ; disch. by gen- 
eral order May 29, 1865 ; veteran. 
Alexander McClintock, killed at Wilderness. 
Alexander C. McMath, died June 17, 1862, of wounds. 
Jacob McGrew, died June 12, 1862. 

George S. McGrew, disch. Sept. 4, 1864, at expiration of term. 
Isaac G. McCauley, disch. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 25, 1862. 
John W. McCane, disch. Aug. 1, 1862, for wounds. 
Robert McMunn, disch. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 5, 1862. 
J. M. McCauley, trans, to 1st Regt. U. S. Cav. June 11, 1863. 
William Null, disch. June 6, 1865. 
Andrew Nish, disch. Dec. 26, 1862, for wounds. 
William Prescott, died June 25, 1864, of wouuds. 

D. C. Palmer, disch. March 17, 1863, for wounds. 

Joseph Pinkerton, disch. on surgeon's certificate Oct. 7, 1862. 
Emanuel Rufen, drafted. 

W. T. Reed, disch. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 25, 1863. 
Peter Smoter, veteran. Benjamin Shannon. 

W. H. Smith. Henry Seder, substitute. 

Theo. Shaffer, substitute. William South. 

John C. Short, drafted ; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Joseph Steiner. 

C. P. Schrank, drafted; missing in action Dec. 7, 1864. 
Benjamin Stewart, discli. June 11, 1863. 

J. Scheedy, drafted ; disch. June 22, 1865. 

Harrison Seaner, killed at Fair Oaks. 

Harvey Tomlinson. Cornelius Tobin. 

W. W. Thompson died at Salisbury, Nov. 5, 1864. 

Robert Turley, discli. on surgeon's certificate Aug. 12, 1862. 

L. Wahl, drafted. 

Aaron We:?tzel, drafted. 

T. J. Woodward. 

John Werner, drafted. 

D. F. Walter, drafted; disch. July 5, 1865. 
Henry Wyaud, drafted ; disch. July 13, 1865. 

David F. Weimer, wounded and captured at Fair Oaks; died at Rich- 
mond, June 25, 1862. 
A. G. Williard, died Jan. 8, 1863. 
Henry G. Weaver, disch. Oct. 26, 1862, for wounds. 
Samuel White, disch. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 25, 1862. 
Benjamin S. Warren, disch. Oct. 25, 1862, for wounds. 
M. L. Willetts, drafted; disch. May 30, 1865. 
John Woodward, pro. to principal musician Oct. 1, 1861. 
Albert Williard, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
John M. Wilson, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
John Wallace, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 
Henry Zuuer, drafted; must, out with company. 



APPENDICES. 



487 



ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH REGIMENT.— (Three l'«ri' Sewice.) 

(Company G, assigned April, 1865.) 
1st Lieut. David 0. Brown, from April 17, 1865, to Jan. 28, 1866. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.— {Tltree Years' 

Service.) 
Surgeon George C. Ewing, from April 3, 1803, to June 23, 1861. 

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT— CAVALRY.— 

( Three Years' Service.) 
Surgeon W. F. Osborne, from Jan. 21 to July 14, 1865. 



ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT. — {Nine 

Months' Serrice.) 
Asst. Surgeon W. S. Stewart, from Sept. 12, 1862, to May 13, 1863. 



ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND REGIMENT.— (Mne 
Months' Service.) 
Surgeon J. W. Anawalt, from Sept. 15, 1862, to May 24, 1863. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH 
PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 

Capt. David L. McCulloch, pro. to lieutenant-colonel, Aug. 19, 1862. 

Capt. George C. Mabou, pro. from first lieutenant Aug. 19, 1862. 

1st Lieut. John McMurray, pro. from second lieutenant Aug. 19, 1862. 

2d Lieut. W. B. McCherney, pro. frum first sergeant Aug. 19, 1862. 

1st Sergt. Shannon Nicely, pro. from sergeant Aug. 19, 1862. 

Sergts. R. S. Elliott, J. W. Graham, J. G. Ogden, Wesley Taylor. 

Corps. J. E. McNutt, A. J. Graham, W. A. Love, John Brown, Andrew 

Taylor, W. B. McElroy, William Clark, John L. Spiegel. 
Musicians J. C. Davis, S. B. Gillmores. 



Isaac Ambrose Pankney. 

Albert Bossart. 

Albert Burkhart. 

J. B. Brown. 

John Brideuhall. 

M. W. Brown. 

John Barber. 

Samuel Barton. 

W. H. Brown. 

C. C. Beatty. 

W. C. Campbell. 

Theodore Cunningham. 

J. C. Campbell. 

James Clark. 

Carson Clifford. 

Michael Crawford. 

Alexander Craig. 

Peter Dick. 

A. S. Fowler. 

John Findley. 

John Geiger. 

John M. Geiger. 

H. W. Hellerman. 

James Haupt. 

J. H. Horner. 

William Halferty. 

James Hutchinson. 

A. Hibhens. 

Paul Hill. 

Isaac Hill. 

Robert Heacox. 

Hubert Johnston. 

Porter Kelly. 

H. F. Keener. 

S. M. Kennedy. 

M. P. Knapp. 

Josiah Lilly. 

J. G. Louther. 

S. C. Louther. 



Privates. 

John Louther. 
James Lynch. 
Willam Mears. 
A. F. Martin. 
A. M. Mechesney. 

A. Matthews. 

C. A. Mangus. 

D. B. Miller. 
R. McBurney. 
Hugh McCune. 
William McMillan. 
James McMullen. 
M. McCullough. 
John Xeal. 
David Pier. 
Daniel Pier. 
William Robb. 

B. Rifller. 
Robert Biddle. 
Joseph Steel. 

E. B. Sweeney. 
J. II. Soxman. 
W. C. Strickler. 
Benjamin Simpson. 
Hiram Smith. 
John mii <■! 

Abe Shockey. 

Francis Smith. 

G. W. Starmer. 

George Serena. 

Isaac Smith. 

Wm. Shannon, died Oct. 13, 1862. 

James Tittle. 

William Walter (1). 

William Walter (2). 

John B. Walter. 

David Wallace. 

John R. Wallace. 

Peter Winebrenner. 



W. C. Knox. 
D. R. Cook. 
A. II. Hinkley. 

Thomas Culbertsou, 
S. P. Reed. 
I. N. Dushaw. 
Laban Smith. 

W. C. Armour. 



Sergeants. 

J. A.McKinley. 
J. M. Moore. 

Corporale. 

Elialia Torrence. 
Simeon Bird. 
D. 0. Brown. 
Irwin Horrell. 

Musicians. 

C. C. Fisher. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY G, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH 

PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 
Capt, H. L. Donnelly; 1st lieut., J. 0. Lowery; 2d lieut., Thomas P. 
Moorhead ; 1st sergt., J. H. Moore. 



J. W. Armour. 
J. T. Ambrose. 
J. A. Aschour. 
S. J. Bargoon. 

E. J. Best. 
J. A. Burrell. 
W. Y. Beltz. 
S. E. Bell. 

F. E. Beltz. 
Jeremiah Boyd. 
Alex. Bitner. 
D.E. Beltz. 
Jeremiah Bush. 
S. S. Briukley. 

G. A. Brant. 
Uriah Cannon. 
Joseph Clark. 
H. G. Cavin. 
W. H. Couch. 
Samuel Cook. 
Noah Cams. 
William Donnell. 
J. M. Durnin. 
J. M. Elder. 
G.R. Ewing. 
A. Eschelman. 
Jeremiah Fritz. 
Samuel Fritz. 
H. B. Fishell. 
Alex. Fuller. 
J. W. Gebhart. 
J. L. Hurst. 
James Hanlin. 
Peter Henry (died at Washington, 

D.O., March 5, 1863). 
George Lawson. 
Alex. Loughrey. 
W. H. Lowery. 
J. M. Louther. 
Benjamin R. Lowery. 
J.W.Mitchell. 
J. A. Mickey. 

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT.— {Nine 

Months" Service.) 

Company H. 

Capt. Samuel S. Marchand, died Feb. 18, 1863, of wounds received at 

Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. 

Part of this company was recruited in Westmoreland County. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY B, ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY- 
SECOND PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 
Capt. John G. Andrews, 'disch. Aug. 20, 1864. 
Capt. Daniel S. Wilkine, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut., to capt; must, out 

with company May 29, 1865. 
1st Lieut. Edward B. Hurst, killed at Gettysburg July 1, 1863. 
1st Lieut. Daniel S. Tinsman, pro. from sergt. Oct. 24, 1864. 
1st Sergt. Urbanus Hubbs, pro. to sergt., to 1st sergt. 
1st Sergt. A. A. Hasson, trans, to 169th Regt.; disch. by general order 

July 3,1865. 

Sergeant*. 

J. M. Kough. D. Wilkins. 

G. A. Bare. S- A. Bare. 

Thomas Lonergan, wounded at Fredericksburg. 

G. P. Clark, trans to 18th Regt. Vet. Res. Corps. 



Israel Matthews. 

J. R. Miskelly. 

George Mears. 

W. J. Newherter. 

Israel Marker. 

Leander Morley. 

D. Minnahan, Jr. 

John C. Morrison. 

J. H. McCauhry. 

H. McDowell. 

Hiram McKelvey. 

J. W. McKelvey. 

D C. McChesney. 

H. L. McMillin. 

J. T. Nicewonger. 

Judson Naugle. 

Asher Nicely. 

Isaac Nicely (died at Washington, 

D. C, Jan. 21, 1863). 
John O'Hara. 
John Oursler. 
Martin R. Phillipi. 
George Piper. 
S. K. Pounds. 
Lewis Rosb. 
Shannon Roberts. 
Joseph RobbinB. 
Edward Shaffer. 
J. M. Smith. 
H. B. Scott. 
J. H. Sloan. 
William Sindorf. 
Thomas Smith, Jr. 
Henry Simons. 
J. P. Septer. 
Frederick Tauthirger. 
J.H.Taylor. 
M. B. Wilt. 
Cyrus W. Wilt. 
W. P. Wadsworth. 
John Waughman. 



488 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Corporate. 
J. 8. Hood. 
Samuel Dice. 
Thomas Candvine. 

M. S. Lohr, pro. to corp. Nov. 1, 1863. 
Henry Gibson, wounded at Fredericksburg. 
G. W. Stacy, disch. May 15, 1865. 
G. P. Matthews, killed at Gettysburg. 
Cyrus Walter, died of wounds received at Gettysburg. 



Cyrus Swartz. 



Musician*. 

W. P. Clark. 



Privates. 



Clifford Anderson. Ezra Aspey. 

Thaddeus Ash, killed at North Anna, May 23, 1863. 

Frank Brothers. G. W. Brothers. 

William Butterniore. S. P. Brinker. 

Wesley Blake. W. S. Beal. 

George Brier. Harrison Byers. 

S. Berg. A. G. Bare. 

Cyrus Brothers. 

Manuel Bustler, died Dec. 29, 1S62, of wounds. 

G. W. Coleman, disch. on surgeon's certificate, Nov. 9, 1863. 

CyruB Cole, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

J. G. Campbell, trans, to Vet. Kes. Corps. 

G. W. Ctiuninghiim, killed at Fredericksburg. 

Enos R. Cramer, killed at Gettysburg. 

John Culp, died of wounds received at Fredericksburg. 

Adam G. Cramer, killed at Gettysburg. 

Samuel Cramer, killed at Gettysburg. 

H. S. Durstine, disch. Dec. 22, 18G3. 

J. W. Ebersole, tiaus. to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Samuel Finefi ock, killed at Gettysburg. 

Albert Gallatin, disch. May 29, 1865. 

William Guist. disch. Dec. 17, 1872. 

Noah Getlama, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

JoBeph House. D. Hokenshall. 

Harrison Hanger. Meyers Horner. 

John Hartman, disch. Jan. 28, 1863. 

W. T. Hurst, disch. Dec. 7, 1863. 

Samuel Hokenshell, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

A. H. Hays, died Jan. 13, 1862, of wounds received. 

James Hubbs, died Jan. 18, 1863, of wounds received. 

Amos KeihI. C. C. Kelly. 

Samuel Kowen. 

M. G. Kepple, died Jan. 24, 1864. 

M. S. Loucks. 

J. C. Leaher, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Peter Mermie. S. Malone. 

John N. Moody. 

Daniel Murnan, disch. Dec. 20, 1864. 

Samuel Music, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps. 

Philip Music, died Jan. 1, 1863, of wounds. 

Levi B. May, kilb-'l at 'u'ttysburg. 

Samuel Niderheiser. 

Oliver Nickols, wounded at Petersburg June 18, 1864, 

Thomas Nidrow, disch. Feb. 24, 1863. 

Alexander Pool. Peter Rowen. 

I. M. Ruff, disch. Dec. 27, 1863. 

J. W. Reese, disch. March 2, 1863. 

George Sullenberger. 

Jacob Sible, disch. Jan. 26, 1863. 

D. Sharrow, disch. Sept. 25, 1863. 

L. Sullenberger, disch. Sept. 25, 1863. 

Benjamin Shunk, killed at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. 

Samuel M. Smith, died Jau. 16, 1863, of wounds. 

William Sims, died July 24, 1863. 

Franklin Swain, killed ;it Gettysburg. 

Israel Sharron,died April 21, 1866. 

John Thompson. Samuel Thomas. 

Joshua Vance. Jacob Wilkins. 

John Weaver, disch. Jnly 15, 1865. 

Jacob Washabaugh, disch. March 25, 1863. 

Jacob B. Waltz, killed at Gettysburg. 

David Zuck, disch. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 9, 1863. 



ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT.— (TJiree 

Years* Service.) 

Company E. 

2d Lieut. Robert J. Potter, from July 8, 1865, to July 15, 1865; must. 

out as sergeant-major. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' 

Service.) 
Surg. !'. R. Davis, from Nov. 21, 1862, to June 1, 1865. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTH REGIMENT.— (Three Years' 

Service.) 
Asst. Surg. W. S. Wilson, from Sept. 12, 1862, to Sept. 17, 1864, when pro. 
to surgeon 210th Regt. 

Company A. 
1st Lieut. B. G. McGrew, pro. from 2d lieut. Sept. 2, 1862; res. Nov. 2, 
1862. 

Company F. 
Capt. John Markle, rank from Aug. 22, 1862 ; hon. disch. Sept. 23, 1863. 
Part of this company was from Westmoreland. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINTH REGIMENT— "FOUR- 
TEENTH CAVALRY."— (Three Years' Service.) 
Company G. 
Capt. W. W. Murphy, pro. from 2d lieut. to 1st lieut. March 6, 1864; to 
capt. June 7, 1865; must, out Aug. 24, 1865. 

Company L. 
1st Lieut. David C Beale, pro. from 2d to 1st lieut. April 30, 1865; disch. 
July 31, 1865. 
A portion of this company was from Westmoreland County. 

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTIETH REGIMENT— " FIFTEENTH 
CAVALRY."— (Three Years' Service.) 
Company C. 
2d Lieut. Samuel R. Henry, rank from March 1, 1863. 

Company D. 
2d Lieut. Reynolds L. Kelly, rank from March 1, 1863. 

Company F. 
1st Lieut. H. 0. Tintsman, rank from Oct. 1, 1862; res. Feb. 27, 1863. 

A small portion of these three companies was from Westmoreland 
County. 

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT— "EIGH- 
TEENTH CAVALRY."— (TJiree Years' Service.) 
Commissary, John S. Beazell, from Dec. 1, 1872, to July 21, 1865. 

Company C. 
2d Lieut. James R. Weaver, from May 14, 1863, to April 1, 1864, when 
pro. to 1st lieut.; must, out May 15, 1865. 

Company H. 
Capt. F. W. Utler, rank from April 28, 1863; disch. Feb. 10, 1864. 
A few Westmoreland County men were in each of these compauies. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY C, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH 

PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 
Capt. John S. Murry. 1st Lieut. Charles Weister. 

2d Lieut. John Nichols, pro. to quartermaster April 5, 1863. 



2d Lieut. James K. Irwin. 



J. F. McWilliams. 
Arthur McCready. 



Peter Hill. 
James Gardner. 
Boa/, Martz. 
J. W. Marvey. 
R. J. Hall. 

Alexander Anderson. 
Samuel Abraham. 
R. Atchison. 



1st Sergt. William Wallace. 
Ser'jeauts. 

William Boyd. 
J. S. Harvey. 

Corporals. 

Archibald Adair. 
J. H. Brethune. 
J. M. Brown. 
W. C. Lutes. 

Privates. 

L. F. Ambrust. 
William Butterwoith. 
R. Billingslee. 



APPENDICES. 



489 



J. Anspecker. 

George Ashbaugh. 

Elias Brighley. 

Joseph Byerley. 

Chambers Brinckley. 

Henry Bearuer. 

John Brown. 

Joseph Barner. 

Thomas Collins, died April 23, 1S63, 

Charles Claypoole. 

Thomas Coulter. 

William Cnrrigan. 

D. Dibler. 

William Detman.' 

J. W. Dougherty. 

J. B. Dunn. 

John Davis. 

John Egglehart. 

David George, died at Newberne, N. 

Thomas Green. 

Thomas Gillespie. 

James Hall. 

B. W. Henry, pro. to quartermaster 

F. Hall. 
Joseph Johnston. 

G. W. Johns. 
John Johnston. 
Thomas Jones. 
S. P. Jones. 
J. L. Keister. 
J. W. Kuhna. 
Jacob King. 
J. L. Laugherty. 
W. H. Lewis. 
M. C. Ludwick. 
Abe Lewis. 
Ansletn Lewis. 
John Montgomery. 
A. Morrison. 
J. >li n Menear. 
J. Mart/,. 
John McKillip. 
Hugh McDivit. 
James O'Dann. 

COMPANY F, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH PENNSYL- 
VANIA REGIMENT. 

This company was made up of men from Erie and Westmoreland 1 
Counties, the officers from the latter being as follows: 
1st Lieut., Alexander Prosser ; 2d lieut., Andrew Guiler. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY H, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH 

PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 
Capt. John T. Fulton. 
1st Lieut. Cyrus Thomas. 

2d Lieut. Henry Bamhart, disch. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 19, 1863. 
2d Lieut. S. E. Plough, pro. from 1st sergt. 
1st Sergt. T. J. Armstrong. 



William Bender. 
Joseph Bailey. 
B. F. Baker. 
G. W. Cliue. 
Solomon Cline. 
Jacob Cline. 
Samuel Carriuhari. 

at Newberne, N. C. 
J. V. B. Ebbert. 
D. Erfle. 
John Frisby. 
H. Fitzgerald. 
Charles Fry. 
Charles Forbe6. 
A.Gallicher. 
H. George. 
Davis Glunt. 
C, Feb. 25, 1863. 
Philip Hill. 
J.G. Haymaker. 

Nov. 23, 1862. 
Samuel Patterson. 
G. R. Ramely. 
George Rose. 
Oliver Shannon. 
M. Stay mates. 
Joseph Smith. 
G. B. W. Staymates. 
W. W. Silvis. 
W. J. Staymates. 
Robert Shaw. 
John Steel. 
John Surnau. 
Samuel Surnau. 
G. W. Swank. 
John Wintzell. 
John Waddle. 
G. J. Waugaman. 
Andrew Walp. 
David Watson. 
Joseph Wiester. 



D. A. Altman. 

J. P. Taylor. 

0. P. Sigfried. 

James Errett, died Dec. 9, 1862. 



John Stump. 
Thomas Baldridge. 



Peter Hufferbert. 
R. Henry. 
Jacob Shearer. 
Josiah Baughman. 

B. F. Parker. 



Joseph Altman. 
J. A. Altman. 



Corporals. 

J. M. Miller. 
Jacob Buzzard. 
David Billhimer. 

'Musicicvttt. 

Jacob Walthour. 



Henry Bender. 
Michael Baker. 



1 It is impossible to separate the men from the two counties. 



C. Allbright. 

John Bare. 

Joseph Bare. 

Daniel Baughman. 

Cyrus Baughman. 

M. L. Bigalow, Dec. 1, 1862. 

S. Dillingham, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Simon Eisamau. 

John and Aaron Evans, Dec. 1, 1862. 

John Fellabaum. 

Lewis Fink. 

John Fisher. 

J. W. Fox. 

Thomas C. Gear. 

T. Glayn. 

John Gross. 

J. W. Johnston. 

William Kerrigan. 

J. W. Kelly. 

Amos King. 

W. D. Kuntz. 

Reuben Kuntz. 

Cas Klingensmitb. 

William Laughery. 

Alex. Leonard. 

John Leassure. 

Otho Linton. 

David Lane. 

John Laughlin. 

A. C. Love. 

E. Lynch (all four Dec. 1, 1862). 

B. F. Miller. 
Aaron Miller. 
Henry Miller. 
C.F.Miller. 
Simon Miller. 
T. C. Myers. 
John F. McMillam. 
George F. McDowell. 



William Beck. 
Daniel Beard. 
Daniel Bare. 
Charles Brewer. 

A. Billhimer. 

W. J. Copeland. 

David Erfle. 

Lewis Haines. 
Joseph Henry. 
W. P. Henry. 
Leonard Hunker. 
John Harrison. 
John Hawkey. 
Samuel Hudskin. 

John C. McDowell (both Dec. 1, 
1862). 

B. F. Nulle. 
S. Oaterwise. 

A. W. Osborn,Dec. 1, 1862. 

I. C. Rohrbacher. 

George Rohrbacher. 

D. B. Rosenthal. 

Jacob Shoaf. 

John Sarver. 

Jacob Shoemaker. 

Lewis Smith. 

Wm. Suttle. 

John D. Steiner. 

John Simpson. 

W. H. South, died May 16, 1863. 

John Thompson. 

Wm. Thompson. 

Josiah Vandike. 

Solomon Wible. 

Jacob Wible. 

Jacob Wyant. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY I, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH 
PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 

Capt. James Hitchman. 

1st Lieut. John B. Johnston. 

2d Lieut. William B. Johnston, died at Newbern, N. C, Jan. 3, 1863. 

2d Lieut. Oliver B. Fulton, pro. from 1st sergt. Jan. 4, 1864. 

1st Sergt. P. J. McGuire. 

Sergeants. 
J. A. Harmon. George P. Burch. 

George Trump. George Ackerman. 



U. F. Beistel. 
Israel Brooks. 
Isaac Wadworth. 
Daniel Knhns. 



James Armel. 
J. M. Allison. 
Lewis Ambrust. 
J. G. Ashabaugh. 
Henry Armel. 
George Baker. 
Cyrus Baker. 
John A. Baker. 
David Bare. 
Jacob Barnhart. 
Henry Brante. 
H. C. Blystone. 
James Butler. 
John Brindle. 
Paul Creamer. 
R. B. Carpenter. 
John Clark. 
James Clark. 
S. A. Crise. 



Corporals. 

James Fowler. 
Eli Albright. 
David Shiver. 
James Irwin. 

Privates. 

Jacob Crosby. 
W. C. Cochran. 
James Dodds. 
J. S. Drummond. 
John Fritz. 
G. H. Findley. 
Cyrus A. Foster. 
John Foulke. 
Joseph Farr. 
John Fiscus. 
Adam Franklin. 
L. C. Fulton. 
R. Graham. 
Charles Gesler. 
E. Hickley. 
Christian Harr. 
Michael Hoffman. 
John Hoffman. 
Andrew Hoffer. 



490 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



George Held. 

J. Hay. 

S. C. Hunter. 

Wm. Harkless. 
S. H. Junnel. 
W. C. Kelly. 
Michael Kelly. 
Henry Kiser. 
Jacob Lohr. 
E. Lynch. 
Peter Lawson. 
Otho Linton. 
J. N. Mitchell. 
Peter Miller. 
Lucas MyeiB. 
Jeremiah Marker, 

1863. 
Cyrus Music. 
James Mitchell. 
George Miller. 
J. S. Miller. 
Henry McDowell. 
John McFarland. 
J. Neiterhauser. 
George Noscar. 
All mustered out 



Jacob Puche. 

John M. Pare. 

Miller Roadman, died March 8, 
1863. 

J. A. Ruuibaugh. 

Henry Ranse). 

Peter Senn. 

J. Shalatis. 

W. J. Short. 

Josiah Surfus. 

John Shrum. 

Joseph Sailor. 

George Sherry. 

Samuel Sidman. 

J. B. Sarver. 
died Feb. 14, P. C. Weaver. 

H. A. Walter. 

Peter Wilson. 

W. M. Watt. 

H. D. Wead. 

John Wissing. 

Daniel Warman. 

Hardy Wiland. 

David P. Weaver. 

Jacob Zimmerman. 
July 25, 1863, unless before discharged. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY K,ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH 

PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 
Capt, Josiah B. Lauffer ; 1st lieut., Simon J. Miller; 2d lieut., William 
Earnest ; 1st sergt., W. D. Ewing. 



Samuel Shields. 
Jacob Beamer. 
John Haney. 



John Kunkel. 
David Snyder. 



Corporals. 

Edward Boothman. 
Isaac Bear. 
J. B. Gray. 
J. J. Berline. 



Collin Tarr. 

Thomas Christy. 

J. R. Fritchmau. 

W. F. Gray. 

William McCntchen. 

Henry Kline, died atNewberu, N. 0., March 2, 1863. 

John Leighner, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Musicians. 

Philip Loughner. 



John Berline. 



Privates. 



John Ashbough, S. P. Armstrong, both Dec. 1, 1862. 

Reuben Baker. Israel Blose. 

Henry Bush. Levi Bush. 

John Bushyager, died March 5, 1863. 

George Bowman, William Bowlin, William Beatty, D. W. Brubaker, 
James Baker, all five deserted Dec. 1, 1862. 

Samuel Carpenter, Robert Caldwell, died March 6, 18G3. 

William Duffield, Joseph Dunk, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Simon Earnest. G. Hoylberts. 

J. M. Elliott. G- W. Householder. 

A. J.Gosser. George Hill. 

William Gooch. John Harman. 

James GibBon. Abraham Hutton. 

Alex. Gilchrist, died Feb. 12, 1863. George Hudson. 

James Hocunn, James Heasley, Frank Hill, John IngloBt, all four de- 
serted Dec. 1, 1862. 

Even Jones. A. M. Johnston. 

William Jellison. Joseph Jameson. 

John Jobes, Francis Jones, both Dec. 1, 1862. 

James Kennedy. Joseph Loughner. 

Z. H. Klingensmith. George Lessig. 

Charles Luster. Hugh Luster. 

Caleb Landis. 

John Loughner, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Jacob Lohr. W.J.Miller. 

Frank Miller, J. K. Morland, both Dec. 1, 1862. 

Abner McCounell. Albert McMurray. 

William McCiacken, H. McDowell, Henry McNeal, all three deserted 
Dec. 1, 1862. 



H. M. Neely. W. H. Powell, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Daniel Potts. Isaac Ranson. 

G. B. Potts. George Ramsey. 

William Porter. 

Frederick Reagh, William Robeson, both Dec. 1, 1862. 

Joseph-Steihl. Matthias Sowash. 

Loui s J. Shuster>died at Newbern, N. C, April 15, 1863. 

Julm Strwait, John Sleyter, Henry Smith, Thomas Turner, Georga 

Thompson, Amos Uncapper, Isaac Wadsworth, George White, 

Thomas Wilson, Frank Woodsidee. 
James H. Young, must, out with company July 23, 1863. 

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.— {Three Years* 

Service.) 

Company B. 

2d Lieut. Frederick A. Reeo, pro. to 1st lieut. June 2, 1864, to capt. Sept 

25, 1864, to nmj. Nov. 25, 1865; must, out Dec 14, 1865. 
2d Lieut. John Carson, pro. to 1st lieut. Co. II ; killed in action Sept. 29, 
1864. 

TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTH REGIMENT— " FIFTH ARTIL- 
LERY."— (One Year's Service.) 
Company I. 
Capt. James C. Hawk, rank from Sept. 10, 1864 ; must, out June 30, 1865, 
with company. 
Part of this company was recruited in Westmoreland. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY E, TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTH PENN- 
SYLVANIA REGIMENT. 
Capt. John T. Fulton, pro. to lieut.-col. Sept. 9, 1864. 
Capt. Clark L. Brant, pro. from 1st lieut. Sept. 9, 1864. 
1st Lieut. W. D. Ewing ; 2d lieut, H. H. Walthour; 1st sergt, J. F. Mc- 
Millen. 

Sergeants. 
Jeremiah Bush. 0. P. Siegfried. 

Cyrus Gross. B. F. Miller. 



David Erfle. 
M. E. Low. 
W. H. Altman. 
Eli Crouse. 



W. D. Cherry. 



Corporals. 

Jacob Wible. 
L. F. Arnibrust 
J. W. Fox. 
Noah Buzzard. 

Musicians. 

S. J. Brown. 



Privates. 



J. M. Alters. 

J. W. Anderson, Sept. 9, 1864. 

Jacob Brewer. 

D. B. Bear. 

John Beck. 

Allen Buzzard, died at Point of 

W. P. Dewalt. 

John Earhart 

John Everett. 

W. H. Eisaman. 

David Errett 

John Ewing. 

Louis Fink. 

Marion Fox. 

Alexander Fox. 

John Farlane. 

John Fisher. 

S. C. Funk. 

C. M. Funk. 

William Fleckinger. 

Conrad King, Sept 9, 1864. 

Samuel Loughner. 

A. F. Lemoin. 

John Medsgar. 

J. A.Miller. 

John A. Miller. 

William MiiBick. 

Joseph Mellander. 

John McCall. 

Martin Orvack. 



William Albright. 

Jacob Beason. 

Daniel Bare. 

Henry Baruhart. 
Rocks, Va., Oct. 23, 1864. 

John Fellowbaum. 

Jacob Heister. 

H. C. HeaHley. 

J. G. Heasley. 

David Houts. 

Jacob Harris. 

John Heasly. 

John Henderson. 

W. J. Hay B . 

Joseph Jones. 

George Kepple. 

David Kauffman. 

Adam Keihl. 

Henry H. Kelly, died Oct. 17, 1864. 

David Sherbondy. 

Samuel Sincley. 
, David Sethman. 

A. F. Siegfried. 

Joseph Shoemaker. 

H. V. Steiner. 

John W. Truxal. 

R. F. Thompson. 

Simon Uber. 

Isaac Weighty. 



APPENDICES. 



491 



Simon Peters. Daniel Willyard. 


George McDowell. Joseph Showman. 


H. N. Roos. David Walthour. 


James Pabel. Abraham Shawley. 


Simon Row. John Webster. 


Reuben Reeger, trans, to Co. I. P. E. Swank. 


A. G. E. Shaft. William F. Weaver. 


H. M. Stin.-. John Weaver. 


John Sbettler. 


S. M. D. Weller, died at City Point Nov. 7, 1864. 




T. M. Waddle. John Wadsworth. 


COMPANY I. TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTH REGIMENT. 






Simon Wagaman. Peter M. WaBsum. 


2d Lieut. Robert B. Rogers. 


John Walters. 


Company K. 


Richard B. White, accidentally wounded Nov. 20, 1864. 


Capt. Joseph S. Coulter. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY H, TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH 


A portion of this company was from Westmoreland, but the largest 


REGIMENT. 


part from Cambria. 






Capt. M. V. B. Harding; 1st lieut., Andrew Guyler; 2d lieut., Geo. R 


TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTH REGIMENT.— (One Tear's Service.) 


Griffith ; 1st sergt., E. H. Taylor. 


Asst. Surg. H. S. Lindley.from Sept. 8, 1864, to May 31, 1865. 


Sergeants, 


TWO HUNDRED AND TENTH REGIMENT.— (One Tears Service.) 


S. P. Kays. Wm. Bates. 




Oliver Knapper. 


Surg. W. S. Wilson, from Sept. 17, 1864, to May 30, 1865. 


Michael Kelly, wounded at Petersburg. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY E, TWO HUNDRED AND ELEYENTH 


Corporals. 


REGIMENT. 


Henry Y. Moore, wounded at Petersburg. 


Capt. William Walter. 


W. H. Eiseman, wounded at Petersburg. 


1st Lieut. J. B. Lucas, disch. Nov. 19, 1864. 


J. E. Smith. J. B. Brown. 


1st Lieut. Lewis Thompson, pro. from 2d lieut. Feb. 27, 1865. 


David Baldridge. Wm. Hughes. 


2d Lieut. John B. Walter, pro. from 1st sergt. Feb. 27, 1865. 


Thos. Paecball. 


Sergeants. 


David Campbell, wounded at Petersburg. 


David Richard. 


Mttsicians. 


G. A. Brant, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 2, 1865. 


Samuel Shields. T. R. Moore. 


John Marshall. 




A. S. Cameron, wounded at Petersburg. 


Privates. 




Peter Auman, wounded at Petersburg. 


Corporal*. 


H. B. Arnold. Wm. Boiken. 


A. Barclay. 


David Ayres. Jeremiah Butt. 


T. D. Stitt, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 13, 1865. 


Alex. Auld. John Baker. 


G. A. Jelley. Benjamin Hysong. 


Harrison Berlin. Levi Clites. 


Isaac Blackson. Shannon Roberts. 


G. W. Berlin. Peter Campbell. 


Charles F. Ullrey, killed at Petersburg April 2, 1865. 


A. L. Beam. J. Clacomb. 


Nelson Statler, wounded at Petersburg April 2, 1865; died June 3, 1865. 


David Rouser. Fred. Cross. 




J. T. Beam. H. W. Deals. 


Privates. 


J. M. Boyle. Samuel Fox. 


A. J. Allison. Robert Blackson. 


Daniel Bills. C. C. Fisher. 


Casper Adams. J. W. Blackburn. 


Jesse Fee. 


J. Mallison, killed at Petersburg. Hiram Barclay. 


W. F. Fox, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 2, 1865. 


J. A. Blackburn. H. B. Blackburn. 


J. K. Gallather. J. J. Lonergan. 


T. A. Baird. 


Michael Galiigher. James Lagure. 


J. J. Bussart, captured at Bermuda Hundred. 


Johu Heintzleman. Samuel Lagure. 


S. J. Brinker. Eli Crouse. 


David Haumont. James Mahon. 


W.G.Bell. Noah Cams. 


E. Hushberger. A. B. Mahon. 


Peter Beahman. J, M. Duncan. 


Joseph Hossick. David Moyers. 


A. J. Case. 


D. R- P. Hill. Alex. May. 


James R. Dowds, died at Salisbury, Jan. 12, 1865. 


John Johns. J. S. McQuaide. 


James Davison. G. W. Garland. 


A. R. Kautz. John Penrod. 


John Davison. J. C. Harkcan. 


Geo. Knopsnyder. Amos Peer. 


J. B. Dolbey. Reuben Hugh. 


Alex. Keyser. W. M. Palmer. 


C. M. Ewing. Alexander Hunter. 


John Lauk. Samuel Palmer. 


J. G. Evans. S. K. Henry. 


Levi Palmer, killed at Petersburg. 


David Epley. B. F. Harkcan. 


Epbiaim Pugh. Joseph Ray. 


J. C. Ewing. 0. F. Johnson. 


Daniel Queer. W. H.Soxman. 


M. A. Fry. A. A. Johnson. 


C. F. Reamon. Rufus Shoupe. 


Alexander Fisher. Edmund Johnson. 


E. B. Slonacker, wounded at Petersburg. 


John Foursha. D. Kuebler. 


Conrad Sbafer. 


F. E. Griffith. John Kuebler. • 


J. K. Simley, wounded at Petersbutg. 


G. W. Garland. Isaac S. Kuhns. 


Uriah Snyder. John B. Tittle. 


J. M. Gross. Jacob Kurtz. 


Jacob Simpson. Noah Tinkey. 


L.Gardner. John Kurtz. 


J. C. Vernon. 


H. N. Lane, wounded at Petersburg. S. B. Land. 


A. S. Webster, wounded at Petersburg, Va. 


J. F. Leacock, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to April 2, 1865. 


J. W. Weimer. P. V. Wasour. 


R. W. Larimer. J. J. Miller. 


Andrew Zink, wounded at Petersburg. 


George Moore, died at Salisbury Jan. 24, 1865. 


ROSTER OF COMPANY I, TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH 


John Matthiot, wounded at Petersburg. 


REGIMENT. 


David Moses. A. Marshall. 




Charles Mitchell. J. B. Mowhead. 


Capt. John W. Graham ; 1st lieut,, Daniel Igo ; 2d lieut., Samuel McEl- 


H. Y. McDowell, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 2, 1865. 


roy ; 1st sergt., J. S. Norris, wounded at Petersburg. 


Godfrey McDowell. Jacob Snyder. 


Sergeants. 


John McDowell. James Stimmel. 


S. J. Halferty. 


Charles McCune. Frederick Snyder. 


A. H. Graham, wounded at Petersburg. 


J. M.McCurdy. Noah Shawley. 


Jonathan Bitner. Wm. Little. 






492 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



J. P. McKelvey. 

David Wallace. 

Geo. Serena. 

H. M. Murphy. 

David Findley, wounded at Petersburg. 



Corporals. 

S. M. Kennedy. 
Wm, Cunninghai 
Isaac Lewell. 



J. A. Ambrose. 
Wm. Blair. 
H. B. Bowman. 
J. A. Campbell. 
John Campbell. 
H. Campbell. 



Privates. 

L. II. Amnan. 

John S. Brady, died Feb. 4, 1865. 

Thos. Cummins. 

David Comfort. 

J. T. Elites. 

A. J. Cresswell. 



James Decker, killed at Petersburg. 

Martin Decker, wounded at Petersburg. 

Edward Esch. Edward Halferty. 

D. B. Graham. "Wm. Henderson. 

J. L. Graham. Josiah Hile. 

Thomas Gillmore. John Huston. 

John Ilanna. S. R. Huston. 

Wm. Halferty. Geo. Hill. 

J. I. Horrell. 

L. K. Hixon, woundod at Petersburg. 

Conrad Jacoby. Josiah Lilley. 

C. A. Krigger. Alex. Martin. 

W. M. K.-nnedy. C. A. Magnus. 

Jesse Louther. J. T. Maxwell. 

J. R. Love. J- A. McMillen. 

Samuel McCurdy. 

R, II. McClelland, captured at Bermuda Hundred Nov. 17, 1864; died at 
Annapolis, Md., March 17, 1865. 

Robert McCreery. Wm. McBurney. 

John B. McMasters, captured at Bermuda Huudred. 

John Neil. 

John Ogden, wounded at Petersburg. 

Geo. Piper. 

J. C. Peoples, wounded Nov. 20, 1864. 

Jacob Risinger, died Oct. 17, 1864. 

W. L. Robb, wounded at Fort Steadman March 25, 1865. 

Isaac Robb. 

Wm. Robb, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 2, 1865. 

Samuel Reed. John W. Ramsay. 

Reuben Reeger, died at Salisbury Jan. 19, 18G5. 

W. C. Saxton. Charles Stewart. 

J. W. Smith. 

Dixon Pnodgrass, wounded at Petersburg. 

Geo. W. Stewart. 

Francis Smith, wounded at Petersburg. 

John Steel. Abel Stewart. 

W. W. Taylor, killed at Petersburg. 

Francis Troutman, wounded at Petersburg. 

Samuel Tewell. John Updegraff. 

Henry Wilkins, died at Salisbury, N. C, Jan. 26, 1865, having been cap- 
tured at Bermuda Hundred. 

W.M. Wallace. Aaron Wells. 

Wm. W. Young. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY K, TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH 

REGIMENT. 
Capt. Josiah Henderson. 

1st Lieut. John P. Tarr, killed at Petersburg April 2, 1865. 
1st Lieut. William B. Chain, pro. from 1st sergt. to 2d lieut; to lstlieut. 
2d Lieut. Hugh M. Thomas. 
1st Sergt. Amos Miller, wounded at Petersburg. 

Sergeants. 
J. M. Johnston. F. L. Marsh. 

J. H. Durstine, killed at Petersburg. 

Corporals. 



B. F. Everett. 

JohnG. Reeee. 

W. B. Adair, killed at Petersburg. 

Daniel Ross. 



A. D. Harnian. 
J. R. Kiehl. 



C. D. Altmau. 
R. M. Axton. 



Privates. 

S. D. Altmau. 



George F. Austraw, wounded at Petersburg. 

Nick Altemus. 

J. S. Bumgardner, wounded at Petersburg. 

Joseph Booker. G. R. Barnhart. 

D. P. Brant. Peter Bidler. 

James Butt. Samuel Baldwin. 

J. H. Bair. Michael Borts. 

William Bracken. H. T. Cope. 

Clark Cunningham. 

W. H. Cuuningham, died at Salisbury Feb. 14, 1865. 

J. G. Dunlap. John C. Ewing. 

M. I.. Fry, wounded at Petersburg. 

David Fletcher. J. W. Gallatin. 

Thomas M. Gallatin, prisoner from Nov. 17, 1864, to March 2, 1865. 

Wilson Goss. J. W. Grim. 

Samuel Huey. Levi Henderson. 

Scro^gs Hartman. J. D. Henderson. 

D. P. Husband. 

Magnus Hebrank, wounded at Petersburg. 

Irwin King. 

J. G. King, wounded at Petersburg. 

Israel Lanffer, killed at Petersburg. 

James Long. Joseph Loucks. 

David Lear. Abraham Lope. 

Sidney Long. Jonathan Merritt. 

J. F. Miller. 

John W. McAbee,died at Salisbury Jan. 24, 1865. 

John McNely. Joseph McCray. 

Samuel McClain. James McDonald. 

Bfiijamin Newcomer. W. R. Patton. 

J. D. Patty. James Ramage. 

J. W. Reamer. Lewis Ross. 

J. L. Reece. Michael Row. 

Joseph Small. William Suttle. 

E. M. Stantz. J. Stoffer. 
John C. Steiner, wouudedat Petersburg. 

D. W. Shupe, killed at Petersburg. 

John L. Shupe, killed at Petersburg. 

Isaac Sherrick. Aaron F. Stouer. 

Joshua Stewart. Peter Shaffer. 

John L. Shuck. J. K. Sarver. 

John T. Tarr. J. J. Von. 

Jonathan Wyun. 

Daniel Wertz, wounded at Petersburg. 

Jacob Weaver, died at Salisbury Feb. 13, 1865. 

William H. Wynn. John West. 

Andrew Whiueman. 

Peter M. Wassum, trans, to Co. E. 

Jacob Williams. 

TWO HUNDRED AND TWELFTH REGIMENT— (SIXTH 
ARTILLERY). 



Capt. Malachi Leslie. 



Company L. 



1st Lieut. Henry McCormick. 
2d Lieut. William Winebrenner. 

Part of these companies was composed of Westmoreland recruits. 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.— (One Year's Service.) 
Asst. Surg. John R. Bair. 

INDEPENDENT BATTERY " C"— Three Years 1 Service {Thompson's). 
1st Lieut. Thomas Brown, pro. to corp. Jan. 1, 1862; to sergt. Jan. 1, 
1863 ; to 1st lieut. June 26, 1864 ; disch. Oct. 22, 1864 ; veteran. 
Several of this battery were from Westmoreland County. 

TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT STATE MILITIA. 
Lieut.-Col. R. M. Reed. 
Chaplain W. J. S. Shaw. 

Company C. 
Capt., James II. Duff; 1st lieut., Henry McKeever; 2d lieut., John 
Zimmerman ; 1st sergt., George W. Frick. 



Zachariah Zimmerman. 
H. M. Jones. 



Sergeants* 

H. P. Metzgar. 
Samuel Jack. 



APPENDICES, 



493 



William Earnest. 
Matlhew Jack. 
Abraham Duff. 
D. W. Buchanau. 



S. M. Aurent. 



Josiah Amalong. 

Nathan Anderson. 

Johnston Baird. 

William Bair. 

Samuel Bovard. 

J. W. Borland. 

N. T. Cunningham. 

T. R. Cunningham. 

Alexander Craig. 

John Craig. 

James Duin. 

William Dickey. 

J. M. Elliott. 

William Fulmer. 

A. J. Fulmer. 

John Green. 

J. C. Gourley. 

J. C. Graham. 

John Hill. 

George Hill. 

S. H. Hill. 

D. T. Harvey. 

L. D. Hitty. 

T. M. Humes. 

Thomas Hissam. 

J. G. Haymaker. 

J. W. Harvey. 

H. P. HugUB. 

Kobert Johnston. 

J. R. Johnston. 

George R. Jackson. 

C. J. Kepple. 

S. P. Keck. 

A. J. Klingensmith. 

Gasper Klingensmith. 

Reuben Klingensmith. 

Israel Kepple. 

Henry Kline. 
Amos Kline. 



Corporals. 

J. H. Wiley. 
H. M. Clements. 
William Junes. 
John Hauey. 

Musicians. 

R. J. Clow. 



Josiah Kaylor. 
William Lutz. 
J. K. Larimer. 
G. W. Leighner. 
Samuel Meanor. 
John Montgomery. 
W.J. Miller. 
Joseph S. McQuaid. 
Thomas McQuaid. 
D. K. McConnell. 
J. C. McKalip. 
J. F. McKalip. 
S. J. Paul. 
Samuel Patterson. 

J. C. PottB. 

G. R. Ramdley. 
W. A. Ralston. 
S. H. Ringer. 
James Reed. 
Paul Row. 
Samuel Shields. 
George Sarver. 
John T. Sloan. 
John Steel. 

B. F. Stump. 
Isaac Silvis. 
W. S. Sloan. 
George Saul. 
S. J. Steck. 
David Tallant. 
John Vaun. 

C. J. Walton. 

P. A. Waugaman. 
Alexander WelBh. 
Jeremiah Walton. 
J. H. Young. 
N. C. Young. 
George R. Young. 



Company E. 
Capt, David Kerr; 1st lieut., J. S. Marshall; 2d lieut., J. A. Blair; 
1st sergt., Johnston Glass. 



F. Thornton. 
D. W. Shaw. 



William Shaw. 
W. S. McLaughlin. 
Michael Alcorn. 
James Nealy. 



H. D. F. Reed. 

R. M. Alcorn. 
J. J. Adair. 
James Alcorn. 
D. C. Blair. 
John Bowman. 
Jacob Bowman. 
Abraham Bowman. 
William Beacom. 
Joseph Beales. 
H. L. Borts. 

32 



Sergeants. 

David Watson. 

Thompson Miller. 

Corporals. 

J. C Walker. 
J. D. Townsend. 
Jacob Wilson. 

C Hagermau. 

Musicians. 

Jacob Snyder. 



Elias Beighley. 
Giles Butterfield. 
Matthias Clawson. 
0. J. Clawson. 
John Duun. 
Thomas Dunn. 
James Daugherty. 
Samuel Fell. 
S. H. Furgesou. 
J. B. Greer. 



Levi Gumbert. 

A. Gallagher. 

Hugh Gallagher. 

John Glass. 

William Gartley. 

John Gould. 

Dwight Geer. 

K. A. Hagerman. 

John Hurst. 

J. M. Hine. 

T. D.Hine. 

James Hall. 

T. M. Johnstou. 

Israel Kunkel. 

Jacob King. 

Andrew Learn. 

Urias Learn. 

Samuel Low. 

Washington Montgomery. 

J. A. McQuilkin. 



James McGeary. 
W. R. McLaughlin. 

S. M. Nelson. 
A. Nickelson. 
'R.P.Paul. 
Jacob Porter. 
Henry Rose. 
W. A Shaw. 
Frederick Spicher. 
William Stewart. 
Samuel Stewart. 
T. T. Townsend. 
W. G. L. Totten. 
W. J. Walker. 
Isaiah White. 
A. J. Wiggle. 
Labanna Walter. 
Christopher Wolferd. 
Linns Yockey. 
William Young. 



Company F. 
Capt., Joseph K. Howell ; 1st lieut., Andrew Bavaird ; 2d lieut., Humph- 
rey Caraon ; 1st sergt., H. H. McCormick. 



John Carson. 
Nathaniel George. 

Alexander Watson. 
Eli V. Kendig. 



J. Q. Adams. 

A. H. Brown. 
George Byerly. 
David Cowan. 
William Copeland. 
F. D. Fast. 
William Fellabone. 
Isaac Hohn. 
Samuel Helman. 
Jacob Hurshey. 
David Jenkins. 

W. E. Keough. 
Robert Klingensmith. 

B. R. Larimer. 
J.F. Marchand. 



Sergeants. 

J. F. Weutling. 

Corporals. 

Peter Holman. 
A. M. Bowser. 

Musician. 



A. L. McFarland. 

Henry McMannis. 
John Mclver. 
Theodore McDonald. 
Silas McCormick. 
W. H. Osborne. 
John W. Painter. 
Stephen Ridinger. 
J. L. Sturgis. 
Luciau Schroder. 
Theodore Taylor. 
W. G. Taylor. 
Robert Waddle. 
R. D. Wampler. 
Robert Warnock. 



Company I. 

Capt, Joseph Cook ; 1st lieut., William Seanor; 2d lieut., George Stew- 
art; 1st sergt., Samuel Cooper. 



Samuel Taylor. 
John LewiB. 



Andrew Steele. 
Alexander Swend. 
Samuel Foster. 
F. W. White. 

William S. Mclntire. 

Frank Anderson. 
George Ashbaugh. 
Dennis Barnes. 
John Brown. 
S. P. Beatty. 
Josiah Bark. 
R. C. Brown. 
William Backhouse. 
Orlando Craig. 
Alexander Cannon. 



Sergeants. 

William Moore. 
J. A. Sheffler. 

Corporals. 

J. G. Lattimore. 
J. J. McFarland. 
J. Huutsburger. 
S. R. Munroe. 

Musician. 



M. Donholland. 

A. B. Fink. 

H. M. Fink. 

J. R. Gordon. 

James George. 

M. A. Gordou. 

J. L. Hihbard. 

George W. Householder. 

Samuel Jack. 

William Jennings. 



494 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Wilson McClaney. 
Samuel McConnell. 
William Paschall. 
John Sawyer. 
Thomas A. Walker. 



M. E. Kelly. 
J. W. Laughlin. 
EHaB Maris. 
Thomas Mulherin. 
John S. Maris. 
James McClelland. 

COMPANY A, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE MILITIA. 
1st Lieut. John Hill. 

COMPANY B, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE MILITIA. 
Capt.,John Oursler; 1st lieuts., M.V. B. Harding (pro. to adjt.), Eli Cham- 
bers ; 2d lieut., Nicholas Bridenthall ; 1st sergt., Benjamin Moore. 



H. F. Keener. 
E. M. Taylor. 

J. M. Johnston. 
William Bates. 
St. Clair Wineland. 
Alpheus Hibben. 
Samuel Baker. 

Henry Bossart. 



W. C. Armour. 
James Armor. 
A. C. Beil. 
David Baldridge. 
George Barger. 
Joseph Bossart. 
John Brinker. 
John Braden. 
Elias Brest. 
Charles Bird. 
W. L. Bair. 
H.H.Berlin. 
G. W. Crow. 
Webster Cochran. 
D. L. Drum. 
Peter Dick. 
David Davis. 
Benjamin Geiger. 
J. W. Griffith. 
James Gallagher. 
William Hunter. 
William Keyser. 
S. P. Keys. 
H. B. Kennedy. 
J. M. Long. 
John Lonergan. 
David Laugh ery. 
Robert McLain. 



Sergeants. 

A. J. Bossart. 
J. G. Lawson. 

Corporals. 

J. A. Johnston. 
George W. Smith. 
J. J. Barger. 
E. W. Smith. 

Musicians. 

T. H. Moore. 



Privates. 



Cornelius Moore. 
John McCartney. 
John McCracken. 
Alexander McLain. 
John T. McKelvey. 
H. T. Moore. 
William Mayers. 
J. II . Moore. 
John McCracken. 
Robert Muffit. 
Joseph Nichols. 
A. Boursler. 
Justus Pershing. 
Lewis Ross. 
Joseph Retler. 
Thomas Richardson. 
J. M. Smith. 
John Soxman. 
Samuel Shields. 
J. M. Simpson. 
Jacob Shanefelt. 
F. V. Swarttown. 
Nehemiah Thomas. 
George Taylor. 
Christopher Wineland. 
James Welch. 
Joseph Wuttemburg. 
William Wright. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY C, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE 

MILITIA. 
Capt, Z. P. Bierer ; 1st lieut., A. M. Fulton ; 2d lieut., P. K. Faulk ; 1st 
sergt., J. M. Laird. 

Sergeants. 
M. G. McCall. W. J. Row. 

C. F. Mitchell. R- B. Patterson. 



Levi Cline. 
John Leasure. 
A. W. Loucks. 
R. S. Miushall. 

W. D. Cherry. 

W. B. Adair. 
Amor Armbrust. 
Henry AllBhouse. 
S. P. Baker. 



Corponth. 

H. H. McCormick. 
E. E. Habruuk. 
J. A. Watterson. 
J. B. O. Cowan. 

Musicians. 

Samuel Loughner. 

Privates. 

Sanford Beard. 
H. Y. Brady. 
J. B. Bear. 
Allan Buzzard. 



J. J. Painter. 
H. H. Painter. 
Z. P. Pool. 
David Powell. 
Levi Portzer. 
Simon Peters. 
Oliver Rugh. 
Isaac Rhoades. 
Reuben Reamer. 
Noah Sheffler. 
Joseph Shotts. 
J. C. Steiner. 
George Sincely. 
Joseph Shoemaker. 
Albert Shaft. 
D. C. Turney. 
C. K. Turney. 
Augustus Vogel. 
H. H. Walthour. 
Franklin Wise. 
Balsor Walters. 
Jacob Weaver. 
Norman Young. 
George R. Young. 



Christopher Collier. 
Peter Davis. 
F. B. 0. Everett. 
I. P. Fullwood. 
S. K. Funk. 
Reuben Fightner. 
Cyrus Gross. 
S.P.Hill. 
Johnston Hill. 
Paul Henry. 
W. H. Henry. 
H. G. Hirsh. 
Wilson Hays. 
A. D. Harman. 
S. L. Jelly. 
Samuel Lowery. 
J. A. Maiehand. 
I. F. McCall. 
J. W. Mclntire. 
Jacob Men sli. 
John McKeever. 
John Nolen. 
Jacob Obouru. 
H. S. Obourn. 
Adam Ohr. 

COMPANY D, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE MILITIA. 

2d Lieut. Josiah Henderson. 

Some men were also in this company from Westmoreland. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY F, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE 

MILITIA. 
Capt., John O'Hara; 1st lieut, W. H. Lowry ; 2d lieut, H. A. Bitner; 
1st sergt, Heman McKelvey. 



Irwin Horrell. 
T. C. Pollock. 



Samuel Peoples. 
B. R. Lowry. 
J. A. Mickey. 
Frederick Kissel. 



Sergeants. 

J. II. Scroggs. 
John Baker. 

Corporals. 

J. T. Ambrose. 
William Robbins. 
W. P. Martin. 
T. A. Seaton. 

Musicians. 

Samuel Fry. 

Privates. 

Samuel Low. 
John MathiBt 
Solomon Murdoch. 
Isaac Marker. 
Porter McCIune. 
J. W. McFarland. 
Godfrey McDowell. 
Hiram McDowell. 
Robert Piper. 
Samuel L. Peterson. 
C. H. Penrod. 
Samuel Pollock. 
B. It. Robb. 
Noah Serena. 
J. E.Smith. 
Samuel Slater. 
William Spoonhullow. 
Robert Tranger. 
J. W. Thompson. 
William Wagner. 
Benjamin Yealy. 



Joseph Fry. 

J. W. Ambrose. 
George E.* Armour. 
William Aldrich. 
William Bowser. 
Thomas Bales. 
John Beam. 
H. C. Bell. 
John Brady. 
C. A. Campbell. 
Harrison Churns. 
J. C. Ewing. 
Ross Griffith. 
J. M. Harr. 
Jacob Horner. 
Abraham Howard. 
Jacob Horner. 
John Horner. 
Francis Hess. 
John Irwin. 
J. M. Jones. 
J. C. Keffer. 
John Kibble. 

ROSTER OF COMPANY I, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE 

MILITIA. 
Capt, William Saner; 1st lieut, D. R. Cook; 2d lieut, J. M. Campbell; 
1st sergt, I. W. Duushane. 



J. M. Moor. 
S. P. Reed. 



Sergeants. 

R. J. Walker. 
J. H. Sloan. 



APPENDICES. 



495 





Corporals. 


John G. McLain. 


W. R. Stewart. 


Wilson Lewis. 


Samuel Foster. 


Hugh Mclveaver. 


Samuel Stewart. 


Thomas Mewherter. 


William Warlcman. 


J. H. McLaughlin. 


J. C. Walker. 


Alexauder Uonuoni. 


Joseph Laughlin. 


James Ross. 


J. R. Wilson. 


S. D. McConnell. 


J. H. Machesney. 


William Reed. 


JohnS. Welty. 






T. B. Sproull. 


J. M. Willgard. 




Musicians. 


Michael Sang. 


D. H. Walter. 


Josiah Dougherty. 


W. G. Estley. 


FIFTY- 


SEVENTH REGIMENT. 



John Anderson. 
Frank Anderson. 
Frank Boyle. 
Dennis Barnes. 
W. H. Couch. 
John Cosgriff. 
Orlando Craig. 
James Cox. 
John Cook. 
John Brown. 
William Case. 
M. Dunhollin. 
Samuel Doreman. 
Michael Guidon. 
James George. 
G. D. Gorley. 
Lewis Helnian. 
Joseph Henesley. 
William Hazlett. 
James Johnstone. 
William Jennings. 
Samuel Jack. 
John Lewis. 
James Lat timer. 
James Morgan. 
Thomas Mulherren. 
J. S. Maris. 



l^rivates. 

James Monroe. 
Henry McBride. 
Lewis McFaiiand. 
James McClellen. 
Robert McKee. 
John O'Neal. 
William Pasley. 
Michael Prugh. 
John Piitchell. 
Thomas Pastull. 
R. J. Patterson. 
Stephen Pounds. 
Alexander Swener. 
Abram Sindorf. 
William Sindorf. 
George Simons. 
Philip Serena. 
William Serena. 
Thomas Snodgrass. 
William Shields. 
John M. Stewart. 
■ James Spoonholler. 
H. C. Seanor. 
E. S. Torreuce. 
R. H. Williams. 
Fullerton White. 
J. McWallace. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY K, FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT STATE 
MILITIA. 

Capt,, D. W. Townsend ; 1st lieut., James C. Hawk ; 2d lieut, Levi Sha- 
ner; 1st sergt., A. B. Copeland. 



William Parke. 
James Given. 



A. H. Wylie. 

David Vantine. 
H. 0. Beacom. 
Adam Hetrick. 
Musician Samuel Nelson. 



W. W. Crook. 
T. M. Boal. 

Corporals. 

J. A. Armstrong. 
M. B. Crooks. 
Archibald Dodds. 



S. S. Armstrong. 

J. T. Armstrong. 

David Alter, pro. to hos. steward. 

Joseph Alter. 

David Alter. 

Matthew Aver. 

J. B. Alexander. 

George Armstrong. 

Andrew Buseland. 

John Beacom. 

William Beacom. 

J. A. Barnett 

John Best. 

William Brisbine. 

Thomas Bain. 

J. D. Cole. 

Thomas Blair. 

R. A. Copeland. 

T. B. Clemens. 

Johnston Cuddy. 

Calvin Clements. 

James Dougherty. 

William Dunn. 



JoBeph Dugan. 
John Dougherty. 
James Elder. 
James Fryer. 
Samuel Ferguson. 
William Garrett. 
Levi Gumbert. 
S. E. Hill. 
A. J. Hankie. 
Jacob Hank. 
T. S. Irwin. 
F. M. Johnston. 
Hugh Jamison. 
Cyrus Kepple. 

J. A. Logan, pro. to quarter-mas- 
ter sergeant. 
F. M. Ludwig. 
J. M. Husted. 
J. C. Muller. 
R. B. Mechesny. 
James McGeary. 
Robert McCrum. 
James C. McGeary. 



Adjutant, R. A. Henderson. 

Company A. 
Capt., W. R. Ford ; 1st lieut., R. A. Henderson (pro. to adjt.) ; 2d lieut., 
Alexander Craig; 1st sergt., R. H. Bruce. 

Sergeants. 
A. S. Hamilton. George Cunningham. 

Robert Graham. Casper Adams. 



W. A. Gray. 
Robert Scott. 
George Marshall. 
John Coleman. 
Musician George E. Foot. 



Corporals. 

William Jellison. 
William Uncapher. 
Samuel Cribbs. 
Israel Hickman. 



Privates. 



Elijah Akers. 

Ambrose Brown. 

Thomas Belle. 

G. M. Boyle. 

James Brennan. 

Charles Cribbs. 

Christopher Clawson. 

John Cribbs. 

Thomas Campbell. 

S. D. Cribbs. 

G. C. Craig. 

George Cunningham, Jr. 

J. G. Devinney. 

J. M. Dayton. 

Martin Doran. 

J.B. Dalby. 

Joseph Eshbaugh. 

Joseph Fance. 

Jesse Gray. 

J. A. Howard. 

J. R. Porter (pro. to colonel July 8, 

Thomas Robinson. 

David Ranson. 

S. P. Repine. 

William Redman. 

John Rager. 

Andrew Rahl. 

D. W. Spires. 



Frederick Jellison. 
Milton Kirkwood. 
Daniel Keefe. 
W. D. Lucas. 
C. G. Lose. 
Leander Lynch. 
A. C. Long. 
J. D. Layton. 
James Murray. 
William McCormick. 
Edward McFadden. 
Matthew McFadden. 
James McClenahan. 
James McGrath. 
J. M. Orr. 
G. W. Perry. 
Matthias Palmer. 
A. A. Palmer. 
C. W. Palmer. 

1863). 
John Shea. 
Robert Smith. 
J. R. Torrance. 
Thomas Thompson. 
Robert Wiley. 
Milton Wiley. 
G. D. Wilkinson. 



ROSTER OF COMPANY H, FIFTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. 

Capt., Ceorge Richie; 1st lieut., W. H. Lawsou ; 2d lieut., C. OJDoug- 
Iass; 1st sergt., J. W. Shoemaker. 



Henry Baughman. 
E. G. Kennedy. 



W. M. Eckley. 
Joseph Hamilton. 
John ClendeTiniii. 
S. D. Smith. 



Oliver Allen. 
Uriah Bliss. 
James Beam. 
W. D.Blackburn. 
Henry Bankafett. 
William Brindle. 
James Batton. 
James Collins. 



Sergeants. 

J. R. Powell. 
David Markle. 

Corporals. 

Ainzi Smith. 
Thomas Finney. 
J. P. Hamilton. 
Frank Beezle. 

I'rivates. 

J. S. Campbell. 
James Carpenter. 
JameB Deeds. 
Theodore Evans. 
S. L. Foot. 
Simon Greenawalt. 
James Hixsenbaugh. 
Malcolm Haggerty. 



496 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Joseph Hutchinson. 
John Huey. 
Theodore Hunter. 
George Hunter. 
D. D. Kripps. 
Peter Kuhns. 
James Lewis. 
Pieraon Luce. 
J. H. Lucker. 
George W. Markle. 
Cyrus Markle. 
J. B. Milligan. 
W. B. Milligan. 
Alexander Milligan. 
S. L. McGrew. 
George Newell. 
W. B. Patterson. 
F. M. Patterson. 



James Patterson. 
Joseph Pinkerton. 
Also Reppard. 
Randolph Reynolds. 
Daniel Shoaf. 
Albert Siegfried. 
Casper Sterner. 
William Spratt. 
Albert Sykes. 
William Swern. 
John Stewart. 
George Smith. 
Bennett Van Kirk. 
John Webster. 
John Winkler. 
Marion Waltz. 
Joseph Young. 



INDEPENDENT CAVALRY BATTALION. 
Company B. 
Capt., George H. Murphy; 1st lieut., Culbertson Ramsey; 2d lieut., 
John W. Graham; 1st sergt., Hugh McCune; qr.*mr. sergt., 
Samuel McElroy ; com. sergt., John W. Graham, 



Daniel Igo. 
J. H. Pershing. 
J. W. Smith. 

S. M. Kennedy. 
J. H. Blair. 
D. Nicewonger. 
J. A. Ambrose. 

H. G. Young. 
Farrier, J. S. Morris. 
Blacksmith, H. M. Wilson. 

J. F. Austraw. 
Abraham Bennett. 
George Barton. 
Jooathan Bitner. 
J. C. Blair. 

William Cunningham. 
W. J. Campbell. 
J. A. Campbell. 
G. W. Games. 
W. H. Covode. 
Martin Decker. 
John Decker. 
J. W. Decker. 
J. P. Deitrich. 
Gregory DeWitt. 
W. D. Felton. 
Samuel Findley. 
David Felton. 



Sergeants. 

Henry Barton. 
James I. Ross. 

Corporals. 

J. D. Bryan. 
Isaac Tewell. 
R. H. Ramsey. 
Aeher Campbell. 
Buglers. 

J. M.Mitchell. 



Privates. 

David Fry. 
John Fry. 
M. A. Graham. 
William Henderson. 
John Hess. 
J. I. Harrell. 
James Halferty. 
John Huston. 
Robert Huston. 
FranciB Hicks. 
S. R. Huston. 
Amos Johnston. 
J. A. Jones. 

C. A. Krigger. 
M. P. Krepp. 
Henry Lope. 

D. A. Lawson. 

E. W. Lenhart. 



R. W, Mardis. 
A. G. Martin. 

Archibald Matthews. 
Adam Mangus. 
Michael McCullough. 
Samuel McCurdy. 
Samuel McCune. 
A. C. McDowell. 
Daniel McDowell. 
W. B. McElroy. 
D. F. McClelland. 
J. P. McKelvey. 
John B. McMasters. 



James C. McMulIen. 
John Neil. 
Marshall Reed. 
E. J. Reed. 
J. C. Shrum. 
Samuel Tewell. 
John Tittle. 
Frederick Ulery. 
John Updegraff. 
John Wadsworth. 
W. M. Wallace. 
Stephen Walker. 
Peter Wiuebrenner. 



DICK'S INDEPENDENT CAVALRY COMPANY. 
Was mustered in July 9, 1863, and discharged October 3d. 
Capt., William B. Dick; 1st lieut., James Loar; 2d lieut., 0. J. Greer; 
1st Bergt., H. 0. Tintsman. 

Sergeants. 
Stewart Whitehall. 0. P. Shupe. 

Ezra Ebersole. W. J. Hitchman. 

J. J. Fox. William VanWymer. 



Isaac Stouffer. 

F. M. Davie. 

John Byers. 

0. B. Robertson. 

Isaac Sherrick, 

Bugler, George Sitherwood. 

S. L. Anderson. 
C. D. Altmau. 
W. E. Andrew. 
Henry Briuker. 
Ludwick Barroue. 
John Bryan. 
Samuel Berlin. 
W. L. Brant. 
J. A. Buyer. 
Lumpson Burkholder. 
H. D. Campbell. 
EH Crouse. 
R. A. Cunningham. 
Eli Crosby. 
Cyrus Cole. 
William Dinsmore. 
C. A. Ebersole. 
James Ellis. 
M. L. Fry. 
J. W. Fox. 

A. L. Fry. 
J. S. Funk. 

B. F. Harkens. 
T. G. Hodge. 
George W. Hough. 
James Irwin. 



Corporals. 

William Woodcock. 
James Love. 
D. P. Brant. 
Eli Sell. 



Privates. 

' D. W. Keister. 
David Keougn. 
Samuel Loucks. 
PreBsley Lovingar. 

A. F. Lemon. 
Heury Lovear. 
Jacob May. 
John Moore. 
John McNully. 
8. M. Otto. 

W. J. Robertson. 
Andrew Robertson. 
Amos Sindorf. 
John B. Sheppard. 
Reuben Sherrick. 

C. W. Swartz. 

B. K.Solliday. 
Jacob Sheets. 
J. M.Smitley. 
Isaac F. Stoner. 

D. W. Shupe. 
B. F. Simpson. 
James Scott. 
John P. Tarr. 
John Weitzel. 
William H. H. Wolf. 



LOCAL HISTORY 

OF 

B 0R0UGHS AND TOWNSHIPS. 



GREENSBURG. 



F( DURING THE LAST CENTURY. 

Wes 3R some years after the end of the Revolution, 
we ;tern Pennsylvania increased in population and in 
ora-alth as it had never increased before. The emi- 
a kl, tion about 1787 and 1788 was accounted remark - 
an , J. Whole colonies left the New England States 
r j J began settlements together in the Northwest Ter- : 
y tory. Many, indeed, stopped in these parts. There 
]. 'ere inducements offered here to those who could buy 
1 and such as were better than those offered in the 
1 West. The lands were cheap and partly improved. 
The holders of them were anxious to sell that they 
themselves might repurchase at cheaper rates. Thus 
the class which came in was well prepared to add to 
the material wealth, and to put new life in those who 
had been wearied out by toil and watching. These 
people brought with them their own stock ; and their 
horses and cattle, their hogs and sheep, as well as their 
agricultural implements, were far ahead of anything 
common to this country. It was also remarked that 
at about this time laboring men first began to be paid 
their wages in current money. This money, too, had 
a value, for they did not handle the Continental paper, 
which was necessary to be shifted off at a nominal 
value by those who were so unfortunate as to hold it. 
On the 24th of September, 1788, Allegheny County 
was organized out of parts of Westmoreland and Wash- 
ington Counties. About this time Greensburg had the 
nucleus of a bar. The town, from all accounts, improved 
during those years rapidly. In the last year of the se- 
dition (179-t) there is much correspondence dated from 
Greensburg; and here the United States commissioners 
stopped for some time taking testimony and making 
their report. A small body of troops was quartered 
near the town during the last winter. Some of the old 
citizens then first came to notice. Within the few- 
years immediately following that notoriety the popu- 
lation was further increased, and among those who 
came in were some of the most prominent families. 



In 1799 it was incorporated, and contained possibly 
between four hundred and five hundred souls. 

Up to 1786 there was no collection of houses worthy 
the name of town in all Western Pennsylvania, un- 
less we except the town of Pittsburgh. In 1784 an 
arrangement was made to lay out the manor of Pitts- 
burgh into town lots and sell them without delay. In 
1786 the number of houses there was estimated at one 
hundred, and the population at about five hundred. 
Previous to this there were no buildings outside the 
fort, only the few straggling huts occupied by soldiers 
and mechanics. There were, it is said, five stores 
there at that time, and it was, as is well known, the 
only important commercial place in the West, such 
as it was. Uniontown, which had been laid out by 
Henry Beeson at a very early day, but at that time 
but a sorry place, was known as Beeson's Town as late 
as 1794. In 1796 they built their court-house and 
market-house. Brownsville, the Old Redstone, was 
laid out in 1785. At that date there were perhaps 
several stores there. But in all the remaining por- 
tion of the western part, and especially in Westmore- 
land, there was no place where there was a cluster of 
more than a dozen houses. A place with some pre- 
tensions, named Port Royal, on the Youghiogheny, 
had been laid out in squares and streets, and lots 
sold. One of the streets was called Washington 
Street, and there was at the time some expectation 
of its becoming a considerable place, but for years it 
proved to be only a city of magnificent distances. 
Robbstown, the name by which West Newton was 
long known and which was but another name for 
John Simerall's ferry, was a more promising place 
than any other of these, being at the head of flat- 
boat navigation on the Yough, and consequently a 
point for emigrants and shipping. 

SELECTION AS SEAT OF JUSTICE. 
Ill an act of Assembly passed on the 13th of Sep- 
tember, 1785, it was recited that whereas a seat of 

497 



498 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 






justice for the county of Westmoreland had not there- 
tofore been established by law, for want of which the 
inhabitants labored under great inconveniences, to 
remedy which it was enacted that it should be lawful 
for Benjamin Davis, Michael Rugh, John Shields, 
John Pomroy, and Hugh Martin, or any three of 
them, to purchase, in the name of the Commonwealth, 
a piece of land in trust for the inhabitants of the said 
county ; and by the act it was provided that the said 
piece of land should not be situate farther east than 
the Nine-Mile Run, nor farther west than Bushy 
Run, farther north than Loyalhanna, nor farther south 
than five miles south of the Old Pennsylvania road 
leading to Pittsburgh ; on which piece of ground the 
said commissioners should erect a court-house and a 
prison sufficient to accommodate the public service 
of the county. 

These trustees had much trouble and waited long 
until the report of the majority of them was finally 
taken off their hands and made stable by the un- 
altered law of the land. The settlement about the 
future county town at that time had some influential 
men in it; among them were those of the Jack family, 
Col. Christopher Truby, and Michael Rugh (whose 
land adjoined that of the other two). Besides this, 
the new road, which left Hannastown to the north, 
precluded the possibility of that place from being 
again reported favorably upon. The fact of the 
courts being held there as long as they were was but 
a makeshift, From the time of the first report it had 
met with outspoken opposition ; and since the close 
of the war it was, even after the formation of Fayette 
on the south of the county, far from the centre of the 
county, as it remained, either in population or in 
location. 

At this juncture the three men aforementioned laid 
their heads together. By an article of agreement- 
witnessed the 10th day of December, 1785, 1 Chris- 



1 ARTICLE of Agreement made and conoluded on between Chris- 
topher Truby and William Jack of the one part and Benjamin 
Davis, Michael Roogh, and Hugh Martin, Esquires, Justices for 
the County of Westmoreland, WITNESSETH : 

Thut the said Christopher Truby anj William Jack doth hereby grant, 
bargain, and sell unto the said Benjamin Davis, Michael Rough, and 
Hugh Martin, Trustees, a certain piece of land situate and being in 
Hempfield township, on the North Branch of Sewickley, containing two 
acres, for the use of erecting a court-house and prison, for the considera- 
tion of sixpence lawful money of the State of Pennsylvania to us ill 
hand paid, the receipt we do hereby acknowledge [and] ourselves fully 
satisfied; anil the said Christopher Truby and William Jack doth hereby 
bind themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns to 
make clear patent free from encumbrance to the said Benjamin Davis, 
Michael Rough, and Hugh Martin, Trustees, or their successors, and the 
said Christopher Truby and William Jack do hereby promise the said 
trustees to lay out a certain quantity of land for the use of a county 
town containing sixty acres, viz. : Running thence south twenty east 
106 perches, south forty-three east 80 perches, north seventy-five east 40 
perches, and north four and one-half north 135 perches to a post south 
seventy-five west to the place of beginning. And to allow the inhab- 
itants of said town free incourse and recourse to the North Branch and 
West Branch at certain places, as the said trustees shall think proper, 
and to any injury to the bottom on said waters, and the said Christopher 
Truby and William Jack doth hereby promise to sell the said Lot [s] of 



topher Truby and William Jack convey ed to Benjamin 
Davis, Michael Rugh, and Hugh Marti, n, 2 trustees, as 
mentioned, for the nominal consideratk on of a six- 
pence, two acres of land for the use of erect ing a court- 
house and prison for the county ; and the) T promised 
the trustees to lay out a certain quantity of land con- 
taining sixty acres on the North and West Bra ncbes of 
the Sewickley, the site of Greensburg, for the use of a 
county town. They also allowed the inha 1 jitants of 
the town free inconrse and recourse to the North and 
West Branches at such places as the trusts ?es should 
think proper. They likewise promised to sei. '1 the lots 
of ground for the new town at the rate of fo rty-five 
shillings per lot. 

By an act of the 27th of December, 1786, the 
given to the commissioners by the act first men 
and the acts of 26th February, 1773, and 22d . 
1784, to purchase land and erect thereon the i 
buildings, were superseded until the Legish 
should further otherwise direct. The supersedii 
was then in order repealed by an act of the 
February, 1789, and the sale of the lots of gr> 
confirmed. By this they were empowered to a 
and levy a tax on the people of the county noi 
exceed one thousand pounds, Pennsylvania curre: 

The commissioners therefore reported in favc 
this place, then called Newton, being a town, si 
say, " without any houses." It was, however, a clo 
settlement and had a cluster of houses, one of whic 
for certain was the old tavern stand which stoo 
there before the time of Simon Drum, Sr., and whic) 
was occupied afterward by him. 3 The election act c 
1786 recited that whereas the commissioners had fixe< 
that the courts should thereafter be holden at Greens- 
burg, otherwise Newton, it declared that thereafter 
the people of the Fifth Election District of the 
county, who had till then voted at Hannastown, 
should vote at the court-house at Greensburg. 

FIRST COURT, ETC. 
The last court held at Hannastown was the October 
term of 1786, aud the first court held at Greensburg 
was the January term of 1787. The court-house, so 
called, preceding what is usually known as the " Old" 
court-house, was a small brick building, situate upon 
the >ame lot, and afterward occupied for some of the 
county offices. By an act of Assembly passed about 
1790 all the counties that did not have such public 
buildings as were intended in the act were to build 



powers 
tioned 
March, 
aiblic 
tture 
ig act 
■ 14th 
■ni ml 
ssess 
t to 
ocy. 
>r of 
, -> to 
se 
h 
-d 
i 
if 
i 



ground fit the rate of forty-five shillings per lot, and we do hereby bind 
ourselves iu the penalty of two thousand pounds for the true perform- 
ance of the above agreement as witness our hands and seals the tenth 
day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five. 

Christopher Truby. [seal.] 
William Jack. [seal.] 

Sealed and delivered in the presence of) 
William McGee. J 

Recorded in Book " B," p. 287. 
- Sloan and Pomroy were Hanna's men. 

3 In 1785 " the devil'' came to this house "to dance away wi' the 
excise-man," Graham (see Chapter XXXVII). 



GREENSBURG. 



499 



court-houses and jails of brick or of stone The old 
court-house was not finished, we believe, till at least 
after the Whiskey Insurrection, 1797. The comple- 
tion of the building, as has reasonably been inferred, 
was retarded by the troubles of that time. 

In 1789, Greensburg had a " May-pole" standing in 
the centre of the then village, on the road to Puckety. 
Simon Drum built his brick house in 1808. James 
Clark, a wheelwright by trade, kept tavern in 1790. 
Ludwig Ottoman was here in 1790, and in 1795 among 
the residents were Mrs. Priscilla Coulter, Thomas 
Hamilton, Peter Harbaugh, and Simon Drum. 

C. H. Stark tore down (in 1874) his stone dwelling, 
long known as one of the oldest and most substantial 
buildings of the town. It was built in 1796, and used 
for a hotel for a long time in the days of the rumbling 
stage and the slow-plodding Conestoga wagons, when 
fast time from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was six 
days. It was an inn where the old farmers and 
wagoners used to have jolly times. Mr. Stark re- 
modeled it with an elegant brick addition. 

The old Truby and Kuhns families are remembered 
in the following: 

"I do Hereby Cartyfi that philiph Cone, of Westmoreland County, 
Hath voluntarily taken and Subsciibd the oath Affirmation of allegiance 
and fidelity as Directed by an act of general assembly of peenSylvana 
passed the 13th Day of June at 1777, witness my hand and Seal the 1 
Day of June at 1778. 

[l. s.] "Christo'r Truby." 

GREENSBURG IN THE OLDEN TIME. 

The first tolerable idea we get of the old town of 
Greensburg dates to a time not farther back than a 
few years after the beginning of the present century. 
From a number of reminiscences compared together, 
and from a few old prints, we can get a glimpse of the 
metropolis as it existed from about 1805 to 1820. The 
first census in 1810 gives the population at (585, aud 
that of 1820 at 770. It would appear that the houses 
of the county town were at first but common struc- 
tures, most of them log or frame weatherboarded ten- 
ements. There were a few of the early stone houses, 
but these did not date so far back ; the old banking- 
house of the Westmoreland Bank, for instance, which 
was commonly thought to be one of the oldest build- 
ings of the town, was erected about 1805. The stone 
part of the house on the northwest corner of West Ot- 
toman and Depot Streets, which at first was used for 
a tavern, was built in 1796. Of the old houses, once 
noted landmarks, nearly all have been remodeled ( 
and rebuilt, or altered in such a way that but a part 
of the original structure now exists. Thus the corner 
house on Pittsburgh Street and Main Street, oppo- | 
site the court-house, known to many old persons yet i 
as the Drum house, contains in its superstructure 
nothing of the first building ; a part of the foundation 
walls is said to be the same which supported the old I 
building, perhaps the most historic landmark in the 
place. This is the house which entertained the com- 
missioners and United States and State officials during > 



the Whiskey Insurrection. At that time it had a 
clapboard roof, and it had for a sign a full-length 
painted effigy of Gen. Nathaniel Greene. At the 
time of which we speak nearly every one of the pri- 
vate houses was set in a yard, and being scattered 
about, the broad patches of sky and daylight were 
seen between them. At scarcely any place was the 
sight of the fields obscured. A cluster of one-storied 
log houses and miserable huts on the eastern slope of 
the hill going into town, by the side of the old road, was 
called Irishtown, and another suburb on the western 
side was called Dutchtown. This road was the main 
thoroughfare, and it is said that in the early times 
the most business was done on this street. Along here 
the biggest crowd of idle men and boys collected to 
see the horses stalling in going up the hill, and to 
hear the wagoner cursing and cracking his whip. 
Along here were the blacksmith-shops, and on the 
corners of the square where it crossed Main Street 
were two taverns, a store, and the county build- 
ings. Among the first public buildings on the Main 
Street were the taverns which from time to time 
were opened by impecunious great men. If a man 
had been high sheriff or county commissioner, or 
if he was a bankrupt merchant, he started a tavern. 
It did not require much capital, and it was the most 
remunerative business to get at. Thus the propor- 
tion of inns here was as high as in any other of the 
villages, and some of the houses now occupied as resi- 
dences were even later than that used as taverns. 
The building in the court-house square, in the walls 
of which you may see the archway, was at one time 
the "Dublin Hotel." Through this archway the 
wagoners drove to the yard behind the house, and it 
was in the upper story where Mr. Williams, to an ad- 
miring auditory, sang his comic song, "When Thim- 
ble's scolding wife lay dead," and where Professor 
Doupenloup, the French dancing-master, held his 
benefit. 

Between the lower house on Main Street and the 
German burying-ground there was a patch of un- 
fenced common, upon which the boys kicked foot-ball, 
and where the cows of the town depastured and lay 
at night. The first Episcopal Church stood on East 
Ottoman Street, at the corner of the first square, on 
the north side. The commons on this side extended 
out from here over that part of the town next to the 
angle of the two railroads. It was not till 1803 that 
Judge William Jack, a public-spirited man, aud one 
of the founders of the town, gave one hundred and 
thirty-one perches of ground to the "burgesses and 
inhabitants to erect thereon a house for preaching 
and public worship." Sixty feet square of this tract 
was to be set apart for the building, and the rest was 
to remain a place of burial for the dead. Upon this 
lot the burgesses, with the consent of the inhabitants, 
erected a Presbyterian Church, whence the burial- 
ground received the name of the Presbyterian grave- 
yard. This old burying-ground lay for a long time 



500 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



on an uninclosed common, and where the graves were 
not inclosed by a durable wall or palings they were 
trodden upon by cattle or overrooted by the swine. 
The erection of the new Presbyterian Church on the 
ground of the congregation on South Main Street, 
and the bad condition of the burying-ground itself, 
led to the formation of the St. Clair Cemetery As- 
sociation, from which enterprise we have the only 
public place of recreation and resort in the town, and 
the chief object of interest to point out to strangers. 

On the west side of the town, now its most populous 
suburb, there were but two or three log houses. Lud- 
wick Ottoman, a man who lived and died a Dutch- 
man, owned the Stokes farm and most of the land 
upon which Ludwick is built. His log house, which 
stood near the future site of the residence of the late 
William A. Stokes, Esq., was entered by a double 
door, hung the one above the other, like the doors a of 
stable. His Sunday dress was a red -flannel wambus, 
or roundabout, made out of a woolen blanket. There 
was, it is true, but somewhat later, a house of some 
repute on the summit of Bunker Hill along the turn- 
pike. It was a wooden structure, lathed and plastered 
on the outside. It was later known as the Bushfield 
tavern, when it was to Greensburg what Belmont was 
to Venice. At Henry Barton's blacksmith-shop in 
East Greensburg the rough-visaged, brawny-armed 
men, like the Cyclops toiling at the forges, yelled like 
savages around a stack of heating tires, beat the 
horses with their rasps, and drew out of the white 
fire the seething plow-irons. From early in the 
morning till late at night the bellows were creaking, 
and it was a favorite place for countrymen to loiter 
and lazy men to gather to watch the sparks fly " like 
chaff from the thrashing-floor," and be in awe of the 
most extensive manufacturing establishment in the 
town. 

Some of the old inhabitants, natives of the town, 
can go along and point out where was once the site 
of the house or the abode itself of her great burghers, 
whose reputation is as much identified with the town 
as the fame of Pericles is identified with Athens, or 
that of Lycurgus with Sparta. Thus on the site of 
the public hotel latterly well known as the " Richmond 
House," and now the property of Mr. Samuel Alwine, 
was the residence of John B. Alexander, Esq., whose 
monumental tablet in the St. Clair Cemetery epito- 
mizes the history of his life. " He was a distin- 
guished member of the bar, his knowledge and tal- 
ents placing him among the first of his profession. 
He served his country as an officer in the late war 
with Great Britain." Judge Young lived in a long, 
low-fronted, white-colored house, whose floor in time 
had sunk below the level of the pavement, on the 
corner opposite on the north side of Main Street, the 
lower house on the square since known as the Burnt 
District, which is now covered with the gigantic piles 
of iron, stone and brick masonry which go to make 
up the Kuhns Block and Masonic Hall. Dr. Pos- 



tlethwaite resided in a house opposite the Alwine 
Hotel and diagonal to Judge Young's house. Judge 
Coulter, then a practicing lawyer, lived in a house 
and had his office whose site is now covered by the 
building of the Greensburg Banking Company. 

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR OCCUPATIONS. 

We have halted midway in the chronological 
history of the county town merely to get a glimpse at 
the people who then did business in its shops and 
who walked about its streets. These memoranda are 
taken from the local notices or made up out of the 
advertisements which appeared in the county papers 
about the dates given. 

From a card in the Gazette, Nov. 7, 1823, J. B. 
Alexander and Joseph H. Kuhns entered into a part- 
nershij) as attorneys and counselors-at-law. It is 
also seen that James B. Oliver was established as a 
scrivener and conveyancer. 

In 1823, John Connell kept a store opposite "the 
market-house and stage-office." In the same year, 
M. P. Cassilly, Randal McLaughlin, and Henry 
Welty, Jr., were in partnership in the merchandising 
business. They dissolved their partnership in April, 
1824, M. P. Cassilly continuing in business at the 
old place. H. Brown & Son and Mr. Mowry kept 
stores opposite the post-office. The Gazette office was 
removed to a building between these in 1824. John 
Connell kept a store and advertised fancy goods. 
Other mercantile houses and firms then were Arthur 
Carr, James Brady & Co., who kept two doors north 
of the bank and one door south of the Westmoreland 
Republican, Henry Welty, Jr., and Randal McLaugh- 
lin, who continued each for himself after the dissolu- 
tion of the partnership mentioned ; Edward N. Clop- 
per, who had just come from Baltimore, and who 
engaged in business in the room "below Horbach's 
tavern, and next door south of Simon Drum, Esq." 

Of other persons and trades we have these: Of 
hatters there were a Mr. Gallagher, John Isett, and 
.William Findley. Hugh Stewart manufactured spin- 
ning-wheels and reels at his shop, " being the second 
house on the north side of the street, west of the 
residence of Mr. Henry Welty, Sr. James Arm- 
strong did tailoring. George Singer was chair-maker, 
and also did gilding, sign-painting, and glazing. 
James Gemmill was a stone-cutter, and had his shop 
opposite the German Church. He kept grindstones 
on sale. Peter Fleeger kept a saddlery. Jehu Tay- 
lor had what he was pleased to call a furniture ware- 
house, in which he exposed to sale various articles of 
household convenience, in conjunction with his busi- 
ness of cabinet-making. 

In a current issue of one of these papers in 1S25 
there is a complaint of the scarcity of water in 
pumps in case of a fire. At that time they had an 
engine, but it was not kept in repair, and for practi- 
cal purposes was regarded as useless. 

Samuel McCawlev carded wool in- an establishment 



GREENSBURG. 



501 



one door above the brick brewery, on the turnpike 
road. 

An article, a kind of political travesty, headed 
"Aid to the Greeks," appeared in the Gazette Feb. 
13, 1824, which was signed " E. F. Pratt, Hair Dresser," 
and which had attached thereto the following: 

" Done at the Jackson Tonsotial Hall, two doors north of Mr. Edward 
Patchell's Jackson's Bullet-Proof and Element-Defying Hat Factory, a 
few doors south of Beale's Arbitration and Delegation Hotel, and patent 
never-wearing-out hrush manufactory, and in full view of the fish mar- 
ket. Those who cannot find the [dace will inquire at Alexander Smith's 
or Peter Shires', Point Brewery. The 2d day of February, A.D. 1824, 
and the year of the world 5S24." 

A writer who signed himself " A Mechanick" sent 
a couple of articles to the Gazette in December, 1826, 
which were intended to start a movement in favor of 
a circulating library for the benefit of the laboring 
class. In the second article he says, — 

" In the present article I wish to impress more fully upon the minds 
of our citizens the importance, nay. absolute necessity, of entering upon 
some decisive measures to retain if not increase our population, and of 
rendering that population fit for the sphere in which circumstances have 
rendered it necessary for them to move. 

" A few weeks only have transpired since Maj. Coulter's steam-mill 
was put into operation, and already the increased hum of business is 
apparent in the section in which the mill is located. To a casual ob- 
server this may be attributed to trivial or transient causes, which will 
only endure for a short season ; but to the man of business and reflec- 
tion only are the true reasons and causes apparent. If, then, a 6team 
grist-mill is materially reviving our business, and is consequently pro- 
ductive of gain to a part of our population, in how much greater degree 
would not the establishment of different kinds of manufactories among 
us promote the pecuniary interests of our whole community?" . . . 

The writer says that Greensburg then was, and for 
the four years past had been, without that " useful 
mechanick, a nailor." 

INHABITED LIMITS OF THE TOWN. 

It is a singular observation, but the recollections 
of those older persons in the county whose attention 
has been directed to the Greensburg of the early times 
nearly all fix upon some certain date, and this date 
varies little from about the year 1830. The only 
way we can account for this is in the fact that about 
that time was hung Joseph Evans, an event that for 
many years was a subject-matter of conversation 
among country people, and one which had brought 
them to the county town perhaps for the first time in 
their lives. 

In 1830 the population of the town was 810. The 
buildings for the most part were frame or log, and 
the appearance of the town on the whole would bear 
little resemblance to it now. On the north the town 
extended to the house of Hon. John Latta and one 
just opposite occupied by a chair-maker, Joseph Her- 
wig. On the south it was bounded by the German 
Reformed parsonage and a house just opposite, where 
a tavern, not the most orderly in the world, was kept 
by one Mrs. Bignell. The house was called " The 
Sun, Moon, and Seven Stars." The sloping ground 
south of town was called the " Bullet Ground," be- 
cause it was used, and had been so used long previ- 
ously, for the manly exercise of "long bullets." 



When log houses began to be erected along the road 
in that part of the town it received the name (about 
1840) of " Kinderhook," in compliment to Martin Van 
Buren, whose birthplace had that old Dutch name. 
West Pittsburgh Street, then called " Dutchtown," 
was terminated by the blacksmith-shop of Tim Jen- 
nings, somewhere about the foot of the street, on the 
side opposite the residence of Mr. Cowan and some- 
what below it. The hill west of it was then known 
as " Bunker Hill," probably in ridicule, for there 
was a riotous tavern on the top of the hill, where 
cocks, dogs, men, and other game animals fought, 
sometimes for money and sometimes for recreation. 
There were no houses on the hill but one, a frame 
house, opposite the house built by Judge Burrell, 
and now owned and occupied by Hilary Brunot, Esq. 
This house was occupied by John Williams, whose 
son, William Williams, was well known in his day 
as an efficient deputy and clerk in the public offices. 
East Greensburg, or "Irishtown," ended at the then 
new brick steam-mill of Eli Coulter, brother of Judge 
Richard Coulter. This mill was one of the first 
steam-mills in the county. It was nearly opposite 
the residence of William H. Hacke, Esq. West Ot- 
toman street ended at the old stone house which was 
burnt down a few years ago, and on the site of which 
has since been erected the United Brethren Church. 
This* house was a very old one, having been used as a 
tavern in 1797. About the time of which we write it 
was kept by David Cook, once register and associate 
judge and the grandfather of William Cook, Esq., a 
gentleman in his day quite a politician in Westmore- 
land, and later a citizen of Washington City, where 
he has attained some reputation in a wider sphere as 
a politician and a lawyer. East Ottoman Street was 
ended by the brewery of John and Richard North, 
two Englishmen. This was at a point probably half- 
way between Main Street and the end of East Otto- 
man, at the foot of the hill. 

TAVERNS AND LANDLORDS. 

At that time the canal of the State and the National 
road from Wheeling to Baltimore had not been com- 
pleted, and so a stream of travel — wagons, heavy and 
light, carriages and horsemen — passed through the 
town, and the taverns were well patronized. There 
were three principal taverns on Main Street, — the 
" Simon Drum House" (corner of Main and West Pitts- 
burgh Streets, opposite the court-house), the " Hor- 
bach House" (corner of Main and East Pittsburgh 
Streets, and opposite the Baughman building), these 
two in the centre of the town, and the " Westmoreland 
Hotel," owned and then kept by Frederick A. 
Rohrer. 

The Horbach House was the house where the mail 
coaches stopped, Mr. Horbach being an extensive 
stage proprietor and mail contractor. The Bohrer 
House, best known by that name, was Democratic 
headquarters. 



502 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Other houses there were, but none of so wide and 
extended reputation, nor of so long continuance. A 
house whose reputation was founded on the name of 
the landlord was an institution not of a day's growth. 
Among these the house opposite the store of Mr. Henry 
Welty (southest corner of Main and East Ottoman 
Street) was used a tavern, and kept by a man named 
Job Hornish. It was much frequented by drinking 
mechanics and working-men. On West Ottoman 
Street, on the corner of Depot Street (upon the site 
now occupied by the residence of W. H. Markle, Esq.), 
was a tavern. It was the only tavern in Greensburg 
at that time where broad-wheeled wagons stopped. 
These usually passed through to the " Eicher House," 
about a mile east of the town on the turnpike, or to 
Grapeville on the west side. This wagon-tavern had 
been kept by Griffith Clark, father of Capt. Samuel 
Clark, of Mount Pleasant. He died in 1829, and was 
buried with full Masonic honors. " The brethren of 
the mystic tie" attended the funeral in full dress, and 
at their head marched the Hon. John Young, presi- 
dent judge, with a book in his hands. The tavern 
was afterward kept by Brintnal Robbins, Peter Row, 
aud Joseph Nicewonger. 

In " Dutchtown" there was an inn kept by John 
Kuh us. The citizens of German descent at that day 
were very clannish, and so the " Kuhns House" was a 
favorite stopping-place with the Dutch who held 
Democratic opinions. In " Irishtown" there was a 
good tavern, called "The Federal Springs," owned 
and kept by Frederick Mechlin. The politics of the 
tavern were just the opposite to those of the Kuhns 
House, but in both the language spoken was mainly 
" Pennsylvania Dutch." 

We have spoken of the " Drum House," and we 
might further say that although the house went by 
that name, as it had for years before and as it did for 
years after, Mr. Drum was not at that time the inn- 
keeper. This was a man named Ephraim Jordan. 

Simon Singer kept the "Greensburg and Pitts- 
burgh Hotel." 

The " Dublin Hotel" was an Irish house, kept by a 
man named Thompson, and stood on " Green Lane," 
the street from Caleb Stark's towards the railroad. 

Snowden's printing-office was in an alley back 
of Baughman's building, and that of John W. Wise 
was on the corner of East Ottoman Street going 
toward the cemetery on Maple Avenue. 

THE YOUNG "HOODLUMS" OF OLD TIMES. 
In those days some of the young men of the town 
were of wild habits. They much resembled the bloods 
of London, described by Liddell and Macaulay, who 
infested the streets of the metropolis during the 
shameless days of the Restoration. They had their se- 
cret societies, their cat calls, and their signs. Every 
boy who came to study a profession, to learn a trade, 
or attend the academy was initiated by coal-housing. 
Any young man who kept the society of young 



ladies was tabooed by these old-time " hoodlums," 
as it was a sign of effeminacy. Temperance habits 
were with them an excluding sin. A young man 
was lampooned in the columns of the county papers, 
and jeered at on the streets, nicknamed and talked 
about, if he in the least slighted these larks and 
habituated himself to quiet occupation, to temperance, 
and to close application to his studies. One of these 
young men, lampooned by the " hoodlums," became a 
celebrated physician by hewing his way up from a 
saddler's apprentice. He completed his studies under 
Dr. Postlethwaite, aud located in South Carolina, 
where he achieved distinction in his profession. An- 
other timid young man when he came to town to 
read law, was chased about all night to be coal- 
housed. He is now on the Supreme Bench of one 
of the Territories. Many of these roystering young 
men subsequently settled down into quiet habits, and 
became the leading men of their localities, while 
others became nobodies, and were glad in after-years 
to receive any kindness from those they had in years 
gone by insulted. 

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-HOUSES. 

In speaking with a gentleman familiar with the 
subject of schools in the early Greensburg, he said 
that the schools there, as he first knew them, about 
1830 might be distinguished by the degrees of com- 
parison, as much, more, most. Thus Miss Lydia Bid- 
die taught much, Robert Nelson Somerville more, 
and Thomas Will most. 

In 1829, on the site where now stands the Metho- 
dist Church, on Main Street, there stood an old log 
house owned by Dr. Postlethwaite. In this house 
Lydia Biddle taught the rudiments of an English ed- 
ucation. At Miss Biddle's school were taught the 
children of Dr. Postlethwaite, Rev. Michael Steck, 
Alexander Johnston, Michael P. Cassilly, and other 
citizens. After having been lugged, shaken, and 
cuffed by the tender hands of Miss Lydia Biddle, the 
children were presumed to be far enough advanced 
for the flagellation of Robert Nelson Somerville. 

On the public common, at a short distance north of 
the end of East Ottoman Street, and west of the 
Presbyterian Meeting-House, the citizens of Greens- 
burg had at a very early time erected a low, one- 
story log house, wherein the ordinary branches of an 
English education should be taught. There is a di- 
versity of opinion who the first schoolmaster was, and 
this in all probability will remain a question unset- 
tled till the crack of doom, and be rated in the cate- 
gory of unanswerable queries, of which one of the 
most universal is that one which is raised as to the 
identity of the individual who struck Billy Patterson. 

This first school-house was erected, as we have said, 
on the public common, and but a short distance from 
the elegant spring now within the inclosed limits of 
the St. Clair Cemetery. It was a cabin house of rude 
structure, about eighteen by twenty-four feet, one 






GREENSBURG. 



503 



story high, with shingle roof. The furniture con- 
sisted of wooden benches of oak plank, of lengths cor- 
responding with the size of the room. The writing- 
desks were made of broad inch boards, which were 
fastened to the inside walls of the building, and ex- 
tended around the room. The light and ventilation 
were admitted to the promiscuous crowd of girls and 
boys through several small eight-by-ten-light win- 
dows. 

Mr. Silliman, the county superintendent in 1876, 
who made up the local history of the common-school 
system for the report of that year, says that a man 
by the name of Roseberry began teaching a school in 
this building. This school was made up by subscrip- 
tion, and consisted of possibly above fifty scholars, 
of course varying in summer and winter. Among the 
other early teachers were James O'Harra and Robert 
Williams. Williams taught for a long period, and 
his labors extended possibly down to 1816 or 1817. 
After Williams came Gideon H. Tanner, a teacher 
of high qualifications and training. He introduced 
various improvements in the school and the branches 
taught, and brought the system of teaching nearer to 
that which is now maintained in the common schools 
of the county than any other. Among the first school- 
masters here was Samuel L. Carpenter, afterwards 
county surveyor, State senator, sheriff, and associate 
judge. 

In 1829, as we said, the schoolmaster was an Eng- 
lishman named Somerville. The schools then were all 
maintained by subscription. On the supposition, we 
presume, that he had advanced to the second degree 
of comparison, our informant was removed from the 
school of Miss Biddle to that of Mr. Somerville. The 
dominie was a tall, straight, stern-looking man, with 
a thin, shallow face and overhanging black brows, 
under which gleamed two savage eyes. He dressed 
in taste and in first-class style, — black frock coat, 
cravat, and standing collar. His whole appearance 
and manner inspired awe and respect. After the 
scholars were seated, he passed around and inquired 
what books they had brought to school. These were 
indeed a queer collection, for they included all school 
books, such as Dilworth's and Murray's Readers, the 
Old and New Testaments, Plutarch's Lives, and 
..•Esop's Fables. He evidenced great discretion in ar- 
ranging his scholars into classes, and in making them 
conform to a regular system in classification. 

Somerville enforced strict discipline in his school. 
Every Saturday afternoon he brought in his bundle 
of rods. 

Somerville left Greensburg suddenly, and nothing 
was heard of his whereabouts afterwards. He, how- 
ever, left the reputation of being a good scholar, and 
among the learned men of the town he was regarded 
as the best informed. He had evidently been the 
graduate of a British university, and probably had 
been an usher in a High School. 

Such, as far as we have been able to learn, were 



the facilities for a rudimentary education prior to the 
efficient common-school system. For a more ad- 
vanced education it was still customary to be a pupil 
of some educated clergyman, who found it expedient 
to teach private schools, until the establishment of 
the Greensburg Academy. 

THE GREENSBURG ACADEMY. 

At an early period of its municipal existence the 
education of the rising generation was regarded with 
deep interest by the citizens of Greensburg. At the 
beginning of the present century several schools of 
different grades imparted instruction to the youth of 
the town and neighborhood. There were schools 
opened on both Academy Hill and on Bunker Hill. 
The Bunker Hill school was under the charge of the 
Rev. Milligan, whose son, also Rev. Milligan, offici- 
ated so long for the Covenanters of Westmoreland. 
The Academy Hill school was taught by several per- 
sons, among whom was the Rev. Cannon, who was 
also a burning and shining light to those of the faith 
who still protested against prelacy and the custom of 
singing psalms to worldly tunes, and who still ad- 
hered to the letter of the Solemn League and Cove- 
nant. 

The ordinary schools created a desire for a higher 
institution, where striplings could be prepared for 
college and a knowledge of the humanities be ac- 
quired. Accordingly an act of incorporation was 
procured from the Legislature, and in 1810 an acad- 
emy was built on the hill north of the town, on 
exactly the same site where the present edifice has 
been erected. The State gave a donatiou of two 
thousand dollars towards the foundation of the insti- 
tution. In 1836-37 another donation was given to it 
by the Legislature, in common with all, the acade- 
mies and seminaries throughout the State. 

The old academic edifice was a plain two-story 
brick building, with four windows and a door in the 
first story and five windows in the second story, at 
both front and back sides. There were no windows 
in the gable ends. There were an entrance and four 
rooms below stairs, and a small and two large rooms 
above stairs that opened into one another. The 
rooms below were intended for a family, the small 
room above stairs for the private room or study of 
the preceptor. One large room above stairs was used 
for the school-room of the girls, and the other for that 
of the boys. In the old academy, although they had 
but one instructor, the boys and girls were kept care- 
fully separated. They had not only different rooms, 
but different play-grounds and different times of in- 
termission. 

The act of incorporation required the dead lan- 
guages and the mathematics to be taught in the 
academy, in addition to the ordinary parts of an 
English education. To this course of instruction 
some of the preceptors added the French language. 
The classical books used were the same as now used, 



504 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



but the editors were different. Instead of Anthon's 
books they used Clarke's Caesar and the in usum Del- 
phini editions of the classics. The English books 
were altogether different from those now used. The 
present books are more diffuse and minute in impart- 
ing information. Their object is evidently to simplify 
the acquisition of knowledge. 

Among the first teachers in the academy were Jon- 
athan Findlay, Charles Lucas, and Thomas Will. 
Findlay was a brother of William Findlay, once Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania, and an uncle of James Find- 
lay, Esq., an able and learned lawyer of the Greens- 
burg and Pittsburgh bars. These were succeeded by 
James Jones, Samuel Sherwell, Farnsworth, Lathrop, 
Ames, Woodend, and Moore. In July, 1850, the old 
academy was burned to the ground. It is not known 
whether it caught fire by accident, was set on fire by 
a barbarian incendiary, or was consumed by a kind 
of spontaneous combustion from the excessive heat 
of the flames in the lamp of science. 

Some of the instructors in the old academy were 
men of natural ability and good education. Thomas 
Will had graduated with honor at St. Andrew's in 
Scotland, and James Jones had done the same at St. 
Omer's in France. Sherwell was one of the best and 
most accurate English scholars in the United States. 
Azer Lathrop, Farnsworth, and Ames were natives of 
New England, and graduates of her best colleges. 
Ames afterwards became a bishop in the Methodist 
Church. He was a good scholar and a good teacher, 
although it must be confessed that there were some 
imputations against his morals, and he is yet remem- 
bered as leading in several disreputable marauding 
expeditions by night, and particularly on one occa- 
sion wherein the outsiders took possession of an old 
building in which was being held a negro revival. 

The alumni of the old Greensburg Academy reflect 
honor on their alma mater. Among those who re- 
ceived a great part or all of their education at the 
Greensburg Academy were Henry D. Foster, Thomas 
Williams, of Pittsburgh ; James Reed, of Gettysburg ; 
Edgar Cowan, Augustus Drum, J. M. Burrell, Wil- 
liam F. Johnston, Albert G. Marehand, Capt. Alex- 
ander Montgomery, U.S.A., J. Herron Foster, Peter 
C. Shannon, all distinguished citizens, and many 
others who have gained fame and fortune at the press 
and the bar, in the pulpit and in the field, and in all 
the higher walks of professional or active life. 

After the burning of the old academic building 
there was no place for education at Greensburg, ex- 
cept the common schools, for more than ten years. 
In the spring of 1862 the directors of the public 
schools in Greensburg made a contract with the trus- 
tees of the burnt academy for the transfer of the 
ground and funds of the extinct institution to them. 
The transfer was made in accordance with the pro- 
visions of two acts of Assembly. The one was a gen- 
eral act, which provided for the transfer of public 
places of education on certain contingencies, and the 



other was a special act passed for this occasion and 
this object. The ground belonging to the old acad- 
emy consisted of several acres, on which it had been 
situated, and the funds consisted of the principal and 
proceeds of the donations to it, which had been in- 
vested in bank stock. It was made an essential con- 
dition of the transfer that scholars resident outside 
of the district of Greensburg should be received into 
the schools about to be established on the site of the 
old academy on the payment of certain proportionate 
sums according to the grade of the schools. Another 
condition was that a place and facilities should be 
always afforded in the building about to be erected 
for an academic department. 

After the transfer had been completed, a contract 
was made, in June, 1862, with two skillful artists for 
the erection of a suitable edifice for both schools and 
academy. The building was finished in 1863, and four 
schools or departments were opened for the education 
of the youth of both sexes. In 1864 there were five 
schools opened, and 1865 saw six departments in full 
operation under the care of the same number of in- 
structors. 

The new academic building stands on the site of 
the former house. It faces to the west. Its dimen- 
sions are large, and its appearance quite imposing. 
Its length is between eighty and ninety feet. Its 
width is about sixty feet. The edifice has a flight 
of stone steps and a handsome porch on tlje west 
side, leading to a pair of double doors with a small 
vestibule between them. These open into a wide 
and lofty entry, with two large rooms on each side. 
The four rooms in the first story are occupied by the 
first four departments. In the second story are two 
rooms as large as those below stairs, a small room 
over the porch at the entrance, and a capacious, well- 
lighted hall. The two rooms are occupied by two re- 
maining departments. The small room contains the 
library and philosophical apparatus, and the hall is 
intended for examinations, exhibitions, and lectures. 
It is a fine room, being about sixty by thirty feet. 
The ceiling is lofty, and the room receives light from 
ten windows. The laws of phonetics have been 
carefully observed in its construction, and a sound 
not above a whisper is audible in every part of it. In 
regard to light and ventilation, the new building is 
said to be far superior to the old one, and inferior to 
no structure in the country. There are large double 
doors at the east and west entrances, with porch and 
steps, and a large door and entrance on the southern 
side with covered stoop and steps. There is a large 
and well-aired basement, one part of which is used 
for wood and coal, and the other is occupied by a 
family, whose duty it is to cleanse the rooms and out- 
buildings, and take care of the plot, the house, and 
its appurtenances. There is a comfortable and ex- 
tensive attic, and the whole is surmounted by a turret, 
which overlooks the country for miles around, and in 
which is hung a splendid fine-toned bell, whose musi- 



GREENSBU11G. 



505 



cal notes can be heard all over the built-up portion of 
the town and its suburbs. 

The situation of the building is as salubrious as it 
is delightful. It stands on the highest ground for 
miles around it, and so has the benefit of all the airs 
of heaven. On the western side it overlooks a scope 
of hilly but highly cultivated country, interspersed 
with handsome houses, gardens, groves, and orchards. 
On the south the view extends over Greensburg to a 
fine stretch of undulating corn and meadow land 
until it is obstructed by the hills rising at the dis- 
tance of several miles below town, or the curling 
smoke that lies over the constantly glowing craters of 
coke ovens. On the east the prospect reaches to 
Chestnut Ridge and Whortleberry Hills. Just below 
the building it presents to the eye a most attractive 
and beautiful landscape. In the summer, when the 
air is mellowed with a delicate haze, it is a dreamy 
and delicious vision ; and it has been said by one who 
saw with the eye of a poet or landscape-painter that 
all that is wanting to make its beauty perfect is the 
sparkling flow of a lucid, silvery stream of water. 

The plot belonging to the academy is covered with 
grass and ornamented with shrubbery, and its borders 
are surrounded with silver-maples and horse-chest- 
nuts. The outbuildings are large, clean, and conven- 
ient. There is a cistern of soft water, and also a 
well of excellent limestone water, within twenty paces 
of the house. The academy contains a small but well- 
selected library, intended for the use of the scholars, 
and a philosophical apparatus. This consists of an 
orrery, tellurium, globes, telescope, microscope, mag- 
netic needle, magnet and wheel, pyrometer, kaleido- 
scope, and Claude Lorraine glass. For the use of the 
schools a variety of maps and charts is supplied for 
the purpose of teaching and illustrating painting, 
zoology, geography, anatomy, and astronomy. The 
rooms are furnished with all kinds of conveniences 
and facilities for study and learning, such as benches 
and desks, with places for books, blackboards, and 
maps along the walls, bells to summon the scholars, 
clocks to tell the hour, and thermometers to regulate 
the temperature. 

The original cost of the building was $11,500. The 
cost of the furniture was $1000. The cost of the phil- 
osophical apparatus has been upwards of $250. The 
shrubbery and other improvements of the ground cost 
more than $500. There is now a broad brick pave- 
ment from the town past the academy grounds, and 
from the gate to the front steps of the building. 

The board of directors has drawn up, adopted, and 
caused to be published in pamphlet form a system of 
instruction and rules for the government of their 
public schools. The course of study is all laid down, 
and the duties of teachers and pupils are enjoined in 
a clear and forcible manner. Some of these rules de- 
serve commendation for the good sense, respect for 
the community, and sound morality exhibited in 
them. By section eight of chapter three teachers are 



enjoined to use such corporeal punishment as would 
be exercised by a parent in his family. By section 
thirteenth teachers are required to prevent, both in 
school and out of school, all improper games, quar- 
rels, vulgar and profane language, and all disrespect 
to citizens and strangers. By section twenty-sixth 
the morning duties of each department shall com- 
mence with reading a portion of the Holy Scriptures 
and repeating the Lord's Prayer. By section second 
of chapter fourth pupils are forbidden to throw 
stones, cut or chalk fences, or use obscene or profane 
language under penalty of suspension and expulsion. 
By section tenth pupils are forbidden to eat fruit or 
sweetmeats in the school-rooms, and the use of tobacco 
in any shape is prohibited, not only in the house but 
on the premises. By section fifteenth any pupil 
guilty of flagrant misconduct, or whose example is 
pernicious, can be suspended by the principal and 
expelled by the board. By one of the rules uniform 
report cards must be furnished to the teachers, and 
these cards must be filled by them every week, so 
as to indicate the attendance, recitations, and con- 
duct of the pupils. These reports are taken home 
every Monday by the pupils, and if not returned the 
next day with the signature of the parents or guar- 
dians, the pupil who makes no proper return may be 
excluded from his place in the schools. 

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1858. 

About two o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, 
the 21st of September, 1858, a fire broke out in a 
stable of Jeremiah Gilchrist on a lot back of his res- 
idence, in the lower part of the square upon which is 
now the Masonic building, and before it could be 
checked or got under control destroyed that whole 
portion of the square and the residence of John M. 
Loor, in which was the post-office, on the corner diag- 
onally to the Kuhns Block. The loss was estimated 
at $30,000, which, considering the enhanced value of 
real estate in town now, was at that time regarded, as 
it really was, of great magnitude. Much personal 
property was either lost by the fire or was stolen. 
For a long time it was doubtful whether the town 
could be saved, but after three hours' hard work on 
the part of the firemen and the citizens generally the 
fire was checked. 

The ground remained long after vacant, and pre- 
sented a desolate appearance with its debris exposed. 
At length the first building erected in the " burnt 
district" was a small building used for a tailoring- 
shop, and the next, Gen. Foster's law-office. At length 
the ground changed hands, and now the finest build- 
ings and the most costly cover the site of that former 
eye-sore and add greatly to the wealth and architectu- 
ral beauty of the town. 

FIRE AT ROBINSON CORNER. 

On Sunday morning, 10th of October, 1875, the old 
Robinson Corner, as it was called, — that is, the corner 



506 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



now occupied by the Baughman building, — took fire 
and in a short time was entirely consumed. At the 
time of its destruction it was occupied on the first 
floor by William Robinson & Co., dealers in general 
merchandise, and by his son, dealer in grocery and 
queensware. The second floor was divided into three 
apartments, occupied respectively by J. M. Carpenter 
as a law-office and Joseph Greer as a justice's office, 
by Robert Black as a tailor -shop, and by S. Weiner, 
dyer and scourer. The occupants lost everything 
they had in the building. The fire was combatted 
with great energy, the two fire companies being on 
the ground shortly after the first alarm. The fire 
was checked on reaching the Baughman brick store 
building, adjoining the burning buildings on the 
north side of Main Street. This building being much 
loftier than those burning, having a solid wall of 
brick, against which the flames were powerless, and 
protected by galvanized iron cornices, lintels, and 
roofing, the. flames on reaching it were fortunately 
controlled. 

GROWTH AND PROSPERITY. 

But shortly after the close of the late war an unpre- 
cedented demand for houses and building lots sprang 
up in all the business towns of the country, and 
Greensburg shared in this. The causes for this de- 
mand appeared to be a ceaseless torrent of foreign 
immigration, a rapid increase of native population, 
and a much larger influx than theretofore of the in- 
habitants of the country into our cities and towns. 
The reasons that of late years so strongly impel the 
people of the rural districts to change their locations 
for the more crowded life of the towns are alleged to 
be the revolutions in trade and employment induced 
by railroads, the high price of mechanical and other 
labor, the money made during the war, the segrega- 
tion of wealth, and the great temptation for men of 
substance to abandon agricultural toils, invest their 
property in the public funds, and live at more leisure, 
where they have more of the conveniences of civil- 
ization and greater opportunities for enjoying social 
life. 

The present want of tenement-houses began to be 
noticed about this time, and more than one article 
appeared in the town papers in which the demand 
for houses was set forth and the want of a due sense 
of public enterprise on the part of the property-hold- 
ers of the town reprehended. In the spring of 1866 
in one of these papers appears, in a lengthy and sen- 
sible article on this subject, the following extract: 

" While other towns endeavor to increase their wealth and numbers 
by all kinds of inducements, Greensburg seems to he destitute of that 
species of public spirit which rejoices in the prosperity and takes pride 
in the growth of a community. 

"On nearly every street in town there are good vacant sites for houses, 
or old buildings that are useless, unsightly, and unprofitable. On these 
vacant spaces neat and comfortable buildings ought to be erected, and 
the old rotten buildings should be replaced by others fit for the habita- 
tion of respectable people. On Main, Pittsburgh, and Ottoman Streets 
there are capital vacant sites for the erection of good houses. All the 
environs of the town abound with places so handsome, pleasant, and 



convenient for dwelling-houses that almost any other community 
would at once appreciate them and convert them into homes for happy 
families." 

MARKET-HOUSES. 

Of the public buildings of the early Greensburg 
not the least conspicuous was the market-house. A 
market-house was regarded as an indispensable public 
building in the old colonial towns, and a visible indi- 
cation of a county town. The market-house stood 
on the corner of the public square and on part of the 
ground now occupied by the court-house. It was 
built of brick. 

In a manuscript book belonging to the burgesses 
and Council of the borough, which is called " Laws of 
Greensburg," and which, besides containing some of 
the early ordinances of the corporation, also contains 
the minutes of their proceedings, we find the follow- 
ing insertions about the beginning of the present 
century : 

"To amount of expenditures on the market-house, as per contract 
with Nathan WillianiB (see his account), $240. 

"Oct. 30, 1801. To paving the market-house and gravelling in front 
with stone, as per order of the burgesses to Nath. Stewart for that ser- 
vice, $128.50. 

"To posting the market-house, as per order of the Burgesses in favour 
of Enos Grauness, $18. 

" To taking out stumps, streets and alleys, as per order in favour of 
James McLaughlin, $1.50." 

The new market-house was opened on Tuesday 
morning, April 3, 1860. Visitors were much grati- 
fied with the neatness, the cleanliness of its stalls, 
and the systematic order in which all the arrange- 
ments had been made. The stalls were occupied by 
Messrs. Bierer, Landis, and Shearer. On that occa- 
sion Mr. Landis made his first appearance as a butcher 
in the town, and his beef was the subject of com- 
mendation. It was, however, said that the first meat 
was sold by Frank Shearer, and that C. H. Stark, 
coach- and carriage-maker, was the purchaser. Wil- 
liam Cline was appointed market clerk. 

PUBLIC HALLS. 

Mrs. Armstrong was the proprietor of the Dublin 
Hotel, where were held the Fourth of July celebra- 
tions and dancing-schools, at about the date of 1812. 
In the Register of June 11, 1812, appears the fol- 
lowing notice: 

LAST NIGHT BUT ONE. 

THEATRE. 

At the Dublin Hotel, Greensburg, on Friday evening, June 12, 1812, 

will be presented a much admired comedy, called The Prize; or2,5,:t, 8. 

Between the comedy and farce recitation, 

"Mary, the Maid of the Inn," written by Southey, by Mrs. Turner. 

Comic Song, — " Thimble's scolding wife lay dead," by ilfr. Williams. 

To which will he added a celebrated Comic Opera, called " The Wag of 

Windsor; or Man of All Trades." 

«J- For particulars see hills. 

A more advanced step had been made in the his- 
trionic profession, or rather in the appreciation of the 
legitimate drama, in 1824, as will be seen in the fol- 
lowing announcement of May 7th of that year: 



GREENSBURG. 



507 



THEATRE. 
Messrs. Lucas, Davis & Smith will perform the tragedy of Richard 
III. and the farce of " Sylvester D<in<ierwood, or the Mod Ditustoble Actor" 
and sing several comic songs, at Mr. Singer's Hotel. This evening, to 
commence at 8 o'clock precisely. 

In the early part of 1870 the house which had been 
erected by the burgesses for a market-house was pur- 
chased from them by Maj. Israel Uncapher, and by 
him converted into a public hall adapted to the use 
of public meetings, concerts, dramatic entertain- 
ments, and so forth. The innovation was hailed 
with the liveliest expressions of satisfaction by the 
people of the town. 1 In May it was ready for occu- 
pancy, and during the second week of that month a 
company of traveling artists, called the " France & 
Lannier Combination," played to crowded houses. 
They put upon the boards " Lucretia Borgia," " East 
Lynne," and " Under the Gaslight." 

In the alteration made in the building the interior 
arrangement had been entirely remodeled. A stage, 
with appropriate curtains, scenery, footlights, wings, 
and boxes, had been erected. The dressing-rooms were 
underneath the stage. The walls were papered, the 
ceilings painted, and three tasty chandeliers appended. 
The auditorium was capable of seating about four hun- 
dred people conveniently and comfortably, and the 
entire arrangement of the seats was such that a good 
view of the stage could be had from every part of it. 

The opening of the hall was attended with success. 
Under the personal management and scrutiny of 
Maj. Uncapher, who regulated his conduct with mil- 
itary strictness, the best of order was preserved at all 
public entertainments given in the hall while he was 
manager. The pleasing feature of the good order 
maintained at the opening performances was publicly 
commented on. It was said that before that the pub- 
lic performances given in the town had been con- 
stantly annoyed and disturbed by the pack of unruly 
and unwashed urchins that nightly infested the 
streets from dark to bedtime, who set everybody at 
defiance, and yelled and whistled and howled unre- 
strained. Until that time it had scarcely been re- 
garded possible to keep order at any stage perform- 
ance. 

GAS-WORKS. 

A new era in the progress of the town was the 
erection of the gas-works, which were commenced in 
September, 1858, and completed about the last of the 
next December. The lot upon which they were 
erected was purchased from Henry Welty, and had a 
front of one hundred and twenty-five feet on the turn- 
pike, running back about two hundred and twenty- 
five feet to the south of the railroad. The works 
consist of a building sixty feet by twenty-five feet, 
built of brick with a slate roof, and divided into three 
rooms as distinctly separate as if they were three 
houses. The first contains the retorts, — two benches 

i Stood on the corner of Junction and Second Streets. 



of five retorts each. The middle room contains the 
station meter, capable of registering one hundred 
thousand feet of gas. The third room contains the 
purifying 'boxes. There are four courses of metal 
sieves in each box, upon which lime is placed and 
the gas made to percolate up through it, this com- 
pleting the process of manufacturing. The gas- 
holder is thirty feet in diameter, fourteen feet high, 
and of a capacity of ten thousand cubic feet of gas. 

CEMETERIES. 

The largest and most beautiful of the burial-grounds 
of Greensburg lies adjacent to the northeastern sub- 
urbs of the town, and is at present denominated the 
St. Clair Cemetery. In former times a portion of 
this cemetery was commonly called the Presbyterian 
graveyard, but was properly and legally known as 
the Borough burial-ground. The borough obtained 
its title to the ground by a deed of donation from 
William Jack (usually called old Judge Jack) " to 
the Burgesses and inhabitants" of Greensburg. The 
deed was dated 18th of April, 1803, and was entered 
on pages 107 and 108 of Deed Book No. 7 of the 
records of Westmoreland. After a description of 
the bounds and quantity of ground conveyed, being 
one hundred and thirty-one perches, the deed recites 
the object of the grant in the following words : 

"To have and to hold the said described lot to the Burgesses and in- 
habitants to and for the use of them and their successors forever, to erect 
thereon, as soon as convenient, a house for the public worship of Al- 
mighty God, the administration of the Sacraments of the Christian re- 
ligion, and preaching from the sound Scriptures of truth, not less than 
sixty feet square to be set apart as a site on the southwesterly part of the 
said lot for the said house of worship and ground adjoining, and the resi- 
due of tile said lot for a place of burial of the dead." 

Another piece of ground adjacent was donated by 
Judge Jack to the borough to have and to hold for 
purposes of education. 

The Presbyterians, with the consent of the other 
inhabitants, erected upon the first-mentioned plot a 
meeting-house, and so the burial-ground received the 
name of the Presbyterian graveyard. The old burial- 
ground lay upon an open common, and where the 
graves were not inclosed by walls or railing, or where 
these had fallen or were broken down, they were 
trodden on by the cattle and swine of the town and 
neighborhood. The erection of a new Presbyterian 
meeting-house on ground belonging to that congre- 
gation south of the town, and the making of the 
Central Railroad just on the northern limit of the 
graveyard, caused it to fall into a very bad condition 
of decay, neglect, and detriment, and led to the for- 
mation of an association of citizens, who, with es- 
timable sensibility and public spirit, desired to have 
such a cemetery near Greensburg as would evince a 
decent respect for the memory of the dead, and at 
the same time embellish the environs of the borough 
and gracefully as well as fully provide for the last 
sad necessities of an increasing population. 

A subscription for money to effect the purposes 



508 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



contemplated by the association was proposed in 
August, 1855, and in a very short time the sum of 
two thousand and forty-five dollars was subscribed. 
The first meeting of the subscribers was held at the 
office of Richard Coulter, Esq., at which a bill for the 
incorporation of the association was submitted and 
approved. The bill was passed by the Legislature, 
and approved by Governor James Pollock, April 19, 
1856, under the title of " An act to incorporate the 
St. Clair Cemetery Association of the borough of 
Greeusburg, Westmoreland Co." 

The first section of the act incorporates into a body 
politic Richard Coulter, James C. Clarke, James F. 
Woods, Hugh Y. Brady, Jacob Welty, John Morri- 
son, Thomas J. Barclay, Alexander McKinney, Henry 
Welty, John Armstrong, John Armstrong, Jr., Sam- 
uel P. Brown, Edgar Cowan, William Jack's ex- 
ecutors, John Loor, Daniel Kistler, Jr., David W. 
Shryock, William H. Markle, Matthew J. Shields, 
David Fulwood, Israel Uncapher, Jacob Turney, 
James Todd, Will A. Stokes, John H. Isett, William 
A. Cook, Robert Graham, Harriet McClelland, Lewis 
Trauger, Andrew Graham, J. Heron Foster, and Phi- 
lanthropy Lodge, No. 225, Ancient York Masons, 
together with all others who may become owners of 
burial-lots in the St. Clair Cemetery. 

The third section empowers the association by its 
directors to receive all gifts, devises, bequests, and 
donations of property for the use and benefit of the 
association, to purchase and hold real estate to the 
amount of twenty acres in connection with the burial- 
ground in which the remains of Gen. Arthur St. Clair 
are interred, to divide their ground into plots and 
lots, and sell to individuals, societies, or congrega- 
tions. It also provides that lots granted by the asso- 
ciation shall not be used for any other purpose than 
burial, and that they shall be forever exempt from 
seizure and sale by virtue of any execution, attach- 
ment, or other process against the grantees, their 
heirs or assigns. 

The sixth section empowers a majority of the bur- 
gesses and assistant burgesses of Greensburg to con- 
vey by deed of indenture in fee simple forever to the 
St. Clair Association for the use of the cemetery the 
ground conveyed to the borough of Greensburg for 
religious and burial purposes by William Jack, Esq. 

The seventh section declares that the real estate of 
the St. Clair Association shall be exempt from taxa- 
tion, and that no street, lane, road, railroad, canal, or 
other highway shall ever be laid out through the I 
grounds of the same, except by the authority or con- 
sent of the association. 

The other sections relate to election of directors 
and government of the association. After the or- i 
ganization, James F. Woods, acting under authority j 
from the directors, obtained from the burgesses of 
Greensburg a conveyance of the old borough burial- 
ground, and of the abandoned borough school-house j 
and lot adjacent to it, in accordance with the provi- ' 



sions of the act of incorporation. The directors then 
purchased nine acres of ground on the south side of 
the Central Railroad, adjoining and surrounding the 
old borough burial-ground. They procured the ser- 
vices of John Chislett, Esq., under whose direction 
and according to whose plans the grounds were sur- 
veyed and laid out by J. Chislett, Jr., and J. Alexan- 
der Coulter. The directors then proceeded to grade, 
fence, build, and plant, on which operations from 
time to time they have expended some four thousand 
dollars. The grounds are divided into four sections, 
A, B, C, and D. In section A there are ninety-eight 
lots, in Section B, which includes the old burial- 
ground, there are seventy-four lots, in C there are 
one hundred and fifty-seven, and Section D is not yet 
subdivided, but is much larger than the other sections. 
The ground on which the old meeting-house stood 
is not divided into lots, but is reserved for the erec- 
tion of a free chapel, according to the intention of the 
original deed of gift made by Judge Jack. The lots 
contain from one hundred and fifty to six hundred 
square feet, and are in price from twenty-five dollars 
to one hundred dollars. More than eighty lots have 
been already sold. There is a large lot intended as a 
place for general burial at a small price for each in- 
terment. There is a Potter's Field where strangers 
and others without means are buried, and also a free 
lot for the colored people. The directors have re- 
cently bought fifteen acres on the north side of the 
railroad. A part of this is high ground. It ascends 
the Academy Hill to a point nearly opposite the 
Catholic graveyard, and overlooks the surrounding 
country. The directors have tendered a site on the 
grounds of the cemetery to the Westmoreland Sol- 
diers' Association, who design erecting a monument 
to the memory of the soldiers from this county who 
fell in the recent civil war. 

In 1865, Joseph H. ICuhns, John Armstrong, Jr., 
James C. Clarke, Richard Coulter, Joseph Gross, and 
John Kuhns, Sr., formed the board of directors, and 
the organization of the association was the same as 
when the act of incorporation passed the Legislature. 

The ground of the St. Clair Cemetery declines with 
an easy descent from the north and south. From the 
entrance on the west the gradation eastward is mod- 
erately equal until a little distance past the middle 
part, when it descends with rapidity to the eastern 
limit. The view is confined on the west and north 
by the town and the Academy Hill, but on the east 
and south it is pleasant and beautiful. The cemetery 
is surrounded with a fence of palings, with a double 
gate for carriages, and one gate on each side of it for 
persons on foot. A well-graded carriage-road winds 
between the different sections, with footwalks diverg- 
ing from it between the subdivisions. The whole 
surface, except the spaces occupied by tombs and 
monuments, is verdant with grass or roseate with red 
clover. Along the southern limit of the grounds, 
near the road or street, are rows of half-grown and 



GREENSBURG. 



509 



full-grown silver-maple and silver-poplar trees, and 
interspersed over all the cemetery is a variety of trees, 
shrubs, and flowers, whose verdancy agreeably con- 
trasts with the whiteness of the tombstones and 
monuments. 

A house built of brick, with a walled fountain of 
excellent water and a garden, stands in the southwest 
corner of the cemetery grounds, intended for the use 
of the sexton. There is a nursery of silver-maples be- 
longing to the association, and intended for the use 
of the directors in planting and adorning the grounds, 
but the trees, shrubs, and flowers used to hedge and 
ornament lots and graves by private persons have 
been mainly furnished by Mr. Cline. The perennial 
plants within the inclosure of the cemetery are Nor- 
way spruces, Scotch firs, blue spruces, cedars, box- 
wood, and three kinds of arbor-vitse, — Chinese, Si- 
berian, and American. The deciduous trees are 
catalpas, larches, weeping-willows, silver-maples, sil- 
ver-poplars, horse-chestnuts, mountain ashes, sugars, 
and Lombardy poplars. The hedging of the lots is 
all done with boxwood and Siberian and American 
arbor-vitie. The flowers and shrubs are roses of all 
varieties, rockets, magnolias, violets, verbenas, mig- 
nonettes, touch-me-nots, dahlias, pinks, pansies, 
cresses or nasturtiums, myrtle, and thyme. 

Besides a number of very handsome gravestones, 
the St. Clair Cemetery contains twenty-three monu- 
ments. The material of the most of them appears 
to be fine and costly, and the cutters of the monu- 
ments are among the best in the country. Some are 
from the chisels of Struthers, of Philadelphia, and 
Colville and Anderson, of Pittsburgh ; but the stately 
and beautiful monuments over Capt. Ed. H. Gay, Pris- 
cilla Bierer, John Morrison, and Anne Brady were cut 
by Lewis M. Cline, of Greensburg. These are very 
well executed, and on comparison will be found 
fully equal to those cut in the two great cities of the 
State. 

Although the monument over St. Clair has often 
been described, and although it is of common stone, 
and not of marble, yet as he who lies beneath it was 
the first in birth, rank, and historical importance of 
all the dead in the burial-place, as his monument 
was first erected, and as he gave name to the ceme- 
tery, it is nothing but proper to describe it before 
giving imperfect delineations of some of the most 
remarkable stones in the graveyard. 

The monument of St. Clair stands in the southern 
part of the cemetery, near the main carriage-road, and 
about half-way from the eastern and western limits. 
It is on a plot hedged with arbor-vita?, except on the 
side that opens southward to the road. It is some 
twenty feet high, and is made of ordinary stone. It 
is composed of some three compartments, each one 
consisting of base, die, and cornice, rising above one 
another, and is surmounted by an urn. On the south 
side of the die of the second division of the monu- 
ment is this inscription : " The earthly remains of 
33 



Maj.-Gen. Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath 
this humble monument, which is erected to supply 
the place of a nobler one due from his country. He 
died August 31, 1818, in the 84th year of his age." 
On the opposite side is this inscription : " This stone 
is erected over the bones of their departed brother 
by the members of the Masonic Society resident in 
this vicinity." 

Other Monuments. — Not far from St. Clair's stands 
a monument over Maj. John B.Alexander. It con- 
sists of a common stone base, marble pedestal, and 
square pillar, with ornamented capital and urn on 
the top of it. To the top of the urn it is some eight 
feet from the ground. The inscription says that 
" he was a distinguished member of the bar, that his 
knowledge and talents placed him among the first of 
his profession, and that he served his country as an 
officer in the late war with Great Britain. Obiit 
1840." 

A little to the eastward of St. Clair's monument 
lies the lot of the Coulter family of Greensburg. A 
tasteful monument of moderate size rests over the 
mother of the deceased Richard Coulter, Esq. The 
inscription on it is said to have been written by Judge 
Coulter himself. It is the best epitaph in the whole 
cemetery. On the south side are these words : " Here 
lie, awaiting the resurrection of those who die in the 
Lord, the earthly remains of Mrs. Priscilla Coulter, 
wife of Eli Coulter, Esq., who departed this life 15th 
of July, 1826, aged 75 years." On the north side 
is this inscription: "The tears which sorrow sheds, 
the flowers that affection plants, and the monument 
gratitude rears soon pass away, but the deep mem- 
ory of maternal kindness, piety, and virtue survives 
over death and time and will last while the soul 
itself endures." A few paces from this place three 
graves lying closely together, marked by low marble 
head- and foot-stones, and covered with myrtle, show 
where sleep Eli Coulter and Rebecca, his wife, parents 
of Gen. Dick Coulter, and his uncle, Richard Coulter, 
Esq. On the southeast corner of the lot stands a 
cenotaph or monument in memory of those who are 
buried near to it. It is stately and beautiful, formed 
of marble, and consists of lower base and tablet, ped- 
estal, and fluted column, surrounded with an amulet, 
and finished with a capital. On the north side is this 
inscription : " Eli Coulter, died April, 1830, aged 39 
years ;" on the west side, " Rebecca, wife of Eli 
Coulter, died August 7th, 1854, aged 66 years;" and 
on the south side, " Richard Coulter, late Justice of 
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, died April 20th, 
1852, aged 64 years." Above this last inscription, on 
the cornice of the pedestal, are sculptured a scroll, 
sword, and fasces without an axe. On the south side 
of the square capital is sculptured in relief the name 
" Coulter." 

One of the finest monuments in the cemetery has 
been erected over the father and mother of Dr. John 
Morrison and Mrs. Jane Graham, of Greensburg. It 



510 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



is some fifteen feet in height, and consists of plain 
stone base and tablet and marble pedestal and square 
pillar with capital. On the west side of the shaft is 
the name "Morrison," encircled in a wreath cut in 
relief. On the same side on the die is this concise 
inscription: "John Morrison, died January 27, 1821, 
in the 71st year of his age." Below are the words : 
"Rebecca, relict of John Morrison, died July 14th, 
1854, in the 87th year of her age." 

In a plot marked by low marble pillars at the 
corners and arbor-vita; on the sides lies buried the 
old and well-known merchant, Jacob Welty. His 
place of interment is known by a plain head-stone, 
but a valuable monument to his memory rises in the 
centre of the allotment. The lower part is of coarse 
sandstone, and the upper part of fine marble. On the 
east side of the shaft is the name " Welty" in relief 
surrounded by a wreath. On the die is an inscription 
as plain and unostentatious as theperson it commem- 
orates: " Jacob Welty, died April 30th, 1864, in the 
73d year of his age." 

A monument from the chisel of Struthers, of Phil- 
adelphia, is erected in memory of James Brady and 
Rachel, his wife, parents of Hugh Y. Brady. It con- 
sists of a sandstone bottom block, and base, die, cor- 
nice, and square pillar of marble. On the west side 
is the epitaph of Rachel Brady, and on the east is 
this inscription : " Filial affection and gratitude have 
erected this tomb over the remains of James Brady, 

Esq., who departed this life on the 11th ,1839, 

aged seventy-nine years. He filled many offices of 
high trust, and having lived honored and respected, 
was, when full of years, called home by his Father 
and his God." 

One of the most handsome lots in the cemetery 
belongs to Dr. Frederick C. Bierer. It is bright 
green with grass and hedged with arbor-vita;. In one 
corner a pair of stones shows where lies Priscilla, his 
wife, who died in January. 1864, and in the middle 
of the lot is a monument intended to commemorate 
the dead within the inclosure. It is from sixteen to 
twenty feet high, and consists of a plain stone founda- 
tion with pedestal and octagonal pillar of marble. 

A fine monument has been erected over the gallant 
Capt. Ed. H. Gay. It consists of plain stone base, 
and marble pedestal and square pillar, and is some 
fifteen feet in height. On the southern side of the 
shaft is a shield in relief, on which is sculptured in 
relief the name " Gay." On the southern face of the 
die of the pedestal is a Norman shield in relief, en- 
graven with the time of his birth and death. He 
was born October, 1842, and died March, 1864. On 
the western side of the die are the names of the four- 
teen battles in which he participated and the two 
battles in which he was wounded, to which is ap- 
pended the following words, taken from the official 
order of Gen. Dick Coulter, wherein he announced 
his death and gave directions for his funeral : " His 
regimental record stands without a blemish." 



There is a handsome monument over James W. 
Goodlin (son of the old landlord, Goodliu), first lieu- 
tenant of Company I, Eleventh Regiment Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, who fell pierced with seven balls, 
December 15, 1862, at the battle of Fredericksburg, 
while leading his men into action. It is some seven 
feet high, and consists of coarse stone base and mar- 
ble pedestal and urn. On the southern side of the 
cap of the pedestal are sculptured in relief a drawn 
sword and scabbard lying across one another. Under 
this on the die is a Norman shield with the epitaph. 
On the north side of the die is an eloquent inscription 
commemorative of his deeds and virtues and death 
on the field of glory. 

Space will not permit a description of all the hand- 
some monuments over distinguished persons who are 
buried in this cemetery, but it is due to the memory 
of the dead and to the feelings of the living to make 
some mention of the family to whose generosity and 
regard for the wants of the community Greensburg is 
indebted for this burial-place. At a short distance 
to the northeast of St. Clair's monument are four mas- 
sive old-fashioned tombstones and three marble mon- 
uments, all lying closely together in a row. Two of 
these old tombstones rest over William Jack, who died 
in 1821, aged sixty-one years, and Margaret, his wife. 
One of the two remaining stones rests over their son, 
Samuel Jack, who died in 1814, and the other over 
John Cust, who died in 1823, in the sixty-first year of 
his age. John Cust fled from the rebellion in Ireland 
in 1798 to this country, married a daughter of Judge 
Jack, and was the father of Mrs. Shoenberger, of 
Pittsburgh. The three marble monuments alongside 
the tombstones were erected to the memories of three 
more sons of Judge Jack, — Harry Jack, who died in 
1837, aged fifty-one ; Matthew Jack, who died in 1843, 
aged sixty-five; and Wilson Jack, who died in 1852, 
aged sixty-one years. The materials of the monu- 
ments are costly and the workmanship good, but the in- 
scriptions are nothing but simple records of the names 
and times of births and deaths. Away from these fam- 
ily graves and in a separate lot surrounded by a 
strong iron railing is a marble monument to the mem- 
ory of the late Judge William Jack, another son of 
him who donated the burial-ground to the borough. 
It is from sixteen to twenty feet high, and consists of 
base, pedestal, square pillar, and urn. On the east- 
ern side of the die is a simple inscription, recording 
his name, the time of his birth, and his death in 1852. 
On the same side of the shaft is the name "Jack," 
partially inclosed in relief by a wreath of flowers. 

Among the many marble gravestones in the ceme- 
tery there are some worthy of especial note on ac- 
count of their costliness, designs, and workmanship. 
Large, massive, and well-executed marbles with side 
inclosures shut in the grave of Andrew Lowry/the 
old Mount Pleasant and Greensburg landlord, who 
died in 1864. Fine marble stones, ornamented with 
leaves and roses, stand at the graves of David Gil- 



GREENSBURG. 



511 



christ, Sr., and David Gilchrist, Jr. They are the 
work of Capt. Kistler, who fell mortally wounded at 
Antietam, and deserved a better monument than he 
ever sculptured. 

The burial-place of the deceased wife of John 
Armstrong, Jr., is mournfully pleasant. A neat mar- 
ble tells who lies beneath the mound, a pine throws 
a gloomy shade around it, and the air is redolent of 
the odor of York roses and white rockets. Over some 
of the graves the willows droop until their leaves 
touch the ground, and appear, as the poets speak, like 
fond female friends weeping over the dead with long 
disheveled hair. 

Handsome stones mark the graves of John Clarke, 
the old prothonotary, and Dr. John W. Coulter, of 
Latrobe, whose head-stone is adorned with Masonic 
emblems. 

A beautiful part of the cemetery is the lot where 
lie Dr. Thompson Richardson and his adopted son. 
It is thickly hedged to the height of some four feet 
with arbor-vitae ; four white marbles record their 
memories, and the grassy green of the inclosure is en- 
ameled with a diversity of flowers. Within the in- 
closure a place is reserved for a third person. 

A lot of about forty feet square, belonging to the 
Greensburg Lodge of Ancient York Masons, is hedged 
with arbor-vitse, with square marble pillars at the 
corners of the quadrangle. The pillars are inscribed 
with the name of the lodge, the designation of the 
section, number of the lot, and Masonic emblems. 
There are three graves within it unmarked by any 
gravestones. 

A description of the cemetery would be entirely 
defective unless some mention was made of the fine 
lot of the Hon. Henry D. Foster. It is between 
thirty and forty feet square, and lies in the southern 
part of the cemetery, near the large carriage-road. 
It is hedged with arbor-vita". Four paths lead from 
as many openings on the sides and concentre on a 
walk that surrounds a circular bed in the middle of 
the plot, thus parting it into five divisions. In the 
northwest section of the lot lies buried Miss Fannie 
Foster, the favorite and best beloved daughter of 
Foster and his lady. There is a low white stone at 
the head of the grave. On its top are the words, 
"Our Fannie." The grave is covered with myrtle. 
At the upper part is growing a bunch of white lilies, 
and near to it trembles an aspen-tree. A tulip-tree 
stands in one part of the plot, and the circular bed 
in its centre is covered with roses, mignonettes, cranes' 
bills, shrubs, pansies, violets, verbenas, and gerani- 
ums.' 

It is a matter of surprise that no memorials mark 
the places where repose a number of persons, eminent 
in their lives for virtue, learning, official position, and 
fine social qualities. There are no stones to indicate 
the last earthly abodes of the old president judge, 
the Hon. John Young, Dr. James Postlethwaite, Dr. 
Alfred T. King, Rev. Henry (brother-in-law of James 



Buchanan), Edward N. Clopper, Dr. S. P. Brown, 
Judge Burrell, Alexander McKinney, and many 
others, whose memories are only preserved in the 
hearts of friends and acquaintances. It is very true 
that changes of place, time, and circumstances often 
invalidate good intentions and prevent a proper trib- 
ute of respect to memories that were once dear to 
those whose duty it is to pay to them the last mortu- 
ary honors. 

The St. Clair Cemetery is now a beautiful place, and 
will be much more so in a few years. It is creditable 
to the hearts and heads of those who conceived this 
plan and carried it into execution. Taste, morality, 
and religion are all promoted by the selection of 
pleasant places for the burial of the dead, and by 
their embellishment with the graceful arts of civilized 
life. 

The following early settlers are herein buried, and 
not heretofore specially mentioned : 

Adam McLaughlin, died Dec. 27, 1841, aged 84. 

James Brady, died May 2, 1829, aged 76. 

James McFarland, died Jan. 14, 1860, aged 81. 

James Tliompson, died June 2 5, 1859, aged 79; his wife, Eleanor, died 

Oct. 18, 1853, aged 07. 
Hugh Lindsay, died May 31, 1879, aged 80; hi6 wife, Jane, died Feb. 19, 

1878, aged 63. 
George Patchell, died Dec. 29, 1863, aged 66; his wife, Sarah, died July 

11, 1861, aged 74. 

William Morrison, died March 18, 1871, aged 87; his wife, Elizabeth, 

died June 4, 1830, aged 42. 
Alexander Johnston, born July 10, 1793, died July 15, 1872; his wife, 

Freame, born Nov. 27, 1781, died March 22, 1863. 
Alexander Johnston, captain in United States army, died July 8, 1845. 

aged 39. 
Lieut. Richard H. L. Johnston, of United States army, killed at Molino 

del Key, Mexico, Sept. 8, 1847, aged 21. 
Joseph Russell, died May 27, 1844, aged 41. 
John Y. Barclay, died Feb. 18, 1841, aged 42; his wife, Isabella, died 

Feb. 4, 1841, aged 41. 
James S. Burkhart, died Oct. 6, 1876, aged 73. 
James Craig, died April 26, 1800, aged 66. 
John O. Eicher, died Nov. 19, 1865, aged 67. 
James Miller, born May 19, 1793, died Jan. 29, 1859; his,wife, Agnes, 

born Feb. 26, 1795, died Nov. 25, 1862. 
Dr, T. Richardson, bom April 18, 1806, died Nov. 23,1862; his wife, 

Mary, died Oct. 27, 1872, aged 69. 
('apt. Daniel Kistler, Jr., died Sept. 25, 1862, of wounds received at An- 
tietam, Sept. 17, 1862, aged 41. 
Margaret, wife of Maj. James Smith, died August, 1825, aged 88. 
James Hunter, died Oct. 3, 1832, aged 55. 
William H. Richardson, died Dec. 25, 1859, aged 64. 
James Dobbin, died March 13, 1837, aged 83. 
Isabella A. Keenan, died Jan. 13, 1877, aged 82. 
Joseph Steel, died October, 1824, aged 39. 
Jane, wife of James Lowry, died March 22, 1845, aged 52. 
William Ramsay, died May 2, 1810, aged 60; his wife, Jane, died Oct. 15, 

1849, aged 76. 
Alexander Storey, died June 11, 1851, aged 85; his wife, Margaret,?died 

Oct. 28, 1848, aged 83. 
Matthew Gemmell, died April 19, 1846, aged 60. 
Thomas Gemmell, died July 16, 1845, aged 72 ; his'wife, Elizabeth, died 

Aug. 29, 1851, aged 81. 
James Gemmell, died April 8, 1854, aged 53; his wife, Nancy, died April 

12, 1867, aged 57. 

John K, Boyd, died May 5, 1861, aged 45. 

John Walker, died June 3, 1851, aged 30. 

Hugh Wilson, born March II, 1788, died April 30, 1861. 

Robert Wark, died April 27, 1832, aged 80. 

Robert Hutchinson, died Sept. 17, 1879, aged 78. 

John Armstrong, died June 11, 1866, aged 77. 

Daniel Kistler, died Dec. 26, 1870, aged 76. 



\ 



512 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Andrew Lowry, died April 7, 1804, aged VO; his wife, Margaret N., died 

June 7, 1867, aged 67. 
James Todd, born Dec. 25, 1786, died Sept. 3, 1863. 
Dr. John M. Huston, died Dec 1, 1863, aged 24. 
Alexander Roes, died May 3, 1873, aged S3; his wife, Elizabeth, died 

May 10, 1846, aged 54. 
John Clarke, died Sept. 13, 1842, aged 57. 
John Moore, died Aug. 5, 1873, aged 75. 
William Moore, died Feb. 22, 1346, aged 81 ; his wife, Agnes, died July 

4, 1848, aged 70. 
James Harvey, died Dec. 29, 1842, aged 40. 
James S. Beckwith, died Jan. 11, 1871, aged 61. 
Elizabeth Atkinson, died Feb. 26, 1879, aged 70. 
John Gilchrist, died Sept. 16, 1870, aged 50. 
Francis Jamison, died April 18, 1846, aged 67. 
Henry Isett, died Dec. 31, 1818, aged 52; his wife, Frances, died April 

9, 1839, aged 61. 
John Nicholls, Sr., died May 10, 1842, aged 79. 
William Haney, died March 17, 1805, aged 46. 
John Hill, died Dec. 9, 1822, aged 70 ; his wife, Ann, died July 27, 1823, 

aged CO. 
John McClelland, died Aug. 16, 184C, aged 92 ; his wife, Catherine, died 

Nov. 7, 1839, aged 62. 
William McGinley, died Aug. 2, 1873, aged 63. 
Hugh Brady, died Nov. 4, 1808, aged 88; his wife, Ann, died Oct. 25, 

1861, aged 71. 
John Hull', born Nov. 23, 1795, died Nov. 16, 1847; his wife, Rebecca, 

born July 11, 1800, died Aug. 10, 1873. 
Rachel Green, died June 11, 1858, aged 6S. 

Florinda W., wife of William Moore, died March 29, 1876, aged 55. 
Dr. Eli A. Fisher, died Nov. 18, 1874, aged 43. 
Rebecca, wife of John M. Laird, died July 5, 1875, aged 74. 
James G. Gilleland, died Oct. 16, 1875, aged 66. 
Samuel L. Carpenter, born June 10, 1795; died Nov. 9, 1876. 
Joseph Kunkle, died Jan. 23, 1879, aged 78. 
Jane Welty, died Dec. 26, 1873, aged 79 ; her husband, Jacob, died April 

30, 1864, aged 73. 
Sarah A. Watt, wife of Daniel R. Killgore, died July 4, 1875, aged 67. 
Priscilla, wife of Dr. F. C. Bierer, born March 25, 1824; died Jan. 1, 

1864. 
Martha, wife of James McFarland, died April 20, 1865, aged 70. 
John Loor, died May 28, I860, aged 51. 
David Gilchrist, Sr., died March 28, 1858, aged 75; his wife, Elizabeth, 

died March 10, 1872, aged 89. 
James Goodlin, died Aug. 15, 1650, aged 52 ; his wife, Jane, died March 

14, 1851, aged 48. 
Lieut. JameB W. Goodlin, 11th Pa. Vols., died Dec. 15, 1862, aged 30. 
J. Milton McGiven, Battery F, 1st Pa. Art., died Oct. 27, 1803, aged 19. 
Samuel Jack, died Oct. 16, 1814, aged 82. 
Margaret Jack, wife of Judge J., died May 3, 1818, aged 63. 
Wilson Jack, died Oct. 29, 1852, aged 61. 
Henry Jack, died Jan. 24, 1837, aged 61. 
Matthew Jack, died Nov. 20, 1843, aged 65. 
Judge William Jack, died Feb. 7, 1821, aged 09. 
Hem. William Jack, born July 29, 1788, died Feb. 28, 1852; his wife, 

Harriet, died Jan. 20, 1879. 
Lois Armstrong, wife of James Armstrong, died July H, 1824, aged 39. 
Jemima, wife of James Stout, died Dec. 6, 1822, aged 34. 
Richard JacksouT/died April 25, 1826, aged 53; his wife, Jane, died Feb. 

22, 1875, aged 99. 
Elizabeth, wife of John Reed, died 1816. 

Margaret, wife of James Brown, Sr., died June 22, 1831, aged 56. 
William Brown, died Feb. 6, 1853, aged 49. 
Robert Brown, born Dec. 5, 1763, died Nov. 17, 1849; his wife, Anna, 

died Aug. 3, 1840, aged 63. 
Lydia, wife of William Brown, died Oct. 21, 1829, aged 21. 
Dr. T. F. Campbell, died May 16, 1869, aged 29. 

John Kuhns, Sr., born Feb. 25, 1788, died June 8, 1868; his wife, Susan- 
na, born July 25, 1798, died June 1, 1870. 
Hannah Welty, died April 4, 1878, aged 78. 
Mrs. Susan Clark, died Aug. 4, 1879, aged 76. 
Eev. Joseph Smith, D.D., born July 15, 1796, died Dec. 4, 1868. 
Ann, wife of Morrison Underwood, and daughter of Peter Gay, died 

Aug. 2, 1876, aged 76. 
Dr. John Hasson, bom Feb. 2, 1800, died May 10, 1872. 
Maj. Johu B. Alexander, dieil 1840. 
Rev. Robert Henry, born 1801, died Nov. 1, 1838. 



Moses Craig, died Oct. 25, 1842, aged 44 ; his wife, Ann (McKinney), died 

April 26,1871, aged 71. 
Alexander McKinney, died Oct. 14, 1827, aged 71; his wife, Mary, died 

Sept 22, 1828, aged 58. 
Elizabeth, wire of Henry Welty, Jr., died Dec. 26, 1825, aged 22. 
Joseph Herwicks, died Juno 15, 1832, aged 54. 
Agnes McKinney, born Aug. 5, 1791, died Dec. 29, 1814. 
Jane, wife of William S. Graham, died Sept. 18, 1868, aged 81. 
Dr. John Morrison, born March 4, 1798, died Aug. 4, 1869. 
Mrs. Dr. John McDowell, died 1818. 
Mrs. Debora Mershon, died April 18, 1831, aged 56. 
Elizabeth McCullough, died July 12, 1876, aged 73. 

THE CATHOLIC GRAVEYARD 

lies just over the brow of the Academy Hill, north 
of the town, and within a hundred yards of the Cen- 
tral Railroad. It is small in size, and the graves are, 
comparatively with the other two burial-places, few 
in number. This is accounted for by the fact that 
the main body of the Catholics of Westmoreland have 
always resided in Derry and Unity townships, about 
Bairdstown, Derry, Latrobe, and Youngstown. Per- 
sons remember the time when there was not a 
single Catholic family in Greensburg. There is now 
a number of families of that creed who reside in this 
town, and a Catholic place of worship, called the 
Church of the Holy Sacrament, was erected in 1848, 
on Academy Hill, contiguous to the site of the 
graveyard. It has a small parsonage annexed to it 
with an incumbent, who officiates every Sunday, and 
on other days, with great regularity, calls the faithful 
to prayers at matin, noon, and vesper tide. The 
Catholic graveyard is much older than the church. 
It is not known to the writer when it was consecrated, 
but it was a burial-place in the school-boy days of 
men now seventy years of age, and an old head-stone, 
marking the place where John Brannan lies interred, 
shows the time of his death and interment to have 
been in 1826. The date of its consecration could 
probably be found in the records of the bishopric of 
Pittsburgh. There are no monuments in it, but sev- 
eral of the graves are inclosed with substantial iron 
railings, and have marble head- and foot-stones. The 
most handsome and costly stones are those erected to 
mark the last resting-places of the Egans, Sher- 
idan, John Woods, and the Allwines. There are 
five graves of the Allwines, placed in an exact row, 
with exact intervals between them, with head- and 
foot-stones. Two of the graves have ordinary stones, 
and three, which are those of children, have marble 
head and foot and side pieces. They are remark- 
ably well executed, and bear upon them simple but 
suitable inscriptions from Holy Writ. One bears the 
text, " Suffer little children to come unto me, for of 
such is the kingdom of God." Another bears the 
words, " Thy will be done," and the third a text from 
Job, in which he expressed his cheerful resignation 
under suffering, " The Lord gave and the Lord taketh 
away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Many if 
not a majority of those who are buried in the Catho- 
lic graveyard have been immigrants from Ireland 
and Germany. Here lie Kehoes, Dugans, McBrides, 



GREENSBURG. 



513 



McCarthys, Fitzpatrieks, Hickeys, McCallums, Mc- 
Cabes, and Sheridans, along with persons of un- 
doubted German origin. The cross is sculptured on 
most of the headstones, and often it is accompanied 
with the I. H. S., — Jesus Horninum Salvador. Some of 
the graves are marked with plain wooden crosses, in- 
tended, doubtless, to precede more solid mementoes 
in stone and marble. It was pleasing to note the evi- 
dences of humble affection over some of the graves 
that were without stones. These graves were cleared 
all around from weeds and high grass, were sodded 
on the sides, and planted in the middle with beauti- 
ful flowers. Planted by the hands, and watered with 
the tears of pious love and duty, their incense, borne 
on high by the gales of heaven, will be as grateful as 
the proud monument — monumentum cere perennius — 
that rises and flouts the skies by mere human strength 
and skill. 

The site of the Catholic graveyard commands a 
fine prospect. It overlooks the whole town and coun- 
try around it. If planted with trees and furnished 
with benches, it would be a pleasant place for the re- 
ligious to elevate and purify their minds by medita- 
tions among the tombs, or by communion with the 
spirits of departed saints. 

THE GERMAN GRAVEYARD 

in former years lay southward or below the town, at 
the distance of a couple of hundred yards from the 
last house on Main Street, the mansion of the Rev. 
Nicholas P. Hacke. Now the town extends down to 
it, and the graveyard is adjoined by a plot, beautified 
with trees, shrubbery, grass, and flowers, on which 
stands the handsome and luxurious residence of 
James Woods, Esq. This graveyard was designed as 
the burial-place of the German and English Luth- 
eran Churches, and the German and English Evan- 
gelical Reformed Churches, although some persons of 
other denominations are interred in it. The grave- 
yard is large, nearly level, and is surrounded with a 
handsome fence of palings, with double gate for car- 
riages and horses, and two gates for foot passengers. 
It contains between four and five acres, and is thickly 
covered with grass and other vegetation, except on 
and around newly-made graves. This ground was 
devoted to the custody of the dead before the present 
century commenced. In it are buried old citizens of 
the town and vicinity, whose names are as familiar 
as household words all over Westmoreland County. 
Here lie Drums, Marchands, Stecks, Horbachs, Mech- 
lings, Turneys, Hackes, Wises, Kuhnses, Eisemans, 
and Bierers. Some of the stones at the graves are 
worthy of note on account of their gray and weather- 
beaten age, and others on account of the persons 
whose last mortal resting-place is marked by them. 
Two weather-stained head-stones inform the public 
that Col. Christ. Truby and John Houser are buried 
beneath them, the former having departed this life in 
1802, and the latter in 1804. A heavy, substantial, 



old-fashioned tombstone bears an inscription which 
tells that beneath lie the remains of John Michael 
Steck, who was for fifty years a pastor of the Luth- 
eran Evangelical Church, thirty-eight of which were 
passed in the charge of the German Lutheran con- 
gregation at Greensburg. He died in 1830j at the 
age of seventy-five years. Another tombstone near 

l to it is placed over John Michael's son, Michael J. 

j Steck, who died in 1848, having been for eighteen 

I years the pastor of his father's German Lutheran 
congregation. The Rev. Michael Eyster, pastor of 

i the English Lutheran Church in Greensburg, reposes 
under a stone near to his reverend German brethren. 
They have all gone to a place where there was no 

I confusion of tongues, and where there are no different 
languages. Four plain but solid tombstones show 
where lie four Marchands, — Dr. David Marchand, a 
well-known physician, member of Congress and pro- 
thonotary of Westmoreland ; his son Lewis ; another 
son, Albert, twice member of Congress from this dis- 
trict, and one of the best lawyers at the Greensburg 
bar; and a third son, Dr. Thomas, who was taken 
away in the first flower of manhood. Three head- 
stones mark the spots where lie Augustus Drum, Esq., 
his father and grandfather. Augustus Drum was a 
good writer and speaker, and a highly respectable 
lawyer, who had represented with honesty and ability 
one of the western districts in the State Senate, and 
this district in Congress. His father, Simon Drum, 
was postmaster at Greensburg for nearly half a cen- 
tury, having been appointed by Thomas Jefferson, 
and removed by Zachary Taylor. His grandfather, 
Simon Drum, was one of the oldest residents of 
Greensburg, having kept a tavern on the corner of 
West Pittsburgh and Main Streets during the Whis- 
key Insurrection, years before the borough of Greens- 
burg was incorporated. Here are stones that show 
where lie Jacob Turney, Esq., and John Kuhns, Sr., 
although Jacob Turney, Esq., and John Kuhns, still 
walk in health the streets of Greensburg. 

The war has left its bloody footprints in this grave- 
yard, for handsome stones are erected where each one 
of eight young men has found a soldier's sepulchre. 
Their names are Alexander Everett, Albert Kennedy, 
Jacob C. Porcher, Reuben Shrum, Henry G. Reamer, 
and three persons of the same name, Shuck. There 
are few monuments here. One to the Bierer family is 
about eight or nine feet high, and consists of base, 
pedestal, and a square pillar, which tapers towards the 
top. The pedestal and pillar are of marble. On one 
side of the shaft is the name Bierer, surrounded by a 
wreath of flowers. On one side of the square pedes- 
tal is the following epitaph : " Frederick Bierer, born 
at Winsheim, Kingdom of Wiirtemberg, Germany, 
July 27th, 1791 ; died June 7th, 1854, aged 62 years, 
10 months, and 21 days." 

It is worthy of notice in the German burial-ground 
that the stones, until of late years, are very plain and 
without eulogistic epitaphs. Although some of the 



514 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



buried persons were men of wealth and distinction, 
the former is not shown on their graves in costly 
sculptures, or the latter announced in the inscrip- 
tions. There is some display of wealth and sculp- 
ture and some panegyric on the stones erected of late 
years, and especially on those of the soldiers' graves. 
This is pardonable and commendable, for meeting 
with an untimely death in the cause of their country, 
such posthumous honors assuage the grief of friends 
and incite to deeds of patriotism. 

The German graveyard is not laid out by visible 
divisions into separate allotments, and there are no 
walks or carriage-roads through it, and only a few 
shrubs and flowers in it. It was located and used at 
a time when the country was new, the people poor, 
and when they were forced to attend to the necessi- 
ties of the living rather than the decorations of death. 
Yet it was the labor of these men that laid the foun- 
dations of our present wealth and prosperity. 

THE MASONIC ORDER. 

The first Masonic lodge was No. 64, chartered over 
half a century ago, but which finally surrendered its 
charter. Some of its members yet live in this neigh- 
borhood. 

KEDRON COMMANDERY, No. 18, KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, 

was instituted April 11, 1860. Its charter members 
were Zachariah P. Bierer, William S. Brown, Rich- 
ard Coulter, James K. Hunter, William J. Long, 
William H. Locke, Arnold Lobaugh, Stephen F. 
Northam, B. F. Rose, Samuel Rock, William Robin- 
son, Chauncey F. Sargent, David W. Shryock, Wil- 
liam R. Terry, Robert W. Turney, Joseph R. Weldin, 
Daniel Welty, and Reuben Zimmerman. Its Past 
Commanders have been installed: 

I860, Richard Coulter; 1801, Zachariah P. Bierer; 1863, William S. 
Brown ; 1864, George L. Potts ; I860, D. W. Shryock ; 1867, Henry 
Kittering; 1868, Samuel Rock; 1869, W. W. Logan; 1870, George 
F. Huff; 1871, James A. Hunter; 1872, John Latta; 1873, James W. 
Wilson ; 1874, Clark F. Warden ; 1875, Joseph J. Johnston ; 1S76, 
John II. Highberger; 1877, Robert W. Turney; 1878, John S. 
Welty ; 1879, William H. Klingensmith ; 1880, Fridolin Miller ; 
1881, Heury J. Brunot. 

The officers in March, 1882, are : 

Com., H. J. Brunot ; Gen., J. A. Marchand ; C. G., Cyrus N. Stark ; 
Treas., George F. Huff; Rec, Clark F. Warden. 

OLIVET COUNCIL, No. 13, R. S. E. AND S. MASTERS, 

was instituted Dec. 22, 1859. The charter members 
were Zachariah P. Bierer, William S. Brown, Rich- 
ard Coulter, William J. Long, William R. Terry. 
Its Past Thrice Illustrious Grand Masters were in- 
stalled as follows : 

I860, Richard Coulter; 1861, W. R. Terry; 1862, W. S. Brown; 1863, 
Zachariah P. Bierer; 1864, W. S. Brown ; 1867, Samuel Rock ; 1868, 
William Robinson ; 1869, Daniel Welty ; 1870, W. W. Logan ; 1871, 
James A. Hunter; 1872, John Latta; 1873, C. F. Warden; 1874, 
James A. Wilson; 1875, Henry Kittering; 1876, John II. Highberger; 
1877, Robert W. Turney; 1878, John S. Welty; 1880, William H. 
Klingensmith; 1881, H.J. Brnnot. 

The officers in 1882 are : 



Thrice 111. G. M., Fridolin Miller; Dep. 111. G. M., Levi Porcher; P. C. 
of W., James Hazlett; Rec, David W. Shryock ; Treas., George F. 
Huff. 

URANIA CHAPTER, No. 192, H. R. A., 

was instituted June 14, 1859. The charter members 
were William S. Brown, Richard Coulter, John W. 
Coulter, Jesse Chambers, William J. Long, David L. 
McCullogh, David W. Shryock, Daniel Welty. Its 
Past High Priests were installed as follows : 

1859, Richard Coulter; 1860, William S. Brown; 1861, Daniel Welty; 
1862, Zachariah P. Bierer ; 1863, William Robinson ; 1865, D. W. 
Shryock; 1866, Samuel Rock ; 1867, Henry Ketteriug; 1868, W.W. 
Logan ; 1869, Edward J. Keenan ; 1870, John Latta; 1872, JameB A. 
Hunter; 1873,0. F. Warden; 1874, J. W. Wilson, R. W. Turney; 
1875, Joseph Pen rod ; 1876, Samuel S. Turney ; 1877, John H. High- 
berger; 1879, George F. Huff, Fridolin Miller ; 1880, H. J. Brnnot. 

The officers for 1882 are : 

H. P., John A. Marchand ; K., Cyrus N. Stark ; Scr., William M. Singer ; 
C. of H., William H. Huff; P. S., Welty McCullough ; Tyler, Daniel 
Welty ; Sec, David W. Shryock ; Treas., Zachariah P. Bierer. 

PHILANTHROPY LODGE, No. 225, A. Y. M., 

was instituted Oct. 17, 1847. Its charter members 
were Lebbeus L. Bigelow, James Bell, Alexander 
Caldwell, David Cook, William A. Cook, William 
Jack, Abraham Klingensmith, Daniel Kistler, Sr., 
Frederick A. Rohrer, Joseph Stokely, Jacob M. Wise. 
Its Past Masters have been : 

1849, Lebbeus L. Bigelow ; 1850, John Jennings ; 1853, John Fullwood ; 
1854, L. L. Bigelow; 1856, William S. Brown; 1858, Richard Coul- 
ter ; 1859, Samuel S. Turney; 1860, David W. Shryock ; 1861, Daniel 
Welty; 1862, Zachariah P. Bierer; 1863, William S. Brown; 1865, 
Samuel Rock; 1866, Jonathan X. Pease; 1867, Heury Kettering; 
1868, John Latta; I860, Levi Porcher; 1870, James A. Uuutcr; 
1871, Clark F. Warden; 1873, Joseph J. Johnston; 1874, John H. 
Highberger; 1875, Robert W. Turney; 1876, William H. Klingen- 
smith; 1877, Abial B. Brown; 1878, Fridolin Miller; 1879, Joseph 
Penrod; 1880, James Hazlett; 1881, Wilson Baughmau. 

The officers for the year 1881-82 are : 

W. M., Wilson Baughman; S. W., C. W. McGrew; J. W., George L. 
Potts; Sec, D. W. Shryock ; Treas., Samuel S. Turney. 

WESTMORELAND LODGE, No. 518, A. Y. M., 

was instituted Dec. 27, 1872. The charter members 
were Zachariah P. Bierer, Robert G. Ford, George F. 
Huff, Alexander W. Killgore, William W. Logan, 
John Latta, Christian S. Overholt, Martin S. Over- 
holt, Aaron S. R. Overholt, Samuel Rock, Daniel F. 
Steck, Jacob Turney. Its Past Masters have been : 

S. S. Turney, Z. P. Bierer, Samuel Rock, John Latta, George F. Huff, 
William W. Logan, George W. Good, William M. Singer, David S. 
Atkinson, Cyrus N. Stark, John A. Marchand, Welty McCullough. 

Its officers for 1881-82 are : 

W. M , E. A. Treanor; S. W., William A. Huff; J. W., John M. Peoples; 
Sec, John A. Marchaud ; Treas., Zachariah P. Bierer, who has held 
this place since the institution of the lodge. 

MASONIC FUND AND MASONIC TEMPLE. 

The Greensburg Masonic Fund is controlled by five 
trustees, viz. : Zachariah P. Bierer, John H. High- 
berger, Richard Coulter, John S. Welty, and George 
F. Huff, who are respectively appointed by the five 
foregoing branches of the order. These trustees, as 
the representatives of the fund for the said different 



GREENSBURG. 



515 



branches, have charge of the " Masonic Temple," in 
which they all meet. 

The ceremonies of the laying of the corner-stone, 
which occurred July 6, 1871, are thus described in 
one of the borough newspapers : 

"The Cincinnati Express at 8.40 a.m. brought 
officers of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and 
quite a number of members of the fraternity from 
Johnstown, Indiana, Ligonier, Blairsville, Latrobe, 
and elsewhere. 

" The Mail from the West had the Great Western 
Band (who were escorted to the 'Long House' as 
their headquarters) and a number of the fraternity 
from Pittsburgh and Irwin. 

"The Grand Lodge was represented by the follow- 



"R. W. G. M., B. A. Lamberton; K. W. Dep. G. M., Samuel C. Perkins; 
R.W. Sen. G. W., Robert Clark; R. W.Jon. G.W., Charles H. King- 
ston; R. W. G. Treas., Richard Coulter; R.W. G. Sec, John Thomp- 
son; G. Chap., J. F. Jones; G. M., Charles Schnider; G. S.-B., S. 
Rock; G. P., W. S. Brown; Deacons, D. W. Shryock, J. A. Hunter, 
Stewards, W. Noble, W. J. Anderson ; G. T., J. L. McQuiston. 

" All of the members of the Masonic fraternity 
present rendezvoused at the present hall at eleven 
o'clock, and were formed into procession under the 
direction and guidance of E. H. Turner, Chief Mar- 
shal, with the following aides : Gen. R. C. Drum, Z. 
P. Bierer, G. F. Huff, C. F. Warden, W. W. Logan, 
Col. D. S. Porter, Capt. J. J. Bierer. 

" The whole procession then moved off, passing 
along some of the principal streets, and were coun- 
termarched by the Kettering House, where they re- 
ceived and escorted the Grand Lodge officers to the 
site of the new hall. 

" When order was obtained, prayer was made by 
the chaplain, J. F. Jones, and the purpose of the as- 
semblage announced by the Deputy Grand Master, as 
follows: 

"'R. W. Sir, — Our brethren of Greensburg having determined to 
erect upon this site their new Masonic Hall, and their desire having 
been duly made known that the corner-stone thereof shall be laid ac- 
cording to the ancient customs and usages of Freemasons and not oth- 
erwise, we have come here to comply with that desire.' 

" The committee having sent a note of invitation, 
desiring the presence of the venerable Alexander 
Johnston, Esq., the oldest Mason known, they received 
his reply regretting his inability, from recent illness, 
to come. 

" The R. W. Grand Master made eloquent allusion 
to the fact, expressing the universal gratification it 
would have afforded every one to have had the vener- 
able brother present, and then directed the R. W. 
Grand Secretary to read his letter, which is as follows: 

"' Kingston, July 3, 1871. 
"'Messrs. Hunter, Coulter, and Shryock. 

'"My Dhar Brethren, — Your letter of the 24th ult. received. At 
that time, and siuce, I have suffered a severe attack of sickness, which 
will deprive me of being present at the laying of the corner-stone of the 
MaBonic Hall, as also to meet the brethren of Lodge No. 64, over which 
I presided for many years. I presume I am the oldest living member of 



the Greensburg Lodge; not only Greensburg, but perhaps the United 
States. I was entered, passed, and raised in LowtherBtown Lodge, No. 
674, County Fermanagh, Ireland. Pardon my egotism. 

" ' I am yours fraternally, 
"'A. Johnston,' 

"The R. W. Grand Master then directed the R. W. 
Grand Treasurer to place the articles prepared for 
deposit in the corner-stone, and the R. W. Grand Sec- 
retary to read a list of the articles deposited, viz. : 

" The Holy Bible. 

Ahiman Rezon. 

Manning's (Pa.) Masonic Register, 1871. 

Certified list of the officers of the R.W. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

List of officers of the M. E. Grand H. R. A. Chapter of Pennsylvania. 

Act of incorporation, by-laws, and roll of officers and corporators of 
the Greensburg Masonic fund. 

By-laws and roll of officers and members of the different Masonic so 
cieties of Greeusburg. 

Impressions of Greensburg Masonic seals. 

Impression of Westmoreland County seals. 

Impression of other Greensburg official seals. 

Certified list of State officers of Pennsylvania. 

Certified list of county officers of several countieB of Pennsylvania. 

Certified list of county officers of Westmoreland. 

Certified list of Greensburg borough officers. 

Copy of Sniull's Legislative Hand-Book. 

Copies of the following newspapers : 

Keystone, July 1, 1871. 

Westmoreland Republican of July 25, 1825. 

Greensburg Herald, July 5, 1871. 

Republican and Democrat of Aug. 12, 1870. 

Republican and Democrat of July 5, 1871. 

Greeusburg Tribune of July 6, 1871. 

Pennsylvania Argus of July 6, 1871. 

United States coins of coinage of 1871, viz.: Gold, (5, $2.50, $1 ; silver, 
50 cts., 25 eta., 10 cts., 5 cts.; nickel, 5 cts., 3 cts., 2 cts., 1 cent. 

" The corner-stone was then laid to its place accord- 
ing to the ' ancient usages, customs, and landmarks of 
Freemasonry.' 

" The address by the Grand Master, Robert A. Lam- 
berton, was brief, eloquent, and appropriate. During 
the delivery the vast audience stood spell-bound in 
the glaring sun of the July day, and each one seemed 
to fear he might lose a word or fail to catch a sen- 
tence. There was but one regret, and that found vent 
when the address closed, — it was too short. 

"The audience was unusually large. The entire 
body of our citizens turned out, and many of the fam- 
ilies of the farmers of the neighborhood were present, 
and to these were to be added a large number of vis- 
itors from a distance." 

The following history of the inception of the 
Greensburg Masonic Hall and description of the 
building (from architectural plans, which were 
strictly followed in its erection) are condensed from 
an article published in the Herald in July, 1871 : 

About ten years since the four Masonic bodies of Greensburg, who had 
hitherto been compelled to rent as a hall for their use such building 
as best they could find, united in a purpose looking to securing a build- 
ing of their own at some future day, and organized a board of trustees, to be 
elected from members in each, and by the several societies respectively, 
aggregating five, and were denominated the trustees of " Greensburg 
Masonic Fund." This board was made the receiver, custodian, and dis- 
bursing agent of each respectively. As the receipts of the societies, 
from dues, fees, and life memberships, paid into the treasury of the board, 
began to accumulate, which was not till the close of the war, it was 
determined to procure an act of incorporation, that it might be known 
in law, and so held responsible. Accordingly the organization was 



516 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



chartered by act of Assembly approved March 26, 1867. in which sixty 
persons were named ae corporators, to which quite a number have been 
since added by election. 

Early in the year 1868 the lot opposite the Herald office, on Main 
Street, was put into market, and the trustees became the purchasers. 

At the dose of the last fiscal year of this organization — third Monday 
in January — the statement of the financial condition of the "Greens- 
burg Masonic Fund" presented the fact that the funds in the treasury 
and invested and hearing interest amounted to$U.tSLS.S6. That with an 
annual income from dues, fees, and life memberships which had averaged 
$3300.00 for the past three years, the trustees felt warranted in at once 
commencing the erection of a suitable hall, and in supplementing by a 
loan what additional funds might be necessary to meet the present 
original outlay in its erection. By act of Assembly they procured 
authority to borrow money at seven per cent, per annum, in a sum not 
to exceed $15,000, to be secured by mortgage on the lot and building. 

Thus equipped with the necessary ways and means and perfected plans, 
early in May ground was broken, and the building is now in progress of 
erection, of which we give the following brief description: 

"It occupies the entire front of the lot, 34' : t feet, and extends $7}Z 
feet in depth, and will be of iron and brick, three stories high above the 
pavement. The cellar and first floor are intended to be rented in con- 
nection as a business house. The store-room, on the first floor proper, 
will be twenty-two feet eight inches in width by eighty-four feet in 
depth inside, and fifteen feet high in the clear. A hull seven feet six 
inches, for stairways to the second and third stories, will ran the entire 
length oti the south side of the building, between which and the store- 
room a thirteen-iuch wall will be carried up to the floor of the third 
story. 

"The second and third stories will be occupied by the Masonic societies. 
In the second story, which is to be fourteen feet in the clear, there will 
he a front- or banqueting- room for state occasions, forty feet by twenty- 
three, and a rear reception-room forty-two by twenty-one feet, a hall 
and stairway, water-closets, etc. 

"The third story will have the Masonic Hall proper, sixty feet by 
thirty-one and a half and sixteen feet high, with ante-rooms, wardrobes, 
closets, etc., in the rear. • 

" The entire front of the building will he iron, from the pavement to 
the top, with heavy ornamental columns and cornice-projections for each 
story, the whole surmounted by ornamental iron-work, reaching to a 
height of sixty-two feet above the pavement. The door and window 
openings in front (of which there will be four yi each story) will be 
arched at the top. The doors and sash will be solid walnut. The roof 
will be tin. The rear doors and windows will have iron shutters, and 
the whole made completely fire-proof from external contact. The en- 
tire structure will be most substantial, the walls having been sunk from 
two to three feet below the bottom of the cellar, and have a footing oourse 
on each side, and the rear end of thirty inches wide, large stone. The 
side cellar walls are carried up twenty-one inches thick, and the front 
wall thirty-six inches thick, the main brick walls being eighteen inches. 
The flooring joists are twelve inches by two and a half thick, reaching 
across the whole width, and are placed twelve inches apart from centres. 
The roof is sustained by seven trusses, constructed of eight- by ten-inch 
pine timber. 

"The second and third stories will be heated by steam, generated by 
a boiler and furnace in the basement below the hall, and supplied with 
water from an eighty-barrel tank, built above and immediately under 
the principal stairs, which tank will be filled from the roof. An excel- 
lent well of water in the basement, arched over, perfectly secure and 
clean, will supply drinking water by pumps to any part of the building. 

" When finished it will be the most beautiful edifice in town, and will 
be a credit to the place and to the projectors and the committee having 
its execution in charge. No pains will be spared to make it a substan- 
tial public structure that shall stand for centuries." 

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD-FELLOWS. 
GREENSBURG LODGE, No. 50, 

was chartered April 16, 1849. Its first officers were: 

N. G., Hugh Arters; V. G., Lebbeus L. Bigelow; Sec, David Cook; 
Asst. Sec, William Jack ; Treas., John Taylor. 

The secretary in 1882 is W. C. Loor. 

WESTMORELAND LODGE, No. 840, 

was chartered May 21, 1873. Its first officers were: 



N. G., F. M. Sarver; V. G., J. Arthur Ege; Sec, A.L. Waugaman; Asst. 
Sec, Ezra M. Gross; Treas., George F. Huff. 

The officers in October term of 1881-82 are: 

N. G„ Joseph Tuylor; V. G., John A. Blank; Sec, Chris. Krebs; Asst. 
Sec, W. F. Holtzer; Treas., George W. Probst. 

It has thirty-five members, and meets every Tues- 
day evening at its hall on Main Street. 

GREENSBURG ENCAMPMENT, No. 143, 

was chartered May 14, 1866. Its charter members 
and first officers were: 

C. P., Henry Kettering; H. P., John M.Smith; S. W., J. A. Marchaud; 
J., Levi Cline; S., William W. Keenan; Treas., Robert Brown; G., 
F. S. Rock. 

The officers in 1882 are: 

C. P., J. M.Peifly; H. P., Chris. Krebs; S. W., Henry S. Coshy ; J. W., 
W. J. Row; Scribe, Joseph Taylor. 

ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED WORKMEN. 
ST. CLAIR LODGE, No. 53, 

was chartered June 21, 1873. The charter members 
were: 

Levi Cline, A. G. Marsh, Robert Brown, Eli A. FiBher, J. L. Thompson, 
J. R. Thompson, John M. Smith, H. C. Trauger, P. S. Hoffman, J. 
W. Wilson, George F. Huff, Robert Noz, Zachariah P. Bierer,0. H. 
Stark, Clark F. Warden, W. S. Brown, John A. Theurer, Hiram A. 
Gilson. 

The first officers were: 

P.M., Caleb H.Stark; M. W., Levi Cline; G. F., James W. Wilson; 0., 
Robert Brown; Rec, A. G. Marsh; Fin., A. C. Trauger; G., Eli A. 
Fisher; Rec, Zachariah P. Bierer; 0. W., John M. Smith. 

CENTENNIAL LODGE, No. 100, 

was chartered March 14, 1876. Its charter members 
and first officers were : 

P.M. W., J. A. Marchand; M. W., W. H. Klingensmith ; G. F., J. W. 
Kemerer; O., S. A. Kline; Bee, A. W. Eicher; Fin., A. B. Kuhns; 
Rec, George F. Huff"; G., F. M. Sarver; I. W, G. L. Clawson ; O. 
W., Amos Hawk. 

KNIGHTS OF HONOR. 
ENERGETIC LODGE, No. 76, 

was chartered Feb. 3, 1875. The charter members 
and first officers were : 

P. D., J. A. Marchand; D., J. Arthur Ege; V. D., F. M. Sarver; A. D., 
D. H. Rankin; Rep., W. H. Klingensmith ; Asst. Rep., D.J. Kline; 
Treas., F. S. Huffman ; G., John M. Smith ; S., J. C. Biggert. 

Other charter members were: 

James A. Hunter, George L. Potts, James B. Robinson, B. Thomas, A. 
Armbrust, W. Siucely, H. Cope, J. A. Hawk, Jacob S. Turney, S. S. 
Rumbaugh, G. A. Hammer, J. J. Altman, D. F. Baer, George W. 
Crock, Rev. J. F. Core, J. W. Graff, Daniel Welty, Dr. A. Alters, J. 
B. Smith, C. R. Miller, A. B. Brown, W. Welty, Joseph Harden, J. 
P. Evans, J. C. Rohrbacher, A. G. Marsh. 

The officers in 1882 are: 

D., James B. Robinson; Y. D., Amos Teal; A. D., S. A. Kline; Rep., G. 
A. Ellison; Treas., D. A. Denman; Fin. Rep., T. S. Huffman; Chap., 
A.P.Smith; G., F. M. Sarver; G., J. A. Hawk; S., S. S. Fell. 

It has a membership of ninety-four, and meets 
every Friday evening in I. O. O. F. (Westmoreland) 
Hall. 



GREENSBITKG. 



NOBILITY LODGE, No. 2447, 

was chartered April 25, 1881. Its officers for 1882 
are: 

P. D., Rev. C. K. Dieflenbacher; D., J- J. Wirsing; V. D., F. M. Mech- 
ling; Asst. D., J. A. Sampsel; Treas., 0. H. Stark ; Fin. Rep., J. P. 
Eicher; Rep., D. F. Killgore; Chap., Freeman C. Gay; Guide, Jeff. 
W.Taylor; Guardian, S. F. Baker; S., John H. Highberger; Trus- 
tees, Rev. C. R. Dieflenbacher, J. S.Moorhead, John H. Highberger. 

It lias twenty-nine members, and meets every Tues- 
day evening. 

ROYAL ARCANUM. 
GREENSBURG COUNCIL, No. 44, 

was chartered May 3, 1880, but was instituted Jan. 14, 
1878. The charter members were J. Arthur Ege, W. 
F. Holtzer, George W. Probst, Israel Glunt, S. P. Hill, 
Isaac P. Allshouse, Thomas H. Truxell, Irvin Walt- 
hour, D. H. Rankin, George F. Hurl', Joseph S. Rees, 
F. M. Sarver, F. P. Goodlin, John C. Felger, John 
Porter, Lewis Walthour, Pearson Wendell, Bennett 
Rask, James B. Robinson, A. W. Jones, William J. 
Row, Jeremiah Gongware, John M. Peifly, D. A. 
Arters, Hezekiah Gongware. Its officers for 1882 
are: 

Regent, J. J. Johnston ; V. R., Caleb H. Stark ; 0., Bennett Rask ; P. R., 
H. J. Brunot ; Sec, S. H. Ralston ; Col., S. S. Fell ; Chap., F. P. Good- 
lin J Guard., Thomas A. Truxell ; Treas., D. N. Denman ; G., Her- 
man Reamer. 

It has ninety-six members, and meets every Mon- 
day evening. 

CHOSEN FRIENDS. 
PROTECTION COUNCIL, No. 12, 

meets every Thursday evening. It has a membership 
of one hundred and twelve. Its officers for 1882 are : 

C. C, George W. Probst ; V. C, E. F. Houseman ; Prel., W. H. Manning ; 
P. C. C, A. W. Jones; C. M., John Eicher; W., S. S. Foster; Sec., 
J. S. Walthour; Asst. Sec, W. C. Loor; Treas., C. H. Stark; I. S., 
Herman Hanimil; 0. S., William Gessler. 

A. 0. K. OF M. C. 
WESTMORELAND CASTLE, No. 66, 

was chartered Oct. 16, 1873, and was in operation 
several years, but is now dormant. 

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 
THE BARCLAY BANK 

was established in 1854, by Thomas J. Barclay. Its 
present proprietors are Wilson Baughman, president; 
John Barclay Keenan, cashier; and John Barclay. 

THE UNION DEPOSIT BANK 

was organized June, 1870, with David Teniman and 
John Walker, proprietors, the latter being cashier. 
Its first place of business was on Ottoman Street, and 
since then on Main. 

THE MERCHANTS' AND FARMERS' NATIONAL BANK 

was organized Sept. 7, 1881, and opened for business 
October 24th following. Its charter number is 2562. 
Its paid-up capital is $150,000, and authorized, $300,- 
000. The directors are Lewis Trauger, president; 
W. H. Markle, vice-president; H. C. Boyd, J. A. 
Marchand, M. G. Blank, J. D. Miller, W. Anderson, 



E. F. Houseman, Joseph W. Steel, T. H. Brii 
T. H. Irwin ; and Cashier, D. W. Shryock. 

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK 

was established in 1881, .with a capital of $100,000. 
Its charter number is 2558. The directors are Rich- 
ard Coulter, president; John Zimmerman, cashier; 
Henry Welty, James C. Clarke, George F. Huff, Rob- 
ert Pitcairn, William A. Huff. 

THE GREENSBURG BANKING COMPANY 

has its place of business at No. 15 South Main Street. 
Its proprietors are James C. Clarke, Richard Coulter, 
and George F. Huff, the latter being cashier. 

CHURCHES. 
FIRST REFORMED CHURCH. 

Before there were any churches in Greensburg, or 
before the town itself was laid out or built, the Ger- 
man families in and around its site worshiped three 
miles southwest, at the old Harrold Church. But 
when a number of these people had found homes and 
built for themselves houses in the new town, a place 
for holding worship was also needed. This being 
determined upon, a piece of ground, a town lot and 
a half, situate on the main street, at the southerly 
part of the town, was purchased from Michael Truby 
and Peter Miller, as the site for a church, to be held 
in union between the Lutherans and Reformed. The 
consideration paid was £4, and for a like sum a 
parcel of ground farther down same street was bought 
for a graveyard. Where now stands the parsonage 
was the original lot, on which, a large building of 
hewn logs, was erected the Union Church. 

On April 22, 1796, the first communion was held by 
its first pastor, Rev. John William Weber, when the 
following members partook of the sacrament : Simon 
Drum, John Turney, Jacob Barnhart, Jacob Buergy, 
William Barnhart, Daniel Turney, Michael Truby, 
Peter Barnhart, and Daniel Turney, Susanna Drum, 
Anna Barnhart, Magdalena Huber, Catherine Mech- 
ling, Maria Myers, Anna Maria Walter, Catherine 
Silvis, Susanna Turney, Elizabeth Sourer, and Eliz- 
abeth Barnhart. Through the church-door at its 
gable end the devout worshipers used to enter, and 
then within devoutly sit on its rude benches or sing 
praises from the open front gallery, and hear the 
word read or expounded from the altar. There were 
no stoves or heaters, not even chimneys or flues, — not 
even a pulpit was there as yet. In cold weather 
worship was held in private dwellings or in the old 
court-house. Another lot and a half adjoining that 
on which the first church stood was bought May 15, 
1815, from Mr. Ehrenfreidt for three hundred dollars, 
on which the present brick church was built. Its 
corner-stone was laid the same year, but the scarcity 
of brick prevented its walls being raised above the 
first windows. It was completed in the summer of 
1819, when Rev. Henry Gerhart, of Bedford, preached 
the dedication sermon. The building committee were 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



y Welty and Simon Drum, Reformed ; and 
,ob Turney and Andrew Crissinger, Lutherans. 
us cost was about six thousand dollars, a very large 
sum for those days, and it entailed a big debt. To 
relieve the congregation from the pressure of this 
burden the corner lot, with the building thereon, was 
sold in 1822, and was bought for a parsonage by the 
five Reformed congregations composing the Greens- 
burg charge for four hundred and sixty-one dollars. 
In 1857 the ceiling was renewed, a new pulpit and 
altar-railing put up, the house repainted, and carpets 
and mats laid down. In 1873 a new roof and cornice 
were put on and the steeple repainted, and through 
the liberality of Samuel B. Haines the church grounds 
neatly inclosed. The present iron fence was put up 
in 1861. In 1845 the pipe-organ was built by Stark 
& Minehart at a cost of nine hundred dollars. It was 
quite an event in those days for any Protestant Church 
of these parts to introduce an organ. Some opposi- 
tion was at first made to the project even among the 
members of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. 
They were surrounded by influences entirely hostile 
to such use of instruments, which, it was charged, 
worshiped God by machinery. In a Presbyterian 
Church where a bass viol had been smuggled or foisted 
into the choir, the. old dominie startled the worshipers 
by calling upon them to " feddle and sing" the psalm. 
Some of the members, like the late Jacob Buerger, 
the Blancks, and others, helped to silence the opposi- 
tion and overcome and subdue the prejudices against 
it. So that still by some derided and scouted as the 
"old Dutch organ," it was finally accepted by the 
majority, and proved itself a power for good in the 
services. John Springer was for twenty years the 
organist and German school-master, and was suc- 
ceeded in playing the organ and training the choir in 
I860 by Joseph Huber. The Germans at an early 
day owned in Greensburg a lot, on which a school- 
house was built. In it an old Revolutionary soldier, 
the father of Frederick Scheibler, taught school. 
Jacob Buerger, one of the original members of the 
church, left by his will four thousand five hundred 
and sixty dollars, the interest on half of it to go for 
church purposes, and the other part towards the sup- 
port of a German school. This trust was first ad- 
ministered by John Kuhns and Simon Drum, trustees, 
then principally by Jacob Kiehl for twenty-one years, 
and since by Josiah Mechling and Samuel Truxal. 
The original graveyard was enlarged by two acres 
purchased of the heirs of the late John Bierer for 
three hundred and forty-one dollars. 

Until about 1875 services were held exclusively in 
the German language, now they are mixed, thus pro- 
viding for both tongues. Rev. John William Weber 
was succeeded as pastor by Rev. Henry Habliston in 
1X1(1, who was followed in 1819 by Rev. Nicholas P. 
Hacke, D.D. The hitter's ministerial colleagues in 
Greensburg on the Lutheran side were Rev. John 
Michael Steck, who after serving his congregation 



thirty-eight years died at his post in 1830. He was 
followed by his son, Rev. Michael Steck, until his 
death in 1848. His successor was Rev. Jonas Mech- 
ling until his decease in 1868, who was followed by 
Revs. A. J. Brugle and Enoch Smith. The Reformed 
parsonage is on a part of the lot originally held by the 
two churches, and was specially purchased for a par- 
sonage in 1822 as before detailed. This was the first 
Reformed parsonage in Western Pennsylvania. 

SECOND REFORMED CHURCH. 

Feeling the necessity for English services, a number 
of the members of the First Church petitioned the 
Synod of Ohio in 1844 to grant the organization of 
an English congregation, to be known as the Second 
Reformed Church. The request was allowed, and 
Rev. S. N. Callender, of the theological seminary at 
Mercersburg, Pa., was invited to become the pastor 
in 1845. On arriving here to accept the call he 
concluded the step premature and declined to re- 
main. In 1848 another effort was made to obtain 
an English pastor by a meeting held at the house of 
Simon Cort. of which Daniel Kiehl was president 
and Reuben Shrum secretary. In January, 1849, the 
First Church gave consent for the organization of the 
second congregation, Classis having previously ap- 
proved the movement, as the Ohio Synod had done 
nearly five years before. About the same time Rev. 
Samuel H. Giesy, who a few months before had ac- 
cepted a call to the St. James' Church, near Salina, 
consented to labor here and organize the new congre- 
gation. The organization was made Sept. 30, 1849, 
with the following members: Daniel Kiehl, Mar- 
garet Kiehl, Anna Maria Kiehl, Leonard Kunkle, 
Simon Cort, William J. Wells, Jacob Reamer, Jr., 
Reuben Shrum, Matilda Shrum, John Kiehl, Sophia 
Kiehl, David J. Wells, Christiana Wells, William 
Cort, Eli Kiehl, Maria Kiehl, Lucian Cort, Rebecca 
Wible, and Samuel Kelly. 

On Feb. 6, 1851, it was resolved to erect the present 
church edifice. It was completed in the fall of the 
same year, and dedicated Jan. 16, 1852, by the 
pastor, assisted by Rev. S. H. Reid, of Huntingdon 
County. The building committee consisted of John 
Barnhart (who with his family had by this time united 
with the congregation), Daniel Kiehl, and David J. 
Wells. The subscription-paper was headed by Daniel 
Kiehl with $400, followed by John Barnhart with 
$325, Simon Cort, $330, John Kiehl, $120, Joseph 
Cort, $80, and twenty on down to $5. Many of the citi- 
zens of the town gave in sums of $50 down to $5, among 
whom were Hon. Joseph A. Kuhns, Gen. H. D. Fos- 
ter, Hon. Edgar Cowan, Henry Welty, Esq., and 
about fifty others. 

Rev. Mr. Giesy resigned July, 1855, to accept a call 
to Hagerstown, Md., and Jan. 1, 1856, was succeeded 
by Rev. T. G. Apple, then of Easton, Pa. He con- 
tinued to April 1, 1857, and was followed the next 
month by Rev. L. H. Kefauver, of Adams County. 



GREENSBURG. 



519 



His pastorate continued three years and nine months. 
On April 1, 1862, Rev. H. W. Super became pastor, 
and this congregation, with those at Seanor Church 
and Irwin, was constituted one charge. He resigned 
in April, 1865, and was followed in January, 1866, by 
Rev. George H. Johnston, who served one year. His 
successor, Rev. T. J. Barkley, remained three years 
and four months, May 1, 1870, when he accepted a 
call to Grace Church, Pittsburgh. Rev. John W. 
Love's pastorate began Nov. 17, 1870. 

This congregation has furnished for the ranks of the 
active ministry three efficient and successful preachers, 
— Revs. Cyrus Cort, Henry F. Keener, and Henry D. 
Darbarker, — all of whom were confirmed here. An- 
other one of its founders is Rev. Professor Lucian 
Cort, a distinguished laborer in the cause of Christian 
female education. 

ZION'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONGREGATION. 

In the autumn of 1847, Rev. Michael J. Steck, 
pastor of the German Lutheran congregation of 
Greensburg, made arrangements for regular English 
services to be held for the time being in the German 
Church. In order to carry out the purpose of Rev. M. 
J. Steck an English Lutheran minister was called, in 
the person of Rev. John Rugan, to take charge of 
this new enterprise in Greensburg, and also to assist 
Rev. Steck in other parts of his extensive field. 

Services were held regularly every alternate Sab- 
bath, with very fair prospects of soon organizing an 
English Lutheran congregation. These services were 
conducted for a short time in the German Church, 
but as soon as it became known that it was the pur- 
pose to organize an English congregation the use of 
the German Church was denied, on the plea that an 
English congregation could not be allowed to be 
formed in a German Church. 

When our German Lutheran fathers closed their 
church against their own children because they were 
English the use of the Episcopal Church was obtained 
for a short time, and when that could no longer be 
had, through the kindness of the commissioners the 
use of the court-house was granted. 

After all necessary preliminary arrangements had 
been made an English Lutheran congregation was 
organized on the 16th of January, 1848, under the title 
of Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Greens- 
burg, with forty members, Rev. John Rugan, pastor, 
and the church council was constituted as follows : 
Elders, Daniel Welty and Martin Hartzell ; Deacons, 
Daniel Kistler and Henry K. Welty ; Trustees, Sam- 
uel Hoffman and Peter Rummel. 

Rev. Rugan continued to serve this new congrega- 
tion with fidelity and success till the autumn of 1848. 
On the 1st of October he resigned this congregation 
and accepted a call from St. James' and Salem, and 
the Rev. Michael Eyster, of Greencastle, Pa., became 
pastor of Zion's Church, Greensburg, and Trinity 
Church, Adamsburg. The services were held in the 



court-house till the fall of 1848, when the old Presby- 
terian Church was leased, in which services were held 
till the autumn of 1851, when the congregation com- 
pleted and dedicated their own house of worship. 

A movement to build a new church was commenced 
in the fall of 1850. Committees were appointed to 
secure a suitable lot and raise the necessary funds 
for this purpose. 

The committee on securing a lot reported that Mr. 
John Kuhns offered a lot on the corner of Junction 
and Second Streets, which was thankfully accepted. 
The committee on finance also made a favorable re- 
port, and measures were taken to proceed with the 
work of church building without delay. 

A plan was proposed and adopted, and the follow- 
ing-named persons were appointed as building com- 
mittee, viz. : Messrs. John Kuhns, T. J. Cope, Lewis 
Trauger, Daniel Kistler, and John Bortz. 

On the 1st of February, 1851, the contract for 
building the church was let to Mr. Philip Walthour, 
for the sum of $2800. 

The work of building, which was commenced early 
in the spring, was vigorously and successfully prose- 
cuted during the summer until the fall of the same 
year, when the church was completed, and it was 
dedicated to the worship of God on the 21st of No- 
vember, 1851. Rev. Michael Eyster, the pastor, was 
assisted on this occasion by Revs. W. A. Passavant 
and W. L. Emery. 

The dimensions of the church were forty-five by 
sixty-five feet, with basement and gallery, neatly 
finished and comfortably furnished. 

Under the faithful ministry of Rev. M. Eyster the 
congregation enjoyed an increasing measure of pros- 
perity in their new church ; the membership was 
doubled in less than five years, but in August, 1853, 
the ministry of this devoted man was suddenly ended 
by death. 

His death fell like a great calamity on the congre- 
gation, and it suffered a vacancy of some months, as 
the minds of the people could not at once unite on 
a successor to their lamented and highly-esteemed 
pastor. 

In April, 1854, Rev. Milton Valentine, now Dr. 
Valentine, of Pennsylvania College, became pastor 
of this congregation, and continued to labor in this 
field for one year. Though he was very faithful and 
diligent, he was not able during his short ministry to 
do more than repair the loss sustained by the va- 
cancy that followed the death of Rev. Eyster. 

The resignation of Rev. M. Valentine was again 
followed by a vacancy of four months, during which 
the congregation was supplied by Rev. A. H. Waters. 

In August, 1855, Rev. W. F. Ulery became pastor 
of this congregation, and continued to labor with a 
good degree of success for eight years. During his 
ministry one hundred and seventy persons were 
added to the membership ; loss by death and re- 
moval, sixty-five; leaving the membership one hun- 



520 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



dred and seventy, double what it was when his 
ministry commenced. 

Immediately after his resignation, Rev. Daniel 
Garver, of Canton, Ohio, was elected as his successor, 
who entered on his duties on the 1st of October, 1863. 
He labored faithfully and successfully at his calling 
until the 6th of September, 1865, when the Master 
called him home to his reward. During his short 
ministry twenty-two persons were received into the 
fellowship of the congregation. After his death there 
was a vacancy of four months. 

On the 1st of January, 1866, Rev. J. K. Plitt be- 
came pastor of this church, and continued to labor 
faithfully in this field till July, 1873. During his 
ministry one hundred and nineteen persons were 
received into the communion of the congregation, 
leaving the communicant membership at his resigna- 
tion two hundred and forty. After his removal there 
was a vacancy of ten months. 

On the 6th of May, 1874, Rev. A. H. Bartholomew 
commenced his ministry in this congregation, and 
continued until October, 1876. During his brief 
ministry forty persons were added to the membership 
of the congregation. 

After the resignation of Rev. Bartholomew there 
was a vacancy of nine months, when Rev. W. F. Ulery 
was called to be the pastor. 

On the 8th of March, 1877, a severe dispensation 
befell the congregation in the loss of their church by 
fire. 

A movement was inaugurated at once to build a 
new church. A committee was appointed to raise 
funds for this purpose, and on the 10th of May the fol- 
lowing-named persons were appointed as a building 
committee : Messrs. Lewis Trauger, C. H. Stark, Jos. 
Bowman, George F. Huff, Z. P. Bierer, John Koser, 
and Lewis Walthour. On the 6th of June, Drum & 
Steen, architects, of Pittsburgh, were employed to 
prepare plans, which were submitted to the com- 
mittee and unanimously adopted on the 17th of July. 

On the 6th of August work was commenced at the 
foundation, and by the 13th, Hammer & Kemp, con- 
tractors, commenced the stone-work. 

The work progressed very satisfactorily, and on the 
24th of September, 1877, the stone- and brick-work of 
the basement was completed; the corner-stone was 
also laid with appropriate services in the presence of 
a large congregation. The pastor, W. T. Ulery, was 
assisted by Revs. Samuel Laird, V. B. Christy, and J. 
S. Fink. The work progressed steadily, and by the 
middle of the following November the church was 
put under roof and the tower completed. 

In the spring of 1878 the work was resumed, and 
by the 1st of September the lecture-room was com- 
pleted suitable for a place of divine worship. It was 
used for this purpose until the auditorium was com- 
pleted. On the 1st of August, 1879, when the entire 
church was finished in all its parts and handsomely 
furnished, it was solemnly set apart to the worship of 



God. This was an occasion of great interest to the 
congregation. The pastor was assisted by Revs. Jos. 
A. Seiss, D.D., and Samuel Laird, of Philadelphia. 

The entire cost of the church was thirteen thousand 
dollars, which has all been paid. 

The membership of the congregation is now three 
hundred and twenty. One hundred have been added 
under the present pastor, and the prospects of the 
congregation are very encouraging. 

GBEEN8BURG PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Greensburg asked supplies April 15, 1788, and was 
organized as a congregation May, 1789. On Oct. 23, 
1800, it obtained as a stated supply Rev. John Black, 
and retained him until his death in April, 1802. 
Rev. William Speer was called as pastor April 19, 
1803, for half-time, and was installed June 29th fol- 
lowing. On April 7, 1829, he was released from 
Greensburg, as from Unity, on the ground of declin- 
ing health, and on the 26th of the same died. Just 
a year after his resignation his successor, Rev. Robert 
Henry, was ordained and installed. During his pas- 
torate he married an accomplished lady, sister of Hon. 
James Buchanan, afterwards President of the United 
States. Nine years and two days after his ordination, 
in the very prime of his life, ardor of his aspirations, 
and full flush of his hopes, he went up to dwell where 
youth never declines into age. After a protracted 
vacancy of two and a half years he was succeeded 
by Rev. James I. Brownson, who, at Mount Pleasant, 
was ordained and for half-time installed, Nov. 26, 
1841, at Greensburg, where Revs. Samuel Wilson 
preached, W. H. Gillett charged the pastor, and A. 
McCandless the people. For more than seven years 
he filled the charge with acceptance, and resigned 
Jan. 16, 1849, to enter a still more distinguished career 
at Washington, Pa., partly as college president, but 
chiefly as pastor. 

In the whole charge he was succeeded by Rev. W. 
D. Moore, installed Oct. 2, 1849, when Revs. P. H. 
Jacobs preached, R. Stevenson charged the pastor, 
and J. B. McKee the people. Two years afterwards 
all his time was given to this congregation, and June 
14, 1853, he resigned. He was an eminent scientist. 
He went to Mississippi, and was there at the out- 
break of the civil war. Finding his way back to 
Pennsylvania, he exchanged the ministerial for the 
legal profession, and became a very popular and suc- 
cessful lawyer at the bar of Pittsburgh, his native 
place. April 9, 1854, he was briefly succeeded by 
Rev. David Kennedy, who was dismissed Aug. 1, 
1855. 

Rev. Joseph Smith, D.D., author of "Old Red- 
stone" and " Jefferson College," succeeded Rev. Mr. 
Kennedy. He was installed April 9, 1856, when 
Rev. Drs. A. G. Fairchilds preached and Samuel 
Wilson gave the charge. In his pastorate, at the re- 
quest of himself and the church, they were trans- 
ferred from Redstone to Blairsville Presbytery by 



GREENSBURG. 



521 



the Synod of Pittsburgh, October, 1858. Under the 
pressure of age and growing infirmity he resigned 
Oct. 3, 1865, and was gathered to his fathers Dec. 4, 
1868. Rev. W. H. Gill was ordained and installed 
June 26, 1867, when Revs. S. J. Niccolls, of St. Louis, 
preached, J. R. Hughes charged the pastor, and D. 
Harbison the people. April 26, 1870, he resigned the 
charge, and after a brief pastorate at St. Joseph, Mo., 
became pastor of the Central Church of Allegheny. 
His successor here was Rev. W. Wallace Moorhead, 
installed May 13, 1871, when Dr. Hill preached, Revs. 
J. A. Marshall charged the pastor, and J. D. Moor- 
head the people. 

Among the veteran elders of this church were Ran- 
dall McLaughlin and John Armstrong, Sr. It has 
had one stated supply and nine pastors, but has never 
raised a minister. Its parsonage was completed in 
1874. Dr. James Postlethwaite, an eminent physi- 
cian, and in later life an eminent Christian, declined 
the eldership, but wrote largely and with great zest 
about the principles of the holy religion. 

In 1803, Judge William Jack gave one hundred 
and thirty perches for the erection of a house of 
worship. Sixty feet square of this ground was set 
apart for the building, and the remainder for a burial- 
ground. On this lot the old Presbyterian Church was 
built, and the new one was erected on South Main 
Street. 

CHRIST PKOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The first Episcopalian services in Greensburg were 
held in 1818 by Rev. Taylor, rector of Round Church 
in Pittsburgh, in the old court-house, after which 
the congregation was organized; in 1821 incorporated. 
In 1823 a brick edifice was erected on Church Street 
(now Maple Avenue). The present church building 
was erected on a lot donated by Judge William Jack. 
Its corner-stone was laid by Bishop Potter Sept. 1, 
1852, and it was consecrated May 3, 1854. Of the 
first class to whom the sacrament was administered 
by Bishop White in the old church there are but three 
survivors, — Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, Mrs. Judge Car- 
penter, and Miss Hannah Fleeger. After services by 
Rev. Taylor, Bishop John H. Hopkins, then a rector 
in Pittsburgh, preached occasionally. Subsequently 
Rev. David C. Page, also of Pittsburgh, held services 
occasionally. 

The rectors have been in the following order : 1830, 
Lanson K. Brunot, J. L. Harrison, S. C. Freeman, 
J. J. Kerr; 1839-40, J. L. Harrison; 1841-42, Joseph 
Adderly; 1848, Bruce Balcheller; 1850, William H. 
Paddock ; 1855, Fayette Derlin ; 1857, Henry C. Pot- 
ter ; 1861, A. Flaridus Steele ; 1866, George Slattery ; 
1873, C. C. Parker ; 1872, George C. Rafter ; 1876, 
Rev. O'Connell; 1877, J. Y. Protheroe ; 1881, Joseph 
Bernard Jennings. 

The last named served as rector from June 1, 1881, 
to April 1, 1882, when he accepted a call to New York 
City. During the rectorship of Rev. William H. Pad- 
dock two other congregations were organized, viz. : " St. 



John's," at Latrobe, Sept. 17, 1852, and " Christ," in 
Indiana County, May 6, 1853, both in this parish. 
In 1853 the vestrymen were Alexander Johnston, 
Henry Burns, William Johnston, Edward Smith, 
James J. Miiey, Hugh Kells, and Samuel Elder. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

In response to a petition to the A. R. P. Presbytery 
of Blairsville, presented by H. M. Jamison, of Greens- 
burg, Rev. Jonathan G. Fulton preached June 3, 1855. 
In 1857 an application was made to the Presbytery 
for an organization, which was granted, and Rev. 
Fullerton organized the congregation September 19th 
of that year. Twenty-six members were enrolled 
from the A. P., A. R, P., and R. P. (N. S.) Church. 
The following three elders were elected: William 
McCall, Joseph Greer, and H. M. Jamison. There are 
still three members in the congregation who assisted in 
its organization, — Elizabeth Greer, Elizabeth Welsh, 
and Mary A. Lyon. 

In 1859 this church united with the congregation 
of New Alexandria in making a call for Rev. W. L. 
McConnell, but did not succeed in getting him as a 
pastor. It was then united with the Latrobe pastoral 
charge. In 1861 it was reorganized, and W. H. Barr 
and Gordon M. Lyon elected elders. Mr. Fulton 
preached here occasionally up to his death, April 17, 
1870. Rev. John A. Nelson, in 1871, was the stated 
supply for half-time for three months. On April 1, 
1872, Rev. F. A. Hutchinson came to labor, and con- 
tinued till July. 

On Sept. 19, 1872, it was reorganized by the election 
of John Ludwick and John D. Gill as elders. Rev. 
J. Buflf Jackson was installed pastor of this and La- 
trobe Church April 8, 1873. Up to this time its 
preaching had been held in various houses of worship. 
Mr. Jackson resigned his pastorate Dec. 21, 1875. 
The present pastor, Rev. Josiah Stevenson, began his 
labors Jan. 1, 1878. 

On Jan. 1, 1880, the following building committee 
were appointed to erect a church edifice : J. C. Clarke, 
J. D. Gill, J. M. Steele, H. Loughrey, and Rev. Josiah 
Stevenson. The building erected was a brick, sixty- 
six by thirty-nine feet, Gothic finish, which cost about 
$5000. It was dedicated June 20, 1881, with sermons 
and addresses, etc., by Revs. Kelso, of McKeesport ; 
McBride, of Laurel Hill ; R. B. Taggart, of Mount 
Pleasant; A. G. Wallace, of New Brighton ; Jackson, 
of Elderton ; J. W. Love ; A. D. McCarrell, of Wil- 
kinsburg; and the pastor, Mr. Stevenson. It then 
had fifty-two members, and its Sunday-school roll 
showed sixty scholars and nine teachers. 

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST CHURCH. 

Before 1857 this denomination had occasional 
preaching in Greensburg, but in that year the con- 
gregation was organized. The original nine mem- 
bers were Joseph Gross and wife, Joseph Walters, 
Mrs. Daniel Reamer, John L. Holmes and wife, A. 
G. Marsh and wife, and Mr. Crooks. The first edifice 



522 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



was erected that year on a lot nearly opposite the 
present building, and was a brick structure thirty- 
eight by fifty-two feet. The building committee were 
John L. Holmes, E. M. Gross, Rev. J. Metzgar, D. 
S. Atkinson, J. L. Davidson, Jacob Mensch, John 
Stough, Daniel Reamer, and Pearson Wendell. This 
was burned July 22, 1879, by Daniel Smithson, an 
incendiary, now in the penitentiary, to which he was 
committed for this crime. The second and present 
edifice was dedicated Oct. 10, 1881. It cost some twelve 
thousand dollars, while its predecessor was built for 
two thousand seven hundred dollars, exclusive of the 
lot. This church was organized under the auspices 
of Rev. J. B. Resler, who had preached here occa- 
sionally. The pastors have been Revs. Riley, William 
B. Dick, D. Speck, W. A. Keesley, L^B^Lfiassure, D. 
Speck (second time), W. B. Dick (second time), A. 
J. Hartsock, E. B. Kephart (now bishop), S. S. Ka- 
naga, David Shearer, G. A. Funkhouser, George 
Keister, T. H. Kohr, W. A. Ramsey, James C. 
Shearer, F. Fisher, and R. L. Jones. 

At the dedication of the first church in October, 
1857, Bishop Glossbrenner officiated. The present 
membership is one hundred and forty-two. The su- 
perintendent of the Sunday-school is Bennett Rask, 
whose predecessor for twelve years was D. S. Atkin- 
son. The trustees are John L. Holmes, president; 
J. L. Davidson, secretary; Bennett Rask, treasurer; 
Samuel Fox, Daniel Reamer, stewards ; Daniel Rea- 
mer, J. L. Davidson, class-leaders; Samuel Fox, S. 
K. Henrie. The church is now erecting a neat par- 
sonage. 

OTHER CHURCHES. 

For sketches of the Lutheran, the Methodist Epis- 
copal, and the Roman Catholic Churches of Greens- 
burg, see the chapter on the "Religious History," 
they being inserted there on account of their intimate 
connection with their denominational history in the 

county. 

INCORPORATION AND OFFICERS. 

Greensburg borough was incorporated Feb. 9, 1799, 
but the first ordinances were not passed until 1811. ' 
Up to the year 1853 the corporation minute-books are 
lost, and before that time we can give only partial 
lists of officers as gathered from the ordinance records. 

Chief Burgess. Clerk. 

1811 Simon Drum, Jr. John M. Snowden. 

I814!...... John Wells. Richard Coulter. 

1816 John Kutins. 

1817 John Wells. 

1818 John Kuhn8. " " 

1822 Richard Coulter. Jacoh M. Wise. 

1826 " " John Morrison. 

1843"!"..!".... John Taylor. H. C. Marchuud. 

}g44 John Armstrong. Andrew Ross. 

1847.!. H. Y. Brady. Reuben Shrum. 

]85l!!!!!.!! Daniel Welty. " " 

1853 Richard Coulter. 

1854 

I855 " " Caleb A. Steck. 

185G.'. Henry Kettering. 

I857 James C. Clarke. John L. Fishell. 

1858.!!!!! J- W. Turney. A. G. Marsh. 

1S59.! " " 

I860 " " J. M. Laird. 

i Rather, the firet and only evidence of any ordinance being passed is 
fixed at that date. 



Chief Burgess. Clerk. 

1801 Zachariah P. Bierer. W. K. Wise. 

1862 " " W. C. Holmes. 

1863 Henry Kettering. J. M. Laird. 

1864 " " J. A. Marchand. 

1865 James C. Clarke. J. L. Fishell. 

1866 " " " " 

1867 Jacob Turney. F. S. Rock. 

1868 Henry Kettering. Thomas McCabe. 

1869 James Borliu. " " 

1870 Ira Ryan. A. G. Marsh. 

1871 John M. Smith. " " 

1872 C R. Painter. " " 

1S7:J John L. Holmes. " " 

1874 John M.Smith. 

1875 James Boilin. W. C. Loor. 

1876 John M.Smith. " " 

1877 P. S. Kuhns. R. B. Patterson. 

1878 Hugh Ward. " 

1879 John M. Smith. F. M. Rohrer. 

188(1 James C. Clarke. J. A. Sampsel. 

1881 J. E. Gatchell. James E. Keenau. 

The borough officers in 1882 are : 

Chief Burgess, Zachariah P. Bierer; Burgess, Jacob Turney ; Assistant 
Burgesses, P. S. Kuhns, Henry Loughry, Joseph Tipman ; Clerk, 

James K. Clarke ; High Constable, Alexander Stitt. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

THE JACK FAMILY. 

William Jack came from Ireland and settled in and 
about Greensburg prior to the burning of Hannastown, 
July 13, 1782, in which his brother Matthew figured 
conspicuously. Their father, Samuel Jack, died May 
3, 1818, aged eighty-two years. William Jack do- 
nated one hundred and thirty perches of land in 
Greensburg, on which the first Presbyterian Church 
was erected and its graveyard laid out, — now part of 
St. Clair Cemetery. He died Feb. 7, 1821, aged 
sixty-nine, and his wife, Margaret, May 3, 1818, aged 
sixty-three. They had four sons — Wilson, Henry, 
Matthew, and William — and one daughter, Margaret, 
who married John Cust, and her daughter, Margaret, 
married John Shoenberger, an iron king of Pitts- 
burgh. 

Wilson Jack died Oct. 29, 1852, aged sixty-one; 
Henry Jack died Jan. 21, 1837, aged fifty-one ; Mat- 
thew Jack died Nov. 20, 1843, aged sixty-five. The 
above three never married, and their estate mainly 
went to their brother. Hon. William Jack, the latter, 
married Harriet Eason, of Cambria County, by whom 
he had the following children: William, Matthew, 
Maggie, married to Walter Katta ; Libbie, married 
to Judge James M. Latta ; Emma, married to Frank 
Smith, chief engineer of Atlantic and Pacific Rail- 
road ; and Nancy Wilson, married to John F. Went- 
ling, Esq. Of these, Matthew is dead, and William 
lives at the old Jack mansion in East Greensburg, on 
sixty acres of the original Jack homestead. Hon. Wil- 
liam Jack was born July 29, 1788, and died Feb. 28, 
1850. His widow subsequently married Hon. Joseph 
H. Kuhns, and died Jan. 20, 1879. The Jack family 
were very early and actively associated with the his- 
tory of the county, and prominent factors in its an- 
nals for three-quarters of a century, and its descend- 
ants are honorably connected with other leading pio- 
neer families. 



GREENSBURG. 



523 



DR. DAVID MARCHAND AND HIS FAMILY. 

Nearly a century ago, Dr. David Marchand, the 
grandsire of the Marehands now residing in this 
county, settled on Sewickley Creek, about six miles 
southwest of Greensburg. 

Dr. David Marchand was of French descent; his 
father was a Huguenot who fled from France by 
reason of religious persecution and settled during 
the Indian wars in Lancaster County, Pa. 

He was a physiciau and surgeon of eminent ability. 
He practiced in this and adjoining counties, and 
owing to the great number of patients that applied to 
him at his office he established a hospital near his 
home, to which many persons resorted. 

He died many years ago, and his remains sleep in 
the cemetery of Brush Church, of which he was a 
liberal supporter. He had seven children, three sons 
and four daughters. The latter were all married and 
settled in this county, of whom Elizabeth, the young- 
est, was the wife of the late John Kubns, and was the 
mother of the late Jacob Kuhns, father of Mrs. S. P. 
Marchand, and Daniel Kuhns and the Hon. Joseph 
H. Kuhns. 

The sous were Daniel, David, and Lewis, all phy- 
sicians, and all eminent in their profession ; and their 
distinguished ability, and that of their father, con- 
nected the name of Marchand in a most prominent 
manner with the medical profession in that early day. 

Dr. Daniel Marchand settled in Fayette County, 
and was the father of Dr. B. Rush Marchand, who is I 
well and favorably known in this county. Many re- | 
member him for his valuable services, and bless his 
memory for his disinterested love. He practiced 
medicine from a love to his profession and from a de- 
sire to do good to suffering humanity. 

Dr. Lewis Marchand was the father of Samuel 
Marchand, M.D., who was for a number of years asso- 
ciated with Dr. Rush Marchand, and was a man of 
ability and skill in his profession. He entered the 
army during the late war. Having been wounded and 
taken prisoner, he died in Libby Prison, and was 
buried in a soldier's grave. 

Hon. David Marchand, M.D.,the progenitor of the 
Greensburg branch of the Marchand family, was not 
only an eminent physician and skillful surgeon, who 
had an extensive practice, but he was also a man who 
enjoyed great popularity and possessed large influence . 
in his community. He was twice elected to Congress, i 
and returned with a pure and good record. He died 
the 11th of March, 1832, and his remains were laid in 
the German Cemetery. His family was one of the 
olden time, large, substantial families, consisting of 
nine members, seven sons and two daughters. There 
were three physicians, two lawyers, one editor, one 
naval officer in this family. 

Lewis, the eldest, born Aug. 16, 1S04. grew up to 
manhood, and was educated in his father's profession, 
but died Feb. 22, 1825, before he had completed his 
twenty-fourth year. 



John B., born on the 27th of August, 180(5. He 
was educated for the navy and became a distinguished 
captain, and for gallant services in the late war he 
was made a commodore. He died suddenly on the 
15th of April, 1875, aged sixty-six years, eight months, 
and eleven days. 

He was the father of J. Thornton Marchand, lately 
admitted to practice at the Westmoreland bar. 

Thomas S., born Dec. 3, 1821, was educated for the 
medical profession, and practiced until his death, 
which occurred suddenly, 2d of August, 1848, in his 
twenty-seventh year. 

Elizabeth L., born July 5, 1824, was a most esti- 
mable lady, and enjoyed the kind regard and confi- 
dence of all who knew her. She passed suddenly 
away on the 10th of May, 1863. 

Lavinia (Mrs. Russell), born Jan. 27, 1804. She 
married and has one surviving child, Mrs. Kate Gill. 
She died on the 18th of March, 1880, and her mortal 
remains were laid in St. Clair Cemetery, to sleep by 
the side of her husband and children. 

Hon. Albert G., born Feb. 26, 1811, was educated 
in the law, and was an able and successful lawyer. 
He was highly esteemed, both for his talents and 
for his manly virtues, and there are many here who 
have the kindest remembrance of him. He was twice 
elected to Congress ; the first time he was only twenty- 
eight years of age. He died Feb. 5, 1848, aged thirty- 
six years, eleven months, and nine days. He was 
married and had four children, — two sons and two 
daughters. William K., deceased, born April 11, 
1840, had just won the degree of M.D. when he died, 
May 18, 1862. John A. is an able and success- 
ful lawyer; was the partner and is now the successor 
of his uncle Henry. Then Kate, the wife of Mr. 
Masou, and Lizzie, wife of Judge Logan, both most 
amiable, intelligent, and accomplished ladies. 

George W., born Jan. 4, 1813, was also a physician, 
and practiced for some years. He died Aug. 8, 1863. 

David K., born Dec. 3, 1816, was a printer and an 
editor. 

Henry Clay Marchand, the last member of the old, 
esteemed, and widely known Marchand family, died 
after a long and most painful illness on the 16th of 
January, 1882, in the sixty-third year of his age. His 
remains were laid in the German Cemetery with ap- 
propriate and solemn services on the 18th, in the pres- 
ence of many sympathizing friends and citizens. 

A more extended sketch of Albert G. and Henry C. 
Marchand will be found in the chapter on the bar, 
in the profession which they both adorned ; and of 
Commodore John B. Marchand among the sketches 
of representative men of the county. 



FREDERICK ROHRER, Sr. 
Died 1834, of dropsy of the chest, Frederick 
Rohrer, Esq., of this place, in the eighty-second year 
of bis age, and grandfather of the editor of the Gazette. 



524 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



He was a native of France, and was born on the 28th 
of July, 1742. He came to America during the war 
between France and Great Britain. He married 
Catharine Deemer in 1766, in York County, and 
shortly after removed to Hagerstown. In that year 
he first visited the Western country, as far as Pitts- 
burgh, then composed of a few Indian huts. He 
brought a number of cattle with him, which he ex- 
changed to Gen. St. Clair for a tract of land in Ligo- 
nier Valley. He still left his family, at Hagerstown, 
and in 1767 brought the first wheat over the moun- 
tains ever imported into the Western country. He 
cultivated it, together with other grain, on his farm in 
the Valley, and prepared for his family, whom he re- 
moved there in the following fall. He took out a 
warrant for all that valuable tract of land on the 
Conemaugh River on which salt is now made, and 
was the first to discover those valuable springs of salt 
water. He boiled the first salt in an earthen pot, and 
traded it to the Indians, then the only inhabitants of 
Westmoreland County. 

In 1771 he returned with his family to Hagerstown, 
being unable to live any longer among the Indians. 
In 1793 he removed to Greensburg from Hagerstown, 
where he remained to the time of his death. Some 
time after his removal here he was appointed a justice 
of the peace by Governor McKean, and officiated 
until a few years before his death. 

On the Tuesday following his death he was interred 
in the German graveyard, an unusually large con- 
course of citizens attending his funeral. Upon that 
occasion the Rev. Mr. Steck preached a funeral ser- 
mon from Proverbs xiv. 32. He had nine children, 
forty-two grandchildren, and seventeen great-grand- 
children. 1 

HUGH Y. BRADY 
was born in Ligonier Valley in 1788, and removed ! 
to Greensburg with his parents when quite young, j 
For many years he was engaged in the mercantile 
business in this place, during which time he was suc- 
cessful in his enterprise, and thereby amassed con- i 
siderable wealth, which he disposed of in his will to a 
number of relatives and friends. For a number of ; 
years he was compelled to relinquish all business j 
on account of old age and infirmity. He remained 
single during all his lifetime. He died Nov. 4, 1868, 
at Greensburg, in the eighty-first year of his age. 



DR. JOHN MORRISON. 
The father of Dr. John Morrison came from Ireland. 
He was esteemed a worthy man by the early settlers, 
and held some public trusts at their hands. By occu- 
pation he was a merchant, and was tolerably success- 
ful. Dr. John Morrison was his only child. Born 
at Greensburg, educated at Jefferson College, Can- 

1 Sketched by one of his grandsons, and published in the Greensburg 
Gazette, 1834. 



nonsburg, read medicine with Dr. Postlethwaite, and 
attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, 
but never practiced. Engaged in the business of a 
druggist, and carried it on very extensively until 
about 1854. He was a prudent, cautious man, of 
sound judgment and clear perception, energetic and 
full of resources when occasion required. Took an 
active interest in politics, and probably did more to 
organize the old Democratic party in this county than 
any other man. He was twice county commissioner, 
treasurer, postmaster at Greensburg, and frequently 
was delegate to county and State conventions. He 
was a man of great integrity, a public benefactor, 
and very religious and conscientious. He died on 
the 4th of August, 1869, in the seventy-second year 
of his age. 

THOMAS J. BARCLAY. 
Thomas J. Barclay, the greatest financier West- 
moreland County ever produced, was born in 1824, in 
the same house in which he died, Aug. 24, 1881. For 
nearly half a century he was one of the chief busi- 
ness men of Greensburg. After the death of his 
father he was the oldest of the minor children, who 
were taken to the house of their grandfather, Alex- 
ander Johnston, at Kingston. They remained there, 
and Thomas attended the Greensburg Academy in its 
halcyon days, and completed his classical education 
at Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg. He then studied 
law under the late Hon. Henry Donnell Foster, and 
had the use of his deceased father's large law library, 
his father having been a lawyer of prominence. At 
the August term of court in 1844 (in his twentieth 
year) he was admitted to the Westmoreland bar. In 
November following (when he had not yet reached 
his majority) he was appointed district attorney for 
the county, which position he held several years. 
He went to the Mexican war as second sergeant under 
Capt. John W. Johnston in the Second Pennsylvania 
Regiment. He was afterwards promoted to the first 
lieutenancy. After the war he was treasurer of the 
county for two years. In 1854 he abandoned the law 
and became a banker, becoming in a few years one 
of the leading bankers in Western Pennsylvania. 
On Sept. 5, 1854, he was married to Miss Rebecca, 
daughter of Hon. Joseph H. Kuhus, then residing in 
the Jack mansion in East Greensburg, by Rev. Fay- 
ette Derling, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
To this happy marriage there were ten children, all 
but one of whom are living. He was a great factor 
in the politics of the county, and while he never made 
any public demonstrations, yet his advice and counsel 
were always sought in an important political cam- 
paign, and in 1879 was chairman of the Democratic 
County Committee. His funeral was conducted by 
Rev. J. B. Jennings, of the Episcopal Church, with the 
following pall-bearers : John Armstrong, Jas. Gregg, 
J. A. Marchand, John W. Turney, Col. James Arm- 
strong, Leopold Furtwangler, and Lewis Trauger. 



GREENSBURG. 



5^5 



GEORGE F. HUFF. 

George F. Huff, banker and operator in coal and 
coke, now resident of Greensburg, is a native of Mont- 
gomery County, Pa., and is of German stock, his an- 
cestors on his paternal side having come to America 
from Bavaria. On his mother's side he is also of Ger- 
man descent. He is the son of George and Caroline 
Boyer Huff, both of whom are now dead, and who 
were respectively natives of Hoof's (Huff's) Church 
and Boyertown, Berks Co., Pa. They were the parents 
of eleven children, six of whom are living; among 
them, Henry B. Huff, Esq., a banker and oil operator 
in Bradford County, Pa., and William A. Huff, en- 
gaged in the banking business and a resident of 
Greensburg. 

George F. Huff was born in Norristown, Pa., July 
16, 1842, and when about four years of age was taken 
by his parents to Middletown, Dauphin Co., Pa., to 
which place they removed, and where he attended 
the public schools. They removed in 1851 to Altoona, 
Blair Co., where he went to school till about the age 
of eighteen years, when he entered the shops of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company there located, to 
learn the car-finishing trade, at which he was en- 
gaged for some .three years. He then, on recom- 
mendation of his railroad employers, received invi- 
tation to position in the banking-house of William 
M. Lloyd & Co., where he was occupied until 1865, 
when he was sent by that company to Ebensburg, 
Cambria Co., to establish there a banking-house, of 
which he was made cashier. He remained there a 
year, meanwhile putting the bank on a firm footing, 
and was then recalled to the home house in Altoona. 
Remaining there a year he was again sent out on 
missionary work, this time to establish banks at La- 
trobe, Greensburg, Irwin's Station, and Mount Pleas- 
ant, Westmoreland Co., which he did, and became 
one of the firm owning and controlling the same, 
under the name of Lloyd, Huff & Co. The business 
of all of these banks was conducted by Mr. Huff, suc- 
cessfully at first, but in the panic of 1873 they were 
overwhelmed in the general disaster, on account of 
the extending of aid by Mr. Huff to others connected 
in business with him. 

Immediately thereafter, or in 1874, the Greensburg 
Banking Company was organized, and Mr. Huff was 
appointed cashier. This banking-house under his 
management enjoys the full confidence of the public, 
and does a large and flourishing business. 

In 1871 "The Farmers' National Bank of Greens- 
burg" was established, with a capital of $100,000, Mr. 
Huff being made its president. But in 1873 he re- 
signed his post, the bank being at that time reorgan- 
ized, Gen. Richard Coulter becoming its president, 
and Mr. Hurl' being unanimously elected its cashier. 
In consequence of the general depression in business 
incident to the panic of that time it was deemed ad- 
visable to remove the bank to Pittsburgh, where, legis- 
lation having been obtained to effect the purpose, it 
34 



was re-established as the " Fifth National Bank of 
Pittsburgh," Mr. Hurt' being chosen one of its direc- 
tors and elected as vice-president. He has since 
severed his official relations with that bank, though 
a stockholder thereof, on account of the increase of 
his banking business at Greensburg, and because of 
various other enterprises in which he is interested. 

Aside from his banking business, Mr. Hurt' is ex- 
tensively engaged in the mining of bituminous coal 
and the manufacture of and shipping of coke, being 
interested with Gen. Coulter, under the firm-name of 
Coulter & Huff, and with the Argyle Coal Company, 
George F. Huff & Co., the Mutual Mining and Manu- 
facturing Company, and with Gen. Coulter and the 
Hon. James C. Clarke in the Greensburg Coal Com- 
pany. Mr. Hurt' was instrumental in organizing and 
establishing the United Coal and Coke Company, 
which does business in Westmoreland County, and 
of which he is a director. 

In the operations of these several companies many 
hundred persons find profitable and steady employ- 
ment. 

March 16, 1871, Mr. Huff married Henrietta Bur- 
rell, daughter of the Hon. Jeremiah Murry Burrell, 
deceased, formerly president judge of the Tenth Ju- 
dicial District of Pennsylvania, and subsequently 
United States associate judge of the Territory of Kan- 
sas, and who died Oct. 21, 1856. 

Mr. and Mrs. Huff have beeu the parents of six 
children, two of whom are living,— Lloyd Burrell and 
Julian Burrell. 



CAPT. JAMES J. WIRSING. 

Capt. James J. Wirsiug, of Greensburg, is the son 
of John and Mary Shafer Wirsing, and was born in 
the township of Donegal, Westmoreland Co., Nov. 9, 
1840. His father, who died in 1852, was the son of 
John Wirsing, a native of Germany, who migrated in 
manhood to America about 1790, and some time there- 
after married at Philadelphia Catharine Elizabeth 
Althart, a native of Germany, whose acquaintance he 
made on board the ship which bore them to the 
country, and after living a while in Westmoreland 
County settled in Somerset County, on a farm near 
Petersburg, upon which he had a vineyard, of the 
fruits of which he made wine. He was, however, by 
trade a cooper, and was also an itinerant Methodist 
preacher, who worked at his trade during secular 
days, and preached here and there on Sundays. He 
was the father of several children, all of whom are 
now dead excepting one, Mr. Henry Wirsing, an aged 
man, who resides in Somerset County, Pa. Of the 
children above referred to was one named John, the 
father of Capt. Wirsing. He was born Jan. 7, 1798, 
and growing up became a farmer, and remained such 
during life. Dec. 18, 1821, he married Mary Shafer, 
daughter of Peter Shafer, of Westmoreland County, 



526 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



by whom he had nine children, seven of whom are 
living: Peter, deceased; Catharine, intermarried with 
John Kooser, now of Iowa; Eliza, who married W. 
R. Hunter, Esq., of Donegal, Westmoreland Co. ; 
Harriet, the wife of H. M. MillhofT, of Donegal ; 
Margaret, deceased; Thomas, now living in Illinois; 
John S. ; Jeremiah, a resident of Somerset County ; 
and James J. 

Capt. James J. Wirsing received his early education 
in the common and select schools of Donegal, and 
learned the plastering trade, and just after arriving 
at majority enlisted a company of soldiers for the 
late war in Ligonier Valley, and was chosen lieuten- 
ant. The company reported to Harrisburg, and there 
drilled for a while, when it selected the Eighty-fourth 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry as the one 
to which it desired to be attached, and joined the 
regiment at Arlington Heights in the latter part of 
September, 1862. The regiment immediately pro- 
ceeded to the seat of active war, at first joining the 
Third Army Corps, under Maj.-Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, 
and participated in various battles, among which was 
the fearful fight at Fredericksburg, as well as the 
battle of Chancellorsville, in which Lieut. Wirsing 
was shot twice, through the leg and hip. The loss of 
the Eighty-fourth Regiment was so severe at the battle 
of Chancellorsville that, together with its prior losses, 
it came off that field with only about one hundred and 
fifty men and officers, Lieut. Wirsing being furloughed 
for sixty days on account of his wounds, and return- 
ing home. What remained of his regiment eventually 
went with the army to Gettysburg, on the way to 
which place, at Edwards' Ferry, on the Potomac, 
Lieut. Wirsing rejoined his command. At Gettys- 
burg he and his men were detailed to protect the 
army trains in the rear. After the battle of Gettys- 
burg they crossed over into Virginia and went into 
camp. At about this time the Third Army Corps was 
disbanded, and one division of its forces was placed 
in the Second Army Corps under Gen. Hancock. To 
this division belonged Lieut. Wirsing, who, in August, 
1863, was promoted to a captaincy. He thereafter 
participated in many battles, being engaged in all of 
those of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, 
etc., on till Oct. 4, 1864, when he was severely wounded 
through both shoulders and his left thigh, and left in 
the field for dead, but was taken up by the enemy and 
carried off. After being held for nine days, during 
which he was confined in Libby Prison, being com- 
fortably cared for by a detail of Union soldiers who 
were prisoners also, he was, under a general agree- 
ment between the government and the Confederacy 
whereby soldiers unfit for duty for three months were 
exchanged, paroled and sent to hospital at Annapolis, 
Md., where he remained till December, 1864, and 
then received leave of absence from the War Depart- 
ment, returned home, and being unable to rejoin his 
regiment was honorably discharged in January, 1865, 
as " a prisoner of war," under a clause of the agree- 



ment above referred to between the government and 
the Confederacy, and was therefore never duly "ex- 
changed." 

Since the war Capt. Wirsing has been engaged in 
various avocations, and is now conducting the business 
of insurance. At the fall election of 1878 he was 
chosen treasurer of Westmoreland County for the 
period of three years, and entered upon the duties of 
his office Jan. 1, 1879, and ably and honorably ful- 
filled the same during his official term. 

June 5, 1867, Capt. Wirsing married Miss Lottie 
Fluke, daughter of William and Elizabeth Moore 
Fluke, of Bedford, Pa. Capt. and Mrs. Wirsing are 
the parents of six children, the first five born in 
Mount Pleasant, and the sixth in Greensburg. Their 
respective names are Myrtle, Edgar, William F., Her- 
bert, Mary Elizabeth, and Ralph. 



DAVID WILSON SHRYOCK. 

David W. Shryock, Esq., of Greensburg, is a native 
of Westmoreland County, and was born in 1816, eight 
miles north of that borough, upon a farm which his 
grandfather purchased in 1782, for " forty-five pounds, 
Pennsylvania currency," the deed of which is regis- 
tered on page 55 of volume i. of Westmoreland 
County records of deeds. His ancestry on his pater- 
nal side were German. John Shryock, his great- 
grandfather, with two brothers of his, and with other 
German Palatines, landed in Philadelphia in 1733. 
He settled in York County, Pa., where he died in 1778. 

On his maternal side Mr. Shryock is of English de- 
scent, his ancestors having been of the number who 
constituted one of William Penn's colonies. They 
settled in Bucks County, Pa. His grandfather, David 
Wilson, served several years in the Revolutionary war. 

Mr. Shryock, being the oldest of four brothers and 
three sisters, like all in the days of his childhood 
born upon farms, was put down to hard work from 
boyhood. Until he attained his majority he had to 
content himself with such limited means of education 
as the very common schools this part of the State 
afforded sixty years ago. At the age of twenty-one 
years he struck out for himself in the world, and 
spent most of three years as a member of an engineer 
corps in the service of the State of Indiana, and which 
was engaged making preliminary surveys and locating 
lines which have since been utilized by corporations 
in building some of the railroads in that State. 

At the age of twenty-seven years he married a Miss 
Dickie, daughter of a worthy farmer in the county, 
and to gratify the wishes of his parents he took up 
his residence at the old homestead, where he con- 
ducted the farming operations for several years. In the 
fall of 1850 he purchased the office of the Westmore- 
land Intelligencer, a weekly newspaper, published at 
Greensburg, and the organ of the old Whig party in 
the county. He moved to town, and on the 8th of 
November, 1850, the first issue under his editorial 




tu^ ^^^t> 



GREENSBURG. 



527 



conduct of that paper appeared. The construction 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad through the county 
was then in progress. The heavy work in the vi- 
cinity of Greensburg brought there a large increase 
of population, which gave a new impetus to its 
growth and enterprise, making dwellings and suita- 
ble business houses scarce. For several years Mr. 
Shryock, like all other new-comers, labored under in- 
conveniences from this source, but in 1855 he pur- 
chased a lot on Main Street, adjoining the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, from which a previous owner had re- 
moved all the antiquated buildings. On this he erected 
that year the large two-storied brick now there, and 
which he designed for his dwelling and printing- 
office mainly, but had in it also a law-office and store- 
room to rent. At that time it was among the best and 
most modernly constructed houses in town, — the first 
dwelling with a metallic roof, — and has doubtless 
yielded the owner the largest revenue on the original 
cost of any building in the place. 

Mr. Shryock subsequently changed the name of his 
paper to that of the Greensburg Herald, and from the 
time he entered upon his editorial career up till 1870, 
twenty years, his was the only organ in the county 
to antagonize the old Democratic party, which up to 
1860 was in the majority from one to two thousand 
votes. Some of the gubernatorial and Presidential 
campaigns between 1850 and 1870 were very heated, 
and sometimes bitter and personal. During that 
period there were times very trying to those at the 
head of public journals, who realized the responsibil- 
ities of the position, and felt the necessity of mould- 
ing a right public sentiment on all the questions be- 
fore the country. The editorial columns of the old 
Herald bear ample testimony to Mr. Shryock's faith- 
fulness in the position he occupied, as well as fear- 
lessness in the advocacy of the doctrines of the party 
with which he affiliated, and his true loyalty to his 
country during the four years of civil war. He seems 
to have had the confidence and respect of his party in 
an unusually high degree. He was made one of the 
delegates for the Twenty-first District to the National 
Republican Convention of 1860, where he voted for 
the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, after casting his first 
ballot for Mr. Cameron under instructions from the 
State Convention. 

In August, 1862, after the passage by Congress of the 
first internal revenue act, Mr. Shryock was commis- 
sioned by the President assessor of internal revenue 
for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania, then 
embracing the counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, 
and Indiana. This office imposed upon its incumbent 
duties of the most laborious, responsible, and perplex- 
ing character. Here was a new law to execute, the 
provisions of which were new to everybody. It taxed 
for war purposes every branch of business in the coun- 
try. In its execution the assessor and his assistants 
were the first officers to come in contact face to face 
with the people, allay their prejudices, and try to re- 



concile to and secure their prompt compliance with 
the law. Nor was this all : there were no decisions, 
explanations, or instructions, based upon the law to 
guide them in determining the true meaning of its 
elaborate and multifarious requirements. And yet 
justice and uniformity in its interpretation were ex- 
pected at their hands. For over four years he dis- 
charged the. duties of that office, and at the same time 
edited and published the Herald. But his loyalty to 
the Republican party and its pronounced doctrines, 
and his refusal to indorse Andrew Johnson and those 
who became his special exponents and had practi- 
cally left the party, among them Senator Cowan (in 
aid of whose election as senator Mr. Shryock had 
given his best endeavors), procured the latter's re- 
moval from office. Soon thereafter Mr. Shryock as- 
sociated with him in the publication of the Herald 
his son, John D. Shryock, who was then chief clerk 
in the Soldiers' Orphans' School Department at Har- 
risburg, under the administration of Governor Geary. 
His son's health, however, failed, and he died in 
October, 1871. Soon thereafter the health of Mrs. 
Shryock, the mother of his six children, gave way 
also and she died. Under these afflictions Mr. Shry- 
ock disposed of his newspaper to two gentlemen, who 
immediately united it with the Tribune, which had 
been started eighteen months previously by J. R. Mc- 
Afee, Esq., and since the early part of the year 1872 
the Tribune and Herald has been a weekly organ of 
the Republican party in the county. 

Then for the first time in his life Mr. Shryock was 
practically out of business for four months. How- 
ever, in May, 1872, he was appointed and confirmed 
collector of internal revenue for the old Twenty-first 
District, and entered upon the duties of that office on 
the 21st of that month. This position he filled till 
Oct. 1, 1876, when the district was divided, and the 
counties composing it were consolidated with the 
Twenty-second and Twenty-third Districts. Mean- 
time he had again married, in March, 1874, Miss 
Martin, of Northumberland, and the fell destroyer 
had carried away his second daughter at the age of 
twenty-three, his only remaining son at the age of 
twenty-one, leaving him but two daughters, the 
eldest married, and the youngest, the latter also pass- 
ing away at the age of sixteen years in November, 
1877. He was now just where he was as to family 
thirty-four years previously. In January, 1878, he 
and his wife removed to Mount Pleasant, an old town, 
twelve miles south of Greensburg, in the coking coal 
region, where, associated with two other gentlemen, a 
private banking-house was opened, he taking charge 
of it as cashier. In the three and a half years he re- 
mained connected with that enterprise they built up 
a nice and remunerative business, the house gaining 
the confidence of the public to as large an extent as 
he could possibly have hoped. 

For several reasons, among them the fact that the 
location and surroundings were not deemed comfort- 



528 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



able and healthful, on account of the sooty atmos- 
phere, produced by the vast and constantly-increasing 
quantity of coal being converted into coke, Mr. Shry- 
ock resolved to change his base. In September, 1881, 
he, with a number of other gentleman of large means 
in the county, subscribed the stock and organized 
"The Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank of 
Greensburg." Selling all his interest in the "Mount 
Pleasant Bank," Mr. Shryock returned to Greens- 
burg, and was made cashier of the new bank, which 
opened for business Oct. 24, 1881, with a paid-up 
capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to 
the interests of which he is now giving his undivided 
attention. 

An earnest man, he is conscientious and zealous in 
all he undertakes. And although while he was en- 
gaged in politics his antagonisms with his fellow- 
citizens of the Democratic party were at times sharp, 
yet he has in that party some of his warmest personal 
friends, who esteem him highly for his integrity and 
generous social qualities. In religious faith Mr. 
Shryock is a Presbyterian, having united with that 
church in early life. At the age of thirty-three years, 
in 1849, he was chosen and ordained a ruling elder, 
and has exercised that office in his church ever since. 
In 1857 and in 1866 he was honored with a seat in the 
General Assembly as one of the commissioners from 
his Presbytery. He inherited a robust constitution 
from an ancestry of strong mental and physical de- 
velopment, and long-lived, some of them reaching 
the age of ninety-five years. Now in his sixty-sixth 
year, weighing over two hundred pounds, he is as 
strong and active on his feet as many men at forty. 
He and his most estimable wife have a very comfort- 
able and attractive home, in a pleasant part of the 
town, where, by their cheerfulness and proverbial 
hospitality, they make the many friends who visit 
them full welcome and happy. 



J. \V. MOORE. 

Mr. J. W. Moore, whose portrait appears in this 
book, resides in Greensburg. He is a gentleman 
well and favorably known in the business circles of 
Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, in which he 
has large coal and coke interests, especially in the 
coke-works of J. W. Moore & Co. in South Union 
township, Fayette County, called the Redstone Coke- 
Works. 

The following description of the Redstone Works is 
taken from the " History of Fayette County" : 

" These works, owned and operated by J. W. Moore 
& Co., are situated about three miles south of Union- 
town, near the railroad leading from that town to 
Fairchance. The property embraces about six hun- 
dred acres of land, with a frontage of nearly two miles 
along the railroad. A part of this land was purchased 
in 1880, and the construction of ovens then com- 
menced. On the 1st of May, 1881, seventy-five 
were completed, and ninety-five have since been 
added. It is the intention of the owners to increase 
the number to three hundred. 

" The mine is entered by a slope or ' dip-heading,' 
with a grade of one foot in twelve, and has been ex- 
tended to six hundred feet. Three hundred feet 
from the entrance is the first fiat-heading, which 
extends southward, and from this another runs par- 
allel with the slope-heading. 

" Several blocks of houses, each containing eight 
rooms, and intended for use of the miners, have been 
built at the works. A large brick store-building has 
also been erected. Two stone quarries have been 
opened on the property near the oven-beds. The 
location of the works is near the head of a mountain 
stream, which furnishes an abundant supply of pure 
water. The coke manufactured here is contracted 
for by J. D. Spearman Iron Company, in Mercer 
County, Pa." 



HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION, BOUNDARIES, En. 

Hempfield township was organized April 6, 1773. 
Its boundaries, determined by the judges of the first 
Court of General Quarter Sessions, were : 

Beginning at the mouth of Crabtree Run and running down the 
Loyalhanna to the junction of the Conemaugh River; thence down the 
Kiskiminetas to the mouth (hereof; thence with a straight line to the 
head of Brush Run ; thence down Brush Run to Brush Creek ; thence 
with a straight line to the mouth of the Youghiogheny ; thence up 
the same to the mouth of Jacobs Creek, to the line of Mount Pleasant 
township. 



Its present boundaries are north by Salem, north- 
east by Unity, southeast by Mount Pleasant, south 
by East Huntingdon, southwest by South Hunting- 
don, west by Sewickley, and northwest by North 
Huntingdon and Penn townships. 1 



1 By act of 14th March, 1845, that portion of the township of Hemp- 
field which lies south of the Big Sewickley Creek was attached to and 
directed to thereafter constitute a part of the township of East Hun- 
tingdon, and that the said creek should thereafter be the division line 
between the said two townships. 

In 1872 a part of the division line was changed between Penn and 




^ %»u. 



HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



529 



The township contains some very fertile land, and 
an abundance of coal underlies its soil. It is well 
supplied with schools and churches and other evi- 
dences of well-defined civilization and intelligence. 

The officers chosen at the first township election 
were John Brown, constable; Samuel Miller and 
Alexander Thompson, overseers of the poor ; and 
Wendell Oury, supervisor. Its citizens are of an in- 
dustrious and prudent character, as were their ances- 
tors before them, who left to their posterity the ex- 
cellent characteristics they possessed. 

The first settlers were nearly all Germans, mostly 
from the eastern and southern counties, with some 
direct from the fatherland, and all of the Lutheran 
or Reformed faith in religion. Among them were 
John Harroldfthe Brinigs, Froelichs, Henrys, Ruglis, 
Allemans, Drums, Ottermans, Marchands (from 
Switzerland), Benders (now called Painters), Kun- 
kels, Longs, Gaugweres, Detars, Rosensteels, Millers, 
Snyders, Turneys, Fritchmans, Miihlisens, Klingen- 
smitbs, Myers, Steinmetz, Strohs, Altmans, Thomases, 
Barnharts, Mechlings, Haines, Buergers, Urics, Tru- 
bys, Rohrers, Williamses, Huffnagles, Ehrenfriedts, 
Alshauses, Hubers, Kemps, Reamers, Keppels, Al- 
wines, Kiehls, Smiths, Silvis, Kemerers, Kifers, 
Shrunis, Whiteheads, Saams, Byerlys, Eisemans, 
Clines, Walt-hours, Baughmans, Detmars, Wageles, 
Corts, Grosses, Seaners, and others. 

These worthy pioneers constituted no inconsider- 
able part of the hardy and substantial people who 
gave character to this part of Westmoreland, and 
from them have descended many of the most promi- 
nent citizens of the county, and others who have 
removed to distant parts of the United States. 

HARROLD'S, OR ST. JOHN'S REFORMED CHURCH. 
This was one of Rev. John William Weber's Origi- 
nal churches, and its congregation, with that of Brush 
Creek, divides the honor of being the oldest of the 
Reformed faith in Western Pennsylvania. Balthazer 
Myer, a German schoolmaster, gives us the names of 
children baptized by himself before they had a min- 
ister, together with their age and the names of parents 
and spopsors. The first on the list is 

Peter, born 11th September, 1771 ; baptized Aug. 2, 1772. Parents 
Anthony Walter and Elizabeth. Sponsors, Frederick Reiss and Su- 
sanna Elizabeth Alteman. 

The last child he baptized was 

Susanna, born 30th May, 1782; baptized June 4, 1782. Parents, John 
Rudolph and Christina. 

Then follows a list of children baptized in Zion's 
Church by different ministers. Of these the first 
child was 

John Adam, born -7th November, 1784 ; baptized 25th December, 1783. 
Parents, Adam Myers and Elizabeth. Sponsors, Peter Eisanian and 
Anna Barbara. 

Hempfield townships for the convenience of the people in school and 
other purposes. The point commenced on the farm of George Detur, and 
ran to that of J. H. Orr, in Hempfield township. 



Rev. John William Weber became pastor in June, 
1783, and the first child he baptized was 

Daniel, horn 19th November, 1782 ; baptized 8th June, 1783. Parents, 
John Hurrold and Barbara. Sponsors, William Altman and Barbara. 

The Lutheran pastor at this time was Rev. Anthony 
Ulrich Lutje. The first record of Lutheran commu- 
nicants was in October, 1791, under the pastorate of 
Rev. John Michael Steck. In 1785 a warrant was 
taken out by Michael Rugh and Anthony Altman 
for one hundred and fifty-eight acres for church and 
school purposes. This was recorded in 1789, and a 
patent issued the same year. Before regular preachers 
came to this section, the German schoolmasters, like 
Balthazer Myer, led the religious services of the 
people, reading sermons and conducting the worship 
on Sunday, and teaching in the school during the 
week. Among these lay teachers were Michael 
Zunsel, George Bushjager, and Charles Sheifler. 
One hundred and eight acres of the land was sold in 
1793 to Rev. A. U. Lutje for sixty pounds, which 
proceeds went to the joint coffers of the Reformed 
and Lutheran congregations. The remaining fifty 
acres, with church and school-house, by agreement 
mutually signed Sept. 24, 1791, was to remain from 
that day forever the joint property of both the Lu- 
theran and Reformed organizations, " to be used for 
church and school purposes till the end of the world." 
The property was intended from the first for the joint 
use of the two churches named, but the patent was 
issued to the Lutherans only. To satisfy the Re- 
formed party a bond was given in their favor to cover 
their rightful claim. It was signed by Valentine 
Steiner, William Altman, Anthony Altman, and 
Jacob Seanor, and was for three hundred pounds, and 
was made to Jacob Painter and Nicholas Alleman, in 
trust for the Reformed Church. On Nov. 28, 1819, a 
deed was made for this undivided half by Jacob 
Haines and Jacob Miller to Barnet Thomas and 
Peter Baum, Reformed trustees. The first building 
erected on these church lands was a log school-house, 
to which was afterwards added a dwelling-house, con- 
nected therewith by a covered hall. In this school- 
house worship was held, and even after the log 
church was built, owing to the want of stoves or 
heaters in it, public services in cold weather were 
held in the former. Extensive repairs to the old and 
first house of worship in 1794. The log church was 
begun and raised to the height of the first story, but 
owing to Indian troubles it was left standing in that 
unfinished condition for years. Before anything was 
done again towards resuming work upon it the 
sprouts and underbrush had grown up inside the 
structure, so that the ground had to be cleared oft" the 
second time. The church building was spacious, but 
had but one door. The floor was made of puncheons, 
and the seats of hewn logs. There was a gallery 
open in front on the right hand side, which had rough 
seats, and to which a rude stairway led. 

At first there was only a plain table serving for an 



530 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



altar. The original pulpit, after the wine-glass pat- 
tern, is now in the Muhlisen Church. It was a shaky 
affair, that creaked and rocked and swayed a good 
deal as you mounted its lofty height. It was sur- 
mounted with a small sounding-board painted in blue 
color, with a canopy showing the sun, moon, and stars 
in white. The window-glass of the church were often 
broken, and the windows left unrepaired, so that the 
squirrels and birds had free access to the inside of the 
church. And they were frequently seen sporting 
about and diverting themselves, as well as the younger 
part of the audience during the hours of regular 
worship. In course of time a new school-house was 
built, in which in severe weather worship was held. 
In 1828 George Eisaman moved into the school- 
house, and next year he built, on a lease, a tenant- 
house, and in 1850 the barn was erected. On May 
28, 1829, the corner-stone of the present stone church 
edifice was laid. Bernard Thomas and Jacob Haines 
were the building committee. It was dedicated in 
1830, when Revs. Voight and Switzerbart were pres- 
ent with the Lutheran and Reformed pastors. The 
building was repaired, papered, and painted in 1855. 
Its graveyard, the oldest in the county, was enlarged 
in 1867, and the new portion regularly laid out in 
lots. The first pastor, Rev. John William Weber, 
came from Northampton County, and first found a 
home in a log cabin on Garrett Thomas' place till he 
secured a more suitable place. He then purchased a 
farm for himself on the Sewickley, late the property of 
Col. Israel Painter (now deceased). There he resided 
till his death, in July, 1816. His remains were in- 
terred in the Muhlisen graveyard, and the resting- 
place left unmarked for fifty years. In 1874 the 
church and his relatives jointly erected a neat monu- 
ment to his memory. Rev. Henry Habliston, of Bal- 
timore, was pastor from 1816 to 1819. His successor, 
Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke, D.D., entered upon his 
duties in October, 1819, and served it for threescore 
years without interruption and with a large measure 
of success. 

BRUSH CREEK REFORMED CHURCH. 

At an early day in the primitive settlement of this 
county members of the two German Churches were 
accustomed to meet in assemblies at Loutzenheiser's 
and Davis', where they held religious services and 
offered divine worship. These services were at first 
conducted without a minister, and consisted in sing- 
ing from their German hymn-books, reading the 
Bible, and offering prayers from their German prayer- 
books, and hearing sermons read from sermon-books 
by the schoolmaster. In 1783, Rev. John William 
Weber became the first pastor. At the advice of Dr. 
David Marchand, a native of Switzerland, the early 
settlers on Brush Creek took up for church and school 
purposes one hundred and eighty-two acres of un- 
seated lands. This was a portion of a tract of three 
hundred and fortv-seven acres, of which Dr. Mar- 



chand had himself entered one hundred and sixty- 
five acres, now Mrs. Walthour's farm. A patent was 
accordingly taken out for the above land in Dr. 
Marchand's name Nov. 14, 1792, he having advanced 
the money meanwhile in order to secure this property 
for the two German churches. He made a deed to 
the two congregations on July 20, 1797, for £28 12s. 
6d., the money before advanced. The first building 
erected was a log school-house, which was used as the 
first house of worship. It was afterwards burned 
while the people of the neighborhood were absent, 
having temporarily left their homes on account of the 
Indian troubles. Subsequently the first church was 
built. It was a structure of hewn logs, with only one 
door, and that at the gable end. Its floor was of 
puncheons, the seats hewn logs ; there was no pulpit, 
no gallery, and a common table served for the altar. 
Aug. 17, 1816, the corner-stone of the present brick 
edifice was laid, but it was not completed until 1820, 
when it was dedicated by the Lutheran and Reformed 
pastors, assisted by Rev. Henry Gerhart, of Bedford, 
who preached the sermon. Subscriptions towards its 
erection having fallen far short of the sum needed, 
John Shrum and Adam Baughman, trustees, were 
authorized by an act of the Legislature to sell eighty- 
two acres of the church lands. These were sold in 
parcels at from fifteen to twenty dollars per acre. The 
church lost five hundred dollars by getting into a 
lawsuit with the contractor for the brick-work. Jacob 
Dry did the carpenter-work. April 27, 1864, the 
Legislature authorized the selling of forty-one acres 
of the coal underlying the church land. The pro- 
ceeds of this sale amounted to five thousand three 
hundred and thirty dollars. The present commodious 
dwelling-house was built by Peter Whitehead and 
Michael Baughman, trustees. The church was in- 
closed by a good fence, and the graveyard enlarged. 
Ornamental shade-trees were planted, and other ser- 
viceable improvements made. A new pulpit, with 
altar space and platform, were erected. Some years 
after a new roof was put on, new seats and windows 
made, and other needed improvements added. 

In 1870 a nine-hundred-dollar pipe-organ was put 
into the church. Rev. Weber's pastorate extended 
from June, 1783, to July, 1816. During the early 
part of his labors here it was necessary for each man 
to carry his trusty rifle along to church, in order to 
protect the people from the sudden surprises and sav- 
age attacks of the hostile Indians. A rifle company, 
to which Samuel Adams belonged, kept itself in 
readiness at an hour's notice to march to the relief 
and protection of the settlers from the stealthy foe. 
Catechization by the pastor was in those early times 
generally held in private houses. Young people 
came from the Kiskiminetas River, from the Alle- 
man settlement in Butler County, and from Puckety 
Run to be taught the gospel way of salvation. Many 
would stay during the winter's course of instruction 
with their friends or hospitable Reformed families 





^^Wf^^J^^iC 



HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



531 



till after they were confirmed in the faith of their 
fathers. It happened once that during the week be- 
fore Easter, when the catechumens had assembled 
there in the old church with their venerable pastor 
for their two sessions a day, the place was unusually 
cold. He directed the shivering boys and girls to 
build a brush-heap near the church, and then fire it 
during the intermission between forenoon and after- 
noon sessions. And around its blazing heat they 
warmed themselves till, at the call of the old min- 
ister, they piously returned to resume the afternoon 
services. Bonnets were not then worn by the young 
women who attended these classes, nor at church. A 
clean kerchief neatly put on was the female head- 
gear then. And if, perchance, aged mothers or some 
matronly dames of prime years could cover their 
heads with a wool or beaver hat, they thought them- 
selves dressed in most fashionable style. But if some 
of these would possibly wear their hats to church, 
they would invariably lay them aside on going to the 
communion, and would wear only their neat white 
caps. Mr. Weber's successor, Rev. Henry Habliston, 
served from 1816 to 1819 as pastor, and was succeeded 
in October of the latter year by Rev. Nicholas P. 
Hacke, D.D., then quite a youth. He preached 
some sixty years. The joint constitution of the two 
congregations — Reformed and Lutheran — who hold 
this property was adopted when the corner-stone 
was laid. It is recorded in George Keek's record- 
book, given in 1806 for the purpose of keeping the 
church registry. At that meeting John Shrum was 
president, and Jacob Eisaman secretary. George 
Burger transcribed the documents. This and Har- 
rold's Church are the mothers of many surrounding 
churches, and have sent forth to the West and else- 
where hundreds of pious families, who in other fields 
have become laborers in the great religious vineyard. 

ST. PAUL'S, OR SEANOR'S REFORMED CHURCH. 

It is not known when St. Paul's congregation was 
organized, but its territory was in June, 1783, in- 
cluded in Rev. John William Weber's missionary 
field of labor. He died in July, 1816, and at some 
time during his pastorate he established this congre- 
gation. It is certainly older than the Miihlisen, or 
Milliron, congregation, which was organized in 1812- 
13. The article of agreement by which the latter's 
church property was conveyed is dated March 6, 1813. 
Before Mr. Weber's death there was a log church 
rudely built and furnished, on the present site of the 
Seanor Church. It was not finished until in the same 
year (1816) Rev. William Weinel became pastor. 
He was a schoolmaster and organist in Northampton 
County, and studied theology under both the older 
and younger Dr. Becker, the former of Baltimore, 
the latter of Northampton County. His pastorate 
lasted until 1828 or 1829, when he resigned and moved 
to the northern part of the county. It was then served 
for four years by Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke, who, in 



1832, was succeeded by Rev. H. E. F. Voight, right 
from the fatherland. He continued to January, 
1862, but for the five years previous Rev. L. H. Ke- 
fauver had supplied the congregation with English 
preaching. Rev. H. W. Super was pastor from April, 
1862, for three years, followed in January, 1866, by 
Rev. George H. Johnston for a year. After this it 
was served by Rev. T. J. Barkley for nine months. 
It was then attached to the Mount Pleasant charge, 
and served by Rev. J. H. Sykes for one year. In the 
fall of 1868, Rev. N. P. Hacke, D.D., was appointed 
as German supply, and Rev. T. J. Barkley as the 
English. This arrangement continued one year, 
when Rev. L. B. Leasure became supply for one 
year. At the end of this time the congregation was 
for the second time attached to the Second Greens- 
burg charge, under which, in November, 1870, Rev. 
John W. Love became its pastor. A good brick 
church was built in 1837, and this was replaced by 
the present brick edifice, erected in 1875, both owned 
jointly by the Lutherans and Reformed. 

The officers of the congregation in olden times were 
William Beck, Tobias Long, Adam Truxel, Samuel 
Pool, George Hawk, Lewis Long, George Albright, 
Jacob Fox, Peter Miller, Abraham Long, and John 
Knaughman. Among those still or lately living who 
served as elders or deacons are John Truxel (of 
Greensburg), Jacob Mechling, Frederick Long, John 
Hartzel, John R. Kingdig, Isaac Fox, John Sell, 
Levi Fox, Harrison H. Painter, Davis Truxel, Jonas 
Miller (the last two of Pleasant Unity of late). From 
1870 to 1876, the membership increased from forty- 
two to sixty-two. 

TOWNS, VILLAGES AXD HAMLETS. 
LIIDWICK 
adjoins Greensburg, and is generally taken for a' 
part of the latter, especially by strangers. It is a 
separate municipality, however, it having received 
corporate honors Feb. 17, 1859. It is a flourishing 
town, and its close proximity to the county-seat gives 
it a value not enjoyed by other towns of more general 
importance. It takes its name from the owner of the 
tract of land on which its site is located, Ludwick 
Ottoman, sometimes written Otterman. 1 

NEW STANTON. 

This village is located seven miles southwest of 
Greensburg, on the Clay pike. It was laid out by 
Benjamin Snyder on the old " Glade Road" leading 
from Somerset to Pittsburgh, in the beginning of the 
century. His plan of the place recites that he laid 
it out at the earnest solicitation of a number of en- 
terprising and industrious citizens. In 1870, it had 
but one hundred and forty-five inhabitants, and its 

1 There has been from the earliest usage of this word an arbitrary 
spelling. Of the authorities consulted there is a disagreement, not 
reconcilable. The first form appears to have the preference, and in all 
probability was his correct name. 



532 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



buildings were old and dilapidated. Since then its 
progress has been rapid and many elegant buildings 
have been erected. Its excellent school edifice was 
erected in 1871. At that time John Sell was the prin- 
cipal merchant and carried on the tannery. J. Steiner 
had a tinning establishment ; J. Moore & Son, a sad- 
dlery-shop ; and Harry Byers and J. C. Steiner, boot- 
and shoe-shops; Dr. R. E. Fulton was the physician; 
and H. P. Horbaugh, the druggist. 

Trinity Reformed Church. — In 1872 a few Reformed 
people and others living here requested Rev. John 
W. Love, the Reformed pastor at Seanor's and 
Greensburg, to preach here once a mouth. He con- 
sented, and every four weeks preached in the after- 
noon or at night in the old Union Church in the sum- 
mer, and in the school-house in the winter. The 
corner-stone of its edifice was laid June 12, 1875, 
Rev. W. W. Moorhead, of the Greensburg Presby- 
terian Church, preaching the sermon, and Rev. John 
W. Love conducting the other services. During the 
summer a neat Gothic frame church was built, furn- 
ished, and a bell placed in the steeple. It was dedi- 
cated Nov. 14, 1875, when the following ministers 
officiated therein : Revs. W. C. B. Schullenberger, of 
Scottdale ; D. B. Lady, of Mount Pleasant ; A. E. 
Truxel, of Somerset; J. W. Love, L. B. Leasure, and 
Luciau Cont. On December 12th following the con- 
gregation was formally organized with the following 
members: John Sell, Melissa Sell, Tobias Long, L. 
Gumbert, B. Gumbert, I. V. Huff, Nancy Huff, Sarah 
Lowe, Jacob Cochenhour, Hettie Cochenhour, Rachel 
Brandt, Lidie Brandt, Samuel Pool, Harriet Pool, 
James F. Stanton, Kate Stanton, John H. King, S. M. 
Powell, Maggie Powell, Urias Matthias, H. H. Byers, 
Nancy Byers, and D. G. Smith. All of these except 
John and Melissa Sell and Mrs. Kate Stanton were re- 
ceived on application or certificate from other churches 
and by confirmation, most of them being heads of 
families. The establishment of this congregation is 
owing largely to the liberality and influence of John 
Sell, who furnished nearly half the means for and de- 
voted much time and labor to the erection of the 
church. 

MADISON BOROUGH. 

March 11, 1876, the petition of the citizens of Madi- 
son village, in the township of Hempfield, for incor- 
poration was filed in the office of the clerk of the Quar- 
ter Sessions Court, In the petition the limits and 
boundaries of the proposed borough were formally set 
forth. The grand jury at the February sessions of 
that year passed on the petition, and returned it to 
the court favorably. On Oct. 3, 1876, the court de- 
creed that the village should henceforth have corpo- 
rate privileges, designated a day to hold the first elec- 
tions, appointed Philip Fisher to give notice, Philip 
Fisher to be judge, and Anthony Ruff and Samuel 
Davidson to be inspectors, and made the borough a 
separate school district. 



ADAMSBURG BOROUGH. 
The town or village of Adamsburg, by certain 
boundaries marked and designated in the description, 
was incorporated into a borough by act of Assembly, 
5th of March, 1841. The citizens who might vote 
were to hold their first election at the brick school- 
house on the third Friday of the next April. For 
the first election Jacob Gosser, Jacob Stiner, and John 
Melville were to give notice, or any of them, and per- 
form all the duties enjoined upon constables. 

OTHER VILLAGES AND HAMLETS. 

Painlersville is on the Southwestern Pennsylvania 
Railroad, and is a growing place of note. 

Middletown lies in the southeast part of the town- 
ship, in a rich and fertile section. 

Grapeville is located between Greensburg and Ad- 
amsburg, in a regiou very early settled. 

Arona is a pretty hamlet near the Sewickley town- 
ship line, and has several shops, stores, etc. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



GEORGE W. CROUSHORE. 

George W. Croushore, of Grapeville, was born in 
Hempfield township, Westmoreland County, March 
16, 1841. He is of German descent, and the youngest 
son of George and Margaret (Baughman) Croushore. 
His father died when he was about four years old, 
and his opportunity for an education was confined to 
a short period, most of his time being spent in farm- 
work. When thirteen years of age his mother aban- 
doned the farm, and George went to live with his 
brother Henry, with whom he remained one summer, 
working in a tannery. He then engaged in brick- 
making, which he followed for three years, and after- 
wards worked at the mason trade for a like period. 
In 1861 he purchased the farm upon which are his 
present home and large tannery. To the work of 
farming and tanning he has since devoted himself, 
and his labor has been rewarded with financial suc- 
cess. He was married Sept. 14, 1864, to Sade Alls- 
house. Their living children are Margaret E., 
\ Henry G., William B., John H., Charles C, Herbert 
1 L., and Franklin H. One child, James O., died in 
infancy. When a youth Mr. Croushore united with 
the German Reformed Church, and has always been 
a worthy member of the same. 



CAPT. JOHN SMAIL. 
One of the hard-working, successful farmers of 
Westmoreland County is Capt. John Smail, of Hemp- 
field township. He is of German descent, and is the 
son of Peter and Sophia Smail, natives of Northamp- 
ton County, who emigrated to Westmoreland near 
the close of the last century. They are a family of 




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HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



533 



farmers, Peter, his five sons, and two sons-in-law all 
being engaged in that business. 

John was born Feb. 15, 1804, upon the farm where 
he now resides. His opportunities for an education 
were such as the district schools of that period af- 
forded. He learned the business in which he has 
been engaged all his life "by working at it." In 
1822 he married Catharine Huber, and by her he 
had twelve children, seven of whom grew to maturity 
and resided in Westmoreland County. Sophia died 
Oct. 4, 1862, and in 1863 John was married to Mrs. 
Hettie Baer. They had one child, Emma Clara, who 
died in infancy. Mr. Smail never held any political 
office. He derives his title of captain from his elec- 
tion to that position, which he held for three years, in 
the "Brush Creek Militia." He is a useful member 
of the Lutheran Church, to which organization most 
of his family belong. By careful attention to busi- 
ness he has accumulated enough property to give 
each of his children a good start in life and support 
him in his declining years. His industry, integrity, 
and gentle bearing have earned for him the respect 
of his neighbors. 



FRANKLIN McCALL. 
Franklin McCall, a gentleman of Irish parentage, 
has resided in Hempfield township, Westmoreland 
County, for a quarter of a century. He is a native of 
Allegheny County, Pa., th£ son of William and Bar- 
bara Shank McCall, and was born in 1817. His 
father, William, was an inn-keeper and farmer, a 
much respected and valuable citizen, and a valiant 
soldier in the war of 1812. He died in 1866, at the 
advanced age of ninety-seven years. Franklin learned 
the business of farming, which he has followed all 
his life. He has a well-cultivated farm, and of late 
years has gained some notoriety as a breeder of thor- 
oughbred stock. His life has been one of well-directed 
industry. He is thrifty, open, and liberal with his 
means, ready to assist others. He is a member of the 
United Presbyterian Church, and embodies many 
Christian graces. He has an amiable disposition, is 
hospitable and charitable, and honest in purpose. 
He is a Republican, and attends elections regularly, 
casting his vote as a matter of duty, but has never 
been an office-seeker. He married Rachel Sowash, 
a native of Westmoreland County. They have no 
children. 



DANIEL GAFFNEY. 
Mr. Daniel Gaffney, of Hempfield township, is of 
Scotch-Irish descent on his paternal side. His grand- 
father, Edward Gaffney, came to America earlv enough 



in the last century to participate in the war of the 
Revolution, and was therein engaged under the im- 
mediate command of Washington, and finally settled in 
South Huntingdon township, Westmoreland County, 
on a farm on which he continued to live until his 
death. Of his family of several children, William 
Gaffney, the father of Daniel, was one. He learned 
the trade of boat-building, and pursued various avoca- 
tions in life. About 1823 he married Sophia How- 
ard, daughter of Nicholas Howard, of Westmoreland 
County, by whom he had twelve children, of whom 
Daniel Gaffney is the seventh son, and was born 
March 22, 1837. 

Mr. Gaffney attended the subscription and free 
schools in his youth, and at about thirteen years of 
age he was hired out by his father to a farmer for the 
summer months at three dollars a month. The suc- 
ceeding two years he was again hired out for increased 
wages, but not being satisfied with farming at that 
rate of wages, he, at about sixteen, betook himself to 
the business of drilling wells in Greensburg and else- 
where in Westmoreland County. In 1854 he spent 
several months in Maryland in the same business 
under others. He eventually took up the business 
for himself, and followed it for several years, at one 
time going to Illinois to put down wells there. There- 
after he was connected with several flouring-mills, 
particularly that at what is now called Paintersville. 
In June, 1859, there occurred a severe frost, which 
destroyed the cereal crops of Westmoreland County, 
and made milling dull. Mr. Gaffney returned to well- 
drilling for a year or so, and was then engaged by 
Col. Israel Painter to superintend his salt-works in 
Hempfield township. He remained with Col. Painter 
as superintendent for about two years, and then leased 
of him the Fountain Salt-Works, in the above-named 
township, which he conducted for a year with finan- 
cial success. Mr. Gaffney dates his subsequent fortu- 
nate business life from that point as the first step, 
from which he went on through several changes in 
avocations, mainly fortunate, until he became, in 
January, 1881, the owner of the Painterville Salt- 
Works, which are in full operation, and which, with 
a farm in South Huntingdon township and other 
possessions, enables him to feel himself comfortably 
situated in life. 

In 1859, Mr. Gaffney married Eliza L. Ryan, daugh- 
ter of John Ryan, of Hempfield township, by whom 
he has had ten children, eight of whom are living, — 
William Mentor, Clara May, Sarah Blanche, Mary 
Etta, George Edward, Van Orion-, Anna Kate, and 
James Allen. 

In politics Mr. Gaffney is a Democrat. He for- 
merly belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of 
which his wife and daughters are members. 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



AREA. 

The township of Mount Pleasant was the designa- 
tion of one of the townships of Western Pennsylva- 
nia while yet the whole of the Province west of the 
eastern line of Somerset County was included in Bed- 
ford County. Its boundaries at that time, however, 
did not coincide with those by which it was distin- 
guished at the organization of Westmoreland. The 
old tax-rolls of Bedford County showed that Mount 
Pleasant contained 83 landholders, 13 tenants, of 
whom not one was married. 

The township took in a large and scarce definable 
region around the town now of that name. When 
the county of Westmoreland was erected in 1773 the 
limits of the township were of great extent. As they 
were then defined they were as follows: 

"Beginning where the Loyalhanna breaks through the Chestnut 
Ridge and running down the Loyalhanna to the mouth of Crab-Tree- Hun, 
and up the same to the main (Forbes') road ; thence with a due course to 
Braddoek's road; thence with the south side of that road to where it 
crosses Jacobs Creek, to the line of Fairfield township. 11 

Its limits did not undergo any material alteration 
till the erection of Unity township in 1789. At that 
time the portion severed from the old township and 
erected into a separate one was in extent something i 
larger than that portion left. Thus it is that many 
of the first settlers and men of prominence who were 
put down in the township lists, and who were identi- 
fied with township limits, were actually residents of 
that part of the township which lies next the Loyal- 
hanna. 

BOUNDARIES. 

It is surrounded by the townships and natural lines 
:is follows : on the north by Unity township ; on the ' 
east by the Chestnut Ridge, which separates it from | 
the township of Donegal ; on the south by Fayette , 
County; on the southwest by East Huntingdon ; and 
on the northwest by Hempfield township. 

POPULATION AND VILLAGES. 

Its population by the census of 1880 is 4224, which 
does not include the borough of Mount Pleasant. I 
This shows an increase of 1675 over the population ■ 
of 1870. It has few villages within its borders, not 
mentioning the borough of Mount Pleasant and its 
suburbs, viz., Bridgeport, Laurelville, and Ridge- 
view. 

534 



TOWNSHIP TAX-LISTS IN 1783. 
The names of the land-owners were as follows : 



William Anderson. 
Simon Acre. 
John Annel. 
Christopher Amalong. 
Moses Alason. 
Samuel Bradley. 
John Baird. 
James Brown field. 
John Bradley. 
Johu Briney. 
Henry Branker. 
Hugh Bay. 
William Brine. 
Conrad Byers. 
Martin Bush. 
James Black. 
Ephnum Blair. 
Charles Campbell. 
Ralph Cherry. 
James Clark. 

Jacob Carver (inn-keeper). 
George Campbell. 
'George Crawford. 
x James Crawford. 
Philip Coast. 
Capt. James Clark. 
■ John Crawford. 
Josiah Campbell. 
Conrad Colemore, 
Samuel Coulter. 
Hubert Cochran. 
Martha Cain (widow). 
John Craig. 
Alexander Craig. 
Brissila Carter. 
Elizabeth Dilworth (widow). 
Elias Davis. 
John Egar. 
Thomas Elliot. 
Joseph Egar. 
Garat Fiscus. 
John Fiscus. 
Charles Fiscus. 
Thomas Fletcher. 
William Findly. 
James Gutery, Jr. 
James Glenn. 
William Grier. 
James Gutery, Sr. 
John Giflen. 
H. Graham. 
Nathaniel Hurst. 
Johu Hunter. 
George Hendery. 
John HutcheBon. 
James Hunter. 
John Jameson. 
William Inman. 
John Jack. 



Robert Jameson. 
Patrick Jack. 
Charles Jonstou. 
A. Jenkins. • 
James Johnston. 
Robert Kees. 
William Kilpatrick. 
Christopher Lobingier. 
Christian Laver. 
Bartholomew Laver. 
Moses Latta. 
Samuel Lewis. 
Abraham Lasure. 
Mary Lochery (widow). 
Jeremiah Lochery. 
William Lochery. 
John McCibons. 
Capt. John McClellau. 
William McMnster. 
Hugh Martin. 
John McClure. 
\jaruabas McCall. 
James McMaster. 
Kobert Marshall. 
John McKee. 
Thomas McCay. 
Daniel Morrison. 
Thomas McClauahan. 
Alexander McKiney. 
James McMullen. 
Malt hew Morrison. 
Andrew Mitchell. 
George McDonal. 
James Marshall. 
George McClellan. 
Francis McGuiar. 
John Moore. 
William Maxwell. 
Robert Newell. 
Hugh Nealy. 
John Nichols. 
William Ne;ile. 
William Nichols. 
Robert Nichols. 
Josiah Newell. 
Arthur Ohara. 
Samuel Peebles. 
Rev. James Power. 
Christian Persing. 
Adam Palmer. 
Thomas Patton. 
Jacob Power. 
Frederick Persing. 
John Proctor. 
William Proctor, Jr. 
Johu Peebles. 
Abraham Power. 
John Quiu. 
Joshua Handles. 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



535 



William Robeson. 


John Stuchal. 


Joseph Beeler (constable). 


John Downey, 


John Rowley. 


Joseph Thomson. 


James Gordon. 


John Donahow. 


Stophel Rinor. 


Joseph Tom. 


Joseph Hopkins. 


William McWhirter. 


Anthony Rough. 


William Thomson/ 


Matthew Simpson. 


Frederick Raper. 


Margaret Robeson (widow). 


William Todd. 


Simon Roughindear. 


Duncan McGee. 


David Rankio. 


Peter Tittel. 


Patrick Calan. 


Jacob Hartman. 


Robert Robeson. 


John Taylor. 


Thomas Jones. 


James Waddell. 


David Shearer. 


Robert Toping. 


Jacob Espy. 


James Bole. 


'William Sreader. 


Robert Vance. 


George Clipinger. 


James Guy. 


Philip Smith. » 


David White. 


Neal Blurry. 


James! McBride. 


Jacob Steer. 


Robert Witherinton. 


Moses Chambers. 


John Martemore. 


Nicholas Smidly. 


Samuel Wilson. 


James Lawson (schoolmaster). 


Andrew White. 


Gasper Smidly. 


Adam Weaver. 


Jacob Myalan. 


James Marshall. 


Gasper Smidly, Sr. 


Gasper Weaver. 


Jacob Lighter. 


John Muglaughlane. 


Slophel See6. 


Jacob Walter. 


James McQuillan. 


William Robeson. 


George Salder. 


Joseph Wray. 


Adam Teamer. 


Thomas Smith. 


Michael Stockbarger. 


John Wiley. 


William Letemore. 


Hugh Robeson. 


John Shipard. 


James White. 


John Brownfield. 


Christian Yoaky, Jr. 


Bostion Sip rat. 


Samuel Whiteside. 


David Bay. 


Jacob Lidack (blacksmith). 


Gen. Arthur St. Clair (noit-rcw 


Mrs. Watson (widow). 


William Shreader. 


William Marshall. 


dent). 


Robert Waddell. 


Michael Seaner. 


John Dayley (schoolmaster). 


James Scott. 


John Walthart. 


Adam Fisher. 


James Cole. 


Samuel Sloan. 


Archibald White. 


John Neal. 


Robert Fravor. 


John Sloan (cordwinder). 


George Yerion. 


James Simpson (weaver). 


Thomas Trimble. 


William Sloan (weaver). 




Patrick White. 


Arthur McMichael. 






Paul McCleaii. 


John Wessner. 


Land-owners who resided on the Manor: 


John White. 


Daniel Lasure. 


John Taylor. 


William McGeary. 


Charles Riley. 


Richard Jervis. 


Robert Lowers. 


James Ferguson. 


John Ward. 


John Lasnre (weaver). 


John Spelman. 


James McCuistou. 


John Meek. 


James Crow. 


Rudolph Bair. 


David Kilgore. 


John Gilbreath. 


Robert Robeson (mason). 


Henry Bair. 


Isabella Courtney. 


Henry Wingfield. 


Jacob Cline. 


Matthias Stockbarger. 


Rachel McGeary. 


Hugh Wilson/ 


Jacob Wolf. 


Daniel Armel. 


Samuel Serials. 


James Whitherinton. 


John Lidack. 


William McNight. 


James Donal (blacksmith). 


William Whitherinton. 


William Egar. 


John Thorn. 


James Pollock. 


Robert Barr (weaver). 


Zedekiah Tumblin (wheelwright) 


Isaac McHendry. 


James Steel. 


John Can*. 


Abraham Fiscus. 






Joseph Erwin (schoolmaster). 


John Campbell. 


List of those persons who had land rented in the 


William Stinson (weaver). 


^William McCall (weaver). 


township : 




John Murphy. 


William Calalan (tailor). 




Joseph Clark. 


John Gourley. 


George McCartney. 


Andrew Barnes. 


John Dilworth. 


John Stuart. 


James Brown. 


John Kilgore. 


Henry Hurst. 


John Scott. 


William Stuart. 


Marmaduke Jameson. 


Rudolph Bair. 


Andrew Kinkead. 


Jacob Klingensmith. 


Robert Herkley. 


Thomas Winter. 


Daniel MeDonal. 


Adam Partmeser. 


William Aikin. 


Henry Shellabarger. 


Peter Peterson. 


List of those who resided in Mount Pleasant town- 


Joseph Jervis. 


Conrad Young. 






James Tanner. 


John Crow (weaver). 


ship and had land in ' 


other parts :" 


Alexander McClellan. 


William McGuire. 


John Gutery. 


Jacob Klingensmith. 


Peter Cousley. 


John Jameson. 


Samuel Todd. 


Hugh Wilson. 


Tetter Waltinbaugh. 


William Thomson (tailor). 


James McClellan. 


Christiau Yoakey. 


Conrad Haining (blacksmith). 


Robert Ralston (weaver). 


Robert Lowers. 


Richard Jervis. 


William McFarlane. 


David Livingstone. 


James Simpson. 


John Lidack. 


George Rian. 


David McClelland (weaver). 


Alexander Walker. 


John Campbell. 


Bartholomew Herington. 


Francis Jameson. 


Archibald Trimble. 


William McCall***" 


James Russell. 


Joseph Scott. 


John Denis Stone. 


William Fiudly. 


William Clark (mason). 




Joseph Thomson. 
James Gordon. 


William Catalan. 
Joseph Scott. 


Freemen (owning lands no-where) : 


Matthew Simpson. 


David Kilgore. 


Samuel Lewis. 


William Donahoo. 


Joseph Ervin. 


Christian Yoakey, Jr. 


John Gutery. 


Samuel Wilson. 


Joseph Brownfietd. 


William Waddell. 


John Ridle. 


James Randies. 


John Murphy. 


John Gourley. 


Henry Deadnian. 


Andrew Robeson. 


William McFarlane. 


John Stuart, 


John MeDonal. 


John McClanahan. 


George Kain. 


James Gaff. 


Henry Lower. 


Jacob Witherinton. 


John Downy. . 


John Crow. 


William Bell. 


Robert Watson. 


John Donahow. 


James Pollock. 


John Thorn. 


Adam Bair. 


James Guy. 


John Biddle. 


Thomas Simpson. 


John Persing. . ^~ 
Frederick Persing. -f <j ^K* 


James McBride. 


William Thomson. 


James McKee. 


Names of residents 


having no land in the town- 


Neal Murry. 
William Bay. 


Bainet Steer. 
Henry France. 



.Jk 



ship : 

John Gutery. 

Toras Wagoner (blacksmith). 

Samuel Todd. 

James McClellan. 



James Simpson. 

Alexander Walker (cordwinder). 

Archibald Trimble. 

John Denistone. 



John Latta. 
William Downey. 
Aaron Shreader. 
Hugh McKiney. 
John Nichols. 



William Robeson. 
James Marshall. 
Archibald Marshall. 
John Shepard. 
Thomas Boyd. 



536 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



David Sloan (shoemaker). 
Archibald Marshall. 
James Mitchell. 
David Elder (schoolmaster). 
William Graham. 
Henry Inman. 
John Ralston. 
Samuel Robeson. 
Alexander McGougan. 
Benjamin Chambers. 
Benjamin Dilworth. 
Keary Quigley. 
John Hopkins. 
William Milligan. 
Nathaniel Alexander. 
William Hurst. 
N ' John White. 
Thomas Butler. 



William Brown. 

Stopel Accerman. 

James Newell. 

John Newell. 

Jam«s Gaff. 

James Marshall. 

George Moore. 

William Waddell. 

John Robeson. 

Peter Yoaky. 

John Trimble (blacksmith). 

John Starry. 

Samuel Sloan. 

Night Scott.' - 

James Dunseth. 

Isaac McCissek. 

Robert Crawford. 

Samuel Eakin. 

William Gutery. 

And three men named respectively Casswell, Hunter, and Thomson. 

The number of land-owners in the township were 1G5 

" Manor were 20 

on rented lands were 9 

Number of " residenters" having no lands in the township were.... 122 

Number of freemen owning no lands anywhere 62 

Total taxable inhabitants 378 

The above return was made in September, 1783, by 
John Giffen, assessor, aided by his two assistants, 
William Lochry and James Gutery. 

EARLY SETTLERS. 

Hugh Martin first settled in the year 1769, and on 
the erection of Westmoreland a few years after, then 
including all the district west of Bedford, he received 
from the former proprietaries of Pennsylvania the i 
commission of justice of the peace. After the Rev- 
olution he was appointed to the same station in con- 
sequence of an election by the freeholders, and on the I 
adoption of the State constitution of 1790 he was i 
again commissioned by Governor Mifflin. Firm and 
yet moderate in his political principles, exemplary in 
his morals, and of a pious disposition, he acquired the 
good will of his neighbors with the general respect 
of the public. He regarded his office as one of honor 
rather than of profit, discouraging as much as possi- 
ble a litigious and quarrelsome spirit. On account 
of his advanced age he declined acting in his last 
years, but having discharged his duty faithfully when 
able he did not think proper to resign a commission 
he held so long. He was born in 1735, and died July 
18, 1823. 

Among the early settlers of the township was John 
GifTen, the ancestor of a respectable family, some of 
whom still reside within the township. He was one 
of the settlers who was brought before 1770 in per- 
sonal contact with the natives, and had the reputation 
of always holding his own. His grandson, Andrew 
Giffen, lives upon a part of the original tract of land 
patented in the name of his grandfather. James Steel 
early settled on the farm now occupied by his grand- 
son, Joseph W. Steel. This portion of country be- 
longed to the " Manor of Sewickley," reserved as the | 
personal estate of the proprietaries, and the original 
deed of this tract, as of those contiguous thereto and 
lving within the limits of the manor, are traceable to 



the Penns themselves, who made deeds by an attor- 
ney. These lands by act of Assembly do not require 
that the title to them be traced to the Commonwealth 
by patent. Others of the settlers here whose families 
still represent them were Conrad Byers and the Tinst- 
mans. 

Capt. David Kilgore emigrated from Cumberland 
County before the Revolution. He had' been mar- 
ried in Cumberland to Miss Sarah Mickey. His ser- 
vices are to be traced up in the history of the Eighth 
Pennsylvania Regiment, of which he was a captain. 
His descendants were (1) James, who moved to 
Ohio; (2) Daniel, married to a daughter of Joshua 
Reynolds, and sister of the old Capt. Reynolds set- 
tled on a part of the old farm, where he died at a 
great age. He left a large family. (3) William, 
moved to Ohio; (4) Ezekiel, moved to Kentucky; 
(5) John, married a daughter of Alexander Hunter, 
Mount Pleasant township ; died, leaving four sons 
and one daughter; (6) David, moved to Ohio, and 
there died; (7) Jesse, married several times, resided 
on the old place, died at the age of sixty-eight; (8) 
Elizabeth, married to James Gaff, moved to Ohio ; 

(9) Jane, married to John Edgar, moved to Ohio; 

(10) Sarah, married to Gresham Hull. She and Eze- 
kiel were twins. 

James Galloway came from York County soon after 
the Revolutionary war, and settled near Overton. 
He was a blacksmith, and his services were in such 
demand that when he was drafted into some military 
service, either during the Indian troubles at the latter 
end of the war or subsequently, his neighbors, rather 
than spare him, he being the only blacksmith for 
miles around, helped to get a substitute. This they 
did for the payment of twelve dollars in money, a 
rifle-gun, and a butcher-knife. John Galloway now 
owns the old estate. 

Conrad Byers, an emigrant from Germany, pur- 
chased, June 3, 1773, three hundred and thirty-nine 
acres of laud, as shown by patent, in this township. 
On this he built a strong log house, to which his 
neighbors frequently fled for safety and shelter from 
the Indians. His wife was a Miss Mary Riel, a Ger- 
man maiden, who had been a " redemptioner," of a 
class who had to pay for their passage across the 
ocean by indenturing themselves to masters who could 
pay for their services, which consideration went to 
the master of the ship. Conrad Byers purchased her 
indenture, and after so doing married her. She made 
him a worthy life companion and good helpmeet. 
Their sons were Peter, Andrew, and John. The old 
homestead is still in the family, owned now by John, 
Daniel, and Jacob Byers. Peter Peters has some of 
the lands patented in 1783. The grist-mill of John 
Byers (near Weaver's old stand, between Greensburg 
and Mount Pleasant), now in successful operation, 
was erected by Mr. Byers in 1848. It was built to be 
used for a distillery, and for a time so used, but sub- 
sequently changed to a flouring-mill. 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



537 



Nathaniel Hurst, the paternal ancestor of a very 
extensive family, some of whom still reside in the 
township, settled in 1790. His patents for lands of 
that date call for a thousand acres. The Hurst family 
has been an important one in the local history of their 
locality, and are connected by intermarriage with 
some of the most worthy and intelligent families of 
the county. 

John Lemon came from Ireland to America in 1762, 
and in 1794 located in this township, on the farm now 
owned by James Lemon. The tract contained three 
hundred and fifty acres, and was all new land. Mr. 
Lemon lived on it until his death in 1812, and his 
labor opened out a large portion of it. By his wife, 
a Miss Michy, he had four daughters and a son, 
James, who occupied the farm until his death. 

Robert Newell came from New Jersey about 1775, 
and settled on the farm now occupied by Joshua 
Newell, Jr. This tract, containing two hundred and 
eighty-two acres, he bought in 1789. His sons were 
James, George, and John. Newell's mills, on the 
Sewickley, operated by Joshua Newell, Sr., was a 
point, half a century ago, for militia muster and elec- 
tions. 

Charles Lewis Bush came from Germany in 1792, 
stopping first in Philadelphia for some time. In 
1814 he came to Mount Pleasant, and purchased of 
Frederick Weaver the farm now owned by his son, 
John H. Bush ; on it was an old fort or block-house, 
the remains of which were finally demolished as late 
as 1871, and on it were the remains of an Indian 
burying-ground. A few years ago one of these 
mounds was opened and a skull and other bones were 
found. The bodies were laid on the top of the 
ground, or a very shallow depth, and then covered 
with stones to protect them from wild beasts which 
then roamed the fields. Some of these stone mounds 
have been disturbed, but many yet remain. 

George, son of Jacob Freeman, an emigrant from 
Germany, settled on the Chestnut Ridge in 1827. 
His tract of land embraced sixteen hundred acres. 
He was at one time owner of the Mount Pleasant 
Furnace, which he operated until the decline in 
prices made it an unprofitable business. During bis 
management metal fell from forty to eighteen dollars 
per ton. A portion of this tract is now owned by 
John Freeman, and another part by George Freeman. 

Casper Weaver came from Germany, and at an 
early day settled in the township, on the farm now 
owned and occupied by his grandson, John B. Weaver. 
This farm has never been out of the family. Casper 
Weaver, Jr., was born on it, and there lived all bis 
life. 

On the farm of William Campbell, in the western 
part, there can yet be seen many Indian graves. On 
the farm of Jacob Byers is a house standing which 
has been repaired by the present owner, which was 
occupied by the earliest settlers, and figured quite 
conspicuously in the Indian troubles. The sides of 



many of the buildings, containing loop-holes from 
which to watch and defend the inmates from the sav- 
ages, are yet to be seen, one of which is on the farm 
and near the residence of Abraham Ruff. There is 
an old graveyard on the farm of A. S. Fox, where 
many of the first settlers are buried. 

Christian Lobengier was born in Lancaster County 
in 1740, and removed to this township in 1772. He 
was the ancestor of the numerous and prominent 
families bearing his name in this region. He was a 
delegate to the First Constitutional Convention of 
Pennsylvania from July 15 to Sept. 28, 1776, a mem- 
ber of the Legislature from 1791 to 1793, and died 
July 4, 1798. His wife was Elizabeth Muller, born 
in Switzerland in 1744, and came with her father, 
Rudolph Miiller, to Pennsylvania in 1749. She died 
Sept. 5, 1815. 

The emigrants into this township after the Revolu- 
tionary war, from 1785 to 1790, were of a richer class. 
They were stronger-handed, took up larger farms, and 
cleared faster and more land than those previously 
settled. They built saw- and grist-mills, and gave 
employment to poor settlers. They introduced cattle 
of all kinds, and especially improved breeds of sheep 
and hogs. 

These settlers were a quiet people of good habits, 
and progressed wonderfully in the pursuits of agri- 
culture prior to the development of minerals. Their 
old-time houses, seldom seen west of Pennsylvania, 
were indeed in some respects an improvement over 
those constructed at the present time. They were 
low but convenient in the rooms, with wide halls. 
They had many advantages our modern houses do 
not possess. In the township there are yet many 
representatives of these old-time residences. As 
showing the thrift and care of the faru.j-s, a traveler 
passing through the township before the Southwest 
Pennsylvania Railroad was built and the coal-fields 
developed would at once be struck with the large 
expanses of wheat, corn, oats, and meadows, free from 
all tare and cockle, and without any thistles along 

the roadsides. 

SCHOOL?. 

Prior to the free school system inaugurated by the 
act of 1834 only two houses were known to have been 
built for school purposes within the township. Others 
used for that purpose were deserted dwellings, black- 
smith-shops, stables, etc. At the time of the first 
election for the acceptance of the school law, strange 
to say, the whole vote except one was, on the official 
report furnished by County Superintendent James 
Silliman, Esq., in 1876, against it. At the second 
election a few influential citizens took a stand in favor 
of it, and by the aid of the poor class carried the 
township by a small majority in favor of it. 

Among the first directors were Daniel Worman, S. 
Miller, Jacob Lobingier, Samuel Jack, and J. Fausold. 
Among the first teachers were Jacob Lobingier, F. 
Lobingier, J. Roadman, Moses Hartman. At a later 



538 



HISTOltY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



date they had for teachers G. M. Bigam, C. C. Taylor, 
A. P. Deemer, S. S. Jack. These teachers created 
quite a change in favor of education, although there : 
are still some who are opposed to the system. But i 
the first beginnings of the free school system here, [ 
although discouraging in the extreme, were of short 
duration, and the township of Mount Pleasant at this 
date ranks as one of the very foremost in all the re- 
quirements necessary to fully carry out the obvious 
intention of the law. The peculiar feature is this, 
that all the public school-houses in the township are 
built of brick, most of them have bells, and in all 
the appointments they are, on the whole, the most 
complete structures erected for the purpose in the 
county. The directors have generally been men of 
standing, and in some instances the most influential 
citizens in their respective communities. They secure 
good teachers, and pay them mostly better wages than 
the average townships. The number of the school- 
houses in the township is twenty-one, including the 
borough. 

Among the prominent directors of a late date are 
D. Shupe, J. B. Hurst, J. Grifiin, G. Welty, S. An- 
drews, B. Millinger, George Freeman, and others. 

COUNTRY CHURCHES. 
"ST. JOHN'S REFORMED" (ALSO LUTHERAN) CONGREGATION 

was formerly known as " Kindig's," and is perhaps one 
of the four organized or taken charge of by Rev. John 
William Weber, the first resident Reformed pastor in 
this region. He arrived here in 1782, and took charge 
of four congregations, " one in Pittsburgh, two in 
Hempfield township (Brush Creek and Harrold's), 
and one in Mount Pleasant township." It is not defi- 
nitely known whether this or St. Paul's is the one men- 
tioned in Mount Pleasant township, and if not, it came 
into existence shortly afterwards. As it is stated that 
Mr. Weber visited a number of neighboring infant con- 
gregations, it may have been one of the latter. He 
served it in an occasional way until 1816, and preached 
in Daniel Kintig's barn, and also in the first Kintig's I 
Church. Rev. William Weinel was pastor from 1816 
to 1829. His successor was Rev. N. P. Hacke, whose 
first communion took place Nov. 28, 1829. He was 
succeeded in 1832 by Rev. Adam Byers, who in the 
latter part of the same year was followed by Rev. H. E. 
F. Voight, who continued until 1864. In 1857, Rev. 
L. H. Keafauver became English supply, and as such 
was succeeded in 1859 by Rev. C. C. Russell. In 
1861, Rev. F. K. Levan became joint pastor with 
Mr. Voight. He was followed by Rev. J. A. Peters 
a short time before the close of Mr. Voight's min- 
istry in 1864, at which time he became sole pastor. 

The place of worship is two miles north of Mount 
Pleasant, on the Pleasant Unity road. The land was 
donated for church and school purposes by four men, 
— Daniel Kintig (who lived on the farm where Daniel 
Ruff now resides), Henry Fisher (who lived where 
Peter Rumbaugh now does), Andrew Small (who 



lived where Jacob Fisher now does), and John Deeds 
(who lived where John Rumbaugh, Sr., now does). 
These four farms joined at a point near the spot oc- 
cupied by the present church, and each one gave a 
half-acre to form a lot for church and school-house. 
The first edifice was small, built of logs, and used 
both for a meeting- and school-house. It is still 
standing, and occupied as a dwelling. In 1827 a 
brick edifice was erected, which was superseded by 
the present one, dedicated in 1861. The first com- 
munion-roll in existence is for 1821, and numbered 
twenty-seven, including thirteen confirmed the day 
before. The property has been owned and occupied 
from the beginning conjointly with the Lutheran 
congregation. Among the late prominent officials 
are Elders Isaac Shupe and Christian Sandals, and 
Deacons J. A. Byers and L. B. Shupe. 

"ST. PAUL'S REFORMED" (ALSO LUTHERAN) CONGREGATION 

is known as " Frey's" and the " Ridge." The first 
name is derived from the fact that a Frey family 
owned the farm for many years from which the land 
was taken upon which the church is built. There are 
still three families of Freys living within its sight. 
It is called the Ridge Church because it is but a short 
distance from Chestnut Ridge. Rev. N. P. Hacke 
thinks it was one of the four charges taken in hand 
by Rev. John William Weber in 1782. The first edi- 
fice was built upon the farm formerly owned by Cas- 
par Weaver, and in it Mr. Weber, who was brought 
in a team by Mr. Fiscus, of this neighborhood, from 
Northampton County, preached. Mr. Weber was 
pastor until his death, in 1816, and was succeeded for 
two years by Rev. Henry Habliston. Rev. N. P. 
Hacke was pastor from 1819 to 1863. The second 
house of worship was built on the site of the present 
edifice, one mile and a half south of Pleasant Unity. 
It was made of logs, and was for a long time without 
gallery, pulpit, altars, or pews. Afterwards these 
were supplied and the building plastered on the out- 
side. The present brick church was erected in 1846, 
and dedicated November 18th of that year under the 
pastorate of Rev. N. P. Hacke and his colleague on the 
Lutheran side, Rev. Jonas Mechling. It has since 
received a new roof and been repainted and frescoed. 
The successors of Mr. Hacke were Revs. J. A. Peters, 
A. J. Heller, D. B. Lady, and S. Z. Beam, the latter 
in 1878. In 1861 about one-third of the members 
withdrew and were organized with the St. Luke's 
congregation of Pleasant Unity, and connected with 
the Latrobe charge. The first Sunday-school was 
held in a room over a distillery on the farm of the 
late William Fisher, about two miles from the church, 
about 1837. It was afterwards moved to the church. 
In 1875 the Lutheran congregation organized a sep- 
arate school, and the following year similar action 
was taken by the Reformed. Among the prominent 
superintendents of it have been Samuel B. Fisher 
and Simon P. Truxal, and of the Consistory, Elders 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



539 



Simon Brinker and William Truxal, Sr., and Deacons 
Aaron Ankeny, Michael Poorman, Jr., and J. B. 
Frey. 

MOUNT PLEASANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

This is one of the oldest churches in the West. It 
is situate about two miles from the town of Mount 
Pleasant in a northeast direction, and was in old 
times commonly called the Middle Church. The 
graveyard attached was used as a place of burial 
probably as early as 1773, the date of the county or- 
ganization. The congregation, according to Dr. 
Smith, in " Old Redstone," was organized as early as 
1776, when Dr. Power removed to the western coun- 
try. It was supplied by him from that period till the 
spring of 1770, when he became the pastor of the 
united congregations of Mount Pleasant and Sewick- 
ley. On the 22d of August, 1787, he was dismissed 
from Sewiekley, and continued the pastor of Mount 
Pleasant till April 15, 1817, when, from age and in- 
firmity, he resigned his charge. It continued vacant 
till April 18, 1821, when the Rev. A. O. Patterson, 
D.D., was ordained and installed pastor of the united 
congregations of Mount Pleasant and Sewiekley. 
This relation continued till Oct. 8, 1834. 

Soon after the Rev. S. Montgomery became its 
pastor, April, 1836. On May 19, 1840, the congrega- 
tion was unhappily divided, a part adhering to the 
New School division. In this weakened and crippled 
state of the congregation it formed a connection with 
Greensburg. The Rev. James J. Brownson became 
the pastor Nov. 25, 1841, and was dismissed in Janu- 
ary, 1849. In 1849 these congregations united in a 
call to the Rev. William D. Moore, who became their 
pastor soon after. In October, 1851, Mr. Moore re- 
signed the pastoral charge of Mount Pleasant. On 
the 14th of April, 1852, the Rev. William W. McLain 
received and accepted a call from them, and was in- 
stalled their pastor soon after, in 1852. Rev. John 
M. Barnett was supply or pastor from December, 
1861, until October, 1869 ; Rev. John McMillan, D.D., 
from 1870 until 1873 ; Rev. W. F. Ewing, the present 
pastor, was installed in June, 1874. 

The history of the Middle Church is full of his- 
toric and local interest. On the 9th of October, 1874, 
the three congregations of Mount Pleasant (Middle 
Church), Mount Pleasant Town, and Pleasant Unity, 
which have grown from the first congregation, held 
with appropriate ceremonials and services the " cen- 
tennial celebration of the planting of the Presby- 
terian Church of Mount Pleasant, Pa.," the proceed- 
ings of which were afterwards published in a neat 
pamphlet. As it is accessible to most of those who 
are more than ordinarily interested in the subject, we 
shall not enter into the interesting details which it 
gives. It is commendable in the highest degree to 
those who first suggested the idea, and those who so 
successfully carried the project to consummation. 1 

1 We are intebted here for the kind offices of the present pastor, Rev. 
W. F. Ewing. 



MOUNT PLEASANT BOROUGH. 

There were probably a number of settlers clustered 
together in a hamlet or village upon the present site 
of Mount Pleasant borough before the Revolution 
was ended. A house erected there in 1793 by one 
Michael Smith, an enterprising German,, was occu- 
pied by him as a licensed house in which to entertain 
the public. A copy of the license granted him to 
sell wine and spirituous drink by the usual formula, 
and under the usual restrictions touching gambling 
and drunkenness, is still in existence. This tavern 
house is still standing on Main Street, and it is tradi- 
tionally the first one erected within the limits of the 
town. 

The first part of the town (which was then indeed 
all the town) was laid out by Alexander McCready, 
who had purchased the land from Nathaniel Marshall 
on the 28th of August, 1797. 

Like the early history of all our townships and 
boroughs, that of this town is hard to trace out. 
N. B. Critchfield, with ardent and patient labor, went 
over the whole ground, in order to give a satisfactory 
and comprehensive history of the town on the occa- 
sion of the centennial anniversary of '76. He found 
that much depended upon the recollection of the 
" older inhabitants," hut that prior to about 1810 no 
trustworthy recollections went. At that time there 
were thirty-four houses in the village, all of which 
were built of logs, and of these there were then 
(1876) some seven still standing. Of the oldest citi- 
zens of the place he recalled the names of Michael 
Smith, Alexander McCready, Charles Fulwood, Esq., 
William Hunter, Conrad Keister, William Cherry, 
Clement Burleigh, Esq., William Anderson, James 
Lippincott, Rev. James Estep, John Connell, William 
Flynn, and David Hunter. 

The first brick house in the town was built in the 
year 1812, on the lot at the present time occupied as 
a store-room, known as Isaac Stauffer's. 

Owing to the location of the town in the midst of 
a rich and fertile country, well stocked with a very 
excellent class of people, and on one of the main 
thoroughfares of the day, the progress of the place 
was, all things considered, regular and, above all 
things, sure. The old road, known as the Glade road, 
which was helped by appropriations from the As- 
sembly from time to time, made that route a very 
desirable one for the great body of travel and traffic 
which was gathered in between the old State road on 
the north and the Braddock road on the south. This 
was the highway from Somerset by way of West New- 
ton to Pittsburgh. The improvement of this high- 
way was as regular as the improvement of the two 
great roads on either side of it. In time it was trans- 
formed into the turnpike, over whose smooth road-bed 
tramped the feet and rolled the wheels of the travel 
and inland commerce of a departed generation. 

When the Somerset and Mount Pleasant Turnpike 
Company was organized, the Hon. John Lobingier 



N 



540 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



was made its president. Upon this road the town ! 
depended for its commercial communication with the 
other parts of the country until the completion of the [ 
railroads which took their place. At one time it ap- l 
peared that the place had reached its utmost limit of 
development, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
was built through Connellsville on the south, and 
when the Pennsylvania Railroad ran through Greens- 
burg on the north. But fate had better things in store. 

ENTERPRISING BUSINESS MEN OP EARLY TIMES. 

It is very evident, not to count on local authority, 
that there was a splendid class of business men in the 
early day settled here. The writer to whom we have 
referred has called to notice the fact that one of the 
institutions of the town in the early part of the pres- | 
entcentury was ajoint-stock company, organized about 
the year 1814, for the purpose of carrying on the mer- 
cantile business under the name of " The Farmers' 
and Mechanics' Store." The company occupied as a 
place of business a log building which stood on the 
lot latterly occupied as a store-room of Ebersole, 
Trauger & Zuck ; that is, on the left side of the main 
street going northward. At that day compared with 
ordinary stores it was a thing to talk of, but compared 
with many of the establishments of the place now it 
was insignificant. 

One who scrutinizes the old files of the county 
papers cannot but observe that the business men of 
the borough had enterprise and energy more than 
common. They had advertisements constantly in the 
papers, and they were among the first in the county 
to separate the goods offered into specialties. We 
believe that the firm of " Stoufler & Lippineott," 
about 1822, then in the general merchandise business, 
advertised more extensively than any other country 
firm of their day. 

APPEARANCE OF THE OLD VILLAGE. 
A lady traveling through the southern part of the 
county in the days of the stage-coaches has left on 
record some observations made of the place. The 
village is described as one of those kind peculiar to 
Pennsylvania. Most of the business was done on 
one street, which was long and narrow. The houses 
were generally built close up to the street ; few of 
them had yards in front. The majority of them were 
then antiquated and shabby-looking; but this no doubt 
was to be attributed to the flimsy material of which 
they had been constructed. But it was noticed at that 
day that there were some houses evidencing taste and 
refinement. The same writer remarks the high moral 
and social standard of the residents, and is endless in 
her praise of the thrifty appearance of the surround- 
ing country, and the evidence of thrift in the people 
who worked the field with their own hands. 

OPENING OF THE COAL TRADE. 
The Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad was 
completed in 1871. This, with the opening up of the 



coal-fields along the line of the road and in the vi- 
cinity of the place, gave a new impulse to every in- 
terest in the town. From that time on its progress in 
all departments of development was a matter of won- 
der and astonishment to those who had been familiar 
with its former status. Many new buildings were 
erected, some of them of costly and durable material. 
Real estate soon reached a fictitious value. Men who 
had sold their farms or their coal at greatly enhanced 
prices flocked into the place, purchased houses and 
lots at exorbitant rates, entered into business them- 
selves, or started their sous in business without pre- 
vious training or experience. The demand for labor 
was augmented, and many came hither from a dis- 
tance to share in the rising glories of the flourishing 
place. So the population now on increased more 
rapidly than ever before. 

INCORPORATION, Etc. 

The town of Mount Pleasant was incorporated by act 
of Assembly the 7th of February, 1828. The inhabit- 
ants of the new borough were empowered to hold 
their first election at the house of Robert Hitchman, 
to elect the officers of the borough. These were to 
be one chief burgess, one assistant burgess, six coun- 
cilors, and a borough constable. Thenceforward after 
the first Monday of the next May the chief burgess, 
the assistant burgess, and the Council so duly elected, 
and their successors, should be a body politic and 
corporate, by the name and style of " The Burgess 
and Council of the Borough of Mount Pleasant." 

By act of Assembly passed in 1845 the incorporated 
parts of the borough of Mount Pleasant were allowed 
to choose their own overseers of the poor, and sup- 
port their own poor apart from the townships of 
Mount Pleasant and East Huntingdon. Samuel 
Shupe and Abraham Shallenberger, of the borough, 
were constituted overseers until the spring election of 
1846. 

The borough limits were extended in 1881 by 
ordinance, a copy of which is here given : 

"Whereas, The petition of H. R. Freed, J. C. Lehman, Mrs. D. Z. 
Frick, W. S. Hutchinson, B. F. Mechling, Cyrus Galley, Lucynde Lytle, 
W. B. Neel, Hitchman & Neel, Wilson Shields, Jacob Hewitt, J. B. Hurst, 
Samuel Reese, E. R. Swartz, J. M. Marsh, J. J. Fox, Frank Miller, Juhn 
Leonard, Rev. J. M. Barnett, freehold owners of lots and outlotsof land 
lying adjoining the borough of Mount Pleasant, Pa., praying for admis- 
sion, and that the same may be mRde a part of the borough, has been 
presented to the Burgess and Town Council thereof. 

" Wherefore, Be it ordained by the Burgess and Town Council of 
the aforesaid borough that on and after the 16th day of August, a.d. 
1881, the following property, lots or outlets of laud within the follow- 
ing-described boundary, shall forever thereafter be deemed and taken 
and allowed to be a part of said borough, and subject to the jurisdiction 
and government of the municipal authorities of said borough, as fully 
as if the same had been originally a part of said borough, viz. : Begin- 
ning at a point ou the old borough line on Cemetery Street, at the corner of 
lot of J. J. Fox, thence north GG 1 ^ degrees, west 200 feet to a white-oak ; 
thence south 27 degrees, west 276 feet to centre of the pike ; thence along 
said pike north 52J2 degrees, west 510 feet; thence south 3G}4 degrees, 
west 92 feet ; thence south 89 degrees, west 483}^ feet to a post ; thence 
south 27}^ degrees, east 767 feet to a post; thence south 25 degrees, east 
40 feet; thence south 621^ degrees, west 312 feet, to a post; thence south 
23^£ degrees, east 182 feet to a corner with the old line of the borough; 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



541 



thence along old line north 62 degrees, east 666 feet; thence south 63'^ 
degrees, east 364 feet ; thence north 361.; degrees, east 287 feet to a post; 
thence north 531^ degrees, west 435 feet to a post; thence north 36^ 
degrees, east 132 feet to a post on Main Street; thence along Main 
Street south 53};,' degrees, east 154 feet; thence north 17 degrees, east 
102 feet, to point of starting. 

'' The foregoing ordinance has been enacted in accordance with laws 
made and provided by acts of Assembly of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania. 

"As witness our hands this 16th day of August, Oue Thousand Eight 
Hundred and Kighty-one. 

"W. H. Smith, 

11 Burgess. 

"Wm. Washington. 

"George Hartzel. 

" B. F. Mechmng. u 

"D. W. SURYOCK. 

" Attest : " \V. M. Jordan. 

" W. M. Jordan, Sec'y." 

The first election for borough officers was on the 
first Monday in May, 1828. The officials for that year 
were : Chief Burgess, Abraham Shallenberger ; As- 
sistant Burgess, Jesse Lippincott; Council, Jacob 
Rupert, Rev. Samuel Wakefield, Robert Hitchman, 
Jacob Kern, John Hosier ; Constable, Samuel Ford ; 
Secretary, David Fulwood; Treasurer, John Hitch- 
man. 

Since then the chief burgesses have been : 

1829, John Lloyd; 1830, Je6so Lippincott; 1831, John Stauffer; 1832, 
Jacob Kern; 1833-35, Benjamin Kempf; 1835, Christian Painter; 
1836, S. Shupe ; 1837-40, John E. Fleming; 1840, Dr. W. C. Keiter; 
1841, J. Armell, Jr.; 1842-45, Dr. W. C. Eeiter; 1845, S. Shupe; 
1847-49, David Keister ; 1849, Dr. W. C. Eeiter; 1850, Benjamin 
Shallenberger; 1851-56, J. B. Jordan ; 1866, David S. Cherry; 1857, 
A. S. Overholt; 1858, W. M. Jordan; 1859, G. Kempf; 1860, J. B. 
Jordan; 1861, D. G. Weaver; 1862, W. J. Hitchman; 1863-66, John 
Sherrick ; 1878-80, W. M. Jordan ; 1880-82, W. H. Smith. 

On March 1, 1882, the borough officials were : Bur- 
gess, W. H. Smith (councilman); Secretary, W. M. 
Jordan (councilman) ; Treasurer, D. W. Shryock 
(councilman) ; Council, B. F. Mechling, William 
Washington, George Hartzel. The regular Council 
meetings are the first Monday in each month. Con- 
stable and Street Commissioner, James Foust ; Con- 
stable, John T. Stauffer. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
The Associate Reformed Church (now the United 
Presbyterian) organized a congregation in this place in 
theyearl802, and fouryears laterthe Rev.Mungo Dick 
was settled as pastor, whose labors with the church 
were continued about eighteen years. This pastorate 
was followed by a vacancy which lasted fifteen years, 
when Rev. Richard Gaily became pastor, in May, 
1839, and continued until 1850. Gaily was succeeded 
by Rev. D. H. Pollock, who remained until 1853, and 
whose pastorate was the shortest in the history of the 
church. Rev. James Fife next became pastor. He 
was installed in 1856, beginning his labors as pastor 
in May of that year. He continued in charge until 
his death, which occurred July 26, 1861. Then came 
the pastorate of Rev. A. B. Fields, which extended 
from 1862 to 1867. Then, after a vacancy of four 
years, came the sixth pastorate, that of Rev. J. A. 
Nelson, who began his labors in August, 1871, and 
35 



continued in charge four years. His resignation took 
effect July 31, 1875. The membership of the congre- 
gation is about seventy. It is now in its third house 
of worship. The first, which was a log house, was 
built about the year 1812 or 1813, and was owned 
jointly by the United Brethren and the Associate Re- 
formed congregations. The second house was built 
in 1830. It was of brick, and was owned by the same 
bodies. In 1854 the United Brethren congregation 
sold their interest to the Associate Reformed congre- 
gation and built a church for themselves. In 1871 
the second structure was taken down and the present 
house erected. It was dedicated Feb. 29, 1872. All 
three buildings stood on the same lot, and near the 
same spot. Before any of the churches there was 
what was called a tent, but that was simply a pulpit 
boarded up and roofed, in which the minister stood, 
while the people sat or stood around as best suited 
their convenience. This pulpit stood near the present 
grounds, but perhaps not on them. Here services 
were held before the church was built. 

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. 

A church for the congregation of this communion 
was first established in this vicinity in 1803. The 
first preaching by this denomination was in private 
houses, barns, and in a school-house one and a half 
miles from town, known as Bonnet's school-house, 
where also the first General Conference was held in the 
year 1815. The building already referred to as being 
owned by the United Brethren and Associate Re- 
formed Churches jointly was their first regular place 
of worship. It was built by the public generally, but 
the lot not being paid for, the proprietor proposed to 
sell it to any person wishing to purchase it, to be used 
for whatever purpose they might deem proper. In the 
mean time the United Brethren and Associate Re- 
formed Churches agreed to unite in making the pur- 
chase, and to hold the property in partnership. Ac- 
cordingly the property was bought, and the deed of 
conveyance to the two congregations was made on the 
30th day of November, 1815. In the year 1830 (the 
same year in which the brick house already referred 
to was erected by the two congregations named) the 
log house was sold to the Presbyterians and removed 
to the west end of town. After having sold their in- 
terest in the brick church on Church Street to the 
Associate Reformed Church, the United Brethren in 
1854, as already stated, built their present house of 
worship on Main Street, which is much larger and 
more commodious than the building formerly occu- 
pied. This last building was much improved in 1874 
by the addition of a tower and other improvements to 
the interior of the structure. As this denomination 
has the itinerant system of ministry, and its pastors are 
changed every two or three years, it would be difficult 
to give a list of the ministers by whom the church has 
been served. The present (1876) membership of the 
church is one hundred and ninety. 



542 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The first Methodist Episcopal society in this place 
was organized in the year 1816 by the Rev. Jacob 
Dowell, who was then in charge of Connellsville 
Circuit. For about sixteen years the society wor- 
shiped either in private houses, in the old log meet- 
ing-house on Church Street, or in the brick church 
that succeeded it. The first house of worship be- 
longing to the Methodist Episcopal Church in this 
place was built in 1832, on a lot near the east end of 
Main Street, which they occupied for twenty-four 
years. The present house of worship was erected in 
1856 and refurnished in 1872. This congregation was 
formerly united with others in the neighborhood, and 
did not become a separate charge until the year 1873, 
when it was set off as such at the annual session of 
the Pittsburgh Conference, and Rev. Samuel Wake- 
field, D.D., was appointed pastor. Dr. Wakefield's 
pastorate lasted two years, when he was succeeded by 
Rev. M. B. Pugh. The number of persons at present 
(1876) in full membership is one hundred and fifty. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

The Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant is, in 
one point of view, the oldest, in another the youngest, 
ecclesiastical organization in the place. The history 
of this denomination goes back to 1774. Their first 
house of worship was erected two miles in the country, 
on the road leading to Latrobe, where the third edi- 
fice of that body now stands, which \s generally known 
by the name of the " Middle Church," and which lias 
a very interesting local history of its own. The first 
preaching for the Presbyterians in the village seems 
to have been by the Rev. Dr. Patterson during his 
pastorate in the " Middle Church," probably in 1825. 
After him all his successors in that church served the 
portion of the congregation living in and near the 
village once a fortnight, in the evening, in the old log 
church already referred to as owned by the United 
Brethren and the United Presbyterians. In 1870, on 
the 15th of June, the corner-stone of the Memorial 
Presbyterian Church was laid, and on the 1st of Sep- 
tember, 1872, the building being entirely finished and 
furnished with the most convenient and comfortable 
appointments of any church in the county, at a cost 
of twenty-one thousand dollars, was dedicated to the 
worship of the triune God according to the doctrines, 
order, and discipline of the Presbyterian Church. On 
the 25th of April, 1873, one hundred and seven per- 
sons, all members of the old mother or "Middle 
Church," were, at their own request, organized by the 
Presbytery of Redstone, then meeting in the Memo- 
rial Church, into a separate society, to be known as 
the Reunion Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant. 
From that time forward Rev. John McMillan, D.D., 
has been and still is (1876) the pastor of this congre- 
gation. Seventy names have been added to the com- 
municants' roll since the organization. 



BAPTIST CHURCH. 

The regular Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant 
was organized Nov. 15, 1828. Of the twenty con- 
stituent members of the church nine were formerly 
members of the church at Connellsville, and eleven 
had been baptized by Rev. Dr. Estep, but had never 
enjoyed church relationship. A few days after the 
organization of the church, Rev. William Shadrach, 
then a licentiate minister, was called to the pastorate, 
and on the 10th of December following he was or- 
dained by Revs. Fry, Thomas, and Estep. During 
the history of the church the following persons have 
served as pastors : William Shadrach, James Estep, 
Rev. Rockefeller, Isaac Wynn, Simeon Sigfried, Mil- 
ton Sutton, John Parker, W. A. Caldwell, T. R. Tay- 
lor, W. W. Hickman, B. F. Woodburn, G. A. Ames, 
and Leroy Stephens, the present incumbent. The 
first house of worship erected by this congregation 
was built about the year 1830 on Church Street. In 
this building, and in a meeting-house erected in the 
neighborhood of Pennsville, the church met alter- 
nately until the erection of the new edifice on Main 
Street in 1868. The same year in which the present 
house of worship was erected the membership living 
in the neighborhood of Pennsville was, at their own 
request, separated from this body, and a new church 
organized at that place. The membership of the 
church, as taken from their statistical report of 1875, 
is one hundred and fifty-seven. 

GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 

The first congregation of the German Reformed 
(or Reformed) Church of this place was organized in 
College Chapel, in March, 1864. The first pastor was 
Rev. J. A. Peters, whose pastorate extended to 1869. 
He was succeeded by Rev. A. J. Heller, who began 
his labors Oct. 10, 1869, and continued to March 5, 
1872. Rev. D. B. Lady was installed June 14, 1870. 

From March, 1864, to April, 1871, the congregation 
worshiped in College Chapel ; from April, 1871, to 
April, 1872, in the Bunker Hill school-house. Their 
present church building, on East Main Street, was 
completed in 1872, and since April of that year has 
been their regular place of worship. The Reformed 
Church had a membership in this place before the 
organization of the St. Peter's congregation. The 
St. John's congregation, whose place of worship is 
about two miles north of the town, and from which 
many of the members of the St. Peter's congregation 
came, is among the oldest congregations in the com- 
munity. 

CHURCH OF GOD. 

This congregation was organized in March, 1873. 

Their house of worship was erected in the year 
1871, on a lot formerly occupied by the Presbyterian 
Church. It was dedicated in March, 1872. The ded- 
icatory sermon was preached by Elder J. M. Dorner. 
Since its organization this congregation has been 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



543 



principally under the care and supervision of the 
Rev. Peter Loucks. The present membership is 
about one hundred and twenty-five. 

LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church organized a 
congregation in this place in 1869, during the time 
that Rev. Enoch Smith was pastor of the congrega- 
tions in the neighborhood. This congregation wor- 
ships in the Reformed Church, and has a membership 
of between thirty and forty. Rev. L. S. Harkey is 
the present pastor. 

THE MOUNT PLEASANT MORMONS, 
and in fact all the Mormons residing in this region, 
belong to what is called the " Josephine sect." This 
sect was established by the wife and sons of Joe 
Smith, the Mormon prophet, whose very foundation- 
stone is opposition to polygamy. They accept the 
Book of Mormon, and all the earlier revelations of 
the prophet. But the polygamy revelation, the last 
one that came to the illustrious prophet, they main- 
tain was inspired by the devil, as is evident from its 
blasphemous contradiction of the Book of Mormon, 
which denounces the practice of polygamy as " an 
abomination in the sight of the Lord." The Mor- 
mons here and in Western Pennsylvania are not very 
numerous, and adhere to the old-time declarations of 
the " Latter- Day Saints," and not to the principles 
and practices of those in power in Utah. 

MOUNT PLEASANT CEMETERY. 

In 1867 the citizens of the place united in pur- 
chasing a lot of ground containing about eleven acres, 
and lying within easy access of the corporate limits 
in a very desirable location, for burying purposes. 
They were duly erected into a corporation under the 
name and style of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery 
Association. They at once proceeded to lay out and 
dispose of the lots, and to beautify and ornament the 
grounds. This has been done in a highly creditable 
manner, corresponding to the wealth and tastes of the 
citizens. In time it, no doubt, will be one of the 
finest adorned places of sepulture in the county. 
Among the old settlers here buried are : 

John Miller, died Oct. 26, 1874, aged 82. 

John Starrer, Sr., born Jan. 14, 1796, died Feb. 6, 1879. 

Abraham Harbach, died May 24, 1877, aged 71. 

Nathaniel Hurst, died Feb. 29, I860, aged 58. 

Polly Hurst, died April 5, 1848, aged 44. 

Abraham Miller, died April 5, 1875, aged 80. 

Isaac Shupe, born Sept. 11, 1790, died Sept. 7, 1847 ; his wife, Elizabeth, 
born April 18, 1798, died Oct. 22, 1845. 

Abraham Whitmer, died Sept. 12, 1847, aged 75 ; his wife, Christina, died 
Sept. 24, 1847, aged 73. 

Philip Mechling, born Aug. 21, 1800, died July 30, 1874 ; hie wife, Mar- 
garet, born Aug. 21, 1802, died Dec. 14, 1859. 

John Coldsmith, died Sept. 29, 1871, aged 59. 

Simon Shaffer, born July 4, 1797, died June 9, 1870. 

Catharine, wife of George Kose, born March 14, 1809, died July 16, 1873. 

Henry Lippincott, died March 20, 1846, aged 40. 

Samuel Lippincott, died Oct. 13, 1847, aged 52; his wife, Margaret, died 
May 22, 1844, aged 46. 



William McCracken, died May 27, 1859, aged 64. 
Nancy Strickler, died Feb. 18, 1872, aged 67. 
-Anna, wife of John Tristman, born July 4, 1812, died March 29, 1866. 
-Abraham S. Overholt, died May 10, 1863, aged 46. 
Abraham Overholt, died Jan. 15, 1870, aged 85; his wife, Maria, died 

Nov. 1, 1874i aged 83. 
Henry S. Ovorholt, died June 18, 1870, aged 60. 
John Hitchman, died March 21, 1846, aged 57. 
T""Mary A., wife of James Shields, born Sept. 18, 1812, died Aug. 27, 1870. 
James Morrison, died Aug. 26, 1870, aged 66. 
William Foster, died June 10, 1879, aged 84. 
Joseph E. Gibbs, died March 27, 1845, aged 59. 
Jacob Enipick, died Oct. 31, 1850, aged 45. 
Susan Empick, died April 19, 1876, aged 74. 
Jacob Bowers, born Oct. 13, 1812, died June 4, 1876. 
Samuel Wilkins, born Sept. 23, 1812, died Oct. 25, 1862. 
Samuel Shupe, died September, 1845, aged 59; his wife, Mary, died July 

27, 1874, aged 83. 
Caroline, wife of Daniel Shupe, born Nov. 9, 1818, died May 24, 1848. 
James Wade, Sr., died May 5, 1855, aged 64; his wife, Margaret, died 

July 23, 1879, aged 78. 
John Stouffer, Sr., died Nov. 8, 1821, aged 50; his wife, Barbara, died 

Jan. 27, 1860, aged 81. 
John Stouffer, died Sept. 16, 1836, aged 39; his wife, Maria, died Dec. 3, 

1877, aged 73. 

THE OLD UNITED PRESBYTERIAN GRAVEYARD 

lies just back of its church, on Church Street, but is 
now abandoned for burial purposes. It was the first 
and only graveyard in the village, and among the old 
settlers are the following interments : 

John Shupe, Sr , died Nov. 12, 1861, aged 81. 

George Fulls, died April 14, 1827, aged 71; his wife, Elizabeth, died April 

3, 1836, aged 81. 
Rev. Daniel Warman, born Dec. 3, 1786, died Aug. 19, 1862; his wife, 

Elizabeth, died Feb. 12, 1855, aged 66. 
George Warman, died March 13, 1824, aged 72 ; his wife, Catharine, died 

Nov. 26, 1834, aged 78* their son, Daniel, died March 9, 1836, aged 39. 
Simon Stickle, died Sept. 4, 1847, aged 89. 
Samuel Shrader, born Jan. 30, 1797, died Sept. 2, 1866. 
Mary Shepherd, died Nov. 16, 1854, aged 73. 
Margaret, wife of Daniel Clair, died Sept. 1, 1848, aged 32. 
William Anderson, died Aug. 29, 1843, aged 79. 
Ann J. Anderson, died April 25, 1855, aged 50. 
Jane Anderson, died June 10, 183.3, aged 71. 
Mary Anderson, died May 15, 1837, aged 42. 
Alexander Anderson, died May 12, 1832, aged 27. 
John Lippincott Anderson, died Sept. 14, 1824, aged 26. 
Samuel Clark, born July 26, 1808, died May 13, 1845; his wife, Sarah, 

died April 4, 1846, aged 61. 
Samuel Shupe, died Sept. 9, 1845, aged 59. 
Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Coldsmith, born Oct. 2, 1786, died Dec. 30, 

1834; her husband died Aug. 31, 1846, aged 62. 
Sophia Stanley, died July 23, 1834, aged 39. 
Samuel Ford, died Oct. 6, 1834, aged 75. 
John Shupe, died April 2, 1835, aged 84; his wife, Mary, died May, 

1843, aged 86. 
Catherine, wife of John Shupe, born March 15, 1786, died Oct. 17, 1836. 
Matilda, wife of J. Miller, born May 5, 1829, died Dec. 13, 1863. 
John Hawkins, Sr., died April 5, 1S47, aged 56. 
RosatiTia, wife of Henry HawkinB, born May 3, 1818, died March 16, 

1838. 
Jacob Ruperd, died Sept. 14, 1832, aged 40. 
Catherine Cook, born March 23, 1794, died Feb. 23, 1847. 
Samuel Brechbill, died Dec. 28, 1846, aged 22. 
John Zarger, died Feb. 25, 1847, aged 75. 
James Morrow, died Dec. 21, 1842, aged 66; his wife, Jane, died March 

6, 1855, aged 66. 
Jane, wife of Jacob Stahl, died Jan. 16, 1841, aged 48. 
Josiah Mitchell, died Jiily 9, 1830, aged 26. 
John J. Heminger (Revolutionary soldier), born May 9,1758, died April 

5, 1842 ; hiB wife, Mary Ann, born Feb. 24, 1766, died Jan. 14, 1847. 
1 James M. Clark, died March 16, 1849, aged 51. 
I Susan Myers, died Feb. 23, 1849, aged 79. 



544 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Conrad Keister, died Oct. 7, 1844, aged 67 ; his wife, Susanna, died 1S4G. 

Sarah Keister, died Jan. 25, 18G0, aged 41. 

Jacob Funk, died May 31, 1840, aged 70. 

Clement Burleigh, died March 28, 1822. 

John Gant, Sr , died Dec. 24, 1855, aged 82 ; his wife, Martha, died June 

9, 1842, aged 75. 
Margaret Lippincott, died Sept. 1, 1833, aged 59. 
Nancy, wife of James Thompson, died April 14, 1865, aged 55. 
Mary Eicher, died Jan. 5, 1829, aged 57. 
George Leighteberger, died Nov. 8, 1861, aged 79; his wife, Elizabeth, 

born Dec. 31, 1780, died May 13, 1847. 
Margaret, wife of J. Crumbaugli, died Aug. 31, 1858, aged 69. 
Charles Kelly, died Jan. 13, 1858, aged 79. 
Dorcas Kelly, died Sept. 23, 1847, aged 45. 
Mary Swartz, died Sept. 28, 1855, aged 65. 

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA CLASSICAL AND SCIEN- 
TIFIC INSTITUTE. 

In 1849 the United Brethren in Christ founded a 
school of high grade at Mount Pleasant, under the 
corporate name of " Westmoreland College," and 
erected a building suited to their wants and purposes. 
Under their auspices the school accomplished much 
good, and the interest in the community in the cause 
of higher education was greatly increased. A few 
years later it passed into the hands of the Reformed 
Church, by whom it was operated under the original 
charter. It was afterwards controlled by the citizens 
of the town, and then by the Presbyterians. In 1871 
the regular Baptist denomination, by petition to the 
Legislature, secured an act incorporating a school at 
this place under the name of " The Western Pennsyl- 
vania Classical and Scientific Institute." Subse- 
quently the board of trustees purchased the buildings 
and grounds originally known as uie "Westmoreland 
College" for ten thousand dollars, and the work of 
education is now carried on by the last-named corpo- 
ration. It erected a new building, commodious and 
specially adapted to its increased wants. The faculty 
in 1858 were Rev. James H. Fife, A.M., President and 
Professor of Latin and Greek ; William A. Sterrett, I 
A.B., Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; 
and Miss Minerva M. Metzgar, Principal of Female 
Department. It was reorganized and opened by the 
Baptists in 1873, with the following faculty: Presi- 
dent, Rev. A. K. Bell, D.D. ; Principal, Jonathan 
Jones, A.M. (also Professor of Languages and Mathe- 
matics) ; Miss A. T. Giddings, Professor of Natural 
Sciences and Mathematics; MissM. L. Plummer, Eng- 
lish Branches and Preparatory Department; Prof. A. 
C. Lyon, Music ; and Mrs. M. Lloyd, Matron. Dr. Bell 
was succeeded in 1879 by Rev. Leroy Stephens. The 
buildings of the institute stand in a beautiful grove 
of forest trees, overlooking the town and surrounding 
country, and in full view of Chestnut Ridge. The 
new building for young ladies, forty-one by one hun- 
dred and twenty-one feet, and three stories high, is 
situated near the institute building. The present 
government is : Board of Trustees, C. S. Overholt 
(chairman), Dr. J. H. Clark (secretary), J. C. Crown- 
over (treasurer), William Shallenberger, William 
Williams, Joseph Beidler, H. Clay Frick, J. W. 



Bailie, Samuel Warden, Rev. Leroy Stephens, J. L. 
Shallenberger, J. R. Stauner, B. F. Overholt, R. Por- 
ter Craig, Rev. P. Loucks, J. T. McCormick, Rev. N. 
B. Critchfield, James Neele, Rev. B. F. Woodburn, 
John M. Cochran, J. H. Lippincott. Faculty, Rev. 
Leroy Stephens, President and Professor of Intellec- 
tual and Moral Philosophy; Byron W. King, Ancient 
Languages and Elocution ; Kate Reynolds, Natural 
Sciences and Latin ; M. L. Plummer, Mathematics 
and Civil Government; E. C. Walter, Literature and 
History; Adolf Liebig, German; Anna A. Palm, 
Music ; and Emma Rees, Drawing, Painting, and 
French. 

The Philoretian Literary Society is an organization 
of its students for literary and social improvement. 
It is the purpose of the institution to make the in- 
struction exact and thorough in all departments by 
the most approved methods. It has three classes, 
senior, middle, and junior, with a normal and scien- 
tific course, preparatory and musical departments for 
such as do not wish a complete and regular course. 

BOROUGH SCHOOLS. 
In 1882 the board of directors are W. Washington, 
president ; J. R. Zuck, secretary ; J. Lanawalt, W. 
S. Hutchinson, D. B. Keister, J. S. Overhalt. Teach- 
ers: Principal and Room No. 4, J. A. Stevenson; 
Room No. 3, Miss E. J. Churns; Room No. 2, Mr. 
Yothers; Room No. 1, Miss H. J. Carroll. 

ORDERS AND SOCIETIES. 
MOSS ROSE LODGE, No. 350, I. O. 0. F., 

was chartered April 16, 1849. Its first officers were : 
N. G., S. D. Johnston ; V. G., C. Barger; Sec, C. F. 
Lichtberger; Asst. Sec, John Houck; Treas., James 
Hitchman. The officers in 1882 are : N. G., Dr. L. 
S. Goodman ; V. G., E. B. Swartz; Sec, J. C. Crown- 
over; Asst. Sec, T. D. Eicher; Treas., Dr. F. L. 
Marsh. It meets every Thursday evening in its hall, 
erected in 1882. 

HYLAS LODGE, No. 474, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, 

was chartered Aug. 31, 1881, with the following mem- 
bers : E. B. Swartz, B. L. Francis, Owen Cain, Robert 
Wilson, J. F. McWilliams, T. D. Eicher, Dr. L. S. 
Goodman, W. D. Mullen, Jr., Lewis Weihl, J. D. 
Lehman, W. G. Chamberlain. It meets Wednesday 
evenings in Mount Pleasant Hall. 

MOUNT PLEASANT LODGE, No. 2280, KNIGHTS OF HONOR, 

was chartered June 8, 1881, with the following mem- 
bers : J. A. Stevenson, J. A. Strickler, J. P. Mcln- 
tyre, James S. Braddock, Rev. N. L. Reynolds, W. J. 
Hitchman, J. J. Neele, J. B. Andrews, James Devlin, 
J. J. Fox, R. H. Goodman, J. C. Gemmel, William 
Hughes, M. D. Heath, D. B. Keister, Julius Lewey, 
Thomas Overholt, Adam Rumbaugh, William W. 
Shuman, J. W. Swartz, E. B. Swartz, John N. D.Stauf- 
fer, O. P. Shupe, Harry O. Tinstman. Meets first 
and third Monday evenings of each month at Mount 
Pleasant Hall. 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



545 



ONETA TRIBE, No. 237, I. 0. K. M., 

was chartered Feb. 22, 1877, with the following mem- 
bers: N. X. Smith, C. C. Neff, J. A. Finefrock, E. B. 
Benouff, John Trout, Abraham Kughn, Daniel Swee- 
ney, A. Whitehead, George Heuck, R. Gaskill, Wil- 
liam Sullenberger, Edward Mullen, A. Giseburt, M. 
Hunker, J. P. Blystone, C. W. Thurston, J. L. Mor- 
timore, A. Mortimore, J. Nutting, J. H. Miller, J. L. 
Byrnes, James Clark, James Nolan, and Edward 
Smith. It meets Wednesday evenings at I. 0. O. F. 
Hall. 

ROBERT WARDEN POST, No. 163, G. A. R., 

was chartered July 16, 1880, with the following mem- 
bers : W. M. Jordan, John Dullinger, John G. Ste- 
venson, J. A. Loar, M. N. Stauffer, David Stoniher, 
J. R. Zuck, William Hughes, G. W. Overholt, U. B. 
Hubbs, D. H. Eicher, J. M. Russell, Abraham Shaw- 
ley, William Zimmerman, William Horton, Thomas 
D. Freebles, Samuel Nutting, Jerry Finefrock, Henry 
Lentz, Henry Smitehurst, Dr. J. L. Marsh, Charles 
D. Reed, A. T. Mechling, George W. Gibbs, H. O. 
Tinstman, J. Brownson Hurst, Anthony Jaquette, 
Robert Hood, George Eicher, C. C. Neff, and Daniel 
Wilkins. It meets on the second Friday evening of 
each month at Mount Pleasant Hall. 

THE ANCIENT ORDER OF KNIGHTS OF THE MYSTIC CHAIN 

was chartered March 18, 1881. Its charter members 
and first officers were: SirK.C, Martin Markey ; SirK. 
V. C, Francis Beeson ; Sir K. First Lieutenant, Peter 
Gibbons ; Sir K. R. S., G. T. Learn ; Sir K. F. S., F. 
K. Nicklow ; Sir K. I. G., John Hoar; Sir K. 0. G., 
William Hoar ; Sir K. P. C, J. R. Murphy. Mem- 
bers: Thomas Hardy, L. G. Herbst, William Flem- 
ing, John McKindel, Thomas Irwin, W. F. Holy- 
field, Daniel Cain, William Marshall, William Mere- 
dith, M. T. Conway, P. R. Rogers, S. C. Bowers, 
George Bomgard, James Rogers, David Childs, Ira 
Rogers, Thomas Stoke, and John Wolf. It meets 
Saturday evenings at Mount Pleasant Hall. 

MOUNT PLEASANT COUNCIL, No. 592, ROYAL ARCANUM, 

was chartered in May, 1881. The Past Regents are 
Dr. L. S. Goodman and Dr. J. Loar. In 1882 the 
Regent is J. P. Mclntyre; Secretary, H. W. Over- 
ton ; Treasurer, G. W. Stoner ; and Collector, W. C. 
Morrison. It meets every alternate Monday evening 
in I. O. O. F. Hall. 

MYRTLE LODGE, No. 186, I. 0. G. T., 

was chartered Feb. 27, 1880. The first officers and 
charter members were : P. W. C. T., B. F. Mechling ; 
W. C. T., J. F. Randolph; W. V.T., Amelia Vance; 
W. S. E. C, T. C. Patterson ; W. F. S., Maggie Shep- 
pard ; W. T. R. E. A., J. B. Coldsmith ; W. M., J. B. 
Rupert; W. D. M., Bella Mechling; W. I. G., Lizzie 
Coldsmith ; W. O. G., George W. Boyd ; W. R. H. S., 
Lizzie Sheppard ; W. L. H. S., Ella Brier. Mem- 
bers (charter) : F. L. King, Anna Roadman, Stick- 
ler Vance, W. S. Fleming, L. E. Fleming, J. A. 



Loar, M. E. Randolph, Carrie Smith, E. A. Leonard, 
and Mollie Maxwell. It meets every Tuesday even- 
ing in I. O. O. F. Hall, and is in a very flourishing 
condition. 

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

"The First National Bank" was organized in 1864 
with $150,000 capital. Its presidents have been C. S. 
Overholt, John Sherrick, and Henry W. Stoner, the 
latter the present incumbent, who came in in 1879. 
The first cashier was John Sherrick, succeeded in 
1876 by the present incumbent, Henry Jordan. The 
bank was opened in Sherrick's Building, and removed 
to its present location in 1879. In 1882 the vice-pres- 
ident is W. J. Hitchman; book-keeper, G. W. Stoner; 
and directors, Henry Jordan, H. W. Stoner, William 
Snyder, Samuel Warden, W. J. Hitchman, William 
B. Neel, Joseph R. Stauffer, Dr. J. H. Clark, and W. 
D. Mullin. It has a surplus of $29,040. 

" Mount Pleasant Bank" is a private bank, organ- 
ized in 1878. Its proprietors are W. J. Hitchman, 
W. B. Neel, Joseph W. Stoner, and J. C. Crownover, 
the latter being cashier. It occupies the same build- 
ing with the First National Bank on Main Street, 
adjoining the " Jordan House." 

VILLAGES AND HAMLETS. 
LAURELVILLE, 

situated on Jacobs Creek, on the Somerset and Mount 
Pleasant turnpike, and near the western base of the 
Chestnut Ridge, was in the "good old times" a stop- 
ping-place for the traveler on that highway. A public 
house of entertainment had been kept here from very 
early times, and here was the old homestead of the Lo- 
bingier family, a family which has produced represen- 
tative men in all the higher walks of society, and of 
which the township itself may justly feel a satisfac- 
tion. Jacob A. Lobingier, the Westmoreland repre- 
sentative of the family, resides here, and here he has 
been engaged his lifetime in industrial or mercantile 
pursuits. He was postmaster of the office for a period 
of twenty-five consecutive years. The tannery which 
Mr. Lobingier operated for many years is now under 
the control of his son, Mr. John Lobingier. There is 
here also a grist- and saw-mill, and a general mer- 
chandise store, run by Keim Brothers. As it is in a 
good locality there is quite a business done here, and it 
is more than probable that within a reasonable time, 
when the resources of that particular region are de- 
veloped, that it will become a point of much business 
importance. 

RIDGEVIEW, 

the name of a post-office in the northeastern part of 
the township, is also the name which by common 
consent designates the village, which being a thickly 
settled point on a much-traveled road known as the 
Clay Pike, where the same crosses another road lead- 
ing from Laurelville to Pleasant Unity, and which 
being in a favorable location, has aspirations to com- 
munistic distinction. There is a general merchandise 



546 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



store kept here, which enjoys a good local patronage, 
it having been recognized as a distributing point for 
now a number of years. In this immediate locality 
the Overlys, the Griffins, the Roadmans, the Hether- 
ingtons are old residents. The Hon. John Faushold 
resides here, and in ripe old age dispenses justice, by 
virtue of his commission, with the wisdom of expe- 
rience. 

BRIDGEPORT 

has the distinction of being the largest village not 
incorporated in the county. Before Derry Station 
was incorporated it was the largest, but that village 
now ranks as a corporation. Bridgeport by the last 
census has a population of six hundred and thirty- 
five. For its present population and business, and 
for its encouraging future prospects, it is indebted to 
the existence of the Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford 
Railroads, and to the development of the coke busi- 
ness. Before 1871 it had no pretensions ; now it is a 
village filled to overflowing with an industrious class 
of laborers. 

Some of the largest coking firms of that marvelous 
region operate in the immediate vicinity of this place, 
and along both sides of the railroad north and south 
the rows of ovens are in continuous blast. The most 
extensive of these are the works of Messrs. Boyle & 
Rafferty, and those of Mr. W. D. Mullen at the 
northern end of the village. As these interests have 
been noticed more at length in their proper place, we 
shall not touch upon them here. 

The village is laid out regularly in streets, alleys, 
and town lots. The streets are named. The build- 
ings, both public and private, which have been 
erected within its precincts bear all modern marks. 
The most of these are constructed of rather flimsy 
material, and have been built rather for convenience 
and comfort than for durability. The class of busi- 
ness men here, as might be expected, is of the ap- 
proved type. They are mostly youngish men, and 
such as are enterprising in its accepted business term. 
In a place which is so modern, and the citizens of 
which, to a great extent, are but of late identified 
with the interests and permanency of the place, it is 
but natural that there should be changing and a want 
of stability in their public business undertakings, 
and a want of a certain mutuality which grows from 
common intimacy or common interests. It is a place 
of prospect, and more shall be learned of the status 
of the place in that part of this work which treats of 
the modern history of the county, and of the devel- 
opment of its modern industries. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE LOBINGIER FAMILY, 
is a remarkably historical and prominent one, not 
only in this township and county, but in the annals 
of the State. It was very early represented in the set- 



tlement of Westmoreland, and is connected with those 
other early and distinguished families, the Markles, 
Painters, Graffs, and Marchands, as well as with 
Dr. William H. Egle of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's 
eminent historian. The first emigrant in America 
bearing the name of Lobingier came from Witten- 
burg, Germany, in the early part of the eighteenth 
century, and settled in Lancaster County, now in that 
part included in Dauphin, and near Harrisburg. His 
son, Christopher Lobingier, was born in Paxton town- 
ship, Dauphin (then Lancaster) County, in 1740. He 
married Elizabeth Miiller in 1760, removed to Mount 
Pleasant township in 1772, and was a delegate to the 
first Constitutional State Convention in Philadelphia, 
from July 15 to Sept. 28, 1776. He died July 4, 
1798. His wife was born in Switzerland in 1744, and 
emigrated to Lancaster (now Dauphin) County, with 
her father, Rudolph Miiller, in 1749. She was mar- 
ried to Christopher Lobingier, and died at her daugh- 
ter's, Mrs. Kimmel, in Stoystown, Somerset Co., 
Sept. 5, 1815. Her sister, Ursula Miiller, was the 
great-grandmother of Dr. William H. Egle, author 
of "Pennsylvania's State History," and a resident of 
Harrisburg. 

Christopher Lobingier had four sons — John, Chris- 
topher, George, and Rudolph — and five daughters, 
— Catharine, Elizabeth, Mary, Barbara, and Susanna. 
John Lobingier (better known as Judge Lobingier) 
was born in Paxton township, Lancaster (now Dau- 
phin) County, about three miles from Harrisburg, 
April 5, 1767, and married Sophia Mover, July 7, 
1789. He built the old home at Laurelville about 
1797, and removed there from the Ligonier Valley 
shortly afterwards. He erected the stone mill which 
gave the village the name of " Lobingier's Mills" in 
1801. He was a member of the Legislature, and an 
associate judge of the court. He died at his home in 
Mount Pleasant, Feb. 26, 1859, aged ninety-one years. 
He engaged in the iron business, controlling several 
furnaces, and also sank a number of oil-wells. In 
his later years he delivered a very valuable historical 
address on the " Whiskey Insurrection of 1794," into 
which at the time he was in danger of being drawn, 
! but was restrained by the wise counsel of his father. 
His first wife, Sophia Mover, was born July 26, 1770, 
and died May 18, 1838. His second, Elizabeth Cross, 
was born in 1792, and died Oct. 3, 1861. Christopher 
Lobingier was the father of Jqhn C, now living on the 
old Lobingier farm along the " Clay Pike." George 
Lobingier was the father of the late Mechling Lobin- 
gier, and of Christopher, who died a few years ago at 
Bridgeport, and was also the grandfather of Presly, 
George, and Christopher Lobingier. Barbara married 
a Mr. Leassure, whose descendants reside near Greens- 
burg. Susanna married a Mr. Kimmel, of Somerset 
County ; and Mary his brother, who subsequently re- 
moved to Michigan. Mrs. Mary, wife of Rev. Frank 
Fisher, of Greensburg, is a descendant of one of these 
sisters. Another sister — either Catharine or Eliza- 





^J^O * (7/7&?^jz*<l 




MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



547 



beth — married the father of Col. Israel Painter. The 
children of Judge John and Sophia (Moyer) Lobin- 
gier were Elizabeth, born Sept. 11, 1790, married to 
John Connell ; Mary, born Sept. 25, 1792, married to 
Gasper Markle (brother of Gen. Joseph Markle), and 
died in 1880 ; Jacob, born Feb. 21, 1795, married to 
Mary Stauffer, Oct. 21, 1819, and died Oct. 11, 1855; 
Sarah, born May 14, 1797, and married to Christian 
Fetter; John, born Aug. 21, 1799, married to Eliza- 
beth Smith, and still living on his farm a mile east of 
Mount Pleasant; Susanna, born March 12, 1802, and 
died in infancy ; Christopher, born Aug. 12, 1803, and 
died at Rodney, Miss., Dec. 3, 1836 ; Hannah, born 
Aug. 20, 1806, married Shepard Markle, of West 
Newton, where she now lives ; Sophia, born Feb. 2. 
1809, married to Dr. Philip G. Young, of Washington 
County, but she now lives in Chicago ; George, born 
Feb. 7, 1811, died Feb. 11, 1829; Catharine, born 
Aug. 8, 1813, married to Rev. James Darsie, and died 
in Fayette County, March, 1860 ; Jacob, the eldest 
son, married Mary Stauffer, born April 12, 1801, and 
who died Oct. 8, 1879, at her daughter's, Mrs. Maria 
Shallenberger, in Braddock's. 

Her brother, John Stauffer, was in the Legislature, 
and her nephew, Jacob Newmyer, was the father of 
the present State senator, John C. Newmyer. Jacob 
Lobingier was many years a magistrate, served as 
captain and major in the militia, and was president 
of the Somerset and West Newton Turnpike. His chil- 
dren were John S., born Oct. 31, 1820, died Feb. 20, 
1821 ; Elizabeth, born April 13, 1822, married, March 
18, 1845, to David K. Marchand, and died in Greens- 
burg ; Jacob, born March 20, 1824, married Lillias 
F. Stewart, March IS, 1849, and lives at Laurelville; 
Franklin B., born May 17, 1826, attended Bethany 
College, was a noted minister of the Disciples, preach- 
ing in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and 
died at Laurelville, April 5, 1852 ; Marie, born Jan. 
30, 1829, married to Jonathan N. Shallenberger, Feb. 
24, 1848, and resides at Braddock's ; George, born 
Sept. 20, 1832, married Ada B. Stewart, Sept. 23, 
1857, educated at Washington and Jefferson College, 
read law with Henry F. Schell, at Somerset, admitted 
to that bar, practiced law at Lanark, 111., entered the 
ministry in 1867, preached for the Disciples at Pine 
Flats, Indiana Co., Pittston, N. Y., Tonawanda, 
N. Y., West Rupert, Vt., and Hebron, Neb., where 
he is now ; Christopher C, born June 7, 1840, served 
in Gen. Burnside's corps in the late war, married, 
Jan. 10, 1865, to Helena Mills, of Braddock's, where 
he resides. Jacob Lobingier, as before stated, was 
the second son of Jacob and Mary Lobingier, attended 
Bethany College, and since 1847 has resided on the 
old estate at Laurelville. He held the office of post- 
master twenty-five years, and was commissioned as 
magistrate by Governor Hartranft. He has ever been 
largely devoted to the cause of education and temper- 
ance. His wife was born Oct. 25, 1827, and is thedaugh- 
ter of Andrew Stewart, Esq. She is related to Hon. 



James A. Logan, whose mother was a niece of Mrs. 
Lobingier's father. Their children are Quincy A., 
born Jan. 8, 1848, married, Sept. 12, 1867, to Annie 
E. Wells, of Steubenville, Ohio ; Henry Schell, born 
Oct. 27, 1849, graduated at Bethany College June 19, 
1873, took charge of the Second Church of Disciples, 
Morrisania, New York City, July 20, 1873, and called 
to the First Church of Disciples, Philadelphia, Oct. 
1, 1878, and married, Oct. 27, 1880, Annie H. Sin- 
clair, of New York ; Ada Bonnette, born April 15, 
1855; J. Frank, born July 13, 1859; A. Stewart, 
born Dec. 22, 1862 ; and Paul, born Feb. 20, 1868, 
died Sept. 5, 1870. Three sisters of John C. Lobin- 
gier were married to three brothers named Graff, now 
of Columbia County. The Lobingier family has been 
eminently a religious one, closely identified with all 
moral reforms for the good of society, and, imbued 
with progressive tendencies, has ever been found on 
the side of humanitj'. 



THE JORDAN FAMILY. 
David Jordan was born in 1758, and died in March, 
1822, in Bedford County. His wife, Mary, was born 
in 1752, and died March 4, 1838. Their son, David 
Jordan, was born Oct. 1, 1787, aud was married April 
19, 1815, by Rev. Alexander Boyd, to Miss Catharine 
Myers, born in 1790. He removed to Mount Pleasant 
in 1848, and here died Sept. 13, 1854. His wife died 
June 12, 1864. Their children were : 

1. David, born April 3, 1817, and died Sept. 5, 
1818. 

2. John Reamer, born June 30, 1820. 

3. Franklin, born June 10, 1822, and died Dec. 29, 
1846. 

3. Johnston Bardollar, born June 27, 1824. 

4. Samuel Washington, born May 2, 1826. 

5. William Myers, born Nov. 9, 1827. 



ABRAHAM OVERHOLT TINSTMAN. 

Abraham O. Tinstman, now a resident of Turtle 
Creek, Allegheny Co., Pa., resided in Fayette County 
from 1859 to 1876, and there conducted enterprises 
and aided in laying the foundations of important 
works which are in active operation, developing the 
wealth and forming an important part of the business 
of the county to-day. 

Mr. Tinstman is of German descent in both lines. 
His paternal great-grandfather was born in one of the 
German states, and came to 'the United States, lo- 
cating in Bucks County, Pa., and from thence re- 
moved to Westmoreland County, Pa., residing near 
Mount Pleasant, where he had his home until his 
death ; he was a farmer by occupation. A. O. Tinst- 
man's paternal grandfather was Jacob Tinstman, who 
was born in Bucks County, Pa., Jan. 13, 1773, and 
on Dec. 11, 1798, was married to Miss Anna Fox, of 
Westmoreland County, Pa., her birthplace having 
been Chester County, Pa., Aug. 8, 1779. 



548 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Jacob Tinstman and Anna Tinstman had ten chil- 
dren, whose names were Mary, Henry, Adam, John, 
Jacob, Anna, Christian, David, Sarah, and Catharine. 
Jacob Tinstman was a farmer, and a man of fine edu- 
cation. 

John, the father of A. O. Tinstman, was the fourth 
child and third son, and was born Jan. 29, 1807, in 
East Huntingdon township, Westmoreland Co., Pa. 
He was brought up on the farm, and attended sub- 
scription schools. He held important township of- 
fices, was an excellent citizen, an energetic and pru- 
dent man, and made a competence for himself and 
family. He died at the age of seventy years. 

A. O. Tinstman's maternal grandfather was Abra- 
ham Overholt, also of German descent, and who was 
born in Bucks County, Pa., in 1774, and came to 
East Huntingdon township, Westmoreland Co., Pa., 
about the year 1800, and settled on a farm on which \ 
the village of West Overton now stands. He married 
Miss Maria Stauffer, of Fayette County, Pa., and both 
being of frugal, industrious, and economical disposi- 
tions, accumulated property rapidly, lived together 
harmoniously, and left as monuments of skill and 
judgment in building and improvements some of the 
most substantial buildings of East Huntingdon town- 
ship, having built the entire village of West Overton, 
including mill, distillery, etc. 

A. O. Tinstman's mother's maiden name was Anna 
Overholt, who was a daughter of the aforesaid Abra- 
ham and Maria Overholt. She was a lady highly 
esteemed for her kindness and gentleness, traits of 
character for which her mother, Mrs. Abraham Over- 
holt, was particularly distinguished. She was born 
July 4, 1812, and was married to John Tinstman 
about 1830, and died in the year 1866. The fruits of 
their marriage were ten children, viz. : Maria, who 
died at fifteen years of age ; Jacob O. ; Abraham O. ; 
Henry 0. ; Anna, widow of Rev. L. B. Leasure; John 
O., who died when a soldier in the army during the 
Rebellion ; Elizabeth, who died at three years of age; 
Abigail, who died at nineteen years of age ; Emma, 
wife of Dr. W. J. K. Kline, of Greensburg, Pa. ; and 
Christian S. O. Tinstman, who is now conducting 
business in partnership with A. O. Tinstman, under 
the firm-name of "A. O. Tinstman & Co." Abraham 
O. Tinstman was born Sept. 13, 1834, in East Hunt- 
ingdon township, Westmoreland Co., Pa., on the farm 
upon which are now located the Emma Mine Coke- 
Works. He received his education in the common 
schools, attending them during the winter season 
until about twenty years of age, and continued la- 
boring on the farm with his father until he became 
twenty-five years old, when he went to Broad Ford, 
Fayette Co., Pa., to take charge of his grandfather 
Overholt's property at that place, the business con- 
sisting of the manufacture of the celebrated Overholt 
whiskey, the cutting of timber by steam saw-mill into 
car and other lumber, and the farming of the lands 
connected with the Broad Ford property. He thus 



continued to manage and do business for his grand- 
father until 1864, when the two formed a partnership, 
named A. Overholt & Co. He, however, continued 
to conduct the business until the death of his grand- 
father, A. Overholt, who died in 1870, in the eighty- 
sixth year of his age. 

During Mr. Tinstman's residence in the county 
and his partnership with his grandfather he caused 
the erection of the most important buildings in Broad 
Ford, some of which are the large mill and distil- 
lery now there, as well as many houses for the use of 
employes. 

In 1865 he and Joseph Rist bought about six hun- 
dred acres of coking coal land adjoining the village 
of Broad Ford. Mr. Tinstman thereafter (in 1868) 
sold one-half of his interest in the same to Col. A. 
S. M. Morgan, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and with him 
established the firm of Morgan & Co., who put up 
one hundred and eleven coke-ovens at the point now 
known as Morgan Mines, on the line of the Mount 
Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad, and built one 
mile of railroad from Broad Ford to said mines, at 
which place the first coke was manufactured along 
what is now the Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Rail- 
road. Morgan & Co. at this time held almost entire 
control of the coke business of the Connellsville region. 

In 1870, A. O. Tinstman with others organized a 
company, of which he was elected president, and built 
the Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad, he 
holding the office of president until the sale of said 
road to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 
1876. 

About 1871, Mr. Tinstman purchased a portion of 
Mr. Rist's interest in the six hundred acres of coal 
land previously mentioned. Mr. H. C. Frick, who 
was at this time keeping the books of A. Overholt & 
Co., was very desirous of starting in business, and 
aspired for something more than book-keeping, and 
having shown by his indomitable energy, skill, and 
judgment that he was not only capable of keeping 
an accurate and beautiful set of books, but that he 
was able to conduct business, manage employes, etc., 
Mr. Tintsman and Mr. Rist associated Mr. Frick with 
them, under the firm-name of Frick & Co., and made 
him manager of the association, etc. 

This company built at Broad Ford two hundred 
coke-ovens. The first one hundred were built along 
or facing the Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Rail- 
road, and were known as the Frick Works, or " Nov- 
elty Works." The other hundred were built in blocks 
along the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad, and facing the road and Youghiogheny 
River, and were known as the Henry Clay Works. 

In 1872, Col. Morgan and Mr. Tintsman (as Mor- 
gan <& Co.) bought about four hundred acres of coking 
coal land at Latrobe, Westmoreland Co., Pa., and there 
built fifty ovens. About this period and on continu- 
ously to 1876 (during the panic period) Mr. Tintsman 
bought large tracts of coal lands on the line of the 




JOHN GALLOWAY. 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



549 



Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad, comprising 
nearly all the best coal lands in that region ; but the 
pressure of the panic proved excessive for him, the 
coke business, like everything else, becoming de- 
pressed, and he failed, losing everything. But having 
great confidence that the coke business would revive, 
and foreseeing that it would be one of the earliest as 
well as surest of manufacturing interests to recuper- 
ate, he bought in 1878 and 1880 on option a large 
extent of coal land in the Connellsville region, and 
in 1880 sold about 3500 acres at a good advance over 
cost price to E. K. Hyndinan, who then organized 
the Connellsville Coal and Iron Company. 

This sale enabled him again to take a new start 
in the world as a business man. He then, in 1880, 
established the firm of A. O. Tintsman & Co., and 
opened an office on the corner of Seventh Avenue 
and Smith-field Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., and soon after 
bought a half-interest in the Rising Sun Coke-Works, 
on the June Bug Branch of the Southwest Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad. In 1881 he bought the Mount Brad- 
dock Coke-Works, located on the Fayette County 
Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and 
Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad; and in the same 
year he bought the Pennsville Coke-Works, on the 
Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, embracing in all 
about three hundred ovens, all of which he still owns 
and operates. 

Thus we see again verified in Mr. Tinstman's life 
that great truth, that those who " try again" earnestly 
and energetically will succeed. He is to be congratu- 
ated iu his again being established in business, and 
being so pleasantly situated and surrounded by home 
and family relations, as it is well known that while 
in the county he labored diligently for its welfare; 
and though he has not received the deserved abun- 
dant recompense in a pecuniary manner, yet the 
people of the county appreciate his labors, especially 
those who have been benefited directly by the devel- 
opment of the coal interests of the county, and of 
whom there are not a few. 

On July 1, 1875, Mr. Tintsman married Miss Har- 
riet Cornelia Markle, youngest daughter of Gen. 
Cyrus P. Markle and Sarah Ann Markle (whose 
maiden name was Sarah Ann Lippincott), of Mill 
Grove, Westmoreland Co., Pa. He has one son, 
named Cyrus Painter Markle Tinstman. 



JOHN GALLOWAY. 



The paternal grandfather of Mr. John Galloway, of 
Mount Pleasant township, was born in York County, 
Pa., of Scotch parentage; his maternal grandfather 
was born in Ireland. His father, James Galloway, 
carried on blacksmithing with farming in the township 
of Mount Pleasant, and on the farm which he owned, 
and the same now owned and occupied by his son John. 
R> married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William 
v =n-, who was related by blood to the family 



of Gen. George B. McClellan. James Galloway 
died Jan. 20, 1837, and his wife died Oct. 30, 1862. 
They had nine children, — Rhoda, William, Eliza- 
beth, Nancy Jane, Mary, John, Sarah, Henrietta, and 
James. Two of these died when children. 

John Galloway was born on the farm of his father, 
and the one he now occupies, March 5, 1810, and re- 
mained w'th his father until his death. Mr. Gallo- 
way at an advanced age, now over seventy-two, still 
lives or/ the homestead, his niece, Miss Nancy New- 
ell, iiving with him and keeping house for him. 

Mr. Galloway and his niece were but lately made 
the subjects of one of the most brutal attacks at the 
hands of a villainous set of robbers, which caused 
much and wide-spread talk. On the 19th of October, 
1881, five disguised robbers entered the house of Mr. 
Galloway, they finding out that he had money therein, 
and closing with him, they beat him about the head 
until they took him to be dead, when they dragged 
him by his feet on to the porch. Although he was an 
old man he made a desperate resistance, and getting 
a pocket-knife out of his pocket, he used it in his des- 
peration to good advantage on the bodies of several of 
those who attacked him. When left on the porch he 
recovered consciousness, and arose to totter off to get 
assistance and to give alarm, but before he was able to 
get away they discovered him, and again knocked him 
down and then dragged him into the house again, still 
beating and kicking him. 

One of these wretches in the mean time had at- 
tacked Miss Newell, his niece, aud choked her until 
she was almost incapable of speech, only relaxing his 
grip as he asked her where the money was. This she 
heroically refused to tell. The rest of the robbers, 
having left Mr. Galloway insensible, were now busied 
breaking furniture and ransacking the rooms for the 
money, which to the amount of two thousand eight 
hundred dollars they succeeded in securing, when 
they fled. They debated among themselves whether 
they should set the house on fire or not, and when 
they concluded not to do so they left in different 
directions. 

Of these robbers, three of them were shortly iden- 
tified, namely, Bill Collins, called "Shorty," John 
McKinney, and "Crossan," and, pleading guilty, 
were sentenced to the penitentiary, where they are 
now serving out their term. The other two of the 
five have not yet been identified. That Mr. Galloway 
survived the attack upon him is a thing miraculous. 
The robbers evidently thought they had left him dead, 
and had they suspected that he would live they would 
undoubtedly have killed him outright, for upon the 
hearing after the arrest he, with his niece, identified 
them in such a manner that their conviction was but 
a matter of form. 



550 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



JOSEPH LIPHNCOTT. 

The name Lippincott is one of the oldest of local 
origin in England, and was derived from Lovecote, 
which is described in the Domesday Book or cencus, 
made by order of William the Conqueror, in 108(5, of 
lands held by Edward the Confessor in 1041-66. 
This Saxon name implies that a proprietor named 
Love held the house, cote, and lands, hence called 
Lovecote, which name was probably already ancient. 
Surnames were not settled until about this d.ate, and 
hence Lovecote, Loughwyngcote, Lyvenscott, l5»ffing- 
cott, Luppingcott, through which variations it has 
descended to become fixed in Lippincott during the 
last two centuries, and is undoubtedly of great an- 
tiquity. The family were granted eight coats of arms 
by the College of Heralds. One of them, belonging to 
the Wibbrey branch, and in the possession of Phiiip 
Luppingcott, Esq., of North Devonshire, England, in 
1620, when visited by the Heralds, and was at that 
time already ancient, is thus described : " Per fesse, 
embattled gules and sable, three leopards, passant 
argent. Crest, out of a mural crown, gules, five 
ostrich feathers, alternately argent and azure. The 
motto, ' Secundis dubiisque rectus,' which may be 
thus translated, Upright in prosperity, and adversity, 
or firm in every fortune." 

The family in America are descended from Richard 
and Abigail, who removed from Devonshire, Eng- 
land, in 1639, and settled in Boston, New England. 
Having been excommunicated from the " church" at 
Boston for nonconformity in 1651 he returned with 
his family to England, and resided at Plymouth, and 
early thereafter became a member of the Society of 
Friends, then emerging from the various sects around 
them, and in consequence endured much persecution 
for the testimony of a good conscience. In 1663 he 
returned to New England, and lived for several years 
in Rhode Island, and finally in 1669 established him- 
self and family at Shrewsbury, Monmouth Co., N. J., 
where he died in 1683. His widow, Abigail, died in 
1697, leaving a considerable estate. Richard Lippin- 
cott was the largest proprietor among the patentees 
of the new colony. 

From their eldest sou, Remembrance by name, de- 
scended Samuel, who in 1789 removed from New 
Jersey to Westmoreland County, Pa. One of his 
sons, James, was the father of twelve children, viz.: 
William, John, Jesse, Joseph, Samuel, Henry, Kath- 
erine (Mrs. Ulam), Sarah (Mrs. Cyrus P. Markle), 
Rachel (Mrs. Toliver), Harriet (Mrs. Hemingray and 
Mrs. Oliver Blackburn), Nancy (Mrs. William Mc- 
Cracken), Mary (Mrs. Clark). The maiden name of 
the mother of this numerous family was Zeigler. She 
came from the State of Delaware. Joseph Lippin- 
cott was born near Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland 
Co., Pa., March 17, 1800; his whole life was passed 
in his native county and that of Allegheny. On the 
20th of November, 1834, he was married to Eliza 
Strickler, who all through his life made him a loving, 



tender wife, and whose memory is dearly cherished 
by her children, relatives, and many of those to 
whom she ministered. In 1835 they went to Pitts- 
burgh to live, where he, in connection with his 
brothers, William and Jesse, became proprietors of 
the Lippincott mills, now known as the Zug iron- 
mills. He remained in Pittsburgh until 1838, when 
he disposed of his interests and returned to Mount 
Pleasant, where for over twenty years he was a suc- 
cessful merchant. He had the confidence of the 
public to an almost unlimited extent, and as banks 
were scarce in those days he became a depository for 
moneys that at times reached a large amount. 

About the year 1854 he engaged in the business of 
safe manufacturing in this city, the firm being Lip- 
pincott & Barr. The works were situated on Second 
Avenue, running through to First Avenue, on the site 
at present partly occupied by Messrs. C. P. Markle & 
Sons' paper warehouse. In the year 1856 he also pur- 
chased an interest in the firm of Lippincott & Co., 
axe and shovel manufacturers. He retired from ac- 
tive business pursuits in 1859, residing in Mount 
Pleasant until 1865, when he removed to Pittsburgh. 

In the year 1830 he was elected lieutenant-colonel 
of the Eighty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, 
his commission bearing the signature of George Wolf, 
then Governor of the State. This is the only public 
position he ever held, his temperament being such 
that, while always taking an active interest in State 
affairs and wielding an undoubted influence, yet he 
did not court publicity. 

The colonel, or Uncle Joe, as he was familiarly 
called, endeared himself to the people of Mount 
Pleasant and vicinity by his many acts of kindness. 
If there was a poor man in financial difficulties he 
was always sure of relief from him, and oftentimes it 
was voluntarily extended without being asked for. 
His generosity was unbounded, and to this day many 
of the older residents of that section recall instances 
of his unswerving friendship that do credit to his 
goodness of heart. 

He together with his wife were members of the 
Baptist Church, and in his days of prosperity he was 
one of the largest contributors that there was in 
Western Pennsylvania to his church and her institu- 
tions. 

Having almost reached his eightieth year he died 
in Allegheny City on the 28th of August, 1879 ; his 
wife died on the 27th of April of the same year. 

In summing up his character the writer of this 
sketch, his son, wishes to put on record his admira- 
tion of those virtues in the character of his father 
that were worthy of emulation. He was a country 
gentleman of simple tastes, but he was a man among 
men. 

His surviving children, who all reside in Pittsburgh, 
are Harriet E., Sarah A. (now Mrs. Henry H. Vance), 
Annie M., and Jesse H. Lippincott. Three chili' 
Mary Jane, James, and William, died i; 



MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. 



551 



DANIEL SHUPE. 

Daniel Shupe was the eldest son of Isaac and Eliz- 
abeth Shupe, and was born June 26, 1816. His father 
was known as an energetic and successful business 
man, and carried on farming in connection with mill- 
ing, tanning, and the mercantile business. In con- 
junction with his son he erected the extensive flouring- 
mills in Mount Pleasant town, which are at present 
operated by Mr. O. P. Shupe. His son remained with 
him, and early displaying business talents, assisted 
him in his various branches of business until his 
death, about 1847. In the mean time Daniel had 
married Miss Caroline Hitchman, daughter of Robert 
and Elizabeth Hitchman, Feb. 27, 1840. 

The many good points of character which went to 
make the man might be summed up in these words: 
He was public-spirited to a marked degree ; he was 
good to the poor; was a genial, whole-souled, pleas- 
ant companion; a kind and sympathizing friend, al- 
ways ready to oblige a neighbor or a stranger; he was 
upright and fair in his dealings ; he was generous to 
enemies and charitable to all. He was a member of 
the United Brethren Church, was without hypocrisy, 
and had many Christian graces. His life-long friend, 
the late Col. Painter, said to a mutual friend shortly 
after Mr. Shupe's death, with tears in his eyes, "God 
made only one Dan Shupe." And it was the general 
expression when he lay dead that the poor and dis- 
tressed of Mount Pleasant had lost a good friend. 

Perhaps some details of his life and doings may 
give a clearer idea of the man. Mr. Shupe did not 
live in Mount Pleasant borough, but in the suburbs, 
in Mount Pleasant township, and was a member of 
the board of public schools for twenty-five years in 
succession until his death. He took a lively interest 
in the schools and in building school-houses, and by 
dint of hard fighting against opposition from stingy 
taxpayers, succeeded in having built for every district 
in that large township a handsome and commodious 
house of modern style and accommodations. No 
other township in the county can compare with 
Mount Pleasant in the matter of school buildings, 
which result is to be attributed mainly to the efforts 
and perseverance of Mr. Shupe. When the schools 
opened yearly he was in the habit of hunting up chil- 
dren whose parents were poor, and of buying, at his 
own expense, outfits of books as an inducement to 
attend the schools. 

For twenty years he labored, in season and out, to 
have a railroad built to Mount Pleasant, and finally, 
in the building of the branch road from Broad Ford, 
on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, realized 
the hope of many years. He was one of the most ac- 
tive workers in that enterprise. It was proposed to 
Mr. Shupe to join with a few others in allowing the 
road to become embarrassed, and then have it sold 
and buy it themselves for a song. And although there 
was plenty of money in it, and he a shrewd, money- 



making business man, he refused to join in the whole- 
sale robbery, as he called it, of those who had taken 
stock in good faith. That job was accomplished af- 
terwards, but he had no part or lot in it. He by such 
a course gained the esteem of all good citizens. 

During most of his life he was engaged in the mill- 
ing business, and many a sack of flour found its way 
from his mill to families in need, and during the 
panic times of '73 and the long depression following, 
a poor man or woman was never turned away by him 
or his partners in business, Mr. James R. Wade and 
his son, Mr. O. P. Shupe, even when they knew to 
sell on credit to many was to give away. If Mr. 
Shupe was remonstrated with he was ready to admit 
it was not business, and to add in a high tone of 
voice in the same breath, " People must live, and 
how in the name of God can they live without bread ?" 
If a man got into financial difficulty he was ready to 
look into his trouble to see if there was not some way 
out, and if possible help him out and set him on his 
feet again. For others who got into the hands of the 
law for some offense, he would do what he could ; 
even if they landed in the jail or penitentiary he would 
look after them, and as soon as free see that they got 
employment. His disposition was to reach out a 
! helping hand, and lift a man up when others kicked 
j him down ; of this many examples could be given. 
j Like most good, enterprising men he had his 
enemies, ready to kick him down too ; and at one 
time (about 1861 or '62), becoming involved in 
financial trouble, he was near being pushed to the 
wall by them without remorse. About this time he 
and Mr. James R. Wade met in Pittsburgh. Mr. 
Wade had come down from the oil regions and was 
not aware of his friend's troubles; but in the night 
discovered by his restlessness that he was very ill or 
in some great trouble, and after striking a light 
asked him what the matter was. His troubles were 
explained, and Mr. Wade, who is one of the best- 
hearted of men, took from his waist a belt, and hand- 
ing it to Mr. Shupe, said, " Here, Dan, is six thou- 
sand dollars in money; will it do you any good?" 
" Yes," said Mr. Shupe, overcome with emotion, 
" with six thousand dollars I can quiet all my credi- 
tors and get out." This was soon accomplished, and 
he was prosperous again. 

Mr. Shupe was one of the pioneers in the oil 
business, and in this he was successful. He was 
of a joyous disposition, seldom or never despondent, 
was fond of fun and frolic, and took great pleasure 
in making others happy, and especially the boys of 
his own town. He was always around at a circus or 
show of any kind, and generally remained outside 
till the crowd was in, and then gathering up all im- 
pecunious lads, would make a job lot of them with the 
doorkeeper. Of a pleasant winter's day, when sleigh- 
ing was good, he has been seen with his team hitched 
to a good sled, the sled filled with little girls, and a 
hundred feet of good stout rope reaching out behind 



552 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



with dozens of small boys on their little sleds attached 
by a cord to the rope, having the merriest of times up 
and down and around town, and himself as merry as 
the merriest. He was known familiarly in business 
circles and by all his neighbors as simply " Dan" 
Shupe. 

Mr. Oliver P. Shupe, his son, seems to have re- 
ceived his father's mantle, is full of generous im- 
pulses, and bids fair to rival, if not outdo, his father 
in public-spiritedness and general usefulness. 



Mr. Shupe was twice married; the first time to 
Miss Hitchman, who died May 24, 1848, at the age 
of twenty-nine years. They had three children, — ■ 
Oliver P., born 1843; Lucy A., born 1845; and Beu- 
nivista T., born 1847. He was married the second 
time to Miss Sallie B. Dick, daughter of W. B. Dick. 
His children living of the second family are James 
W., William D., Carrie J., Virginia B., and Sadie O. 

He died suddenly in Allegheny City, April 30, 
1878, of a congestion of the brain. 



- " + ■s ees <■ 



NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION, Etc. 

North Huntingdon Township was organized \ 
April 6, 1773. It was the parent township of both 
the others bearing the same name with the local 
prefixes. 

It is a populous and very flourishing township. 
The main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad trav- 
erses the township, with stations at the following 
places: Manor, Irwin's, Larimer's, Carpenter's, and 
Stewart's. The principal stream is Bush Creek, 
which flows entirely through the township. On it 
are many mills and several extensive manufactories. 
The entire eastern portion of the township contains 
an abundance of bituminous coal, which is advan- 
tageously mined. There are also some very distinct 
outcrops of coal in the central part and one in the 
northwest corner. This forms a part of the famous 
Pittsburgh coal measures. 

The principal town within its limits is Irwin bor- 
ough. There are the following flourishing villages, 
viz.: Larimer's Station, Stewartsville, and Robbins' 
Station, all post-villages, while Circleville and Jack- 
sonville are neat and thrifty hamlets. Since the 
building of the Pennsylvania Railroad and its com- 
pletion in 1852 the township has more than quad- 
rupled its population and material resources. It em- 
braces in its territory all nationalities, the English 
and German predominating. 

EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 

While in Ligonier Valley, around the stockade 
fort erected in 1758 by Gen. Forbes' men, claims 
were taken up and settlements made as early as 17(i0, 
the first actual land cultivation 'commenced in the 
township no earlier than 1770, after the termination 
of the Pontiac war, which ended in 1768. Among 
the early settlers were the Marchands, Walthours, 
Studebakers, Whiteheads, Saams, Cribbses, Thom- 



ases, Sowashes, Harrolds, Rodebaughs, Millers, and 
later the Gongawares and Kunkles. 

The Marchand family first located near Millers- 
thai. The Studebaker lands comprised the farms 
now owned by J. R. Kunkle, Jonas and Peter Gon- 
gaware, J. Lawrence, Kunkle's heirs, Jacob Buzzard, 
and Samuel Alshouse. The Walthours owned the 
Harrold and Hays farms, and almost all the land 
between them and Manor Station. 

In 1774 the house lately occupied as a dwelling by 
Elijah McGrew, near the track of the Youghiogheny 
Railroad, was built. 

The earliest settlers in this township were Germans, 
except Matthias Cowan, Col. John Irwin, afterwards 
one of the associate judges of the County Court, and 
his brother, James Irwin, the father of the founder 
of Irwin borough. Judge Irwin at first traded with 
the Indians, but as soon as colonies began to form he 
took up a large tract of land, including that on which 
Irwin borough now stands. 

A little later large numbers of Scotch-Irish Pres- 
byterians settled along Brush Creek and north of it. 
Among these were the McCormicks, Osbornes, Boyds, 
Sloans, Coulters, Ewings, Crosbys, Greens, Wilsons, 
Irwins, Skellys, Larimers, Fullertons, Hindmans, 
Longs, Horvells, Marshalls, Simpsons, Duffs, Corrys, 
Grays, Forsythes, Temples, and others. Many of 
these did not come until after the close of the Revo- 
lution, from 1783 to 1796. 

The first known settlement was made in 1761 by 
Matthias Cowan, who married a Miss Gray, and came 
in a cart, in which they lived until he built his cabin 
on the farm now owned by Matthias Cowan Ekin, 
his grandson. Cowan's brother-in-law, Abner Gray, 
was captured on this farm by the Indians and carried 
into captivity. 

Thomas Marshall very early located on lands now 
owned by Col. McFarlane. John, one of the early 



NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



553 



settlers, lived on the farm now the property of George 
Scull, and was the founder of the present Pittsburgh 
Commercial Gazette, which was established by him 
ninety-six years ago. 

There were two block-houses in the township ; one 
was on the farm now owned by John Gott, and the 
other on the farm of Brintnel Robbins, who came 
from New England. The latter farm is now owned 
by Joseph Robbins, a grandson of the original settler. 
These block-houses were places of refuge to which 
the settlers fled on the approach of Indians. The 
brick house now occupied by John H. Irwin, just 
outside of Irwin borough, was built in 1836 by John 
Irwin, and nearly opposite was the old tavern, erected 
and opened when the turnpike was built in 1816. 

LONG RUN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEME- 
TERY. 

This ancient church congregation was organized 
under the Redstone Presbytery in the last quarter of 
the past century. Its present brick edifice was erected 
in 1865. Among the early settlers buried in its ceme- 
tery are 

Catherine, wife of Benoni Gregory, died Dec. 18, 1833, aged 92. 

George Miller, died Nov. 11, 1843, aged 86 ; bis wife, Christina, died Feb. 

6, 1826, aged 63. 
John Miller, died Oct. 8, 1845, aged 55. 
William Michael, died July 9, 1846, aged 58; bis wife, Elizabeth, died 

April 14, 1835, aged 40. 
Sarah Marchand, wife of Edward Scull, died June 8, 1845; born March 

1,1819. y 

Nancy, wife of Henry Boyd, died June 14, 1838, aged 58. 
John Scull, died Feb. 8, .1828, aged 63; his wife, Margaret, died Sept. 9, 

1842, aged 75. 
John Irwin Scull, died Jan. 31, 1827, aged 37. 
Ahby Scull, died Jan. 12, 1831, aged 70. 
Robert Taylor, died Aug. 6, 1824, aged 84. 
Margaret A., wife of Isaac Taylor, died Sept. 22, 1822, aged 21. 
John Macurdy, died May 12, 1825, aged 54. 
John Hindman, died April 8, 1810, aged 48; his wife, Isabella, died Dec. 

7, 1832, aged 74. 
James Cowan, died Oct. 11, 1826, aged 54. 
Matthew Cowan, died Dec. 25, 1819, aged 84; his wife, Rachel, died 

April 10, 1815, aged 61. 
William Ewing, Sr., died Nov. 17, 1838, aged 89 ; his wife, Ann, died 

Sept. 25, 1818, aged 75. 
Alexander Ewing, Sr., died Feb. 14, 1S26, aged 56. 
Nancy, wife of Alexander Ewing, Jr., died Feb. 10, 1846, aged 39. 
Martha White, died Dec. 11, 1874, aged 73. 
Samuel Mann, died March 11, 1803, aged 50. 
Amelia Mann, died Dec. 17, 1790, aged 30. 
William Fullerton, died Nov. 10, 1827, aged 63; his wife, Hannah, died 

May 3, 1797, aged 29; his wife, Barbara, died Jan. 12,1803, aged 34; 

his wife, Jane, died March 21, 1820, aged 53. 
Daniel Fleming, died Aug. 20, 1819, aged 58; bis wife, Susannah, died 

Dec. 16, 1825, aged 59. 
Daniel Fleming, Jr., died Jan. 21, 1820, aged 21. 
Thomas McKean, died Nov. 11, 1841, aged 78; his wife, Margaret, died 

June 24, 1837, aged 78. 
John Cavett, born June 7, 1778, died Feb. 22, 1872. 
John Cavett, died Oct. 5, 1847, aged 77; his wife, Jane, died Dec. 27, 1827, 

aged 51 ; his wife, Elizabeth Cavett, died March 16, 1845, aged 50. 
Andrew Carson, died May 18, 1830, aged 35. 
Jacob Cort, died Oct. 13, 1853, aged 47. 
Mrs. Mary Ward, died April 15,1828, aged 62. 
Hannah, wife of John Gray, died July 30, 1850, aged 53. 
Boyd Ward, died Dec. 21, 1848, aged 55 ; his wife, Nancy, died April 20, 

1840, aged 40. 
Catherine Huffnagle, died Feb. 21, 1843, aged 80. 
Juliet, wife of John Forsythe, died Aug. 16, 1834, aged 41. 



Thomas Plunier, died March 3, 1811, aged 43; his wife, Ann, died May 

20, 1815, aged 37. 
Matthew Robinson, died May 22, 1833, aged 51; his wife, Rebecca, born 

1794, died OcTll, 1865. 
Jane Tilb, died Jan. 19, 1820. 
George Kennedy, died Dec. 17, 1841, aged 70. 
John Boyd, died May 18, 1840, aged 78; his wife, Rachel, died Oct. 29, 

1848, aged 68. 
Joseph Hall, died Dec. 10, 1824, aged 53. 
Charles Stewart, died July 2, 1836, aged 62. 
Hannah, wife of William Woods, died Oct. 17, 1847, aged 75. 
Robert Marshall, died Jan. 28, 1829, aged 63. 
Samuel Wattlrs, died July 8, 1838, aged 51. 
Rev. Christopher Hodgson, of M. E. Church ministry, born Sept. 12, 1811, 

died March 25, 1874. 
Mary Osburn, died Aug. 19, 1839, aged 60. 
Samuel Logan, died June 7, 1823, aged 25. 

Margaret, wife of David Logan, died July 30, 1843, at an advanced age. 
Adam Coon, horn June 13, 1774, died April 23, 1854; his wife, Mary, born 

Jan. 1774, died Oct. 15, 1858. 
William Caldwell, Sr., died Dec. 7, 1872, aged 79. 
John Cooper, died 1820, aged 84 ; his wife, Jane, died 1793, aged 43. 
James Cooper, died 1826. 
Alexander Cooper, died 1851. 
James Rollins, died Nov. 17, 1792, aged 47. 
Anthony Rollins, died Oct. 30, 1828, aged 87. 
Henry Rolands, died 1812, aged 60. 
Isaac Robinson, died April 18, 1812, aged 55 ; his wife, Jane, died Feb. 

22, 1828, aged 74. 
Richard McAniilty, died Oct. 20, 1823, aged 55 ; his wife, Elizabeth, died 

March 17, 1831, aged 83. 
Julia Parks, died Jan. 6, 1834, aged 32. 
William Parks, died Nov. 14, 1837, aged 78 ; his wife, Margaret, died May 

7, 1832, aged 68. 
Martha, wife of William Larimer, died Jan. 13, 1798, aged 27; her hus- 
band died Sept. 18, 1838, aged 67. 
John Larimer, died Dec. 26, 1873, aged 80 ; his wife, Christiana, died May 

16, 1854, aged 51. 
Isaac Taylor, died Aug. 21, 1875, aged 83 ; his wife, Elizabeth, died Aug. 

25, 1877, aged 71. 
Benjamin Byerly, born May 15, 1791, died Jan. 3, 1864; his wife, Jane, 

born Sept. 2, 1796, died Jan. 22, 1852. 
Thomas Sampson, died Feb. 2, 1846, aged 52. 
Samuel Black, died Nov. 7, 1870, aged 70; his wife, Jane, died Oct. 2, 

1876, aged 64. 

BETHEL CHURCH (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN). 
This church, originally called Brush Creek, was or- 
ganized in 1796-97, and was the third one of this de- 
nomination in the county. Its log edifice was re- 
placed in 1836 by the second building, which stood 
until 1881, when the present one was erected. Its first 
pastor was Rev. Matthew Henderson, and its present 
incumbent Rev. J. N. Dick. 

THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
was organized Nov. 7, 1870, by Revs. R. Carothers, 
D. Harbison, and J. A. Marshall, with Elders Duncan 
Hamilton and D. W. Shryrock, with forty members 
and four ruling elders, viz.: Adam Byerly, Robert 
Hanna, William Kirker, and D. W. Highberger. 
For long years previous the place had been used as 
an outpost of Long Run Church in Redstone Presby- 
tery, and enjoyed considerable preaching from its 
pastor, not enough, however, to satisfy the desires of 
the Presbyterians at the station, or the Presbytery of 
Blairsville. Hence the organization and the early 
settlement of a pastor, Rev. D. L. Dickey, whose 
successors have been : 1873-77, R. M. Brown ; 1877 
James Kirk (stated supply) ; 1878-80, S. K. Howard ; 



554 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



1880-82, A. Z. McGovney. The present elders are 
C. L. Palmer, W. S. Bowman, Daniel Lenhart, Louis 
Marcband (also session clerk). 

THE REFORMED CHURCH 
was organized on the first Sunday in January, 1853, 
eight months before John Irwin laid out the town. 
The first pastor was Rev. S. H. Gilsy, whose succes- 
sors have been : 1856, T. J. Apple ; 1857-61, L. H. 
Kefauver; 1861-65, H. W. Super; 1866, George H. 
Johnston ; 1866-70, T. J. Barclay ; 1870-72, Walter E. 
Krebbs ; 1873-79, J. M. Titzell ; 1880-82, A. E. Truxal. 
John Irwin, founder of the town, gave the lot on 
which the edifice was erected in 1853. The fourteen 
original members were Joseph, Fanny, Elizabeth, 
Cyrus, Lucetta, Amanda, and Albert Cort, Samuel 
and Susan Perkins, Jacob and Anna Hershey, John 
Wigle and wife, Mary. The first elders were Joseph 
Cort, Jacob Hershey, S. Perkins, and John Wigle. 
The present elders are Joseph Cort, S. C. Remsberg, 
S. P. Highberger, Jacob Hershey ; deacons, William 
Moore, Adam Whitehead, George T. Keifer, Peter 
Hilt, Jr. The superintendent of Sunday-school is 
Abuer Core. The church membership is two hun- 
dred and forty. 

THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN OF HOLY TRINITY 

was organized in 1874 by Rev. A. H. Bartholomew, 
who for two years served it with those of his charge. 
The following were members of the church council : 
J. B. Blyholder, Mr. Hunker, C. C. Painter. It then 
united with Trinity Church at Adamsburg, and in 
1876 called Rev. V. B. Christy as pastor, who made 
his residence at Irwin. It purchased its lot in 1876, 
and erected its edifice in 1877. Its present pastor is 
Rev. Mr. Lund, who also ministers to the English 
Lutheran congregation. His services in the former 
are conducted in the Swedish language. Its Sunday- 
school superintendent is Charles Gustaven. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
congregation was formed in 1859. Rev. W. P. Black- 
burn was the first pastor, whose successors have been : 
1860-63, F. D. Fast ; 1863-66, W. F. Lauck ; 1866- 
67, G. W. Cranage ; 1867-70, N. G. Miller ; 1870-73, 
J. H. Concla ; 1873-75, S. P. Wolf; 1875, David Mc- 
Cready ; 1875-77, Homer G. Smith ; 1877-79, Noble 
G. Miller; 1879, R. Hamilton; 1880-82, Earl D. 
Holtz. The trustees are S. Ridinger, Cyrus Bill- 
bimer, D. P. Highberger, Samuel Wood ; Superin- 
tendent of Sunday-school, Prof. E. B. Sweeny. Orig- 
inally a circuit appointment, it is now a station of the 
Pittsburgh Conference. The church membership is 
two hundred. The church is on Main Street, and the 
parsonage faces on Third Street. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN (OF IRWIN). 
This congregation was organized Oct. 17, 1874, from 
the parent "Bethel" Church, two and a half miles 
southwest of town. The first elders were Thomas 



Shaw, Samuel Gill, John Rose, David Shaw, M. C. 
Ekin. Rev. E. N. McElree was pastor until 1877, 
and was succeeded by Rev. C. B. Hatch, the present 
incumbent. The church edifice was erected in the 
winter of 1868, when the members were component 
parts of the old Bethel congregation. Jt is a frame 
structure, situated on Maple Street, and has a commo- 
dious basement and lecture-room. John Fulton is 
the Sunday-school superintendent. The church mem- 
bership is one hundred and sixteen. 

CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (RO- 
MAN CATHOLIC) 

is a substantial brick structure, with priest's residence 
adjoining the frame school hall. Before its erection 
masses were said in the old school-house and at pri- 
vate dwellings. Rev. M. Murphy has been the pastor 
since 1872. The congregation was organized and 
church erected in 1867. The corner-stone of the 
building was laid Aug. 15, 1867. Rev. T. Mullen, 
vicar-general of the diocese, in the absence of Bishop 
Domenec, officiated. In the afternoon a lecture was 
delivered by Rev. Father Ward. 

WELSH CONGREGATIONAL. 
Services are held every Sabbath at 10 a.m. 

SCHOOLS. 

The citizens of North Huntingdon township eagerly 
accepted the free-school system, voting almost unani- 
mously in its favor. The then boundary of the town- 
ship contained six rude school-houses; now within 
its limits there are twenty houses and twenty-two 
schools. Among the prominent teachers after the 
adoption of the school law were Theodore Woods, 
the McCormick family, and many others. At a later 
date were J. R. Howell, J. Brennaman, W. P. Dewalt, 
E. B. Sweeny, Miss Sue Dewalt, Miss S. Smith, and 
many other good names. Among the prominent di- 
rectors were Dr. R. B. Marchand, William Wray, H. 
Larimer, John Gaut, William Kunkle, A. Duff, and 
others. In 1882 the Irwin school board consists of 
Dr. G. L. Humphreys (president), S. D. Lauft'er (sec- 
retary), Joseph Copeland (treasurer), D. C. Schaff, 
James Gregg, Rev. J. M. Dick, D.D. 

The commodious two-story brick school building 
was erected in 1867. 

The teachers in 1882 are: 

High School, Prof. J. Chamberlain ; Room No. 4, W. B. Caldwell ; No. 3, 
E. B. Sweeny ; No. 2, E. B. McCormick ; No. 1, Miss Bertha E. Heed. 

UNION CEMETERY 

is located about a mile east of the town, on the 
Greensburg turnpike, and among its burials are the 
following : 

Col. John Irwin, died Feb. 15,1822, aged 82; his wife, Elizabeth, died 

June 3, 1818, aged 70. 
James Irwin, died July 24, 1833, aged 82; his wife, Jane, died Feb. 17, 

1836, aged 45. 
John Irwin, born Oct. 9, 1811, died June 7, 1876; his first wife, born 

Sept. 14, 1811, died June 22, 1830. 



NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



555 



Martha Atlee, wife of W. F. Caruthere, born Aug. 6, 1812, died July 6, 

1876. 
Samuel Gill, born May 14, 1807, died Sept. 5, 1875. 
Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Lenhart, died Nov. 24, 1802, aged 59. 
Mrs. Mary E. George, born April 6, 1831, died Oct. 21, 1878. 
Emma B., wife of Thomas H. Irwin, born Dec. 28, 1842, died March 8, 

1865. 
William Schribler, died June 7, 1876, aged 55. 
Robert Wilson, died Jan. 8, 1846, aged 70; his wife, Jane, died Feb. 20, 

1862, aged 62. 
James Wilson, Jr., died May 12, 1847, aged 23. 
Elizabeth Wilson, wire of R. A. Hope, died Dec. 11, 1878, aged 49. 
Jacob B. Saam, born June 20, 1820, died Feb. 11, 1879. 
Henry Kebort, died Aug. 29, 1877, aged 66. 
Jacob Cole, died June 21, 1878, aged 37. 
Martin Bowers, died June 8, 1873, aged 36. 

Elizabeth, wife of Dr. D. D. Taylor, died , aged 59. 

Mary, wife or John D. Evans, died March 27, 1876, aged 36. 
Mary J., wife of D. W. Highberger, died July 6, 1876, aged 32. 
Charles Robinson, died Sept. 15, 1879, aged 42. 
Thomas Williams, died Nov. 27, 1878. aged 51. 
Sarah Sowash, died Feb. 9, 1882, aged 38. 

THE CATHOLIC CEMETERY 
is near the above, and among its oldest interments are 

Joseph Mason, died Sept. 23, 1876, aged 67 ; his wife, Julia, died June 1, 

1879, aged 71. 
Frank Fiunigan, died Jan. 8, 1880, aged 70; his wife, Mary, died April 

11, 1880, aged 68. 
Eve, wife of John W. Hugo, died July 15, 1876, aged 55. 
John Flannigan, died Nov. 2, 1876, aged 53. 
Thomas Dolan, died June 17, 1877, aged 51. 

IRWIN BOROUGH. 

Irwin is located on the line of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, twenty-two miles east of Pittsburgh, and is 
situated in the heart of the bituminous coal region of 
Western Pennsylvania. When the railroad was fin- 
ished, in 1852, the site of the town was a forest of 
(mainly) white-oak timber. In 1844 there was only 
one house here, which was owned by Thomas Shaw, 
and an old log cabin occupied by a coal-digger. John 
Irwin, its founder, laid out the first plan of lots in 
September, 1853, to which he subsequently made 
several additions. The original plan called for but 
one street, called " Main," extending from the rail- 
road to the Reformed Church. The first addition was 
First, Second, Third, Fourth, Oak, and Walnut 
Streets. The second addition comprised a nine-acre 
lot. He also built the " Stewart House." 

The greatest change in the place was brought about 
by the coal companies. Just one month after the 
first through train passed over the railroad Thomas 
A. Scott and William Coleman commenced, in De- 
cember, 1852, to open the mines and ship bituminous 
coal to distant markets. They continued to operate 
until 1856, when they sold out to the Westmoreland 
Coal Company, which had been incorporated in 1854. 
This company began operations at Larimer's Station, 
and has grown until its field of operations extends 
from below Manor Station to beyond Spring Hill. 
The Penn Gas-Coal Company was incorporated in 
1859, and commenced shipping from Penn Station. 
In 1866 it bought out the Coal Run Railroad, which 
had been built in the same year by Painter & Lauf- 



fer, and began work near this borough. In 1874 it 
built the Youghiogheny Railroad and opened mines 
near the mouth of Big Sewickley Creek. 

In November, 1864, the borough was incorporated, 1 
the necessary survey for the same having been made 
by John McCormick, then seventy-five years of age, 
and H. F. Ludwick. 

The first borough officers were elected in 1865, viz.: 
Burgess, H. F. Ludwick; Clerk, S. C. Remsburg; 
Councilmen, John Irwin, William F. Caruthers, 
Jacob Goehring, John McWilliams, Abner Cort; 
Treasurer, J. J. Hurst. The officers in January, 
1882, were : Burgess, J. M. Dinsmore ; Clerk, S. C. 
Remsburg; Council, David Steel, C. W. Pool, R. M. 
Fulton, J. H. Orr, George Sowash, Jr., C. R. Frit'ch- 
man ; Treasurer, John D. Brown ; High Constable, 
Philip Bussue. 

The first store in the town was kept by John 
George, in the property now owned by George H. 
Irwin. 

In the early part of 1868 a visitor at Irwin des- 
cribed the town in the following article. As this was 
shortly after its incorporation, we regard it as val- 
uable and of interest to the later generation : 

"Irwin Station is situated on the Pennsylvania Railroad, ten miles 
west of Greensburg, and has of late become one of the most important 
stations along the line. In connection with and adjoining the station 
a village was laid out, which a short time since was incorporated under 
the title of 'the Borough of Irwintown.' On visiting this borough on 
Saturday last we found that Latrobe had not monopolized all the enter- 
prise in our county, for that spirit exists to a very eminent and com- 
mendable degree in Irwintown. 

" The first house on the site of the town now so thickly populated was 
built in the spring of 1854 by John George, Esq.. who immediately set- 
tled therein. Here he found himself alone in the woods, without a 
habitation in sight, and surrounded on all sides by a dense forest. But 
he was not long to remain alone, for in quick succession the trees of the 
forest disappeared before the woodman's axe, and buildings were erected 
with surprising rapidity. The dreary and apparently repulsive side-hill 
seemed to be inviting to the energetic pioneer, whose industry and labor 
soon changed the aspect from a dull, uninteresting forest to a flourish- 
ing, beautiful, and pleasant borough of one thousand inhabitants. 

"We purpose to make a brief sketch of the improvements which 
came under our notice, hoping that it will tend to stimulate to extra 
exertion towards progression in the future, and that their brilliant rec- 
ord for enterprise in the past may be outshone by themselves. 

"There are three hotels within the limits of the borough, all of which 
are kept in good, orderly style. The Guffey House is situated on the 
corner of Second and Oak Streets, is a large three-story building, con- 
taining nineteen comfortable and commodious sleeping-rooms, two 
large and handsomely furnished parlors, a large and comfortable dining- 
hall, a reading-room and bar-room, besides the portions occupied by the 
landlord's family. It is so situated as to command a beautiful view of 

1 On the 23d of August, 1864, the petition of the citizens of the town 
of Irwin was presented to the court, in which was set forth in the usual 
form and by the usual terms the inconvenience under which they suf- 
fered from want of being incorporated, and asking the court to incor- 
porate the aforesaid Irwintown. The court, after the same had been 
regularly passed on by the grand jury at the August sessions, 1864, or- 
dered and decreed on the 14th of November, 1864, that the prayer of the 
petitioners should be granted; that the inhabitants residing within the 
limits set forth should be incorporated under the name and style of the 
borough of Irwin ; that the first borough election should be held on the 
first Monday in December, 1864 ; that the election should be held in the 
school-house in the borough ; that John McCormick should give notice 
of the election, and that Stephen Ridinger should be judge, and John 
McWilliams and Derwiu Taylor inspectors. Nov. 28, 1864, it was ordered 
that the borough of Irwin should be a separate school district. 



556 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the railroad east and west, the coal-works, and all the surrounding 
country on the north side of the house. The landlord, Mr. John Guffey, 
is an obliging gentleman, and neglects nothing which will contribute 
to the comfort of his guests. The table ia provided with nil the choice 
viands the market affords, dished up in the best style which an experi- 
enced and obliging landlady can conceive. The bar is well kept, hand- 
somely decorated, and furnished with all kinds of liquor. On the whole, 
this hotel is a credit to the town, and should be visited by everybody 
who chances to stop off at Irwin. The other hotels, kept respectively 
by Wm. Twigger on Main Street, and Joseph L. MeQuistion on the 
railroad, are good houses and have every facility for the accommodation 
of guests. 

"Ab a manufacturing town Irwin borough is somewhat deficient. The 
Westmoreland Coal Company have a large shop for repairing cars for 
their own use, but make no new ones. Wo found several shoemaker- 
shops, a couple of carpenter-shops, in which considerable work is done, 
there being in the one owned by Mr. Greeuawalt fourteen mechanice 
constantly employed, and ten in the one owned by Mr. Fulton. 

" Our old friend, John McWilliams, Sr., seems to be very busy in the 
manufacture of copper and tinware. There is one steam fiou ring-mill 
in the borough, which is run by Messrs. Beck & Helman, in which a 
flourishing trade is kept up. 

"Owing to the large number of men maintained there by the West- 
moreland and Penn Gas-Coal Companies, the mercantile branch of trade 
offers special inducements to persons entering business. We found, 
therefore, a large number of stores, the first of which on our list is that 
of Jacob Goehring, Esq., on the corner of the railroad and Main Street. 
Mr. Goehring occupies a large frame building, divided into several 
separate apartments. The dry-goods and grocery department is fifty 
feet deep by twenty feet wide, the drug department is forty by twenty, 
and the wareroom is thirty by fourteen. These are on the first floor, 
and other commodious warerooms are on the second floor. 

*' Lewis Eisaman keeps a first-class confectionery and oyster saloon on 
Main Street, two doors above Twigger's hotel, and next door to him is 
William Over's boot and shoe house. 

"On the corner of Main and Second Streets, J. J. Hurst & Co. have 
erected a fine new brick building, which is occupied by them as a store- 
room. The main room is about ninety feet deep by twenty in width, j 
and is divided into three apartments, the front entrance on Main Street. 
Next door above in the same building is the drug department and post- 
office, kept by the same firm. There are three large rooms up-stairs, two 
of which are used as warerooms by the firm, and the other is used as a 
hall by the I. O. of O. F. 

" Nearly opposite to this we found our young friend, William A. 
Shrum, engaged in the mercantile business in company with Mr. Shoe- 
maker. They have a fine room, an extensive stock of goods, and are 
doing a good business. 

" As we went on up Main Street we found that gentlemanly young 
merchant, John McWilliams, Jr., located between Third and Fourth 
Streets, in a large and neatly furnished room, well filled with goods in 
bis line. 

" On the corner of Fourth and Main Streets, Mr. D. W. Highberger 
holds forth. He has one of the finest store-rooms in the borough, it 
being fifty feet deep by eighteen in width, well stocked with dry-goods, 
groceries, boots, shoes, notions. In connection with the store, Mr. 
Highberger has erected a handsome photograph gallery. 

" S. Ridinger & Co.'s large hardware and furniture store was next 
visited, where we found a flue large room, well filled with goods in their 
line. 

" This part of the town is not much inhabited as yet, but is rapidly 
growing, there being upwards of thirty new huuses in process of erec- 
tion in this immediate section. In consideration of this fact, this is the 
most desirable business place in the borough, and we are pleased to see 
that Messrs. Highberger and Ridinger have availed themselves of it. 

"There are two churches completed, the Methodist, a large frame 
building, and the German Reformed, a large brick building, both of 
which are numerously attended on occasions of service. The Catholic 
Church is now in course of completion, aud contributes in a very great 
degree to the improvement in appearance of the lower part of the town. 
It is situated on the corner of Second and Walnut Streets, fronting 
towards the railroad, is built of brick, two stories high, and is a fine and 
substantial building. 

"Through the kindness of the gentlemanly assistant superintendent 
of the Westmoreland Coal Company we were enabled to viBit and ex- 
plore one of the extensive mines of the company in the vicinity of the 
borough. This is one of the most extensive coal companies in the State, 
and in busy seasons furnishes employment for upwards of six hundred 



men, thereby contributing greatly to the population and business im- 
portance of the town. The company shipped from this station alone 
during the year 1867 upwards of 250,000 tons of coal. The works are 
stopped now, owing to some difficulty in navigation east, but will prob- 
ably start up soon. 

" We found a great many new dwelling-houses just completed or in 
course of erection, but cannot describe them in detail, further than to 
say that they are principally all large and substantial frame buildings. 
The scarcity of brick and the haste with which houses are erected is 
assigned as the reason why so many of the buildings are frame. They 
present a handsome appearance in general, however, ami particularly 
the mansions of Simon I). Laufler, John George, Jacob Painter, and 
Jacob Goehring, and the brick mansion of Joseph Cort, E&q., is one of 
the finest and most substantial structures in the county. 

11 The following is a list of the new houses just finished and in process 
of erection : 

"Dr. Marchand, Henderson, And. McCauley, M. Widaman, Arch. 
Mathias, P. Kissell, Bailey, Abner Cort, two buildings; Adam Byerly, 
Van Dyke, William Wiggle, Shefller, David, Sharp, John Brown, Bow- 
man, Joseph Lenhart, A. Heasly, Henry Sawlers, Daniel Henry, William 
Howell, John McCornuck, Esq., William Williams, Stephen Ridinger, 
Simon Highberger, John James, Jonathan Williams, William Ridinger, 
Josiah Carson, Charles Henry, Jacob Painter, James Fleming, Aud. 
Learn, William Kunkle, John G. White, Mrs. Steele, Daniel Lenhart, 
and Dr. D. D. Taylor. 

11 In addition to the above there are a number of residences under 
contract aud in contemplation, of which we will speak at our next 
visit, which we hope to make before long. 

"The borough limits extend back to the turnpike, and are being rap- 
idly built up, giving ample foundation for the belief that ere long Irwin 
borough will be the most populous town in our county." 

BANKS. 
The Irwin Deposit Bank was organized in 1868 by 
Lloyd, Huff & Co., in the old Cort building. They 
suspended business in the panic of 1873, the same 
year the bank building was erected. They were suc- 
ceeded by Beck. Happer & Co., who closed business in 
1875. Their successors were B. K. Jamison & Co., 
who retired in 1880. The Farmers' and Miners' De- 
posit Bank was established by P. S. Pool & Son, 
March 9, 1877, in the court building. In September, 
1880, the bank was removed to its present eligible 
location on Main Street. This is a private bank, and 
was the successor to the banking business carried on 
a while by W. S. Nicodemus. 

ORDERS, SOCIETIES, Etc. 
HUNTINGDON LODGE, No. 549, I. 0. 0. F., 

was chartered Feb. 5, 1858, but the lodge hall and 
charter having been destroyed by fire, it was rechar- 
tered April 2, 1873, by William Stedman, M. W. G. M., 
and James B. Nicholson, M. W. G. S. Its offi- 
cers for 1882 are: N. G., William Davis; V. G., 
Daniel Henry; Sec, M. E. Lindeblad ; Asst. Sect., 
John Gittings; Treas., P. G. Petterson ; Trustees, 
Robert McElroy, Daniel Henry, J. H. Kerr, Robert 
Milburn, Edward Davis. It has a membership of 
one hundred and forty, and meets every Saturday 
evening in its own hall on Main Street, in the third 
story of the building it erected aud owns. 

IRWIN ENCAMPMENT, No. 196, I. 0. O. F. 

This encampment was originally chartered May 16, 
1870, but was rechartered after the fire, April 2, 
1873. The charter members and first officers were: 
C. P., M. L. Momeyer; H. P., R. D. Stewart; S. W., 



NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



557 



Samuel Darrell ; J. W., R. R. McGuire; Scribe, P. 
Dewalt; Treas., J. L. McQuiston ; I. S., Henry Mil- 
liron ; O. S., J. C. Carroll. 

The officers for 1882 are : C. P., William Davis ; H. 
P., Albert Fish; S. W., M. E. Lindeblad; J. W., 
Thomas Ramsden ; Scribe, J. H. Kerr; Treas., Daniel 
Jones ; I. S., Edward Davis. 

It meets the second and fourth Wednesday even- 
ings of each month, and has a membership of forty. 

HIRAM LODGE, No. 69, ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED 
BRETHREN, 

was chartered Feb. 14, 1872. The charter members 
and first officers were : P. W. M., H. K. Klingsmith ; 
W. M., Joseph L. McQuistion ; G. F., George H. 
Kuhn ; , William N. Thompson ; Rec, Robert W. 
Wright ; Fin., Henry Bailey ; Rec, John Gray ; G., 
A. H. Hershey; I. W., Nevin Cort; O. W., Daniel 
Henry. 

MARCHAND POST, No. 190, GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 

This post was instituted Sept. 8, 1880, and named in 
honor of Dr. Samuel S. Marchaud, captain of Company 
H, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, who had been promoted from first 
lieutenant Aug. 23, 1862, and who was wounded and 
taken prisoner at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. 
He died Feb. 18, 1863, of wounds received at Freder- 
icksburg, in Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., and the 
Confederates sent his body home, accompanied by his 
sword, watch, and all his personal effects. The first 
officers and charter members were : C, Louis Mar- 
chand ; Sr. V. C, Samuel Wilson ; Jr. V. C, J. C. 
Frederick ; Q. M., D. G. Lindsay ; O. D., Thomas 
Ray ; O. G., John Sanders ; Surg., John Glisley ; 
Chap., J. K. Painter; Adjt., J. K. Gallagher; Q.-M.- 
Sergt., Daniel Henry; Sergt.-Maj., Philip Bussue; 
James Mcllhenny, William Blake, George V. Miller. 

The officers for 1882 are : C, J. C. Frederick ; Sr. V. 
C, Wm. Blake ; Jr. V. C, Thomas Ray ; O. D., John 
Dempster ; Q.-M., Joseph Martin ; Chap. J. K. Gal- 
legher; Surg., James Mcllhenny; Adjt., Louis Mar- 
chand; Q.-M.-Sergt., Daniel Henry; Sergt.-Maj., 
Philip Bussue. Its membership is fifty-six, and its 
meetings are held the first and third Wednesday 
evenings of each month at I. O. O. F. Hall. 

WESTMORELAND LODGE, No. 415, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 

This lodge was chartered Dec. 5, 1873, with the 
following charter members : Samuel Wood, Lewis 
Eisaman, James Gregg, Adam Crampton, D. G. Lind- 
say, James B. Morton, George W. Mclntyre, Philip 
Freeman, Joseph Shorthouse, John Adams. The 
officers for 1882 are: P. C, Thomas Johns; C. C, 
Herman Hackinson; V. C, George Greeves; P., 
David Weldon; M. A., R. Hosick; K. R. and S., 
Magnis A. Lindeblad; M. F., John Adams; M. E., 
Nelson Bergman ; Trustees, Lewis Swanson, C. H. 
Schram, George Shorthouse. It has a membership of 
one hundred and three members, and meets every 
Tuesday evening. 
30 



THE IRWIN CORNET BAND, 

of which Will Leigh is leader and B. M. McWilliams 
teacher, consists of eighteen pieces. 

UNION CEMETERY. 
This beautiful cemetery, lying about a mile south- 
east of the borough, was laid out in 1873 and 1874, 
and the first person therein buried was William F. 
Weaver, who died April 27, 1874. It comprises fifteen 
acres of land most eligibly located. The cemetery 
association was incorporated by the court in August, 
1873, with the following incorporators : W. F. Caru- 
thers, Lewis Eisaman, Joseph Cort, Joseph Lenhart, 
S. D. Lauffer, S. C. Remsberg, B. B. Copeland, 
Samuel Gills, John J. Hurst, F. A. Happer, Wil- 
liam Crookston, John George, Jr., George R. Scull, 
Louis Marchand, J. I. Marchand. The first board of 
managers was Joseph Cort, John J. Hurst, F. A. 
Happer, W. F. Caruthers, Lewis Eisaman, S. C. 
Remsberg. The presidents have been Joseph Cort, 
John J. Hurst, F. A. Happer, Louis Marchand. The 
secretary since its organization has been S. C. Rems- 
berg. The treasurers have been F. A. Happer, W. 
F. Caruthers, Thomas H. Irwin, and W. F. Caruthers 
(present incumbent). The present board of managers 
is Louis Marchand, W. F. Caruthers, S. C. Rems- 
berg, Joseph Eisaman, William Wilson, and C. F. 
Billhimer. 

CHURCHES. 

For mention of the churches of the borough, see 
antecedent pages in the history of this township. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE COWAN AND EKIN FAMILIES. 
In 1761, Matthias Cowan, who had married a Miss 
Gray, settled in the township. He was a Scotch- 
Irishman. His children were James, Joseph, George, 
Martha (married to William Ekin), Mary, Betsey, 
and Ann (married respectively to three brothers 
named Hughey), and two daughters who died young 
and unmarried. Robert Ekin was born in County 
Tyrone, Ireland, and came to Allegheny County when 
his son William was four years old, and to this town- 
ship when he was ten. Robert Ekin and his wife 
died in 1815, shortly after which Mrs. Matthias Cowan 
(nee Gray) died. William, son of Robert Ekin, 
was born in York County, where his father settled on 
coming to America. He died in 1851, and his wife 
(Martha Cowan) in 1858. Their children were Rob- 
ert, born Dec. 24, 1804; Matthias Cowan, born April 
24, 1806; Eliza, married to Andrew Christy ; Rachel, 
married to Samuel Gill ; John ; Mary, married to 
Thomas Shaw ; and Margaret, who died young and 
' unmarried. Of these, Matthias Cowan Ekin mar- 
, ried, June 15, 1845, Nancy, daughter of William 
I Rand and Susanna (Patterson) Rand. M. C. Ekin's 



558 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



farm lies about four miles south of Irwin Station, 
between it and the Youghiogheny River, and is 
the place where his maternal grandfather, Matthias 
Cowan, first located one hundred and twenty-one 
years ago, during all of which time the homestead 
has been in the family and belonging to three gen- 
erations. 



the Mccormick family. 
John and Joseph McCormick, brothers, came from 
County Tyrone, North Ireland, in 1788, and pur- 
chased land around what is now Larimer Station. 
Joseph never married, and died at the advanced age 
of eighty-seven years. John had married Sarah 
Sloan in his native country before he emigrated. She 
was a lady of unusual mental attainments for her 
day, a midwife of considerable note, and a sister of 
Dr. William Sloan, an Irish practitioner of much 
celebrity. Their four children born before their emi- 
gration were : 

1. William. 

2. Andrew. 

3. Jane. First married to Robert Donaldson ; sec- 
ondly, to Mr. McDonald, of Franklin County ; and 
the third time to Daniel Hellman, who was killed 
near Larimer Station by a log rolling over him while 
clearing land. She had no children. 

4. Joseph. 

The children born in Westmoreland County were : 

5. John, born Aug. 22, 1789. 

6. David. 

7. Sarah, never married. 

8. Samuel, settled at Cadiz, Harrison Co., Ohio. 

9. Thomas. 

10. Elizabeth, married Samuel Osborne at Stew- 
artsville, had eight children. 

Of the above seven sons, all but David and Thomas 
lived to be over eighty years of age. John, the fifth 
child, was born at his father's homestead, across the 
creek from Larimer Station. He was a tanner, and 
learned his trade with Caspar Walthour, to whom 
he was apprenticed in 1804, in his fifteenth year. He 
built the tannery at Larimer Station, operated it for 
years, then sold it, and subsequently the land upon 
which it was erected. He married Esther So wash, 
whose ancestors had early settled in Virginia and 
were of Huguenot extraction. Their children were: 

1. William, died in infancy. 

2. Eli, born May 14, 1820, and a school-teacher 
from 1843 to 1854; now magistrate and notary public. 

3. John Calvin. 

4. Sarah, died young. 

5. George. 

6. Dr. James Irwin. 

7. Silas, attorney-at-law. 

8. Samuel. 

9. Mary Elizabeth, died in infancy. 

10. Albert, died young. 



11. Rachel, married John George. 

12. Henry H., lawyer in Pittsburgh, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives in State Legislature in 
1 874, and six years United States District Attorney for 
Western District of Pennsylvania. 

13. Horace Greeley. 

Dr. James Irwin McCormick, the sixth child of 
John and Esther (Sowash) McCormick, was born in 
March, 1828. He attended Washington College, Pa., 
but graduated at Franklin College, Harrison County, 
Ohio. He subsequently taught school at Johnstown, 
Greensburg, and other prominent places in the State. 
In the spring of 1855 he was appointed by Governor 
James Pollock as superintendent of the Westmore- 
land County schools, which position he held two 
years, and by his assiduous labors and genius suc- 
ceeded in raising the standard of the qualifications of 
the teachers. 

He then opened a Normal School at New Derry, 
which became a popular institution, and one noted 
for the thoroughness of its training. While conduct- 
ins this he read medicine with Dr. William Burrell, 
and after graduating at the Western Reserve Medical 
College, at Cleveland, Ohio, he located at New Flor- 
ence. Shortly after he located at West Fairfield, and 
took the practice of Dr. Taylor, then elected to the 
Legislature. In 1871 he removed to Irwin, where he 
soon acquired a very extensive practice, and took 
rank as one of the best physicians and surgeons in the 
county. He was one of the finest classical scholars 
in the State, and no one in this county ever equaled 
him in his labors and success in behalf of the free 
schools. He married Rachel Black, daughter of 
Samuel and Jane (Mansperger) Black, by whom the 
following children were born : 

1. Emma. 

2. Samuel Black. 

3. John. 

4. Margaret Isabella. 

5. William Henry Harrison. 

After his wife's death he married her sister, Mar- 
garet, who bore him children, to wit: 

1. Charles. 

2. Mary Alice. 

3. Eugenia. 

4. James Irwin. 

Dr. McCormick was a Republican in politics, and 
once the candidate of his party for Congress. He 
served several years as United States examining phy- 
sician for pensions. He was an active member of the 
Masonic order, and of the Ancient Order of United 
Brethren. He died Aug. 18, 1881. 



THE IRWIN FAMILY. 
Among the earliest settlers in this township were 
Col. John and James Irwin, two brothers, who emi- 
grated from North Ireland. The former was for sev- 
eral years an Indian trader, but when emigrants began 




ijf.tf.k %*& 



NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



559 



to pour into the new settlement he entered large tracts 
of land. He subsequently, after the organization of 
the county, became one of the associate judges of its 
courts. His brother James married Jane Fullerton, 
and settled on his farm near Irwin Station. Their 
son, John Irwin, was born Oct. 9, 1811. He married 
for his first wife Lydia Hurst, of Mount Pleasant, Jan. 

9, 1834, who was born September, 1811, and bore him 
children as follows : 

1. Thomas Hurst, born Sept. 8, 1836. 
He married his second wife, Mary J. Dickey, Oct. 
1, 1844. She was born Dec. 27, 1818. 
The children by the second marriage were : 

1. Nancy Hurst, born July 30, 1845, and married 
to Thomas Stewart. 

2. Jane Fullerton, born Feb. 20, 1848, died Aug. 
16, 1864. 

3. Elizabeth Dickey, twin of above, married May 

10, 1875, to James L. Ewing. 

John Irwin died June 7, 1856. The original Irwin 
lands extended from Jacksonville to Wardensville. 
Judge Irwin left a part of his vast landed domain to 
his nephew, John Irwin, who upon it laid out the 
borough of Irwin. The latter was the first man in 
this region who took out and sold coal, which was 
then done to accommodate his neighbors. For the 
first coal lands he sold, — that is, the right to take out 
the coal, — and reserving the fee to himself, he re- 
ceived a hundred dollars per acre. 



eli Mccormick. 
The grandfather of the gentleman whose portrait 
appears herewith, John McCormick, emigrated from 
County Tyrone, Province of Ulster, Ireland, to 
America in 1788, and settled at what is now Lari- 
mer Station, Westmoreland Co., where he purchased 
a large tract of land. He married Sarah Sloan, of 
his native isle. They had ten children, nine of whom 
married and raised families. Their fifth child was 
John, who was born about one year after their settle- 
ment in this county. He was apprenticed to the tan- 
ning trade, which he learned thoroughly, and followed 
for a number of years. Not being entirely satisfied 
with this business, he disposed of his tannery, and, 
being a natural mechanic, he devoted a few years to 
carpenter work. He then engaged in farming, which 
he followed about nine years, when he was elected 
justice of the peace in North Huntingdon township. 
He was continued in this office until eighty-one years 
of age. He was a man of rare intelligence, having 
supplemented his "school learning," which was lim- 
ited, by extensive and careful general reading. He 
married Esther Sowasli, who was of German descent, 
and a native of Westmoreland County. They had 
thirteen children. Those living are Eli, John C, 
George, Silas, Samuel S., Rachel E., - aud Henry H. 
Those dead are William S., Sarah, James I., Mary 
E., Albert, and Horace G. 



John died in 1873, and his wife Esther in 1866. 
Eli McCormick was born at Larimer Station, West- 
moreland Co., Pa., May 14, 1820. He attended the 
subscription schools of the neighborhood until fifteen 
years of age, and then engaged in farming. This he 
pursued for a few years, and then re-entered school, 
where he remained for two years preparing himself 
for teaching, to which he devoted a number of years, 
quitting it permanently in 1854. In 1848 he pur- 
chased a drug-store in Adamsburg. This he dis- 
posed of in 1855, and removed to Kittanning, Arm- 
strong Co., Pa., where he again engaged in the drug 
business. In 1858 he entered the employ of a drug 
firm as traveling salesman. He continued in this 
until 1870, when having been elected justice of the 
peace in Irwin, where his family had resided for a 
number of years, he entered upon the duties of his 
office. In the same year he was appointed notary 
public, and has held the position ever since. 

Mr. McCormick is a thoughtful, intelligent busi- 
ness man, being a firm believer in the adage " What- 
ever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." As 
a teacher he held advanced views, being one of the 
first in the county to reject and repudiate the rule of 
brute force in school government, which at that day 
was the only method employed in the county. In 
its stead he substituted moral suasion, aud appealed 
to the children's sense of right and wrong. His suc- 
cess was marked, and many of the pupils who be- 
came imbued with his ideas were afterwards success- 
ful teachers. In short, no matter in what business 
engaged, he has made it the rule of his life to pre- 
pare himself thoroughly for his work. 

He was married Dec. 29, 1846, to Sophia Kepple, 
youngest daughter of Jacob Kepple, of Salem town- 
| ship, Westmoreland Co. Their living children are 
i John Q. A., married to Maggie Cooper; Jacob K., 
I married to Mima Harris ; Edward B., and Roscoe T. 
Two of their children, James I. and Frank, died 
young. Their only daughter, Mary, married Wil- 
liam R. Hanna. They are both dead, and their only 
child, Roscoe Elton Hanna, resides with his grand- 
parents. 

ANDREW L. McFARLAXE. 
From County Tyrone, Ireland, came Francis and 
his wife, Mary (McWilliams) McFarlane, and settled 
in Westmoreland County. Here they remained but 
a few years, when they removed to Lawrence County, 
Pa., where Francis engaged in farming, in which 
business he was signally successful, and was able at 
his death to give each of his children a fair pecuniary 
start in life. The number of his children was four- 
teen, Andrew L., whose name is the caption of this 
article, and who was born Sept. 19, 1825, being the 
youngest. He received a good common-school edu- 
cation, and began work for himself as a farmer in his 
native county. In 1844 he came to Westmoreland 
County to superintend improvements upon his broth- 



560 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



er's farm. In the following year, February 19th, he 
married Mary E. Larimer, youngest daughter of 
William Larimer, Sr., long a prominent citizen of 
Westmoreland County. They had six children, two 
of whom are living, — George L., who married Allie 
Eaton, is engaged in the lumber business, and has 
his residence in Pittsburgh ; Ella F., married Thomas 
Boggs, and resides upon a farm in Westmoreland 
County. Mrs. McFarlane died Oct. 27, 1863, in her 
thirty-seventh year. May 16, 1865, Andrew L. Mc- 
Farlane married Jennie A. Davis, of Fayette County. 
To them were born three children. Those living are 
Lida F. and Andrew Lewis. Mr. McFarlane has 
been diligent and eminently successful in business, 
and has added very largely to his patrimony. His 
possessions are chiefly land and coal. He is engaged 
at present in developing his coal, and also carries on 
an extensive lumber trade. He is a man of sound 
judgment and correct business principles. He is 
genial and hospitable, and has a well-appointed home. 



HON. ROBERT STEWART ROBINSON. 

Hon. Robert S. Robinson, of North Huntingdon 
township, is of Scotch descent on his paternal side, 
both his grandfather, Isaac M. Robinson, and his 
grandmother, Margaret Moore Robinson, having been 
born in Scotland. They migrated to America in the 
latter part of the last century, and located in Alle- 
gheny County. They were the parents of live chil- 
dren, of whom Matthew, the father of Robert S., was 
the second in number. He was born about 1781, be- 
came a farmer and live-stock dealer and raiser, and 
died in May, 1833. About 1809-10 he married Miss 
Rebecca Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart, at that 
time and for years thereafter a great mail contractor 
on the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia turnpike, over 
which he ran several daily lines of the old-fashioned 
lumbering stage-coaches of the period. He became a 
man of wealth, founded Stewartsville in Westmore- 
land County, and owned a valuable estate in Pitts- 
burgh. He died about 1850. 



Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Robinson had eight chil- 
dren, of whom four are living : Rosanna, the wife of 
Jacob Bankert, of Westmoreland County ; Isaac M. ; 
Sarah C. ; and Robert S., who was born, Oct. 1, 1815, 
on the farm adjoining the one on which he now 
resides. 

He was educated in the subscription schools of the 
time, and spent most of his time on the homestead 
farm till he was about twenty-two years of age, when 
he entered upon general merchandising and stock- 
raising and dealing at Stewartsville. He pursued 
merchandising for three or four years, profitably for 
the times, and about 1843 gave up merchandising, and 
removing to a farm in the vicinity of Stewartsville, 
gave his attention to farming and stock-raising, which 
business he still pursues. He raises short-horn Dur- 
hams as his particular pride, taking the utmost inter- 
est in pure breeds. He also raises good stocks of 
horses, the Kentucky driving horses and Clydesdale 
draught horses claiming his particular attention. 

In politics Mr. Robinson is a Jeffersonian-Jackson 
Democrat, but not an extremist. He holds himself 
as conservative in principle, and while he votes with 
his party for all good measures, reserves to himself 
the right to adjudge whether or not a partisan meas- 
ure ought to command his support. He has held 
various township offices, which, however, he never 
sought. In 1880 he was elected to the State Legisla- 
ture for the term of two years, representing the dis- 
trict of Westmoreland County, and took his seat in 
January, 1881. He was assigned to the committees 
on agriculture, manufactures, elections, and others. 

Jan. 25, 1842, he married Miss Ann Jane Ludwic, 
daughter of Jacob and Nancy Johnson Ludwic, of 
North Huntingdon township, by whom he has had 
eight children : Henrietta, wife of Grabel H. Svvoap, 
now residing in Missouri ; Matthew, who died in in- 
fancy ; Cyrus M., at present a coal merchant in Pitts- 
burgh ; Nancy Jane, who became the wife of John R. 
Christy, of Allegheny County, and is now dead ; Re- 
becca Stewart; William Stewart, married to Emma 
Beck, of Irwin ; Lucien G. ; and Florence May, de- 
ceased. 



ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP. 



BOUNDARIES, Etc. 

Kostraver Township was among the first organ- 
ized townships in the county, haviug been erected 
April 6, 1773, with boundaries as follows : 

" Beginning at the month of Jacobs Creek, and running down the 
Yougiiiogheny to where it joins the Monongaliela; then up the said 

MoDongahela to the i ill of Redstone Creek ; and thence with a 

straight line to the beginning." 

The first officers elected in the township were Balt- 
zer Shilling, constable; Alexander Mitchell and Sam- 
uel Biggard, overseers of the poor ; Eysham Barnes, 
supervisor. 

Other early settlers, beside the first officers above 
named, were Rev. James Power, the Finleys, George 
Wendell and his son Peter, the Cunninghams, Ful- 
lertons, Pinkertons, Housemans, Robertsons, Thomp- 
sons, Sheplers, Lowreys, Pattersons, Orrs, McClains, 
Robinsons, Caldwells, Steeles, Wilsons, Smiths, Ei- 
selles, McClures, Hutchinsons, and others. 

The present boundaries of the township are : north 
by Forward and Elizabeth townships, Allegheny 
County; south by Washington township, Fayette 
County ; east by the Yougiiiogheny ; and west by the 
Monongaliela River. 

The principal stream after the two rivers just men- 
tioned is Saw-Mill Run. This township is much di- 
versified in its topography, having high and romantic 
bluffs along the streams, and more or less level land I 
in the interior. There is an abundance of coal and 
limestone found in the eastern part, and the very best 
quarries of flagstone in the west, near Webster Post- ; 
office. 

The first actual settler in the township was Joseph 
Hill, who came from Winchester (now Westminster), ' 
Carroll Co., Md., in 1854. He was then eighteen years 
old, and had made quite extensive improvement when 
Braddock's army passed in the summer following 
(1755). He settled about one mile a little northwest 
of Rehoboth Church, on lands now owned by the 
Fishers, Finleys, Frees, Brownellers, and others. His 
father, also named Joseph Hill, served seven years in 
the Revolution, and after its close settled in the town- 
ship near his son. 

Before the Revolution the Housemans and Shep- 
lers came from near Winchester, Md., and settled. 
Of the latter there were three brothers, viz., Peter, 
Matthias and Caleb, who located on the Monon- 
galiela River hills. Matthias Shepler married a 
daughter of Joseph Hill, the first settler, and had 



the following children : John, Philip, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, Mary, Margaret, and Catherine, of whom 
John, Isaac, and Jacob remained in the township, the 
other sons emigrating West. Isaac married Mary 
Houseman, and was the father of the venerable Capt. 
Joseph Shepler. 

After Joseph Hill the next actual settlers were 
George Wendell and his family, who came from Ha- 
gerstown, Md., in the spring of 1758, and whose set- 
tlement in the northeastern part of the township is 
described elsewhere in a sketch of this family. 

Among other early pioneers were Joseph Black- 
burn, Dr. Bela B. Smith, Col. John Power, James 
Sterrett, John Steele, Capt. William Elliott, William 
Robeson, the Pattersons, Nathaniel Hayden, and the 
Wrights. The two first pastors of Rehoboth Church 
were Revs. James Power and James Finley. The 
former was born in 1746, in Chester County, Pa., and 
left eight daughters, but no sons. Rev. Mr. Finley 
was born in 1725, in County Armagh, Ireland, and 
died June 6, 1795, leaving several children, whose nu- 
merous descendants are still found scattered through- 
out the township. 

AN HISTORIC RECOLLECTION. 
The following touching the visit of Lafayette to 
the United States and his reception in our part of 
the county is from the Gazette of June 3, 1825 : 

"On Saturday last, about 10 o'clock a.m., intelligence was received by 
express in this place that Gen. La Fayette would bo at the Brick Meet- 
ing-House in the Forks of Yough at 10 o'clock the following morning. 
Maj. Alexander, agreeably to a wish communicated through the mes- 
senger, paraded his artillery company on horseback, and set out at six 
o'clock with 2 field-pieces. They proceeded eight miles the same even- 
ing, and on the following morning were joined at Gen. Markle's by a 
part of Capt. Pinkerton's artillery company with another field-piece. 
The troops, under the command of Maj. Alexander, together with a 
number of private citizens from the surrounding country, arrived at 
Lebanon School-House, adjacent to the Meeting-House, at about 11 
o'clock. The three field pieces were placed on the side of the hill im- 
mediately back of the school-house. Telegraphs were posted on the 
surrounding hills, who gave information when the -Nation's Guest' 
passed the county line, upon which a salute of 13 guns was fired. In a 
few minutes the general and suite, escorted by 50 or 60 citizens of Fay- 
ette County, mounted, arrived. He reviewed the troops, shaking each 
one cordially by the hand, after which he partook of refreshments pro- 
vided by Gen. Markle. A number of persons were then introduced, 
among whom was old Mr. Sterrett, of Rostraver township, who had 
fought with him at Brandywine. The meeting was an interesting and 
affecting one. He examined the brass 4-pounder belonging to Maj. 
Alexander's artillery corps, and said it was a Spanish piece, but that it 
was not engaged in the battle of Saratoga, as was generally supposed. 
He paid his respects to a number of ladies who had assembled to see 
him, and having got fresh horseB in his phaeton, was escorted by the 
citizens aud a part of the military to Beazel's tavern (late Daily's), 

561 



562 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



where refreshments were provided, lifter partaking of which he pro- 
ceeded towards Braddock's Fields, accompanied by a concourse of citi- 
zens of Allegheny County, where he arrived at 4 o'clock in the evening. 
He retired to his chamber to peruse some letters received from his 
family in France, and on Monday morning last entered Pittsburgh. 

" It rained very hard a considerable part of the day, which, together 
with the distance the troops had to travel (22 miles), made them appear 
to great disadvantage. All, however, passed oft' well, and each one was 
pleased with the trip, and the appearance and conduct of the old friend 
of American independence." 

We are pleased to learn that Gen. Lafayette ex- 
pressed his gratification at Pittsburgh with the re- 
ception with which he met at Lebanon School-house, 
in Rostraver township, Westmoreland Co. 

THE OLDEST LIST OF TAXABI.ES 
we have seen of the inhabitants of this section made 
during the Revolution, furnishes the following names 
and data : 

"A return of the Names and Surnames of the Tax- 
able Inhabitants of the Township of Rostraver and 
their Taxable property taken by order of the Com- 
missioners of Westmoreland County by Matthew 
Jamison Assistant Assessor : 





No. of 
Acres. 


= 
o 

H 
— 

o 
d 


S 

- 

o 
d 

1 
1 


- 

g 



6 
X 

1 

1 

1 
1 


tn 

H 
•o 

a 

I 

B 

d 
Z 

2 
1 

2 

1 
."■ 


o 

~ 

d 

a 

9 

1 
9 


— 
a) 
— 

o 
d 
Z 

1 
2 


IT 

s 

<5 


£ 


P 
Q 

O 
o 
d 


Offices, TradeB, Professions, 
and Occupations. 




Owners' Names. 


H 

.2 

"3 

o 

o 


a 
« 

5 

o 

> 
p 

Pi 

a 

H 


d 
IS 

« 

— 
p 

o 
d 




76 

75 


40 






Matt. Jamison, y.m 








Carpenter. 
Taylor. 






115 


7 


Wm. McKnigbt, y.m... 














6 


4 










9 




30 
















1 


1 


3 

1 
6 
2 
3 

1 
2 

1 


4 

1 
4 
2 
3 

2 
1 




1 
3 
2 
,8 

4 
























Taylor. 








300 






1 


:. 
5 
in 
1 
8 
5 


















200 




2 

T 


1 

i 










John Logan, y.m 


150 








Weaver. 












Joseph Pearce, ju/nr 


"SS 




















300 




1 
1 

T 


1 




2 


4 


7 




... 




Captain, 

Frontiers, 
Washing- 
ton. 




Henry lIcGIaughlin.f. 






300 


1 

.... 


l 


2 
3 
1 
4 


2 

6 
2 
4 


6 
4 










'5 

7 




i 














Weaver. 






180 




1 


l 




Jas. Finny and Ruhert 


270 


























2 
2 
1 

1 

2 
3 
3 

1 

2 
2 


3 
5 


2 
5 
















300 


l 

l 

l 




i 
























John MeConnell, y.m.. 


300 -— 
















B ... 

1 ... 

1 
Bl 


2 
3 

8 

3 
3 
1 
2 

2 


3 
10 
4 

1 
3 




























300 




i 


50 




s 


Philip Howel, y.m 




Lieut. 






150 








Captn. 










150 




1 1 


2 
2 






... 




Weaver. 


5 


Kobt. Walker 


4 








l 





The exact date of the above list of taxables cannot 
be learned, but it is evident it was made up during 



the Revolution. It is noticeable that although there 
were columns for the number of acres of land which 
were held by deed and by warrant, yet there was no 
report made of any as so held, but all was returned 
as held by location or by improvement. In the col- 
umns for "barns" the figures represent the number 
of outbuildings, and the letter " B" is used for barns. 
In the list of occupations, etc., those who are not de- 
signated are understood to be farmers. The y. in. 
stand for young men. The proportion of cabins to 
houses was as Falstaff's sack to his bread. 

SCHOOLS. 

A school-house was built and occupied for school 
purposes during the interval from 1780 to 1805. The 
school was supported by subscription, and the scholars 
were compelled to go a distance of four or five miles. 
The teachers were generally incompetent, and ruled 
with tyranny. This school-house had a straw roof 
and paper windows. The house that was built in 
1805 is still standing near the centre of the township, 
being the first to have a clapboard roof and glass 
windows. Its first teacher, G. H. Lower, was from 
New York, and was a fine scholar. He taught, be- 
sides the common branches, a class of six for some 
time in Greek and Latin. He remained quite a 
while in the township, and created quite an interest 
in education. In 1812 two more school-houses were 
erected, one in the northern and the other in the 
southern part of the township. The latter was 
deeded by Samuel Burnes for school purposes " as 
long as water would run or grass grow." Among the 
leading teachers were Lower, Roberts, and Darr. 
The schools continued on in the old ruts until the 
passage of the common school law. Many being 
opposed, the schools did not succeed very well for 
some time. Among the first directors were John 
Power, E. Moore, and P. Rhyal. At this time there 
were but six houses in the district. The first year 
after the adoption of the school law two new houses 
were built, one at Leusty, and the other at Iowa. At 
this time there were no graded schools, but some of 
the teachers were capable of teaching higher mathe- 
matics and the languages. Among the prominent 
teachers were Eckley, Darr, ex-United States Senator 
Edgar Cowan, and Douglass. The schools continued 
to be ungraded until 1873, when the Webster School 
was divided, and the upper room was taught by Pro- 
fessor L. P. Smith. In 1866 new houses began to take 
the places of the old ones, two being built each year, 
until at present there are fourteen in the township, two 
being independent, viz., Lagrange and North Belle- 
vernon. Among the zealous workers for the last ten 
years are Lowry, McLane, Brown, and others. 

R0H0B0TH CHURCH CEMETERY. 

Rohoboth Church (Presbyterian) is one of the pio- 
neer churches of the county. The present edifice, a 
brick structure, was erected in 1836. Rev. A. F. Boyd 




«iiiiiiflBttii«ii«iiittitti!ifti«aitti«»ciiiiiti«isiaiiisi«i 



ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP. 



503 



is the present pastor. Among the early settlers buried 
in the cemetery attached are 

Dr. Belft II. Smith, died Oct. 1", 1841, agfed 79; hie wife, Elizabeth, died 
May 23, 1S44, aged 74. 

Eleuor Moore, died Jan. 7, 1819, aged 53. 

Jane, wife of Kohert Moore, died April 11, 1S32, aged 80. 

James Starrett, died July 8, 1829, aged 78; his wife, Elizabeth, died 
March 26, 1833; aged 80 

Robert Galloway, died June 30, 1818, aged 49. 

Col. John Power, elder of Rohoboth Church, died July 29, 1805, aged 
48; his wife, Margaret, died March 10, 18313, aged 80; their daugh- 
ter, Jane, died Not. 14, 1798, aged 18. 

Mary, wife of John Power, died April 14. 1850, aged 46. 

Rev. James Finley^ born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1725, died Jan. 
C, 1795; was forty-six^'ears in the ministry ; his wife, Hannah, died 
April 1, ag'ed 80 ; their son, Michael, died July 29, 1S50, aged 77 ; he 
was a ruling elder in Rohoboth Church. 

Fanny, wife of Joseph Finley, died Feb. 18, 1x47, aged 66. 

John Steele, died Jan. 10, 1856, aged SI ; his wife, Nancy H., died Aug. 23, 
1850, aged 69. 

William Bigtaam, died Dec. 12, 1844, aged 74. 

George Crawford, died June 11, 1797, aged 52. 

Capt. William Eliott, died March 20,1804, aged 54; his wife, Ruth, died 
July 2, 1830, aged 76. 

SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY. 

This church, located in the northern part of the 
township, was organized in 1792, and is the oldest of 
this denomination in the county. The first pastor 
was Rev. Mr. Barkley. The present brick edifice was 
erected in 1842. 

WEBSTER 
is the largest town in the township, and is located in 
its northwestern part on the Monongahela River. It 
was laid out in 1833 by Benjamin Beazell and a Mr. 
Ford, and so named in honor of the great statesman, 
Daniel Webster, then in the zenith of his power and 
glory. Here Samuel Walker built the first steam- 
boat on the Monongahela River, and for many years 
this place was a noted point for the building of steam- 
boats. Here are located the Webster Coal Company's 
Works, operated by Sneeden & Willson, lessees of 
John Guffey, of Greensburg. These are the old 
Blackamore Works. John Gilmore also has coal- 
mines, now being extensively worked. 

The Presbyterian Church edifice was erected in 
1881, and is supplied with preaching by the pastor of 
Rehoboth. The Methodist Episcopal Church building 
was built in 1866, and is a neat frame structure. It is 
on the Fell's Church Circuit, and before its erection 
preaching was had in the school-house. The present 
pastor is Rev. Taylor ; Sunday-school superintendent, 
D. Richards ; and Trustees, F. C. Anderson, Asbury 
Fell, George W. Smith, D. Richards, Christian Keigh- 
line, Thomas F. Brown, and Lewis McDonal. 

BLACKAMORE LODGE, No. 701, I. 0. 0. F. 
was instituted in 1871. Its first officers were N. G., 
D. B. Brooks ; V. G., Alex. Simrall ; Sec, Jacob 
Tomer; Asst. Sec, John Brooks; Treas., John F. 
Birmingham. Its Past Noble Grands who are still 
members are D. B. Brooks, Philip Andre, Sr., John 
Boyd, Henry Boyd, Philip Duwa.ll, William Hodgson, 
John W. Jones, Lewis V. Jones, A. G. Milholland, 



Alexander Simrall, Thomas Strickland, Robert Sar- 
ber, and Philip H. Andre. The officers for 1882 are : 
N. G., Thomas Strickland; V. G., Frederick Zimmer ; 
Sec, A. J. Milholland; Asst. Sec, Robert Sarber; 
Treas., Philip H. Andre; Trustees, L. V. Jones, John 
Boyd, P. H. Andre. It has thirty-nine members, and 
meets every Saturday evening. 

WEBSTER LODGE, ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED 
BRETHREN, No. 70, 

was chartered Feb. 9, 1874. The following were the 
charter members and first officers : P. M. W., John 
Brooks ; M. W., W. H. Hodgson ; G. F., D. B. Brooks ; 
O., Stephen Doyle ; G., Michael Miller; Fin., Samuel 
Campbell ; Rec, Dr. E. K. Strong; I. W., James For 
sythe ; O. W., Lewis Shepler ; J. F. McDonal, R. E. M 
McDonal, S. C. Hara, V. W. Thomas, George Hodgson 
Wm. Snyder, Samuel Insler,|B. F. Seichman, J. S. Wall 
John Jenkins, A. Booth, A. Sharp, T. E. Spence, B 
Firestone, James Shaw, P. Kern, H. Cropp, L. Nahar 
Philip Dewall, William Evans, H. Miller. The of- 
ficers in 1882 are : P. W. M., Sandy Wilson ; W. M. 
Joseph Taylor; F., Conrad Steinoble; Fin., Dr. J 
T. Krepps; Rec, Albert Allen; Receiver, Samuel 
Campbell ; G., William Hamilton. It meets twice a 
month. 

STAR OF THE WEST LODGE, No. 26, L. 0. L., 
was instituted Sept. 19, 1871. The first officers were : 
W. M., John Holt ; D. M., George Archibald ; Sec, 
Joseph Cocain ; Treas., Charles Cocain ; Chap., Sam- 
uel Haney. The officers in 1882 are : W. M., W. J. 
T. Campbell; D. M., Thomas Cocain; Sec, Jacob 
M. Fish ; Treas. and Chap., Samuel Campbell ; Tyler, 
John Mure ; Com., John Starline, John Stewart, Ben- 
jamin Braley, Joseph Taylor, George Booth. The 
lodge meets the first, third, and fifth Fridays of each 
mouth. 

TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 

A little of the northern part of the borough of 
Bellevernon is in this township. 1 Rostraver is a 
hamlet in the eastern part, having a Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, mills, stores, and shops. Bakertown 
is a small place on the Monongahela below Webster. 
Mount Pleasant is another hamlet in the southeast 
portion, containing a Union Church, school, etc. 

The principal business of the inhabitants of the 
township is agriculture, but there is a large amount 
of capital invested in the coal interest, principally 
in the way of grist- and saw-milling. 

THE WEDDELL FAMILY. 
George Weddell and his son Peter, a boy aged six- 
teen, left Hagerstown, Md., in the spring of 1758 for 

1 North BeUereriwii Borough.— The court, on Feb. 26, 1876, ou the formal 
presentation of the grand jury of the petition filed in the clerk's office 
decreed and ordered that the citizens of Rostraver township and resi- 
dents of Speer's new addition to Bellevernon, within the boundaries de- 
scribed, should be vested with corporate privileges, and thenceforth b« 
a borough. Samuel Dougherty was appointed the first judge of the 
borough election, and Frauk Morgan and Thomas Hunt inspectors. 



564 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the purpose of settling among the Western wilds. 
They followed what was then known as " Braddock's 
trail" until they reached the Youghiogheny River, 
which they descended until they arrived at an old 
Indian fort, where they decided to make their home. 
Here they erected a cabin, cleared and cultivated the 
soil. In the fall of the same year the father returned 
to Maryland, leaving his son in company with another 
young man, where they remained until spring, sup- 
posing themselves to be the only white men west of 
the Allegheny Mountains. Their food consisted of 
such game as then abounded in the forests, and corn 
ground on a " hominy-block," and baked on flat 
stones. In May, 1759, the father, George Weddell, 
accompanied by the remainder of his family and by 
other friends, again reached his Western home. He 
had five sons, two of whom emigrated to Kentucky, 
two others remained on the original homestead (now 
the property of Isaac Irwin), while Peter located and 
took out. a warrant for four hundred acres now in 
Westmoreland County, and about a mile from the 
farm of his father. In 1774 he married Rebecca 
Prichard, who died in 1780, leaving three children, — 
Jesse, Lydia, and Joseph P. In 1783 he married 
Miss Parsons, and in the following year received an 
injury from which he died. He left another son, 
Peter M., who went to Cleveland, Ohio, and became 
a very successful business man. Horace, only son of 
the latter, is now a resident of that city, and worth 
several millions of dollars. Jesse, Lydia, and Joseph 
P. were reared by their grandparents. Jesse emi- 
grated to Indiana, and Lydia married James Mont- 
gomery. In 1802, Joseph P. married Sarah Scott, 
and settled and lived on the farm of his father until 
his death, in April, 1871. Twice during his life he, 
in company with his family, rode on horseback to 
Chicago, then a straggling village. His children 
were Rebecca, married to John Penny ; Hannah, 
married to Thomas Penny ; Margaret, married to 
T. F. Thomas, and died August, 1870 ; Jesse, Scott 
J., and Peter M. Rebecca and Hannah, with their 
husbands, removed to Iowa. Peter M. is a Baptist 
minister of celebrity in Ohio. Jesse and Scott J. 
were farmers, owning two hundred acres of the tract 
located and settled by their grandfather, Peter Wed- 
dell, and also three hundred acres adjoining, all of 
which is improved and every acre of which is arable 
ground. Jesse occupied a seat in the House of Rep- 
resentatives in the sessions of 1851-54, and proved 
one of the best legislators the county ever had. Jesse 
Weddell removed to Kansas some two years ago, but 
Scott J. still occupies part of the old homestead. 

BUDD'S FERRY AND THE BUDD FAMILY. 

The Budd estate, just south of West Newton, on 
the Youghiogheny River, and in Rostraver township, 
has been in the possession of the Budd family for 
over a century. John F. Budd, the late owner, came 
into possession after the death of his father, Benjamin 



Budd. Joseph Budd, Sr., with his two brothers, 
Conklin and Joshua, came from Somerset County, N. 
J., before the Revolutionary war and settled here. 
Conklin only remained a short time, and went else- 
where to seek his fortune, but Joseph and Joshua 
became large owners of lands at the ferry owned by 
them and named in their honor, and also in the 
" Forks." Joshua, who became a major, married 
Miss Betsey Fitch, kept store, tavern, and dealt 
largely in all kinds of stock and in lands. He laid 
out Mount Vernon, on the plateau west of the ferry, 
and intended to make of it a great town. Although 
he sold several lots, and a few houses were erected, 
the town really existed only on paper. He had two 
sons, Daniel and Joshua, Jr. The latter married 
Charity Sparks, of Washington County, and died in 
New Orleans, where he was on a trip with his boats 
loaded with produce and provisions. His widow mar- 
ried John Cooper, a tanner, of Robbstown (West 
Newtown), who sold out his tannery there to Mr. 
Fulton, and went to Williamsport, and there estab- 
lished a tannery. Dying there his widow married 
John Smouse, who kept the " Valley Inn," three 
miles west of Monongahela City. Joseph Budd 
married and had seven children. Of these Amy was 
married to John Sutton, Rebecca to William Walsh, 
Betsey to Benjamin Stewart, of Rostraver township, 
Rachel to Isaac McLaughlin, Esther to Robert Arm- 
strong, of Wayne County, Ohio, and Joseph, Jr., to 
Miss Stewart, of Rostraver. The other child, Ben- 
jamin, married Miss Nellie Finley, and inherited the 
large homestead estate at the ferry. 

Joseph Budd, Sr., donated the ground for the Salem 
Baptist Church and for the eemetary thereto attached. 
He assisted Nathaniel Hayden, David Davis, and 
others in erecting the church edifice in 1792. The 
Budds came to the Youghiogheny River before the 
Indians were all gone, and when the only settlement 
between Gen. Simrall's ferry (West Newton) and their 
ferry was one solitary cabin. All emigration to the 
West, which a few years after their settlement had 
become very large, had to pass over either Budd's or 
Simrall's ferry, or else there take flat-boat. Some 
strangers from the East came and occupied a cabin 
near the ferry. They were rather prepossessing in 
manners, and agreeable in their intercourse with the 
settlers, but seemed to have no business other than 
fishing and hunting. After the death of Woods, one 
of their number, they all immediately left. After 
their departure there were found secreted on and in 
the premises vacated by them all manner of apparatus 
for counterfeiting, and it turned out these people who 
had their rendezvous here were the greatest band of 
counterfeiters in the country, who had fled from New 
York to escape the officers, and here in the mountains 
I of a new settlement pursue their schemes unmolested. 
| On the Budd estate are some remains of the ancient 
J mound-builders, which are among the largest and 
best preserved in the State. 



Pi 
a 

t 






xi naLL©, 

, WIiTrOSl®KIILAIRI® ©@.j PA. 



A 



ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP. 



565 



THE CUNNINC.HAM FAMILY, 
lames Cunningham was born in Lancaster County 
in*lS57, and removed in 1784 to Rostraver township, 
where he had purchased a considerable tract of land. 
He married Mary Robinson, of this township. Their 
children were : 

1. Robert, born April 15, 1790. 

2. Mary, married James Elliot. 

3. Alexander. 

4. James. 

5. John. 

6. William. 

7. Nancy, died unmarried. 

He served in the navy in the Revolutionary war, 
and died in 1841. He had a distillery on his farm, 
where the populace often met in the " Whiskey Insur- 
rection of 1784" to discuss their grievances. Robert 
Cunningham married Brittie Bennett in 1818. He 
served in the war of 1812 in Capt. James Markle's 
company, and was shot through the body, but lived 
to be eighty-four years of age, and died Aug. 20, 1873. 
His children were : 

1. John Bennett, born Jan. 1, 1820. 

2. Mary, married John V. Hurst. 

3. Harriet, died young. 

4. Nancy. 

5. Harriet (second), died young. 

6. Lavina. 

7. Elvira. 

8. William H. 

9. Minerva. 

10. James Elliott. 

The family is of Scotch-Irish origin, and settled in 
Lancaster County on arrival in America in 1725. 

GIBSONTON MILLS. 
The mills of John Gibson's Son & Co. are located 
at Gibsonton, near Bellevernon, on the Mouongahela 
River, and manufacture pure Monongahela rye, 
wheat, and malt whiskeys. It employs seventy-five 
hands, and is the largest rye-distillery in the State 
and probably in the Union. The mills began opera- 
tion in 1857, under the firm-name of " John Gibson, 
Sons & Co. ;" but after the deaHi of John Gibson, 
in 1864, and of his son Alfred, the firm-name was 
changed to " John Gibson's Son & Co.," the son being 
Henry C. Gibson, of Philadelphia, and Andrew M. 
Moore and Josepn F. Sinnott. When first established, 
a quarter of a century ago, the capacity of the mills 
was two hundred and fifty bushels daily, but the 
business has grown to such dimensions that the ca- 
pacity now is seven hundred and seventy-five bushels, 
or a product of sixty-five barrels of whiskey every 
twenty-four hours. For twenty years these mills 
have been under the superintendence of T. L. Daly, 
whose father was one of the contractors in the build- 
ing of the original works. The mills and various 
other buildings are on grounds of forty acres of area, j 
contiguous to which is the farm of three hundred ' 



acres. The eight bonded warehouses have a capacity 
of forty thousand barrels of whiskey, and at this wri- 
ting are filled to their utmost limit. This distillery is 
registered as No. 14 in the Twenty-second Revenue 
District of the State. The buildings were erected in 
1856-69, warehouse No. 4 in 1870, No. 5 in 1880, and 
the others since then, and all under the trained eye 
and supervision of Mr. Daly, the efficient superin- 
tendent of the mills. 

BONDED WAREHOUSES. 

No. 1 is 504 by 100 feet, basement, two-story, attic, 
slate roof, and built of stone. 

No. 2 is 110 by 50 feet, basement, three-story, attic, 
slate roof, and built of stone. 

No. 3 is 50 by 93! feet, basement, three-story, attic, 
slate roof, and built of stone. 

No. 4 is 50 by 106 feet, basement, three-story, attic, 
slate roof, and built of stone. 

No. 5 is 200 by 50 feet, basement, one-story, iron 
roof, and built of stone. 

No. 6 is 200 by 50 feet, two-story, basement, attic, 
slate roof, and built of stone. 

No. 7 is 225 by 50 feet, three-story, attic, slate roof, 
and built of stone. 

No. 8 is a one-story frame, board roof, 50 by 250 
feet, and is only a temporary building. 

There are five other warehouses. The malt-house 
is a four-story stone building with slate roof, and has 
an annual capacity of thirty thousand bushels of malt. 
The other buildings are the distillery, mill-house, dry- 
ing kiln, saw-mill, boiler-house, two carpenter-shops, 
two cooper-shops, blacksmith-shop, and ice-house. 
Adjoining the mills is the residence of the superin- 
tendent (an elegant stone structure), near which are 
the coach-house, spring-house, wagon-house, and two 
barns, and on a street leading to the mills are nine- 
teen tasteful dwellings, the residences of the work- 
men. There are four steam-engines of forty, sixty, 
sixteen, and twenty horse-power respectively. There 
are eight boilers, one wooden and two copper stills. 
The mills have an organized fire brigade among the 
employes, and in their operations of a quarter of a cen- 
tury have never had a fire, and the only one on the 
premises that ever occurred was a small fire in one of 
the dwellings, in which the loss was less than forty 
dollars. The mills make all their own barrels, and 
carry a stock of a million of staves. The bonded 
warehouses are heated by steam, and thus the stored 
whiskeys are continually improving in age beyond any 
other known methods. All their grain is received by 
rail over the Monongahela Division of the Pennsylva- 
nia Railroad, and then transferred by boats across the 
river. The mills are only forty miles from Pittsburgh 
and near the Fayette County line. There is no dis- 
tillery in America that has such costly and substantial 
buildings, and none that equals it in the purity and 
flavor of its whiskeys, which have a world-wide repu- 
tation for their excellence. 



566 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE DAVIS FARM. 
This old farm, adjoining lands of Hortentious 
Lowry, John Stoneman, Andrew Moore, and Benja- 
min Thompson, has a curious history. Every person 
who has had anything to do with it in the way of 
ownership has become ruined financially. About a 
century and a third ago two men came from Vir- 
ginia, settled there, built a cabin, and cleared a little 
patch of ground. When winter came, one of the men 
went back to Virginia to bring his family out in the 
spring to their new home out in the wilderness, leav- 
ing his companion in charge of their new acquisition. 
So when spring came the man brought out his fam- 
ily, but instead of finding his companion at the cabin 
he found a man by the name of Davis in full posses- 
sion, but he could learn nothing of the whereabouts 
of the companion he had left there. The Davis 
family claimed the property as their own, that they 
had cleared what had been cleared, had erected the 
cabin, and refused to give up the place. Nothing 
was ever heard of the lone companion, and it has 
always been the belief that he was murdered by the 
Davis family. Only one of the Davis family died a 
natural death. Several of them committed suicide, 
others became insane, and they all became financially 
ruined. The belief seems to be universal that a 
curse rests and has ever rested upon this tract, and 
the financial ruin that has attended its history, as 
well as the miserable ending of the Davis family that 
first possessed it, seems to afford good grounds for 
this belief. 

THE POWER FAMILY 
is one of the oldest that settled in the township. One 
of its descendants, Patrick Power, married Nancy 
Galliher. Their son, Samuel W. Power, was born 
May 14, 1823, and married in September, 1847, 
Meliuda Hasler. Their children were Ada, John 
Patrick, Homer James, Sarah H., Anna H., and 
Calvin Oliphant, of whom John Patrick and Homer 
James are deceased. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

THOMAS L. DALY. 

Thomas L. Daly was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
Sept. 18, 1839, the sixth in a family of eight children 
of Thomas and Mary (Marr) Daly. His father and 
mother were natives of Dublin, Ireland, and after 
emigrating to this country eventually settled ih Phil- 
adelphia. 

His father was a distiller and followed his occupa- 
tion in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del. In the 
early part of the year 1857 he was employed to su- 
perintend the erection of the distillery apparatus of 
the Gibsonton Mills, situated in the township of Ros- 
tra ver, Westmoreland Co., Pa. (For a full descrip- 



tion of these extensive works see another page of this 
volume.) While thus employed he was killed by fall- 
ing through a hatchway of the mills. His death 
occurred April 7, 1858. 

Thomas L. Daly lived at home until eight years of 
age, when he went to live with Samuel Anthony, near 
Wilmington, Del., where he remained eight years. 
Mr. Anthony owned a farm and fiouring-mill, and 
here young Daly received his first ideas of machinery. 
His education was received in the public schools near 
Wilmington and in Philadelphia. Upon leaving Mr. 
Anthony he spent about one year at home, then went 
to Iowa, where he remained about a year on a farm, 
with his brother James. In the spring of 1856 he 
went to Indianapolis, where for about another year 
he was employed in the flouring-mill of William 
Winpenny. 

In April, 1857, he came to Gibsonton, where he was 
employed in the building of the mills there. Having 
filled one position after another in these extensive 
works, and having acquired by his experience a thor- 
ough knowledge of the business, in July, 1873, he 
was appointed superintendent of the works, which 
position he still (1882) holds. The management of 
works as extensive as are the Gibsonton Mills, involv- 
ing the outlay of large amounts of money and the 
employment of a large number of men, requires busi- 
ness qualifications and an executive ability of no 
mean order. 

In politics Mr. Daly is a Democrat. He is a mem- 
ber of the Trinity Church (Episcopalian), Pittsburgh, 
Pa. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, hav- 
ing received the three symbolical degrees at Monon- 
gahela City, Capitular and degree of Knight Templar 
at Washington, Pa. 

He married, Sept. 19, 1860, Carrie W., daughter of 
Jonathan and Mary Ann Wilson. Mrs. Daly was 
born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Feb. 2, 1837. They have had 
five children, viz. : Mary Emma, born June 19, 1861, 
died Nov. 7, 1869 ; Harry C, born Dec. 5, 1864; Atha- 
lia C, born Dec. 4, 1868 ; Thomas L., born Nov. 20, 
1872, died young ; Kerfoot W., born April 24, 1874. 



CAPT. JOSEPH SHEPLER. 

Capt. Joseph Shepler was born in Rostraver town- 
ship, Westmoreland Co., Pa., March 6, 1807, the eld- 
est in a family of seven children of Isaac and Sarah 
(Hill) Shepler. His ancestors on both his father's 
and mother's side emigrated from Germany and set- 
tled in Virginia, in the neighborhood of Winchester. 

His grandfather, Matthias Shepler, with two bro- 
thers, Peter and Philip, moved from Virginia before 
the war of the Revolution and settled in Rostraver, 
taking up farms on the Monongahela hill in that 
township. He married Margaret Houseman, whose 
family was one of the early settlers of the township. 
Their children were John, Philip, Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, Mary, Margaret, and Catherine. All were mar- 




/- 



•^-', 



- 



m 




JOS. SHEPLER. 



ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP. 



567 



ried and raised families, and all are deceased. Isaac 
Shepler married Sarah, daughter of Joseph and 
Mary Hill. Her father at the age of eighteen came 
to Rostraver township, several years before the Brad- 
dock expedition, the first white settler of the township. 
The children by this union were as follows : Joseph, 
subject of this sketch. Lewis, a farmer, died Decem- 
ber, 1881; children, Bela Wright, I. Hill, and Fran- 
ces. Bela Wright married the youngest daugh- 
ter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Wakefield. They have 
two sons and four daughters. I. Hill is deceased. 
Frances, wife of Samuel S. Blackburn, one son and 
two daughters. Mary, deceased, wife of James 
Wright, the latter now living in CarmichaePs, Greene 
Co., Pa. ; children are Frances, Homer, Elizabeth, 
John, and Anson. Samuel, born July 13, 1X14, own- 
ing and living on a farm adjoining Capt. Joseph, be- 
ing a portion of the land taken up by his grandfather, 
Joseph Hill. Has been twice married. First wife, 
Eveline Steele, whom he married Dec. 12, 1839. By 
this union three sons and three daughters, viz. : John 
Walker, Mary E.. deceased, Olive J., Dr. Joseph Tay- 
lor, Samuel W., deceased, and Eveline. His wife 
died April 18, 1850. Jan. 29, 1852, he married Eliza- 
beth Couldren ; by this union, two children, Irvin 
S. and Anna C. Margaret died at the age of eighteen. 
Elizabeth, deceased, wife of Davis Shepler; chil- 
dren, Lewis, Sarah Ellen, Margaret Jane, deceased, 
Samuel, Lewis M., deceased. Sarah E., wife of John 
Stephens, a farmer living in Washington, Fayette 
Co., Pa. ; children, Eltess O, Margaret, Elizabeth, 
Levi, deceased, Fitch, deceased, " Doe," and Ada. 

Isaac Shepler died Dec. 10, 1837. His wife sur- 
vived him many years. She died July, 1869, aged 
eighty-seven. Both are buried at the Fell's Church. 

Capt. Joseph Shepler has spent his whole life in 
Rostraver ; received his education in the district 
schools of the town. To the age of twenty-two lived 
on the homestead farm now occupied by Bela Wright 
Shepler. He married, April 16, 1829, Mary, daughter 
of Joseph and Nancy Blackburn. Mrs. Shepler was 
born in Rostraver, March 28, 1807. Her family were 
among the early settlers of the township. One year 
after marriage he lived at home, then moved on one 
of his father's farms, which he carried on for eight 
years. In 1838 he moved on the farm where he still 
resides. In 1836 he located three hundred and sixty 
acres in Putnam County, Ohio, with the intention of 
moving there, but on account of the death of his 
father was persuaded by his mother to remain in 
Rostraver. 

In politics the captain has been a life-long Demo- 
crat, and has always taken a lively interest in local pol- 
itics. He has been called to fill most of the offices of the 
town. He has been a member of the Fell's Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church forty-nine years, and one of its 
stanchest supporters. His wife has also been a mem- 
ber for the same period. At the age of twenty-one he 
was chosen captain of the first company, Eighty-eighth 



State Volunteers, which position he held for seven 
years ; was captain of the Monongahela Blues five 
years, and first lieutenant of the Rostraver Cavalry 
seven years. His children are as follows : Sarah, 
born Jan. 7, 1830, wife of William Jones, farmer and 
banker, residing in Rostraver township; children, 
Ella Jane, Joseph Shepler, and Samuel Jones. Violet, 
born Aug. 20, 1833, wife of Capt. Martin Coulson, a 
resident of Allegheny City; children, Joseph S., 
Margaret E., and Alfred Kerr. John B., born Feb. 
18, 1835, married Josephine Claywell, of Jo Daviess 
Co., 111.; children, Shedrach Claywell and David 
Richey. Isaac Hill, born March 20, 1840, married 
Eveline, daughter of Samuel Shepler; children, 
James Kerr, Mary Blackburn, and William Jones. 



BENJAMIN F. BEAZELL. 

Benjamin F. Beazell was born in Rostraver town- 
ship, Westmoreland Co., Pa., Jan. 2, 1796, the seventh 
in a family of twelve children of William and Re- 
becca (Fell) Beazell. About the year 1760 his grand- 
father, Matthew Beazell, and his grandmother, Cathe- 
rine, emigrated from the town of Basil, on the Rhine, 
Germany, meeting and becoming acquainted for the 
first time on shipboard during the passage to America. 
They settled in Berkeley County, Va., and were 
married soon after their arrival. Their children born 
in Virginia were William and Elizabeth (twins), Mat- 
thew, Christianna, John, and Luke. In 1773 he 
moved with his family and settled in the township 
of Rostraver, on the farm now owned by William 
Jones, and here the following children were born : 
Catharine, Barbara, and Joseph. All except Jo- 
seph, who died when a lad, were married and raised 
families. Elizabeth, after marriage, settled first in 
Kentucky, afterwards in Missouri ; Barbara settled 
near Bucyrus, Ohio ; John went to Trumbull County, 
Ohio ; and Catharine settled in Fayette County, Pa. 
The rest remained in Westmoreland County. Mat- 
thew Beazell died in Rostraver, and was buried on the 
farm now owned by John Rankin. His wife survived 
him many years. She died at the residence of her 
daughter Catharine, in Fayette County, and is buried 
at Fell's Church. 

William Beazell, his father, married Rebecca, 
daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca Fell. Her pa- 
rents moved to Rostraver in 1783, from Bucks County, 
Pa. The first Methodist sermon in Rostraver town- 
ship was preached in Benjamin Fell's house, which 
for a number of years was headquarters of that 
church. He gave the grounds upon which was built 
the " Fell" Methodist Episcopal Church, taking its 
name from the donor. Prior to his moving to West- 
ern Pennsylvania, Mr. Fell was prominent in both 
Church and State. He took a decided stand in the 
cause of liberty; was a member of one of the first 
Conventions that assembled at Independence Hall 
in Philadelphia, and was the intimate friend of < nn. 




tf-l&ij uJd h^At^h 




V 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



569 



took the products of his farm in flat-boats to the New 
Orleans market, a custom not uncommon in those days 
among farmers residing near the river. His wife died 
Aug. 23, 1822. He survived her six years ; died, aged 
eighty-four, in September, 1828. Both are buried at 
Rehoboth Church cemetery. His son, Stephen Lowry, 
Jr., born on the homestead in 1791, was educated in 
the common schools of the neighborhood, studied 
medicine with Dr. Joseph Pollock, of Monongahela 
City, and practiced his profession in his native town 
until his death. He married, Feb. 7, 1815, Anne, 
daughter of David and Anne (Rholand) Pollock. 
Mrs. Lowry was born in the year 1793. Her parents 
moved from Maryland some time towards the latter 
part of the last century, and settled in McKean town- 
ship, Erie Co., Pa., and both died there. Mr. Lowry 
served as a soldier in the war of 1812, under Gen. 
Joseph Markle. He died of consumption, brought 
on by exposure in a horseback ride to Erie County, 
Pa. His death occurred Oct. 3, 1820, at the home- 
stead. He left two children, — a daughter and son, 
— Herpalice, born Sept. 17, 1816, wife of Thomas 
Isherwood, living near Mount Vernon, Linn Co., 
Iowa ; they have four sons and one daughter and 
Hortensius. Mrs. Lowry was again married in No- 
vember, 1832, to Randle Johnson, a farmer of Ros- 
traver. By him she had one child, Caroline Matilda, 
born July 24, 1834, wife of A. B. Moore, a farmer of 
Rostraver, and a descendant of one of its oldest fami- 
lies. They have five daughters living. Mrs. John- 
son died Dec. 25, 1847, and is buried at Fell's Church. 
Her first husband, Mr. Lowry, is buried at Rehoboth 
Church. 

Hortensius Lowry was born in the old brick house, 
the first built on the place, where his present resi- 
dence stands, and has spent his whole life on the 



farm which came into his possession in 1839 by will 
from his grandfather and subsequent purchase of his 
sister's interest. His mother, after her marriage to 
Mr. Johnson, lived at the old place for six years, to 
1839, then moved on to a farm about one mile east of 
the homestead. 

From 1839 to 1850 his sister kept house for him. 
Upon her removal West, in 1850, he leased the farm 
to Robert Douglas, who carried it on to the time of 
his death, which occurred Jan. 1, 1862. 

Mr. Lowry married his widow, Mrs. Harriet F. 
Douglas. She was the daughter of David and Eliza- 
beth Weimer, born Jan. 17, 1829, in Connellsville, 
Pa. By her first husband she had seven children, 
viz. : Mary Elizabeth, born July 10, 1847, wife of H. 
A. Stewart, living near Creston, Union Co., Iowa, 
two sons ; Susan Rebecca, born Aug. 25, 1849, living 
at home; David Harstine Presley, born' July 31, 
1851, a farmer of Rostraver: Hortensius Azariah, 
born Sept. 5, 1853, merchant in West Newton ; John 
W. S., born Feb. 11, 1856, farmer in Rostraver ; 
Margaret Emma, born April 7, 1860, now living at 
home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lowry have had two children, viz., 
Henry Foster, born April 22, 1864, died March 30, 
1872; Charles Stephen, born Oct. 27, 1868. Mr. 
Lowry has been a life-long Democrat ; has been 
called to fill many of the township offices, and often 
called upon to act as executor and administrator of 
estates in his township and elsewhere. To the orig- 
inal homestead tract of two hundred acres he has 
added by purchase about two hundred more. His 
present fine residence was built in 1878. 

In farm-buildings and in all equipments for a 
thoroughly managed farm, none in the township are 
more complete. 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



Fairfield Township was the name of one of the 
subdivisions of our county while it yet was a part of 
Bedford County. When Westmoreland was organ- 
ized Fairfield was made one of its townships. In set- 
ting it out by the first court held at Hannastown 
early in 1773, it was described as follows : 

" Beginning at the mouth of a run known by the name of Roaring Rnn 
[Roaring Run flows into the Loyalhanna Creek from the eastern side], 
and from tlience to rnn down the Loyalhanna to the Chestnut Ridge ; 
thence with the line of Armstrong township [that is, the Chestnut Ridge 
and the Conemangh River] to the Laurel Hill ; theme along the line of 
the comity to where the said Roaring Run crosses that line, or to a point 
in said line due east of the head spring of said run; thence down the said 
run to the beginning; that part of Armstrong township lying between 
the Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge to be added to Fairfield township." 



Thus Fairfield township at first embraced the 
greater portion of Ligonier Valley, and had within 
its limits the old Fort Ligonier, and was crossed from 
the Laurel Hill to Chestnut by the old military road, 
now within the township of Ligonier. Out of its 
original territory have been taken part of the town- 
ship of Ligonier, and the whole of St. Clair. 

The Fairfield township of to-,day is situated in the 
lower part of Ligonier Valley, having on its east the 
Laurel Hill, on the west the Chestnut Ridge, on its 
north the Conemaugh River, on its northeast the line 
of St. Clair township, and on its south Ligonier 
township. 



570 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



DESCRIPTION, Etc. 

On either side of the township as you go down the 
valley towards the Conemaugh the surface of the 
land is hilly, and next the mountain bases abrupt and 
rocky; but in the centre of the township it is rolling, 
and in some places on the plateaus of the hills and 
along the streams it is level. The land in the middle 
region of the township is well adapted to farming 
purposes, and the inhabitants, being for the most part 
the " children of the soil," are thrifty and well under- 
stand their occupation, and on all sides one sees the 
evidence of their labor and intelligence. 

The population of the township by the census of 
1880 is one thousand six hundred and twelve, which 
includes all the villages within its limits, but not the 
incorporated boroughs. Of these Bolivar, on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, is the only incorporated bor- 
ough, while the unincorporated villages are Lock- 
port, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, West Fairfield 
(or Fairfield), in the eastern portion of the township, 
on the road from Ligonier to Johnstown through the 
valley. 

EARLY SETTLERS. 

Among the prominent and earliest settlers of the 
township of Fairfield as we have it now was Abner 
Briggs, a soldier, who served in ■ the war of 1812 in 
the Thirty-sixth United States Infantry. He died at 
his home in the township on the 20th of January, 
1870, in the seventy-third year of his age, having 
been a resident of the county for more than fifty 
years. His descendants still reside there. 

The Pollock family was an old family here, and 
one which produced several men who in their day 
were representative men. John Pollock, Sr., was one 
of the county justices early in commission. He was 
a member of the Assembly -for several terms, and was 
an active officer in the militia and frontier service. 
In 1812 he was a candidate for Congress against 
Findley, but his party was in the minority in this 

district. 

SCHOOLS. 

The observations made on the school history of 
Fairfield township prior to the establishment of the 
common system must necessarily include the town- 
ship of St. Clair, for until the year 1856 St. Clair 
was a part of Fairfield. 

The earliest elementary schools were all subscrip- 
tions, being obtained by teachers in the same way that 
schools of like character are now secured. Among 
the first teachers was William Luther, well known to 
the older people as " Master Luther," and " master" 
he was, using the birch ruthlessly on large and small, 
so that his reputation as a successful pedagogue has 
continued down to our own time. Other early 
teachers were Mr. Elder, S. Kennedy, and D. Hutch- 
inson. Quite a number of elementary schools were 
taught by women teachers in vacant tenant-houses 
throughout the township. There was but one regular 



school-house in the township when the present school 
system went into operation. This was built in 1820, 
and was used as a school-house for several years after 
the school system went into effect. The school law- 
was adopted in 1835 without much opposition. In 
what now constitutes Fairfield township there were 
seven schools ; now there are twelve districts and 
thirteen schools. 

For a number of years there has been in West Fair- 
field village a select school or preparatory academy 
taught. This school has been praised by the super- 
intendents of the county repeatedly for the good work 
done for the schools of the township, and for the stim- 
ulus it has given in that whole neighborhood to the 
cause of popular and free education. 

FAIRFIELD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

One of the oldest and most historic landmarks in 
all Ligonier Valley is the church and churchyard of 
"Fairfield." The history, antiquities, and memorials 
of this church include far more than the history of the 
congregation, and a complete history of that congre- 
gation would go far towards being a history of the 
lower part of the valley. 

The first record iu regard to the congregation of 
Fairfield is an application for supplies on Oct. 7, 
1786. April 21, 1787, a joint call was put in for 
Donegal, Wheatfield, and Fairfield for a Rev. James 
Hughes. It was not successful. Probably about this 
time a tent for the accommodation of the preacher 
in inclement weather was erected. This was on the 
right hand on the road going down from the present 
church, while on the left hand stood a round-logged 
house. The house was used for service in wet weather 
or in the winter season. When the preacher preached 
in pleasant weather he was screened by the tent, while 
the people stood in the woods outside or sat ou rude 
benches. 

This small house came to be known as the " study- 
house," because the preacher remained in it before 
the services, and came out to preach just before the 
services began. In it were probably held the sessions 
when occasion called. 

Both of these structures remained till about 1825. 
As early as 1790 or 1791 was erected a neat oblong 
house of hewed logs, three in length, with the centre 
division projecting three feet outward on each side. 
A tall pulpit of unpainted poplar, seven steps high 
in the preacher's division, and five steps in the nar- 
rower one in front, for the precenter, or " dark," as 
he was called, occupied the back projection, and was 
surrounded on three sides by a paneled quadrangle 
called " the square." Along the front of it passed 
the communion aisle, extending between the two end 
doors, and a short aisle led from the square to the 
front door in the opposite projection. For a long 
time the seats were such as a family chose to make 
for itself, and many of them of hewed timber. About 
1815 a few families in three of the corners and in the 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



571 



front projection got paneled poplar unpainted pews. 
About 1832 the house was weatherboarded, painted, 
and pewed more regularly. Thus it remained, a cher- 
ished memorial of " the olden time," the last of its 
kind in all this region, till 1867. 

The church continued to get supplies from 1786 
until 1792, when it called and secured Rev. George 
Hill as its first, pastor. This occurred April 17, 1792, 
about four months after he had been licensed to 
preach. At the ordination of Mr. Hill, Nov. 13, 
1792, Rev. Samuel Porter preached the sermon, and 
Rev. James Power gave the charge. 

At the time Mr. Hill took charge of this church it 
extended a distance of about thirty-five miles, from 
the village of Mansfield in the upper end of the val- 
ley to Killen's mills on the Black Lick, three miles 
beyond Armagh. The width of these bounds varied 
from eight to ten miles. This church at that time 
had one-half of the pastor's time, Donegal about 
one-third, and the remainder was given to Wheatfield, 
at a point somewhere between Nineveh and Armagh. 
About six years after the commencement of this pas- 
torate Wheatfield was given up, and never had a pas- 
tor again until Armagh took its place in the same 
bounds. Donegal continued to be part of the charge 
until about 1817. Difficulties arose between pastor 
and people, Donegal was dropped from the charge, 
and without much formality Ligonier sprang into 
existence, though not as a full organization. 

During Mr. Hill's lifetime the congregation ex- 
tended from Ligonier to Nineveh. He was a powerful 
man, both intellectually and physically, but the ex- 
posure and the strain incidental to a life devoted to 
his work in the severity of such a climate in time told 
upon him, and towards the close of his life his con- 
stitution became a wreck. He died June 9, 1822. 
In the vacancy caused by his death several appli- 
cants for the vacancy visited the charge. Among 
these was the celebrated Father Matthew Dunlap, so 
well known from the annals of the Blairsville Presby- 
tery, who, having a profound knowdedge of the Scrip- 
ture and ability of no ordinary kind, had likewise the 
most unbearable, boorish, and abhorrent manners. 
He was a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. He 
could not get a permanent charge in this country on 
account of his manners and habits. Besides, his 
sermons, prayers, and metres were too long. 

Rev. Samuel Swan appeared here in March, 1824, 
and preaching for some time and giving satisfaction, 
he received a call from the congregation, and was or- 
dained their pastor June 17, 1824. Rev. A. O. Pat- 
terson preached and Rev. Robert Johnson gave the 
charge. 

Mr. Swan was then in the twenty-fourth year of his 
age. In some respects he greatly differed from his 
predecessor, who incurred the displeasure of some of 
his congregation for his incessant manual labor; but 
Mr. Swan did not know anything of hard labor, and 
could not arrange a back log rightly, nor without great 



care or assistance saddle and bridle his horse. He 
worked with his head, and with this lie did good labor. 

! He worked with the most untiring energy throughout 
his charge until he met with an accident which 

I abridged his usefulness. In 1839 or 1840 by the 
upsetting of a wagon one of his limbs.was very seri- 
ously shattered, and this made it difficult for him to 
travel over a charge so extended as this one was, in- 
cluding the whole valley from Donegal to Nineveh. 
But while it was in contemplation to divide the 
charge Mr. Swan received a call to the church at 
Johnstown, which he accepted upon resigning his 
former charge, Oct. 5, 1841. 

The congregation was then supplied by Presbytery 
until the Rev. John Fleming, wdio had previously 
been a missionary among the Indians, received a 
call. He was installed June 17, 1843. Rev. David 
Lewis preached the sermon, Rev. Samuel Swan 
charged the pastor, and Rev. P. Hassinger the peo- 
ple. Mr. Fleming and his congregation not being 
congenial, he was released April 15, 1846. On May 4, 
1847, Rev. O. H. Miller was ordained and installed 
his successor. Mr. Miller was released Oct. 4, 1848. 
July 2, 1849, Rev. William Colledge was installed as 
his successor. This pastor, as well as his two prede- 

I cessors, preached at Union, West Fairfield, and Fair- 
field, which at that time constituted one charge ; and 
they resided at Union. Mr. Colledge was dismissed 

| April 13, 1852. Dec. 13, 1853, he was succeeded by 

' Rev. J. W. Walker. Mr. Walker was in manner and 
in temperament mild and amiable, and he remained 

i pastor here longer than any others that preceded him 
after Mr. Swan. During his pastorate the present 
house was erected, and on Jan. 17, 1867, was dedi- 
cated. 

Mr. Walker's feeble health induced him to resign, 
April 28, 1869. He was succeeded by Rev. William 
Cunningham, who was installed Feb. 15, 1871. 

Such is a continuous and a chronological though 
brief history of this church as the same bears upon 
its religious character. Owing to the habits of de- 
cency and order in which these early Presbyterians 
started out and which they have kept up to this day, 
each of their church organizations may have a com- 
paratively correct and full history gathered from their 
own records. For the above statement of facts we 
are under obligation to the " History of the Old Fair- 
field Presbyterian Church," by Rev. Alex. Donald- 
son, D.D., July 9, 1876, and to the " History of the 
Blairsville Presbytery," by the same gentleman. 

Among the elders of this church notice has been 
preserved of the following : ' 

Among the original elders was James Pollock, 
Esq., the father of Judge Pollock. James Pollock, 
when the psalmody was changed, passed over into 
the Associate Church, and was followed by part of his 

1 The data for the "secular" or lay history of the church are very 
meagre, for the admission of niemhers anfl the introduction of persons 
into the eldership were not recorded until a much later date. 



572 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



family. So also was James McCurdy, believed to be 
a brother of Rev. Elisha McCurdy, the first to enter 
the ministry from this church. Also James Steel, 
who lived in theConemaugh district, someTline miles 
from the church, but who, with his wife, was accus- 
tomed to attend regularly, riding all the way on 
horseback. Also James Gageby, " a little Irishman," 
who was a fervent man to pray, but who could sing 
only two tunes, one a long and one a short metre. 
In the days of his earthly pilgrimage he lived on a 
little run that flowed into Hendricks' Creek, on which 
every family was a Presbyterian except one, and they 
all maintained family worship and took part in social 
prayer. Hence did a wicked and godless generation 
call the stream " Hypocrite Run." James Gageby 's 
body is buried in Unity graveyard. Also James 
Wilson, "a modest man, never in a hurry, never ex- 
cited." He made it a rule to stop business at noon 
on Saturday in order to do up every thing that might 
interfere with his observance of the " Lord's day." 
He was the father of the first missionary that ever 
went from Blairsville Presbytery to a foreign field. 
Also Daniel Hendricks, granduncle of Hon. Thomas 
Hendricks of Indiana. Also John Caldwell, and 
Robert Piper, and Thomas Pollock, the latter being 
known as Judge Pollock, a man whose influence 
was not bounded by the limits of the valley; Joseph 
Ogden, who would not suffer persons to pass his house 
on Sunday on secular business without having them 
brought before a justice for violation of the law. 
Then there were Henry Hartman, John Gilmore, 
John Phipps, Hugh M. Skiles, William Robb, T. 
Pollock McCoy, John Love, Joseph Menoher, and 
Samuel Hartman. 

Rev. Donaldson, whose personal recollection of the 
customs and habits of the early people extended far 
back, related some interesting reminiscences on the 
occasion of his historical address above referred to. He 
says it was no uncommon thing to see persons walking 
a distance of nine miles every Sabbath day to church. 
The women almost universally walked in their bare 
feet, or in coarse shoes, carrying fine ones in their 
hands, and would sit down and make the necessary 
change before coming into view of the church. 
Sometimes you might see fifty of them all engaged in 
the process of changing their shoes. Before 1825 
there was not a single wheeled vehicle brought to the 
church. Between 1825 and 1830 a few " Dearborns," 
and perhaps one carriage, made their appearance at 
the church. But the masses came on foot. Old 
people and young men who wished to make a dis- 
play came on horseback, sometimes three and gener- 
ally two persons on each horse. On communion 
occasions the people from the extremes of the con- 
gregation, and also from Donegal, Ligonier, and 
Armagh, would come in great crowds. The most 
prominent figure at these meetings was that of the 
venerable Father Robert Campbell, of Donegal, who 
scarcely ever kept his seat in a religious meeting for 



five minutes without either himself speaking, singing, 
or praying, or calling on some one else to do it. He 
rarely spoke at length, but it was always to the point, 
and it had a powerful effect on all who heard. 

This church has had no stated supply, but seven 
pastors. Her ministerial sons are Revs. Elisha Mc- 
Curdy, Abraham D. Pollock, James Wilson, Alex- 

i ander Donaldson, George Hill, W. W. Wooden, W. 

i M. Donaldson, and John P. Kennedy, all, except 
the first, in the pastorate of Father Swan. Since his 

j day she seems as barren and as hopeless as good 
Naomi of old. 

UNION PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
was organized June 2, 1841, with forty-six members, 
all set off' from Fairfield to make with it a full charge. 
After the resignation of Rev. S. Swan, October 5th 
of that year, it has had the same pastors that served 
Fairfield, and for the same respective times, with one 
exception. Owingto the existence of difficulties, Rev. 
W. Colledge was dimissed from this church nine 
months before his release from Fairfield Church. He 
being excepted, all the pastors have resided in the 
village of West Fairfield, where this church is located. 
Joseph Kennedy, Dr. James M. Taylor, and William 
Peoples, Esq., may be specially mentioned among its 
elders. Having had five pastors, it never produced a 
minister. 



FAIRFIELD UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGA- 
TION OF LIGONIER VALLEY. 



Among the early settlers of Ligonier Valley were 
many of Presbyterian faith from Scotland and North- 
ern Ireland. Much deserves to be said of this people 
j concerning their integrity of character, devotion to 
principle, and ardent attachment to liberty and right. 
j The purpose of this sketch, however, is rather to re- 
| cord some of their efforts to maintain and establish 
that faith iu the New World which had cost so much 
hardship and fiery trial of persecution in the Old. It 
is to be regretted that in this formative period, when 
our ancestors were doing so much to establish the 
church of God in this almost unbroken wilderness, — 
a work for which generations yet unborn will rise up 
and call them blessed, — that so few records were kept 
from which a complete and satisfactory history could 
be made up. From such records, however, as are 
forthcoming, and from reliable information gathered 
from the unrecorded recollections of many who are 
still living, we can gather much that will be valu- 
able for all time to come. The first recorded facts re- 
garding the early efforts of the psalm-singing portion 
of this people to secure for themselves and for their 
children the ministration of word and ordinances ac- 
cording to their early faith, are gleaned from an ab- 
stract of the minutes of the Associate Presbytery of 
Pennsylvania, from which it appears that an applica- 
tion was made to said Presbytery for preaching in 
Fairfield township, Westmoreland County, as early as 
1775. Probably some of the pioneer ministers who 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



573 



had passed through this region two years previous, 
and whose principal labors were given to what is now 
known as Washington County, had done something 
to gather together some of these dispersed ones and 
possibly organized a congregation ; but the stronger 
probability is that the organization was not effected 
until about a.d. 1800. The names of the persons who 
made the first application for preaching cannot now 
be ascertained. About 1785, Robert Hamill, Esq., 
removed to Ligonier Valley, and as he had previously 
been connected with the Associate Reformed Presby- 
terian Church still clung to the church of his choice. 
As it began to be established in this section, on behalf of 
himself and others, he made application to the Second 
Associate Reformed Presbytery of Pennsylvania at a 
meeting held at " Loyalhauna Tent'' (at or near New 
Alexandria) in 1794 for preaching in Ligonier Valley. 
Accordingly Rev. James McKuight preached in the 
valley in May, and Rev. John Riddle (afterwards Dr. 
Riddle), who fulfilled a long and useful ministry near 
Noblestown, preached in July and November of that 
year, 1794. 

From this time up to the year 1800 frequent ap- 
pointments were made both in Donegal and Fairfield 
townships, they at that time embracing the whole of 
Ligonier Valley. 

The services conducted by the Associate Presbyte- 
rian ministers were held in a tent near what is now 
the house of W. T. Smith, one of the present mem- 
bers of session. 

The word " tent" does not give a very accurate idea 
in the modern acceptation of the kind of place in 
which the services were held. It was not the modern 
tent of poles and canvas covering, but simply a plat- 
form of logs for a pulpit, and logs laid by some con- 
venient plan for seating the people, and the dense 
shade of the forest was their protection from sun and 
storm. 

At about this time (1800) the Associate Presbyte- 
rian people and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
people and a number of families which came out 
from the Presbyterian Church were associated to- 
gether under the name of the Associate Presbyterian 
Congregation of Fairfield. They may never have 
been formally organized. Many of our older con- 
gregations have no means of learning of the cir- 
cumstances of their early birth, and have come to 
the conclusion that, like " Topsy," of " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" fame, " they were never born but just growed." 
This one may have sprung up in some such mysteri- 
ous way, and simply been recognized by Presbytery 
as having all the necessary features of a congregation 
and entitled to recognition. The Associate Presby- 
terian people were the most numerous, and had been 
the first to occupy the field ; their principles also con- 
tained all that the others contended for, and their own 
special testimony besides; all this gave them the pref- 
erence and the organization. They all clung to the 
Westminster "Confession of Faith," "Larger and 
37 



Shorter Catechisms," and the Scottish version of the 
Psalms, and accepting the Associate Presbyterian tes- 
timony, fell in with that body. Another circumstance 
had much to do with this decision. In the year 1800, 
.Air. Daniel McLain, a licentiate of the Associate Pres- 
byterian Church, was preaching for the Associate Pres- 
byterian people, and was recognized as a young man 
of considerable talent and very agreeable manners. 
As the question of changing the Scottish version of 
the Psalms for "Watts' Psalms and Hymns" was agi- 
tating the community to its depths, Mr. McLain was 
challenged by Rev. Mr. Hill, pastor of the neighbor- 
ing Presbyterian Church, to discuss the psalmody 
question as to the divine warrant for using only the 
Scripture psalms. Both were men of might. No 
doubt each felt the worth of the other, and well did 
each present his cause. " When Greek meets Greek, 
then comes the tug of war." Mr. McLain was a man 
of very winning speech, and very sociable with the 
people. Whatever may have been his power of logic, 
no doubt his genial manners had much to do with 
giving him popularity. He was successful in uniting 
all the parties attached to the Scripture psalms into 
one congregation under the care of the Associate 
Church. Within the next year a call was made out 
for Mr. McLain, and presented to the Associate Pres- 
bytery of Chartiers, which met at Buffalo, Pa., Nov. 
5, 1801. He felt constrained to decline the call, and 
afterwards settled as pastor of Shenango congrega- 
tion, in what is now known as Crawford County, Pa., 
where he spent a long and very successful pastorate. 

The first church session consisted of Hugh Hamill, 
James Pollock, Peter McHarg, and William Lemon, 
and under their care the first communion is supposed 
to have been held at "the tent" in August, 1802. 
Rev. Robert Laing and Rev. William Wilson offici- 
ated. 

At a meeting of Chartiers Presbytery at Chartiers 
Church, near Cannonsburg, Pa., Nov. 2, 1803, Rev. 
John Crec was appointed to preach to the congrega- 
tion in Ligonier Valley ; also to hold a communion and 
moderate in a call. Whether or not he moderated 
the call himself or not is not reported, but at the fol- 
lowing meeting of Presbytery, on Dec. 13, 1803, the 
call was presented for Mr. Cree himself. He was a 
native of Scotland, where he was educated and li- 
censed to preach the gospel. He labored for a time 
in New York City, and afterwards for a few years at 
Rockbridge, Va., after coming to this country. He 
now accepted the call from Ligonier Valley, and his 
time was equally divided between the congregations 
of Fairfield and Donegal, his home being in the 
latter congregation, on the farm now owned by Mr. 
Ferry, near the farm lately owned by George Marker 

There was yet no church-building in his time of 
ministry. The services were sometimes held in the 
house and sometimes in the barn of John Menoher 
father of the late James Menoher, Esq., and grand- 
father of Thomas Menoher, one of the present mem- 



h\ 






574 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. 



bers of session. The place of land on which the first 
church was built was a little below that on which the 
present church stands, and when the weather was fa- 
vorable services were held there in open air. It was 
near the spring. The pastor stood by a tree which was 
bent almost to the earth. This was his background, 
and before him, seated on logs placed in order, gath- 
ered the waiting congregation. Mr. Cree was a very 
worthy man and an acceptable preacher, but was 
" not suffered to continue by reason of death." His 
work was soon over, and his Master called him, 
"Come up higher." He was in the midst of pas- 
toral labor, holding an examination at the house of 
Hugh Hamill, one of the elders, in April, 1806, when, 
by a stroke of apoplexy, he was suddenly called to his 
rest, in the fifty-second year of his age and fourteenth 
of his ministry. 

The little band, without wealth, without a house of 
worship, and now without a teacher and leader, might 
well be discouraged ; but God was their hope, and 
they went forward in His strength. On the 1st of 
July following they presented to the Presbytery a 
petition for preaching and the dispensation of the 
supper. Preaching was regularly supplied. The 
moderation of a call was requested Oct. 28, 1807, 
which when made out was for Mr. Robert Bruce, 
afterwards Rev. Dr. Robert Bruce, of Pittsburgh, a 
very eminent and honored minister. As other calls 
were presented at the same time, this one was not 
accepted. In the latter part of February, 1814, a 
call was moderated for Mr. Jos. Scroggs, a licentiate, 
who had ministered to them in December, 1813. 

Mr. Scroggs was born in Cumberland County, Pa. 
When he was in his eighth year his parents removed 
to Washington County, Pa., from which home he was 
sent to Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pa., at 
the age of eleven, where he graduated with honor in 
1808 at the age of sixteen. He commenced the study 
of theology at once under the care of Dr. John An- 
derson, at Service Creek, Beaver Co., Pa. After four 
years of study he was licensed at Poland, Ohio, Oc- 
tober, 1813. After some time spent in travel in the 
East, where a call was made out for him in Ver- 
mont, he returned to Pennsylvania and accepted the 
call from Fairfield and Donegal congregations, and 
was ordained and installed before a large concourse 
of people at Fairfield Church, Oct. 14, 1815. The 
log church which had been built and partially finished 
during the time when the people were without a pas- 
tor could not contain the assembled congregation. 
The services were held at the door of the church, so 
that the concourse of people, both inside and out, 
might witness the impressive ceremonies. 

Mr. Scroggs was married, in May, 1816, to Miss 
Mary Hanna, sister of the late Rev. Dr. Hanna, of 
Washington, Pa. To them were given ten children, 
most of whom are still living. One son entered the 
ministry, and is now pastor of the United Presbyterian 
congregation of Madison, Pa. Mrs. Scroggs' health 



failed in the midtime of life, and she passed to her 
rest July 29, 1848. Mr. Scroggs was again married, 
in January, 1854, to Mrs. Nancy Hogg, of Canfield, 
Ohio, who still survives. Space will not permit any 
detailed description of the character and life-work 
of Rev. Scroggs. He was a man of thorough scholar- 
ship, keen intellect, and masterly use of language. 
His high moral character placed him above suspicion, 
and his earnest piety made his life to be a power for 
good wherever he was known. His steadfast adher- 
ence to principle, his opposition to all forms of evil, 
were such as control strong-hearted men in loyalty to 
the truth of God. While unbending in any case 
where moral principle was involved, he was every- 
where known as one of the most kind and tender- 
hearted of men. His nobility of life and clear, forci- 
ble, and at the same time earnest and entreating 
manner of presenting truth made one feel while en- 
joying his company or waiting upon his ministry 
" this is indeed a man of God." 

In his early ministry the church was in some of its 
parts awakening to the enormity of the evil of slavery, 
and he was in the front rank of the reformers. He 
dared to lift up his voice on behalf of the lowly 
when it cost something to do so. He presented a 
paper to the Associate Presbyterian Synod in answer 
to a protest against action taken by that body in op- 
position to slavery by six of its highly respected 
members, which is claimed by competent judges to be 
one of the ablest papers ever laid before a church 
court. 

When the union was about to be consummated be- 
tween the Associate and Associate Reformed Churches 
he for a time opposed the measure for worthy reasons. 
Before decisive action was taken, however, he grace- 
fully accepted the union, which was completed in 
Pittsburgh, May 26, 1858. 

In September, 1864, Westmoreland Presbytery met 
at Fairfield Church to celebrate the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of his pastorate. The exercises were most in- 
teresting and profitable. Addresses were delivered 
by Rev. Dr. Joseph Cooper, of Philadelphia, Rev. 
Dr. A. G. Wallace, and Rev. Dr. Alexander Donald- 
son, and a history was read by Rev. James P. Lytle, 
D.D., of Sago, Ohio, one of the sons of the congre- 
gation. He continued his labors as pastor from 
fathers to children and children's children to four 
generations, until, as the infirmities of age were creep- 
ing fast upon him, at a meeting of Westmoreland 
Presbytery at Turtle Creek, Sept. 2, 1872, he ten- 
dered his resignation, on the acceptance of which 
the Presbytery adopted very expressive and appro- 
priate resolutions. He continued to preach for the 
people occasionally through the following winter, 
and attended the spring meeting of Presbytery at 
Latrobe only a few days previous to his death. While 
attending to some domestic duties one evening he 
became thoroughly chilled, which prostrated him 
with a severe cold. His sickness was unto death. 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



575 



After lingering a few days, conscious of his wasting 
condition, on the 21st of April, 1873, he passed into 
his everlasting rest in the eighty-first year of his age, 
the sixtieth of his ministry, and the fifty-eighth of his 
pastorate. The congregation which had so long en- 
joyed his labors, and who were his spiritual children, 
erected the year following a beautiful monument, 
which stands in the churchyard as a tribute of their 
esteem and love. 

Let us glance briefly at the places of worship to 
which the people have in all these years been gather- 
ing. As we have already seen, no church building 
was erected until after the death of Rev. Cree. The 
arrangements for building had probably been made 
in part at least before his death, and, as near as can 
be ascertained, the first building was erected in 1807. 
It stood below the bury ing-ground ; the place can easily 
be pointed out even now. Before the erection of the 
church a small log house, about twenty feet square, 
was constructed near by, which sometimes was called 
the "study-house," the "session-house," or "school- 
house," according to the several purposes for which it 
was used. Its principal use was for school purposes. 
The fireplace was built in one side, with logs for 
jambs, lined with stones, built up in the form of mason- 
work. It took a back-log ten feet long. The window 
was made by cutting out a section of a log, and sticks 
reaching from the log above to the one below formed 
the sash. The stained glass used in the window was 
made by saturating paper in grease and fastening it 
over the opening. This preparation fitted it both for 
transmitting light and withstanding moisture. The 
seats were of logs hewed on one side and supported 
by legs. The desks were built against the wall, and 
the benches when drawn up to them turned the faces 
of all the pupils to the wall. The master, standing in 
the midst of the room, had easy access to unruly 
scholars when the rod was to be used. This house 
was in use in days when the philosophy that " lickin' 
and larnin' must go together," and the application of 
birch was very frequent. It was considered in place 
to administer something corrective at any convenient 
time, for if the victim did not need it then he soon 
would, and it was not best to let a good chance slip. 

Among the books in use there was, first of all, the 
Bible (this was the reading-book for young and old), 
the United States Spelling-Book, Goff's Arithmetic, 
and the Shorter Catechism. The first teacher was 
William Luther; after him were William and Joseph 
Elder, father and son. 

The church building had on each side three lengths 
of logs, the middle section being set a few feet farther 
out than the other portion of the wall, leaving a kind 
of recess on the inside, in which the pulpit was placed. 
The doors were made at each end of the building. 
The first services were held when there was nothing 
but the earth for a floor and logs for seats. All the | 
first churches through the county were without chim- i 
neys. To have fires made the place almost unendur- i 



able because of the smoke. Many of them remedied 
this by making fires on the outside, to which the 
people might go out and warm up. A floor, seats, 
and a pulpit were afterwards put in by a builder 
named Groovner. The seats had very high backs, as 
was the fashion in those days, or, as a young lady once 
humorously said, to keep the people from looking on 
vanity. The pulpit was very high, and reached by a 
long tier of steps. About half as high as the pulpit 
was a secondary one, into which " the dark" ascended 
and in due time rose up to lead the singing. There 
in an inclosure round about the pulpit sat the session, 
gathered near the minister. This brings us down step 
by step from minister to people. From all sections of 
the country between the Loyalhanna and the Cone- 
maugh they gathered here for worship. A very few 
had wagons. Many more came on horseback, at the 
rate of one, two, and three, and some say four, to a 
horse. Many more came on foot. Go to church they 
would. If they could not ride, they watched a chance 
and walked. Not wishing to appear in church bare- 
footed, they would hang their shoes upon their arm- 
until they came near the church, and then clothe their 
feet before entering the sanctuary. 

The present church building was erected in 1849. 
The building committee were Thomas Smith, David 
Hutchinson, Andrew Graham, Jr., John Pollock, and 
Col. John McFarland. Nathaniel McKelvey was tfie 
contractor, building the church for twelve hundred 
dollars. The brick were made and laid by David 
Brown. The building has been repaired and re- 
modeled several times since. The congregation has 
given of her sons to the ministry as follows : Rev. R. H. 
Pollock, D.D., long a pastor in Wooster, Ohio ; Rev. 
J. P. Lytle, whose life-work has been bestowed upon 
a congregation in Muskingum County, Ohio ; Rev. 
Andrew Graham, of Indianola, Iowa ; Rev. Joseph 
McKelvey, of Beloit, Kan. ; Rev. Joseph A. Scroggs, 
of Madison, Pa., and Rev. James D. Little of Elgin, 
N. Y. 

After the death of Rev. Dr. Scroggs the congrega- 
tion received supplies by appointment from Presby- 
tery. In August, 1873, Rev. W. H. Vincent, a licen- 
tiate, was sent to preach for them a few Sabbaths. On 
the 21st of October following the congregation had a 
call for a pastor moderated, which resulted in the 
choice of Mr. Vincent. He is the son of Rev. Dr. G. 
C. Vincent, president of Franklin College, Ohio; was 
educated at Westminster College, New Wilmington, 
Pa., from which he graduated in 1869. His theologi- 
cal studies were pursued at Newburg, N. Y., and Al- 
legheny City, with a post-graduate course at Edin- 
burgh, Scotland. He was licensed by the First 
Presbytery of New York, in New York City, April 
17, 1872. 

The call was presented to Presbytery in December, 
1873, and at the next meeting, April, 1874, the call 
was accepted and the charge of the congregation at 
once assumed. The ordination and installation took 



576 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



place at Fairfield Church, June 16, 1874, before a 
large assembly. 

The membership reported at the time the call was 
accepted was 112. Additions have since been made 
to the number of 110. The deaths and removals have 
been 62, leaving a net membership (April, 1882) of 
160, third in size in the Presbytery. 

When the present pastor accepted the call it was 
with the understanding that a preaching station 
should be established at Ligonier. Services were for 
a time held every third Sabbath in the Presbyterian 
Church, afterwards at times in the Lutheran and 
Methodist Churches, and finally in the upper room of 
the school building. In 1876 the erection of a church 
building was begun. The funds, amounting to $4200, 
were raised in all parts of the congregation, and many 
liberal gifts were bestowed by persons of other de- 
nominations. The church was built under the super- 
intendence of a building committee consisting of i 
Thomas C. Pollock, Myers C. Clifford, Hugh H. Lytle, 
James McElroy, Thomas J. Smith, and Frank L. 
Brown. Samuel Murdock, of Ligonier, was the con- 
tractor. The building was completed and formally 
and appropriately opened for divine worship in 
August, 1877. Rev. Dr. R. B. Ewing, of East Liberty, 
preached in the morning, and Rev. Dr. D. W. Collins, 
o/ Blairsville, in the evening. During about eight 
months in the year service is held every Sabbath j 
afternoon at three o'clock. A prosperous Sabbath- 
school of ten officers and teachers and sixty scholars 
meets every Sabbath afternoon at two, services in 
old Fairfield Church being held every Sabbath morn- 
ing. In the winter season two-thirds of the time is 
given to Fairfield Church, and one-third to Ligonier 
Church. The present members of session are William 
T. Smith, Thomas C. Pollock, .lame- McElroy, Wil- 
liam Little, Thomas Menaher, and Myers C. Clifford.' 

BOLIVAR BOROUGH. 

At the May sessions of the Court of Quarter Ses- 
sions for the year 1863 the petition of the "citizens 
of the town of Bolivar, Fairfield township," was pre- 
sented, in which it- was set forth that they labored 
under great inconvenience by reason of not being an 
incorporated borough. In the said petition the 
boundaries of the proposed borough were marked out 
and designated, and the petition ended with the 
prayer to be incorporated. On the 13th of May, 
1863, the petition was approved, and the application 
held over till the next term, under the act of As- 
sembly. 

Nov. 25, 1863, the court ordered that the judgment 
of the grand jury at May session, 1863, be confirmed, 
and ordered and decreed that, in conformity with the 
prayer of the petitioners, that portion of the town- 
ship of Fairfield including the town of Bolivar 
should be incorporated into a borough, under the 

l With thanks to the pastor, Rev. W. H. Vincent. 



laws of Pennsylvania, under the name and style of 
the borough of Bolivar, which was declared to be a 
separate school district. It was further ordered that 
the first election for the several officers designated by 
law should be held at the office of D. Coulter, in said 
borough, on the 16th of December, 1863; that Ed- 
ward Coulter be appointed to give notice of said elec- 
tion, and that R. J. Glover should be judge, and A. 
P. Dushane and G. D. Berlin should be inspectors. 
The first elections were held at the office of David 
Coulter until the fall of 1870, when the court on 
petition directed them to be held at the school-house 
in the borough. 

The population of Bolivar in 1880 was three hun- 
dred and seventy-eight. It is situated on the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad, and is a railroad town, — that is, a 
town which owes its existence and its business pros- 
perity to the railroad. It was, however, a village in 
the times of the flat-boat navigation of the Cone- 
maugh, and in the time of the canal. 

The town is laid out like all such modern towns 
are, in the checker-board fashion, the streets crossing 
each other at right angles. 

The chief business interest in the place is the pro- 
duction and manufacture of fire-brick from deposits 
of fire-clay which lie next the Concmaugh River. 
There are at present four companies engaged in the 
manufacture of the clay. The chief market for this 
production was created by the necessities of the coke 
business, as the fire-clay brick are the only ones which 
can be used in the ovens in which the coke is charred, 
or in the furnaces in which iron ore is smelted. These 
establishments are now run at their full capacity. 
More than a hundred men are engaged in the work. 
Above twenty thousand tons of clay are worked up 
here annually, and some two thousand tons shipped. 
Coal also exists in great quantities, but has not yet 
been sufficiently developed in this locality to add to 
the business interests of the place. 

There is a grist-mill and permanent saw-mill on 
Tub-Mill Creek, a stream which flows into the Cone- 
maugh on the western side of the town. This stream 
took its name from the fact that in very early times 
a tub-mill was erected on its banks, which remarkable 
occurrence gave name to the stream for all time. 
There are also some four or five retail stores within 
the limits of the borough, and a church owned by the 
Methodist Episcopals. The burying-ground is on the 
western boundary line of the borough. There are 
also two hotels, and a public hall attached to another 
building, which the public make use of on needful 
occasions. 

WEST FAIRFIELD VILLAGE. 

The village of West Fairfield is situated on the 
eastern side of the township, on the Johnstown road 
from Ligonier, and at the distance of about four miles 
from Bolivar Station. It is a small village, containing 
a population of one hundred and nineteen. Although 
the first settlers there clustered together about the 





a 



t <7 





f /7 6ns2 2 ^d. 



FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP. 



577 



churches which had been first erected there, then in 
the country, and about a store which had been estab- 
lished later, and that without any regard to regularity 
of arrangement or convenience of access, yet now 
the several streets and alleys have been opened, and 
the lots arranged in such order that it is evident the 
aspirations of the inhabitants are fixed boroughward. 
The United Brethren, the Methodists, and the Pres- 
byterians have each a church here; and there are two 
tastefully kept graveyards, in one of which are many 
old graves. It has a school-house, two stores, and two 
physicians reside here. 

Lockport village is a station on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad. The population is one hundred and five. 
It was a village in the days of the old canal, and at 
this point the western division of the canal crossed 
the Conemaugh (whence the name of Lockport), on 
a beautiful cut-stone aqueduct, plainly seen from the 
railroad, standing as a monument to the enterprise 
of the past, the canal itself being abandoned. Works 
are in operation for the manufacture of fire-brick and 
gas retorts, employing some fifty hands. Coal is mined 
in the vicinity, but only for home consumption, as no 
competing market has been opened for the trade of 
that mineral. The village is regularly laid out in 
streets and lots, which are named and numbered. It 
is situated in a bend of the Conemaugh, which touches 
the boundaries of the village on the north and on the 
south. As in all the small station towns along the 
railroad, quite a number of railroad employes make 
their homes here, and reside in houses which they 
themselves own. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



COL. GEORGE H. COVODE. 

Prominent among the gallant sons of old West- 
moreland is the name of Col. George Hay Covode. 
He was born at Covodesville, Pa., on the 19th of 
August, 1835, being the oldest son of Hon. John ! 
Covode, whose character and attainments are fully 
given elsewhere. From his youth he was noted for 
his size and strength, and when only seventeen years 
old weighed two hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
Being tall and well proportioned, raised on a farm, 
and accustomed to out-door exercise, he was pecu- 
liarly fitted for the hardships of military life. At 
fifteen years of age he left home and entered Ligonier 
Academy, where he remained some time, and thence 
entered the graded school at " Elder's Ridge," then 
under the supervision of the eminent scholar, Rev. Dr. 
Donaldson. Obtaining thus a thorough education he 
was well fitted for the active duties in the important 
life he was destined to lead. 

In July, 1853, he entered the mercantile establish- 
ment of Covode & Graham at Lockport, Pa. In the 
spring of 1856 the junior member of the firm, R. M. 



Graham, Esq., retired, and the firm was then known 
as Covode & Son. The congressional duties of his 
father required him to spend the greater part of his 
time in Washington, and the business of the firm was 
carried on almost entirely by the son. This business, 
together with that of being postmaster and agent for 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, occupied his time up to 
the breaking out of the Rebellion. 

In 1858 he was married to Miss Annie Earl, of 
Somerset County, who lived but a few months. In 
the spring of 1861, when the dark clouds of war were 
gathering over this country, he shaped bis business 
at home so that he might be able to enlist in the ser- 
vice of his country. Just as he was ready to enter 
tin- army he was married in Harrisburg to Bettie St. 
( 'lair liobb, a granddaughter of Gen. Arthur St. Clair. 
It might be supposed that the prominence his father 
had acquired in the civil affairs of the nation would 
insure for him an advanced position in the army; but 
this was not the case: for one of Hon. John Covode's 
leading characteristics while in Congress was that he 
refused to push any of his relatives for political or 
military preferment. Accordingly, with the assist- 
ance of Dr. George S. Kemble, Company D of the 
Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry was raised in Ligo- 
nier Valley, and the young merchant entered as a 
private. Out of respect to Hon. John Covode the 
new company was called the Covode Cavalry, but 
when they joined the regiment they were compelled 
to adopt the name, Company D of the Fourth Penn- 
sylvania Cavalry. At the election of officers for the 
company, without being a candidate, the unassuming 
private, Covode, was unanimously chosen as first lieu- 
tenant. 

The company with many others was stationed at 
Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, but was shortly trans- 
ferred to a camp near the Soldiers' Home at Wash- 
ington City, which afterwards was named Camp 
Campbell in honor of David Campbell, their colonel. 
Through a vacancy occasioned by the promotion of 
Capt. Kemble, Lieut. Covode was promoted to the 
captaincy. While at Washington this regiment did 
patrol duty. On the 12th of March, 1862, for gallant 
services Capt. Covode was promoted to major. They 
were very rapidly removed to the front. On the 31st 
of June the regiment took a very prominent part in 
the battle of Malvern Hill, and because of his brave 
and daring action Maj. Covode received very flatter- 
ing recommendations from Gens. McClellan and Por- 
ter. From this they marched via Williamsburg to 
Yorktown, and then on towards Washington, taking 
part in the Second Bull Run battle. 

After reaching Maryland the Fourth was under 
Gen. McClellan, in whose celebrated march Maj. Co- 
vode was stationed in front until they reached Fred- 
erick City, where his regiment was assigned to Gen. 
Averill's brigade. During the early part of the fall 
of 1862 the Fourth was encamped upon the north 
bank of the Potomac, near Hancock, Md., this being 



578 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



about the only season of quiet known in the military 
life of Maj. Covode. But he was not long allowed to 
rest. In the bloody battle of Kelly's Ford, in which 
it will be remembered that Gen. Averill gained over 
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee the first cavalry victory of the late 
war, the Fourth, under Maj. Covode, was the only 
regiment of Gen. Hooker's command which partici- 
pated. It is scarcely possible to form an idea of the 
battles in which a regiment of cavalry in a short 
time would engage, since it is well known in military 
circles that they are subjected to almost constant 
skirmishes. It was so with the Fourth. Under their 
gallant major they won a reputation at Kelly's Ford 
as one of the bravest of regiments, and were always 
called upon when a close combat was at hand. 

On his promotion his company presented him with 
a very fine and costly brace of silver-mounted pistols, 
one of which he lost in a charge in 1863, while the 
other is yet in the possession of the Covode family. 
After the presentation speech the major made the 
following reply : " My brave soldiers, I accept with 
real pleasure this testimonial of your kind regard for 
me. I shall always treasure these as tokens of your 
appreciation of my efforts to do my duty towards you 
as an officer and as a man. I can truly say that the 
feelings which prompted you to make this present are 
fully reciprocated. The knowledge of your regard 
shall sustain me in more strenuously endeavoring to 
increase your comfort and efficiency as soldiers. And 
when the time shall come that these pistols may have 
to be used, I hope we may be able to do our part in 
such a way that it will be a credit to old Westmore- 
land, and make her proud of Company D, Fourth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry. I know that wherever I am 
called to go with these you will bravely follow." 

Into the very thickest of many bloody battles he 
was called to go, and his soldiers never refused to 
follow him. In the battle of Antietam, the Seven Days' 
battle, in Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and many 
others he was present and never failed to perforin 
bravely his part, and when the invading army of the 
South crossed the boundary of his native State he 
followed it and acquitted himself nobly on the stormy 
field of Gettysburg. 

On one occasion, at Falls Church, he with but a 
few men was entirely surrounded, but dashing against 
the enemy he skillfully cut them right and left and 
opened. the way for his men to follow. He was a noted 
swordsman, and in the fierce thrusts of a hand-to-hand 
fight he had very few equals in the Northern army. 
It requires great personal courage and nerve to engage 
in a conflict of this kind, but it is the universal testi- 
mony of both officers and soldiers that he was a man 
who knew no fear. 

Wlu-n in battle it was his habit to ride in front of 
his men, and above the roar of conflict and the clash 
of arms was heard his voice cheering his soldiers on 
to victory. In camp-life he was jovial and good na- 
tured, and would at any time incommode himself to 



favor any soldier. It was his habit when a paper 
could be procured to gather the soldiers around him 
and read the news. In this he also excelled, and his 
soldiers all speak of his powers as a reader and a con- 
versationalist. On the 8th of December, 1863, he was 
promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and on the 28th of 
May following was made colonel. His death oc- 
curred in June, 1864, while in command of a brigade. 
A commission of brigadier-general was signed, and on 
its way to him, but he was never permitted to receive it. 
That Col. Covode was universally beloved by all his 
soldiers and officers is well shown by the tragic ac- 
count of his death, and the perilous adventure of the 
men who volunteered to rescue his dead body from 
the rebel lines. 

The story of his death can probably be better told 
by introducing the following touching letter, written 
to Mrs. George H. Covode by Gen. W. N. Biddle on 
the day following the death of her husband : 

" Headquarters Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, 
"June 20, 1864. 

" My dear Mrs. Covode, — It is niy painful duty to write yon of the 
loss of your hnsliand, our colonel, in the action of the 24th inst. In 
this great affliction I feel how entirely powerless are any human sym- 
pathies or condolences, even those as sincere and heartfelt as my own 
and my hrother officers, to whom your husband was endeared by his 
many kindnesses. Loving him as we did, we can understand and ap- 
preciate your greater loss, and hope that God may comfort you in your 
grief. There is little to be 6aid of the fight in which the colonel fell. 
Through the day there were no apprehensions of any serious engage- 
ment, and the colonel was in particularly good spirits. The morning 
was passed under a large shade tree with many officers, the genial spir- 
its of Col. Covode enlivening the whole party. Suddenly, about three 
o'clock, the enemy's whole cavalry corps It'll upon our brigade and soon 
commenced driving us rapidly back, we rallying from time to time and 
making a running tight of it. 

" Tour husband showed even more than the usual gallantry for which 
ho is distinguished, — perfectly cool and collected, encouraging our 
men, ami everywhere in the front of the battle, so much so that I re- 
monstrated with him on his exposing himself unnecessarily. Finally, 
at the fourth stand we made, he unfortunately mistook some of the rebel 
skirmishers for a part of our own regiment, and causing the Second 
Pennsylvania to cease firing, rode towards them, waving his hand to call 
them in. Discovering his mistake he turned to ride back to the line, 
but, alas! too late. A perfect volley was fired at him and he fell, his 
left arm being shattered and having a mortal wound through the iuies- 
tines. We ran to his assistance and carried him back to the woods, 
Sergt. Rankin, the first to reach him, being wounded badly and myself 
slightly as we carried the colonel oft the field. It was a perfect bail of 
bullets round us. With the deepest regret I write that all efforts to 
bring him entirely off the field failed. He was placed on horseback 
and brought to the rear of the lines of the First Brigade, which was 
to support us. The motion of the horse hurting him, and supposing 
that tb-re was time, a stretcher was rigged up on which he could lie 
down and he carried comfortably. Just as be was placed on it that bri- 
gade gave way, and the colonel refused to mount the horse again, order- 
ing all with him to leave him. One of our men captured near where 
he was escaped yesterday, and reports that the colonel died that same 
evening. From the nature of his wounds there is no ground for hoping 
the contrary. 

" He himself realized his position at once. Almost the first thing he 
said to me was, ' Oh, Biddle, I have my death-wound,' and when Col. 
Brinton tried to cheer him, telling him he would soon get over it, he 
said, ' No, colonel, I am shot through the stomach, and those wounds are 
always fatal.' He bore up most nobly, and met his fate with the calm- 
ness of a brave officer and Christian gentleman. He frequently asked 

to be left before he was, and it seemed that the hope of leaving s ■ 

message of affection to you enabled him to undergo as much as he did. 
We were unfortunately separated after fixing the stretcher for him. but 
Lieut. Paul was with him until so surrounded he had to right his way 



DONEGAL TOWNSHIP. 



579 



out. The hurry, rush, ami confusion were so great that no time was had 
to receive messages. His diary and some letters which fell out of his 
pocket I forward, together with letters that he was fated not to receive. 
I know nothing more, and regretting that there is no hope of his surviv- 
ing sorrow with you for his loss. May the Great Comforter give you 
strength to sustain you in this grief. 

" Very Bincerely your friend, 

"\V. N. BlDDLE." 

His brigade occupied the position of rear-guard in 
Sheridan's famous retreating raid across the country 
between the Chickahominy and James Rivers. The 
rear-guard in a retreat is well known to be a most 
important and dangerous position. From Bates' His- 
tory, vol. ii., pages 529-30, together with other records, 
letters, etc., we gather that the battle in which the 
gallant colonel fell was near St. Mary's Church, in the 
Chickahominy Valley, Va. Here a line of battle was 
formed in front of Gen. Hampton's entire corps. Gen. 
Gregg, the commander of the division, knowing his in- 
ability to contend with the overwhelming numbers of 
the enemy now so near them, sent message after mes- 
sage to Gen. Sheridan for reinforcements. These were 
all captured by the enemy, who were thus apprised of 
the weakness of the rear-guard. Knowing this the rebels 
determined upon an attack, which they made in a fear- 
ful manner upon the whole line at about three o'clock 
p.m. It was evidently their intention to capture the 
entire corps, which, however, being composed of the 
bravest and most daring of the dashing Gen. Sheri- 
dan's army, as might be expected, made a strong and 
determined resistance. Owing mainly, however, to 
the vast numbers of the enemy, the rear-guard was 
repulsed and driven back in scattering retreat. 

It was here more particularly that Col. Covode, re- 
gardless of his own safety, and evincing that daring, 
fearless nature which characterized his entire mili- 
tary life, was dashing up and down the line, exposed 
to the leaden hail of Hampton's army. In vain did 
he try to rally and reunite his scattered forces. From 
his youth he had been near-sighted, and perceiving 
on his right a squad of partly concealed men whom 
he mistook for his own, rode rapidly towards them, 
intending to form them within his own line of de- 
fense. Amid this scene of blood and carnage the 



patriotic colonel was pierced by rebel bullets, which 
on the following morning proved fatal. Thus in the 
raging conflict, while nobly fighting at the head of his 
men, was cut down one of the most promising officers 
of the Union army. His soldiers gathered quickly 
around him, and after conveying him, much against 
his will, for about three miles, were overtaken by the 
advancing army, and were forced to leave him, as he 
requested, in the hands of the enemy. The rebels 
took from him his clothes and other valuables and 
left him on the field to die. Fortunately he fell into 
the hands of a colored family, consisting of an old 
man and his wife. They cared for him kindly until 
the next morning, whenhedied in great agony, mainly 
from the effects of the wounds in the stomach. He 
was buried, and his grave marked by the colored 
friends who ministered to him in his last hours. 

A few days after his death his father, Hon. John 
Covode, went in search of his body, but found the 
Union army so far retreated that his grave was miles 
within the rebel lines. A company of four of his old 
regiment, consisting of Lieut. J. C. Paul, of Company 
C, of Apollo ; Sergt. Henry Green, of Leechburg ; 
Corp. Samuel King, of Kittanning; and Private A. 
Martin, of Company D, of Lockport, volunteered to 
cross the lines and search for his remains. Under 
cover of the night they passed around the army, 
and so far penetrated the rebel domain as to find his 
grave. They returned safely, having gone about 
forty miles. The next night Gen. Gregg ordered a 
party of thirty, provided with an ambulance-wagon, 
to go out and bring in his body. This party, com- 
manded by Capt. J. C. Paul, successfully accom- 
plished the task assigned, and returned to the Union 
lines with the body without having been molested. 
Mr. Covode took charge of his son's remains, and 
brought them home for interment in the old family 
burial-ground at West Fairfield, very near Ms old 
home. Thus in a quiet and elevated spot, overlook- 
ing three beautiful valleys which wind in either di- 
rection to the mountains beyond, he sleeps, within 
the same community through which he wandered and 
played but a few years ago when a mere child. 



DONEGAL TOWNSHIP. 



Donegal was the name given to one of the sub- 
divisions of the county when it was divided into 
townships by the justices at the sitting of the first 
court at Robert Hanna's in the early part of the year 
1773. It was also the designation of that part of the 
country in the township divisions of the same when 
it belonged to the jurisdiction of Bedford County. 



As a township of Westmoreland it was bounded as 
follows : 

"To begin where the line of Fairfield township intersects the couuty 
line, and to run along that line to where the Youghiogheny crosses the 
same ; thence down the north side of the Youghiogheny to the top of 
Chestnut Ridge; thence along the top of the said Chestnut Ridge to the 
line of Armstrong township; thence up the Loyalhanna to the mouth 
of the Big Roaring Ruu ; and thence up the said run to the place of 
beginning." 



580 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



It will readily be observed that the limits or bound- 
aries of the original township bore little resemblance 
to those of it now, they being of much greater extent 
than they are at present. The township then really 
embraced a great portion of Ligonier Valley, and 
besides including for the most part the area it now 
does, it likewise included a great portion of Cook, and 
that part of Ligonier Valley which lies between the 
Loyalhanna and the Chestnut Ridge. It was thus 
the actual township of much of that historic ground 
about Fort Ligonier, and all the old history of Cook 
— as indeed of that whole end of the valley — belongs 
to the early history of Donegal. But to follow out 
the plan which we have adopted in our sketches of 
these political subdivisions, and thus localizing them, 
we shall treat only of the township as it exists in its 
limits of to-day, and as we are familiar with it. 

The first officers elected by the people were John 
Cavenot (probably an ancestor of the Cavens), con- 
stable ; Samuel Shannon and Edward McDowell, 
overseers of the poor; George Glenn, supervisor. 

The first curtailment or alteration in its territorial 
limits was at the formation of Fayette County, shortly 
after the end of the Revolution, when that part of 
the township south of its present boundary line and 
within the limits of the new county was stricken off 
with it. The last township taken from Donegal was 
Cook, in 1855. 

DESCRIPTION. 

Its present boundaries are as follows : On the north 
by Cook township, on the east by the Laurel Hill, 
the eastern boundary of the county, on the south by 
the Fayette County line, contiguous to Salt Lick 
township therein, and on the west by Chestnut Ridge. 

Like all parts of the valley, the two sides touching 
the mountain ridges on the east and west are rocky, 
abrupt, and hard to farm. Along the centre and 
about the bottoms of the streams the surface is more 
even and level, and here the soil is generally fertile 
and well adapted to light farming. In this occupation 
are the inhabitants mostly engaged. The lumber 
business, however, in the more hilly parts of the 
township furnishes employment to those who reside 
there, and to those engaged in marketing and sawing 
it it is ordinarily profitable. Of the timber here there 
is yet large quantities of it growing, and it may be 
many years before the people inhabiting there shall 
feel or suffer any want from its scarcity. 

It is well watered by fine streams, the principal 
ones of which are Indian Creek and Roaring Run in 
the eastern and southern portion, and the Four-Mile 
Run in the northwestern part. The first two flow 
southward, and uniting pass into the Youghiogheny ; 
the other one flows northward into the Loyalhanna. 1 

The turnpike from Somerset to Mount Pleasant 
and thence to West Newton passes through the town- 



1 It ia evident that tlie " Roaring Run" which marked one of the 
lioundaries of the original township, "as flowing into the Loyalhanna," 
is not now generally known by that name. 



ship from east to west. On this was located the 
borough of Donegal and the village of Jones' Mill, 
both of them very old points, and identified with the 
after-pioneer history and annals of the township. In 
the old days this road was much traversed. Hence 
it was kept in good repair, and to this day shows evi- 
dence of the cost and labor expended in its construc- 
tion. The Valley road from Donegal borough to Ligo- 
nier, by way of Stahlstown, is the highway for ingress 
and egress for the lower part of the valley, and to it 
many other roads from all sides go. 

An idea of the natural resources of this section of 
country north of Jacobs Creek, along the proposed 
route of a much-talked-of railroad, may be had from 
the report of its engineer : 

" It would not be amiss to speak a word about the wealth of the conn- 
try through which the road passes. 

"Coal, — There will be found in the mountains, on the line of the road, 
all the veins of coal of the lower coal measures. The principal of these 
arc the Upper Freeport, six feet thick; Lower Freeport, three feet; 
Kittanning, four feet; and Clarion, four feet. All uf these are mined 
at the places from whence they take their names. Besides these there 
are many smaller seams. The Upper Freeport is found in the top of 
the mountains, and the Clarion in the creek some distance bt-bw ibe 
falls. The lie of this coal is such as to be favorably mined on the line 
of tin' road. For the first two miles the line of the road lies in the 
Conncllsville coal region, the properties of which coal are so well known 
as to require no word of praise. There is probably not a mile of Ibe 
mail \\ birh iloes not pass through either the upper or lower coal meas- 
ures. 

" Pire-Clay. — The mountains are well noted for the abundance of fire- 
clay, in fact, it exists all through the Chestnut Ridge. The clay slong 
your route is of the same character as that of the Savage Fire-Brick 
Company, whose brick has obtained a wide reputation with furnace- and 
oven-builders. 

"Limestone. — There are several large veins of limestone between 
Mount Pleasant and Donegal. One vein, which will be about on the 
same level as the giade of the road, is twenty-five feet thick. This 
limestone i- of an excellent quality, as indicated by the crystals of cal- 
i ite found existing through it in large quantities. Parties interested 
in tin- mad have tested this stone in several way-, and it was found 
equal to any in the county. It may appear foolish to state that it is in 
this vein that American marble occurs, as pointed out by Dr. King, the 
geologist, of Greensburg, or that on the crystals of calcite traces of lead 
have been discovered, which may yet lead to some large pocket rich 
enough to mine. 

" Sand. — At White Rock, on the Pittsburgh, Washington and Baltimore 
Railroad, a large business is carried on by the shipment of sand. The 
same stone exists on the line of your road. About three miles off the 
line ia an excellent quality of flint glass sand, and it is undoubtedly 
true that more of it may yet he found on Jacobs (ink. 

" Building Stones. — These exist in large quantities and in almost every 
part of the mountains. A large portion of them are freestones. All 
aregoodfor foundations, or dressed are suitable for ornamental archi- 
tectural work. Stones are so plenty on the line of the road that ballast 
will not cost the company more than what it is necessary to pay for 
breaking them. 

11 Iron Oie. — About eight and half miles from Mount Pleasant, on the 
>iii vey line, is the site of the old Mount Pleasant Furnace. It had in its 
day a reputation, and was, I understand, a paying investment, but the 
strong competition caused by railroad transportation was not to he over- 
come hy wagons, and its stack stands to-day a monument of richness of the 
country. With a railroad passing through it, with its ore, with its coal 
adjacent to its ore ready to be coked, there is no country richer in min- 
eral wealth. There are four kinds of ore found in the Ridge, namely: 
kidney, red shale, fossiliferous, and bog. The latter of these is said to 
contain is:! 1 ; , per cent, of iron by an experienced person. The kidney, 
according to the word of an eminent analytical chemist, contains 50 per 
cent. Nothing better is needed, as an ore of that quality will take iron 
men by surprise. The amount of ore isimmense, and is only surpassed 
hy the quantity of coal. 



DONEGAL TOWNSHIP. 



581 



"Timber. — At first Bight this is most Abundant of all the objects of 
wealth. Along the creek Ihere is enough timber to place ties on ten 
thousand miles of railroad, and leaving enough for supplying tli" same 
with telegraph poles. No tine estimate can he formed of the actual a mount 
of timber on the line. Beech, maple, white-oak, anil poplar exist in 
abundance, and with them rock oak for tall bark, which may be said to 
be almost inexhaustible." 

POPULATION. 
The last tabulated return of the population of the 
township (1880) puts it at twelve hundred and forty- 
two, which does not include the borough. There 
are two post-offices therein, namely, Donegal, Jones' 
Mills. There is but one borough incorporation, — 
Donegal. 

OLD SETTLERS. 

Andrew Keslar's father came from Germany, and 
brought with him his son Andrew, then but seven 
years of age, and first settled in Maryland. Andrew 
moved to Donegal township in 1796, and till his death 
occupied the land which he opened out and culti- 
vated, and on which he raised his family. One of 
his sons, George, bought land across the line in Fay- 
ette County. Another of his sons is the present An- 
drew Keslar, now living in Donegal borough. He 
was born in 1801, and has passed a long and useful 
life near the borough and in it. 

There is an interesting report of a hunting-match 
in Donegal township printed in the Gazette, July 11, 
1823. As a memorial of the sport and one of the 
pastimes of our ancestors, and as preserving the names 
of some of the settlers to the manner born, we give it 
here : 

"There were seven men on one side, or company, as it was called, and 
six on the other side. Lewis Hays was captain of one company, and 
had M. Palmer, A. Howard, II. Huffbrd, John Gay, M. Hays, Jr , and J. 
Weimer. J. Poarch was captain of the other company, and his men 
were George Hays, T MeC'nllongh, J. Barclay, M. Hays, and P. Stairs. 

" As the result of the hunt the first company killed 5 foxes, 19 Ground 
Hogs. 285 squirrels, 139 gray squirrels, crows, 2 Hawks, 1 owl, 73 
Blackbirds.a grand total of 618. 

"The otlier party killed I fox, 14 ground Hogs, 256 squirrels, 112 gray 
squirrels, 8 crows, 5 Hawks, 1 owl, 93 Blackbirds, in all 557. 

" P. Stairs bagged 123 squirrels, and of all kinds of game 173." 

DONEGAL BOROUGH. 

The village of Donegal dates from the early part 
of the century, and it was a convergent point for the 
whole of the upper part of the valley for training- 
days, for rifle-matches, for village sports, and for 
store and mail purposes in the days when men who 
are now old were young. Its situation on one of the 
great highways which was daily traversed by mail- 
and passenger-coaches, by the lumbering six-horse 
wagons, and by the droves of cattle and hogs from 
the West, made it a desirable location for the tavern- 
keeper, the blacksmith, the wagon-maker, and the 
country store-keeper. Hence, after the business was 
diverted from the old roads, such as these, the pros- 
perity of the place was retarded, and the business of 
the place was left dependent on those of the village, 
or of the immediate neighborhood. 

The boundaries of the borough are set forth in de- 



tail in the petition of the inhabitants for incorpora- 
tion as a borough. The petition is as follows: 

"The petition oftliu undersigned citizens of Donegal township in said 
county (of Westmoreland) and residents of the village of Donegal and 
within the boundaries hereinafter mentioned, being a majority of free- 
holders in the limits aforesaid, Respectfully represent, That they are 
desirous of being incorporated into a body corporate and politic under 
the name, style, ami title of the ' Borough of Donegal,' to include and 
embrace all the lauds and persons residing therein, with the following 
limits and boundaries, viz.: Beginning at a post, thence by lands of 
Samuel Roadniau's heirs north 61 degrees, east 21 perches to a locust, 
north 40 1 ., degrees east 17^ perches to a locust, thence by land of 
Henry McKevau north 1"2 { ';, perches to a post north 41l 4 degrees west 
28 perches to cherry north 40 degrees west 84 perches toa post, thence 
by landsof Edward Ringler, south 44V^ degrees west 86 perches to a post, 

thence by landsof Mary A. Kestler south 37 degrees west 2:1,',, perches 
to a post, north la] j degrees west 54 perches to a post, thence by land of 
Samuel Fligor south 4 degrees west 15 perches to a chestnut, thence by 
lands of C. Hubb's heirs south 20 1 ., degrees west 32 ,',, perches to a pine 
oak, south t'J degrees east 54 pet dies to a chestnut, thence by hinds of 
John Walter north C8f^ degrees east 70 perches to a post, thence by 
landsof H, M. Millhotl and John Gay's heirs south 35$£ degrees east 
34 T 5 perches to a post, thence by lands of Eli Keslar, north 50 degrees 
east 33 perches to a post, south 36% degrees east 56 perches to a post, 
south 39 degrees east 19^% perches to a white oak, by lands of William 
Logan south 5V/2 degrees east 4l T n j perches to the beginning." 

William R. Hunter, Esq., made affidavit on the 
13th of May, 1807, that the petition was signed by a 
majority of the freeholders residing within the limits 
of the proposed borough. On the 13th of May, 1867, 
the petition was passed on by the grand jury, who re- 
turn that the act of Assembly has been complied with, 
and they believe it expedient for the court to grant 
the prayer of the petitioners. On the 20th of August, 
1867, ordered and directed that the prayer of the peti- 
tioners should be granted, that the inhabitants within 
the limits designated should be incorporated under 
the style and title of the borough of Donegal, and 
designated the 20th day of September, 1867, as the 
time of holding the first election under their incorpo- 
ration, the election to be held at the house of Mrs. 
Nancy Hays in said borough. S. P. Hays was to 
give due notice of the time and place of holding the 
said election, Jeremiah Wirsing to be judge, and Ja- 
cob Gettemy and Eli P. Fry to be inspectors. The 
court also directed that thenceforth the borough 
should be a separate school district from and after 
the expiratiou of the current school year. 

Probably no gentleman has done more for Donegal 
borough in all things that go to moral and intellec- 
tual improvement as well as material advancement — 
which fact will be readily admitted by his neighbors 
— than William R. Hunter, Esq. This geutleman 
still lives, and can have the satisfaction in his own 
lifetime of seeing these evidences of a lengthy and 
exemplary life around him on all sides. He is now, 
and has long been, one of the foremost business men 
of the place. 

The population of the borough by the census of 
1880 is one hundred and eighty-three. It contains 
three churches, Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, aud 
Baptist, a public-house (but does not allow license), 
and two stores. 



582 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



JONES' MILL, 
post-office and village, takes its name from the mill 
that was in the ownership of the Jones family from 
a date prior to the beginning of the century. It is 
situated in the southern part of the township, near 
the line, on Indian Creek, and near the western base 
of the Laurel Hill. The turnpike which passes 
through Donegal east and west also passes through 
this village. There has been from time immemorial 
a public-house kept here, which always, with the ex- 
ception of local option times, also dispensed liquors. 
This is the only licensed house in the township. 
The place has been of late years much frequented by 
persons of ease, who stay there during the summer 
months to fish in the mountain streams for trout, to 
hunt in the woods, and to partake of the healthful 
and palatable cookery of that mountain region. 

Some years ago an effort was made by a company 
of sporting gentlemen of the county to breed trout 
in some large artificial ponds and basins built for the 
purpose, and situated near the top of the Laurel Hill, 
but the effort was abandoned after having been pro- 
nounced inexpedient. 

The village of Jones' Mill contains, besides the hotel 
mentioned, a grist- and a saw-mill, a store, and several 
shops, but the religiously inclined portion of the com- 
munity, outside of those who hold to the Methodist 
communion, have to go a distance of several miles to 
church, or wait for "bush-meeting" in summer, or 
" supplies" in winter. The Methodists have a church- 
building to the left side of the road going up the hill, 
about half a mile from the mills. 

CHURCHES. 

The religious preferences of the first settlers in this 
part of the Valley were Presbyterian, and they early 
had churches and congregations established on either 
side of Donegal township up and down the Valley. 
The churches of Tyrone and Laurel Hill were on the 
Fayette side, and the Old Donegal — now Pleasant 
Grove — Church was on the Ligonier side. Of this 
church we have in the history of Cook township in- 
serted an extended account. Historically it belongs 
to the name and the township of Donegal, but politi- 
cally to that of Cook. At these churches did the 
early settlers of this part attend. 

A later generation, however, brought innovations, 
and in the latter part of the last, and through the 
beginning of the present century, the Methodist 
itinerants, full of the energy and piety of a new or- 
ganization, carried their version of the gospel all 
through these parts, had many converts, and estab- 
lished some congregations. Then followed the Bap- 
tist and Lutheran organizations, who theretofore had 
not been in sufficient number to form congregations. 
Among the inhabitants of the township nearly all 
denominations are represented, and nearly all beliefs 
avowed. The Dunkards have from early times kept 
up their organizations in the region in which the 



three counties of Westmoreland, Somerset, and Fay- 
ette touch each other. It is believed that they, as a 
body, are weakening in numbers, and losing their 
distinctive characteristics. 

Among the first settlers there were many of Ger- 
man nativity who held' to the Reformed doctrine. 
These were occasionally visited by the Rev. Weber, 
the pioneer clergyman of that denomination in 
Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Weber established a 
congregation at Donegal, which belonged to the 
Mount Pleasant charge, and of which some account 
may be found in the records of that charge. They 
were subsequently ministered to hy the successors of 
that eminent man, the Revs. Weinel and Voight, and 
latterly Rev. A. J. Heller. Mr. Heller stopped 
preaching at Donegal while he was pastor of the 
Mount Pleasant charge, — about the year 1870-72. 
This is the last account of any services held in this 
congregation. 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DONEGAL BOROUGH 

was organized June 14, 1834. The first pastor was 
the Rev. John P. Rockefellar, who not only here, but 
in different parts of the county, brought to his church 
many converts. He immersed many persons in the 
winter season, when the ice had to be cut to get to 
the water. John R. Lohr was the first deacon of this 
church. 

Two churches of Donegal township, a Methodist 
Episcopal and a Methodist Protestant, the former 
having a graveyard connected with it, are situated 
near the village of Stahlstown, Cook township. The 
road running through the village separates the town- 
ship. 

SCHOOLS. 

In giving a review of the common school system 
prior to the year 1834, when our system as we now 
have it went into legal and effective operation, James 
Silliman, Esq., the county superintendent at that 
date (1876) included the townships of Donegal and 
Cook together, for the reason that Cook was then in- 
cluded in Donegal, and did not have a separate town- 
ship organization until a much later period. 

Some time during the year 1801, the citizens resid- 
ing near Four Mile Run, in the northern part of the 
township, erected a school-house on the farm now 
belonging to the heirs of David Fiscus, deceased, 
and installed a teacher by the name of James Wilson. 
This was the first school-house of which we have any 
knowledge. Other houses were erected after that 
time, in different localities, and teachers employed. 
These schools were supported by subscription, the 
teachers generally being supported by the year. The 
houses were of the most primitive description, being 
built of unhewn logs ; the spaces between the logs 
were filled with clay, and either puncheon or earthen 
floors, slab seats and writing desks, and very poorly 
lighted, but pretty well " ventilated" from the spaces 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



583 



where the mortar dried and cracked ; clapboard roofs, 
with weight poles to hold down the boards, and a 
large fireplace, extending almost the whole length of 
the building. The teachers, also, were of limited 
education; if they could read, write, and "cipher" 
as far as the "single rule of three," and were adepts 
at thrashing the boys, they were considered competent 
to teach, or were called "good masters." 

Among the leading teachers at this time were James 
Wilson, Charles Johnston, James Alexander, James 
Henry, and others. The school-houses of the olden 
times were followed by more substantial ones, namely, 
Donegal, in 1818; Hays, in 1820; Stahlstown, in 
1821; Union, in 1828 or 1829,— this house having 
been built by citizens and members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and used as a place of worship on 
Sabbaths. Among the foremost teachers of this 
latter period were Hugh Larimer, Thomas Mathews, 
Thomas Johnston, and John McAfee. 

At the time the free schools went into operation in 
1834, there was a large number of the citizens of the 
township opposed to it, and at the first election for 
directors in 1835, Peter Keslar, James W. Jones, 
William Campbell, and Hugh Caven, all bitterly op- 
posed, and Dr. Thomas Richards - and Peter Gay, 
Esquire, favorable to the system, were elected. The 
majority of the board being opposed to the system, 
the operations of the law were crippled in the begin- 
ning. But these men, being law-abiding citizens, and 
men of intelligence, finally yielded to the requirements 
of the law, and laid the township off in sub-districts, 
levied taxes, etc. In 1838 there was a vote taken for 
and against the system, — the friends of the system 
carrying it by a small majority. Since that time op- 



position to the system has gradually diminished until 
the present time, and it would be difficult now to find 
a citizen in the township outspoken enough to oppose 
the present school law and system founded thereon. 
Among the leading teachers from 1834 to 1850 were 
David Bell, Thomas Johnston, Simon Snyder, William 
Fetter, and others. Among the prominent school 
officers were John Caven, W. R. Hunter, Esq., John 
Weimer, John Johnston, and others. 

Reading, writing, and arithmetic were about the 
only branches taught, the " Bible and Testament" 
being the text-books in reading. The examinations 
were very superficial. The superintendent's infor- 
mant told him that he well recollected the first ex- 
amination, in 1845. The examining committee gave 
him one example in simple interest, and the correct 
solution of that was all that was required. 

From that period up to the present time the pro- 
gress of education in the township has been onward 
and upward, and more especially since the office of 
county superintendent has been created. Among the 
leading teachers from 1850 to 1870, were Joseph N. 
Campbell, J. R. Bell, Dr. J. A. Weller (deceased), 
William Larimer, George Blackburn, J. W. Williams, 
George W. Weimer, and others. J. R. Bell is the 
oldest teacher in service in the township, having 
taught from 1845 to 1873, with the exception of a 
short time he resided in the West. Among the prom- 
inent school officers since 1850 may be mentioned 
John Johnston (now of Ohio), John Gay (deceased), 
J. W. Jones (deceased), Henry Snyder, W. R. Hun- 
ter, Esq., John Snyder (deceased), Jacob Hofl'er, Esq., 
Henry Keyser, Samuel Jones, H. M. Millhoff, Jacob 
Gettemy, and others. 



DERBY TOWNSHIP. 



The largest township in the county at this day, in 
respect of its population and in regard to it as a 
political division by itself, is the township of Derry. 

ERECTION. 
It was established as a township and organized by 
the Court of Quarter Sessions in April term of 1775, 
and was the first township erected within the county 
after the formation of the original ones. The neces- 
sity of its erection had not, however, grown out of a 
mere spasmodic emigration to within its boundaries, 
for there were inhabitants within its limits who had 
occupied their lands continuously from before the 
date of the opening of the land-office (1769). At the 
date of the organization of the county (1773), that 



part of Derry township lying next to Hempfield was 
more thickly settled in some portions than any other 
interior section of the same proportions within the 
county. 

THE BOUNDARIES 

were described by the court as follows : 

"Beginning at the Loyalhanna; thence along the line of Fairfield 
township till it strikes Blacklick; then along down Two Lick till it 
strikes Conemaugh; then down the said Coneniaugh till it strikes Kis- 
kiminetas; then up the Loyalbanna to the place of beginning." 

Thus the township of Derry, although it at the 
time of its erection was larger in extent than it is 
now, was but a very small portion of the township of 
Armstrong, out of which it was wholly taken. By 
the formation of Indiana County, which came down 



584 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



to the northern bank of the Conemaugh, and by the 
formation of the township of Loyalhanna on the 
Westmoreland side, which cut oft' the triangle be- 
tween the Conemaugh and the Loyalhanna, the limits 
of the township have been, as you will observe, greatly 
curtailed. 

The township is now bounded on the north by the 
Conemaugh, which separates Westmoreland from In- 
diana County ; on the east by the townships of Fair- 
field (north) and Ligonier (south), the line of which 
division is the Chestnut Ridge; on the southwest by 
the townships of Unity and Salem, marked by the 
natural boundary line of the Loyalhanna River; and 
on the northwest by the township of Loyalhanna. 

There are four incorporated boroughs in Derry 
township, namely, Latrobe, New Alexandria, Liver- 
more, and Derry. Besides these there are a number of 
villages, some of them deserving to rank as boroughs, 
and to have corporate privileges. Of these latter are 
New Derry, Bairdstown, Blairsville Intersection, and 
other hamlets or clusters bf houses, to which attention 
will subsequently be called. 

EARLY SETTLERS, ADVENTURES, AND HARDSHIPS. 

It is probable, but not certainly provable, that set- 
tlements were made in Derry township shortly after 
the formation of tbe old military or Forbes' road 
(1758), that is to say, some who have examined into 
the early annals of the settlement place some of the 
settlements so early as 1762, or previous to Pontiac's 
war. We are of the opinion that if there were any 
locations taken up previous to Pontiac's war, they 
were not occupied until but a very short period before 
the opening of the land-office, in 1769. 

Among the very first, if not the first altogether, of 
the settlers north of this road was John Pomroy, a 
man who was not only the first in respect to time, but 
who remained among the first men of the settlement 
in many respects until his death, nearly the space of 
a generation later. 

Pomroy had been raised a farmer in the Cumber- 
land Valley, where his father and some of his brothers 
lived'. They were of Scotch-Irish stock. Having 
heard of the large quantity of good rich land lying 
in this region after the occupation of the country by 
the army of Forbes, he made up his mind to leave his 
father's roof, and come out and occupy some thereof. 
He came by way of Ligonier Fort, where it seems he 
already had relatives and friends who were there 
under the shadow of the garrison. He did not choose, 
however, to remain there, but crossed over the Chest- 
nut Ridge, made the selection of a piece of land, 
erected a cabin, and took possession. 

Shortly after he came he had a visit from some 
passing Indians, who stopped as they passed him. It 
was not long either until a white man came to his 
cabin. This man was James Wilson, who afterwards 
became a neighbor of Pomroy, and who long after- 
wards, in a ripe age and full of quiet honor, died. 



This settlement' for all needful purposes may be 
designated by the village of New Derry. Pomroy 
having marked off his lands and Wilson having made 
choice of his tract, Pomroy assisted his neighbor in 
building his cabin. Their two cabins were about a 
mile apart, and they passed the nights alternately 
together. 

During that summer these two pioneers raised some 
corn and potatoes and cleared a small piece, which 
they sowed in fall grain, the seed for which they had 
to pack on their backs from Fort Ligonier. 

After they had killed some game and stored it away 
that they might get it in the spring, they set out for 
a trip to the east of the mountains, where their 
friends lived. 

They passed the winter in their respective homes 
there, and when the spring came they met by previ- 
ous agreement, and set out together for their settle- 
ment in Derry, then known only as the frontier of 
Cumberland County. 

On this trip they were accompanied by an Irish- 
man named Dunlap. He came out with the purpose 
of trading and bartering witli the Indians. He had 
received such favorable reports of the cupidity of the 
natives, and of the profusion of their skins and furs, 
that he conceived the notion that he could get rich 
more speedily this way by thrift than he could by the 
slow and burdensome life of a pioneer. His stoek in 
trade consisted of knives, brooches, beads, and other 
trinkets, but what he chiefly relied upon was a lot of 
rum, which he brought on the back of a horse. 

The pioneers found matters much as they had left 
them. There were some evidences of the Indians 
having been about, but yet there was nothing dis- 
turbed. Pomroy and Wilson went at work to shape 
up their plantation, and Dunlap " waited for custom- 
ers." 

The desired word having reached the Indians, it 
was not long until a party made their appearace at 
" Pomroy's Camp." They brought the furs and pel- 
try of the last winter's taking with them, and ap- 
peared to be in good " spirits" already for bartering. 
But when they got a taste of the rum they deter- 
mined to have a frolic. And in the relation of this 
commercial transaction we have an instance of a pe- 
culiar custom among the Indians, and one seldom 
mentioned. They having learned the effects of fire- 
water, had latterly established this custom, which 
they exercised here. Before giving themselves up to 
the debauch, they selected one of themselves, and 
him they vowed to sobriety for the time being, while 
the rest were drinking. All then that was left to be 
done or to do was to agree upon the price for the 
skins per canteen of rum. This was concluded at an 
exorbitant price and consequently great profit to 
Duncan. 

When they began drinking Duncan began diluting 
his rum with water, and, notwithstanding that for 
every canteen of rum taken out of the cask a can- 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



:,s.-> 



teenful of water was poured in, yet the Indians be- 
came drunker and drunker. Long before the middle 
of the night the party were all laid out, excepting 
one of a very robust constitution and the other one 
whose business it was to stay sober. This first one 
was now the only one able to come for liquor. This 
he now did in a demonstrative manner. He would 
come to the cabin, pounce against the clap-board 
door, make it fly from its rickety wooden hinges 
across the cabin floor, and with painted face and a 
fearful yell, a long knife in one hand, and an empty 
canteen in the other, confront poor, quaking, and 
trembling Duncan, shouting out loud, " ElMch" 
(meaning to say his name was Ellick), "stronger, 
stronger" (meaning that he was getting stronger and 
stronger), " more lam, more him." Dunlap supplied 
the canteen filled, and the otter skin was flung at him 
in return. This Indian was soon thereafter entirely 
helpless, and they were all with the exception of the 
watcher laid out. This state of insensibility con- 
tinued until the next evening. When they recovered 
they sobered up on rum weakened with water. The 
day following, being in better condition to do busi- 
ness, they disposed of all their stock of peltry, and 
retired into the forest. 

Duncan vowed that he would never go into this 
business " at first hands" again, but would resort to 
legitimate pursuits, and confine his mercantile trans- 
actions to within the pale of civilization. He had, 
however, come William Penn on them to very 
good advantage. Pomroy and Wilson escorted him 
through to Ligonier, 1 where he fell in with a safe 
convoy from Fort Pitt to the East. 

It is but proper to say that the recollection of Dun- 
can has been preserved in the families of both Pomroy 
and Wilson. 

The two pioneers, however, returned to their clear- 
ings, and devoted all their energies to breaking the 
soil. The second winter they returned to their old 
homes east of the mountains, and when they came 
back again each of them brought a wife. Pomroy's 
wife was Isabella Barr, the daughter of a neighbor in 
the Cumberland Valley, who subsequently migrated 
to Derry township, as well also as his two sons, James 
Barr and Alexander Barr, who were brothers-in-law 
of Pomroy, William Guthrie, Richard Wallace, and 
others. 

These two women were among the first to locate in 
Western Pennsylvania. They are said to have ridden 
out with the men while they were tracing the bound- 
aries of their claims, for the Indians were at that time 
numerous and very treacherous, although fur a length 
of time quiet. 



1 Although we do not assume responsibility' for ttie particulars in the 
account of Duncan's commercial venture, yet it may not lie far from the 
verities, and well serves tu illustrate one phase of border Hie. We see 
no reason to doubt the relation at it is substantially told. The credit is 
due to Jonathan K. Row, Esq.. a Deny man, in a contribution furnished 
many years ago to the Greerwburg Herald. 



George Findley early emigrated to the "Pomroy and 
Wilson" settlement, which, as we said, designated the 
whole region of whom the settlers were neighbors. 
It was probably before the treaty of 1768 that he se- 
lected the site now occupied by one of his descendants 
in East Wheatfield township, in the county of Indiana. 
He settled on this land merely by occupancy. He 
made a clearing, erected a cabin, went back regularly 
from time to time, and about 1776 brought his wile 
with him from Hagerstown, Md. He had repeatedly 
to seek the shelter of Fort Palmer or Fort Ligonier in 
the Valley, as these were more direct and easier to ap- 
proach from his location than Fort Barr or even Fort 
Wallace. 

Among those who were in the campaign of 1777 
with Washington, and who after that was one of the 
leading military men in AVestmoreland, was Samuel 
Craig, Sr. He removed with his family from Jersey 
into Westmoreland about the date of the opening of 
the land-office. He had purchased a large farm on 
the east side of the Loyalhanna nearly opposite 
where the Crab Tree flows into that stream. This 
was the old homestead farm. He and his three 
eldest sons, John, Alexander, and Samuel, all par- 
ticipated in the Revolutionary war. The life of 
the elder Samuel Craig was cut short. When he 
returned back to Westmoreland, where he took an 
active part in the defense of the frontier border, he 
was raised to several fiduciary appointments and of- 
fices of responsibility. Among others he held the 
trust of commissary. The duties of this office calling 
him to Fort Ligonier, he had frequently to go there, 
and on the last of these occasions he was- taken on 
the road. His horse was found on the Chestnut 
Ridge, between his home and this post. The horse 
had eight bullets in it; but all efforts of the family 
to ascertain the fate of Captain Craig were unavail- 
ing. 

The men of this family were, as we have said, 
among the first to enlist at the call for troops, and 
they thus suffered in common with their comrades in 
the campaign in the Jerseys. In one of the battles 
Alexander had a lock of hair cut from his head by a 
bullet from the enemy. On the night before the bat- 
tle of Princeton they slept on the wet ground. Alex- 
ander was not twenty years of age when he entered 
the army in Captain John Shields' company. He 
was promoted during the war, but to what rank in 
the Continental service we are unable to say. He 
was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel of the State 
militia in 1793, and a brigadier in 1807, and again in 
1811. He was, however, better known as Captain, 
and with the Shieldses, the Sloans, the Wilsons, and 
the Wallaces, was one of the fighting men of the 
Derry settlement, and figured in the old stories 
among the heroes. He is buried in Conoruity 
churchyard. Of any single instance of his brav- 
ery or command we are not sufficiently informed to 
give account. It would appear that on one occa- 



586 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



sion John, brother of Alexander, narrowly escaped 
being taken by the hostiles. He was surrounded by 
them near Fort Wallace, but got from them into the 
fort with only the loss of his gun. He afterwards re- 
sided on a farm of his own near Freeport, and died 
much respected at the advanced age of ninety-five. 

Fort Barr and Fort Wallace in this township were 
early erected. We suspect they were used as places 
of refuge prior to the Indian troubles of Dunmore's 
war (1774), although some authorities count their 
existence much earlier. Rev. William Cunningham, 
the historian of the Cunningham family, for in- 
stance, states that these forts were erected so early as 
17(i4— G5. We can see no good reason for fixing the 
date so early. Most authority for fixing the dates 
pertaining to such matters are purely traditionary 
and not documentary, and as such should be care- 
fully considered. The utmost care must be exer- 
cised in fixing dates and locations before the year 
1769, which in general marks the beginning of local 
history in regard to the record of dates. 

Fort Barr was located on the farm of one of the 
Barrs, and was about a mile north of New Derry. 
Its location was better known latterly as being on the 
Gilson farm, and by many persons it was called Fort 
Gilson. Fort Wallace was about five miles distant, 
and was located on the Wallace farm, on McGee's 
Run. Craig's fort, on the Loyalhanna, near New 
Alexandria, was of a date somewhat later. So also 
was the fort at John Shields', on the Loyalhanna, 
within four or five miles of Hannastown, which 
was erected by the people of the neighborhood for a 
defense for their wives and families, about 1774. 

Richard Wallace, soon after getting his farm in 
order, erected a mill, which was one of the first in 
that region. The first mill was a small one, and had 
but one run of stones. Before the mill was put up 
the settlers had to crush their grain in mortars or 
with hand-mills. The fort stood immediately above 
the present site of Wallace's mill. It was a fine block- 
house, situate within a clearing. 

The signal for the settlers to flee was three rifle- 
shots fired in quick succession. Col. James Wilson 
used to relate how he stood rifle in hand watching 
while his wife went to the spring for water. The set- 
tlers said that as a general thing the Indians were 
more troublesome during harvest and in the fall than 
at any other season. 

Many stories were related about the pioneers and 
their times in the neighborhood of these forts; but 
the most of them are of doubtful authenticity. 

In one excursion Richard Wallace was taken pris- 
oner by the Indians, and taken by them to their 
various stations in Western Pennsylvania and West- 
ern Ohio. This being towards the close of the Revo- 
lutionary war, he was sent on to Montreal, where he 
was exchanged, and whence he came home, after an 
absence of about eighteen months. 

The last hostile demonstration about Fort Wallace 



i was after the Revolution, in 1783. At that time a 
half-breed, used by the British and under their pay, 
and partly equipped in the uniform of an officer, ap- 
proached the fort with a flag. This was shortly after 
the raid on Hannastown, and there were here gathered 
many of the inhabitants. This fellow was used as a 
decoy. But the settlers there suspected him at once, 
having been deceived in this manner so frequently, 
and he was shot and killed. No attack was then 
made. He was buried a short distance above the 
mill. 

We have before related the adventure of Finley 
at this fort in Chapter Twenty. 

One of the foremost men of the settlement about 
Wallace's Fort we said was James Wilson. The old 
farm near New Derry contained about eight hundred 
acres. The tract to-day, counting the improvements 
thereon and the marketable value of the minerals, is 
probably cheap at a quarter of a million of dollars. 
Yet, at first, Wilson had hard work frequently to get 
enough money to pay the tax collector. Col. Wil- 
son, as he was best known, resided on this farm until 
1820, in which year he died. In appearance he was 
a typical pioneer: tall, over six feet, very straight, 
and active. His remains, those of his wife, and a 
married daughter (Mrs. Knott) all lie in theburying- 
ground on the Barr or Gilson farm. There also were 
buried the remains of some of the Barr family, rela- 
tives of Mrs. Wilson. 

Col. Wilson and John Pomroy remained close and 
last friends until death separated them. Pomroy, 
although not such a leader in military affairs as Wil- 
son, was always a leader in civil affairs. He was one 
of the five commissioners appointed by Act of As- 
sembly of 1785 to locate a county-seat for the county, 
and whose labors resulted in the selection of Greens- 
burg. He was also one of the associate judges 

I under the presidency of Alexander Addison; certainly 

; a very distinguished place of honor. He had a 
brother, Francis Pomroy, who with him shared a 
large portion of the popular respect and confidence.' 
Among the first of these settlers whose name we 
have met with heretofore, either attached to himself 
or his son, was William Guthrie, who made applica- 
tion in 1769 for three hundred and fifty acres of land, 

1 some of which is at this day occupied by his grand- 
sou, Joseph Guthrie, Esq. William Guthrie took 
an active part in the border troubles, and was an 
officer in the militia, a lieutenant in 1794. His son, 
James Guthrie, served in the war of Eighteen-Twelve, 
and died on that farm. William Guthrie built a stone 
house on this tract in 1799. 

" "Gapt. John Shields came from Adams County to 
Westmoreland about the year 1766. He was a tall, 
muscular man, well qualified to endure the hardships 
incident to the time and place in which he lived. He 



1 Pomroy's name is now usually written l'omeroy; but we follow hit. 
own autograph spelling. 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



587 



purchased a large tract of land in the vicinity of what 
is now known as New Alexandria. He was captain 
of a company in the Revolutionary war, and faith- 
fully performed the duties of a soldier in many a 
battle with the British. 

After the war with England was ended the inhabi- 
tants of Westmoreland County were greatly annoyed 
by depredations committed by the Indians. Meetings 
were held throughout the county, petitions drawn up 
and signed by the people and sent to Governor Penu 
asking for protection. One of these meetings was 
held at the house of Capt. Shields, a petition was 
drawn up setting forth the danger to which they were 
exposed as the troops raised by order of the Governor 
and Assembly were ordered to Kittanning. They 
complained that they were without arms and ammu- 
nition or the protection of the troops, and they con- 
cluded by asking for protection. The petition was 
signed by one hundred and thirty-four. The names 
of John Shields, John Alexander, and Samuel Craig 
are annexed to it. Meantime the neighbors built a 
small fort on an eminence near the residence of Capt. 
Shields. 

There was neither surgeon nor dentist available, 
and Mr. Shields was often called upon to reduce a 
fracture or extract a tooth. He was a blacksmith, 
and made his own dental instruments, and although 
they may not have been of as delicate structure as 
those of the dentists of the present time, yet they 
answered the end intended ; and on the whole, teeth 
were then extracted without much " pay-in'." Mr. 
Shields was one of the five commissioners who were 
appointed in 1785 to purchase a piece of land in trust 
for the inhabitants of the county, and thereon to 
erect a court-house and prison for the use of the 
county. 

/*Mr. Shields was a justice of the peace, and for 
many years a ruling elder in Congruity Church, of 
which Rev. Samuel Porter was pastor. He died Nov. 
3, 1821, aged eighty-two years, and his remains repose 
in Congruity Cemetery. 

/*Mr. Matthew Shields, grandson of Capt. Shields, 
' resides on the farm owned by his grandfather, and 
although he has been afflicted with almost total blind- 
ness for many years, yet he so manages his farm that 
for culture and neatness no farm in the neighborhood 
can surpass it. 

Additional early settlers were Thomas Allison, 
Gawain Adams, George Trimble, Alexander Taylor, 
John Lytle, Daniel Elgin, Conrad Rice, Thomas Wil- 
kins, Daniel McKisson, James Mitchell, Andrew 
Dixou, John Agey, Blaney Adair, Thomas McCrea, 
Thomas Burns, William Lowry, John Wilson, Robert 
Pilson, John Thompson, 'Patrick Lydick, James 
Simpson, Christopher Stutchal, William Smith. 

Along the Conemaugh and Black Lick, Charles 
Campbell (county-lieutenant after Lochry), Samuel 
Dixon, John McCrea, John Harrold, Philip Altman, 
Patrick McGee, Arch. Coleman, George Repine, Mal- 



achia Sutton, William Loughry, Jonathan Doty, 
Jacob Brioker, James Ewing, James Ferguson, Peter 
Fair, James McComb, Samuel McCartney, John Neal, 
Alexander Rhea, William Robertson, Daniel Repine, 
John Shields, Robert Liggot, David Reed, William 
Graham, Ephraim Wallace, George Mahon, Hugh St. 
Clair, James McDonald, William Clark, the Hices, 
Walkers, Thomases, McKnights. 

SNAKES AND WOLVES. 
There are few districts in the county to which at- 
taches so much of interesting early history as Derry 
township. Its location, — or speaking more to the 
point, the location of the early settlers of Derry was 
one that was exposed to the incursions and depreda- 
tions of the Indians from the earliest times down to 
but a very short period before the Revolution. The 
old military road which ran directly through it, the 
old trails along the streams along which the savages 
passed, the heavy woods to the north of the county, 
and the border line of civilization and settlement, 
which was the river to the north — these make its 
location one of extreme danger when there was 
danger at all. Besides this, the annoyance to the 
early settlers from wild animals and reptiles appears 
to have been of a more serious character than in 
most any other part of the country. The grassy 
glades about Indiana town (some of the few open 
spaces in this whole region at that time) were espe- 
cially noted for the great quantity of rattlesnakes, and 
these poisonous reptiles were sources of great annoy- 
ance in summer time along the sides of the Chestnut 
Ridge to even a late day. Bears in great numbers 
harbored within its limits. Late in the last century 
bears carried off young hogs in winter time from 
the very pens near the house. Wolves in the early 
times here prevailed in great numbers. Christian 
Post in his second journal, 1758, for the 9th of No- 
vember, writing at his camp on the Loyalhanna a 
few miles below Latrobe, says, " The wolves made a 
terrible music this night." It is well remembered, 
for it has been frequently related by the local histo- 
rians of Indiana County, that the region north of the 
Conemaugh was, up to the middle of the Revolution, 
literally a " howling wilderness," for it was full of 
wolves. Of Moorhead and Kelly, the two first who 
settled near the present site of Indiana town, and 
who formed a part of the settlement which composed 
the Derry settlement, an old story is told which we 
have heretofore given. 

To the early settlers there was probably no sound so 
dismal as that of these famishing wolves, unless we ex- 
cept the howls of those two-legged wolves, the Indians. 
Unless one has heard a wolf howl one can scarcely 
imagine it correctly. They did not, for instance, yell 
coarsely, but, on the contrary, in a tremor, long, shriek- 
ing, and increasing in volume as they raised their 
heads skyward, began first by a leader, and followed 
by the rest breaking in as a chorus. 



58S 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



All other wild animals, panthers, bears, catamounts, 
foxes, common to this region, were to be met with in 
Derry township in the early days. 

INCIDENTS. 

In relating the early historical incidents of Derry, 
we cannot refrain from recounting the accounts pre- 
served of the settlement made by Fergus Moorhead, 
because there are many illustrations in his experience 
that will go toward giving us a comprehensive view 
of those times. Besides this, many of Moorhead's 
descendants belong to Westmoreland, and he himself 
was a pioneer and a settler of Westmoreland. 

Fergus Moorhead, his wife and three children, his 
two brothers (Samuel and Joseph), James Kelly, 
James Thompson, and a few others set out from their 
homes in Franklin County for the " Indian country," 
west of the Allegheny, in May, 1772. 

Moorhead brought three horses in a wagon, which 
contained their provisions, his family utensils, and 
household effects. His other live-stock consisted of 
a yoke of oxen, two milch cows, several head of sheep 
and hogs, and a lot of fowl. He had been to the 
country before by himself, had erected a cabin, made 
a clearing, and marked out a location before he went 
back to Franklin County whence he first came. 

The party came out by way of the military road of 
Forbes, and at the end of four weeks from the time 
they left Franklin they came to the spot which he 
and Kelly had previously selected, as we have men- 
tioned before. This was near Indiana town. It seems, 
however, that they changed their minds when they 
began to locate permanently, and erected a cabin and 
began to clear a few miles west of that spot. 

They then planted a small patch which they had 
cleared with potatoes and corn, and cleared another 
for a garden. Joseph and Samuel Moorhead left then- 
brother and his family to return home. For that har- 
vest Fergus cut the grass growing on the land, which 
at that day, in that section of country, in some places, 
resembled prairies, being open and treeless and rank 
with grass, and in some instances swampy. In these 
little meadow patches within the woods north of 
Conemaugh the wild grass grew luxuriantly. Snakes 
were also there in great numbers, particularly rattle- 
snakes, of which there was much complaint, tiny ami 
the copperheads coming to the cabins and secreting 
themselves in the beds. They also complained of 
and were much alarmed by panthers, wolves, and cat- 
amounts. In building their cabins they sometimes 
left the spaces between the logs open in summer, and 
in the winter filled them in. It was certainly an easy 
and convenient method of securing good ventilation, 
but one would suspect that it would be more practica- 
ble in a country with fewer venomous reptiles. 

Among the first things done by the settlement was 
the erection of the block-house known as " Moor- 
head's Block-house." But yet the settlers of this 
frontier, but more especially those in the direction of 



Conemaugh, frequently came in their flight for pro- 
tection to Wallace's Fort. 

In the beginning of the Revolution, Fergus Moor- 
head was taken by the Indians. Upon Mrs. Moor- 
head, while her husband was a captive- (1776), de- 
volved the sad duty, without any assistance whatever, 
to close the eyes of a dead child, — her own child, — 
make its coffin, and deposit it in the grave she had 
dug for it. 

As Moorhead was taken without the noise of a 
battle, but by being waylaid not far from his home, 
his people got no word from him. His wife went 
with her brother back to Franklin County, and while 
she was there at his father's house she had the un- 
speakable gladness to meet again her husband, who , 
after many adventures, returned back there from the 
country of the Indians. In 1781 he, with his wife 
and children, returned to their home in Westmore- 
land, now within Indiana County. Some other fam- 
ilies came out with them this time. But his cattle 
were gone, — "strayed or stolen;" really killed by 
the Indians, — and his whole place was in decay. 

Randall Laughlin was one of the early settlers who 
was identified with this region. He was one of the 
neighbors of Col. (or Gen.) Charles Campbell, the 
county lieutenant after Archibald Lochry. This was 
about the line of Blacklick and Centre townships, 
Indiana County, and of course north of the Cone- 
maugh. Laughlin came early, but probably did not 
locate permanently until after the beginning of the 
Revolutionary war. 

In the summer of 1777 all the settlers of the Camp- 
bell and Laughlin settlements took their families to 
Wallace's Fort. Towards the end of the summer 
they went back to look after their cabins, as they had 
done several times previously. When they were^at 
Laughlin's cabin Laughlin, Campbell, John Gilson, 
and one Dickson, all neighbors, were surrounded by 
Indians led by whites, probably British or half-breeds, 
and thus taken. 

Col. Charles Campbell kept a journal of their cap- 
tivity, and it is still extant in the original manuscript. 
They were taken September the 25th, 1777. They 
managed to let the whites know they were taken by 
leaving a written notice of the same in the cabin be- 
fore they left it. They left this writing on the door 
of the cabin, the Indians not objecting to it, and 
probably not suspicioning anything. In this paper 
Campbell said they would soon be back again. 
Laughlin and he did return by way of Franklin 
County, as they said they would, but the other two 
died while prisoners. 

The Samuel Moorhead mentioned, in 1774 com- 
menced building a mill on Stony Run, where Andrew 
Dixon's mill was afterwards situated, but before it 
was completed the settlers were driven off by the 
Indians. 

Gen. Alexander Craig was born Nov. 20, 175"). He 
was married to Jane Clark, second daughter of James 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



589 



Clark, Esq. The marriage ceremony was performed 
by Rev. James Power. The bride was arrayed in a | 
linen dress bleached to a snowy whiteness. 

Gen. Craig was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of 
the State militia in 1793, and brigadier-general in 
1807, and again in 1811. In 1812 a letter from Dr. 
Postlethwaite, of Greensburg, conveyed to him the i 
intelligence that war was declared with England. He I 
arose and paced the room in silence for a few minutes, 
and then said, " I have but one son, and he is too 
delicate to perform the duties of a soldier; I am | 
growing old, but if my country requires my services 
they shall not be withheld." 

The farm on the Loyalhanna was purchased by 
Gen. Craig from Samuel Wallace, Esq., a merchant 
of Philadelphia, in 1793. Mr. Wallace had purchased 
it from Loveday Allen in 1769. 

After the trouble with the Indians was over, Gen. 
Craig often met with them when surveying or out on 
business. He once went to the camp of Cornplanter, 
and they spent some time in shooting at a mark; to 
the great surprise of the party the general beat Corn- 
planter, who concluded that there must be some 
witchery about the gun, and for that reason pur- 
chased»it. 

The whites were prejudiced against the Indians, 
and embraced every opportunity to disoblige them ; 
Gen. Craig sympathized with them and treated them 
kindly. Once as he was walking along one of our 
rivers he saw an Indian canoe tied to a tree ; knowing 
that if it should be discovered by the whites it would 
be destroyed, he wrote his name on the side of the 
canoe and sunk it into the water. Some time after- 
wards he was in a store at Pittsburgh, and several In- 
dians came in ; one of them heard him named, and 
walked up to him and said, " Alexander Craig you a 
good man, you no destroy Indian canoe." 

Gen. Craig was agent for the heirs of Governor 
Mifflin, — Jonathan and John Mifflin and Rebecca 
Archer, — they owned a great deal of laud in what 
was then called the " backwoods ;" and although 
he transacted much business for himself and others, 
he never had a law suit, and often used his influ- 
ence successfully in preventing litigation among his 
neighbors. 

Gen. Craig had not the advantage of a liberal edu- 
cation, but he had good judgment, was fond of read- 
ing, had a retentive memory, and his mind was well 
stored with useful knowledge. In person, he was 
not quite six feet in height, was muscular, strong, and 
active; his manners were refined, and his whole ap- 
pearance prepossessing. He was generous ; he re- 
fused to take any share of the paternal inheritance, 
but left it for his father's younger children. , 

Gen. Craig's family consisted of three sons and 
five daughters. His second and third sons died in 
infancy. He lived to see the grave close over his 
three sons aud three of his daughters ; but the 
greatest sorrow of his life was the fate of his father. 
38 



His death occurred on the 29th of October, 1832, 
at the age of seventy-seven. He was interred in 
Congruity Cemetery, where a neat little monument 
marks his resting-place. 

LATER SETTLERS, Etc. 

For the following lists of the early settlers of Derry 
township, we are greatly indebted to our venerable 
friend Isaac Pershing, Esq., who was a grandson of 
Frederich Pershing, who bought a location in West- 
moreland in 1773. He came out with his family in 
that year from Fredericktown, Md., and located in 
Unity township, and built a mill afterwards upon his 
land. This was " Pershing's mill," on the head-waters 
of the Nine-Mile Run, and but a short distance from 
the village of Lycippus. He left issue four sons and 
three daughters who had families of their own. 

Thomas Anderson, a Revolutionary soldier, lived 
with Col. Guthrie, the elder, and died at his house in I 
1827. Michael Churn, Sr., settled in 1782. John Mc- ' 
Guire, a neighbor of Churn, settled in 1778. One of Mc- 
Guire's neighbors was William Joyce. Robert Arm- 
strong was an early settler near Salem Church, and 
at his house were held some of the first itinerant 
services of the Methodist Church. The eccentric 
Lorenzo Dow was frequently his guest. Peter Knight, 
Sr., settled north of the village of Saint Clair (Bra- 
denville Post-office). He was one of the ancestors of 
the Soxmans and Schalls. Andrew Allison located 
on the banks of the Loyalhanna, between the present 
town of Latrobe aud Kingston, the residence of the 
late Alexander Johnston, Esq., his daughter mar- 
rying Charles Mitchell, who afterwards possessed the 
land. Some of his descendants are prominent citi- 
zens of Armstrong County, and of Washington 
County. The next neighbor on the creek below Al- 
lison was John Sloan, Esq., high sheriff of the county. 
Sloan was distinguished as an officer in the militia 
along the frontier during the troubles after the Revo- 
lution. In an expedition against a party of depre- 
dating Indians, as elsewhere noted, he was wounded 
in his groin, and had a silk handkerchief drawn en- 
tirely through the wound. He shot and scalped an 
Indian in that expedition, and brought the scalp 
home with him. This he would frequently produce 
on public occasions. He died on his farm in 1833. 
Joseph Baldridge, Esq., the paternal ancestor of the 
Bald ridge family, now widely scattered over the 
United States, lived on the Loyalhanna. His resi- 
dence, a spacious and expensive one for his day, is 
still standing on the lower road from Youngstown to 
Latrobe. He was a millwright by trade, and built a 
mill on that stream in 1804. When he came over 
the mountain he brought his sister with him. She 
rode on a horse which also carried his bundle of 
earthly goods, while he walked by the side. He died 
in 1840, a very wealthy man of his day, and of some 
influence. Christian Soxman was a miller, and built 
a mill on Soxman's Run in 1784. Died in 1823. 



590 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Thomas Culbertson, a wheelwright by trade, settled 
early on land north of Latrobe. He is said to have 
built the first stone house in his part of the country. 
William Hughes was a very early settler. His oldest 
son was said to have been the first male child born in 
Derry township, but we repeat this merely as a cur- 
rent matter of belief in that neighborhood. James 
Cummins settled at the foot of Chestnut Ridge, about 
the end of the Revolutionary war. Hugh Cannon 
was one of the first settlers near Derry Station to the 
west. He followed the business of transporting flour 
and salt from the eastern side of the mountains and 
the valley of the Shenandoah. He died so early as 
1818. His son, Alexander Cannon, who died in 1842, 
in the seventy-second year of his age, was one among 
the first settlers who in his younger days endured the 
hardships of early life. 

THE BEAR CAVE. 

Probably the greatest natural curiosity within the- 
limits of the county is the " Bear Cave," in this town- 
ship. It is a monstrous cavern in the Chestnut Ridge, 
and the nearest designated point to it is Hillside, a 
station on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

There have been many accounts written descrip- 
tive of this great natural wonder, which have ap- 
peared from time to time in the periodicals, and some 
of them in works devoted to such subjects. The first 
general notice taken by the outside world of this cave 
was probably about the year 1840. Prior to that 
time it is not likely it was explored, if, indeed, a 
knowledge of it was even locally well known. 

In 1842 a very interesting article appeared in the 
Pittsburgh Christian Advocate descriptive of " A 
Visit to the Bear Cave in Westmoreland County." 
Although the party who visited it did not make a 
complete exploration of the cave, they expressed great 
satisfaction at the novelty of the adventure, and the 
historian of the expedition gave a rather glowing de- 
scription of the various apartments which they had 
examined. 

An account of another exploring party appeared in 
the Blairsville Record of November, 1842. This party 
was made up of young men mostly from about Blairs- 
ville, and were all well-known young men of char- 
acter. They were well prepared beforehand to make 
a thorough examination of the cave. Coming to the 
cave, they divided into two parties ; one of these 
entered to the right hand, the other to the left. In 
their progress they passed along over deep fissures, 
and heard far beneath them the gurgling of sub- 
teranean streams, into whose depths the light from 
their torches did not penetrate, nor could stones 
dropped down be heard to reach the bottom. 

The party, however, with difficulty sometimes, being 
compelled to crawl under the rocks on their bellies for 
a distance, at other times being compelled to stoop 
low and walk awkwardly, penetrated to a distance of 
nineteen hundred and forty-seven yards, where, at the 



end of a narrow passage-way which wound up in a 
room-like cavity, their journey ended. They said 
they explored in all forty-nine different rooms, or 
apartments, varying in size from eight to thirty and 
forty feet square. In some were found large quantities 
of carbonate of lime. 

Among the names chiseled in the rock there was 
that of Norman McLeod. McLeod left a cheese-knife 
there, suspecting, no doubt, that those in the future 
when they would find it would attach to it a tale 
of mystery and blood. This party actually found the 
knife, and made in their narration a touching sentence 
on it, and let " conjecture run wild." But it happened 
that McLeod's secret was known to several others of 
the free-and easy companions of his former days, and 
they divulged. 

For many years the knowledge of this great natural 
curiosity was confined to a few hunters along that side 
of the Ridge, and to a few of the people who lived 
near its mouth. McLeod was one of the first to satisfy 
a prying curiosity in penetrating so far within the 
bowels of the earth, and finding out all about it that 
has yet been known. 

But modern tourists describe the cavern more elo- 
quently still. They talk of narrow passages between 
walls of rocks, of immense chambers studded with 
stalactites and inhabited by bats, of fathomless chasms, 
of the sound of running water in the darkness, of 
twine for an Ariadne clew, of labyrinths, of torches, 
and have named some of .the larger rooms " The Snake 
Chamber," " The Altar Room," "The Senate Cham- 
ber," because of certain peculiarities, — all of which 
must be taken with a grain of salt, or rather after " an 
ounce of civet, good apothecary." 

EARLY SCHOOLS. 
In recording the educational deeds of other days 
of this large and flourishing township we pause and 
wonder at the very outstart that with such a good be- 
ginning it has not made still greater progress. The 
original school-houses of this township were not 
all built of logs, as was generally the case through- 
out the country, but there were substantial frame 
buildings prior to the adoption of the free-school 
system of 1834 Such was the school-house now 
known as McClelland's, but its dimensions were 
small. The writing-desks were fastened around the 
wall, the seats were called " peg seats," and the heat- 
ing apparatus consisted of a ten-plate stove used for 
burning wood. The earliest teacher remembered was 
" Master" Tawny Hill. Prof. James McCalep taught 
this school about fifty-three years ago. William Coch- 
ran, an Irishman, taught the first free school here. 
His teaching was remarkable for the religious in- 
struction mingled therewith. He opened the school 
with prayer, had Bible-class twice a day, and read in 
the New Testament four times a day. The Shorter 
Catechism was at that time a prominent text-book. 
His mode of punishment was such as questions, 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



591 



tasks, committing, etc. He was succeeded by a Mr. 
Wheeler, a Yankee from the East. 

It is worthy of mention here that Governor John 
W. Geary and his father, Edward Geary, were at one 
time teachers of prominence in this township. Messrs. 
James McClelland, Joseph Cook, James Long, and 
John Barnett were noted members of the school- 
board. One grand reason why the schools prospered 
so well was that the people In those days elected their 
very best men as directors. The territory embracing 
Derry township had then eleven schools; now the 
same territory has thirty-five, including Latrobe, Liv- 
ermore, and New Alexandria boroughs, and Inde- 
pendent, No. 8. The township has now twenty- 
eight schools. Among the late prominent directors 
are W. M. Baird, James Fulton, John Irvin, James 
Nichols, William Mewherter, D. K. Shirey, William 
Brown, S. J. Fishel. Among the leading teachers of 
a few years ago are F. B. Welty, John Moor, James 
Mewherter, Miss J. McGuire, Miss J. Barnett, and 
many others. 

PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT. 

Until a very late period, that is, until the beginning 
of the period of the modern development of the lum- 
ber and mining interests of the county since the 
civil war, the predominant interest of that section 
was agriculture. The inhabitants of that section, who, 
for the most part, enjoyed the labor and toil of an 
economical and thrifty ancestry, were firmly attached 
to the soil, glebfp. adstrictis. The excellent good man- 
agement of the soil, as well as the incentives offered 
to the farmer himself, added to the habits formed in 
those born on the land and devoted by occupation to 
its cultivation, had made farming in a very large 
portion of this township both profitable and compara- 
tively light of labor. So the inhabitants, not know- 
ing, cared little for the mines of wealth which lay in 
the soil, and which were growing on that portion of 
the Ridge which was regarded as the poorest, most 
worthless, and least to be desired portion of the 
whole country. 

The extra demand for the produce of the farm, and 
the enhanced value of those domestic animals which 
are raised by the farmer, were first apparent when 
the old furnaces and forges were in operation along 
the Upper Conemaugh, but from the building of the 
canal the marketable value of all agricultural com- 
modities increased out of all proportion to what it 
had before been, and to what it was in other more re- 
mote parts of the country. The facility for trans- 
porting and marketing these productions always 
made the farming interest in Derry by all odds the 
most desirable. There was an easy outlet, a good 
market, and the men who dealt in those commodities 
were proverbially good. 

But when the Pennsylvania Railroad was con- 
structed came that change which has left as marked 
an impress as was left by the civil war. For the con- 



struction of this road no less marks an era in the his- 
tory of Southwestern Pennsylvania than does the 
great war. The new generation then about actively 
entering into the business affairs of the world of their 
day and generation conformed themselves to the new 
order of things, and new men, far ahead of the most 
advanced ones here, came in with the road to abide 
with it, and these by their push, their innovation, 
and their very presence, established a new order of 
things. Henceforth the timber and the bark which 
had been allowed to decay or to perish, or which were 
wilfully destroyed, became, when worked into lumber, 
great staples. Suddenly work and occupation were 
given at wages beyond any ever before offered for the 
same consideration, to persons who had before that 
time been dependent on the hardest toil or the more 
servile labor of the winter for their scanty living. 
Even the very stones were put into market, and good 
quarries of sandstone opened along the sides of the 
Ridge, which now for above twenty years have been 
used in building the most elegant residences in the 
cities, and durable superstructures for the viaducts 
and culverts of the railroad itself, while the blue- 
i stone, of which unworked deposits are yet to be 
found, which was formerly thought to be valueless 
(unless for the convenience of the farmer to work out 
his road-taxes with), has since then yielded profit- 
ably on the investments when transported and used 
in paving the thoroughfares of Pittsburgh. 

HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES. 
In the following history of the churches in Derry 
township we have given all the record history which 
we have yet come across. For further information 
the inquirer is referred to the chapter on the religious 
history of the county. As the oldest organized, we 
begin with the Presbyterian Churches. 

"SALEM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

one of the primitive five vacancies reported in the 
Redstone Presbytery, is first mentioned as applying, 
with Unity, for permission to call a minister of Don- 
egal Presbytery, Oct. 15, 1786. His character was 
deemed doubtful in Redstone, and permission was re- 
fused ; but a Mr. Barr was then sent to supply one 
day. Frequent supplies were sent during four subse- 
quent years. A tent was used for a time as the place 
of worship, and a log house, with a stove in it, and 
called afterwards the session-house, accommodated 
the congregation on wet and cold days. Before the 
close of the last century a large house, of three logs in 
length, seventy by forty, or in the centre forty-six feet, 
was built. The pulpit, with a sounding-board over it, 
was large, about eight steps in height, with a clerk's 
desk six steps high at front of it. It occupied the 
back recess in the side and faced the front door in the 
other recess. There was a door in each end, and the 
communion aisle stretched between them. There were 
seventy-one seats, and six or eight hundred people 
could be accommodated in them. At first, for years, 



592 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



there were no seats, and then some of them were sawed 
plank, but more were hewed, with posts at the ends, 
and a wide rail for a back. As the church for many 
years contained no stove, in very cold days they re- 
sorted to the session-house. In 1832 the church was 
ceiled with boards and plastered on the side walls. 
In 1848 a boy kindling the tires put shavings in the 
stoves. They fell blazing on the roof, and when the 
people assembled for prayer-meeting, the time-hon- 
ored, God-honored house was in uncontrollable flames. 
Many of the women sat down and wept. 

" April 20, 1790, along with Unity, Salem had called 
Mr. John M'Pherrin, whose ordination and installa- 
tion, September 20th of that year, has been already 
recorded in the case of Unity. For thirteen years he 
labored among his people with great earnestness, so- 
lemnity, and success, giving them all his time for the 
last three years. Then difficulties having arisen — 
which ought to have been settled — which he himself 
afterwards believed too small to justify a separation, 
he yielded to them at the time, and obtained a release 
from Salem, April 20, 1803. Obtaining an immediate 
settlement over Concord and Muddy Creek, in Butler 
County, he there spent the remainder of his devoted 
and laborious life. There, too, Feb. 10, 1823, in the 
sixty-fifth year of his life, he was called to the peace- 
ful rest of the ' Father's House.' The larger and bet- 
ter portion of Salem Church regarded him as a very 
paragon and prince of preachers. By him, as a 
model, they would test each succeeding minister, as 
they heard him, and with regretful tones would say, 
in nine cases out of ten, ' He duzzen't preach like Mis- 
ther Mucpharrinf Occasionally, as the very highest 
encomium, they would say of some ardent man, 'He 
pours it down on sintherz like Misther Mucpharrin .'' 
Had the Apostle Paul come down and preached there 
within forty years of the removal of this beau ideal 
pastor, he could have gained no higher praise. Rev. 
Thomas Moore was called as pastor Aug. 4, 1804, and 
accepted the call, but no record was made of his in- 
stallation. At the request of the people, he was dis- 
missed April 9, 1809. April 21, 1813, Rev. Robert 
Lee was called, and installed on the first Tuesday of 
August following. Rev. James Galbraith preached, 
and F. Herron gave the charge. The writer only re- 
members him as a tall, slender man, whose thundering 
voice would not allow even a child to sleep in church. 
He was released from Salem, Oct. 20, 1819. His sub- 
sequent labors were performed in Central Ohio. A 
few years ago his life-labors were highly eulogized 
in an obituary notice written by a ministerial son of 
Salem Church. 

" Serious difficulties had prevailed in Salem, more 
or less, from the removal of Mr. M'Pherrin. April 
19, 1820, they obtained a committee from Presbytery 
to aid in settling them, which was but partially ef- 
fected. ' But the Lord was preparing the way for 
one of his servants,' who was pre-eminently a peace- 
maker, to enter that most important, aud yet most 



unpromising and disturbed charge. Thomas Davis, 
an Englishman, of strong and peculiar accent, an 
elder in the Second Presbyterian Church of Pitts- 
burgh — probably from its formation, sixteen years 
before, from which he was sent as an elder to the 
General Assembly of 1815 — had been licensed by the 
Presbytery of Redstone, when over fifty years of age, 
on Feb. 15, 1822. He was appointed to supply at 
Salem the second Sabbath afterwards, and at West 
Union the following one. They retained him as a 
supply most of the summer, and October 15th called 
him to be their pastor. November 13th he was or- 
dained and installed. Rev. Robert Johnston preached, 
and S. Porter gave the charge. A few years later he 
was seriously crippled by a broken limb, and per- 
formed his labors afterwards at a great sacrifice of 
comfort. His lot was greatly alleviated, however, 
by the constant attendance and considerate atten- 
tions of his wife, devoted to him and devoted to God. 

" In about the nineteenth year of his pastorate, 
greatly to his gratification, he obtained a colleague 
in the whole charge, and from that time, except on 
communion Sabbaths, alternated with him in the 
two churches on successive Sabbaths, until the day 
of his lamented decease, May 28, 1848, in the seventy- 
seventh year of his age. The old log church had 
been burned down a short time before ; they were, on 
that day, holding a communion near its site, in the 
barn of John Robinson. He, as was his wont, had 
preached the ' Action Sermon' with ardor, addressed 
the 'first table' with tenderness, communed at the 
second with emotion. Then, quite exhausted, his 
face glowing like a coal, he set out for home. But 
midway to it he fell lifeless from his horse, and ere 
his body was ' laid out' in his late habitation his 
emancipated spirit was at rest in the house of ' many 
mansions.' Well do I wot that when the stunning 
tidings reached the barn, where his youthful, filial 
colleague was conducting the afternoon service, he 
would look up through falling tears for the descend- 
ing mantle, and devoutly exclaim, ' My Father ! my 
Father ! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof!' It ought to be added that two or three 
years previously his most devoted wife had taken 
leave of life in a manner equally sudden, and as she 
had desired to be taken. 

" Father Davis was a plain, earnest, rather impres- 
sive preacher. Partly from dialectic peculiarities, 
and partly because they came from his heart, his 
words stuck in the memory of his hearers. In social 
life he was affable, genial, and very frank. He pos- 
sessed in no limited manner a tact for dealing with 
persons of every stamp. This might have been in- 
ferred from his riding down successfully at Salem 
waves of commotion, by which two preceding pastors 
had been agitated into foam, and as foam were tossed 
away, while he held the pastorate for more than a 
quarter of a century, — his entire ministerial life. Yot 
he never fondled, flattered, nor temporized. Did an 






DKRRY TOWNSHIP. 



593 



artful woman, courting praise for the real excellence 
of her cookery, worry him with strong deprecating 
terms respecting it, he would hastily drain his cup, 
hand it back, and, using her own term, would say, 
'Madam, I will take another cup of that "stuff!"' 
Or, if a close-fisted, purse-bound man complained to 
him about his ' frequent preaching against world li- 
ness,' and charged him with giving in this way one- 
half of the preaching to himself and another man, 
artlessly as a child he would perform an example in 
mental arithmetic on the well-known subscriptions of 
the two. ' Ten and fifteen are twenty-five. Twice 
twenty-five are fifty. Isn't it a burning shame ? You 
two get one-half of my preaching, and for it pay but 
twenty-five dollars. If the rest of the congregation 
paid only in that proportion I should have but fifty 
dollars a year !' Looking his reprover full in the face 
he would say again, 'Isn't it a burning shame?' 
Then, smiling, he would introduce another topic. 

" Mr. George Hill began to preach at Salem and 
Blairsville May 31. 1840, and after that gave an occa- 
sional day for ten months while completing his course 
at the seminary and in renovating enfeebled health 
at home. From March, 1841, he preached regu- 
larly. December 4th of that year, at Blairsville, 
he was ordained and installed as the co-pastor 
already mentioned. Soon after the decease of 
Father Davis, October 3d of that year, Mr. Hill 
gave all his time to Blairsville, having resigned 
the charge of Salem. In the mean time, on the 
old elevated site on the bench of ' Sugar- Loaf 
Hill,' a new, tasteful, brick edifice had been erected 
by John Barnett, Esq., one of the faithful elders. Its 
dimensions are less than the old one, but sufficient to 
accommodate the congregation, weakened by emigra- 
tion and other new organizations on three sides of the 
church. 

" After a vacancy of two and a half years Rev. 
Reuben Lewis was installed as pastor, May 13, 1851. 
Rev. George Hill preached, S. McFarren charged the 
pastor, and N. H. Gillett the people. He was re- 
leased Jan. 10, 1855. His successor, Rev. J. P. Ful- 
ton, was installed Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1857. Rev. N. H. 
Gillett preached, A. Torrence charged the pastor, and 
R. Stevenson the people. He was highly and justly 
prized as a preacher. After eight and a half years he 
very unexpectedly withdrew, and obtained a release 
from the charge June 16, 1866. Rev. James Davis 
had supplied, statedly, before his settlement, and Rev. 
James R. Hughes supplied after his departure. 

" Rev. W. F. Hamilton began to preach regularly 
at Salem and Livermore in the spring of 1868, and 
was installed as pastor September 7th of that year. 
Rev. J. W. Walker preached, S. H. Shepley charged 
the pastor, and G. Hill the people. To this church, 
in more senses than one, he is a treasure, and they 
know it. 

'"This (ongregation has suffered very seriously for some years past 
from emigration, and has now become much weakened in members and 



in strength. But it is hoped that it will yet be sustained and strength- 
ened by the King of Zion. It is memorable for some precious revivals 
in its earlier history. 1 

"So writes its elder, John Barnett, Esq., the man 
who ought to have written all this church's history. . 

" The following have been its elders : Robert Tay- 
lor, death not recorded ; Andrew Kincaid, death not 
recorded ; Peter Wallace, died Feb. 12, 1839 ; John 
Barnett, Esq., Sr., died July 5, 1825 ; Jonathan Doty, 
went to Methodists. Additions: Abraham Fulton, 
died May, 1835; William McQuiston, death not re- 
corded ; Samuel Moorhead, ceased to act about 1820 ; 
William Bell, died in 1829 ; James Long, died in 1864. 
Ordained September, 1828 : William Barnett, died 
June, 1862 ; Robert MeConaughy, moved to North- 
field, Ohio; Thomas Chapman, moved to Illinois. 
Ordained Oct. 2, 1835 : James Guthrie, died Nov. 12, 
1855 ; James Wallace, dismissed to New Alexandria ; 
Robert Fulton, died Jan. 23, 1865. Ordained Oct. 19, 
1851: Andrew Long; Alexander Craig, died Sept. 9, 
1869 ; John Barnett, Esq., Jr. Ordained December, 
1862: Robert Sterling and Samuel Ebbert. Installed 
December, 1862 : Joseph Henderson, dismissed to 
Blairsville. December 16, 1866 : James Fulton in- 
stalled, and Oliver Fulton ordained. Feb. 17, 1867: 
John J. Douglass ordained, — the last three dismissed 
to Latrobe. Ordained Aug. 17, 1870 : William Ster- 
ling, Archibald Dunlap, and Lewis Mechesney. 

" This church has had two stated supplies and 
eight pastors. Its ministerial sons have been Revs. 
John, Abraham, James, and Benjamin Boyd (four 
brothers), and William Morehead in the pastorate of 
Mr. McPherrin ; and in that of Father Davis, his son, 
James Davis, James W. Knott, and John M. Barnett. 
Since which time this once prolific mother has ceased 
bearing. She originally deserved the name of Sa- 
lem. If at the close of the first pastorate her title to 
it was somewhat weakened, she has in later days 
firmly established it." 1 

BLAIRSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Blairsville, under the name of " Forks of Black 
Lick," had been supplied by Rev. Dr. Herron, April 
19, 1820, who at the request of the people gave it 
such organization as was customary at that time. 
Rev. Thomas Davis preached at the " Forks of Cone- 
maugh," March 7, 1822, twenty days after his licens- 
ure. But the name West Union had been assumed 
when he was called, October 13th of that year. As 
Blairsville increased in size and enterprise the pas- 
tor saw that the location of the church, a mile and a 
half from it in the country, was a serious blunder. 
Their house of worship at West Union being of mod- 
erate size, and for a considerable time incomplete, — a 
carpenter's bench being used for a pulpit, — he gener- 
ously purchased the building to reconcile the country 
people to change the place of worship to the town. 
Oct. 2, 1832, the Presbytery ratified this procedure 

1 Abridged from " History of the Blairsville Presbytery." 



594 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and made Blairsville the name of the church. Here, 
in 1840, Rev. Hill began to preach occasionally, and 
in 1841 regularly ; on December 4th of same year he 
was installed as co-pastor with the Rev. Thomas Da- 
vis, when Rev. Samuel McFarren preached the ordi- 
nation sermon ; Father Davis presided, proposed the 
constitutional questions, and made the ordaining 
prayer; Revs. S. Swan charged the pastor, and W. 
Hughes the people. On Oct. 3, 1848, Rev. George 
Hill resigned his charge of Salem and gave his whole 
time to Blairsville. 

In 1850 he originated a much needed female semi- 
nary, secured the erection of the main building, and 
gained for the institution considerable eclat. He was 
succeeded in it by Rev. S. H. Shepley and lady, and 
they by Rev. J. R. Hughes, who was followed in this 
seminary in 1867 by Rev. J. Jewett Parks. Rev. 
Shepley was principal and proprietor of it from the 
fall of 1852 to June, 1865, and Rev. Hughes for two 
years. Blairsville Church originated with thirty- 
three members, of whom the last living member was 
Henry Barnes. The original elders were Michael 
Campbell, Daniel Smith, and John Cunningham. 
To these the first accessions were John McCrea, 
William T. Smith, Samuel Matthews, and Matthias 
Lichtenthaler; the second, James Speer, H. A. 
Thompson, and Matthew George; the third, J. H. 
Fair, Joseph Moorhead, Jacob Zimmers, and J. M. 
Turner ; and the fourth, Joseph Henderson and Jesse 
Cunningham. The deaconate began in 1855. The 
first board were James Baird, David Lintner, J. H. 
Fair, Samuel Kennedy, W. A. Louhry, Thomas 
Campbell, and Jacob Zimmers. The accessions up 
to 1874 were James Alexander, E. G. Stitt, Thomas 
Hotham, S. M. Bell, Samuel Barr, H. M. Hosack, and 
William Lintner. This church has sent forth as 
ministers Rev. Jesse M. Jamieson, D.D., Samuel 
Pettigrew, W. C. Smith, Nelson H. Smith, William 
Cunningham, W. Wallace Moorhead, and S. S. Gil- 
son. 

THE NEW ALEXANDRIA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

applied for organization Oct. 4, 1836. It was granted 
the following April, and effected by Revs. T. Davis 
and Samuel McFarren, May 4, 1837. It consisted of 
seventy-one members, mostly from Congruity, and 
five elders, of whom (June 17th) James Shields and 
William Taylor were ordained, and along with Robert 
Rainey, Esq., Joseph Cook and Smith Agnew, in- 
stalled by the same committee. At this time twenty- 
six additional members were received, and to the 
whole ninety-seven members the Lord's Supper was 
administered on the Sabbath following. Presbytery 
held its October meeting in New Alexandria, when a 
call was presented for Rev. David Kirkpatrick, and a 
remonstrance against it by a respectable minority who 
did not wish in their public worship to be restricted 
to the Scotch version of the Psalms. Mr. Kirkpat- 
rick having intimated that in the circumstances he 
could not accept the call, it was returned to the con- 



gregation. Rev. Adam Torrance, who had been 
licensed by this Presbytery, and then had labored six 
years in Ohio, having returned in ill health, being 
present as a corresponding member at that meeting, 
in the evening preached by invitation. The church 
obtained leave to secure him till spring as stated sup- 
ply, then gave him a unanimous call to be their pas- 
tor. At his installation, June 13, 1838, Rev. Watson 
Hughes preached, and T. Davis gave the charge. 
For thirty years, humbly, earnestly, and successfully, 
he discharged his pastoral duties, and this was done, 
too, under the pressure of a kind and degree of suf- 
fering with which few others have been tried, and 
with which few can fully sympathize. The head that 
studied for the benefit of others was often ready to 
burst with an anguish of suffering. 

Towards the close of this period he and his people 
jointly gave a display of patriotic zeal that claims a 
passing notice. They for the time consented to forego 
his faithful services, and he as a sexagenarian en- 
countered all the discomforts of camp, the trials of 
march, the perils of the battle-field, and the miasma 
of the swamps and hospitals to act as chaplain of the 
Eleventh Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve 
Corps. The consent of his people being obtained on 
Sabbath, he joined his regiment on Monday at Camp 
Wright. After the battle of Bull Run the officers of 
the regiment by a unanimous vote invited him to re- 
main with them. He asked his congregation for 
leave, which was obtained. After an absence of four- 
teen and a half months they welcomed his return. 

From exposure during his chaplaincy the health of 
Mr. Torrance failed more seriously in 1866, and con- 
strained him to resign the charge April 23, 1867. 
Mr. Thompson R. Ewing having supplied the pulpit' 
three or four times, was unanimously called to be 
their second pastor. He was ordained and installed 
April 30, 1868. Rev. W. A. Fleming preached, Dr. 
McFarren charged the pastor, and A. Torrance the 
people. The experience gained by Mr. Ewing in a 
prolonged service for the Christian Commission added 
greatly to his qualifications for an energetic, efficient, 
and successful pastorate. 

To the first elders have been added John Hosack, 
Michael M'Ginley, Moorhead Edgar, James Wallace, 
James M. Shields, William Trimble, Isaac Parr 
Henry, John Mourer, Benjamin K. Craig, William 

Wallace, John C. Craig, Dr. J. W. Rugh, and 

Simpson. This church having had but two pastors, 
has raised four ministers, viz. : Revs. Moorhead Ed- 
gar, T. Freeman Wallace, T. Davis Wallace, and Rob 
Roy M'Gregor M'Nulty. The two Wallaces were 
sons of one elder and brothers of another. The elder 
of them married Miss Martha Torrance, daughter of 
the first pastor, and they have been doing very effi- 
cient missionary work at Bogota, South America, for 
twelve years, where they have been aided for six 
years by Miss Kate McFarren r daughter of the late 
venerable pastor of Congruity. 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



595 



LIVEBMORE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

was organized April 22, 1851, by Rev. Adam Tor- 
rance and G. Morton, with elder S. Marshall. The 
members at first were twenty-four, with three elders, 
Samuel Black, John Colleasure, and William Simp- 
son. Sept. 1, 1851, Rev. George Morton, pastor at 
Ebenezer, was installed here for one-third of the time. 
Revs. James C. Carson preaching, N. H. Gillett 
charging the pastor, and George Hill the people. 
He was released April 1, 1853. During several suc- 
ceeding years there were but few supplies, and the 
sacraments were seldom administered. Then Rev. 
James Davis statedly supplied for some months. 
Rev. James E. Caruthers supplied statedly from May, 
1858, until April, 1859. On May 20, 1861, Rev. J. B. 
Dickey was ordained and installed for half-time, when 
Revs. J. P. Fulton preached, David Kirkpatrick pre- 
sided, proposed the constitutional questions, and made 
the ordaining prayer. Adam Torrance charged the 
pastor, and S. H. Shepley the people. He was re- 
leased June 17, 1863. In October, 1865, Rev. D. Har- 
bison was called, and supplied half-time for eighteen 
months, and then returning the call accepted one 
from New Salem. Rev. W. F. Hamilton was called 
for half-time in March, 1868, and at once commenced 
his labors there and at Salem. He was installed Sep- 
tember 14th of that year, when Revs. J. W. Walker 
preached, S. H. Shepley charged the pastor, and 
George Hill the people. Under the first six years 
of his pastorate thirty-five members were added on 
certificate, and fifty-three on examination. The first 
house of worship was a frame in which the Baptists 
had a share, and was situated very inconveniently on 
a hill. The present is a comfortable brick edifice, 
favorably located, and was erected about 1862. 

The accessions to the eldership up to 1874 were 
John Gallagher, William M. Philerny, Jonathan 
Kerr, Dr. M. R. Benks, Daniel Uncapher, William 
McCurdy, Thomas Butterfield, William Irwin, Jo- 
seph Bricker, George W. Sheerer, John Archibald, 
Samuel Archibald, and Silas C. Fulton. The last 
four were installed and ordained Feb. 8, 1874. Of 
the above Messrs. Gallagher and Bricker have died, 
and Mr. Irwin removed. Up to 1874 this church had 
had three stated supplies and three pastors, and had 
raised and sent forth from its congregation no minis- 
ter. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT LATROBE 

was organized March 1, 1869, with one hundred and 
ten members, chiefly from Unity, by Revs. G. Hill, 
N. H. Gillett, and J. R. Hughes, with Jesse Cun- 
ningham and Samuel Miller. Its first elders were 
James Douglass, James Nichols, John Thompson, 
and Dr. D. W. McConaughey. The house of worship 
had been erected some ten years previous, and it was 
used as an outpost of Unity Church. Rev. N. H. 
Gillett, pastor of that church, would frequently preach 
an extra sermon in Latrobe. Then, by the advice 
and consent of the session, he had so divided his regu- 



lar services as to give this sub-station about one-third 
of his labors. Here his last days were spent, and 
here he died. Rev. S. M. Davis was ordained 
and installed its first pastor June 2, 1869. To the 
primitive membership of one hundred and ten were 
added in five years one hundred and sixty-six — just 
one-half on profession, and the other half by letter. 
The church is prosperous, and its Sunday-school has 
steadily increased in numbers and efficiency. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (DERRY) 

was erected in 1877, when the congregation was or- 
ganized, and Rev. D. R. McCaslin was the first 
pastor. He was born in Armstrong County March 
10, 1847, and graduated at Princeton College. He 
preached nearly two years at Bowling Green, Ky., 
and then was called to this church and the one at 
"Salem." The elders wereE. P. Pitcairn, J. G. Alex- 
ander, A. O. Cavin, John Barnett, and the Sunday- 
school superintendent, J. G. Alexander. The edifice 
is a neat frame structure. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES. 

Prior to 1844, there was only at St. Vincents a 
Catholic priest for Westmoreland, Green, Fayette, 
Washington, Indiana, and Armstrong Counties. In 
1844, Rev. J. Stillinger erected Blairsville as a proper 
station, after he had, in 1840, built a church there. 
The line between Blairsville and St. Vincents con- 
gregations was the big road from Brady's mill to 
Derry, and from Derry down to Millwood. Between 
Brady's mill and the pike, from Blairsville to New- 
Alexandria, half-way, was an old log church called 
Mount Carmel, sometimes visited by Father Still- 
inger. The church in Derry was erected about 1856, 
by Rev. H. Alto, of St. Vincents, and was attended 
by priests from St. Vincents until 1861, when Rev. 
T. Kearney, who had already charge of Latrobe, took 
charge of Derry until the former required all his 
time, when the latter got a priest of its own. St. 
Martin's Church, at New Derry, had for many years 
as its pastor the Rev. John Martin, under whose 
ministrations it grew largely in numbers and strength. 

The line of public works, first the canal and then 
the railroads, running through the township, the one 
along its upper border, the other along its lower 
border, brought in large numbers of foreign laborers, 
who in the greater proportion belonged to this com- 
munion. There was with all this, however, no urgent 
necessity for erecting churches much earlier than they 
here were, for these two points were for these people 
of easy approach. 

The number of Catholic people who were perma- 
nent residents about Derry town increasing, they 
were regularly supplied by the Monastery at St. Vin- 
cents until about 1856, when their church was built 
by the Rev. H. Alto, of the order. It was still at- 
tended to by the priests of the Monastery, until about 
1861, when Rev. T. Kearney, of the secular clergy, 
who also had charge of the congregation at Latrobe, 



596 



HISTORY OF WESTxMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



took charge of Derry, till Latrobe grew too much, 
and it was inexpedient to divide his services, when 
Derry got a priest of its own. When the churches 
which had been founded or nurtured by the authori- 
ties of St. Vincents Abbey got strong enough to sup- 
port a priest of their own, they were then given up 
when they got their own pastor. 

THE CHURCH OF HOLT TRINITY (LATROBE) 

was dedicated Jan. 18, 1857. Its first pastor was Rev. 
J. Kearney. Previously Latrobe was a part of St. 
Vincents parish. Its number of souls is about one 
thousand. The first pastor was Eev. J. Kearney, who 
remained with his congregation for nearly twenty 
years, much beloved by all people. Latrobe being 
but little more than a mile from St. Vincents, it pre- | 
viously had formed part of that parish, until the wants 
of that part of the congregation necessitated the or- 
ganization of their own church. Attached to this 
church is a large and commodious school-house for 
children of the parish. The resident priest has a 
tasty and comfortable residence, and there is a grave- 
yard connected with the church. The edifice itself is 
commodious, comfortable, and elegantly finished and 
furnished both inside and outside. 

CHRIST REFORMED CHURCH (LATROBE). 

Latrobe is one of the many towns brought into ex- 
istence through the construction of the Pennsylvania 
Central Railroad. It is located on this great line of 
travel and commerce, forty miles east of Pittsburgh. 
As early as 1855 some Reformed families moved here 
from various parts of the church. These, together 
with some members of the Youngstown congregation 
living in the vicinity, began to desire an organization. 
On March 4, 1859, Rev. C. C. Russell visited the field, 
and held the first Reformed services in the place, in 
the Presbyterian Church, in which they were con- 
tinued for some time. The Associate Reformed Church 
was then rented and used a while. An arrangement 
was then made for the use of the Lutheran Church 
until a new church edifice could be erected for a more 
permanent home of the congregation. On Sept. 23, 
1860, a petition signed by Elders M. Saxman, Sr., 
and George Fritz, and Deacons M. Saxman, Jr., and 
David Hershey, together with a number of other Re- 
formed members, was presented to the Westmoreland 
Classis, asking the privilege of organizing a regular 
Reformed congregation in Latrobe, which was granted 
May 1, 1864. Rev. C. C. Russell retired and was fol- 
lowed in the pastorate by Rev. E. D. Shoemaker, who 
resigned in 1867. June 1, 1867, Rev. H. F. Keener 
was called to this congregation, which had been de- 
tached from the charge and constituted a part of a 
new missionary field. A lot of ground was now 
bought on East Main Street for five hundred dollars, 
and a new edifice began in the spring of 1868, under 
Benjamin Simpson as contractor. On Sept. 26, 1869, 
it was dedicated as Christ Reformed Church of La- 
trobe, its pastor and Rev. G. B. Russell, D.D., offici- 



ating. This property, including furniture, cost eight 
thousand dollars. In the fall of 1869, Latrobe was 
again placed back to form, with Pleasant Unity, 
Youngstown, and Ligonier, the present Latrobe 
charge. On June 1, 1870, Rev. J. I. Swander was 
called to the pastorate, under whom, in 1877, it num- 
bered one hundred communicants, and about an equal 
number of baptized children. The consistory then 
consisted of Sebastian Bair, S. D. Gress, John Wil- 
liard, and Frederick Garver, elders ; and D. J. Sax- 
man, John Brindle, Henry Best, and E. H. Fiscus, 
deacons. Peter Saxman left a bequest of one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars towards the liquidation of the 
church debt. Mary Mumaw built her monument and 
wrote her epitaph by bequeathing one hundred dol- 
lars for a baptismal font. It was designed by the pas- 
tor, and the work skillfully executed by H. Ousler & 
Sons. It is executed in fine Italian marble, and is an 
article of frequent use and a gem of great beauty. 

ZION LUTHERAN CONGREGATION, OF NEW DERBY, 

was organized in 1845. The first pastor was Rev. 
Augustus Rabb, who served eight years; the next 
Rev. Somra, who served four years ; then Rev. Bose- 
ner, five years; Rev. J. R. Focht, Rev. Bechtel, Rev. 
John Beeber, Rev. J. H. Smith, Rev. A. D. Potts. 

TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, LATROBE. 

The first Lutheran sermon preached in Latrobe was 
by Rev. I. O. P. Baker, in 1860, who preached here 
frequently, but not regularly. He was followed by 
Rev. G. Mechling, in 1862, or early in 1863. The 
latter was succeeded by Professor Daniel Worley, 
A.M., who took charge of Ligonier, Latrobe, and 
Derry in 1865. The Constitution, adopted the evening 
of April 14, 1865, is the first stated record we have con- 
cerning the organized congregation. Rev. Prof. Daniel 
Worley resigned June 28, 1865. He was succeeded 
by Rev. J. H. Smith, who continued eight years, and 
he was followed by Rev. A. D. Potts, who served one 
year. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, LATROBE, 

was organized about 1856, in which year its brick 
edifice was erected. Among its first pastors were 
Revs. McCarty and Bracken. The congregation be- 
gan with fifteen members, and before the erection of 
its house worshiped in the school-house. Since 1871 
the pastors have been : 1871-74, J. F. Jones ; 1874- 
77, J. T. Riley; 1877-80, A. C. Johnson; 1880-82, 
W. F. Conner, present incumbent. The Sunday- 
school superintendent is I. M. Keepers, and trustees, 
I. D. Pores, A. Shumaker, A. B. McChesney, D. E. 
Welch, G. B. Whiteman, J. S. Houck, Joseph Landis, 
A. S. Hamilton, I. M. Keepers. 

The United Brethren in Christ have a neat church 
edifice in the country, a mile and a half distant. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, DERRY, 

edifice was erected in 1876. Its pastors have been J. 
W. Mclntyre, 1876-79; R, J. White, 1879-80; and 







2^ 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



597 



W. A. Stuart, 1880-82. The Sunday-school superin- 
tendent is Uriah A. Giesy, and the trustees are J. F. 
Ammend, Alexander Winn, William Dook, John 
Fry, J. C. Spear, G. C. Campbell, H. Gripps, Frank 
Horner. It is a circuit embracing Derry, New Derry, 
and Hillside. 

ST. MARTIN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, NEW DERUY, 

is a neat edifice, and has a large congregation. 

LA.TROBE BOROUGH. 

It may be said truthfully that a town so modern as 
Latrobe has no history, and as it is not the purpose 
of this book to pass for a directory, our remarks may 
not be so extended as the political importance of 
the place might seem to suggest. And, as we have 
avoided the invidious treatment of contemporaneous 
subjects, and have been sparing of laudatory obser- 
vations on prominent living personages, we trust our 
remarks on this subject will be appreciated. 

Before the Pennsylvania Railroad was projected, 
or even commenced, the site of Latrobe was covered 
with large forest-trees — oak and hickory — and thick 
undergrowth, such as were common to the bottom 
lands bordering on the streams of this region. The 
site of the mill-seat on the southwestern bank of the 
Loyalhanna, now owned by Mr. J. L. Chambers, was, 
it is true, occupied as a grist- and saw-mill since 
early in the present century, but there was only one 
road leading past it before the railroad. A great part 
of the land on the northwestern side of the railroad 
had not yet been reclaimed, and although that por- 
tion is laid out in streets and pretty generally built 
up, yet there are men living who worked in summer 
time standing in water there, digging up the roots and 
grubbing away the briers that the plow might be 
worked therin. 

Latrobe is, therefore, a railroad town, and owes its 
prosperity and its very existence to that corporation. 
Its citizens to-day are of the most enterprising and 
energetic character, and probably in business sagacity 
and business enterprise are not excelled as a commu- 
nity by any other in the State. Its population by 
the census of 1880 was eighteen hundred and thirteen, 
and this does not include the suburbs of Coopertown 
on the northeast, and West Latrobe on the southwest, 
nor any of the adjacent and dependent hamlets, vil- 
lages, or clusters about the coal- and coke-works in 
the vicinity. Since the last census was taken it has 
possibly increased more rapidly in population and in 
business capacity than any other incorporated borough 
in the county. With the suburbs of the borough 
proper there are safely estimated from two thou- 
sand seven hundred to three thousand souls, which 
might very properly be included in one corporation. 

The scenery in the vicinity is very picturesque and 
inviting, while the Loyalhanna, as it gracefully winds 
around the town, serves materially to heighten the 
beauty of the prospect. The country all around is 



remarkable for its fertility, and more grain is an- 
nually raised than in any other district in the county. 
The town is situated, as we said, on the Pennsylva- 
nia Railroad, where it crosses the Loyalhanna, in 
Derry township, distant from Pittsburgh forty miles. 
At an early day it was seen to be a desirable location 
for a town, and Oliver J. Barnes, an engineer in the 
employ of the Pennsylvania Company, secured the 
ground upon which the town is now built. 1 He laid 
out a plan with much foresight and discernment. 
The plan was recorded ou May 28, 1851, in the re- 
corder's office of the county. The place was named 
after Benjamin F. Latrobe, a prominent civil engi- 
neer, closely identified with the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, and subsequently mayor of the city of Bal- 
timore. The place was laid out with great regular- 
ity like the squares on a checker-board, the streets 
crossing each other at right angles. It is situated on 
a flat piece of land in a bend of the creek. 

RAILROAD BUILDINGS. 

Mr. Barnes, the proprietor of the place, donated 
(ostensibly) the railroad three acres of land in the 
very centre of the town. Upon this the company 
erected a very large and commodious depot and 
water-station, which, built in the Roman style of 
architecture, looks more pretentious than the later 
and more ordinary water-plugs. They also erected 
a hotel building of brick, three stories in height, 
with all the modern conveniences. In this building 
the company has its ticket-office, and it serves for the 
station-house. The rest of the ground is used for 
lumber- and cattle-yard. 

The viaduct over the Loyalhanna River, on the 
south of the town, is a model of engineering design 
and skill, and is regarded as one of the finest and 
most substantial of all the river-crossings belonging 
to the road. 

When the construction of the railroad was com- 
mencing there was but a single house and barn on 
the site of so much wealth and so much labor. 
Within four years the place contained a population 
of between five and six hundred. At the time the 
borough was incorporated, the hotel of which we 
spoke was in the occupancy of John M. Marshall ; 
the other hotel, known afterwards by various names, 
was in the occupancy of Maj. David Williams, who 
is still a resident of the town, and who was a con- 
tractor on the road when it was building. These 
buildings were both at that time in course of erection. 

INCORPORATION. 
The borough of Latrobe was incorporated by the 
court, according to the prayer of the petitioners, by 
decree of 24th of May, 1854. 

1 He purchased of Mr. Kirk at a mere song, and realized over eighty 
thousand dollars for his lots. Mr. Kirk, who on the sale of the land 
went to Pittsburgh, afterwards returned to Latrobe, and paid nearly as 
much for the site of his residence (a very handsome house) as he had 
received for his entire farm. 



598 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The corporate officers were directed to be a chief 
burgess, one burgess, and three assistant burgesses, 
and a town clerk. It was also declared to be a separ- 
ate election and school district. The first election 
was to be held at the house of Maj. David Williams, 
at that time a public-house, and at present time 
known as the " Parker House." This election was to 
be held on the 10th day of June, 1854. John Parker 
was to give due notice of the same ; Robert W. Bald- 
ridge was appointed judge, and Samuel Geary and 
James Kuhn inspectors. Subsequently, and before 
the election was held, the appointment of James 
Kuhn as inspector was vacated, and Jacob Bierer was 
appointed in his stead. 

CIVIL LIST. 
The following is a list of corporation officers from 
the time of the organization of the borough until the 
present: 

1854. — Chief Burgess, David L. McCulloch; Burgess, John W. Coulter; 
Assistant Burgesses, William Platts, Joseph Bossart, R. Brinker; 
Secretary, K. SI. Biildridge: High Constable, W. H. Williams. 

The following have been chief burgesses since 
then : 

1855-60. David L. McCulloch. 

1860. J. J. Bierer. 

1S61. SI. Bossart. 

1802. David L. McCulloch, with 
John Brinker, burgess, act- 
ing as chief burgess part 
of year. 

1863. John Moore. 

1864-66. George Kuhu. 

1866. J. J. Bierer. 

1867-69. George Kuhn. 

1869. John Ackerman. 

The borough officials in 1882 are: 

Chief Burgess, J. J. Bierer, Assistant Burgesses, W. SI. Best, S. P. 
Keyes, A. T. Douglass; High Constable, W. C. Campbell; Secre- 
tary, John Mclntyre, who has held this position since May 19, 1873. 

REMINISCENCES. 

Although a modern town in every sense, yet some 
memories of Latrobe connect it, if not with the old 
times, at least with old manners. 

Before the civil war some old customs which yet 
obtained, but which the war dissipated, were yet dear 
to the people ; and these " rites and ceremonies," as 
they may, with a stretch of privilege, be termed, were 
being transferred reluctantly from the old-time places 
to the more modern places. The Fourth of July fol- 
lowing the incorporation of the borough was cele- 
brated in Latrobe after the olden fashion. On that 
day a large number of the foremost men of Greens- 
burg, Youngstown, Derry, Saltsburg, Blairsville, and 
of the whole country round, assembled in the dining- 
room of the railroad hotel, and after having the Dec- 
laration of Independence read, and a speech made, 
they gave their toasts. These may be found in the 
files of the old county papers. Ah, the wit, wisdom, 
patriotism, and hilarity of these sentiments and those 
that perpetrated them ! for there were among them 



1870. John Slaher. 

1871. John Bennett, burgess, act- 

ing as chief burgess. 

1872. William Head. 

1873. A. H. Young. 
1874-76. Reuben Baker. 
1876. William Beatty. 
1877-79. Reuben Baker. 

1879. Uriah Heacox. 

1880. Reuben Baker. 

1881. ThomaB McCabe. 



many (some of whom are still living) of those still 
known, — the Keenans, the Johnstons, the Cantwells, 
the Coulters. 

BANKS. 

Latrobe has two banking-houses: 

The Citizen's Banking Company of Latrobe (which 
rose out of the ruins of the banking-house of Lloyd, 
Huff & Watt, who were compelled, by the failure of 
their correspondent in New York, to go into bank- 
ruptcy for their creditors after the panic of 1873) was 
organized Nov. 1, 1873, and began business in De- 
cember following. The first stockholders were David 
Williams, James Toner, John L. Chambers, William 
Anderson, D. L. Chambers, Reuben Baker, Jesse 
Chambers, Eli Chambers, I. D. Pores, S. H. Baker, 
Wesley Wilson, E. H. Wilson, A. Y. Douglass. It 
was a copartnership limited to five years, and when 
dissolved it was reorganized by its present proprie- 
tors, S. H. Baker, Reuben Baker, D. L. Chambers, 
and I. D. Pores. It is a private bank with individ- 
ual liability. The first president was Wesley Wilson, 
succeeded by the present one, I. D. Pores. W. H. 
Watt was cashier until July 1, 1880, when the present 
incumbent, Joseph Killgore, who had been assistant 
cashier, succeeded him. They occupy their own 
building, which was originally built by the firm of 
Lloyd, Huff & Watt. 

The Banking- House of W. S. Head & Son, as now 
known, was organized and opened in the spring of 
1873. It is a private bank with individual liability. 
It was established under the firm-name of W. S. 
Head & Bro., the latter being Joseph A. Head. The 
first year its rooms were at the corner of Depot and 
Ligonier Streets, but thence were removed to its present 
site. William S. Head is one of the foremost, as he 
has been one of the most successful, business men in 
the town. He is a native of Frederick Co., Md. He 
early removed to Latrobe from Youngstown, where he 
had been engaged in the mercantile business, and in 
the same calling grew up with the place. He erected 
(in 1851-52) the first private house within the limits 
of the borough, on the site now covered by the im- 
posing block which he has since erected, the ground- 
floors of which are occupied as store-rooms, and one of 
them as bank. Mr. Head was also the first railroad 
and express agent in Latrobe. 

STORES, TRADE, Etc. 
Latrobe has a local reputation for the excellence of 
its stores. These are divided in the line of goods into 
specialties, and this was one of the first towns in our 
part that successfully carried through this innovation. 
The pioneer in this matter was I. D. Pores, the head 
of I. D. Pores & Co., hardware merchants, who has 
built up for his firm a splendid reputation, and made 
for himself a handsome fortune. In this arrange- 
ment he was followed by W. S. Head & Co., who carry 
exclusively dry-goods and fancy goods, by Hoke & 
Co., and by Michael Bossart & Son, who follow in the 



DERRY TOWNSHIP. 



599 



same departments. So all the branches of the mer- 
cantile business are separated, and all flourish. Boots 
and shoes, hats and caps, with furnishing goods for 
men, tinware, drugs, notions, millinery and trim- 
mings, grocery, queensware, jewelry are all exposed 
in different establishments. Besides this, there is a 
ready market at Latrobe for all the product of the 
fields, woods, barns, or hands. The wheat market 
has been ably represented by the Messrs. Chambers, 
who, although brothers, and both engaged in the same 
business, are not so as business partners. These gen- 
tlemen, Leasure Chambers and John Chambers, have, 
as a general remark, controlled the wheat trade cen- 
tering here, within a radius of some five to eight 
miles, for a number of years past. 

CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, Etc. 

There are eight churches. These are the property 
of the following denominations severally: Presby- 
terian, United Presbyterian, Catholic, Methodist, Re- 
formed, Lutheran, Baptist, and United Brethren. 1 
Other denominations from time to time worship in 
some of these buildings by sufferance, such, for in- 
stance, as the Protestant Methodist and the Covenant- 
ers. Its school-house is a tolerably good brick build- 
ing, of two stories, but not so good or airy as it might 
be, considering the number of scholars in attendance. 
It is graded into three departments, and it is note- 
worthy that the authorities have uniformly had very 
excellent teachers. Besides the public schools, the 
Catholic parish supports its own school. 2 

There are two public halls for the accommodation 
of the strolling minstrels and the wandering lecturer, 
and the accommodation would appear to be equal to 
the demand. There are four licensed hotels. 

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 

The Pennsylvania Car-Works were established in 
1852 by Oliver J. Barnes, who operated them some 
six or eight years. They then remained idle until 
1862, when their present proprietors, S. H. Baker and 
Reuben Baker, purchased them. The latter gentlemen, 
both from Chester County, have since conducted them 
with great profit to themselves, and largely to the 
material growth of the town. When they took charge 
there was only the brick shop and the foundry, to 
which they have added several buildings. Their 
shops cover an area of three hundred by two hundred 
and twenty feet on Railroad Street, with six other 
lots on Thomson Street. They work one hundred 
and thirty men, and manufacture freight and second- 
class passenger-cars, making all their soft castings 
save the large wheels. They turn out from three to 
four cars daily, and aggregate about a thousand a 
year. They build them from the ground, and manu- 

^ee sketches of these churches on antecedent pages of this township 
history. 

2 The borough is now building a school-house that will be when com- 
pleted everything that could be desired. 



facture everything except the big wheels. They have 
extensive planing-mills, and get their lumber from 
their own saw-mills, of which they have three in In- 
diana County, two in Westmoreland, and two in West 
Virginia. The two latter turn out seventy-five thou- 
sand railroad ties a month. They buy lumber all 
along the Ohio River, but principally at Parkersburg. 
The Baker Brothers were the organizers of the Loyal- 
hanna Coal and Coke Company, and still own some 
eight thousand acres of coal and timber land in this 
county, and three thousand acres of lumber lands in 
West Virginia. They are agents for the Pennsylvania 
Railroad in furnishing supplies, and besides their car 
manufacturing do a large business in work and cast- 
ings for outside parties. Their business annually ex- 
ceeds a million of dollars in these works. 

THE LOYALHANNA PAPER-MILLS 

were established in 1865 by Bierer, Watt & Co., who 
erected the main building. They subsequently sold 
to G. S. Christy & Co., who, in the fall of 1871, sold 
out to Metzgar Brothers & Co., who, in 1870, were 
merged into the firm of James Peters & Co., the pres- 
ent owners. The firm consists of James Peters, M. 
J. and Edward Metzgar. The mill burned in Oc- 
tober, 1879, and in January following the new one 
was erected. The former was a frame and the latter 
a brick structure. The main building is one hundred 
and sixteen and one-half by thirty feet, the next 
building fifty-five by thirty (the pulp-room), and the 
finishing-room sixty-five by thirty-two. Some forty 
hands are employed. It makes roofing, manilla, and 
wrapping papers. Its markets are principally Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, and 
with a house in the latter it has for 1882 a contract 
for two million three hundred thousand pounds of 
paper. It makes daily fourteen thousand pounds of 
paper, and runs three hundred days in the year. 
Four-fifths of its material used are rags, and the 
balance straw and rope. It uses daily sixteen thou- 
sand pounds of rags, purchased from Harrisburg, 
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia chiefly. It 
takes three hundred and fifty bushels of coal daily to 
run the mills. It has a large paper stock and ware- 
house in Pittsburgh, and are now erecting one near 
their mills here, ninety by fifty feet. It has in its 
mills two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of ma- 
chinery, four boilers twenty-eight feet long and forty 
inches in diameter. Their works cover two and 
three-fourths acres, with five thousand square feet of 
ground just opposite, and are located on Ligonier, 
between Spruce and Oak Streets. 

THE PREMIUM FLOURING-MILL 

is the property of Samuel Walthour, and is on the 
corner of Railroad and Jefferson Streets. It is forty- 
five by fifty feet, four stories high, has three run of 
burrs, and all its machinery is complete and in good 
running order. Its ground embraces- two lots of one 
hundred feet square, is situated in the heart of the 



600 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



town, fronting the Pennsylvania Railroad, with siding D. Evans, G. B. Anderson, Reuben Baker, L. A. 

running past the door. The engine power is sufficient Hoke, George L. Miller, John Thompson, I. D. Pores, 

to run three run of burrs and machinery. An excel- | H. P. Fulton, E. C. Richey, Joseph Nichols, Paul 

lent bored well yields all the water necessary to run j A. Gaither, W. H. Ackerman. It meets the second 

the boilers, even in the dryest seasons of the year. and fourth Monday evenings of each month. 



THE I'LANING-MILLS 

are two, both very large, and owned by Col. George 
Anderson and O'Brien & Toner. 

ORDERS AND SOCIETIES. 
LOYALHANNA LODGE, No. 257, F. AND A. M„ 

was constituted Sept. 19, 1853, with the following 
charter members and officers : W. M., John W. Coul- 
ter; S. W., Martin Runyen; J. W., Jesse A. Cun- 
ningham ; S. D., W. O. Hugart ; J. D., Samuel Elder ; 
Sec, D. Zimmerman. 

The Past Masters of this lodge are : 1854, John W. 
Coulter ; 1855, Jesse A. Cunningham ; 1856-58 and 1862, 
Jesse Chambers ; 1859, J. R. McAfee ; 1860, David Mc- 
Culloch ; 1861, J. J. Bierer ; 1863, James White ; 1864, 

D. C. George; 1865 and 1869, W. H. Watt; 1866, 
Sebastian Bear; 1867, John Oursler; 1868, Joseph 
Chambers; 1870, John G. Lowry ; 1871, S. R. Rut- 
ledge ; 1872, D. W. McConaughy ; 1874, D. P. Harr; 
1875, Jacob H. Oursler ; 1876, George L. Miller ; 1877, 

E. H. Fiscus; 1878, A. G. Chambers; 1879, J. D. 
Evans ; 1880, D. W. McConaughy ; 1881, Jesse Cham- 
bers. 

The officers for 1882 are : W. M., J. D. Evans ; 
S. W., D. E. Welsh ; J. W., George B. Anderson ; 
S. D., J. C. Blair ; J. D., B. McCloy ; Sec, Sebastian 
Bear ; Treas., J. L. Chambers. It has fifty-eight 
members, and meets the first Monday of each month. 

LATROBE LODGE, No. Ml, I. 0. O. F., 

was chartered May 22, 1858, with the following offi- 
cers : N. G., C. F. Beam ; V. G., William Pollick ; 
Sec, I. M. Keefers; Treas., George Bennett. The 
officers in 1882 are: N. G., G. C. Kissel 1 ; V. G., 
Charles L. Mitchell; Sec, B. F. Geiger; Treas., I. 
D. Pores; Janitor, George Yingling. It meets every 
Saturday evening. 

SHALLUM ENCAMPMENT, No. 141, I. 0. 0. F., 

was chartered March 24, 1866. Its first officers were : 
C. P., I. D. Pores; H. P., I. M. Keefers; S. W., 
Samuel McCutchen ; J. W., George C. Anderson ; 
Scribe, W. H. Williams; Treas., David M. Bear. In 
1882 the officers are : C. P., John Mickey ; H. P., 
S. P. Keys; S. W., George Yingling; J. W., John 
W. Yingling ; Scribe, D. J. Saxman. It meets the 
second and fourth Thursday evenings of each month. 

LATROBE LODGE, No. 368, ROYAL ARCANUM, 

was chartered May 3, 1880. The charter members 
were A. M. Sloan, James Peters, Henry C^Bgst, S. 
S. Philips, H. G. Chambers, H. E. Hoke, Rev. J. L. 
Riley, Frederick Metzgar, D. C. George, T. W. Wei- 
mer, John W. Yingling, J. K. Barr, S. H. Baker, J. 



LATROBE LODGE, No. 30, A. O. U. W., 

was chartered Oct. 2, 1871. The first officers were : 
P. W. M., I. M. Keefers ; W. M., I. D. Pores ; G. F., 
D. C. George ; O., Reuben Baker ; Rec, John Smith ; 
Fin., R. McWilliams ; Rec, J. L. Chambers ; G., D. 
J. Saxman; I. W., Uriah Heacox ; O. W., John 
Oursler. 

LATROBE ASSEMBLY, No 273, KNIGHTS OF LABOR, 

was chartered Feb. 24, 1877, with the following charter 
members' Thomas McKeman, Enoch Davis, Sr., 
Edward Casey, Charles Mitchell, David Mitchell, 
Howard Keyes, George Sutton, Enoch Davis, Jr., 
John S. Sutton, Samuel M. Burns, Bernard Smith, 
John M. Geiger, John Williams, Jacob Smith, 
John Burke, Edward Bell, John Davis, Jr., John 
Flannery. 

It was organized June 19, 1880, and rechartered 
June 30, 1880. 

It meets the first and third Friday evenings of each 
month. 

LOYALHANNA LODGE, No. 950, KNIGHTS OF HONOR, 

was chartered Sept. 5, 1878. The charter members 
were W. H. Watt, Henrx-£LJBest, Reuben Baker, 
S. H. Baker, W. B. Norris, B. S. Kelly, A. P. Fultou, 
Joseph Nichols, D. C. George, G. B. Whitemau, 
James Peters, Paul H. Gaither, S. P. Keyes, John 
Newcomer, A. C. Keepers, J. J. Bierer, L. A. Hoke, 
C. F. Leachley, A. G. Chambers, George Kuhn, 
J. P. Klingensmith, A. M. Sloan, J. B. Hysong, J. F. 
Story, Jacob Fehr, Jesse Chambers, J. C. Campbell, 
J. W. Yingling, J. U. Horrell, Charles B. Fink, 
William C. Coleman, E. Pitcaim. 

It meets the first and third Thursday evenings of 
each month. 

P. A. WILLIAMS POST, No. 4, G. A. R., 

Its meetings are the second and fourth Friday 
evenings of each month. It was organized in Greens- 
burg April 18, 1874, as Maj. John B. Keenan Post, 
No. 4, and was the first in the county. In April, 
1880. it was removed to Latrobe, and its name changed 

i to P. A. Williams. Its first Commander was J. A. 
Ege, and after its removal here the first was Frederick 
Metzgar, succeeded by Dr. J. D. Evans. Its removal 
was authorized by Chill W. Hazzard, Deputy Com- 
mander of the State. 

The officers for 1882 are: C, Jacob H. Oursler ; S. V. 
C, S. E. Bell ; J. V. C, A. Shumaker; O. D., James 

I Peters ; Q.M., Eli Chambers ; Surg., Dr. J. D. Evans; 

1 Chap., Rev. T. B. Anderson ; Adj., Frederick Metz- 

; gar; O. G., Thomas Murphy; Sergt.-Maj., Patrick 

I Mansfield: 0,M.-Serg., T. W. Weimer. 





' 



{_£y^^ t ?>^( 




BERRY TOWNSHIP. 



IJ01 



SCHOOLS. 

The directors of the schools are : President, Fred- 
erick Metzger ; Secretary, A. S. Hamilton ; and John 
Thompson, John S. Houck, D. P. Barr, H. 0. Best. 
The teachers are : Prof. George H. Hngus, Room No. 
6 ; Rollin Guss, Room No. 5 ; Miss Lizzie Kelly, 
Room No. 4; Miss Martha White, Room No. 3; 
Charles Wakefield, Room No. 2 ; Miss Mary Mc- 
Kelvy, Room No. 1. 

At a meeting of the Board of School Directors of 
the school district of the borough of Latrobe, Pa., 
held on the 8th day of February, a.d. 1882, the fol- 
lowing proceedings were had, viz. : 

" Kesolveil, Tliat the school district of the borough of Latrobe erect a 
new common-school building according to the general plaus and speci- 
fications prepared and now in the care and custody of A. S. Hauiilton, 
secretary of the board, and for that purpose that the indebtedness of 
said school district should be increased $22,332.10, which is an amount 
not exceeding five per centum of the last preceding assessed valuation 
of the taxable property of said district. 

" Resolred, That as such increase of indebtedness exceeds the consti- 
tutional limitation of the power of the board, that the question of such 
increase, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be submitted to a vote of the 
qualified electors of said school district, to be held at the usual place of 
voting in the said borough of Latrobe, on Tuesday, the 14th day of March, 
A.D. 18S2, between the hours designated by law ; and as provided bylaw 
the board submit to the consideration of the said qualified voters the fol- 
lowing statement, viz. : 

"1. The amount of the last assessed valuation of property, etc., in 
said district taxable for school purposes (including territory annexed 
for school purposes) is $446,042.00. 

"2. That said school district is not now in debt, and that the amount 
of the existing debt of said borough is $3800.00. 

" 3. The amount of the proposed increase of indebtedness to be in- 
curred in erection of the new school building, outbuildings, aud furni- 
ture, according to the general plans and specifications, is $22,332.10. 

"4. The rate per cent, thereof on the last assessed valuation is .05. 

"Resulted, That the president aud secretary of the board of school 
directors of said district are hereby authorized and instructed to make 
proclamation and give such notice as is required by law of the said 
election. 

" Now, .therefore, in accordance with the foregoing resolutions, procla- 
mation is hereby made that an election will he held at the usual place 
of voting in the borough of Latrobe, on Tuesday, March 14, A.D. 1882, 
between the hours of seven o'clock in the morning and seven o'clock 
in the evening, to determine whether the debt of the said school dis- 
trict may be increased $22,332.10, for the purpose of providing and 
erecting a new common-school building, outbuildings, and furniture for 
the same, and the qualified voters on said questiou shall each vote a 
ticket labeled on the outside ' Increase of Debt,' and on the inside con- 
tain tlie words ' Debt may be increased,' or 'No increase of debt,' as the 
voter may choose or desire." 

This was voted affirmatively, aud the board is now 
erecting a three-story brick school building with ten 
rooms on the site of the old school-house. 

OTHER BOROUGHS, VILLAGES, Etc. 
NEW ALEXANDRIA BOROUGH. 

By act of Assembly of 10th of April, 1834,— the 
same act by which Ligonier borough was incorpor- 
ated, — " the town of New Alexandria or Dennis- 
ton's town, in the county of Westmoreland," was 
erected into a borough, under the name and title of 
the borough of New Alexandria. By the same act 
the officers and their duti-w and powers were specified, 
and the time and place ■ f election were designated. 
On the second Tuesday of the next May the inhab- 



itants entitled to vote were to meet at the school-house 
in the said borough to elect their first officers. 

Early settlers or inhabitants near New Alexandria : 
E. A. Robinson, George Michel, David McGinley. 
Alexander Denniston laid out the village of New 
Alexandria, giving it his name. Some of his de- 
scendants yet live in the neighborhood. 

LIVERMORE BOROUGH. 

The borough of Livermore is situated on the south- 
western side of the Conemaugh River, and on the 
line of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad. It was, 
before it was incorporated, a village which sprang 
into existence by reason of the canal, and was laid 
out into lots and streets so early as 1827 by one John 
Livermore, one of the principal engineers on the 
canal. 

John Gallagher was the first burgess, and G. M. 
Beham was the secretary of the first Council. Its 
population by the census of 1880 was one hundred 
and sixty-four. Owing to the local trade it enjoys 
from the surrounding country, its business is, in com- 
parison to its population, decidedly good. It contains 
a hotel, quite a number of stores, a steam grist-mill, 
railroad station and depot, and is a post-office. It 
has a Methodist Episcopal and a Presbyterian Church, 
and is a separate school district. 

A number of the inhabitants residing in Derry 
township, within the limits of now Livermore bor- 
ough, presented a petition to the Court of Quarter 
Sessions at November sessions, 1864, desiring to be 
incorporated, and giving the boundaries and limits 
of the proposed borough. M. R. Banks made affi- 
davit that the petition was signed by a majority of 
the freeholders residing within the limits therein set 
out. On the 15th of November it was submitted to 
the grand jury, who duly returned it favorably. On 
Feb. 13, 18(35, the court ordered the presentment of 
the grand jury in this regard to be confirmed, and 
that the prayer of the petitioner should be granted, 
and that part of the township included within the 
limits described, which included the village of Liver- 
more, should he incorporated under the name of the 
" Borough of Livermore ;" that the first election 
should be held at the school-house in the borough, 
on the 31st day of March, 1865; that John Hill 
should give notice of the election ; and that Richard 
Freeland should be judge, and James Duncan and 
G. M. Beham, inspectors. 

NEW DERRY. 

The village of New Derry is one of the old-time 
villages of the township, and like many others it 
might give occasion to the remark that the town was 
finished long ago. So would it have been, was it not 
for the vitality of the couutry round, and the great 
material wealth that exists there, for ordinarily a 
place so near the railroad, and with such competition 
as was offered by all the novelty and the enterprise 
which draws and attracts people to new places, the 



602 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



place would have been as a business point much in- 
ferior to what it actually is. 

DERRY STATION 

is situate on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
fifteen miles east of Greensburg, and three west of 
the Packsaddle Gorge of the Chestnut Ridge, one of 
the wildest, most picturesque, and romantic regions 
traversed by the great highway of Pennsylvania. 
There was no town or settlement here of any import- 
ance until 1852, when the railroad was built, and 
then the first buildings put up were by the railroad 
company. From a railroad point of view it is one of 
the most important stations on the road, for here all 
the freight trains are overhauled, inspected, weighed, 
and made up into trains according to the several 
lines of freight-bearing cars, and started anew on 
their several journeys. The number of these cars 
that are separated and assorted according to lines 
will average eighteen hundred daily, and the impor- 
tance of the station is accordingly manifest. In a few 
words may the operations at this point be described. 

First. The station is located on a straight piece of 
track one and two-thirds miles in length, one-third 
of a mile from the western terminus of this straight 
course, and one and one-third miles from the eastern. 
The grade of the track is down towards the east, but 
light and easy. From the station the distance either 
way is readily traversed with the eye, so that trains 
by day or night can be seen at any point therein. 

Second. A number of sidings are placed on each 
side of the two main tracks of the road, five on the 
north side and two on the south side, which, with a 
third on the south for depositing freight at Derry, 
make ten tracks, which are all connected with 
switches so that cars can readily be transferred from 
one to another. This shifting is done with eastward- 
bound trains without a locomotive, taking advantage 
of the down grade in that direction ; but with west- 
ward-bound trains an engine is required. 

Third. A corps of officers and employes well organ- 
ized, and each efficient in his particular duty by long 
experience with a proper regard for the responsibility 
of his position. This corps comprises a train-master, 
dispatchers, weigh-masters, telegraph operators, car- 
inspectors, and machinists, the duties of which may 
be briefly stated. 

The train-master has charge of the trains between 
Pittsburgh and Altoona. He is highest in authority 
at the station, and has a general supervision over all 
that takes place in the yard. This important post has 
long been occupied with great satisfaction to the com- 
pany, and consequently credit to himself, by Mr. Ed- 
ward Pitcaim, a gentleman of extensive railroad ex- 
perience, prompt, exact, and trustworthy at all times. 

The dispatchers are two in number; they have 
control of the cars from the time they arrive in the 
yard until they leave, make them up into trains, regu- 
late their movements, supply cars wherever needed 



between Pittsburgh and Altoona, keep records of 
locomotives, conductors, engineers, cars, number of 
them, and whether loaded or empty, etc., which records 
are daily transmitted in duplicate to the superinten- 
dents at Pittsburgh and Altoona. Every twenty-four 
hours on an average they handle, to use the phrase of 
the road, as many as eighteen hundred cars, at least 
six hundred more than are handled at the yard in 
Pittsburgh. A stranger can scarcely understand how 
all this is done without confusion and innumerable 
accidents, but with the experience of years, under the 
guidance of the two gentlemen above named, every- 
thing runs as smoothly as clock-work, and accidents 
never happen except for causes beyond their control. 
The weigh-masters, as their name indicates, weigh 
and keep records of the weight of locomotives, com- 
pany and individual cars, loaded and empty, stock, 
coal, grain, etc. Practice has made these gentlemen 
very quick and accurate in their particular business, 
and it is one of the most interesting features of a visit 
to their office to see them weigh a car as it passes over 
the scales in one or two seconds. 

The telegraph operators are two in number. It is 
their duty to keep a full register of the arrival and 
departure of all trains east and west, to deliver orders 
to trainmen, to transmit reports of the dispatchers to 
the superintendents, and such other messages as are 
daily required in the management of such a stupend- 
ous business road as the Pennsylvania Central. To 
accomplish this great work they are provided with 
what is considered the most complete and convenient 
telegraphic apartment on the line of the road, — a 
spacious room on the second floor of the station build- 
ing, with windows on three sides, so that the whole 
yard can be surveyed at a glance and the relative 
situation of all trains observed by day and night, the 
headlights of the locomotives and the colored lanterns 
attached to the trains and carried by trainmen being 
discernible even in the moonlight for the distance of a 
mile or more. The office is furnished with four Penn- 
sylvania Railroad lines and four Western Union lines, 
and also with signals, etc., as well as provided with 
speaking-tubes and transmitting-waiters, connecting 
it with other offices in the building. 

The car-inspectors, of whom there are at present 
six, examine carefully the cars as they arrive, test the 
wheels, etc., and report their condition to the dis- 
patchers. If any need repairing, they are turned over 
to the machinists, who, besides the gang and other 
laboring men employed generally on the road, will 
conclude this list. If the repairs to be made are slight 
the cars are not removed to a special siding ; other- 
wise they are separated from their trains, shifted to a 
secure place, where they may be put in order with 
greater convenience. It is expected that in a short 
time repair-shops will be erected at Derry, but at 
present all work is done in the open yard. 

Besides these special .features of Derry Station, 
there is another of interest and importance to be al- 





:^ yVj^L^CO^C 








Cr-^i^l <?£*- 



DKRRY TOWNSHIP. 



603 



luded to at least. This is a complete wrecking outfit, 
consisting of locomotives and cars, supplied with hy- 
draulic hoists, ropes, wrenches, portable telegraph 
apparatus, etc., which can be forwarded to the scene 
of a wreck on a few minutes' notice. 

There is, moreover, an engine-house at Derry with 
room enough for six engines ; but it is expected that 
a new one will soon be erected large enough to hold 
at least thirty locomotives to stable the number that 
is usually here. One and a half miles east, too, there 
is a watering trough for supply locomotives with water 
without stopping. 

Before concluding, one word about the card-mani- 
fest, the key to the modus operandi of Derry. This is 
a piece of pasteboard about the size of a playing-card, 
and on it are printed and written figures and state- 
ments which make it a representative of a particular 
car and its contents. Now every car has one of these 
card-manifests, which the conductor carries in his 
pocket. When, accordingly, a train reaches Derry, 
the conductor hands his manifests over to the dis- 
patcher, who from their face can give his orders as to 
the separation of the cars and their making up into 
other trains, as well as if he saw the cars themselves. 
So from the pack of manifests the weigh-master learns 
what cars are to be weighed, etc. 

THE BOROUGH OF DERBY. 

The petition of the inhabitants of Derry Station on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad was filed in the proper 
court May 14, 1881, in which they prayed for their 
erection into a borough. The grand jury, at May 
term of the same year, returned the application which 
had been presented to them to the court with the en- 
dorsement that they believed it expedient to grant 
the prayer of the petitioners. On Aug. 27, 1881, ex- 
ceptions were filed to the petition and returned, and 
on Aug. 27, 1881, a remonstrance in support of the j 
exceptions was filed. On Oct. 4, 1881, the arguments 
on the merits of the petition and the exceptions were 
heard ; and on October the 15th, 1881, the exceptions 
were dismissed, and a decree of incorporation allowed 
to be prepared by the solicitor for petitions. This 
decree was prepared, and on October the 22d, 1881, ■ 
the court decreed that " the village in said county of | 
Westmoreland, at Derry Station, on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, be and the same is hereby erected into a 
borough, and shall henceforth be deemed an incor- 
porated borough, and shall be entitled to the several 
rights, privileges, and immunities conferred upon 
boroughs by the several acts of Assembly." It fur- 
ther decreed that the name of the borough should be 
"the borough of Derry," and that the boundaries of 
the same should be the same boundaries fixed in the 
petition ; that the first election for borough officers 
should take place on Tuesday, the 8th day of Novem- 
ber, 1881, and that the place of holding the election 
should be at school-house No. 28, in Derry township. 
Henry Neely was appointed judge, and Alexander 



Wynn and Manasses Sweeney were appointed inspec- 
tors. It also decreed that after the expiration of that 
current school year the borough should be a separate 
school district, and that after the election of officers 
after the first election, the said borough should be a 
separate election district. 

The first store was opened 1853, by Hiram Yealy. 
On March 1(1, 1882, H. Braden made an addition to 
the town of fifty lots, fifty by one hundred feet. These 
are part of the old Blackburn farm, and on the north 
side of the railroad. The Derry flouring mill was 
erected in 1877 by Mr. Neely. There are six general 
stores, of which the principal one is that of Cavin & 
Lockland. Mr. A. O. Cavin has been here nine years 
in business. There are three orders, — I. O. O. F., 
No. 942, A. O. U. W., and Royal Arcanum. J. D. 
Neely is postmaster, and the post-office was established 
in 1853. 

INCORPORATION. 
The town was incorporated as a borough in 1882, 
and its officials are : Burgess, J. K. Russell ; Council, 
Emmet Johns, John Huston, Daniel Kist, J. W. 
Toner, J. G. Alexander ; Clerk, George S. Kinner. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



i 



MATTHEW POTTER McCLANAHAN. 

Hon. Matthew Potter McClanahan is the eldest son 
of Dr. Matthew and Catharine McClanahan, and was 
born in Sewickley, Jan. 2, 1806. He was educated in 
the district schools and New Athens College, Ohio. 
After leaving college he for a short time engaged in 
farming. He then turned his attention to merchan- 
dising, but not being entirely satisfied with the busi- 
ness, he entered upon the study of dentistry with Dr. 
Miller, of West Newton. He was married, first, to 
Sarah Watson, of his native county, May 22, 1834. 
To them were born seven children, three of whom 
died in infancy. Three of his children are still liv- 
ing, namely, William Elliott, first married to Martha 
Byerly. They had one child, James, who died when 
eighteen years of age. William was again married to 
Hannah Solomon. Susan J., married to Phillip Neth, 
and Clara, unmarried. One son, John, was a soldier 
in the late war, and died in a prison hospital at Rich- 
mond, Nov. 5, 1863. Sarah Watson McClanahan 
died Dec. 21, 1852. Mr. McClanahan was married 
again, Feb. 11, 1869, to Emeline Willett, of Alle- 
gheny County. She still survives him. 

Mr. McClanahan held a number of important town- 
ship offices, and in 1866 was elected associate judge of 
the courts of Westmoreland County. He was re- 
elected in 1871, holding the position for ten years. 
He possessed many of the sterling qualities of the 
Irish race from which he sprang. 

In all positions of life he discharged his duties with 



604 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



fidelity. He was noted for his piety, his upright life, 
and his devotion to the church— the United Presby- 
terian—with which he had united many years prior 
to his death. He died June 3, 1881. Those who 
knew him best speak of him as an earnest Christian 
and useful citizen. He left his family valuable pos- 
sessions, the chiefest of which is his "honored name." 



REUBEN BAKER. 
Reuben Baker, of Latrobe, was born in Chester 
County, Pa., Dec. 3, 1837. He is the son of Jacob 
and Lydia(Lamborn) Baker, who were of English 
descent. 

He received his elementary education in the com- 
mon schools, and afterwards attended London Grove 
Boarding-School, in his native county, an institution 
under the control of the Society of Friends, of which 
religious sect his father and mother were members. 
When in his seventeenth year he was apprenticed to 
a machinist, Edge T. Cope, with whom he remained 
nearly five years. He then engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, which he followed for ten years. 

Jan. 25, 1865, he married Mary J- Fredd, of Chat- 
ham, Chester Co., Pa. They have four children, 
namely, Elizabeth, Morris H., Anna R., and Catha- 
rine H. 

In 1869 he located in Latrobe, and became associ- 
ated with his brother, S. H. Baker, as a partner in 
different pursuits. He is the manager of their ex- 
tensive car-works, in which they annually do a busi- 
ness of more than half a million dollars. Their cars 
are used upon roads in all parts of the country, but 
their trade of late years has been chiefly in the West 
and South. 

Their largest business, however, is their lumber 
trade in the forests of West Virginia, in which they 
yearly employ a million of capital. They are at 
present furnishing most of the railroad ties .used by 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

The other principal industries with which Mr. 
Baker is identified are the Ligonier Valley Railroad, 
of which he was one of the projectors and is a large 
stockholder, and the Citizens' Banking Company, of 
Latrobe, which was organized in 1873. He and his 
brother, in connection with Pittsburgh capitalists, 
organized the Loyalhanna Coal and Coke Company, 
but have severed their connection with that. His 
possessions, aside from his business, are chiefly lands. 
He had no pecuniary start, and his success in business 
is due largely to his energy, tact, and good sense. He 
is modest and unassuming in manner, and has the 
confidence and respect of all with whom he comes in 
contact. He is a liberal contributor to all worthy 
causes, and has added largely to the wealth of the 
community in which he resides. He is a useful citi- 
zen, a gentleman of real worth, and richly deserves 
the admiration with which his friends delight to 
speak of him. 



JOHN RANDOLPH McGONIGAL. 

Hon. John Randolph McGonigal, long a prominent 
man in Westmoreland County, was born near Con- 
gruity Church, Dec. 5, 1812. His father was Thomas 
McGonigal, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to 
America, and married Nancy Craig. His mother 
dying when he was quite young, John was placed in 
charge of a maternal aunt, with whom he remained 
until about four years of age. He was then intrusted 
to the care of Mrs. John Tittle, with whom he re- 
mained until twelve years of age, when he was ap- 
prenticed to a Mr. Blythe to learn the trade of chair- 
making. Not liking his trade he had resolved to 
act on the advice and "go West," when he was 
offered the position of clerk in the store of Mr. Joseph 
Coulter, of Youngstown. This he accepted, and re- 
mained a sufficient time to learn the business thor- 
oughly. He continued in the merchandising business 
in different parts of the county until about 1871, 
when having by his untiring industry and unswerving 
honesty acquired a competency, and being somewhat 
afflicted physically, he spent the remaining years of 
his life in retirement in the town of Latrobe, Pa. 
Sept. 10, 1850, he married Ellen Sibbet Vance, 
youngest daughter of John Vance, Esq., of Mount 
Pleasant, Westmoreland Co. They had two children, 
—James C, who was born Sept. 8, 1852, and died June 
20, 1860, and Charles Howard, who was born Sept. 
24, 1856, and died June 17, 1860. 

Mr. McGonigal always took an active part in poli- 
tics. He was a stanch Republican, and served two 
terms as one of the representatives from this district 
(then composed of the counties of Armstrong and 
Westmoreland) in the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 
He was first elected in 1859, and re-elected the follow- 
ing year. 

John R. McGonigal was an honest and upright 
man from principle. Under all circumstances he en- 
joyed the confidence and respect of those who knew 
him, and was always amiable in disposition and gen- 
tlemanly in his manner. His sincerity and genial 
ways won for him many warm friends. He was an 
active promoter of morality in the communities in 
which he lived. He was an exemplar of the lovely 
traits of Christianity. He was a prominent officer in 
the Sunday-school for many years, and was always 
interested in whatever tended to promote his Master's 
cause. Although his last illness was protracted he 
bore his affliction with Christian fortitude, under the 
lively hope that the end of life here would be to him 
but the beginning of infinite happiness. He died 
Feb. 15, 1881, and his remains were interred in Unity 
cemetery. He was ministered unto during his last 
illness by his devoted wife, who mourns not as they 
who have no hope. 





Qs 




GEO BKINKEK. 



BERRY TOWNSHIP. 



605 



WILLIAM CHAMBERS. 

The Chambers family has long been prominent in 
Westmoreland County. The first of the name to set- 
tle here was one John Chambers, who was born in 
York, Pa. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and set- 
tled at Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland Co., in 1793. 
Here he built a mill and engaged in the manufacture 
of woolen goods. He married Leah Hartzell, of his 
native town. They had seven children, all of whom 
(except Joseph who was a Presbyterian minister, and 
resided and died at Wooster, Ohio) spent their lives in 
Westmoreland County. The children were as fol- 
lows: William, John, Elizabeth, George, Joseph, 
Daniel, and Mary. 

The subject of this sketch, William Chambers, was 
the eldest of the family, and was born in York, Pa., a 
short time before his father's removal. He worked 
in his father's mill learning the trade of carding and 
finishing cloth. He followed his trade until 1837, 
when he engaged in farming, which he followed for 
two years. He then purchased what is known as 
Findley's Flouring-Mill, on the Loyalhanna. Here 
the remainder of his life was spent. 

He married Elizabeth Leasure, second daughter of 
Daniel and Elizabeth Ryan Leasure, of Sewickley, 
Westmoreland Co. Elizabeth Ryan Leasure's father, 
Daniel, was the youngest son of Abraham Leasure, 
a native of Germany. His ancestors were natives of 
Navarre, and fled during the persecution of the Hugue- 
nots to a province on the Rhine in Germany. Here 
Abraham was born in 1735, and married a French 
wife. They emigrated to the colony of Pennsylva- 
nia, and settled near Chambersburg, some years pre- 
vious to the war of Independence. He afterwards 
settled on the "old Virginia road," leading from 
Baltimore to Fort Pitt. During the war of Indepen- 
dence he removed to the valley of the Kiskiminetas, 
where he was engaged as an Indian scout. When 
there were no Indians to encounter, he kept a train 
of pack-horses carrying merchandise from the Cone- 
cocheague to the Allegheny and its tributaries. 

After the close of the war he removed with his 
family to a farm near the present site of Pleasant 
Unity, where he located a large tract of land for 
which he obtained a deed from the heirs of Penn. 
It was then known as "Manor Land," now the David 
Pollins' farm, the " garden spot" of Westmoreland 
County. Here he remained till his death in 1805. 
His wife survived him fifteen years. They were 
both buried in the old family burial-ground upon 
the old homestead. 

Daniel Leasure was the youngest son of Abraham 
Leasure. He lived upon a part of the tract located 
by his father, what is now known as the Andrew 
Giffin farm. He was born in 1767. Before he was 
of age he was made captain of a company, and con- 
tinued in that position until fifty years of age. He 
served as captain of a company in the Indian war of 
1790. He enlisted and reported for service at Pitts- 
39 



burgh as a lieutenant in a light-horse company in 
1812, but was discharged. 

He married Elizabeth Ryan, of French-Irish de- 
scent, and raised a family of seven children, namely, 
Mary, Abraham, George, John, William, Elizabeth, 
and Jesse. 

Elizabeth was in Hannastown Fort at the time it 
was burned, and fled with the garrison to Leasure's 
Fort on the Pollins' farm. 

The original spelling of the name, as obtained from 
some very old foreign authorities, is Le Sueur. How- 
ever spelled, it has always been respectable. 

William and Elizabeth Leasure Chambers had five 
children, all of whom are living in or near Latrobe. 
They are John L., married to Eliza Glessner ; Daniel 
L., married to Mary Smith ; Jesse, married to Kezzia 
Geiger; Eliza, married to John Beatty ; ami Eli, mar- 
ried to Lydia Harvey. 

William Chambers was early instructed in the doc- 
trines of the Presbyterian Church, and for many years 
was a devoted and zealous member of that commun- 
ion. He never held political office, his active life 
being devoted entirely to his own business. By un- 
tiring industry and economy he was able to leave to 
each of his children a good pecuniary start in life, to 
which each of them has added largely since his de- 
cease. 

He died in 1851, and was buried in Unity Cemetery 
beside his wife, who died in 1840. 



GEORGE BRINKER. 

The subject of this sketch, George Brinker, was 
born in Sewickley, Westmoreland County, Pa., June 
22, 1801. He was the youngest son of George and 
Catharine Brinker, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. 
His early life was spent upon his father's farm. His 
opportunities for an education were such as the dis- 
trict schools of that period afforded. He was mar- 
ried to Anna Thompson, who was of Scotch descent, 
and a native of Sewickley, November 12, 1822. Their 
children were as follows: Catharine, who married 
James Hill ; Robert, who first married Elizabeth 
Mansfield, and after her death married Martha Rob- 
erts ; Elizabeth, who married H. Cummings; Cy- 
rus, who married Jennie Hughes; Richard, who 
married Rebecca Griffith ; Malinda and Jeremiah, 
unmarried, and two who died in infancy. 

Mr. Brinker's home was near his birthplace till 
1846, when he moved to a farm now occupied by a 
part of the borough of Latrobe. His entire active 
business life was spent in farming and stock-raising. 
He was noted for his industry and correct business 
habits. By economy and good management he accu- 
mulated enough property to enable him to retire from 
active business, and live at ease during the latter 
years of his life. His life was one of usefulness to 
the communities in which he lived. He left to his 
family valuable possessions, consisting chiefly in 



606 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



lands. He died March 10, 1874, and his remains lie 
buried in Unity cemetery. His wife, Anna, died 
September 18, 1880. 



HON. WILLIAM DONNELLY. 

John Donnelly, a gentleman of fine scholarship 
and culture, emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland, 
in 1798, and settled in York County, Pa. He remained 
here but a short time, and then removed to Berlin, 
Somerset Co., Pa., where he married Margaret Atchi- 
son. They remained in Somerset County until 1816, 
when they removed to a farm in Derry township, 
Westmoreland Co., where they spent the remainder 
of their lives. John died Dec. 29, 1826, and Marga- 
ret died in September, 1853. They had seven chil- 
dren, viz., John, Thomas, Mary, James, Isabella, 
Sarah, and William, who was born Aug. 5, 1817. He 
received his early education in the subscription 
schools of the neighborhood, and afterwards attended 
select schools, in which he studied land surveying 
and kindred subjects. 

He learned the carpentry trade, but never followed 
it, and has since been engaged in the various callings 
of school-teaching, boating, farming, salt-making, 
hotel-keeping, oil-producing, and milling. Money 
getting or keeping has not been the sole object in life 
with him, and he has been satisfied with a comfort- 
able living, honestly earned^ --His private life has 
been one of industry, integrity, and economy. These 
admirable qualities have characterized his public life. 



He has served six years as secretary of the school 
board of Derry township, and the intelligent manner 
in which he has discharged his duties has convinced 
his neighbors that they and the great cause which is 
so dear to them have in Hon. William Donnelly a 
true friend. He was elected to the State Legislature 
by the Democratic party, and served in the sessions 
of 1S77 and 1878. True to the primitive doctrines of 
his party as expounded by Jefferson, and his own 
convictions, his constituents found in him a faithful 
representative, who voted intelligently and for their 
best interests upon every act brought before the body, 
of which he was one of the most honored and useful 
members. The bill " extending the jurisdiction of jus- 
tices of the peace" received his earnest support. He 
introduced two important bills, one, and the first of 
the kind ever introduced in a Pennsylvania Legisla- 
ture, was " to equalize freight and passenger rates, 
and forbade free passes on railroads." Corporation 
influences were too strong, and it was defeated in 
committee. The other was " to pay county officers a 
! salary instead of the fees then charged, etc." It met 
a like fate in committee. Public-spirited, he is ever 
ready to favor with voice and pen whatever his judg- 
ment approves, or oppose what he deems incompati- 
ble with the public weal. 

He was married to Susan, daughter of Daniel H. 
and Mary Barr, of Blairsville, Sept. 27, 1853. To 
them were born seven children, viz., Mary G., John 
H., Margaret I., William A., Pauline F., Daniel B., 
and Hugh J. 



->~o«e>-t- 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION, Etc. 
Washington Township was legally organized in 
1789. The erection resulted from the following peti- 
tion : 

" Upon tbe petition of Sundry of the inhabitants of Siilem township 
to the court, praying that a division of the said township might he made 
by their worships in such manner as they should judge most convenient 
and proper, as the extent of the said township is at present so great as 
to put it out of the power of a constable to do his duty therein. And the 
distance is too great to attend elections from the extremities of the town- 
ship, as in some measure to deprive them from attending the same." 

The above petition was read and continued at a 
prior meeting of the court, for the minutes read : 

" Petition read and continued, and now at the July session, 1789. The 
court, considering the large extent of Salem township, order that that 
part of said township, beginning at the line between Salem and Frank- 
lin townships ; thence by an easterly course to the head of a branch of 
Beaver Kun that runs through the lands of William Hall and Joseph 
Thorn ; thence down said branch to where it empties into tbe main 



branch ; thence an easterly course to where it strikes the Kiskiminetas 
or Loyalbanna, — which said division or boundary is to be hereafter 
known by tbe name of Washington township." 

The only villages in this township are North Wash- 
ington and Oakland Cross-Roads. The principal 
stream is Beaver Run, which forms the eastern 
boundary of the township; Pike and Poke Runs are 
streams of minor importance, although of vast benefit 
to the farms through which they pass. In the centre, as 
also in the southern part, extensive veins of coal exist. 
These are largely developed, but in the other por- 
tions of the township there is coal, but it is not mined 
to a very great extent. The principal industry is 
agriculture, and the prosperous and tidy aspect of the 
farms and residences attests to the attention paid by 
their thrifty owners. Its inhabitants number some 
of the best families of the county, and the appear- 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 



607 



ance of the township shows its wide-spread prosperity. 
It was named in honor of President Washington. 

PIONEERS. 
Among the early settlers were the Walters, Sloans, 
McKowns, Kerns, Branthoovers, McKillips, Cham- 
bers, Hills, Rughs, Calhouns, Steels, Georges, Bairs, 
Yoekeys, Thompsons, Brineys, MeQuilkins, Mc- 
Quaids, Halls, and McCutheons. 

SCHOOLS. 
The tirst school was organized in 1808, on the farm 
now owned by Daniel Hilty. It was taught by an 
Irishman named Timothy Collins. The house was 
built of logs, lighted by strips of greased paper pasted 
on the crevices between the logs, and heated by an 
old-fashioned fireplace. These were the days when 
corporal punishment was administered with a ven- 
geance. About the same time Charles Foster kept a 
school in an old deserted log building on the farm 
now owned by Joseph Neely. Not long after this 
Joseph Muffly taught several sessions in the town- 
ship. His teaching was an improvement on the age 
in which he taught. The township adopted the free- 
school system about 1836, at a sharply-contested elec- 
tion. Among the first directors were Alexander 
Thompson, John Reed, and Adam Bowman. The 
first teachers were John McCormick, John Duff, S. 
McCormick, and others. The first examiner was 
John Craig, who had also been a teacher, and was 
followed by several others up to the time of the 
county superintendency. In the fall of 1853, a 
teachers' institute was organized by the teachers at 
their own expense, which is said to have been among 
the first district institutes ever held in the State. 
Among the teachers were W. H. Townsend, J. H. 
Gill, A. J. Thompson, and S. G. Thompson. 



POKE RUN 



PRESBYTERIAN 
TERY. 



CHURCH AND CEME- 



In 1783 or 1784, Joseph Thorn, William Hill, John 
Hamilton, James Paul, David Carnahan, and others 
applied to the Presbytery to have preaching at Poke 
Run, the name of the stream running along past the 
base of the hill on which this ancient church now 
stands. Its site was then thickly covered with poke, 
and the first house erected there stood not far from a 
spring in John Miller's field, and was part of the 
time used for a school-house, in which the two firar 
teachers were Messrs. Findley and Critchalow. In l 
1789 the Poke Run congregation erected a large log I 
church edifice seventy by thirty feet, on the same 
site where the present brick building stands, and 
applied to the Presbytery for preaching. On Sept. 
22, 1790, Rev. Samuel Porter was installed as its 
pastor. He was ordained with Rev. John McPherrin 
on James McKee's farm in Congruity. Poke Run 
was then a frontier settlement exposed to the incur- 
sions of the Indians, who frequently committed ter- 
rible depredations in that vicinity and on the other 



side of the Allegheny River. During the few first 
years of his pastorate some of his congregation 
were obliged to carry their rifles with them to the 
house of worship. His pastoral relations continued 
until April 11, 1798, when he resigned so as to devote 
his entire time to the Congruity congregation, which 
with Poke Run had before been his charge. There 
was then no regular preaching until 1799 or 1800, 
when Rev. Francis Laird came over the mountains 
from the East, and began preaching to Poke Run 
and Plum Creek congregations united. He was 
installed as pastor in Conrad Ludwig's meadow ; 
June 22, 1800, that being a middle position between 
the two congregations. This was in 1800. He was 
pastor for twenty-nine years and six months, and 
then accepted a call from the church at Murrys- 
ville. The next two years there was supply preach- 
ing by Revs. Alexander and Martin, — the latter a 
Welshman, who turned out to be an impostor and 
deceived the church officers, — William McGeary, 
Samuel Hill, Alexander Thompson, John Townsend, 
Joseph Young, and James Christy, members of ses- 
sion. This was in June, 1831. 

In 1833 (May 1) Rev. James Campbell, of Arm- 
strong County, was installed as pastor and continued 
until he resigned April 1, 1834, when Rev. David 
Kirkpatrick began stated supply preaching to this 
congregation and the one at Elder's Ridge. May 9, 
1838, he was installed as pastor, and commenced his 
regular ministrations, and preached in the old log 
church and in the woods near John Miller's until the 
brick edifice was built and finished in 1836, when the 
church called him for the whole of his time at a salary 
of six hundred dollars per year. Mr. Kirkpatrick 
continued as pastor near until his death, Jan. 5, 
1869 (having resigned June 23, 1868), a period of 
thirty years. 1 In 1812, the members of the session 
were John Hamilton, James Paul, William Hill, John 
Given, Joseph Thorn, Samuel Paul, and William 
Guthrie. After them were John Townsend, Samuel 
Hill, James Christy, Alexander Thompson, William 
McGeary, and Joseph Young ; then followed Alexan- 
der Cowan, Obadiah McCowan, Andrew McCutheon, 
William Stewart, and Robert McQuilkin, after whom 
were John Ralston, James Thompson, James Sloan, 



,, * The Rev. David Kirkpatrick, D.D., died at his residence at Oakland, 
Westmoreland County, on Wednesday the 5th of January, 1869. He 
was one of the leading divines connected with the Presbyterian denom- 
ination, was a remarkably fine scholar and theologian. He was born 
in Ireland, and was a graduate of the University of Belfast. For some 
years he occupied the position of principal of the academy at Milton, 
Pa., an institution which numbers among its graduates such men as 
Ex-Governor fjurtin, Rev. D. X. .Tunkin, D.D., Rev. G. Marshall, D.D., 
and many others who have become prominent. For many years subse- 
quent he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Poke Run, in this 
county, one of the largest congregations in Western Pennsylvania, and 
during his pastorate won the love and esteem not only of the members 
of his own charge but of all with whom he became associated. He had 
reached the advanced age of seventy-four years, and although his death 
was not entirely unexpected, it will cause sincere regret among his 
numerous friends and acquaintances. He was the father of Judge John 
M. Kirkpatrick and William II. Kirkpatrick, Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pa. 



608 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



William McQuilkin, John Dickey, and Henry Weis- 
ter. When Mr. Kirkpatriek was installed in 1835, 
they were Samuel Hill, John Townsend, Alexander 
Thompson, William McGeary, James Christy, Jo- 
seph Young, and William Guthrie. In 1875 they 
were Henry Rose and James Paul. Rev. Henry 
Bain, from Ohio, succeeded Mr. Kirkpatriek in 1869, 
and is the present learned and popular pastor. Under 
his pastorate the congregation has largely increased 
in membership, and through earnest labors a new 
church edifice, built of brick and in modern style, 
was erected and dedicated in 1881. This church re- 
ceived Rev. John McMillan as its first supply Oct. 
18, 1785, under the designation " Head of Turtle 
Creek ;" and April 9, 1780, Rev. James Power, under 
the name of " Poke Run." When Mr. Porter, the 
first pastor, came with his family, he encamped by a 
large fallen tree, set up two forks twelve feet from 
it, laid a pole between them, and others as rafters 
from it to the log, from which he stripped bark 
enough to cover it, as a shed under which to sleep 
and study, while the part outside of the post was a 
durable back-log for their fire ; and thus they lived 
until a house could be erected. The present pastor, 
Rev. Henry Bain, having graduated at the Western 
Theological Seminary in April, 1869, was called 
immediately to Poke Run, and on the first Sab- 
bath in May began to preach here, and was or- 
dained and installed June 22d of that year. Rev. T. 
R. Ewing preached at this installation, Dr. McFarren 
presided and made the ordaining prayer, A. Torrance 
charged the pastor, and J. A. Marshall the people. 
Though of good Seceder and Associate Reform stock, 
he joined the Presbyterian Church at a great revival at 
Haysville, Okio. He has entirely remodeled the style 
of worship at Poke Run. The use of tokens, table- 
seats, and the Scotch version of psalms, all in vogue 
when he came, has given away to the usages of sur- 
rounding Presbyterian Churches. The right-hand 
elders of Rev. Kirkpatriek in his long pastorate were 
Hon. Samuel Hill, Joseph Thompson, and John 
Townsend, Sr. This church is by far the most wealthy, 
harmonious, and unchanging of all the country 
churches in the Blairsville Presbytery, and was made 
such by the labors and prayers of two stated supplies 
and five pastors during a period of ninety-seven 
years. It has produced from its congregation one 
able and eloquent minister, Rev. Daniel W. Town- 
send. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

This church was erected at Oakland Cross-Roads 
in 1875, and dedicated in the fall. When built there 
were but few Methodists in the neighborhood. It is a 
neat frame structure, and was erected mainly through 
the means and exertions of James Mehaffey, aided by 
Moses Miller and his two sons, James and John, and 
John Walter. It belongs to the Sardis Circuit, and 
the present pastor is Rev. W. S. Cummings. 



PINE RUN REFORMED CHURCH. 
This congregation, near North Washington, was 
organized conditionally April, 1861, with twenty- 
seven members. These members belonged previously 
to the St. James congregation, near Salina, but the 
distance being too great to attend divine worship 
regularly at that church, they were dismissed for the 
purpose of forming a new congregation. The names 
of those thus dismissed were John Yockey, Jacob 
Weister, John Gumbert, Sr., Simon Kuukle, Libby 
Kunkle, William W. Weister, Elizabeth Weister, Ja- 
cob H. Yockey, Dorcas Yockey, Conrad Beighley, 
Catharine Beighley, Susanna Gumbert, Daniel Gum- 
bert, Christiana Gumbert, Leah Kunkle, Elizabeth 
Muffley, Samuel Fry, Margaret Fry, Joseph Knap- 
penberger, Anna Knappenberger, Jacob Waugaman, 
Mary Waugaman, John Waugaman, Mary Lauder, 
Franklin Kunkle, Israel Muffley, and Susanna Auk. 
The congregation was attached to the Salem charge, 
of which Rev. R. P. Thomas was then pastor, and 
consequently he continued to minister to this people, 
as he had done while they yet belonged to the St. 
James congregation, which was also a part of the 
Salem charge. Services were held every other Lord's 
day, in the afternoon, at the " Yockey school-house." 
John Yockey generously donated one acre of ground 
as a site for a church and graveyard ; a subscription 
was taken, and a building committee appointed to 
carry out the project of erecting a church. This 
committee consisted of Cenrad Beighley, Daniel 
Gumbert, and Elder John Yockey. The corner- 
stone of the proposed edifice was laid June 5, 1862, 
the pastor being assisted in the ceremonies by Rev. 
C. C. Russell. The same day John Yockey and Ja- 
cob Weister were elected elders, and Simon Kunkle 
and Jacob H. Yockey deacons. The building was 
dedicated August 30th following with dedicatory ser- 
mon by Rev. G. B. Russell, of Pittsburgh. The next 
day eleven new members were added to the congrega- 
tion, — nine by the rite of confirmation, and two by 
renewal of profession. Those entering into the con- 
gregation at first contributed towards building the 
church as follows: John Yockey, one acre of land 
and $100; John Gumbert, Sr., $100 ; Simon Kunkle. 
Leah Kunkle, Jacob Weister, William W. Weister, 
Conrad Beighley, J. H. Yockey, Daniel Gumbert, 
c:nli $50; Israel Muffley, $25; Susanna Gumbert, 
$10 ; Joseph Knappenberger and John Waugaman, 
each $5. The balance to pay the contractor was con- 
tributed by persons who became members afterwards, 
and by persons in the neighborhood who were friendly 
to the enterprise. Rev. R. P. Thomas continued the 
pastor until the spring of 1863, and added fifteen 
members during his pastorate of two years. His suc- 
cessor was Rev. Thomas J. Barklay, in April, 1863, t 
who remained in charge to the end of 1866, when the 
St. James and Pine Run congregations were consti- 
tuted a new charge, called the St. James. During 
his ministry nineteen were added to the communi- 



"■«*•: 





ctsvntJ 







WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 



609 



cant and twelve to the baptized membership. He 
organized a Sunday-school May 8, 1864, of which 
Cyrus Kunkle was elected superintendent, William 
Weister assistant, J. D. Louffer secretary, and John 
Yoclcey secretary and treasurer. It increased until it 
numbered sixty-six teachers and scholars. Rev. T. 
F. Stauffer succeeded him in 1867, and was the first 
pastor of the St. James charge proper. From this 
time on Pine Run congregation received half of the 
pastor's time, which gave it new life and prosperity. 
He resigned September, 1871, to accept of a call to 
the Wilkinsburg Mission, Allegheny County. 

During his pastorate fifty-nine full members were 
enrolled upon the church-book, and eighty-four chil- 
dren baptized. He changed the services from the 
afternoon to the forenoon of Sundays, which revived 
the Sunday-school, for which he secured a good new 
library. His successor was Rev. J. B. Welty, who 
began his labors in September, 1872, but only re- 
mained one year, having decided to engage in mission- 
work in Iowa. He added fourteen members by con- 
firmation and certificate. Rev. John Grant, and then 
Rev. John McConnell, each served the congregation 
as supply for a period of six months. The latter re- 
ceived one by confirmation and three children by 
baptism. In June, 1875, this congregation was 
stricken off from St. James' charge and erected into 
a charge by itself. In July following Rev. Henry 
Bair became the pastor of this new charge. In 1877 
this charge numbered one hundred and six confirmed 
and eighty-seven baptized members, owned a substan- 
tial church edifice, and was free from debt. Its offi- 
cials then were : Elders, John Yockey, Daniel Lauffer, 
John Gumbert, Sr. ; deacons, Simon Kunkle, P. K. 
Gumbert, Asa Blose ; trustees, John Yockey and 
Simon Kunkle ; chorister, J. D. Lauffer. The Sun- 
day-school then had upon its roll twelve teachers and 
eighty-five scholars : Its officers were : Superinten- 
dent, Frederick Wigle ; secretary, Jacob H. Yockey ; 
librarian, P. K. Gumbert; treasurer, John Gumbert, 
Sr. ; choristers, A. B. Hill and J. D. Lauffer. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

JAMES SLOAN. 
Among the original and good people of this county 
may be classed the Sloan family, to which Mr. James 



Sloan belongs. The old stock came from Scotland 
ami Ireland, and settled in what is now Franklin 
County, near the Maryland line. 

The great-grandmother was captured by the. Indians 
and taken to the Indian village of Kittanning. She 
was kept a prisoner for two years and a half. When 
on a hunting expedition with the Indians one even- 
ing the party came upon a trail ; one of the number 
asked where that trail led to, when one of the Indians 
said it led to a white settlement, — Fort Wyoming. 
This was the first chance during these many months 
to escape. During the night this white woman left 
the hunting-camp and took the path through the 
dense woods to the white settlement. She traveled 
for three nights, hiding herself during the daytime; 
after great suffering she at last reached Fort Wyom- 
ing, and returned to her home. The grandfather, 
Robert Sloan, was born and lived in Franklin County, 
dying at the age of seventy-eight. 

The father of James Sloan, John, came with his 
wife, Elizabeth, to Westmoreland County in the fall 
of 1797, and settled in Salem township, on land owned 
now by ex-Superintendent H. M. Jones. John Sloan 
and Elizabeth Steel were married in 1795 or 1796. 
The land through the southern part of the county 
was owned by one James Campbell, from whom John 
Steel bought a mill and divided with his brother-in- 
law, John Sloan. There were three sons and two 
daughters born to John and Elizabeth Sloan, viz. : 
Robert, John, James, Mary, and Eliza. 

Robert Sloan, by trade a wheelwright, bachelor, 
died near Clarksburg. 

John S., a farmer, married Jane Christy, lived on 
farm adjoining old homestead ; died 1878. 

Mary, married Charles McLaughlin, lived near La- 
trobe; had four children, three still living. 

Eliza, married to James McKelvy, farmer, near 
Clarksburg, Indiana Co., Pa. ; still living. 

James Sloan, whose portrait is here given, was born 
in Salem township on May 14, 1806 ; remained on the 
old farm fifty years. Married, June 15, 1827, to Miss 
Margaret Alcorn. Moved in the spring of 1856 to 
the farm he now lives on in Washington township. 
Mr. Sloan has five children living,— John, Eliza, 
William, Nancy, and James. Among his grandchil- 
dren is A. M. Sloan, Esq., of the Greensburg bar. 
Mr. Sloan has filled important positions in the county 
and in the church. He is a clear and steady-headed 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION. 
The exact date of the organization of Franklin 
township, in Westmoreland County, is not fixed by 
satisfactory record evidence. It was erected, however, 
between 1785 and 1788, for at the October sessions of 
1785 there was no such township, and at the October 
session of 1788 it is named, as is also Salem, and its 
constable was in attendance at court. 

PIONEER SETTLERS. 
To William Meanor, Eobert Hays, Michael Rugh, 
Mr. Finley, John Hill, Mr. Stitt, Matthew Gorden, 
and others belongs the honor of being the first to 
settle in the township. 

William Meanor bought a claim from an Indian 
for a keg of tobacco and a rifle, and after locating the 
claim by a "tomahawk survey," built the first house 
in the township on the farm now owned by John 
Rubright. 

On April 3, 1769, Robert Hays made application 
to the government for land, and in consideration of 
forty-five pounds two shillings and sixpence was 
granted a tract of three hundred and thirty-nine and 
a half acres. He built a house soon after, within a 
few feet of the one now occupied by David Steele, 
which was the second one in the township. These 
cabins or dwellings were built of logs, with puncheon 
floors and wooden (stick) chimneys. The furniture 
consisted of a rude wooden table, split logs for benches, 
a rifle-rack, etc. The early settlers all came from be- 
yond the mountains in the eastern part of the State. 

For a few years these hardy pioneers prospered. 
Other settlers came, and the wilderness was gradually 
being transformed into fertile fields, when the Indians 
became troublesome, and a warfare commenced which 
only ended when the savages were driven from the 
country. In 1778, Michael Rugh and family, con- 
sisting of a wife, son, and daughter, were captured 
by the Indians and taken to their camp near the 
present Oil City, where they spent the winter. They 
were taken the following spring to Canada, where 
they were held for three years. Upon their release 
they were sent to New York City, and from thence 
they made their way back to their home, on the farm 
now owned by John Haymaker. When peace was 
established and the State government formed, Michael 
Rugh was elected to the House of Representatives. 
When his term expired he returned to his farm, where 
he resided until his death in 1820. His son died 

CIO 



during his captivity, and his wife in 1809. His daugh- 
ter was married to Jacob Haymaker in 1794, and her 
son, John Haymaker, now lives on the place settled 
by Michael Rugh. 

Robert Hays and his son were also captured by 
the Indians and held for three years. During their 
stay with the Indians the son acquired such a taste 
for the wild life of the woods that he was with diffi- 
culty persuaded to leave them, and after his return to 
the settlements he spent nearly all his time in hunt- 
ing and fishing. After Robert Hays was released he 
returned to his farm, and during another raid by the 
savages he was killed in the doorway of his dwelling. 
In early times, when a man wished to settle on a 
tract of land, he made what was called a " toma- 
hawk survey" by going around the tract and blazing 
the trees which would inclose his claim. Possession 
of the tract for twenty-one years would give him a 
color of title. 

Samuel Sword was the first constable elected. The 
first schools were established in 1800, in which read- 
ing, writing, spelling, and arithmetic were all the 
studies taught. The first grist-mill and store were 
at Murrysville. Among the first saw-mills was one 
built by William McWilliams, at which in early times 
was sawed nearly all th« timber for the surrounding 
meeting-houses. 

In the latter part of the last century Patrick Mc- 
Kinney was an old-fashioned Irish tailor, who peram- 
bulated from house to house, making what was called 
home-made cloth coats for the farmers and their sons. 
He was fond of his cups. About 1805 he went from 
what was called Burbridge's cabins (where he had a 
kind of home with an old man named Boyd) to the 
old still-house. Here he got his coffee-pot filled with 
whiskey and started for his home, about three-fourths 
of a mile distant. On his way he was seen by Wil- 
liam Richey, who was plowing in a field where now 
is Michael Ringer's orchard. Just on the top of the 
hill he sat down on a large rock that lay close to the 
bridle-path that went from Walthour's block-house 
to Carnahan's block-house, the former a short dis- 
tance southwest of Harrison City, and the latter a 
little north of Perrysville, in Bell township. Here 
McKinney sat down to rest. Here he was found in 
a drunken stupor by George Hall, who was on his 
way home from a blacksmith-shop that stood a little 
way from John Larimer's, and by William Richey, 
who both tried to carry Pat to his home, but ere they 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 



611 



reached it his life's spark had fled. He was buried 
in Riddle's graveyard. His cabin stood near a spring 
in what was called Samuel McMahan's walnut patch, 
above Doncaster's old steam-mill. 

In 1807 William McConnel married Susan Mc- 
Henry, wtiere John W. Riddle now lives. His grand- 
father had forty or more years before entered a large 
tract of land, on which William erected a log house, 
near where John Steel's cider-press used to be. John 
%IcConuel, son of William McConnel, who settled in 
this township before the close of the Revolution, mar- 
ried Nancy McKee, and inherited the five-hundred- 
acre tract of his father. 

About 1776 Jonathan, the father of Jacob Hill, 
took up a tract of land near the township line now 
occupied by Geiger, Slocum, Silvis, Steele, Smith, 
and others. In the spring he went over to Philip 
Drum's to make some arrangements and get some 
apple-trees to plant where Lewis Geiger or Adam 
Huffman lives. On his return Jonathan Hill was 
waylaid just on the ridge back of Joseph Lauffer's 
and scalped by a band of Indians. He was buried 
near where Drum's Church is. His son, Jacob Hill, 
inherited all his property and erected an old-fash- 
ioned distillery. 

Among the early settlers were the Wilsons, Bor- 
lands, Humes, Bethunes, Riddles, Wallaces, Beemers, 
Ramaleys, Andersons, Walps, Hamiltons, Dices, 
Lairds, Longs, Elwoods, Fergusons, Hays, Pattersons, 
McCutcheons, Haymakers, Berlins, McCalls, Rughs, 
Kings, Chambers, Snyders, Kuhus, Oglees, Teogers, 
McAlisters, Tallants, WTgles, Dibles, Beacons, Parks, 
and Taylors.- 

About 1820 and 1825 the original surveys or large 
farms had mostly passed into the hands of the second 
generation. Four, five, and sometimes six hundred 
acres composed an original farm, but by 1835 they 
were all subdivided among the heirs. 

The most prominent of the early schoolmasters 
was William Masters, a man of small stature, but of 
resolute will and energy. 

Old George Anient used to boast that he could go 
through the township on a good frosty day and tell 
with exactness at every barn whether the thrashing 
was done by the day or by the bushel without inquiry, 
but simply by the difference in the stroke of the flail, 
the stroke in the one case being so much quicker and 
more vigorous than in the other. 

The venerable widow of John Reager still lives at 
her old home just north of Sardis Post-office, in the 
northwestern part of the township. She is ninety- 
three years of age, and recollects all the incidents of ■ 
the Indian massacres in the country that happened 
seven or eight years before her birth, as narrated to j 
her by those who witnessed or participated in them. 

THE BERLIN FAMILY. 
In 1794 one of the soldiers who came from Eastern 
Pennsylvania in the army to put down the " Whiskey I 



Insurrection" was Jacob Berlin. He got a furlough in 
Pittsburgh to come out to that part of Franklin town- 
ship now included in Penn, to visit his uncle, Jacob 
Berlin, who had settled there some twenty years before. 
He so liked the country that in the spring of 1795 he 
returned with his wife, formerly Miss Eve Carbaugh. 
He finally settled between the Fink and Lauffer 
farms. His children were four daughters and six 
sons, viz. : Polly, married to Henry Smith, Catharine, 
to Jonathan Keithler, Lydia, to Daniel Knappen- 
berger, Sally, to George Detter, John, Frederick, Jo- 
seph, Samuel, Powell, and Elias, of whom Powell 
removed to Forest County, Frederick to Clarion, and 
John to State of Ohio. Col. Elias Berlin, the youngest 
son, was born in 1803, and married Sarah, daughter 
of George Anient. His children were four boys and 
five girls, viz. : Israel, Henry, Joseph, Cornelius Elias, 
Mahala, married to Nicholas King, Maria, Esther, 
married to Joseph Lauffer, Katy Ann, to Isaac Ringer, 
and Seruah, to James Chambers. His brother John 
served in the war of 1812. His farm is on the Pitts- 
burgh and New Alexandria turnpike. He killed sev- 
eral wild-cats, bear, and deer when a boy in this 
township, and picked up many bullets on the battle- 
field of Bouquet, where the Indians were defeated. 

THE BORLAND FAMILY. 
John Borland was born in 1750 in County Antrim, 
Ireland, and came to America the first time about 
1769. He crossed the ocean five times. He returned 
to Ireland in 1775, and was prevented by the Ameri- 
can Revolution, then just beginning, from returning 
until 1781, when he brought with him his two broth- 
ers, Samuel and Matthew, the former settling on the 
Manor (now Penn township), and the latter locating 
in Washington County. John came to Franklin 
township in 1790, and entered some five hundred 
acres of land, part of which is the homestead of his 
son, Maj. Thomas Borland, who was there born in 
1805. His neighbors were Charles Wilson (owning 
the lands now possessed by Judge John W. Riddle) 
and David Crookshanks. He married in 1791 Mar- 
garet, daughter of William Carnes, who lived two 
miles out on the Manor. His wife's brother married 
a daughter of Charles Wilson. John Borland had a 
very extensive distillery twenty rods below the pres- 
ent Borland homestead, in the hollow. His children 
were John, William, Rachel (died young), Andrew 
(became a printer and went to Missouri), James 
(owned the place where Cornelius E. Berlin resides), 
Samuel, Thomas, and Margaret (married to William 
McQuaid). Thomas, the only survivor of these chil- 
dren, married in 1847 Jane, daughter of Robert Wil- 
son, of Salem township. John Borland bought his 
land of William Ellison, Jr., in 1790, for ten shillings 
per acre, which had been entered by Ellison at the 
same time that A. M. Boyd entered his tract. John 
Borland, Jr., was in the war of 1812, and served at 
the siege of Fort Meigs under Gen. Harrison. The 



612 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



first school-house in this neighborhood was on the 
Borland farm. It was built in 1799, and in 1812 was 
removed to another part of the farm towards the 
Manor. Samuel Milligan was its teacher for over six- 
teen years, who received six dollars a year from each 
scholar by subscription. John Borland died in 1830, 
aged eighty years, and his wife, Margaret (Carnes), in 
1861, aged ninety-seven. His sister, who married 
Judge Potts, of Johnstown, died shortly afterwards. 

THE RIDDLE FAMILY. 
John and Robert Riddle, brothers, came from the 
north of Ireland about 1767, and first stopped with 
Charles Wilson, whose wife was their aunt. They 
both served in the Revolution, and Robert died in 
camp. After the close of the war John married Isa- 
bella Gaut, and settled on land where " Burnt Cabin 
Summit" is, now owned by Thomas McQuaid. He 
died in 1793. His children were John, Robert, and 
Mary, whose first husband was a McMaster, and sec- 
ond John Gordon. Robert, the second child, married 
Mary, daughter of John Williamson, of Salem town- 
ship. His childreu were Nancy, Susan, Isabella 
(married to John Mock), and Judge John W. Riddle. 
The latter was born in 1812, and married in 1838 to 
Margaret Jack McMahan. In 1864 he was elected a 
representative in the State Legislature, and in 1871 
was chosen for five years one of the associate judges 
of the Common Pleas Court. His father, Robert, 
died in 1863, aged seventy-eight years. 

THE WILSON FAMILY. 
Charles Wilson settled in Westmoreland County 
before the burning of Hannastown. He had five 
hundred acres of land in Franklin township (of which 
the Judge Riddle farm is a part), and four hundred 
acres near Beaver. His four daughters were respec- 
tively married to Samuel McMahan, William Jack, 
Matthew Jack, and James Carnes. 

THE SNYDER FAMILY. 
In the last quarter of the past century Matthias 
Snyder with his wife, Betsey (Kuhns), came from 
Northampton County, and settled in Hempfield town- 
ship, four miles south of Salem. They located on 
the farm where their son Daniel died in 1881. Mat- 
thias died in 1813, and his wife in 1816. Their chil- 
dren were Molly, John, who settled near New Alex- 
andria, where his family is; Peter, who removed to 
Missouri ; Jacob, Daniel, and Jonathan, living with 
his nephew, Joseph Snyder, near New Alexandria. 
Of these, Jacob Snyder was born March 16, 1797, 
and in 1823 married Mary, daughter of Frederick 
and Christina (Harmon) Marchand. His children 
are Daniel, Lavina, married to Levi Long; Sarah, 
married to Ebenezer Steel; Susan, Jonathan, Rev. 
Jacob F., and Matthias. He learned the carpenter's 
trade with Jacob Dry, whom he helped to build the 
frame house in Salem that formerly stood where Mrs. 
John Quilkin's present brick residence is. Jacob 



Dry was a noted builder in his day, and erected the 
Union Churches at Manor and Brush Creek. Jacob 
Snyder came in 1831 to Franklin township, and set- 
tled on the farm on which he now resides. He pur- 
chased it from the assignees of the Greensburg Bank 
that had failed. It was a part of an original tract 
entered by John Moore, who willed it to his son 
Isaac. His father, Matthias Snyder, served in the 
Revolution. His son, Rev. Jacob F. Snyder, has 
been a prominent minister in the Reformed Church 
since 1865. He preached a year and a half in Arm- 
strong County, and since then in this, residing in this 
township near his father's residence and the scene of 
his labors. 

THE HUMES FAMILY. 

John Humes, an early emigrant from north of 
Ireland and a soldier in the Revolutionary war, set- 
tled at its close in this township with James Gibson. 
His land was a tract called "Southampton," con- 
sisting of two hundred and twenty-eight acres and 
one hundred and fifty perches, which had been sur- 
veyed by a warrant dated Aug. 26, 1786, to James 
Gibson, and for which the patent was issued March 
22, 1804. His children were James, John, born 
May 20, 1797 ; Thomas, still living in New Salem ; 
Nancy, married to Moses Clark ; Jane, married to 
Mr. Humes, of Crawford County ; Ann, married to 
John McCall ; and Margaret, married to Isaac Clark, 
of Ohio. John Humes was in the war of 1812, and 
was wounded in the leg. The family has ever been 
members of the Seceders' Church. John married 
for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Park, 
Dec. 27, 1821. She was born Sept. 15, 1802. Their 
children were William P., born Aug. 22, 1826, and 
postmaster at Manor Dale ; James G, born Nov. 24, 
1827 ; John F., born July 10, 1831. His second wife 
was Sarah, daughter of John Watters, born March 
9, 1800, whom he married Feb. 12, 1835. By this 
union were born the following children : Thomas 
McQuilkin, Jan. 19, 1837 ; Mary Jane, Nov. 7, 1838, 
and married to George R. Ramaley ; and Jeremiah, 
who died in infancy. John Humes died May 27, 
1869, and Elizabeth (Park), his first wife, Nov. 10, 
1833. The land settled by John Humes, the emi- 
grant, was some three hundred acres, overrunning 
the original survey, and is nearly all owned now by 
his three grandsons, William P. and James G. Humes 
and George R. Ramaley. 

THE DUFF FAMILY. 
John and Alexander Mcllduff were two brothers 
who came from Ireland and settled in this township 
about 1780, on a tract of three hundred and thirty- 
one acres, " with an allowance proportioned to six 
per cent.," in pursuance of a warrant dated Aug. 26, 
1786, which tract was surveyed by John Moore, dep- 
uty surveyor. It was bounded then by the lands of 
William Callan, Peter Hill, Philip Drum, James 
Gibson, and Michael Hoffman (or Joseph Work- 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 



613 



man's). This tract is now owned by John, Robert, 
William, and Mary Duff and Ebenezer Steel. The 
name Mcllduff was, after a few years, changed to 
Duff. John Mcllduff had two brothers, — Oliver 
and Alexander. His children were Alexander, born 
1783, and died in 1854; John, Robert, and Ann, 
married to John Watt. Of these, Alexander mar- 
ried Mary Lusk, who came from Ireland with her 
parents when she was only three years old. By this 
union were born the following children : John, Mary 
(unmarried), Ann, died single, William, Elizabeth, 
married to William Chambers, Alexander (deceased), 
Margaret, married to John Doncaster, and Matilda, 
married to Dr. James C. Laughrey, of Pittsburgh. 

John Duff and his wife built their cabin and 
cleared a small corn-patch, and the following year, 
when they were walking out one Sunday evening, 
leading their little and oldest boy by the hand, and 
were returning from their walk, they saw a smoke 
arise towards their cabin, when he ran forward, by 
good hick only far enough to get a glimpse, when he 
saw it in flames and surrounded by Indians. Mr. 
Duff, with his wife and boy, hid in the thicket all 
night. At this invasion of the savages many of their 
neighbors were massacred and Hannastown burned. 
Many of the offspring of the ancestral Duffs have 
been and are still prominent in the professions of 
medicine and divinity, and among the former is Dr. 
J. H. Duff, of Pittsburgh. John Mcllduff (after- 
wards changed to Duff) was the foremost man in 
the Seceders' Church -in this region, and gave the lot 
for the old log meeting-house and graveyard from his 
vast estate. 

THE CHAMBERS FAMILY. 

In 1725 five brothers of the name of Chambers, 
emigrants from Ireland, settled on the Susquehanna 
River, in Dauphin (then Lancaster) County. After- 
wards this family removed to the Cumberland Valley, 
where its descendants laid out the town of Chambers- 
burg. One of the line of this family, John Chambers, 
located at the beginning of the century in Washing- 
ton township, where he resided when he married 
Annalena Humes, daughter of John Humes, of this 
township. Their eldest child was William Chambers, 
born near Manor Dale, Feb. 14, 1818. He was mar- 
ried in 1843 to Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander and 
Mary (Lusk) Duff. His children are James Alexan- 
der, John Humes, Mary Elizabeth (deceased), and 
Sarah Jane, married to Washington Hill. He was 
elected in 1879 on the Democratic ticket as one of 
the county jury commissioners, which position he 
still holds. His maternal grandfather, John Humes, 
was once chased by the Indians to the block-house, 
and was so hotly pursued by one of their number that 
he turned around and struck the savage in the face 
with his hat, which baffled him for a minute or so, and 
thus enabled him to reach the house, only a few rods 
away. Once when out hunting his horses, which had 
got loose and wandered off, he was pursued by the 



Indians, but taking the creek he got home safely, al- 
though the bullets from the enemy's guns grazed his 
clothing. At one time, when plowing, an Indian dog 
approached him, which he killed, and took from it a 
ring fastened to its neck by its master, who was near, 
and soon approached with several of his comrades, 
but jumping on his horses he escaped to the block- 
houses before the savages could get within shot of 

him. 

THE HAYMAKER FAMILY. 

Another prominent and early settled family was 
that of Haymaker. Jacob Haymaker, the noted 
justice of the peace in olden times, was the father of 
John, George, and Michael, who all became wealthy 
farmers and leading men of the township. The 
squire possessed a fine farm, now in possession of 
his son Michael and the heirs of George (lately de- 
ceased). As a magistrate he was peculiar, and his 
manner of dispensing justice was so different from 
the methods of justices of the present day that it is 
worth relating. He had his term of court, or law-day, 
once a week. All suitors appeared on that day, and 
the court being duly opened he announced it as his 
opinion that the best way to proceed was for all par- 
ties to settle amicably and they would feel better af- 
terwards. He would hear no case before every effort 
had been made to settle it, and invariably postponed 
the hearing to facilitate this purpose until after din- 
ner. The dinner was always ample, and both sides 
made to join and dine with him, and if they were all 
temperate people, a little old rye distilled in the 
neighborhood would be dealt around as an appetizer. 
This good cheer and the squire's good humor and 
urgent advice to settle generally had the desired 
effect, if not before dinner, very soon after, and when 
the only obstacle to the settlement was the squire's 
costs he canceled them. Such practice was not cal- 
culated to enrich the squire. The more of it he had 
the poorer he was likely to get, but the products of 
his farm were large and he enjoyed his way and had 
the respect and esteem of the people. Although of 
German extraction, he sided with the English class 
in sentiments and social habits. 

THE NEWLAND (otherwise NEWLAN) FAMILY. 
William Newlan was the founder of the village of 
Newlansburg. He built a mill and owned a good 
farm. He was a quiet, industrious, and strictly 
honest man, who came from the Sewickley Quaker 
settlement. He raised a large family of boys and 
girls, all of whom are the children of his daughter, 
Mrs. Miller, who still holds the old place. Joseph 
Miller, his son-in-law, a highly influential man, spent 
his whole life after his marriage in the same place. 
Rev. O. H. Miller, ex-State librarian, and now of 
Allegheny City, is one of his sons. 

THE MELLON FAMILY. 
Archibald Mellon, of Parish Keppey, County Ty- 
rone, Ireland, married Elizabeth Armagh, of same 



614 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



place, and in 1816 emigrated with his family to 
America, and settled in Unity township, of this 
county. His children were Armagh, Andrew, 
Samuel, Thomas, John, Archibald, and William. 
Of these, Andrew married Rebecca Walkup, born in , 
Ireland, by whom he had two sons, Judge Thomas | 
and William Mellon, and two daughters, Eleanor 
and Elizabeth. Iu 1819, Archibald (the emigrant), 
with his son Andrew, and their families, removed to 
Franklin township, where they lived until 1833, 
when they settled in Allegheny County. Archibald 
Mellon, Jr., was born in Ireland in 1796, and came 
with his parents in 1816 to this counly, and located 
first in Salem township. He married Elizabeth, 
daughter of James Stewart, in 1828, and has no 
children. He now resides in New Salem borough. 
When Andrew Mellon left the " Crab-tree Farm," in 
Unity township, he settled on the one in this town- 
ship now held by P. Kline and P. Pifer, a short dis- j 
tance north of Remaley's (now Stark's) mill. Here 
an incident occurred to his son, Thomas Mellon, ex- | 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny j 
County, and now the senior partner of " T. Mellon & 
Sons' Bank" of Pittsburgh, that changed the whole \ 
course of the future life of the then young lad. 
When ten years of age he happened into a log cabin 
of a neighbor to escape a shower of rain, and while 
there picked up a much dilapidated copy of the 
" Life of Doctor Franklin, written by himself." He 
borrowed it, and that old blurred volume, not bigger 
than a spelling-book, changed the whole course of his j 
subsequent life. It kindled his ambition for knowl- | 
edge, useful knowledge, and its maxims became the 
foundation of his professional and business success, 
which have been very great. Had it not been for this 
trivial circumstance Judge Mellon would have | 
doubtless spent his life quietly and laboriously in cul- 
tivating one of those poor farms in his old neighbor- 
hood. His father, Andrew Mellon, was one of the 
first four elders of " Cross-Roads" Presbyterian 
Church, which was organized May 6, 1836, and ceased 
to act in 1841, when he removed into Allegheny 
Count)'. 

OTHER FAMILIES AND NATIONALITIES. 

Besides these there were the Hamiltons, the Clarkes, 
the McKalips, and other English, or rather Scotch- 
Irish families, well to do and well doing, in and about 
the centre of the township. The English did not, how- 
ever, equal the Germans in numbers, the latter pre- 
dominating in 1820 two to one. The well-known and 
worthy families, the Hills, Klines, Painters, Ramaleys, 
Drums, and others were of the German stock, and were 
also in most part the second generation or next in suc- 
cession to the first settlers on the lands on which they 
resided. The Germans and English, or Scotch-Irish, 
three-quarters of a century ago here formed two sep- 
arate or distinct classes, differing in sentiments and 
social habits and customs, although never disputing 



nor opposing each other, always good neighbors, but 
not associating closely. No more generous, kind, or 
obliging neighbors could be found than the Germans, 
self-sacrificing, but in nowise selfish or self-asserting. 
In all honesty and good will their standard averaged 
rather higher than the English, but in religion and in 
social or domestic habits they were perhaps lower in 
the scale than the English. 

CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

The condition of religion in the township may be 
gathered from the following extract from a pamphlet 
on the Sunday question, written by the venerable 
Judge T. Mellon, of Pittsburgh : 

"This reminds me of the religions ideas and hahits over fifty years 
ago in that part of Westmoreland County (Franklin township) where I 
was raised. Rev. Father Wynal, of the Lutheran persuasion, was nurs- 
ing an emhryo congregation among the Germans. He resided near Salts- 
burg, but came over and preached to them every fourth Sunday, holding 
the services in the dwelling of our nearest neighbor, Peter Hill. The 
congregation has since developed into that now worshiping in a comfort- 
able brick edifice known as Hill's Church, with Mr. Snyder as pastor. 
"Well, at the time to which I refer, when Mr. Wynal was the pastor, and 
old Peter Hill, as honest a man and good a neighbor as need be, was its 
contributor, treasurer, trustee, and entire session, the Sunday on which 
preaching tctis to be at Peter's was regarded as a holiday indeed by the 
surrounding German population. They gathered from all quarters. The 
services lasted from nine till twelve a.m., when Peter's wife, Hetty, nie 
Geiger (for he was married twice, and had iu all twenty-five children), 
with the assistance of her neighbor women, would have an ample dinner 
cooked, which was not only free but welcome to all who had come to 
meeting. The dinner being over, the younger men would spend the after- 
noon in games of corner ball and pitching quoits on the green in front of 
the house, whilst Mr. Wynal and Peter and the old men Bat smoking 
their pipes on the porch, looking on at the sport with marked satisfac- 
tion. Evidently it occurred to neither pastor nor people that there was 
anything wrong or sinful in the performance. Times change, however, 
and religious observances, as well as other habits, change according to 
the prevailing fashion, for the same congregation would not now spend 
Sunday afternoon in that way. 

"At the same time we of Scotch Presbyterian proclivities had a sim- 
ilar gathering every third Sunday at Duff's Tent. Duff's Tent was a 
place in the woods with benches made of split logs, and an eight-by-ten 
box-shaped structure, boarded up and roofed, for a pulpit, and for a pas- 
tor we had the Rev. Hugh Kirkland,a fresh graduate from the theologi. 
cal school at Glasgow, aud zealous in the strictest ideas of the Scotch 
Kirk. He regarded the merits of Rouse's Version of David's Psalms 
and the enormity of Sabbath-breaking as of vital importance, and he 
preached on few topics except 'To prove the Roman Catholic Church to 
he the antichrist and whore of Babylon;' or 'The desecration of the 
Sabbath by the Lutherans;' or ' The damnable heresies of the Method- 
ists in denying the doctrines of innate depravity and predestination, and 
persisting in singing carnal songs instead of the Psalms of David.' 
This kind of preaching, however, did not bring forth good fruit, even iu 
the Scotch Presbyterian soil in which it was sown. My father allowed 
the Methodists the use of a vacant house on his place to hold their 
meetings, and several of the flock attended a Methodist meeting on one 
occasion to hear the Rev. Bascomb and some of the leading men. Mr. 
Humes joined in the singing. This the reverend gentleman regarded as 
an indignity to his teaching, and in his next sermon he took occasion to 
animadvert severely on the conduct of tho9e who, after being washed 
from their sins had, like the sow, again betaken themselves to wallow- 
ing in the mire. He was so pointed as to nearly designate the delin- 
quents by name, and this raised a row; but the straw that broke the 
camel's back was the starting of a Sabbath-school. George and Michael 
Haymaker and some other young people of his flock undertook to open 
a Sabbath-school in the school-house at Newlansburg near by. This was 
too great a saciilege for the good man to bear. He could not brook the 
desecration of the Sabbath-day by such worldly employment as school- 
teaching, and as a majority of his flock inclined to favor the Sabbath- 
school, he shook the dust from hiB feet and departed." 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 



615 



EMMANUEL REFORMED AND LUTHERAN CHURCH (UNION). 

A century ago this township, where now are beau- 
tiful farms and comfortable dwellings almost as thick 
as the stars in an evening sky, was then a dense for- 
est, save here and there a settler's cabin. The wild 
and savage Indian yet occasionally roamed over these 
hills and skulked through the valleys. Within sight 
of the church are some of the localities where his 
vengeance fell, carrying some into a terrible captivity, 
dispatching others with tomahawk and scalping- 
knife. The graves of both Indians and whites, who 
fell by each other's hands, are still pointed out to this 
day within sight of the church. Notwithstanding 
the perils of those earl) 7 days, our brave and hardy 
ancestors did not forget God, nor the " assembling of 
themselves together." To Brush Creek, three-fourths 
of a score of miles, often on foot, bearing their babes 
and little ones in their arms, they repaired for wor- 
ship. Here the little ones were baptized by Rev. 
John William Weber, the veteran pioneer Reformed 
minister of Western Pennsylvania. Within half a 
mile of the present Emmanuel Church stands the 
ancient log dwelling, now tenantless and fast going 
into decay, where three- fourths of a century ago 
Rev. Father Weber occasionally preached the glad 
tidings of salvation. He died in July, 1816. Rev. 
William Weinel came upon this religious field about 
1816, and his labors resulted in an organized congre- 
gation about 1820. His temple was the plain house 
or barn of those of his Hock. 

In 1828, in connection with the Lutherans, a Union 
Church was built. The ground for the site was do- 
nated by Philip Drum and Peter Hill, both members 
of the Reformed Church. The former was a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, and lived until he was ninety-six 
years of age. The house was of hewed logs, about 
twenty-eight by twenty-six feet. The members hewed 
the logs on their own farms, and hauled them to the 
location. When they had a sufficient number, they 
called in the help of their neighbors and erected the 
church. The females having met together also on 
the ground did the cooking. The principal and 
almost the only men who took part in this enterprise 
were Philip Drum, John Kemerer, Jacob Cline, Mi- 
chael Cline, John Cline, Peter Hill, and John Lauf- 
fer, Reformed, and George Hobaugh, Lutheran. The 
church was seated by placing rough boards upon the 
trussels. In 1845 it was enlarged by sawing out the 
eastern end and adding a frame of fourteen feet to its 
length. The whole building was at the same time 
weather-boarded, and a pulpit of the wine-glass style 
constructed. Rev. Weinel continued until 1853, his 
last communion being Sept. 25, 1852, at which there 
were seventy-three communicants. During his pas- 
torate he confirmed eighty-nine persons, and baptized 
three hundred and thirty-two. Rev. Nicholas P. 
Hacke, D.D., began his labors June 12, 1853, having 
service every four weeks, and half the time in Eng- 
lish. In 1856 a building committee to erect a new 



edifice was appointed, viz. : John Rubright and Peter 
Hill, Reformed, and John Stark and George Har- 
baugh, Lutheran. September 12th of that year an 
article of agreement was entered into with John YV. 
Kuhns to erect the church. Material, brick ; size, 
sixty-five by forty-four feet; height, twenty feet to 
the square; oval ceiling; plan, Gothic; and to cost 
two thousand seven hundred dollars. On Easter 
Sunday, April, 1858, it was dedicated. 

Dr. Hacke's pastorate continued until his resigna- 
tion, June 16, 1867, under which fifty-eight were con- 
firmed and one hundred and ninety-five added to the 
baptized membership. His successor, Rev. J. F. 
Snyder, entered upon his duties April 1, 1867, and 
services were had every two weeks in the English 
language. Jan. 1, 1873, Emmanuel and Olive became 
one charge. In 1876 the parsonage was erected upon 
an acre lot donated by Peter Pifer, who, with Daniel 
Cline, built almost the entire wall, completed with 
but little assistance the carpenter-work, and did the 
plastering without the remuneration of a single cent. 
It is a T-house, size thirty-six by sixteen feet ; 
kitchen, fourteen by sixteen feet. John Kemerer, 
over fourscore years, helped to do the hauling and 
put down the well. When a young man he helped 
to dig the foundation of the parsonage in which Dr. 
Hacke has dwelt these many years, and was one of 
the pillars in the first and second building of " Em- 
manuel." This parsonage is beautiful in appearance 
and is also beautifully located, a few score yards from 
the venerable old dwelling already described. 

The first Lutheran pastor in this Union Church was 
Rev. Michael John Steck, whose successors were 
Revs. Jonas Mechling, Zimmerman Meyers, A. Tet- 
ter, J. S. Fink, from 1869 to 1875, when Rev. J. A. 
Scheffer was called. 

OLIVE REFORMED CHURCH. 

During the closing of the last and the beginning of 
the present century families of the Reformed faith 
from the eastern counties of Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land settled in this neighborhood. The nearest place 
of worship for them was Brush Creek, almost a score 
of miles distant. Thither the fathers and mothers 
journeyed, often on foot, to attend service and dedi- 
cate their children to the Lord. Occasionally that 
veteran pioneer, Rev. Father Weber, would visit them 
and preach in their midst. In later years, when the 
Manor Church was built, they worshiped there. In 
1816, Rev. Weinel began to labor regularly in the 
vicinity of the place where Olive Church is now 
located. The services were first held in houses and 
barns. A congregation was organized, but at what 
date is unknown, but no doubt it was soon after he 
began his labors at this point. The question of build- 
ing a church arose. Two locations were presented 
about two miles apart, one with three acres of ground, 
offered by Mr. Haukey for a Lutheran and Reformed 
Church; the other an acre and three- fourths, offered 



616 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



by Mr. Beemer for a Reformed and Lutheran Church, 
and also a school-house. Neither could be unani- 
mously settled upon, a part of both Lutherans and Re- 
formed holding to one location, and a part of both 
adhering to the other. The consequence was that 
two union church buildings, both of hewed logs, 
were erected on these locations at the same time in 
1817. Rev. Father Weinel and Rev. Francis Laird, 
of the Presbyterian Church, were present at the lay- 
ing of the corner-stone at the Beemer location, which 
church was known as the " Beemer Church." The 
other was known as the " Hankey Church." The 
first record of baptism performed by Rev. Weinel is 
June 16, 1816, and of communion May 24, 1817, 
when fourteen communed and seventeen more were 
confirmed. Rev. Mr. Weinel had at this time some 
nine congregations, as the communion was only held 
once a year, and sometimes only once every two years. 
He labored until October, 1837, his last communion 
being on the 21st of that month, and last baptism on 
the 22d. In his pastorate of twenty-one years he 
confirmed fifty-eight and baptized one hundred and 
seventy. His successor was Rev. H. E. F. Voight, 
whose first baptism was Aug. 14, 1S39, and first com- 
munion April 26, 1840. He continued to serve this 
congregation and the one at Hankey's for sixteen 
years, when old age compelled him to lay down the 
shepherd's crook. When he entered upon the pas- 
torate of this field he served eleven congregations. 
His last communion in the Beemer Church was Oct. 
22, 1854. On Oct. 5, 1858, Rev. R. P. Thomas was 
appointed a supply for the Hankey congregation, the 
Beemer Church having become so dilapidated and out 
of repair that it was utterly unfit for holding service. 
This congregation was found to be very small, having 
been almost entirely absorbed by the Lutheran Church, 
in consequence of having had no minister of their 
own for several years. 

Preaching was had every eight weeks from May, 
1859. The corner-stone for a new Union Church was 
laid at Hankey's, which now took the name of Christ 
Church, May, 1859. Rev. Thomas continued here 
until he resigned the Salem charge, April 1, 1863, 
when for some five years this field was vacant. At 
the annual meeting of the Westmoreland Classis in 
October, 1867, the " Beemer-Hankey interest" was 
brought up, and Rev. T. F. StaufTer directed to preach 
at the Hankey Church, to gather the people together, 
to organize a congregation there, and to continue 
stated supply until otherwise ordered. In 1868 he 
began preaching at the house of John Reeger, near 
the Hankey Church, and from August in that year 
services were held at Hankey's, or Christ Church. 
The next year Revs. T. F. StaufTer and J. F. Snyder 
cultivated the whole field, the former preaching reg- 
ularly in Hankey's Church, and the latter in the 
Beemer Church when the weather would permit, the 
roof being partially off, at other times at a school- 
house in the vicinity, these points being two miles 



nearer to him than the Hankey Church. This con- 
tinued until July 2, 1870, when those desirous of 
being organized into a congregation met in the 
Hankey house for a reorganization. An election re- 
sulted as follows: Elders, George Smith, Henry Rem- 
aley; deacons, Michael Miller, John Beemer. The 
following entered into the organization: George 
Smith, Henry Remaley, Michael Beemer, Michael 
Miller, John Beemer, John Reeger, William Riden- 
our, Jacob Smith, Phebe Reeger, Catherine Ridenour, 
Max Miller, Leah Beemer, Catherine Beemer, Cath- 
arine Remaley. It was then decided to build a new 
church at Beemer's, on a lot of ground given that day 
by Michael Beemer, lying alongside of the old Beemer 
Church property, to be an exclusively Reformed 
Church. The building committee were George Smith, 
Henry Remaley, Michael Miller, John Beemer, and 
Michael Beemer. The corner-stone was laid April 
18, 1871, by Rev. T. F. Stauffer, with sermon by Rev. 
T. J. Barclay, and was dedicated June 30, 1871, 
by the name of "Olive Reformed Church," with 
dedicatory sermon by Rev. J. I. Swander, Rev. T. F. 
Stauffer the liturgical services, and Revs. J. F. Sny- 
der and G. M. Spargrove, of Presbyterian Church, 
delivering addresses in behalf of the liquidation of 
the debt. The edifice is fifty-four feet in length, 
thirty-five in breadth, and eighteen in height. It is 
a frame structure, and in October of that year was 
connected with St. James' charge. Rev. T. F. Stauffer 
continued to the close of 1872. When Salem charge 
was divided, June, 1872, this congregation was de- 
tached from St. James and annexed to Emmanuel, 
thereby making a new charge known as Emmanuel. 
Rev. J. F. Snyder's pastorate began Jan. 1, 1873. 
Nine of the fourteen original members of the con- 
gregation organized July 2, 1870, were members of 
the Emmanuel, but had removed nearer to Beemer's 
than the Emmanuel Church, and were encouraged 
by their pastor to go into the new organization. Its 
Sunday-school is flourishing, and a large catechetical 
class is receiving regular instruction. 

CHRIST, OR HANKEY'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, 

was organized proper in 1856, though preaching had 
been held in the old log structure known as Hankey's 
Union Church since its erection in 1817. The corner- 
stone of the second edifice, the Union Church, was 
laid in May, 1859. The first regular Lutheran pastor 
was Rev. L. M. Kuhns, and among his successors was 
Rev. M. Colver. The membership is large and the 
Sunday-school very flourishing. 

SECEDERS' CHURCH AND CEMETERY. 

About three miles west of Salem stands the dilapi- 
dated old log edifice known as the " Seceders' Church," 
which was built near the beginning of the present 
century, but in which preaching has not been held 
since 1859. It is now fast crumbling into decay, but 
half a century ago was the scene of large meetings, 
when it went by the name of "The Tent." The 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 



017 



church lot and cemetery were donations of John 
Duff. In the old cemetery attached are buried many 
of the old settlers. 

MURRYSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY 

was organized in 1830, by Rev. Francis Laird, and 
services held in a house built by the founder of the 
town, Jeremiah Murry. Mr. Laird was appointed to 
this office by the Redstone Presbytery, April 6, 1830, 
and the original members of the congregation were 
forty-nine, chiefly from Plum Creek Church. On 
Nov. 16, 1830, Mr. Laird asked leave to resign his 
charge of Poke Run and Plum Creek, which was 
granted April 5, 1831, when he was called for all his 
time both to Poke Run and Murrysville. At the end 
of six months he declined the call from Poke Run 
and accepted that from this church, over which he 
was installed Oct. 19, 1831. He resigned from ill 
health June 19, 1850, and died April 6, 1851, aged 
eighty-one years, in the fifty-fourth year of his min- 
istry, of which twenty had been here. Sept. 2, 1851, 
Rev. L. L. Conrad was installed over this church and 
Cross-Roads. He was released April 12, 1853, and 
May 22, 1854, Rev. William Edgar was installed for 
full time. He resigned April 11, 1860, from half his 
time, that he might give that portion to Harrison 
City, where, as an outpost, he had often preached. 
From the whole charge he was released Oct. 18, 1865. 
Rev. G. M. Spargrove began his labors as stated sup- 
ply April, 1866, and May 14, 1868, he was installed 
pastor. In 1849 the brick house in which from 1840 
the members had worshiped became too small for 
them, and in its stead they erected a more imposing 
one of two stories. The audience-room above was 
completed in the spring of 1871, and the basement 
later in the year. In May, 1873, a tornado carried off 
a large part of the roof, and greatly damaged the 
ceiling and other parts of the roof, which were soon 
repaired. The whole cost was some 115,000. The 
elders have been 

John Beacon, ordained 1831 ; dismissed 1832. 

John Tillbrook, ordained 1831 ; dismissed 1842. 

John Curry, ordained 1831 ; died 1849. 

Daniel Keister, ordained 1832; died 1856. 

Dr. Zachariah G. Stewart, ordained 1832; died 1863. 

Jacob Dibble (sixty years an elder), ordained 1832; died 1872. 

John Humes, ordained 1839; died 1869. 

William Kirker, ordained 1849; dismissed 1852. 

Daniel Shaw, ordained 1846 ; died 1856. 

Joseph Miller, ordained 1846; died 1862. 

John Haymaker, ordained 1846; died 1882. 

David Keister, ordained 1859. 

Joseph Hay. ordained 1859. 

Georgo Kirker, ordained 1859 ; dismissed 1865. 

William Meanor, ordained 1859, died 1873 

James G. Humes, ordained 1869. 

Georgo F. Dihle, ordained 1869. 

F. L. Stewart, ordained 1869. 

A. C. McCutcheon, ordained 1869. 

Mr. Spargrove continued pastor until his death, 
Oct. 30, 1880. His successor and present incum- 
bent, Rev. J. I. Blackburn, was installed June 21, 
1881. He was born in Fayette County, educated at 



Washington and Jefferson College, iu which he gradu- 
ated in 1878, and then studied in Allegheny Theolog- 
ical Seminary, where he graduated in 1881. This 
church has had two stated supplies, five pastors, and 
has sent forth as ministers Revs. O. H. Miller, J. J. 
Beacom, and R. L. Stewart, all sons of worthy elders. 
The cemetery lies just back of the church on a high 
elevation, commanding a splendid view of the whole 
valley. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (MURRYSVILLE). 

Its congregation was organized Oct. 30, 1877, and 
was an outgrowth of Beulah Church, with which 
it forms one charge. Rev. Alexander R. Rankin is 
the present pastor. Its frame church edifice was 
erected in 1880. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (MURRYSVILLE) 

is a part of the Sardis circuit, embracing preaching 
appointments here, Sardis, New Salem, Oakland 
Cross-Roads, and Davidson's Chapel. Rev. W. S. 
Cummings is the pastor. 

TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS 
existed in Franklin township very early, and that of 
the " Franklin Township Temperance Association" 
as early as 1847 did effective work, and was carried 
on by the most prominent citizens. They have op- 
posed the granting of licenses, and for some years 
have had no licensed house within their borders. 

MURRYSVILLE. 
This town was laid out by Jeremiah Murry, who 
on leaving the Emerald Isle had dropped the patro- 
nymic " Mc" from his name. He had the lots surveyed 
and the town regularly laid out as soon as the Pitts- 
burgh and New Alexandria turnpike (which runs 
through itj was located, and which was before 1821. 
Murry came to this country about 1781 (then in bis 
twenty-second year), and resided a few months in the 
Cumberland Valley. He then crossed the moun- 
tains on foot as a peddler, with his pack on bis back, 
and came to " Anderson's block-house," in this re- 
gion, where he halted. Having disposed of his wares 
with great profit, he was in search of land, of which 
be sought a tract both eligibly located for a farm and 
a mill-site. On arriving at the brow of the hill over- 
looking the valley of Turtle Creek, his keen eye 
noted the grand mill-site and the beautiful location 
of the land, all covered with a dense forest. He went 
down to the stream, and carefully examined the creek 
and the land contiguous to it, and then walked to 
Pittsburgh, to the government land-office, got his 
patent, and located his large body of splendid land. 
He and a man named Cole (a hunter, whose cabin 
was destroyed by the Indians) were the first settlers 
in this section. The old " Forbes" road crossed 
the creek here near the sulphur spring, where the 
town now is, and near it is the old Frankstown road. 
Murry at once put up a cabin (in which he had a 
little store) on the bank of the creek, on the site of 



618 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



the present United Presbyterian Church. On the 
building of the turnpike he established the town, and 
built the brick house in which Mrs. Dr. J. S. Murry 
now resides, the first house erected in the place. 
He kept store all his life. He married Ann Mont- 
gomery, of Cumberland Valley, by whom were born 
the following children: Elizabeth, married to Rev. 
Mungo Dick ; Nancy, to John Cowan ; Rebecca, to 
John M. Gilchrist; Sarah, to Dr. Benjamin Burrell ; 
Jane, to John Carpenter, and James. His wife, Ann, 
dying Sept. 7, 1819, he subsequently married Mrs. 
Statira Rippey (nee McNair), by whom he had no 
children. He died Sept. 3, 1835, aged seventy-six 
years. His only son, Gen. James Murry, married 
Priscilla Schaeffer, of Greensburg, by whom were 
born the following children : 

1. Susan, married to James Irwin, and still living. 

2. Jeremiah, deceased. 

3. Ann, married to James Verner, of Pittsburgh 
Passenger Railroad Company. 

4. Dr. John S., who died in November, 1879. 

5. Capt. Alexander Murry, of Foster's Crossing, 
Warren Co., Ohio, on retired list of United States 
army. 

6. Sarah, married to W. F. McKnight. 

7. Nancy, married to Robert A. Weddell, of Pitts- 
burgh. 

8. Mary Jane, married to Johnston McElroy. 

9. Andrew Jackson. 

Just below the Murry house Dr. Stewart built a 
brick house in 1832, but before this, and just after 
the Murry house was put up, Mr. McWilliams erected 
a brick house, in which he kept tavern a year or so. 
Gen. James Murry soon after built and opened a brick 
tavern on the site of the present "King House." 

The first resident physician was Dr. Benjamin Bur- 
rell, father of Judge J. Murry Burrell, who died Dec. 
21, 1832, in his forty-first year. After him was Dr. 
Charles J. Kenly, located several years before his 
death, June 23, 1828 ; and the next was Dr. Zacha- 
riah G. Stewart. Dr. John McConnell, who died 
June 22, 1831, aged twenty-six, had only practiced a 
short time. 

After Jeremiah Murry the next store-keepers were 
James Irwin, in the building now kept by A. C. Mc- 
Cutchen, and John M. Gilchrist, the latter also keep- 
ing tavern. Capt. Hugh Irwin, of Newlansburg, was 
captain of the " Blues," a crack company that used 
to train in the old militia days when musters were 
held at this point. The residence of Francis L. Stew- 
art was erected by William Beatty, an eminent ma- 
chinist, who died in Louisville, Ky. 

The commercial centre of the township was Mur- 
rysville, of which its founder, Jeremiah Murry, mil- 
ler, merchant, and justice of the peace, was to its 
neighborhood what Vanderbilt or Astor is to New 
York City. He was a man of brains, enterprise, and 
energy, and prospered exceedingly and extended his 
possessions. He had a saw- and grist-mill, and a 



store filled with all kinds of goods, at which every- 
body could get credit who chose to avail himself of 
it, and who had a farm or share in one sufficient to 
secure the debt. It was said that in one direction, 
towards the northeast from Murrysville, he could 
travel five miles on his own land, much of it acquired 
in payment of merchandise sold out of his store. 
His son, Gen. James Murry, was a man of consider- 
able talent and fine address. Dr. J. S., son of the 
latter, was for a long period a noted practitioner Ex- 
Judge J. Murry Burrell, of Westmoreland County 
Common Pleas Court, was a grandson of Squire Jer- 
emiah Murry, and born and raised in this town, and 
J. M. Carpenter, a prominent attorney of Pittsburgh, 
is a great-grandson. 

TURTLE CREEK ACADEMY 

was established in 1861 by Francis Laird Stewart, 
and the school at first held in the residence of his 
father, Dr. Zachariah G. Stewart, and then for some 
four years in a frame building on the Stewart lot near 
the family mansion. When the new Presbyterian 
Church was built its basement was fitted up and ar- 
ranged for the academy, in which it has since been 
conducted. Mr. Stewart was the first principal, and 
his successor, Rev. G. M. Spargrove, conducted it 
until his death, in October, 1880. Since then it has 
been under the supervision of Rev. J. I. Blackburn, 
present pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Its trus- 
tees are Dr. G. C. Sparks, president ; F. L. Stewart, 
secretary; Rev. A. R. Rankin, treasurer; Dr. W. J. 
Rugh, William Milliken, James G. Humes, David 
Tallant, George F. Dible, Charles Wiester, A. C. Mc- 
Cutcheon, E. V. Kiester. 

THE GAS-WELL. 

Adjoining the town, and only distant a few hun- 
dred yards, but visible from all its limits, is the cele- 
brated gas-well. It is situate on the real estate 
of Henry Remaley, on the bank of Turtle Creek. 
When boring for oil this gas-well was struck at a 
depth of fourteen hundred feet. It was at once util- 
ized by Haymaker Brothers and H. J. Brunot, who 
erected large lampblack-works and carried on the 
manufacture of lampblack on a very extensive scale 
until their works burned down, Sept. 18, 1881. Car- 
bon black was very easily and cheaply manufactured 
by this gas-well, one of the greatest wonders of the 
day and said to be the largest in the world. Its 
flaming fire issuing forth can be seen at night for 
eight or ten miles in all directions, while its buzzing 
sound is heard for a great distance. It is visited by 
thousands from all parts of the world, and many of 
the most distinguished scientists of the day have 
been here to examine into its workings and analyze 
its gas. A curious fact in connection with the burn- 
ing well is the numberless dead birds whose tiny car- 
casses are to be found on all sides of the flames. The 
wild geese also gather around in the light when lost 
from the main flock. All around the well the trees 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



619 



are burnt and blasted and the vegetation dried up. 
The heat from the flames is terrible, while the light 
shed by them is simply grand. It can truly be said 
of Murrysville, " and there is no night there," for the 
country for miles around is made light as day. 

THE STEWART FAMILY. 

Dr. Zachariah G. Stewart was born at Alexandria, 
Huntingdon Co., in 1805, and was the son of Thomas 
H. and Anna (Harris) Stewart. He was educated at 
the academy of his native town, and there read med- 
icine with Dr. Trimble, a noted practitioner of his 
day. Afterwards he came to Pittsburgh, was some 
time in the hospital service, and then began prac- 
ticing there. Subsequently, in 182S, he located in 
Murrysville, at the solicitation of Capt. John M. Gil- 
christ, in whose company he was on March 11, 1829, 
when the latter was accidentally killed by the fall 
of a tree. He was married in 1831 to Jane, daughter 
of Rev. Francis Laird. He continued his practice 



here until 1858 (a period of thirty years), when he 
removed to Cannonsburg, so as to have better facil- 
ities for educating his children, where he died Aug. 
30, 1863, from over-exertions in the hospitals at Get- 
tysburg after the battle in the preceding month. 
His wife died Feb. 23, 1879, in her seventy-fourth 
year. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian 
Church for a long period. Their children were 
Francis Laird, residing here in the old family man- 
sion ; Dr. Thomas H., of Trumbull County, Ohio ; 
Rev. Robert S., Presbyterian clergyman at Danville, 
once resident of Colorado, and who made an ex- 
tended tour in Europe; Anna M., married to Wil- 
liam McJunkin, of New Texas, Allegheny Co.; Jen- 
nie, married to John L. Mateer, of Atchinson County, 
Mo. ; Francis L. Stewart, married Miss Maggie H. 
Stewart, of Barre, Huntingdon Co., and thoroughly 
prepared himself for a teacher. He taught several 
years in Missouri and other States, and in 1861 
established here the "Turtle Creek Valley Academy." 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION, Etc. 
The precise date of the organization of this town- 
ship is impossible to determine, as a blank occurs in 
the records of the court by which it was erected. It 
is quite certain, however, that it was made between 
the years 1785 and 1788, as the name does not appear 
among the list of townships in the former, but it 
does in the latter year. It has undergone some con- 
siderable changes in point of area since its formation. 
Its present boundaries are : north and northeast by 
Washington, Bell, and Loyalhanna townships; east 
by Loyalhanna Creek and Derry township ; south by 
parts of Unity and Hempfield townships ; and west 
by Penn and Franklin townships. The sub-strata 
of the township is a continuous series of coal-veins 
of an average thickness of seven feet. There are 
several extensive coal-works within its limits, and an 
inexhaustible supply of bituminous coal lies buried, 
only waiting future development. It has also a large 
quantity of excellent stone. The principal streams 
are Beaver and White Thorn Runs. This township 
bears the unmistakable impress of New England 
industry, prudence, and thirft. 

PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Some few of its early settlers were descendants of 
old Massachusetts ancestry, who emigrated hither 
late in the last century and remained here. Most, 
however, were of Brito-Scotch-Irish descent. Among 



the early settlers were James McQuilken, William 
Wilson, William Hall, Christian Ringer, David 
Shryock, Michael McClosky, Philip Steinmats, John 
Cochran, George Hall, William Wilson, George 
Wilson, and the Laughlins. 

In 1803, John Beatty came from Fayette County 
and moved into a log cabin that stood about one rod 
to the right of the Freeport road, above the mouth of 
John Cochran's coal-bank (then George Hall's), two 
miles north of New Salem. In April, 1806, this fam- 
ily removed to Butler County. About the beginning 
of the century the two well-known stone-masons in 
the township were Ned O'Hara and Michael Rogers. 
In 1802, William Wiley, an emigrant from Ireland, 
whose wife was a sister of Jacob Dible, of Murrys- 
ville, bought one hundred acres of land, now owned 
by the heirs of Levi Bush, but formerly by Browns- 
lee and David Crookshanks. About 1817, Moses 
Cunningham kept an inn at the junction of the 
Fuukstown and Puckety roads. In 1800 an old log 
school-house stood about one mile north of New 
Salem, about twenty rods off where the Freeport road 
is and in John McQuaid's field. Its teacher for sev- 
eral years was Alexander McMurry. 

In 1808, John Kline, an emigrant from Germany, 
who had married Susanna Hill, of Franklin town- 
ship, came into Salem to live. He was a cooper by 
trade. He was now an old man, and built his cabin 
on what he supposed was Frederick Ament's land, 



620 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



who had told him he could have it rent free during 
his (Kline's) life; but it turned out in years after to 
be on Matthew Jack's land, and old man Kline, losing 
his cabin, was so wrought up in his feelings that he 
hanged himself with a silk handkerchief tied to an 
apple-tree. 

George Swanger lived in 1810 in a log house just 
above Isaac Laufl'er's brick house, or near Knappen- 
berger's old saw-mill. 

Frederick Ament in 1805 came from York County, 
and purchased a farm one mile from Salem from Wil- 
liam Dixon. He died July 14, 1847. In 1818, John 
Hutton came from Franklin County and located in 
the township, being a stone-mason, etc. 

George Nunamaker was one of the earliest settlers 
near Congruity. One of his daughters married a 
Brown, who served in the war of 1812, and was dis- 
charged at Fort Meigs, April 2, 1813. 

Among other early settlers may be mentioned the 
Laughlins, the Moores, Waltons, Walthours, Klines, 
Soxmans, Knappenbergers, Kissems, Shields, Shaws, 
Cooks, Steeles, Potts, Bairs, McQuilkins, Sloans, Klin- 
gensmiths, Frys, Dushanes, Christys, McConnels, 
Jones, Pauls, Stewarts, Wagners, Givens, McGearys, 
Snyders, Kecks, Ralstons, Caldwells, Gordons, Mc- 
Quaids, Stouts, Adairs, Hornings, Gibsons, Craigs, 
Keples, Shusters, Kemerers, and Zimmermans, who 
settled at different periods. 

John Hamilton, who served in the war of 1812, was 
the father of Mrs. Adam Hoffman. 

Nancy Christy, widow of David Christy, and before 
her marriage Nancy McCall, is still living, having 
been born in 1792. Her husband died in 1860, aged 
seventy-four years, and was born in 1792, on the farm 
now owned by his son, John Christy, one mile from 
New Salem. He was the sou of James and Mary 
(McCall) Christy. The mother of Hon. T. J. Bigham, 
of Pittsburgh, was a sister of David Christy, and Mr. 
Bigham, after the death of his parents, was raised in 
the family of his grandfather, James Christy. 

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE HON. THOMAS J. BKiHAM. 

We have great satisfaction in here giving a very 
valuable contribution, from the pen of the Hon. T. J. 
Bigham, a gentleman well known for his antiquarian 
and historical researches, and a native of Westmore- 
land. The observations he makes are applicable to 
Northern Westmoreland in an especial manner, but in 
a general manner to all Westmoreland. Mr. Bigham 
was born in 1810 in Salem township, near Delmont, 
where his parents had resided. His maternal grand- 
father was Capt. James Christy, of the Eighth Penn- 
sylvania. 

He was one of the original settlers in the northern 
part of the county, and had located on a farm on 
Beaver Run, Salem township, adjoining Delmont, 
shortly after the close of Pontiac's war, probably be- 
tween 1766 and 1768. Mr. Bigham's parents having 
died in infancy, he was brought up in the family of 



his grandfather. Capt. Christy was then, in the words 
of Mr. Bigham, " verging on threescore and ten, and 
although a quiet man, yet at that age all men become 
fond of telling tales of their childhood. I was con- 
stantly in his company from when I was able to run 
about. 

" Nearly all I know of Westmoreland County of 
the last century I learned from him and a few other 
neighbors of that age. He had been a quiet, hard- 
working farmer; he aided to make history, but had 
never written a line in his life. When he located on 
the farm on which he lived until his death at the age 
of eighty-three he has often told me of trouble he had 
from visits of the Indians and wolves in the night- 
time. He had made out to keep on good terms with 
the Indians, and killed wolves by the dozens. 

" Remember his location on that farm antedated 
the organization of Westmoreland seven years. No 
magistrates or police existed there before the Revolu- 
tionary war of 1776. During that war the Indians 
were hostile and overran the entire county, and more 
especially the northern part of it. He has told me a 
thousand tales of Indian visits and the dangers his 
neighbors encountered. Whenever old folks met to 
talk over olden times, all that had happened before 
the burning of Hannastown was the dividing line 
between the old and the new, almost as marked as 
Noah's flood of the old world. 

"THE SIMPLE HABITS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 

" Necessity probably forced simple habits upon the 
original settlers, but for many years it had become the 
rule. Even the ladies who are fondest of show and 
fine dresses had become reconciled to things as they 
found them. They had no stores with fashionable 
goods to tempt the vanity of the young. They had 
no fashionable churches to exhibit their fine dresses. 
Their food was of the best and most healthful char- 
acter, and prepared by their own hand. Most of their 
clothing was the product of their own looms, wool 
grown on their own sheep; flax was grown upon their 
own ground, spun and woven on their own wheels 
and looms. Tea and coffee could only be procured 
by long pack-horse journeys of one or two hundred 
miles. Their log cabins, if not elegant, were healthy. 
They met on a common platform ; no class existed ; 
all were masters, none were servants. 

" Their buildings were equally simple. When a 
young couple married they went into the woods to 
open up a new farm for themselves. A log cabin of 
probably two rooms satisfied their ambition. As chil- 
ilivn multiplied enlarged cabins accommodated them, 
and finally in my boyhood days nearly all well-to-do 
farmers had substantial farm-houses, with parlors, 
dining-rooms, kitchens, and all the appliances of 
modern civilization. Some had failed and grumbled 
at their ill luck, generally the result of their own bad 
management. 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



621 



"PACK-HORSE TRANSPORTATION OF EARLY TIMES. 

" For many years nearly all the transportation of 
that section was tarried on by pack-horses. The 
roads were chiefly bridle-paths through the woods. 
A wagon-road tor Gen. Forbes' army had been opened 
across the mountains in 1758, but for want of re- 
pair had become simply a bridle-path. Land-slides 
and rolling rocks had left it impassable for wagons. 
No township supervisors existed to keep) roads in re- 
pair. The sparse population must have salt and iron 
for domestic purposes, some groceries, dry-goods, etc., 
and the only way to get them was by using their 
horses in the intervals of farm-work. A single horse 
could carry three or four hundred pounds, securely 
fastened upon a pack saddle, and one man could 
manage half a dozen of them, and in that way trans- 
port about a ton across the mountains. Money as a 
currency was almost unknown ; everything was bar- 
ter or exchange of Western products for Eastern 
goods, so they had a load in both directions. In the 
best of weather ten days would be employed to cross 
the mountains and return. Generally two weeks were 
required for a trip. The neighbors usually formed a 
small caravan; fifty or one hundred horses in single 
file along a path would carry probably ten tons, and 
for many years this was the mode of mountain trans- 
portation. Ordinary wagon-roads, turnpikes, canals, 
and railroads have superseded all these primitive 
modes. 

"THE EARLY SETTLERS WERE NOT POLITICIANS. 

"Even in my boyhood days I never heard half a 
dozen discussions on partisan politics. The county 
officers were then appointed by the Governor. No 
county conventions were then held to nominate a 
ticket. Whoever aspired to an election announced him- 
self as a candidate in the newspapers. The public would 
have five or ten candidates for most public offices, and 
every voter selected for himself. I never heard of a 
public meeting to discuss pending issues before the 
election as is now common. The old October elec- 
tions were held at Greensburg, and one-third of the 
voters did not usually attend. A governor's election 
would bring out a much fuller vote. I accompanied 
my relations to the election between Gregg and 
Sehultz, and was amazed to find the streets of 
Greensburg crowded with people ; never had seen so 
many people assembled together. Prior to that time 
the Legislature had, I believe, appointed Presidential 
electors. I remember my grandfather was quite an- 
noyed when an election by the people was announced 
for President. The machinery of an electoral ticket 
was not understood by the masses. Gen. Jackson 
and the battle of New Orleans they had all heard of, 
but to vote for thirty-two persons, none of whom they 
had ever heard of, puzzled them amazingly. ' Why all 
this change?' said they. 'The legislators probably 
understand all this. They elected Washington and 
Jefferson, etc., and we were all satisfied. But here are 
40 



thirty-two names of which we know not one, or only 
one or two of them, and why should we leave our farms 
and lose a day on this nonsense?' Since the voters 
have got to understand this complicated machinery, 
and have spent a month attending party conventions 
and listening to party discussions they look upon 
things very differently. My grandfather was a quiet 
Democrat, and my guardian a still quieter member of 
the opposition, but neither of them ever spent five 
minutes in talking to me of party politics or how I 
ought to vote. In my boyhood days I heard ten dis- 
cussions on religious subjects for one on politics. I am 
not certain but things have now gotten too much on 
the other extreme, too much politics and too little on 
religion." 

ANDERSON'S CAVE. 
About 1840 one Anderson, originally from Greens- 
burg, was taken to the Western Penitentiary of this 
State, convicted of highway robbery. He had been 
a schoolmaster, but he took to the woods, and soon 
became notorious as a daring highwayman and thief. 
He was said to be as agile as a cat, and would leap to 
the boot of a stage-coach in those days and in a 
twinkling of an eye become the possessor of some 
articles of value. Stealing was a mania with him. 
He would purloin and carry away and preserve with 
great care things of the most trifling value. When 
found he had concealed about his person an old axe 
not worth over six cents. When received in prison 
he became stubborn and unmanageable, refused to 
eat, and when placed in his cell stopped up all the 
holes, turned on the hydrant, and when rescued 
was immersed in eighteen inches of water. Abso- 
lutely refusing all food. or nourishment, he lingered 
fifty days and died. His cave was at the right of 
New Salem, where he secreted all his plunder and 
kept hid from the officers of the law. He was cap- 
tured away from it, and strange to say, notwithstand- 
ing all the valuables and treasures it is said to have 
contained, it has never to this day been explored or 
its contents fathomed. Between the years 1837 and 
1840 this highwayman was in his zenith, and tradition 
says this noted freebooter stopped at no crime to 
compass his designs for stealing. Probably no greater 
example of kleptomania ever lived in the State, and 
his end was miserable in the extreme. 

CONGRUITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEME- 
TERY. 

Congruity first asked for supplies July 31, 1789, 
two months after the organization of the General As- 
sembly. On Sept, 22, 1790, Samuel Porter, at the 
same time with John McPherrin, was ordained at a 
tent on "James McKee's farm" and installed as 
pastor of Congruity with Poke Run. 

This church has raised a larger family of ministerial 
sons than any other in the Presbytery, — Revs. Samuel 
Porter, Jr., W. K. Marshall, D.D., Edward R. Geary, 
D.D., A. Craig McClelland, William Edgar, John 



622 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Steele, William F. Kean, Lazarus B. Shryock, Sam- 
uel P. Bollman, John Molton Jones, David L. Dickey, 
eleven, and has had four pastors with one stated sup- 
ply. Rev. Samuel Porter, the first pastor, was born 
in Ireland, June 11, 1760, of parents belonging to the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church, commonly called ; 
Covenanters. He arrived in this country in 1783, 
and spent his first winter in the vicinity of Mercers- i 
burg, Franklin Co., this State. In the following spring 
he removed to Washington County, where through | 
the kind offices of Alexander Wright he procured a 
school to teach, and was led to attend the ministra- 
tions of Rev. Joseph Smith, then pastor of the United 
Presbyterian Churches of Upper Buffalo and Cross 
Creek. He also embraced opportunities of hearing 
Dr. McMillan. Through these and other clergymen 
he was induced to enter upon a course of preparation 
for the gospel ministry. His studies were prosecuted 
with James Hughes, John Brice, and Joseph Patter- 
son, partly under the direction of Rev. Joseph Smith, 
and partly under that of H. McMillan, with whom 
he studied theology. Having spent three years 
in the prosecution of his academical and theological 
studies, he was licensed by the Redstone Presbytery 
Nov. 12, 1789. Hence, at a meeting of April 12, 
1790, a call was put into his hands from the united 
congregations of Poke Run and Congruity, one from 
the congregations of George's Creek and Dunlap's 
Creek, and one from Long Run and Sewickley. 

The region embraced by the two congregations first 
named, especially by Poke Run, was at that time a 
frontier settlement. Many of the people were wild 
and uncultivated, and needed much the moulding 
influence of the gospel and the restraints of religious 
instruction and discipline. As evidence of this it is 
said that on one occasion, while Mr. Porter was 
preaching in the woods, two young men withdrew 
from the crowd and ran a foot-race in full view of 
the preacher and congregation. Mr. Porter having 
no high aspirations for himself and judging himself 
best adapted to a field like this, preferred it to the 
others, which in some respects were more inviting. 
Under his faithful ministrations the congregation in- 
creased to such an extent in eight years that they felt 
themselves able alone to support a pastor, and as the 
labors of the united charge were too great for Mr. Por- 
ter, he felt it to be his duty to relinquish Poke Run. 
Accordingly the pastoral relation between him and 
that congregation was dissolved April 11, 1798, very 
much against the wishes of the people, who remon- 
strated against the proceedings. The congregation 
of Congruity, within the bounds of which he re- 
sided, agreed to take the whole of his time, prom- 
ising him "£120 per annum, one-half in merchant- 
able wheat at five shillings per bushel, and the re- 
mainder in cash." To this arrangement Mr. Porter 
acceded, and continued in the pastoral charge of the 
congregation to the time of his death, Sept. 23, 1825, 
a period of thirty-five years. While pastor there a new 



stone tavern had been built on the turnpike, scarcely 
a mile from the church, and was just opened by the 
owner, a very clever nian. The young folks of the 
neighborhood, many of them the children of church- 
members, and even baptized members themselves, 
had agreed to have what was generally known as a 
house-warming by holding a ball there. The ar- 
rangements were all made, the tickets distributed, 
and the guests invited. On the Sabbath previous to 
the intended ball Mr. Porter, after preaching an elo- 
quent sermon sitting in his old split-bottomed arm- 
chair (for he was too feeble to preach standing, and 
for many a long day sat and preached in that old 
arm-chair, elevated in the pulpit for his accommo- 
dation), and before dismissing the congregation, gave 
out the usual notices for the ensuing week and Sab- 
bath. After stating that Presbytery would meet the 
next Tuesday in Greensburg, and making his usual 
appointments, he then gave notice that on the next 
Thursday evening, at early candle-lighting, a ball 
was to be held about three-fourths of a mile from 
that place. He said it was to be hoped that all the 
polite young ladies and gentlemen would attend, as 
it was said to be a place where politeness and man- 
ners could be learned and cultivated, and that many 
other things could be said in favor of attending such 
places which it was not necessary for him to mention 
at that time. However, he said it was to be hoped 
that as many as could would attend at (he time named, 
"next Thursday evening, at early candle-lighting." 
He remarked that, for his part, if he did not attend, 
the young folks would excuse him, as it was likely 
he might be detained at Presbytery ; yet should 
Presbytery adjourn in time and nothing else prevent 
he expected to attend, and, should he be present, he 
would open the exercises of the night by reading a 
text of Scripture, singing a psalm, and be dis- 
missed. Then with a full and solemn voice and in 
the most impressive manner he read the ninth verse 
of the eleventh chapter of Ecclesiastes. Then he an- 
nounced and read the Seventy-third Psalm. After 
this was sung he offered up a fervent and affecting 
prayer, praying earnestly for the thoughtless and 
gay, and for the power of God's Spirit to guard them 
from those vices and amusements which might lead 
the youthful mind to fritter away precious time and 
neglect the one thing needful, and then, with his sol- 
emn benediction, the congregation was dismissed. 
The evening set for the ball arrived and passed away, 
but the ball was never held, the whole community 
having been loudly awakened by the venerable pas- 
tor's course. 

Rev. Samuel McFarren succeeded him, and was 
ordained and installed Oct. 3, 1827, when Rev. S. 
Swan preached and W. Speer gave the charge. His 
pastorate extended over forty-two years, and while 
unassuming was most successful. He resigned Jan. 
11, 1870, when, in the judgment of many persons, he 
seemed competent to serve it well for many more 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



623 



years. On August 1st of the same year, after an ill- 
ness of only four days, he was called to his eternal 
home. He was succeeded by Rev. W. J. Bollman, 
who was ordained and installed June 3, 1870, when 
Revs. D. W. Townsend preached, G. M. Spargrove 
charged the pastor, and Dr. McFarren the people. 
He resigned Oct. 2, 1872, and Oct. 7, 1873, Rev. Wil- 
liam B. Craig, from Carlisle Presbytery, having been 
called in April, was installed. Revs. W. W. Moor- 
head preached, R. Carothers charged the pastor, and 
W. F. Kean the people. Besides the eleven Presby- 
terian preachers raised and born in its congregation, 
there were John F. Kean and Samuel P. Marshall, 
who were called from work to rest just before ready 
to enter upon the ministry, the former soon after li- 
censure and the latter just as he was about to be li- 
censed. The first elders were Thomas Armstrong, 
William Freeman, James McKee, John Shields, and 
John Cochran. The first accessions were John Moore, 
John Woods, Hugh McClarren, and David Buchanan. 
The second, Robert Shields and John Ralston. The 
third, John Dickey, William Armstrong, and Benja- 
min Allsworth. The fourth, John Steele, William 
Marshall, and John L. Adair. The fifth, William 
Ralston, Ephraim A. Robinson, and Robert Rainey. 
The sixth, Thomas McQuade, John Moore, and Wil- 
liam Craig. The seventh, Joseph Cook. The eighth, 
Thomas W. McConnell, Thomas Humes, John Mar- 
shall, and Joseph Reed. The ninth, James Sloan, 
David McConnell, James M. Shields, and Henry 
Robinson.- The tenth, George Kirker and Henry M. 
Jones. The present pastor is Rev. E. S. Robinson. - 
The cemetery adjoining the brick house contains the 
remains of the old settlers in this region. 

UNION REFORMED AND LUTHERAN CHURCH ("FEN- 
NEL'S CONGREGATION"). 

"Fennel" is a daughter of Trinity Reformed con- 
gregation, New Salem. Since her organization the 
charge has undergone three changes in the way of di- 
vision and reorganization, yet Fennel's has always 
stood by and held fast to her mother, Trinity. This 
congregation originally constituted a part of Trinity, 
at New Salem, but owing to the great distance these 
persons lived from Salem, and the inconvenience of 
attending divine service there, the pastor, Rev. R. P. 
Thomas, was engaged to preach for them in " Concord 
School-house" every two weeks, in the afternoon, com- 
mencing Dec. 4, 1858, which continued to Jan. 29, 
1860. In the spring of 1859 a lot of ground for the 
church edifice and graveyard were purchased from 
David Shields. It was the design to build an exclu- 
sively Reformed Church, but when the deed was 
made the land was deeded to the Reformed and Lu- 
theran congregations. Hence the church became, 
and continues to the present time, a union church. 
The edifice is frame, forty-five by thirty-two feet, 
lined and ceiled inside with boards. The corner- 
stone was laid in August, 1859. and it was dedicated 



Feb. 27, I860, with ceremonies and exercises, by 
Revs. N. P. Hacke, D.D., and C. C. Thomas, assist- 
ing the pastor. The following were the first church 
officials: Elders, William McCutcheon, two years, 
Peter Hill, one year; deacons, Joseph Willard, two 
years, John Michael Fennel, one year; trustee, Da- 
vid Wolff. Some fifty members came from the New 
Salem congregation, leaving fifty-one at the latter. 
Its pastors have been the same as at New Salem: 
1860-63, R. P. Thomas; 1863-66, T. J. Barkley ; 
1867-73, J. F. Snyder ; 1874-76, S. Shaw ; 1876-78, 
J. W. Knappenberger ; 1878-82, C. W. Good. 

The Lutheran congregation was organized in 1859. 
The first pastor was Rev. A. Yetter, who was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. V. B. Christy. The membership is 
nearly a hundred. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY (NEW 
SALEM). 

This church was organized chiefly from Congruitv, 
Dec. 25, 1849, with seventy-two members and five 
elders, by Revs. S. M. McClung, D. Kirkpatrick, and 
W. Hughes. Rev. James C. Carson was installed its 
first pastor, Feb. 11, 1851. The substantial church 
edifice was erected in 1849 by the following building 
committee : James L. Clow, Henry C. Keever, Sam- 
uel Jack, Moses Clark, Joseph McQuilkin. The 
second pastor was Rev. David Harbison, who was 
succeeded in September, 1876, by the present incum- 
bent, Rev. J. L. Thompsjon. He was born in Wash- 
ington County, and graduated in 1869 at Washington 
and Jefferson College, and soon afterwards entered 
the ministry. This church is in the Blairsville Pres- 
bytery. The present ruling elders are Finton Tor- 
rence, Thomas K. McQuaid, Thomas Waddell, John 
W. Kirker, Robert I. Clow, James Stout; and the 
trustees are Finton Torrence, Samuel Bovard, John 
McKeever, Samuel Paul, and Joseph Christy. The 
Sunday-school superintendent is John G. Kirker. 
The church has a membership of two hundred and 
nineteen. The late Joseph McQuilkin and its first 
pastor, Rev. James 0. Carson, were largely instrumen- 
tal in the formation of the congregation and the erec- 
tion of the substantial brick edifice, built a third of a 
century ago. Its builder was D. W. Shryock, who 
built it 48 by 56 feet for $1520, as by contract with 
the building committee, entered into May 1, 1849, 
and same to be finished in twelve months. 

The first pastor, Rev. J. C. Carson, resigned Oct. 4, 
1866, and died July 5, 1870. The second pastor, Rev. 
D. Harbison, was installed May 21, 1867, when Rev. 
N. H. Gillett preached, Samuel McFarren charged 
the pastor, and George Hill the people. The elders 
at organization were Joseph Reed, Col. Thomas Mc- 
Quaid, Sr., John Larimer, Robert Shields, and D. W. 
Shryock. The first accessions were Joseph Ralston, 
Joseph Harvey, Joseph Niccolls, and James Blair. 
The second accessions were Thomas K. McQuaid, 
S. S. Duffield, and Robert S. Clow. The congregation 



624 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



of the dead, substantially inclosed, contains a larger 
amount of monumental marble than is to be found in 
almost any other inland town. 

TRINITY REFORMED CHURCH (NEW SALEM). 
A number of the members of the Reformed Church 
who lived in and around New Salem, and who wor- ! 
shiped at the Manor Church, four miles southwest 
from New Salem, or at St. James', nine miles north, 
long felt the necessity of a Reformed Church in the 
village of New Salem. Accordingly in 1849, in con- 
nection with the members of the Lutheran Church, 
who were also without a temple in the village, the 
work of erecting an edifice was begun. In the sum- 
mer of 1850, before the Reformed congregation was 
organized, this edifice, as a union church, was dedi- 
cated. November 25th following the congregation was 
formed, with Philip Hobaugh and Michael Fennel as 
elders, and Valentine Bossanl and Sebastian Bear as 
deacons. The following were the original members : 
Philip Hobaugh, Elizabeth Hobaugh, Valentine Bos- 
sard, Sarah Bossard, Sebastian Bear, Michael Fenner, 
Heury H. Bear, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Row, Elizabeth 
Hugus, Henry Hugus, Sarah Hugus, Sarah Zimmer- 
man, George Kline, Hannah Kline, Simon Hugus, 
Lydia Hugus, George Lose, Catharine Lose, John M. 
Fennel, Isaac Hugus, William Marts, Mary Marts, 
David Wolff, John Snyder, Elizabeth Snyder, John 
Waugaman, Susanna Waugaman, Rebecca Kliugen- 
smith, Margaret Snyder. Rev. S. H. Giesy, who had 
,but recently come into Westmoreland Classis, was 
elected pastor, this congregation, in connection with 
St. James', 2d Greensburg, and Irwin, constituting 
his pastoral charge. He continued pastor to Aug. 
1, 1855, during which time thirty -six members were 
added by confirmation and certificate, and thirty in- 
fants to the baptized membership. 

His successor was Rev. Thomas G. Apple, a grad- 
uate of the theological seminary at Mercersburg, who 
was here a year and three months, his pastoral rela- 
tion being dissolved Feb. 14, 1857, when the charge 
was divided, Greensburg and Irwin forming one, and 
Salem and St. James the other. He was followed by 
Rev. R. P. Thomas, elected March 28, 1858, and duly 
called April 10th. On October 6th following the 
number of communicants were eighty-nine, eleven of 
whom were received under his pastorate. He con- 
tinued his labors to April 1, 1863, and was succeeded 
by Rev. T. J. Barklay. In 1864 the old Union Church 
was sadly out of repair, and on Jan. 7, 1865, it was 
resolved to build a new exclusively Reformed Church. 
The subscription committee were Rev. T. J. Barklay, 
Henry Hugus, William Hugus, Jonathan Snyder, 
and Joseph Snyder, and the building committee con- 
sisted of John Hugus, H. H. Bear, and George Keck. 
The lot was purchased for four hundred dollars. 
Early in the spring of 1865 the work began, and in 
the fall of 1866 the edifice was under roof. Mr. 
Barklay resigned his pastorate Jan. 1, 1867, at which 



time Emmanuel congregation was detached from first 
Greensburg charge and annexed to Salem, St. James 
and Pine Run constituting one, and Trinity, Fen- 
nel's, and Emmanuel's the other. He was succeeded 
April 1, 1867, by Rev. J. F. Snyder, and on the suc- 
ceeding 4th of August the first service was held 
in the new church, which was formally dedicated 
October 14th, with the dedicatory sermon by Rev. 
J. A. Peters. Rev. Snyder continued to Jan. 1, 1873, 
and under him one hundred and three persons were 
added to the communicant membership, and seventy- 
four to the baptized. June 6, 1872, the charge was 
again divided, Salem and Fennel's constituting one, 
and Emmanuel and Olive the other. The next pastor 
was Rev. S. Shaw, who entered upon his labors April 
1, 1874, and remained until June 1, 1876. His suc- 
cessor was Rev. J. W. Kuappenberger, born and 
reared within three miles of New Salem. He was 
baptized, catechised, and confirmed by Dr. Hacke, 
and was a member of his congregation (Manor). He 
graduated at the theological seminary May, 1876, 
and was licensed by the Westmoreland Classis in June 
following, and installed November 9th. His suc- 
cessor was Rev. C. W. Good, present pastor, who was 
installed 1880. He was born in Tiffin, Ohio, where 
he served two years in the ministry before called 
here. 

SALEM EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 

was organized Sept. 27, 1850, with John Lenhart, 
Gasper Klingensmith, elders ; Isaac Bush, Joseph 
Sherbondy, deacons ; and John Zimmerman, trustee. 
At the first communion, Oct. 10, 1850, there were 
thirty-three communicants. The first edifice was 
begun in 1849, and dedicated in September, 1850. 
The present elegant brick church was commenced in 
1868, and dedicated in January, 1870. The pastors 
have been: 1850-52, Michael Eyster; 1853-56, C. H. 
Hurst; 1856-66, A. Yetter; 1867-68, J. D. English; 
1868-76, V. B. Christy; 1876-77, J. A. Baumau ; 
1878-82, J. D. Roth, who resigned in January, 1882, 
to remove to Sidney, Neb., having been appointed 
by the Pennsylvania Synod to establish a church and 
mission there. His successor has not yet at this 
writing been elected. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (NEW SALEM). 
The Methodist congregation was the first religious 
organization in the town, and was made in 1833. 
Their first edifice, erected that year on the site of the 
present one, was a brick structure, which fell down in 
1844, but was replaced by a frame building in 1846. 
This stood until 1874, when the present edifice was 
built. It is a part of Sardis Circuit, embracing five 
preaching appointments, viz.: Salem, Sardis, Murrys- 
ville, Oakland, and Davidson's Chapel. The circuit 
has often been changed and divided, being formerly 
known as Salem, Murrysville, Sandy Creek, etc. 
Since 1869 the pastors here have been : 1869, W. W. 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



G25 



Roup; 1870-72, S. B. Slease; 1872-73, M. B. Pugb ; 
1873-75, A. H. Miller; 1875-77, George Orbin ; 1877 
-79, W. Johnson; 1879-81, J. B. Gray; 1881-82, W. 
S. Cummings, the present incumbent. The trustees 
are Dr. J. A. Fulton, Charles Soxman, George Marts, 
Hugh Brown, and Mr. Anderson. Dr. J. A. Fulton 
is the assistant superintendent of the Sunday-school, 
a union school, in connection with the Presbyterian 
members who withdrew from the Salem Presbyterian 
Church and united with that at Congruity, but has 
its services in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Joseph 
Harvey (Presbyterian) being the superintendent of 
this union school. 

COVENANTERS' CHURCH (NEW SALEM). 
For many years the Covenanters held worship in 
this town, and during and for some time prior to 1849, 
Rev. Mr. Cannon was the pastor, preaching the last 
Sabbath of each month. In August, 1849, when the 
only house of worship here was the Methodist Church, 
the people gathered in David Christy's woods, some 
fourteen rods northeast of where the Presbyterian 
Church now stands, to hear Mr. Cannon, but in his 
stead Rev. John Wilson preached. His sermon was 
a scorching denunciation of the crying sins of the 
day and of wickedness in high and low places. There 
were cake-stands in the wood, wdiere drink was sold, 
and a young man having imbibed too much, and pre- 
senting himself before the audience in a maudlin 
condition, the preacher gave the young man a severe 
reproof, and rebuked the authorities for allowing on 
the Sabbath such sales and exhibitions. This denom- 
ination has had no services here for over a score of 
years, and its members who did not remove mostly 
connected themselves with the other churches. 

NEW SALEM. 

New Salem was settled at an early date, but was not 
formally laid out and incorporated until 1833. Pre- 
vious to the laying out of the town, however, about 
1810, Hugh Bigham came to the place and started the 
first store. He laid the first water-pipes from the 
" Big Spring" to what is now the centre of the town. 
About 1816, Samuel Bigham and his sister Kate opened 
the first public-house. She was then the Widow An- 
derson. Samuel Bigham built the house, which was 
lately owned and occupied by George Lose, deceased. 
Prior to 1833 there had been no stated religious ser- 
vices in the town. There was occasionally preach- 
ing, however, by Rev. Cannon, a Covenanter minis- 
ter, and others, sometimes in the school-house, and 
sometimes in an adjoining grove. The first religious 
organization was effected in 1833 by the Methodists. 
Their first edifice, a brick structure, was built the 
same year, on the site of the present one. In 1844 it 
fell down, killing a man named Thomas McClung, 
but was replaced two years afterwards by a frame 
building, which remained until 1874, when it was 
torn down to give place to the one now standing. 



The name of the post-office was formerly Salem 
Cross-Roads, and as this name did not indicate the ex- 
istence of a town, and as there was another post-office 
in the State called New Salem, it was called Del- 
mont. 

■ The site of the town was part of a three-hundred- 
acre tract surveyed to William Wilson by a warrant 
bearing date of Nov. 8, 1784, of which he died seized. 
By his will, dated March 7, 1796, it was divided be- 
tween his sons, George and Thomas Wilson, to whom 
a patent was issued Dec. 7, 1812. The children and 
heirs of William Wilson (who entered the land), viz. : 
William, Martha, Agnes, George, and Rachel Wilson, 
and Thomas Young and his wife Mary, Samuel Mc- 
Clelland and his wife Ann, and Jane Elliott, all 
united in conveyances deeding all their interests in 
said tract to Thomas Wilson, thus making him its 
owner in fee simple. He laid out the original town 
on March 3, 1814, into lots numbered from 1 to 48, 
inclusive, the survey and plat being made by Isaac 
Moore. He sold these lots at public sale, and of 
which lot No. 25 was purchased by Joseph Reed for 
fifteen dollars. 

Joseph Reed was born in Lancaster County in 1791, 
came to Westmoreland County in 1798 with his pa- 
rents, and in 1814 settled here, building on the lot 
No. 25 the house now occupied by Simon P. Keck. 
He was the only original purchaser of these lots who 
owned it, or any of them, at his death. He was the 
first cabinet-maker in the place, which business, with 
that of undertaking, he carried on for over half a 
century, and he buried fifteen hundred and sixty-nine 
persons. On April 23, 1821, he bought two shares in 
the Pittsburgh and New Alexandria Turnpike Road 
Company, for which a certificate, No. 39, was issued 
to him, signed by its president, James Graham, and 
its treasurer, John A. Gilchrist. Graham at that time 
lived at the forks of the road where it joins the Greens- 
burg pike, and Gilchrist was a merchant at Murrys- 
ville, being a son-in-law of Gen. Murry, the founder 
of that town. Joseph Reed was for many years one 
of the managers of this then noted turnpike company. 
He died Feb. 22, 1880. He married Ann Christy, by 
whom he had the following children living : Dorcas, 
married to Samuel Christy ; James, now carrying on 
the business and trade of his father; Jane; Mary, 
married to Robert Campbell; Lavina; George H., 
who was in the late war and was wounded in the face ; 
John, mortally wounded at the first battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, Va., from which he died at the hospital, 
near Washington, D. C. ; and Harriet Newell. His 
wife (Ann Christy) died July 3, 1871. 

The two oldest houses in town are one owned by 
Zachariah Zimmerman, on Pittsburgh Street, a two- 
story frame, just above Snyder's Hotel, which was 
built in 1814 by a Mr. Hunter, and afterwards occu- 
pied by James R. Logan as a store ; and the other 
one the building owned by S. S. Duffield, and which 
was built in 1814 by John Potts, on the lot he pur- 



626 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



chased that year of Thomas Wilson at his public 
vendue of the lots for the town. 

The leading men in the town at its laying out and 
for some years afterwards were the Bighams, Wilsons, 
and McKibbens. In 1828 there were but sixteen 
dwellings in the place and two stores, one kept by 
W. B. Alexander, in a house now torn down, and the 
other by James R. Logan, in the old frame building 
now belonging to Zachariah Zimmerman. Some four 
years later James L. Clow (still living three miles 
from town at nearly the age of ninety years) opened 
a store and tavern in the present " Duffield House," 
where in 1828 Benjamin Weaver had an inn. Hugh 
Misskelly had a cabinet-maker's shop, which was the 
second one started after Joseph Reed's, opened in 
1814. One of the first shoemakers was George Lose, 
with whom John Hugus went to learn the trade in 
1828, but which having mastered he never carried 
on. The oldest school-house was just back of the 
Presbyterian Church, in which for several years dif- 
ferent Irish teachers taught, whose love for education 
was excelled by their love of ardent spirits. 

Edward Geary, father of Governor John W. Geary, 
moved to this region from Unity township, and was 
one of the early schoolmasters of the county whose 
memory is revered by all. 

Daniel Zimmerman came here before the town was 
laid out, afterwards bought a lot on Pittsburgh Street 
and erected his house, in which he carried on his 
trade of a tailor, the first in the place. In the year 
1825 the principal heads of families here were 
Humes Kelly, who kept tavern where Daniel Potts 
lives ; Mr. Weaver, who had the tavern at the Duf- 
field place; James McKibben, who had one just 
above John Hugus' house ; Robert Shields, who had 
a tannery (then just bought of John Hutton] ; 
Thomas McConnell, John B. Plummer, who carried 
on a saddlery and harness-shop ; Philip Steimats, Dr. 
Sterritt (the first physician here), who was the doctor 
for this whole region ; Thomas Bigham, Joseph Reed, 
who had a cabinet-shop and made coffins ; James R. 
Logan, store-keeper ; Mr. Dewalt, whose wife died a 
few months later; Hugh and Samuel Bigham, after- 
wards an associate judge of Armstrong County ; and 
Thomas Wilson, the venerable squire and founder of 
the town. 

Before the Pennsylvania Railroad was built New 
Salem was a very busy inland town, and being one 
of the main stopping-places on the Pittsburgh pike, 
was the centre of much trade and bustle. At one 
time as high as five lines of stages passed here, and 
the old-time taverns, with their bustling landlords 
and hard-worked hostlers, could hardly wait upon 
the travelers thronging the numerous old taverns that 
then flourished here. 

BOROUGH CORPORATION AND OFFICERS. 
New Salem borough was incorporated by act of 
Assembly of 8th of April, 1833. The qualified voters 



of the town, then made a borough, were to meet on 
the first Tuesday of May in each year, at the house 
of Henry Hughus, in the said borough, to hold their 
election for the borough officers, which were to be 
those then recognized by the law. Their duties and 
powers were set forth at length in the act of incorpo- 
ration. 

It appears there was no election held at the time 
designated, for an act was obtained as a supplement 
to this one, April 11, 1835, by which the inhabitants 
were allowed to meet at the same place for the same 
purpose on the first Tuesday of May, 1835. Thomas 
Wilson, Esq., was appointed judge of the election. 
At this election Henry Hugus was elected burgess, 
Christopher Amelong constable, and Hugh Misskelly, 
Tames R. Logan, James Harvey, Robert Shields, 
Philip Steimats, and John Deever, councilmen. Jacob 
Huffman was appointed town clerk. 

The first ordinance established the footways to be 
nine feet from the houses on each side of the streets, 
and provided for their being paved with brick or 
stone, also provided for draining the town, and de- 
clared against the planting of trees on any of the 
streets or footways, and made those already planted 
common nuisances. 

The next officers were elected in 1837, viz.: Bur- 
gess, Joseph Reed ; Constable, Michael Potser ; Coun- 
cil, Hugh Misskelly, James McKillip, Joseph Harvey, 
William Wilson, Daniel Medsker, Thomas Wilson ; 
Clerk, Henry Hugus. 

Since then the following persons have filled the 
offices named : 

1838.— Burgess, J. L. Clow ; Constable, Jacob B. Anient ; Council, Thomas 

Wilson, James Harvey, George Lose, Joseph Sherboudy, Henry 

Hugus, Jonathan Remealin; Clerk, Henry Hugus. 
1839.— Burgess, Henry Hugus; Constable, J. B. Ameut; Council, Joseph 

Harvey, Jacob Earnest, Thomas Wilson, George Lose, Joseph Reed, 

Hugh Miskelly ; Clerk, J. Huffman. 
1840. — Burgess, Joseph Harvey; Constable, David McCullogh; Council, 

Matthew Jack, J. L. Clow, J. S. Ormsby, James Huffman, David 

Rankin, John Hugus; Clerk, Jacob Huffman. 
1841. — Burgess, Henry Hugus; Constable, D. McCullogh; Council, 

James Carothere, J. R. Logan, James McKillip, J. L. Clow, Simon 

Hugus, Joseph Sherhondy ; Clerk, Jacob Huffman. 
1842.— Burgess, Elias C. Gregg ; Constable, J. B. Anient; Council, H. 

Hugus, Robert Shields, Nathaniel Kelly, James McKillip, Jacob 

Earnest. Joseph Reed; Clerk, J. Huffman. 
1843.— Burgess, Jacob Huffman ; Constable, Nathaniel Kelly ; Council, 

James Borlin, Israel S. Bigalow, David J. Potzer, John Uncapher, 

John Hugus, William McCall ; Clerk. Jacob Huffman. 
1844. — Burgess, James McKillip; Constable, N. Kelly; Council, Adam 

Stygen, George Lose, William McCall, John Unceifer, Jacob Huff- 
man, I. S. Bigelow; Clerk, William McCall. 
1845. — Burgess, Robert Shields ; Constable, D. J. Potzer ; Council, Joseph 

Reed, John Hugus, James Guthrie, Benjamin Truxal, Joseph Sher- 

bondy, John McNeil ; Clerk, John McNeil. 
1846.— Burgess, Henry Hugus; Constable, D. J. Potzer; Council, John 

Zimmerman, Joseph Klingersmith, George Keek, George Lose, 

William McCall, Michael Pifer ; Clerk, John Zimmerman. 
1847.— Burgess, William McCall; Constable, D. J. Potzer; Council, 

James Borland, John Hugus, Jacob Huffman, John McNeil, Joseph 

Sherhondy, Joseph Reed ; Clerk, John McNeil. 
1848.— Burgess, William McCall; Constable, James Barlin ; Council, 

John Hugus, John Zimmerman, James Carothers, James McKillip, 

George Keck, George Lose; Clerk, James Killip. 
1849. — Burgess, David Lloyd; Constable, James Borlin; Council, Dr. 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



627 



John McNeil, Joseph Reed, William McCall, J. B. Ament, D. J. 

Potzer, Henry Ilugus. 
1850. — Burgess, Simon Hiifrua ; Constable, Gasper Klingensmith ; Coun- 
cil, James McKillip, Valentine Bossert, George Klingensmith, Philip 

Hol>augh, Joseph Marts, W. W. Logan (also clerk). 
1851. — Burgess, George Lose; Constable, Joseph Kline; Council, Robert 

Shields, Henry Hugns, W. W. Logan, Dr. John McNeil, Daniel 

Bfetzgar, James Carothers ; Clerk, W. W. Logan. 
1852. — Burgess, George Lose; Constable, Joseph Kline; Council, John 

Hugus, James Carothers, John McNeil, Daniel Potts, Joseph Kline, 

Philip Hobaugh ; Clerk, D. J. Potzer. 
1853. — Burgesa, Cyrus M. Dumm ; Constable, J. Kline; Council, John 

Hugus, James Carothers, John McNeil, Daniel Potts, Philip Ho- 

baugh, Joseph Kline; Clerk, Joseph Harvey. 
1854. — Burgess, George Lessig; Council, John Hugus, Joseph Kline, 

James Carothers, Philip Hobaugh, Daniel Potts. 

In this year the charter was extended under the 
general borough law authorized by the General Assem- 
bly. The proceedings of the borough from 1854 to 
1858 are lost or mislaid. 

1858. — Burgess, George Lessig ; Constable, Joseph Kline; Council, John 
Hugus, John McNeil, John Saul, II. H. McGinley, G. W. Frick, 
George W. Alms; Clerk, John McNeil. 

1859. — Burgess, Robert Black; Constable, Joseph Kline ; Council, John 
Saul, George Klingensmith, George Keck, Joseph Walton, John T. 
Dickey Calso clerk). 

I860.— Burgess, W. D. Duffield; Constable, Joseph Kline; Council, H. 
T. Metzgar, Michael Hawk, George McLaughlin, Simon Earnest, 
Hiram Hobaugh, Simon P. Lessig; Clerk, H. T. Metzgar. 

1861. — Burgess, Simon J. Stick ; Constable, Henry Wagner, Jr. ; Coun- 
cil, Henry Keck, G. W. Leighner, George Klingensmith, Simon 
Earnest, Daniel Blose, Cyrus J. Kepple; Clerk, Josiah Harvey. 

1862.— Burgess, C. J. Steck ; Constable, Henry Wagner, Jr.; Clerk, 
Josiah Harvey; Treasurer, C. J. Kepple. 

1863.— Burgess, George W*. Frick ; Constable, C. J. Steck ; Council, Henry 
Hobaugh, George McCray.Johu Earnest, Simon Hugns, Joseph Mc- 
Quailkin, Joseph Harvey (also clerk). 

1864. — Burgess, Cyrus J. Kepple; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Wil- 
liam Hugus, -I.iin.'s Carothers, John G. Wagner, Simon Earnest, 
William J. Lightner, Uriah Waugaman; Clerk, W. Hugus. 

1865. — Burgess, George Lessig; Clerk, H. T. Metzgar. 

1866. — Burgess, David White ; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Dr. James 
A. Fulton, J. H. Welty, Charles Harvey, Peter Klingensmith, S. A. 
Linsenbigler, David Hanan ; Clerk, Dr. J. A. Fulton. 

1867. — Burgess, John Doncaster; Council, Simon Earnest, J. II. Welty, 
Dr. J. A. Fulton, David Hanan, Peter Klingensmith, S. A. Linsen- 
bigler; Clerk, Dr. J. A. Fulton. 

1868. — Burgess, George Lessig; Constable, S. J. Steck; Council, Josiah 
Harvey, Dr. H. P. Hugus, Dr. John McNeil, H. T. Metzgar, Peter 
Klingensmith, C. J. Walton ; Clerk, John McNeil. 

1869. — Burgess, George Lessig; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Josiah 
Harvey, William Kunkle, Peter Klingensmith, Hiram Hobaugh, 
Simon Earnest. John McNeil (also clerk). 

1870. — Burgess, Peter Klingensmith; Constable, S. J. Steck; Council, 
David Henon, H. Hobaugh, W. L. Kunkle, John McNeil, Josiah 
Harvey, Simon Earnest ; J. McNeil, clerk. 

1871.— Burgess, W. J. Leighner; Constable, John Carson; Council, A. 
J. Kliugcrsmith, John Welty, Simon Hugns, L. B. Snyder, Riley 
Walton, Simon Keck (also clerk). 

1872.— Burgess, James Reed; Clerk, J. W. Borland; Council, John 
Waugaman, John Haner, Hiram Hobaugh, Michael Halk, J. S. 
Leighner, John W. Borland (also clerk). 

1873. — Burgess, James Reed; Constable, Robert Dixon; Council, Zach- 
ariah Zimmerman, John W. Borland, Peter Klingensmith, John 
Earnest, David Hanan, John McNeil (also clerk). 

1874.— Burgess, John W. Borland; Constable, R. Dixon;- Council, Z. 
Zimmerman, Thomas Waddell, Gideon Giuter, Daniel Potts, John 
Hugus, Peter Klingensmith. 

1875.— Burgess, John W. Borland ; Constable, Charles Thompson ; Coun- 
cil, Daniel Potts, John Hugus, Gideon Ginter, Thomas Waddell, Z. 
Zimmerman, P. Klingersmith ; Clerk, Z. Zimmerman, 

1876.— Burgess, J. W. Borland; Council. Thomas Waddell, Z. Zimmer- 
man, P. Klingensmith, Daniel Potts, G. Ginter, S. P. Earnest ; Clerk, 
Z. Zimnienmn. 



1877.— Burgess, William Hugus; Council, Daniel Potts, L. B. Snyder, S. 

P. Keck, Daniel Blose, Robert A. Reed, Charles Harvey ; Clerk, R. 

A. Reed. 
1878. — Burgess, Jacob B. Ament; Council, Uriah Waugaman, Thomas 

Kinney, James Reed, Jacob Earnest, John G. Kirker, S. S. Duffield ; 

Clerk, J. G. Kirker. 
1S7!J— Burgess, J. B. Ament; Constable, G. W. Haney; Clerk, James 

Reed; Council, Henry Hill, John Hugus, Riley Walton, Thomas 

Kinney, Thomas Waddell, James Reed. 
1880. — Burgess, Peter Klingensmith; Constable, Henry Hill; Council, 

John Earnest, .lames Reed, Josiah Harvey, C. A. Huffman, M. B. 

Anderson, Samuel Shi. Ids; Clerk, James Reed. 
1881.— Burgess, Peter Klingensmith ; Clerk, J. D. Patty ; Council, ThoB. 

A. Kinney, John KliugHiismith, H. J. Branthoover, S. A. Linsen- 
bigler, Albert Earnest, J. D. Patty; Constable, Henry Hill; Street 

Commissioner, Thomas Kinney. 

CARMEL LODGE, No. 542, I. 0. 0. F., 
was chartered by Elias Wildman, M. W. G. M., and 
William Curtis, M. W. G. Secretary, May 22, 1858. 
The first officers were: N. G., John Doncaster; V. G., 
Robert Black; Sec, Henry McKeever; Asst. Sec.^ 
J. C. Shaw ; Treas., C. M. Johnston. The following 
are its Past Noble Grands still members of this 
lodge : Zachariah Zimmerman, James Nichols, Wil- 
liam Hugus, W. P. Humes, George Saul, L. B. Sny- 
! der, A. B. Kline, William C. Sloan, J. D. Patty, 
Josiah Harvey, J. C. Kibler, S. M. Fink, Cornelius 
Berlin. The officers for 1882 are: N. G., C. J. Brant- 
hoover; Sec, C. E. Berlin ; Asst. Sec, L. B. Snyder; 
Treas., George Saul. Trustees, William Hugus, L. 
B. Snyder, J. D. Patty. It meets every Wednesday 
night in its hall on Pittsburgh Street, in the building 
erected and owned by the lodge. Number of mem- 
bers, twenty. 

BOROUGH SCHOOLS. 

The brick school edifice was erected in 1854, and is 
on Greensburg Street. The board of directors in 
1882 consists of George Keck, President; J. D. Patty, 
Secretary ; Joseph Harvey, Treasurer ; L. B. Snyder, 
J. G. Kirker, Isaac Ringer. The teachers are W. L. 
Fennel, principal; Mr. Gordon, assistant; J. H. 
Ringer, W. H. Hensel, primary department. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE McQUILKIN FAMILY. 
James McQuilkin was born near Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1773. He was 
married in 1780, by Rev. James Power, near Mount 
Pleasant, to Miss Ann Robison, who was born in the 
Big Cove of Pennsylvania. Their children were 
Robert, John, Daniel, James, William, Samuel, 
Thomas, Joseph, Mary, and Isabella. James Mc- 
Quilkin died Dec. 2, 1802, and his wife, Ann (Robi- 
son), Sept. 18, 1828. Joseph, their second child, was 
born in Salem township, April 3, 1801, at the head of 
Thorn Run, where his father had located many years 
before. One of his brothers learned the blacksmith 
trade near Pleasant Unity, one that of a carpenter in 
Beaver County, two were boot and shoemakers, two 



628 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



were farmers, Samuel died, and Joseph remained 
with his mother until her death. The latter son, 
Joseph, married, May 31, 1832, Elizabeth Thompson, 
of Washington. He bought out the interests of his 
brothers and sisters in his father's homestead place, 
and resided thereon until 1849, when he removed to 
New Salem, where, Oct. 28, 1851, he purchased from 
Valentine Bossart the brick house on Pittsburgh 
Street. He and his wife united with the Presbyterian 
Church at Murrysville, in June, 1832, in which they 
remained until the pastorate of Rev. David Kirk- 
patrick at Poke Run Church, when they joined it, 
where they held membership until Salem Church was 
organized in 1850, when they connected themselves 
with it. His wife died Feb. 25, 1852. He was mar- 
ried Jan. 18, 1853, to Sarah Clark. She was born 
in 1819, and was the daughter of Moses and Agnes 
(Humes) Clark. Her grandfathers, Isaac Clark and 
Mr. Humes, were both emigrants from Ireland, and 
early pioneers in the county. Joseph McQuilkin was 
elected justice of the peace in 1862, was re-elected in 
1867, again in 1872, and the fourth time in 1877. He 
settled the estates of scores of people, and for over a 
quarter of a century did the major part of the con- 
veyancing for this section of the county. He never 
had any living children by either of his wives, and 
died Nov. 6, 1881, leaving the heritage of a good 
name. He was a great humorist, and kept a diary of 
important local events that had transpired in this 
region for over half a century. He was a stanch 
Democrat in politics, a stern Presbyterian in religious 
faith, and a man whose public and private record was 
unsullied by a dishonorable act. 



THE KLINE FAMILY. 
John Kline, who had been a Revolutionary soldier, 
removed from Lebanon County when his son John 
was a small boy, and settled near Adamsburg, in 
Hempfield township, on Brush Creek. This son, John, 
moved to the manor near the church, where he died. 
John's son, Joseph Kline, was born near Adamsburg, 
and came to New Salem in 1851, where he has since 
resided. When a small lad, and plowing with his 
father's hired man in a field adjoining the battle 
ground of Bouquette, he saw plowed up many Indian 
relics, and in one field found well-preserved hair of 
the Indians, that had lain covered up for over half a 
century, and was as fresh and flexible as when the 
Indians were buried. 



THE HUGUS FAMILY. 
John Hugus, the first of his name in this county, 
removed after the Revolutionary war from North- 
ampton County to Unity township. He was of French 
Huguenot extraction, and his father had emigrated 
to this country about 1745. His son Henry married 
Elizabeth Schwartz, and in 1818 removed from Unity 



to Salem township, and purchased a farm one and a 
half miles south of New Salem. Their children were : 

1. Catharine, married to Isaac Bosler, who removed 
to Richland County, Ohio. 

2. Margaret, married to George Lose. 

3. Sarah, married to George Keck. 

4. John. 

5. Simon. 

6. Isaac. 

7. Jacob. 

8. Henry. 

9. William. 

Of these, John, the first son and fourth child, was 
born Dec. 21, 1810, and married for his first wife 
Ann C. McGinley, and for his second C. A. Ford. He 
was elected sheriff of the county in 1849, and served 
three years. In 1876 he was elected to the State House 
of Representatives, and was for two winters a member 
of the Legislature. He was in the mercantile busi- 
ness in New Salem for over twenty years, and for a 
long time carried on a large distillery in Penn town- 
ship. He subsequently built one near New Salem, 
which burning down, he retired from the distilling 
business. His father, Henry, died in April, 1829, and 
his mother, Elizabeth (Schwartz), in June, 1854, while 
on a visit to her relatives in Unity township. 

ROBERT GIVEN. 
Robert Given, Sr., emigrated from County Tyrone, 
North Ireland, and after the Revolution, in which he 
served in a Pennsylvania regiment, he located in Lan- 
caster County. Some years after his arrival in Amer- 
ica two of his brothers came to this country, of whom 
George settled in Chester County, and Oliver in Lan- 
caster, near him. He married Mary Hawk, also an- 
emigrant from North Ireland, and of the Presbyterian 
faith, while he adhered to the Established Church of 
England. He died in 1800, and his wife survived him 
until 1847. Of their children, three arrived to ma- 
ture age, — George, who died in Johnstown in 1861 ; 
John, who died in Huntingdon County in 1872; and 
Robert. The latter was born April 17, 1799, near 
Sowdersburg, Lancaster Co., and in 1821 came to 
Westmoreland County, and was several years engaged 
in teaching a subscription school in Derry township. 
Although he was not classically educated, he had re- 
ceived a thorough English education, and was one of 
the most popular and successful teachers in his day. 
He was married on Nov. 9, 1820, to Miss Mary Taylor, 
of Mifflin County, who died in 1835. The living chil- 
dren by her were John, now a leading merchant in 
Iowa City; Mary, married to William S. Lincoln, 
of Huntingdon County; Robert, residing in Fayette 
County ; Martha, married to Wesley Rose, of Johns- 
town ; and Elizabeth, married to Marshall Rose, of 
Sacramento City, Cal. In 1838 he married Eleanor 
Brown, of St. Clair township, in this county, who 
bore him the following children: Albert, George, 




.f^J^f^ 




Z. ZIMMERMAN. 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



629 



William, a prominent attorney at Greensburg ; Mil- 
ton, Anna Maria, Harvey, and Eleanor. His son 
John served throughout the Mexican war, and was 
commissary at Vera Cruz. His sons George and Mil- 
ton were in the Union army in the late civil war, the 
latter, of Company F, First Pennsylvania Artillery, 
was killed at Gettysburg battle in July, 1863, in his 
nineteenth year. Robert Given was commissioned 
by Governor Wolf in 1831 as captain of the " Armagh 
Light Infantry," the best-drilled company in the 
Ninety-ninth Regiment of the Second Brigade, Fif- 
teenth Division, Pennsylvania militia. On Feb. 14, 
1835, he was appointed by Governor Wolf justice 
of the peace for Wheatfield township, Indiana Co., 
and in 1840 (under the constitution of 1838) was 
elected to the same position in the same township, re- 
ceiving his commission from Governor Shunk. In 
1857 he was elected magistrate for St. Clair township, 
of this county, in which he laid out the town of New 
Florence, and commissioned by Governor Pollock. 
In 18(51 he was elected one of the two associate judges 
of the Court of Common Pleas of this county, and in 
1866 was re-elected to the same judicial position, 
which was the first re-election in the county of any 
associate judge. Judge Given on the bench won the 
esteem of the bar and the people for the ability and 
impartiality that characterized his rulings and course. 
When on the bench the president judge was often 
away, and here it was that his ability and judicial 
firmness were so signally noted. Judge Given has ever 
taken an active part in the politics of his country, 
and been for over half a century a leading man in 
the counsels of the Democratic party, with which he 
has been identified all his life. While a member of 
no church, his family has been connected with that 
of the United Presbyterians, but he has ever been a 
liberal contributor to all in his neighborhood. Since 
1821 he has been a resident of either Indiana or West- 
moreland County, but for the past twenty-three years 
has resided in the latter, in which he has owned prop- 
erty in all that time. For over twenty years he was 
connected with the public works of the State, and 
aided in the construction of the old Portage Railroad 
and Pennsylvania Canal, and as a contractor graded 
three miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1882 
he sold his elegant farm in the southern part of Salem 
township, and in April of the same year removed to 
Greensburg, where he shortly after, very suddenly 
died, full of years and honors, — a noble example of 
a self-made man who under our free institutions had 
arisen from a poor boy to competence and high posi- 
tion among his fellow-men. 



ZECHARIAH ZIMMERMAN. 

The name Zimmerman is of German origin, and is 

one of the earliest found in the German settlements 

of Pennsylvania. In the last quarter of the past 

century Jacob Zimmerman, of Berks County, married 



Maria Magdalena, daughter of Chris. Braucher, of 
the same county. Their son Daniel was there born 
Feb. 9, 1794, and when a young man removed to 
Westmoreland County before New Salem was laid 
out. Here, in Franklin township, he married Rebecca, 
daughter of John and Anne Elizabeth Waugaman, 
who was born Jan. 25, 1790. When he came to New 
Salem he purchased a lot just opposite the grist-mill, 
on which he erected a house, and in which he carried 
on his trade of tailoring, the first in the place. He 
was a strong advocate of the common school system 
adopted in 1834-35, and for which he fought at the 
polls and elsewhere to establish. He was identified 
with the early temperance movements of the day, and 
was the first man in his neighborhood to raise a build- 
ing without the use of whiskey. In 1830 he removed 
to Mercer County, but a short time afterwards re- 
moved to Allegheny township, in this county, to a 
farm he had bought, and on which he died in 1876. 
His aged widow still resides there at the advanced 
age of eighty -six years. Their children were : 

1. Elizabeth, born Dec. 1, 1816, died aged two years 
and eleven months. 

2. Rev. Jacob (a Lutheran clergyman), born Feb. 
2, 1818, and resides in Allegheny township. 

3. John, born March 24, 1820, cashier of First 
National Bank of Greensburg, and ex-prothonotary 
of the county. 

4. George Washington, born Jan. 5, 1823, died 
during the Rebellion in the United States service. 

5. Anna Mary, born Dec. 29, 1825, married to Rev. 
David McKee, and died April 11, 1869. 

6. Zeehariah, born June 27, 1828. 

7. Sarah, born March 5, 1831, married William 
Shearer, and lives on the Zimmerman homestead in 
Allegheny township. 

8. Benjamin, born Nov. 9, 1833, died young. 

9. Lucinda, born Jan. 1, 1835, married William 
Artman, resides near Parker, Pa. 

10. Amos Lafayette, born Feb. 22, 1838, resides 
near Leechburg, Armstrong Co. 

11. Michael Jonas, born July 24, 1841, died aged 
sixteen months. 

Their sixth child, Zeehariah, was born in New 
Salem, and is probably the oldest living person born 
in that place. He was raised on his father's farm in 
Allegheny township (to which his father removed 
when Zeehariah was two years old) until his twenti- 
eth year (1848), when he came to New Salem and 
clerked for his brother John in the latter's dry-goods 
store about a year. He then assisted in Mr. Red- 
path's store at Leechburg, after which he kept store 
at Howellton's Cross-Roads for several years. He 
then attended Duff's Commercial College at Pitts- 
burgh, and took charge of the company co-operative 
store in New Salem. Afterwards he was again a clerk 
in his brother John Zimmerman's store here, and in 
1860 opened a drug-store, in which business he has 
continued to the present time. He was married Sept. 



630 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



15, 1853, to Catherine, daughter of John and Cathe- 
rine (Stotter) Walter. She was born Oct. 20, 1835, 
and died Feb. 6, 1857, leaving one child, Mary Cath- 
erine Walter Zimmerman, born June 24, 185G, and 
who married Albert J. Steel. On Sept. 1, 1859, he 
was married to Margaret A., daughter of John and 
Sarah Jackson, by whom were borne the following 
children : William John, Jennie Laura, Minnie Re- 
becca Harbison, and Sarah Etta Bertha. During the 
late war he was a member of the " Union Rangers," 
Capt. Duff's company of the militia (Company C, 
Twenty-second Regiment), which saw several weeks' 
service on the southern borders of the State. He is 
a member of Congruity Presbyterian Church, and 
worships with the congregation here that holds its 
services in the Methodist Episcopal Church edifice. 
In 1859 he became a member of Carmel Lodge, No. 
542, I. O. O. F., of which he is a Past Noble Grand, 
and he is a life member of Ancient York Masonic 
Lodge, No. 225, of Greensburg, where he received its 
three symbolical degrees in 1863. He has served 
some twenty-five years as postmaster, first at Craw- 
ford's Mills, where he was appointed in 1850 by 
Nathan K. Hall, Postmaster-General under President 
Fillmore, and which he held until he resigned and 
moved away from that locality. In 1863, after John 
Doncaster, postmaster of this town, was burned out, 
he was appointed postmaster here, and held the office 
until March 4, 1881. He is a Republican in politics, 
and has been twice a candidate (for prothonatary) of 
his party, in the minority in this county, to help 
maintain its organization, and each time ran largely 
ahead of his ticket. He is one of the principal bus- 
iness men of the borough, and is ever identified with 
all projects for the best interests of the community, 
whose esteem he enjoys in an eminent degree. 



ROBERT SHIELDS. 
Among the early settlers in Franklin County was 
the Shields family, which had emigrated from the 
north of Ireland. James Shields was born near 
Chambersburg, in that county, in 1770, and came to 
Westmoreland in 1798, locating some four miles 
northeast of New Salem, in Salem township, on the 
farm now owned by his son David. He built a house 
on his two hundred-acre tract of land, to which he 
added subsequently one hundred and twenty acres 
more. He married Elizabeth Wilson, of the old and 
wealthy Wilson family, near Chambersburg. She 
was the eldest daughter of her parents, who had 
seven sons and three daughters. She became in 1872 
sole heir of the extensive Wilson estate in Franklin 
County, embracing some five thousand acres of land, 
together with other valuable personal property. 
James Shields died in 1841, and his wife, Elizabeth 
i\\'il>on), March 23, 1873, aged ninety-nine years* 
Their children were Matthew, who died young; 
John, living in Franklin County; Robert; James, a 



resident of Chambersburg; David, residing in La- 
trobe; Matthew, living in Mount Pleasant; Wilson, 
also in Mount Pleasant; Sarah, married to William 
Ray ; and Mary (deceased), married to James Dickey. 
Of these, Robert was born in 1803, and when nineteen 
years of age went to Shieldsburg, where he learned 
the tanning business with Capt. Benjamin Hill, who 
there carried on an extensive tannery. In the fall of 
1825 he removed to New Salem, where his father had 
purchased two lots, with a little tannery sunk on them, 
of John Hutton, the owner, who had started it a few 
years before. Robert Shields made additions and im- 
provements to the establishment; aud carried on the 
tanning business until 1870, a period of forty-five 
years. It was on the lots of his present residence on 
Pittsburgh Street, but the vats have beeu covered up 
for several years. He bought out the saddlery and 
harness-making business of John B. Plumer, which 
he conducted also for a long time, in addition to a 
boot and shoe factory carried on by him until the 
cheap Eastern manufactured goods began to be kept 
by the stores. He was married Aug. 31, 1826, to Mary 
Borland, daughter of Samuel Borland, by Rev. Har- 
per. His wife died Feb. 5, 1861. Their children 
were Elizabeth, born June 19, 1827, was married to 
George Lloyd, of Latrobe ; Lydia Anne, born March 
19, 1829, unmarried, and resided at home; Florinda 
Patton, born Oct. 3, 1831, married Henry McKeever, 
and died Dec. 5, 1865; James, born Feb. 15, 1833, 
died young ; Mary Jane, born June 80, 1834, married 
Samuel J. Paul ; Samuel Shields, born April 26, 
1836; Sarah, born Deo. 6, 1838, unmarried, residing 
at home ; David Wilson, born Oct. 4, 1839, died 
young ; Rachel Maggie, born Oct. 16, 1841, married 
John F. Humes; William Wilson, born April 1, 1843, 
died young ; Nancy Sterritt, married to Dr. James A. 
Fulton ; and Robert, an infant. Mr. Shields was 
raised and educated in the Presbyterian faith, and 
until 1849 (when the Presbyterian Church was or- 
ganized at New Salem) was a member of Con- 
gruity Church, where for nearly twoscore years he 
worshiped under the benign ministrations of Revs. 
Samuel Porter and Samuel McFarren, two distin- 
guished divines of their day. He is the only living 
head of a family who resided in New Salem in 1825, 
which was then a small village of but few houses, 
but a noted stopping-point for stages on the Pitts- 
burgh and New Alexandria turnpike. For over half 
a century he was very largely identified with its busi- 
ness interests, and contributed greatly to its growth 
in material resources as well as to the advancement 
of its educational and religious projects, to all of 
which he ever aided by his voice and purse. Since 
his residence here he has witnessed the erection of 
four substantial church edifices, the organization of 
good schools, and a rapid development of the borough 
in population and wealth, and in his old age enjoys 
the recompense of a busy and well-spent life, enjoy- 
ing the respect and confidence of his neighbors. 





*? 



&-Lc{^y 



SALEM TOWNSHIP. 



B3l 



SAMUEL J. TAUL. 

One of the first magistrates in what was then 
Washington (now Bell) township was Samuel Paul, 
Esq., one of the most popular justices of his time. 
He was of Scotch-Irish extraction, and a man de- 
scended from an old family very early settled in the 
provinces. He married Jennie Porterfield. Their 
children were Robert; Mary, unmarried; John; 
Jennie, married to Matthew Callen ; Hannah, mar- 
ried to George Provard ; James; and Sarah, married 
to George Spalding. Of these, John, born in 1803, 
married Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Jane (Laugh- 
ery) Thompson, of Washington township, on Beaver 
Run. She was born in 1804, and was the grand- 
daughter of Col. Laugh ery, who raised and com- 
manded the Westmoreland County company that 
started to join Gen. George Rogers Clark, and which 
met an untimely fate in all being cut off and killed 
by the Indians. The children of John and Sarah 
(Thompson) Paul were Samuel Jackson ; Robert 
Alexander; William Porterfield (deceased); Mary 
Jane, unmarried and deceased; Nancy Elizabeth, 
married to William Jack; Sarah Maria, married to 
Rev. J. Molton Jones, pastor of Pine Run Presbyte- 
rian Church ; James Laughery, chief clerk in the 
otfice of the State superintendent of public instruc- 
tion ; John Calvin, major in the late civil war and 
resident of Pittsburgh ; and Hannah Lucy, married 
to Rev. A. F. Boyd, pastor of Rehoboth Presbyterian 
Church. 

Samuel J. Paul was born Nov. 13, 1825, in Wash- 
ington township, and when one year old his parents 
removed to the Kiskiminetas River, and shortly after 
they settled in Bell township on a farm on which is 
the site of the present village of Perrysville, where 
they remained until 1839. Then they came to Salem 
township to a farm below Tree's Mill. He was raised 
on a farm, and educated in the schools of his neigh- 
borhood. After his marriage he resided two years in 
Loyalhanna township, and then shortly afterwards 
(in 1856) came to his present farm, which he then 
purchased, and which lies one mile east of New 
Salem. The following year he erected his neat cot- 
tage residence. He is a general farmer, but in the 
past has given special attention to stock-raising. He 
was married Nov. 1, 1849, to Agnes, daughter of 
Samuel and Nancy (Porter) Jack. She was born April 
3, 1823, and died Jan. 31, 1875. By this union the fol- 
lowing children were born : Nancy Jack, born May 
28, 1851, married to John C. Davis ; Margaret Jane, 
born Feb. 14, 1856, married to Dr. Amos O. Taylor, 
of New Salem; John Calvin, born Jan. 16, 1859; 
Sarah Maria, born February, 1861 ; Samuel Jack, 
born Sept. 2, 1863. He was married June 14, 1877, to 
Mary Jane, daughter of Robert and Mary (Borland) 
Shields, who was born June 30, 1834. By this mar- 
riage was born one child, Robert Thompson, June 27, 
1878. Mr. Paul's father and mother were married in 
1824, at the ages of twenty and nineteen respectively, 



and in 1874 celebrated their golden wedding. They 
are both living on their old homestead. Samuel 
J. Paul is a member of the New Salem Presbyterian 
Church, and a trustee of the same. In politics he is 
a pronounced Republican, and active for the success 
of his party, though he has never been a candidate 
for office. His great-grandfather on the maternal side 
was the celebrated Col. Laughery (or Lochry), who 
left but two children, Jane, who married Samuel 
Thompson, and a sister, who married a Mr. McBryar. 



COL. JAMES L. PAUL. 

Col. James Laughery Paul, chief clerk of the de- 
partment of soldiers' orphans' schools of Pennsylvania, 
was born in 1839, in Westmoreland County, and was 
the son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Paul. In 
1876 he published from the press of Lewis S. Hart, 
of Harrisburg, a neat volume of five hundred and 
twenty pages, elegantly illustrated by Frederick Haas, 
giving an able account of Pennsylvania's soldiers' 
orphans' schools. It is a book edited with rare ability, 
and gives a brief historical statement of the origin of 
the late civil war, the rise and progress of the State 
orphan system, and legislative enactments relating 
thereto, with sketches and engravings of the several 
institutions, with names of pupils subjoined. It also 
contains engravings and historical sketches of ex- 
Governors Curtin, Geary, and Hartranf't, and many 
other distinguished persons of both sexes who were 
connected with the orphan system or engaged in 
various capacities in the suppression of the Rebellion. 
Col. Paul enlisted at Pittsburgh Aug. 1, 1861, "for 
three years or during the war," as a private in Com- 
pany A, Sixty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, Col. (afterwards general) Alexander Hays com- 
manding. The regiment was assigned to the Army 
of the Potomac, Third Army Corps, Gen. Phil Kear- 
ney's division. He re-enlisted in the field as a 
veteran volunteer, Dec. 10, 1863, at Brady's Station, 
Va. ; and when the time (Aug. 1, 1864) for which his 
regiment enlisted had expired he was transferred to 
Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Regiment of 
Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and served with it 
to the close of the war. While in active service he at- 
tained to the rank of second sergeant of his company, 
and claims no greater honor than that of having 
faithfully served his country as an enlisted man. 
Immediately after the surrender of Gen. Lee he was 
detailed as a clerk in the War Department at Wash- 
ington, by a special order of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War, and served in that capacity until 
Aug. 24, 1866, when, after having served for an unbro- 
ken period of five years and twenty-four days, he was 
mustered out of the military service under provisions 
of an order issued from the office of the adjutant-gen- 
eral of the armies of the United States. 

For gallant and long-continued services in the war 
for the suppression of the Rebellion, and as a 



032 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



mark of personal regard, Governor John W. Geary, 
before retiring from the gubernatorial chair, in Jan- 
uary, 1873, commissioned him to rank as a brevet 
lieutenant-colonel, reciting in the commission the 
names of the following battles in which he partici- 
pated, viz. : Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, 
Orchards, Seven-days' Battles, Chancellorsville. Get- 
tysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn Mills, Mine Run, 
Petersburg, and also the pursuit and capture of the 
Confederate army at Appomattox. After the retire- 
ment of John Dickie Shryock, chief clerk of the de- 
partment of soldiers' orphans' homes, in November, 
1868, Col. Paul, at the instance of Hon. John Covode, 
his personal friend, was appointed by Governor Geary 
to fill the vacant position. Col. Paul's abundant oppor- 
tunities for collecting materials, and his known indus- 
try and ability, are a sufficient guarantee that his 
book is complete, readable, and reliable. His was 
the laudable and grateful undertaking to tell how a 
great State expended over five millions of dollars in 
maintaining and educating over eight thousand chil- 
dren made fatherless by the casualties of war. He 
was assisted in the literary finish by Rev. Columbus 
Carnforth, A.M., who for ten years had been the State 
inspector and examiner of the orphan schools, and 
who, like Col. Paul, brought a ripe experience to 
elaborate the great work in interesting details. 



JOHN SNODGRASS. 
John Snodgrass was the only son of William Snod- 
grass, of Martic township, in the county of Lancaster, 
Pa., who was a farmer, and Ellen Beggs, a native 
of Ireland, who was brought to this country by her 
parents when a child. William Snodgrass, the father 
of John Snodgrass, was of Scotch descent. William 
Snodgrass and his wife, Ellen Beggs, had also four 
daughters, — Mary, married to John Tittle; Sarah, 
married to John Long; Elizabeth, married to An- 
drew Campbell, and Margaret, who never married. 
William Snodgrass and his wife came to Westmore- 
land County when their son John was a babe at his 
mother's breast, John Snodgrass having been born in 
Lancaster County not long prior to the year 1800. 
When William Snodgrass first came to Westmore- 
land County he rented a house from Col. Joseph 
Guthrie, in Derry township. The next year he pur- 
chased one hundred acres of land from Samuel Ram- 
sey, in the same township, then afterwards purchased 
one hundred acres adjoining the first tract from Jo- 
seph Blair, and then thirty acres from Joseph Ross. 
He died in 1813 or 1814, leaving surviving him his 
widow and the children above named. His widow 
died in the fall of 1844. William Snodgrass and his 
wife were both Old-School Presbyterians, and are 
buried at Salem Church, in Derry township. Wil- 
liam Snodgrass, in the language of his son John, 
was " an industrious, saving man, and his mother 
was an extraordinary woman to manage ; she man- 



aged and carried on the farm when the children were 
small." Such is the description that Mr. John Snod- 
grass has left of his father, and of that remarkable 
mother whose great abilities he inherited until, step 
by step, he became the most prominent and enter- 
prising business man in Western Pennsylvania. 

His first public enterprise was the construction of 
two heavy sections on the Pennsylvania Canal, at New- 
ton Hamilton. From about 1837 to 1843 he was super- 
intendent of the Portage Railroad. His clerks were 
W. S. Campbell, afterwards proprietor of the St. 
Charles Hotel, in Pittsburgh, and later of the St. 
Lawrence, in Philadelphia; and John W. Geary, 
afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania. 

After he left the Portage Railroad he bid for and 
obtained the carrying of the United States mail from 
Chambersburg to Pittsburgh by stage-coaches, which 
he continued until the railroad was constructed, and 
at the same time carried on farming on a large scale, 
and was the proprietor of two flouring-mills on the 
Loyalhanna. In 18(32 he was the largest land-owner 
in Westmoreland County, and during the war, in 
connection with Gen. Markle, Thomas G. Stewart, 
Col. Israel Painter, and Charles Hiliborn, of Phila- 
delphia, was awarded a very large contract to supply 
the Northern army with beef-cattle. After the con- 
tract was taken the government flooded the country 
with greenback money. This raised the price of 
beef-cattle in the market, and he lost heavily in all 
the supplies he furnished until his large fortune was 
nearly all gone. He persistently clung to fulfilling 
his contract with the government, and went down 
under the depreciation of the currency, which was 
something he could not control ; but such was the 
confidence of his creditors in his integrity that dur- 
ing his life he was not disturbed in the possession or 
ownership of his large landed estate. 

He was an ardent patriot, took a deep interest in 
local politics, and for upwards of twenty years did 
perhaps more than any other man towards making 
the county nominations. In 1850 he was nominated 
for Congress in the district composed of Westmore- 
land, Cambria, and Bedford, but owing to a division 
in the party, and two other candidates running in the 
same political party, he was defeated, and Joseph H. 
Kuhns, Esq., was elected a Republican representa- 
tive from this strong Democratic district. 

Mr. Snodgrass died in November, 1878, and is buried 
in the cemetery at New Alexandria. He was a strict 
Presbyterian, and died in the communion and faith of 
his father and mother. 



JOHN WALTER. 
About the middle of the last century Philip Walter 
was one of the many emigrants from Germany who 
came to Pennsylvania. After he had been in this 
country a few years and got settled he sent to the 
fatherland and brought over his future wife, whom 








?//l</&? 



a 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



633 



he had not seen since she was a little girl of ten years. 
After his death she married a Mr. Hawk, an early settler 
near Greensburg. The emigrant had a son, Philip 
Walter, who married Catherine Spahr, from which 
union was born a son, Philip, the third of that name in 
direct descent of the Walter family. Philip Walter (the 
third) married Catherine Trout, daughter of Raiser 
and Elizabeth (Ridenour) Trout. Raiser Trout had 
served in the Revolutionary war, and on his arrival 
in this country first located in Germantown (now a 
part of Philadelphia), and after the close of the war 
removed to near Winchester, Va. Subsequently he 
came to Washington township and located on Beaver 
Run, where his wife's brother, William Ridenour, had 
settled a short time previous. The children of Philip 
Walter and his wife, Catharine (Trout), were John, 
Margaret, married to William Scheaffer, Raiser, 
Elizabeth, married to Jacob Conklin, David, Daniel, 
Catharine, Susan, married to Michael Dewalt, Jacob, 
Philip, Anthony, and George. The Walter family 
very early settled on the farm now owned in Salem 
township by J. Moats, where the old Walter mill 
was the first one built in all this region. The year after 
the birth of Philip Walter's oldest son, John, Raiser 
Trout and his son-in-law, Philip Walter, removed to 
the Rranthoover farm, which they leased for nine 
years. At the expiration of this lease Philip Walter 
purchased the farm (just east of the Moats farm) now 
owned by his son George, and where he died in 1859. 
His wife died on June 10, 1861, aged seventy-six. His 
grandfather, Philip Walter (second), was killed in 1807 
by the fall of a limb of a tree which he was cutting 
down, shortly after which his widow with her four 
youngest children removed to near Lancaster, Ohio, 
where she married a Mr. Fetter. On his death she 
removed to Indiana and there died. 



John Walter, the eldest son of Philip and Cathe' ine 
(Trout) Walter, was born Feb. 13, 1808, in Salem 
township, on the farm now owned by Jacob Moat. 
He was married Feb. 26, 1833, to Rithynia, daugh- 
ter of Henry and Catherine Stotler, of Allegheny 
County. She was born June 9, 1813, and died 
Feb. 6, 1880. Their children were Catherine, born 
Oct. 20, 1835, married Sept. 15, 1853, to Zachariah 
Zimmerman, and died Feb. 6, 1857 ; Lucinda Harriet, 
born Sept. 6, 1837 ; John Calvin, born July 20, 1840 ; 
and Benjamin F., born July 7, 1846, and married 
Sept. 21, 1871, to Maggie J. McKalip. The child of 
Catherine, married to Zachariah Zimmerman, was 
Mary Catharine Walter, born June 24, 1856, and 
who married Albert J. Steele. The children of Ben- 
jamin F. Walter are Anna Ewing, born Sept. 4, 
1875, and Ellen, born Jan. 19, 1879. John Walter 
learned the blacksmith and edge-tool trade with John 
Steel, and for thirty -seven years carried on this busi- 
ness with great success, both in Allegheny and this 
county. He purchased the farm on which he resides, 
known as the old Kirkpatrick farm, in 1832. It was 
then nearly all in woods, but in 1838 he moved on to 
it, built a log house, and began clearing it up. In 
1848 he erected his present brick residence, just south 
of Oakland Cross-Roads. 

Mr. Walter is a Republican in politics, and takes 
a warm interest in the success of his party, to which 
he has been so long attached. With his family he is 
connected with the Poke Run Presbyterian Church, 
of which he is a trustee. He is a good example of 
the thrift of the old German stock that settled in 
Pennsylvania in the past century, and from no capital 
but his own resolute will and energy has made his 
life a success, and established a good name among 
his fellow-citizens. 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



The following is the official record of the organiza- 
tion of Unity Township : 

"January Session, 1789. 

" Upon the Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants of Mount Pleas- 
ant Tp. to the Court, setting forth that 'from their own experienced 
observation they are convinced that the Township in which they Reside 
is much too large for the Conven't Dischge of Many of the Officers' Duty. 
That they are of opinion that when Townships are sufficiently popu- 
lous, they ought to be no larger in their extent than the Inhabitants 
thereof might be generally known to those who may be appointed to 
Township Offices; That where they are otherwise, it commonly embar- 
rasses the officers in the Discharge of their Duty, A produces too good 
an apology for improper Delays, and praying that as the Township is 
sufficiently populous & on an Inconven't extent, That a new Township 
might be Erected off that end of Mount Pleasant Township which lies 



next to Loyalhaning Creek, and suggesting the propriety of beginning 
the line of the New Township at Adam Briuey's place, where John Bri- 
ney lived, on the Hempfield Line, & from thence to run to Sewickley 
Road, where it passes the late Francis Waddles' Plantation along said 
road until the place where it crosses the New Road from Archibald's 
Mill toGreensburgh : and from thence to go by the said New Road until 
the Line of Donegal Tp., and thence by the Lines of Deny, Salem, and 
HtMiiptield Twp.s Tu the place' d' Beginning, which Township to be erected 
and so situated, The Petitioners request may be called by the name of 
Unity, etc.' 

"Which Petition having been read to & considered by the Court, was 
granted agreeably to the Prayer thereof, and Recommended by the 
Court for the Election of a Justice agreeable to the act of Assembly. 

"■The foregoing Petition and the Certificate of the Recommendation 
of this Court as aforesaid; having been Read in Council on the Seventh 
day of Febr'y, 1789, and on the twenty-third day of Sept'r follo'g an 



634 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



order was taken and made thereon, that the division of the said district 
by the said Court for the purpose afores'd be & the same is hereby con- 
firmed." 

Unity township has on the north the townships of 
Derry and Salem, having for its boundary line between 
Derry the Loyalhanna Creek ; on the east it has 
Ligonier and Cook townships, with the Chestnut 
Ridge between them for its dividing line ; on the south 
it has Mount Pleasant township, and on the west 
Hempfield township. 

Although the township of Unity was not one of 
the original townships of the county, it was a very 
early one, and as a part of Mount Pleasant township 
its early history is replete with interest. In the list 
of taxables which we have given for Mount Pleasant 
we have many — indeed, possibly a majority of them 
— who were the inhabitants of that part of the town- 
ship which a few years later was Unity. In the 
history of the churches of this township, and par- 
ticularly in the early history of the county itself, will 
be found a due representation of her early settlers. 
Of these she has just cause to be proud, for among 
them were for three generations some of the most 
active and leading men and families of their day. 

The Loyalhanna River separates Latrobe from 
Unity, but probably a larger population regard that 
town as their market town and railroad station from 
the Unity township side than from the Derry town- 
ship side. Within its limits are the monastery and 
college of St. Vincents, and the convent and semin- 
ary of St. Xaviers, institutions of which a more ex- 
tended account is given elsewhere. It also has within 
its limits the church of the Unity Presbyterian con- 
gregation, one of the oldest and most historic in the 
West; and the graveyard, whose hallowed precincts 
have been tenderly guarded for a hundred years, 
wherein have been deposited the mortal remains of 
men who deserve honor not only because they were 
just, but because they were the friends and champions 
of liberty and equality. 

That part lying against the Chestnut Ridge is, as is 
all the physical conformation of the neighboring or 
contiguous land, rough and hilly ; the surface of the 
whole township, indeed, partaking of a hilly and un- 
even character. The lower portion on the western 
side is drained by the Nine-Mile Run. Between this 
and the Ridge itself the land is not adapted to agri- 
cultural purposes, although some portions of it have 
been cleared, and, by dint of much labor and toil, 
clearings have been made and comfortable homes 
have been rescued from the wilderness of heavy tim- 
ber, brush, and rocks. Some of the oldest settlements 
in the county were made, as has been said elsewhere, 
along the crests of these ranges on account of their 
proximity to the fort at Ligonier, and for reasons of 
agriculture and subsistence which are not apparent to 
the present generation but which were moving con- 
siderations to the early settlers. Indeed, one of the 
most common subjects for remark to the observant 



stranger is the sudden and unexpected appearance of 
a fine meadow or a blooming orchard, trimmed and 
cleanly kept, and surrounded by a neat stake-and- 
rider or stone fence, and back of all a neatly-planned, 
white-painted house and barn, with all modern con- 
veniences, belonging to some thrifty person who has 
taken hold of one of these old clearings and has made 
a tasty and profitable home. 

The portion, however, on the western side of Nine- 
Mile Run, and lying between it and the Dry Ridge 
range, is one of the most productive, richest, and 
best developed of the agricultural regions of the 
county. The surface of the land here being of heavy 
limestone, and being for the most part specially well 
cultivated, is known far and wide as one of the best 
wheat- and corn-producing districts in the State. It 
bade fair to be a rival of the famous Lancaster dis- 
trict in the production of wheat-grain, and had West- 
moreland remained purely an agricultural county 
there is no doubt that the progress of scientific farm- 
ing would, in a portion of this township, have been 
beyond all parallel. But the modern industries and 
the demand attending them have created a market 
for the minerals which lie under the surface, and for 
the timber which covered it in those portions which 
had theretofore been regarded as the most unprofit- 
able, aud has entirely changed the relative interests 
of the township ; and while the farming interests 
have increased in a due proportion with that interest 
elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, yet they are rela- 
tively far below the other interests to which we have 
referred. 

LUMBER INTERESTS. 

The lumber interests here were the first to profit by 
the innovations of the modern age, to wit, the age of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. This great thoroughfare, 
running within sight and of easy distance from the 
Ridge, was a godsend to the people inhabiting thereon. 
The first great demand which the company created 
was that for ties for its road-bed. The large quantity 
necessary for its construction along the whole of the 
Western Division was chiefly gotten from the timber 
taken from the Chestnut Ridge. Then speedily fol- 
lowed the demand for fire-wood, lumber for cars and 
for building purposes, not only along the line of the 
road, but for the people who congregated to the in- 
cipient villages at the various stations. 

Since then the lumber business in this section of 
the county traversed by the Ridge, of which so large 
a portion is within Unity township, has largely and 
regularly increased. It is worth noticing that at the 
first stages of the business — speaking generally of the 
lumber business — there was much timber uselessly 
and needlessly wasted. This perhaps was in great 
degree owing to its plentifulness, to the inexperienced 
knowledge of marketing it, and to a wide-spread be- 
lief that at no time would it be possible that the 
demand should be equal to the supply. Since then 
the enhanced value of the material, the clearing off 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



G35 



of that portion of land contiguous to the railroad, the 
rise in the price of labor, and the systematic develop- 
ment of the business, together with the capital in- 
vested in it, have given the business at the present time 
well-defined limits. Like in all industries, the capital 
and the labor necessary to carry it on have flown in 
together, and although the business is in the hands of 
comparatively few, yet the volume of its necessary 
transactions has at no time been so great as it is now, 
and has been within the last three years, or from the 
period which dates the revival of business after the 
panic. 

COAL INTERESTS. 

Of a later date has been the rise and development 
of the coal and coke business. It was a fact gener- 
ally known to those of an inquiring mind, which fact 
was evidenced by the surveys made under authority 
of the State, that the Connellsville seam of coal lay 
under the greater portion of the surface of the town- 
ship, extending across it from northeast to southwest 
in a well-defined boundary much in the shape of a 
triangle, with the outcrop on the northwestern side, 
lying to the east of the Dry Ridge (or Huckleberry 
Hills) on the southern side of the township, and near 
the Nine-Mile Run on the southeastern side. The 
sides of this triangle come nearly together at Latrobe, 
where the two outcrops are but a few miles apart. 

The principal coke-works here are the " Monastery 
Works," owned by Carneige Bros. & Co. These 
works lie but a short distance from Latrobe, and in 
mentioning the coal interests of that centre we have 
dwelt at length on these works, and of the other coal 
and coke-works of the township. 

At this time most of the coal lying within this sec- 
tion of this coal measure has been taken up and is in 
the hands of capitalists. Operations have been be- 
gun in the township to the southwest of Pleasant 
Unity, and it is altogether probable that within a 
limited time the whole deposit will be worked. Nor. 
is it unlikely, but altogether likely, that railroad 
communication will speedily be opened up from 
the Pennsylvania Road to the Mount Pleasant coal 
regions. 

CIVIL DIVISIONS. 

The political subdivisions of the township are 
Youngstown borough, Pleasant Unity, and West 
Latrobe villages, the two first of which are also 
post-offices, and hamlets Crab Tree, Lycippus, and 
Beatty, a station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
all post-offices. There are three election districts 
within its limits, namely, Youngstown (borough and 
district), Pleasant Unity, and Kuhn's. 

Y T OUNGSTOWN BOROUGH. 
The borough of Youngstown was incorporated by 
the Assembly by act of 2d of April, 1831. The in- 
habitants entitled to vote there were empowered to 
vote for the borough officers at an election to be held 
at the house of John Gibson, on or before the first 



Monday of the next May. The officers of the bor- 
ough were such as the law then authorized. 

The borough is a separate school district under the 
common-school system, and it supports a Catholic- 
parish school connected with St. Vincents Monas- 
tery. It is also a separate election district, and the 
voting place for the Youngstown Election District in 
the township. It is thus, borough and district, one 
election district for general purposes. 

Youngstown, the only incorporated borough in the 
township of Unity, is one of the oldest villages in 
the county. It was an old turnpike town, situated on 
the western side of the Chestnut Ridge, at its base, 
and about midway between Greensburg and Ligonier. 
The first house near the present town was a tavern, 
known as Reed's tavern, and it was known along the 
road as situated on the Nine-Mile Run. There was 
quite a village here at the close of the last century. 
It lay along the old Pennsylvania State road, and at 
the time of the Whiskey Insurrection (1794) some of 
the troops camped around this public-house at the 
Nine-Mile Run. 

Among the first land-owners and settlers of the 
place was Alexander Young, who owned most of the 
land upon which the place was laid out and from 
whom it derived its name. Young built the first 
stone house here. Part of the town was subsequently 
laid out by Joseph Baldridge, who was an extensive 
land-owner hereabouts. Martin West owned land 
contiguous to the town. He was a spirited citizen, 
and took much interest in the prosperity of the place 
at an early date. Sometimes in old papers the place 
is called Martinsburg, and it was not until the name 
was given it by the post-office department that it was 
assuredly known by the name which it now bears. 

At the early date to which we refer Youngstown 
was the market-town and the post-office for Gen. St. 
Clair, William Findley, William Todd, the Proctors, 
Lochrys, George Smith, and quite a number of other 
representative men, whom we have elsewhere no- 
ticed. These were all public characters. William 
Todd was a member of the Assembly, one of the 
Council of Censors, and an associate justice of the 
Common Pleas. He is one of the common stock of 
the Todd family of Kentucky and Ohio, who have 
many distinguished men and women belonging to it, 
among others the wife of President Abraham Lin- 
coln, who was a Todd. 

But little skill or judgment — truly no judgment at 
all — was shown in the laying out of the place and in 
making provision for the comfort and convenience of 
the subsequent inhabitants. The lots were measured 
and numbered for an equal frontage along the turn- 
pike, and a place left for two roads to cross the main 
street. There was no provision for streets to run 
parallel with the main street, nor for alleys either to 
run at angles or parallel with the street. The result 
was that when it began to be built up it speedily bore 
the appearance of one of those peculiar American 



636 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



villages which were erected only for the exigencies 
of the turnpike travel. The street was wide and long, 
and at convenient distances were large spaces belong- 
ing to the tavern, and which was a part of the "' tav- 
ern stand," called the "stand" or "yard," for the 
convenience of the road wagons or coaches. 

Of the citizens of a later date were Alexander 
Johnston, Esq., James Keenan, Esq., Judah Case, 
John Coulter, John Head, Daniel Bonbright, Dr. 
John McGirr, Sr., Dr. George Felix, James Mehan, 
George Lehmar, and others, the most of whom have 
descendants whose names are familiar in all the 
active walks of life, in both local and metropoli- 
tan circles. Notice has been elsewhere taken of 
many of these personages or of their families. One 
family name, however, has not been adverted to, 
namely, that of Bonbright, but the celebrity of the 
firms of Hood, Bonbright & Co., and of Buhler, 
Bonbright & Co., wholesale merchants of Philadel- 
phia, is so wide and pre-eminent in the commercial 
centres of the United States that we need not more 
than make mention of it as we recall the fact that 
the active heads of these respective firms — the Bon- 
brighls, James and George — are two of the sons of 
this Daniel, one of the earliest of the country mer- 
chants in this old-time village, where they them- 
selves received their early schooling and business 
training. 

At that time Youngstowu was the centre for busi- 
ness of certain kinds for a radius of ten miles round. 
There was then no Latrobe, no railroad ; there were 
no country stores at convenient distances, besides mills 
and blacksmith-shops, as now. No comparison can 
justly be made between any point of its size and the 
corresponding amount of business done, for no com- 
parison can aptly be made. The number of those 
dependent upon the interests of the place, the nature 
of this dependence, the relative volume of traffic and 
the relative value of money are elements that go to 
make up the disparity to which we have adverted. 

The present Youngstown, although not in numbers 
so great as the former Youngstown, has no remote 
idea of going backward. Its situation is everything 
to be desired. The country surrounding is improving 
and getting yearly a higher standard of refinement 
and comfort. It is within convenient distance of the 
railroad, and as its citizens work harmoniously with 
the people of the surrounding section, whose interests 
and wants are mutual, we may reasonably expect far 
more solid and durable evidence of material pros- 
perity evidenced. 

PLEASANT UNITY. 

The village of Pleasant Unity was formerly called 
Buzzard's Town, taking its name from a family of 
Buzzards descended from John Buzzard, an old settler 
who owned the land upon which most of the vil- 
lage is built. The name is now written Bossart. The 
place differs not much from other country villages, 



but lying in the midst of a fine agricultural region, 
which is also underlaid with coal, its prospects are 
good. Coal is being mined for coking purposes within 
a mile of the place, and several projected railroads 
pass within easy distance. Its inhabitants are favor- 
ably known for their morals, thrift, and material pros- 
perity. Good schools have always abounded in this 
section. It has several churches, and the sentiment 
of the people is decidedly in favor of temperance. 

UNITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Unity Church is situated a mile and a half west of 
Latrobe and eight miles east of Greensburg, only a 
few perches from the Pennsylvania Railroad, on the 
north side. It is among the oldest church organiza- 
tion in Western Pennsylvania. There is no record 
of its formal organization so far as is known. It 
is probable that it was gathered by the Rev. James 
Powers during his first visit to Western Pennsylvania, 
in 1774. The original warrant for the land held by 
the trustees is dated March 1, 1774, and was taken in 
the name of Robert Hanna, Andrew Allison, and John 
Sloan "for the erection of a meeting-house and for a 
burying-ground for the Presbyterian congregation of 
Unity, under the care of the Synod of New York 
and Philadelphia." Thus it is now one hundred and 
eight years since a congregation was gathered on this 
ground and named Unity, and placed on the list of 
churches in connection with the Eastern Synod. On 
the strength of the date found in the land-warrant 
its centennial anniversary was duly celebrated in the 
year 1874, in connection with the dedication of the 
present house of worship. 

During its one hundred and eight years of existence 
this church has had seven pastors and two stated sup- 
plies. Rev. James Powers preached as stated supply 
for more or less of the time during the first fifteen 
years. In 1790, Mr. John McPherrin was ordained 
and installed as the first pastor, from which relation 
he was released in 1800. Rev. John Black preached 
as stated supply for two years following, when death 
ended his labors. Rev. William Speer became pastor 
in 1803, and continued in this relation till 1829, when 
he was released on account of failing health only 
nineteen days before his death. Mr. Robert Henry 
was ordained and installed pastor in 1830, and con- 
tinued in that relation until his death, in 1839. Rev. 
Peter Hassinger was pastor from 1839 till 1844. In 
184G, Mr. George Morton was ordained and installed 
pastor, and in 1848 was released. Rev. Noah Hal- 
leck Gillett was installed in 1849 and continued pas- 
tor till 186S, when, on account of failing health, he 
was released, only three months before his death. 
The present pastor, Rev. Daniel W. Townsend, was 
installed in 1809. 

Until the year 1839 Unity and Greensburg were 
united in one pastoral charge, each occupying one- 
half time. Since then Unity has supported a minis- 
ter for the whole of his time. With the exception of 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



637 



a period of about fifteen years this church has en- 
joyed uninterrupted peace and prosperity. During 
the unhappy agitation which led to the division of 
the Presbyterian Church into Old and New School, 
the spirit of controversy arose here and spread and 
waxed hotter and hotter until it culminated in di- 
vision. About thirteen families withdrew from the 
church and erected a house of worship within hear- 
ing distance of the old house, where they maintained 
separate worship under different pastors and supplies 
for the space of twelve or fifteen years. But gradu- 
ally the dissension was healed and preaching in the 
New School Church was discontinued. Then the 
members returned to their old connection, and all 
marks of a second church were obliterated and Unity 
was united again. 

The immediate author of this division was one 
William Norman McLeod, a licentiate of the Re- 
formed Presbyterian Presbytery of Pittsburg, but of 
doubtful ecclesiastical standing and of suspicious 
morals. He was an eloquent and persuasive public 
speaker, and for a while held his followers spell- 
bound ; but not long, for as soon as his real character 
as a man was known he was compelled to leave the 
field. 

The agent called of God to restore harmony and 
good feeling among the people was Rev. Mr. Gillett. 
He " came to the kingdom for such a time as this." 
Dr. Donaldson, in his " History of the Churches of 
Blairsville Presbytery," says, "Brother Gillett was a 
man of ardent temperament, large heart, tongue 
touched with fire from the altar of God, and whole 
soul alive to his office work. He could not only 
preach warmly and pray fervently, but, what is of no 
small account, could even sing religion into the melt- 
ing souls of his people. God created, endowed, and 
enabled him to quiet commotions, soothe sensitive- 
ness, oil wounds, and heal divisions at Unity." 

Four houses of worship have been successively 
built by this congregation. The first was a mere shel- 
ter for the preacher, called " Proctor's Tent." The 
second was a log building, square-shaped at first, 
but afterwards enlarged by the addition of the length 
of a log to two sides. The third was a large brick 
edifice erected about 1830. The fourth and present 
is a brick edifice, erected in 1874, and is substantial, 
neat, complete in its finish, and " beautiful for situ- 
ation." Together with the ground on which it stands, 
and which is included within the picket-fence, it is 
estimated at$12,000. The congregation owns the farm, 
first taken by warrant in 1775, containing seventy acres 
and in good condition, the land being well cultivated, 
and having on it an elegant house of worship, a par- 
sonage and stable, sexton's house and barn, both new, 
a large and flourishing orchard, and cemetery pf eight 
acres. The church and cemetery are held and man- 
aged by the same board of trustees under special 
charter. 

Most of the families now connected with this church 
41 



are descendants of the original settlers in this com- 
munity, and of those who were united with it in its 
organization and early history. In 1768, Wm. Greer, 
an Irish Presbyterian, settled on a farm one mile from 
the location of the church. The farm has been owned 
by his descendants ever since, and is now owned and 
occupied by a great-grandson, Samuel H. Miller. 
The date of Mr. Greer's settlement is perhaps the 
earliest in the immediate community. Then we have 
the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the 
Hunters, Georges, Baldridges, Mullons, Larimers, 
Sloans, Fletchers, Allisons, Smiths, Tittles, all of 
whom were among the first gathered into the church. 
Some names of prominence in the formative period 
of the church have disappeared altogether. Both 
name and kin are gone. Col. John Proctor, Judge 
Robert Hanna, the venerable William Fiudley, John 
Morrison, and Archibald Lochry were active and 
useful members and supporters there, but have no 
representatives among us now. 

At first the territorial extent of Unity was without 
boundary, except that of distance, which placed it 
beyond access to the inhabitants of the county. But 
in course of time other organizations of a like order 
narrowed the field. Still the population of the com- 
munity increasing rapidly furnished additional ma- 
terial, and the church grew until its membership 
exceeded three hundred. 

In these latter days it has suffered a very consider- 
able curtailment. The railroad drew from the turn- 
pike its prestige and patronage, and stunted the 
growth and crippled the business interests of the 
villages which had sprung up and flourished beside 
it. Youngstown has lost most of its Presbyterian 
families, and is still losing more, whilst Latrobe 
has increased in population, having become the busi- 
ness centre of the community. In 1852, Unity built 
a branch chapel for the accommodation of the Pres- 
byterian people residing there and in her communion, 
in which the pastor preached regularly. But in 1869 
a separate organization was granted them, which in a 
few months took from the roll of Unity one hundred 
and fifty or more members. 

Besides these geographical and ecclesiastical changes 
the Protestant portion of the population has greatly 
decreased until it does not include more than one- 
half of the families, a fact which limits the congre- 
gation. But this church is substantial and vigorous 
notwithstanding, and keeps on her way harmoniously. 
Her families are mostly well-to-do farmers, owning 
their farms and having considerable money besides. 
All the equipments necessary for her use are provided 
and in good condition, so that, whilst the materials 
for her increase in numerical strength are limited, no 
I flag of distress is held out. 

During the past thirteen years there has been an 

addition to the membership of one hundred and 

i thirty, mostly on profession of faith, an average of 

i ten per year. $30,000 have been expended for house 



638 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and $6000 for benevolent purposes. " But," in the 
language of her present worthy pastor, " there are 
other marks of prosperity. We may count the mem- 
bers brought into the church and add up the figures 
that tell of the amount contributed to the spread 
of the gospel, but this is but a meagre reckoning 
of her real character and usefulness, since there 
are so many influences unseen and outside of all 
statistics which have gone forth from her midst to 
make glad the city of our God. It may be justly 
claimed for Unity that her families have been appre- 
ciative patrons of education, perhaps to a degree not 
excelled by any other farming community in West- 
ern Pennsylvania. Many of her sons have creditable 
standing in the various learned professions, whilst 
others are educated farmers and business men, and 
not a few of her daughters are educated mothers or 
teachers. The example of the fathers has not been 
lost upon their children, for the creditable custom of 
giving their sons and daughters an academic or colle- 
giate education is still kept up. 

" A history of a Presbyterian Church that would 
omit to mention the eldership would be very imper- 
fect. It is not the place in a brief historical sketch 
to insert extended biographies, but the elder's office 
in this church has been held by a succession of noble, 
godly, efficient men, of whom she is justly proud, 
and whose names belong to her history as patrons 
and pillars of the truth. The names of the first 
elders, elected some time before 1782, are John 
Moore, William Waddell, Andrew Allison, and 
Samuel Coulter. The time appointed for their or- 
dination was July 13, 1782, but news of the burning 
of Hannastown broke up the meeting, and no record 
can be found of their induction into office. 

" The next elders were elected during the pastorate 
of Rev. John McPherrin. They were Andrew 
Larimer, William Barnes, William B. Findley, 
Robert Marshall, John Morrison, and James Mont- 
gomery. Findley was a talented and leading public 
man, being for many years a representative, and for 
a while a senator in the Congress of the United 
States. He was a good man and a faithful elder. 
Andrew Larimer and John Morrison were pre-emi- 
nent among their brethren for faith and prayer. 

" In the time of Rev. William Speer, Joseph Bald- 
ridge, David Larimer (son of Andrew), Walter Fer- 
guson, John Sloan, John Taylor, and Edward Smith 
were ordained elders. In the time of Rev. Robert 
Henry, Hamilton Beatty, Elias Peterson, James Ful- 
ton, and Charles McLaughlin came into office. Of 
two of these the writer can speak from personal 
knowledge. Hamilton Beatty and Charles Mc- 
Laughlin were active, humble, firm, and efficient 
elders. In the time of Rev. Peter Hassinger, James 
Bell, Samuel Miller, and John McRight were or- 
dained. They were all worthy and spiritual men. 
Mr. Miller was a man of strong character, active and 
efficient in his office work up to the last. Consci- 



entious and judicious, his counsel was sought and 
prized by his associates in office, and mostly decided 
any doubtful or debated question. During the pas- 
torate of Rev. Mr. Gillett, Alexander B. Gilmore, 
James Nichols, and James Douglass were ordained. 
Mr. Gilmore was a good man and a good elder. Mr. 
Nichols and Mr. Douglass have been elders in 
Latrobe Church since its organization. 

" During the present pastorate the following persons 
have been ordained, viz., William Larimer, George 
Smith, John T. McLaughlin, Archibald Fletcher, 
Esq., and more recently Robert Sloan and James 
Crawford, all of whom, except Mr. Smith, now a resi- 
dent of Kansas, constitute the present board of elders. 
If a full and correct personal history of the men who 
have held spiritual rule in this congregation could be 
written, it would be seen that the great majority of 
them have been intelligent, wise, and efficient office- 
bearers in God's house and holy men of God. 

" It is not appropriate nor possible in a condensed 
sketch to present anything but simple facts and accu- 
rate data. There is no room to moralize or philoso- 
phize. Details must be withheld. Therefore the 
history of Unity Church, covering a period of one 
hundred and eight years, is written." 

REFORMED CHURCH. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century the tide 
of emigration carried a large number of Reformed 
families over the Alleghenies into Westmoreland 
County, many of whom settled along the Loyal- 
hanna and its tributaries in the direction of Greens- 
burg and Mount Pleasant. These were visited by 
Rev. John William Weber in his missionary travels, 
who preached in different settlements, and organized 
congregations wherever it was thought advisable. 
He prepared the way for Rev. William Weinel, who 
served this church prior to 1820. When Rev. N. P. 
Hacke, D.D., came here, May 13, 1821, he found a 
church and a congregation of worshipers. At his 
first communion in that month the following mem- 
bers partook : Jacob Eiserman, John Brindle, John 
George Brindle, Jacob Siegfriet, Joseph Smith, Dan- 
iel Bonbright, Veronica Brindle, Magdalena Siedler, 
Philip Shiry, John Knight, Jacob Bott, Catherine 
Bott, Christena Smith, Elizabeth Kuhns, Eliza Pol- 
lins, Esther Nicely. The first child he baptized was 
Christena Bott, now the wife of Jacob Brinker, of 
Latrobe. Dr. Hacke was succeeded in 1831 by Rev. 
Adam Boyer, who held but one communion, Novem- 
ber 13th. Then followed several years without a reg- 
ular pastor. Rev. H. E. F. Voight took charge in 
the spring of 1833, and continued until 1859. In 
this year Rev. Christian C. Russell began his labors, 
aiding Mr. Voight, but gradually he assumed entire 
charge of the work. He remained until 1863, and 
during his pastorate confirmed fifty-five catechumens. 
Rev. E. D. Shoemaker was the next pastor, and held 
his first communion May 29, 1864. On his resigna- 




JOHN W. JOHNSTON. 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



639 



tion, Rev. C. C. Russell was called the second time, 
and entered upon his work Aug. 1, 1867. He labored 
until a reconstruction of charges made it desirable 
for him to resign, and J. I. Swander, June 1, 1870, 
entered upon the pastorate of the Latrobe charge, of 
which Youngstown then became a part. In 1874 a lot 
on Main Street was purchased, on which a neat and 
substantial frame edifice was erected. The building 
committee consisted of George Fritz, Jacob Briiulle, 
and Jacob Smith. On May 16th of same year the 
corner-stone was laid, the pastor being assisted by 
Revs. Townsend and Spargrove, of the Presbyterian 
Church. On September 19th following it was dedi- 
cated, when Rev. George B. Russell, D.D., preached 
the sermon and assisted the pastor in the ceremonies. 
The first edifice, a log structure, stood for nearly 
sixty years. When Rev. J. I. Swander entered upon 
his pastorate the Consistory was : Elders, George 
Fritz, Jacob Brindle ; deacons, Joseph Smith, Zach- 
ary Fritz, Benjamin Showers. During Mr. Swander's 
first six years he confirmed forty-five persons, and by 
his earnest labors secured the erection of its tasteful 
edifice. 

ST. LUKE'S CHURCH. 

The following petition, with the names of the male 
signers attached thereto, will explain the origin of 
St. Luke's congregation at Pleasant Unity : 

"November 17, 1860. 

" W r e, the undersigned members of St. Paul's congregation, feeling 
ourselves aggrieved by the decision of its Consistory, which decision was 
confirmed oy a congregational meeting, held on the 13th of November, 
I860, hereby give notice that we intend to complain to the CIa6sis of 
Westmoreland of the German Reformed Church of said decision, and 
submit as the ground of our complaint, that some of the members of the 
Consistory did not understand the nature of our request, which was for 
English Services every fourth Sunday. We are fully satisfied that what 
we requested is demanded by the interests of religion and the welfare 
of our Beloved Zion. And we further give notice that if our request is 
denied, we will seek for permission to organize a congregation in Pleas- 
ant Unity, with a view of having it stand in connection with Mount 
Pleasant charge. 

"Adam Bair, John Weaver, John Welty, George Barnhart, Dr. Thomas 
H. Brinker, Jacob Huffman, Henry Gress, Henry Herr, John Helam, 
elders. 

" George Bair, Henry Smith, George Fisher, Jacob Perkins, John Fiscus, 
John P. Fiscus, Charles Fiscus, Johu A. Fisher, deacons." 

The Classis, in February, 1861, finding it impossible 
to supply the want, granted the privilege of a new 
congregation, which was organized June 5, 1862, 
with about forty members. Adam Bair and John 
Weaver were elected elders, and Dr. Thomas H. 
Brinker, George Bair, Henry Gress, and Henry Smith 
deacons. 

The new church edifice was completed in 1861, and 
dedicated Jan. 1, 1862, by services conducted by Revs. 
G. B. Russell, D.D., H. E. F. Voight, and C. C. Rus- 
sell. It was made a part of Latrobe charge. Rev. 
C. C. Russell was pastor until May 1, 1864, when he 
resigned, and was succeeded by Rev. E. D. Shoe- 
maker. He remained until 1867, when it was asso- 
ciated with itself only, and Rev. C. C. Russell became 
pastor again. He remained until Latrobe became a 



part of the charge, and then (1869) resigned. In 
1870, Rev. J. I. Swander became pastor. George 
Welty gave a lot for a parsonage adjoining the church. 
This congregation has sent forth two Reformed 
ministers, Revs. T. F. Stauffer and J. B. Welty. 
Among the original members deceased are George 
Barnhart, John Fiscus, John Welty, Henry Herr, 
John Helam, and Charles Fiscus. All the first offi- 
cers are yet living, except Henry Smith. Joseph C. 
Stauffer was a long-time Sunday-school superintendent. 
Among the late elders were Adam Bair, Dr. Thomas 
H. Brinker, and George A. Bair ; and deacons, George 
Fisher, Michael Fisher, and J. Cressinger. The mem- 
bership is over one hundred communicants, and about 
an equal number of baptized children. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



COL. JOHN WILLIAMS JOHNSTON. 

John W. Johnston, the ninth son of Alexander 
Johnston, Esq., deceased, of Kingston House, on the 
Loyalhanna, in Unity township, whose biography is 
given in another department of this work preceding 
this, was born at the homestead of his father on the 
22d of May, 1820. His father removing to Greens- 
burg in a few years thereafter, the first schooling he 
received was in the county town, which at that time 
offered superior advantages for a good and substantial 
education. About the time he attained his majority 
he entered into the mercantile business in Clarion 
County, Pa., in which he continued about one year, 
when he came back to Kingston. He remained here 
on the farm a short time, when, being appointed 
deputy sheriff under Michael Hays, he removed again 
to Greensburg. He continued in this capacity from 
1843 to 1846. In 1846, the war with Mexico occur- 
ring, he volunteered in the company raised in the 
county for service, called the " Westmoreland Guards," 
and was unanimously elected its captain. As its com- 
manding officer, his public services in that campaign 
are so identified with the services of the company 
that to give one would be to give the other from ne- 
cessity. In the chapter on the Mexican war in this 
work will be found an extended and detailed account 
of the services of the " Guards" in the campaign under 
Scott. 

After the close of the war Capt. Johnston engaged 
in the wholesale grocery business in Pittsburgh, but 
not continuing any length of time in this calling he 
left it, when he became a contractor in the construc- 
tion of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. On this road 
he continued for some two years, when he took a 
more extensive contract in the construction of the 
Iron Mountain Railroad in Missouri. On this road 
he was engaged for five years. 

Returning to Pennsylvania in 1858, he remained at 



640 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Kingston House until the breaking out of the civil 
war. On the first call for volunteers he enlisted with 
his neighbors in the company raised about Youngs- 
town for three months' service. He asked for no 
office, but the outspoken choice of his comrades, with 
whom he was personally acquainted, for their cap- 
tain was for him. As captain of Company G, Four- 
teenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, he took 
the command to Harrisburg, where they were sworn 
into service, and where the regimental officers were 
elected. On the organization of the regiment he was 
made its colonel. 

This regiment was attached to Gen. Patterson's 
command, which had control of the Shenandoah Val- 
ley. The only place in which this army was engaged 
in this campaign was at Falling Waters, and here the 
Fourteenth first manifested that soldierly bearing 
which they afterwards sustained on many hard-fought 
fields in various commands. 

At the expiration of the three months' service, Col. 
Johnston entered the Ninety-third Pennsylvania Vol- 
unteers (raised chiefly in Lebanon County) as its lieu- 
tenant-colonel. He was offered its colonelcy, but this 
he declined in favor of Col. McCarter, under motives 
of personal considerations. He served under the last 
enlistment over two years, and then resigned. The 
services of this regiment during the time Col. John- 
ston was connected with it, part of the time of which 
it was under his personal command, are traceable 
through the services of Gen. Couch's and Gen. Casey's 
divisions in the Army of the Potomac. 

Since his services in the army he has resided at the 
old homestead, Kingston House, and has settled down 
to the quieter and more peaceable occupation of a 
farmer. 

The wife of Col. J. W. Johnston was Miss Sarah 
Rebecca Byerly. They were married in 1867, and 
have living a family of two children, a son and a 
daughter. 

SAMUEL MILLER. 
The paternal ancestor, Capt. Samuel Miller, of 
Samuel Miller, late of Unity township, came with his 
brother from North Ireland about the year 1760, as 
near as can be ascertained. The one brother remained 
east of the mountains, but Capt. Samuel was among 
the first settlers of Westmoreland. He settled on the 
place which afterwards attained a wide .celebrity 
from the incursion of the Indians upon Hannastown 
and Miller's Station, an event familiar to all West- 
morelanders, and one of the most prominent in border 
annals. Capt. Miller's name appears as a prominent 
settler so early as 1774 among the lists of the petitions 
to Governor Penn. He was one of the eight captains 
of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the Conti- 
nental line. He was ordered from Valley Forge, Feb. 
10, 1778, to Westmoreland County on recruiting ser- 
vice. While here he was killed, July 7, 1778, as appears 
from the following extract of a letter from Thomas 



Scott to T. Matlack, preserved in the sixth volume of 
the Archives (old series), page 673. That portion of 
the letter is here given, the original spelling and ar- 
rangement preserved : 

" WESTMORELAND, August 1st, 1778. 

" The Indians have made several breaches on the inhabit- 
ants of late in different parts of this country. Capt. Miller, of the 8th 
Penna. Regit , with a party of nine men, chiefly Continental soldiers, 
were Bringing grain from the Neighbourhood to a Fort, called Fort 
Hand, about 11 miles North of Hannas Town, on the seventh of last 
month [July], and on their return were surprised by a party of Indians, 
who lay in wait for them, and killed the Capt. & seven others." 

The paper of which we here give a copy appears to 
have been a deposition made by Hon. William Jack • 
in some contested title arising out of the ownership 
of the old Miller farm. It was apparently used in 
evidence, but is no part of the records. It preserves 
several interesting facts. The writing is in Judge 
Jack's own hand : 

"Westmoreland Coxtnty, es. 

" Before me, a Justice of the peace in and for Baid County of West- 
moreland, personally appeared William Jack, Esq., who was duly sworn 
according to law, did depose and say that Capt. Samuel Miller, who was 
killed by the Indians in the year 1778, at the commencement of the 
Revolutionary war actually settled on a plantation now adjoining Peter 
Eichar, John Sheoffer, John Mechling, and others in Hempfield Town- 
ship in the County aforesaid, that Andrew Cruikshanks (who married 
the Widow of the said Capt. Samuel Miller), Joseph Russell, who is mar- 
ried to one of the Daughters of the said Samuel Miller, dec'd, claims the 
benefit of an act of Assembly passed Sept. 1G, 1785, and that the said 
Andrew Cruikshanks was in the course of the said war actually in pos- 
session of the said plantation, and was drove away from his habitation 
on said land by the Indians on the 13th day of July, A.D. 178'2, being the 
same day that Hannastown was burned and destroyed by the Indians, 
and that some of the heirs of the said Capt. Samuel Miller was killed 
and taken prisoners on the 6aid day, and that the House was burned and 
the property in the House by the Enemy, and that afterwards the said 
Plantation lay waste and vacant for some time for fear and dread of the 
Indians. Wm. Jack. 

" Sworn & subscribed before me the 9th day of March, A.D. 1814. 

"R. W.Williams." 

Two of the children of this Capt. Samuel Miller 
married and left families. Dorcas, a daughter, was 
married to Joseph Russell, and became the maternal 
ancestor of the Russell family of Hempfield and 
Greensburg. The son, Isaac Miller, married Sarah 
Grier, daughter of William Grier. He lived upon 
the old homestead, the " Miller's Station Farm," 
until he died, 28th September, 1805, of a fever, 
leaving issue, — a daughter, Isabella, and two sons, 
Samuel (our subject) and Isaac. His widow survived 
hiin sixty years, dying on the 13th of April, 1866, in 
the eighty-seventh year of her age. 

Samuel Miller was born May 19, 1803, and died 
Feb. 5, 187!), in the seventy-sixth year of his age> 
He passed his boyhood on the farm his father had 
owned, about a mile and a half east of Greensburg. 
His father dying while he was a mere child left the 
care of the farm and its management to his widow 
and his two sons, Samuel and Isaac. These boys, 
growing strong, industrious, and judicious, soon took 
upon themselves the entire management, and proved 
adequate to their trust. Their early life was thus 
calculated to develop their characters into sober and 
efficient men anil capable and successful farmers. 




ttMS^, 




WM. T. SMITH. 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



641 



Samuel married Priscilla, daughter of James Hurst, 
of Mount Pleasant township, Dec. 29, 1831. In 1840 
he removed to the Grier farm, and occupied it as its 
possessor until his death. 

The "Grier farm" belonged originally to William 
Grier, the ancestor of the Grier family, and whose 
daughter Sarah was the wife of Isaac Miller, father 
'of Samuel. William Grier, from the beginning of 
peace in these parts after Pontiac's war (1764), was 
engaged as a packer ; that is, one who transported 
commodities upon pack - horses and pack - mules. 
When passing along one of the ancient trading-paths 
leading close by this tract of land, in 1767-68, stop- 
ping at a convenient place to lunch and feed his 
team, he found at a short distance a spring bubbling 
out from the roots of a large elm-tree. So well 
pleased was he with the site, and the spring of such 
marvelous excellence, that he marked the elm, and 
when, shortly after, the land-office was opened for 
applications, he, on the 3d of April, 1769, asked for 
a warrant to issue to him for a large tract surround- 
ing this tree and spring. Upon this tract he settled, 
and some of his descendants have owned it ever since. 
The memorable tree, long preserved, with its blazing 
to be seen, has almost entirely passed away, but from 
its decaying roots still bubbles the spring perennially 
which has slaked the thirst of the heated harvest- 
hands for above a hundred harvests, and which never 
has failed in the dryest season. 

This farm lies near the line of the Pennsylvania 
Railrrad, but a short distance from Beatty Station, 
and about three miles west from Latrobe. 

The character of a man such as Samuel Miller was 
is difficult to describe. It was only from intimacy 
that one could get to understand him. He united in 
a marked degree traits seemingly at variance with 
each other. His manners, his conservatism, his scru- 
pulous honesty belonged to the generation of his boy- 
hood, but his activity in behalf of all innovations 
which were calculated to improve mankind about 
him, either in morals, in intellect, or in worldly cir- 
cumstances, were the marked characteristics of a later 
generation. He was never in a hurry, and he was 
never behind time; watched well his interests, and at 
the same time adequately compensated his tenants and 
his working-men ; was economical, but not penurious. 
For a full generation, or from the time he came to 
manhood, he was one of the recognized leaders in his 
township in those things wherein a leader is required. 
His zeal for the success and prosperity of the common 
schools of his district in particular, and for the sys- 
tem in general, knew no abatement as long as he lived. 

In early life he united with the Presbyterian Church 
at Greensburg, under the pastorate of the Rev. Robert 
Henry. Having settled within the bounds of the 
Unity congregation he united with that church, and 
in about a year afterwards was elected a ruling elder, 
which office he filled with great usefulness and ac- 
ceptance till the time of his death. 



His pastor, in a memorial sketch of Mr. Miller, 
has, we think with great aptness too, this to say upon 
his religious and moral characteristics : 

" He was a strong, manly, good man, firm in his convictions, decided 
in speech, mid resolute in action. But he was deliberate and reasonable, 
always open to argument, and when convinced he as gladly embraced 
another's view and worked with him as if his own way had prevailed. 
What he wanteil at was the truth. He would do what was his duty, or 
what he believed was his duty, in face of all suspicion. lie was devoted 
to his church with growing zeal to the last — a man of prayer, liberality, 
and intelligent activity. He would ride miles to talk with his pastor or 
an elder about some matter of interest concerning the church. He was 
missed and lamented when taken from the church and community. 11 

Priscilla Miller, wife of Mr. Samuel Miller, died 
Nov. 16, 1862, in the fifty-second year of her age. 
They rest together in the cemetery of Unity Church. 
Their children are the following: Sarah (Nelson), 
now deceased, Martha, Lydia (Baldridge), Rosanna, 
deceased, Harriet (Thompson), Frances (McKee), 
Priscilla, Anna, Celia (Boyle), and Samuel H., an 
only surviving son. Two children, a son and a daugh- 
ter, died young. 



WILLIAM T. SMITH. 

Philip Smith, the great-grandfather of William 
T. Smith, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, 
emigrated from Germany when quite a boy, and set- 
tled in Eastern Pennsylvania ; from thence he moved 
into Westmoreland, and married Mary Armel. His 
son, John Smith, born in 1767, was married to Cath- 
arine Shockey. He died in 1807, aged forty years, 
and his wife died in 1821, aged fifty-three. They had 
a family of seven children, one of whom died early, 
but the other six grew up. Four are still living, and 
are aged from seventy-five to eighty-three years. Of 
these, William Smith, father, was born February 12, 
1800, on the farm now owned by and upon which 
resides his son, William T., who was the second son 
and the fifth child. 

William T. Smith was born on this farm in 1830. 
His early years were passed in the domestic employ- 
ment upon his father's farm incident to his occupa- 
tion. He enjoyed no further advantages than were 
usual to farmers' boys of his day. His early educa- 
tion was not neglected, and he certainly had superior 
training under his father's roof. The bent of his in- 
clination and his desire to acquire a practical knowl- 
edge of men and of the world were evinced and par- 
tially and practically gratified in his early manhood. 
In 1856 he ventured in the stock trade, and mani- 
fested judgment and business ability of no ordinary 
character in taking a drove of Eastern horses to a 
Western market. These he carried to Iowa. Return- 
ing successfully from bis speculation, but filled with 
a desire to know more of Western life and its practi- 
calities, he in March, 1859, again went to Iowa to 
examine some land which he had there purchased. 
In this trip he walked one hundred and twenty miles 
from Iowa City to Story County, returned to Iowa 
City, and thence came eastward as far as McLean 



642 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



County, in that State, where, not far from Blooming- 
ton, he engaged with a former Westmorelander to 
conduct his farming interests. In 1859 lie went to 
Bloomington and took a course at Pratt's Commercial 
College. In April, 1860, he rigged up four yoke of 
oxen and started for Kansas, then the Mecca of so 
many glowing pilgrims who sought a wider and more 
prosperous field for their activities. But so many had 
entered thither that it appeared that the adventure 
would be fruitless. It appeared so at the time, but in 
the sequel it proved to be profitable, and was the oc- 
casion of an event which rarely happens in this 
practical world of ours; for engaging with a Mr. 
Lightfoot to break a tract of land, he was much dis- 
appointed when, having nearly finished his contract, 
Mr. Lightfoot announced that he had to return to his 
home in Alabama to sell a slave there to pay for the 
work. He did so return, but shortly after his arrival 
there he was taken ill. Then followed the war, and 
nothing was heard of the land-owner till six years had 
passed ; but then who can imagine the surprise of him 
to whom the money was due upon receiving a draft on 
New York at his home in Pennsylvania for the amount 
due with interest at ten per cent, added to date, with 
an accompanying letter from the former employer. 

Late in 1860, leaving his partner in Iowa, whither 
they had returned to take care of their stock, Mr. 
Smith revisited Pennsylvania, but in the spring of 
1861 returned to Iowa. He then began farming 
there, and in 1862 married and settled down ; but his 
brother Ezra having died from injuries received in 
battle before Richmond, his father solicited him to 
come back and take charge of the old farm. This he 
did, and upon this farm he has made his home, which 
is a model for neatness, comfort, convenience, and 
hospitality. 

But practical as Mr. Smith is in all the walks 
of life, he possesses in an eminent degree the rare 
faculty of uniting pleasure and enjoyment with his 
vocation, and of making these elements of higher 
social and civilized life instruments for his own 
worldly success, and for the wider scope of acquired 
information. In 1876 he visited the Centennial Ex- 
position at Philadelphia twice, and he went with 
his eyes open, for not only did he enjoy with all the 
full measure of his healthful vitality and strong 
mind the sights at that wonderful fair, and all the 
places of interest in Philadelphia, and in New York, 
Baltimore, and Washington, whither his trips ex- 
tended, but he utilized many of the improvements 
and later inventions applicable to an advanced system 
of agriculture, and only feasible and profitable to a 
farmer of intelligence, a man who could discriminate 
between theory and practice, and who unites brain 
with muscle. 

In 1878, the year of the Paris Exposition, Mr. 
Smith went to Europe. In company with an invalid 
relative, he went from Liverpool to London, and 
thence to Newhaven, whence he crossed the English 



Channel to Dieppe, in France, where he first touched 
the continent. From here he went to Paris, and after 
visiting all the more noted places of interest and curi- 
osity in the gay capital of the world, such as the 
Madeleine, the Palace de Justice, the Louvre, the 
Place Vendome with its renewed column, the Cathe- 
dral of Notre Dame, with its high altars and famous 
organ and choir, and the suburbs of the city, Ver- 
sailles and Rouen, he was forced to abandon his pro- 
jected tour of Italy on account of the failing health 
of his companion, and to return home. 

Of this trip Mr. Smith preserves many gratifying 
memories and souvenirs. Of these he recalls the 
peculiar feeling of astonishment he experienced when, 
upon presenting his letter of credit at the cashier's 
desk of the Bank of England, he was handed a quill 
pen with which to write his signature. But above all 
and more interesting are his recollections and observa- 
tions upon the method of farming in France, and the 
habits, manners, and customs of the agricultural and 
peasant class of that country. He brought home with 
him more enlarged ideas of his vocation, and pro- 
nounced preferences for his country and its insti- 
tutions. 

In 1880, Mr. Smith made a summer trip to Col- 
orado and the mining regions of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and now contemplates an extended trip to 
Utah, California, and the Pacific Coast. 

The judicious farming of such a man as our sub- 
ject is, as might be expected, a matter of course. 
Every resource and applicance calculated to develop 
the productive power of the soil, either by tillage, by 
the selection of seed, or by the rotation of crops, is 
brought into requisition. Particularly has he for 
years devoted time and care to the improvement of 
his breed of stock, and from this source has he been 
pecuniarily profited. His home is not only comfort- 
able, but it is much more. On his table and shelves 
are found books in great variety, and periodicals of 
all standard kinds are constantly being received in his 
family. He is truly, in every sense of the word, a 
model and a representative farmer, and this is all he 
pretends to be. 

Mr. Smith was married March 2, 1862, to Miss Maria 
Wilson, of Washington, Tazewell Co., 111. In bring- 
ing her to Pennsylvania he reversed the usual order 
of things, as indeed he appears to have done in the 
most important ventures and transactions of his life. 
In her he secured not only an intelligent but an intel- 
lectual wife and a worthy helpmate. Her great-grand- 
father, McLure, was of Irish blood, and settled in 
Tennessee, whence her grandfather moved to Illinois, 
in Tazewell County, where her father, William Wilson, 
from Perry County, Ohio, was married to Sarah G. 
McLure, mother of Mrs. Smith, and where he settled 
on a farm, on which he remained until his death, Nov. 
19, 1857. They have a growing family of intelligent 
children. 




oh 



'leuocs 



LaM.culs' 



UNITY TOWNSHIP. 



643 



ISAAC GEORGE. 
Adam George, the progenitor of the Unity township 
Georges, came out of Germany, and firstsettledin York 
County, Pa., and afterwards, about the time of the 
opening of the land-office (1769), came into West- 
moreland and located upon the place known in frontier 
times as " George's Station," which is now owned and 
occupied by Peter George, and which is but a short 
distance from the present " George Station" on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad. The name of Adam George 
appears in the lists of signers to the petitions of 1774 
to Governor Penn for military protection from the 
Indians. In the Revolution he was a soldier under the 
immediate command of Washington ; he also served 
on the frontier, and although he escaped serious per- 
sonal injury, yet it seemed as by miracle. He died 
at an advanced age, and was buried on his own farm. 
One of his sons, Conrad George, was in the fort at 
Hannastown when the village was burned. John, the 
second son, grew up with great hunting proclivities, 
and spent much of his early manhood in the chase on 
the Alleghenies. He married, in Somerset County, 
Miss Eleanor Campbell about the year 1800. They 
lived together until the death of Mrs. George in 1860, 
a period of sixty years, and had a family of six 
sons and seven daughters, all of whom except one 
daughter grew to maturity. After his marriage he 
lived in Mercer County till the spring of 1811, when 
he settled on the farm now occupied by his son Isaac, 
whose portrait accompanies this sketch, situate in 
Unity township, near Beatty Station. He died Sept. 
4, 1863, and was buried in Unity Church cemetery. 

Isaac, the eleventh child of John, was born Oct. 4, 
1822, in Unity township, on the farm he now owns 
and occupies. He grew up on his father's farm until 
he reached the age of eighteen, when he went out 
from the home-roof to learn his trade. After serv- 
ing an apprenticeship of three years at the carpenter 
trade, he went to May's Lick, Ky., where he worked 
at his trade for one year; thence to Lexington, Mo., 
where he continued to work at his trade with good 
success. 

At this time occurred the war with Mexico, and 
under a call for volunteers Mr. George enlisted in 
the company of Capt. Walton (Company B), in the 
regiment which, under the command of Col. Doni- 
phan, made that famous march which has immortal- 
ized all those who participated in it. 

This regiment was raised in Western Missouri, 
near the borders of Kansas. They assembled at 
Fort Leavenworth, and began their celebrated march 
across the plains to the confines of Mexico on the 26th 
of June, 1846. The regiment was called the First Regi- 
ment of Missouri Mounted Riflemen; its colonel was 
A. W. Doniphan, and it was attached to the division 
of Gen. Stephen W. Kearney. The march of this 
regiment, called " Doniphan's March," or " Doni- 
phan's Expedition," is one of the most memorable 
in modern warfare, and the boldness of its concep- 



tion and the success in which it terminated brought 
forth the commendations of all military men and the 
plaudits of the people throughout the Union. The 
march will be celebrated to all time in the military 
history of the nation. 

After a march of one thousand miles across the 
plains through a hostile region the regimeut took 
Sante Fe on the 18th of August, 1846, fought the bat- 
tle of Brazito, which secured El Paso, crossed the Rio 
Grande into Mexico proper, marched on towards 
Chihuahua, which, after the brilliant battle and 
victory of Sacramento, they captured, Feb. 28, 1847. 
From there the command was ordered by Gen. Tay- 
lor to report to Gen. Brook at New Orleans, they being 
allowed to put in the rest of their time in marching 
homeward, an honor conferred upon them in recog- 
nition of their distinguished services to the country, 
which the general commanding regarded to be so 
effectual as to be thus publicly acknowledged. From 
Camargo, on the Rio Grande, ten men from each com- 
pany volunteered to take the horses of the regiment 
overland by way of Texas to their homes. Return- 
ing home by way of New Orleans, he, with about one- 
half of his comrades, landed at Lexington, Mo., July 
1, 1847, having been honorably discharged. 1 

His parents being now advanced in age he visited 
them, and out of a sense of duty to them took 

1 On the 22d of May the regiment was reviewed by Gen. Wool in per- 
son, accompanied by bis staff, and the following order made, viz. : 

" Headquarters, Buena Vista, May 22, 1847. 

"The general commanding takes great pleasure in expressing the 
gratification he has received this afternoon in meeting the Missouri 
volunteers. They are about to close their present term of military ser- 
vice, after having rendered, in the course of the arduous duties they 
have been called on to perform, a series of highly important services, 
crowned by decisive and glorious victories. No troops can point to a 
more brilliant career than those commanded by Col. Doniphan, and no 
one will ever hear of the battles of Brazito or Sacramento without a 
feeling of admiration for the men who gained them. 

"In bidding them adieu the general wishes to Col. Doniphan, his offi- 
cers and men, a happy return to their families. 

" By command of Brig.-Geu. Wool : 

"Irwin McDowell, A. A. A. Gen" 

When Gen. Taylor received authentic information of the full of Vera 
Cruz, the capitulation of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and the cap- 
ture of Chihuahua, he published the following order to the troopsunder 
his command: 

• " Headquarters, Army of Occupation, 

"Camp near Monterey, April 14,1847. 

"The commanding general has the satisfaction to announce to the 
troops under his command that authentic information has been received 
of the fall of Vera Cruz and of San Juan de Ulloa, which capitulated 
on the 27th of March to the forces of Maj.-Gen. Scott. This highly im- 
portant victory reflects new lustre on the reputation of ourarms. 

" The commanding general would at the same time announce another 
signal success, won by the gallantry of our troops on the 28th of Febru- 
ary near the city of Chihuahua. A column of Missouri volunteers, leBS 
than one thousand strong, under command of Col. Doniphan, with a 
light field battery, attacked a Mexican force many times superior in an 
intrenched position, captured its artillery and baggage, and defeated it 
with heavy loss. 

" In publishing to the troops the grateful tidings the general is sure 
they will learn with joy and pride the triumphs of their comrades on 
distant fields. 

" By order of Maj.-Gen. Taylor: 

"W. W. Bliss, .4. .1. .4. G." 



644 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



charge of their affairs. He bought their farm, and 
lias continued to own and reside upon it unto the 
present time. By energy and industry he has made 
for himself a haven of rest, wherein he may safely 
and peacefully anchor the rest of his days. In addi- 
tion to farming, he has been rather extensively en- 
gaged in the lumber manufacture, and for years has 
carried on saw-milling profitably. 

On the 26th of December, 1853, Mr. George mar- 
ried Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Hon. Samuel Nixon, 
of Fayette County, a man of honorable standing, who 
served three terms in the Legislature of the State, and 
ten years as associate judge of Fayette County. Mrs. 
George, a woman of energy and piety, has contributed 
not a little to her husband's success. They have raised 
a family of two sons and three daughters. 



While in Kentucky Mr. George united with the 
Disciple Church. His wife was a member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After their mar- 
riage they attended the Presbyterian Church of Unity, 
with which they also united with their children. 

Mr. George is a man of quiet manners, of consistent 
morals, and of liberality. He makes himself useful 
in church work when he is called upon to lend a 
helping hand. He is exact and scrupulously honest 
in his dealings, has keen discernment and quiet en- 
ergy. No man in his neighborhood has had better 
success in any calling than Mr. George has had in 
his. The fruits of his diligence, tact, and Christian 
uprightness, which he now enjoys, are a liberal and 
increasing worldly portion, the esteem of his neigh- 
bors, and a virtuous and intelligent family. 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



Huntingdon Township proper was among the 
original townships, organized April 6, 1773. Its 
boundaries as at first defined were : " To begin at 
the mouth of Brush Run, where it empties into Brush 
Creek ; to go along Byerly's path to Braddock's road ; 
thence along said road to the line of Mount Pleasant 
township ; thence with the line of Tyrone and Pitt- 
town townships to the beginning." 

The officers elected at the first election in the town- 
ship were George Shilling, constable ; James Baird 
and William Marshall, overseers of the poor ; David 
Vance, supervisor. 

Huntingdon township remained as originally cre- 
ated until January, 1790, when the court ordered that 
it should be divided into North and South Hunting- 
don, agreeable to the annexed petition, etc. : 

" Upon a petition of a number of Inhabitants of Huntingdon township 
to tlie courts, setting forth that they labor under a variety of inconveni- 
ences for want of a division of said township, and praying for a division 
agreeably to the districts laid off by the commissioners, etc., which 
having been read the same was continued under advisement at April 
Sessions, read and continued at July Sessions, and now, to wit, April 
Sessions, 1790, the same having been taken under consideration, it was 
thereupon ordered by the court that the same be confirmed agreeably to 
the prayer of said petition." 

The first constable of South Huntingdon (as this 
new part was called) was William Waggale. The 
township was again subdivided in 1798, and East 
Huntingdon was formed. 

The present boundaries of the township are north 
by Sewickley, northeast by Hempfield, east by East 
Huntingdon, south by a part of Fayette County, and 
west by the Youghiogheny River. 

The surface of the township is diversified, in some 
parts quite hilly, in others rolling, with an occasional 



plateau of level land. It contains a vast amount of 
coal. Several rich and influential corporations for 
the development of this caloric commodity have their 
works scattered over the township, notably in the 
borough of West Newton. The Pittsburgh and Con- 
nellsville Railroad runs along the Youghiogheny the 
entire length of the township, its chief revenue being 
derived from the transportation of coal. In several 
parts excellent stone abounds, and that, too, of the 
finest quality for building and other purposes. 

The first settlers were the Millers, Shulls, Finleys 
Waggales, Plumers, Blackburns, Markles, Rodar- 
mels, and others heretofore mentioned. 

George Plumer (born Dec. 5, 1752, died June 8, 
1843) was one of the first, if not the first, as it was 
reported, white child born west of the Allegheny 
Mountains under the British government. He was 
at one time shut up for four days and nights in Fort 
Du Quesne under the Indian chief Killbuck, and 
noted a successful stratagem of two Indians on the Al- 
legheny River in decoying a couple of whites, one of 
whom was killed ; one of the Indians was also killed 
by a shot from the fort. He was a member of the 
State and National Legislature, and served with 
credit and honesty. He was also a ruling elder of 
the Presbyterian Church, and exercised a good influ- 
ence for purity, harmony, and the general prosperity 
of his church. 

CHURCHES. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SEWICKLEY 

is one of the oldest Presbyterian Churches in the west- 
ern part of Pennsylvania, being one of the original 
churches of the Old Redstone Presbytery. It is sup- 



/ 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



645 



posed to have been organized as early as 1776 by the 
Rev. Dr. Power. He continued to be their pastor, in 
connection with Mount Pleasant, till Aug. 22, 1787, 
when he resigned the pastoral charge of Sewickley, 
which continued vacant until, in union with Long 
Run, it became the pastoral charge of the Rev. Wil- 
liam Swan, Oct. 16, 1793. It again became vacant 
Oct. 18, 1818. In January, 1821, the congregation, 
having united with Mount Pleasant, presented a call 
to the Rev. A. 0. Patterson, who was ordained and 
installed at Sewickley, April 18, 1821., Dr. Patterson 
was dismissed Oct. 8, 1834. 

These churches having dissolved their connection 
from a persuasion that each of them was now able to 
support a pastor, Sewickley, in April, 1836, gave a 
call to the Rev. William Annan, who was installed 
their pastor in June following. From weakness of 
health, Mr. Annan was compelled to resign his charge 
in the June following. In December, 1839, the Rev. 
J. B. McKee was installed pastor, and continued till 
April, 1842. After a short period the Rev. Richard 
Graham became the pastor, and continued till 1850. 
In 1852 the Rev. Cyrus Riggs became pastor, who 
was succeeded by the Rev. J. H. Stevenson. 

The congregation of Sewickley was much weak- 
ened by the organization of a separate congregation 
in the borough of West Newton. Besides this there 
are but few congregations which have been dimin- 
ished so much from emigration as this one. It is still, 
however, a flourishing one, and although not com- 
posed of a great number of members, yet those are 
of a thrifty, intelligent, and worldly able class. 

The present building is the second one erected. It 
is built of stone, the first one having been built of 
logs. It is situated in the township of South Hun- 
tingdon, but just across the Sewickley Creek from 
the township of Sewickley, and had its name long 
before the township of the same name was formed. 
There is a burying-ground attached to the church, 
in which repose the last remains of three generations 
of the " race of men." Taken all in all, it is an ob- 
ject of the utmost historic interest in the township, 
and a spot round which gather many interesting 
local associations. 

The first building was one of those built in the 
most primitive style, and in all probability it was 
erected out of the trees growing round in the space 
of a week. For many years it had no stove, and the 
people of the congregation in winter sat shivering 
from the cold winds that blew through the open 
cracks. When the first stove was introduced it was 
regarded with suspicion. The stove had seen service 
before, probably in one of the New England States, 
for it was a Yankee innovation. Besides this, we 
should not call it a stove at all, for it was but the 
lower part of the bowl, and the smoke from the burn- 
ing wood used in it had to find vent through a hole 
in the roof. 

Among the curiosities of the churchly annals of 



the Old Redstone Churches is one of the subscription 
papers signed by the subscribers of this congregation 
to the salary of the Rev. Mr. Swan, when money was 
scarce and grain just beginning to be a marketable 
commodity, owing to the water communication offered 
by the nearness of the Yough, and the flat-boat con- 
nection with New Orleans. For the consideration of 
their raising the one-half of the Rev. Swan's services 
as pastor they " agreed to pay the amount set oppo- 
site their names, the one-half in cash, and the other 
half in produce at the following rates, viz.: wheat, 
4 shillings per bush., rye at 3s. per bush., corn at 
2s. 6d. per bush., to be delivered at such place or 
places within the bounds of the congregation as said 
minister or a treasurer chosen by the people may 
appoint. Witness our hands, this 17th day of Au- 
gust, 1792.'" 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. 

Previous to 1835 the Presbyterians of the town 
were compelled to worship at Sewickley Church, 
nearly three miles in the country. In that year they 
united with the Lutherans, and jointly erected a one- 
story frame edifice on Vine Street. This new church 
building was under the charge of the Sewickley 
Church, whose pastors supplied its worshipers with 
stated preaching. In January, 1851, the West New- 
ton Church was organized with seventy-one members 
from the parent (Sewickley) church, most of whom 
resided in the town. The same year the congregation 
purchased the interest of the Lutherans in the church 
building. In 1875 preliminary steps were taken for 
the erection of a new church structure, which was 
completed and dedicated May 10, 1879. Its pastors 
have been : 1851-55, Watson Hughes ; 1855-57, Daniel 
Williams; 1857-63, A. O. Patterson, D.D.; 1864-69, 
O. H. Miller; 1870-74, Henry Fulton; 1874 to pres- 
ent time, J. C. Maloy. The ruling elders have been : 
1851, William Brookens, deceased; Dr. F. M. Mc- 
Conaughey, removed ; M. P. Smith, removed ; Thomas 
Robinson, deceased; 1858, Thomas Ray, in office; 
Andrew Robertson, in office ; Robert Gutfey , deceased ; 
1866, J. C. Plumer, deceased ; Paul Hough, deceased ; 
H. D. Smith, in office; 1868, John McKenery, in 
office; 1870, R. W. Hunter, removed; 1876, William 
Plumer, in office; Alexander Rankin, in office. The 
Sunday-school superintendent is George Plumer. Its 
church edifice is an elegant brick structure, most cen- 
trally located on Main Street, with lecture-room in 
the basement. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. 

The congregation was organized Feb. 28, 1839, by 
Rev. Samuel Wakefield, D.D. Supply preaching was 
had until 1840 in the old school-house, when a small 
brick structure was erected on Second Street, which 
is now owned by C. P. Markle & Sons, and occupied 
as dwellings by tenants. The new brick edifice was 

1 Records and ''Old Redstone." 



616 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



built in 1880, and is the finest one of this denomina- 
tion in the county in size, elegance, and finish. Its 
architect was D. Knox Miller, and the contractors 
Deeds Brothers. Its cost was twelve thousand five 
hundred dollars. Its spire is one hundred and fifty 
feet in height, and its bell weighs one thousand three 
hundred pounds. This church is now a station, but 
at first was in a circuit embracing Connellsville, 
Mount Pleasant, and a large area of territory. 

Its pastors have been : 1840, T. Baker, S. B. Dun- 
lap ; 1841, W. Long, H. Hill ; 1842, George Sisson, 
M. A. Ruter; 1843, S.Wakefield, D. L. Dempsey; 

1844, J. Moffett, D. Hess; 1845, J. Moffett, 

Sharp; 1846, ■ Fribbey, Sharp; 1847, H. R. 

Kern, M. A. Ruter; 1848, S. Wakefield, M. A. Ruter; 
1849, S. Wakefield, J. Beacom ; 1850, C. Thorn. (All 
the above are deceased but Revs. Lang, Wakefield, 

and Dempsey.) 1851, J. Mancill, Rankin ; 1852, 

J. Mancill; 1853, E. B. Griffin, J. L. Stiffey; 1854, 
E. B. Griffin, M. J. Montgomery ; 1855, D. L. Demp- 
sey, J. A. Miller; 1856, J. McCarter, J. A. Miller; 
1857, Samuel Wakefield, S. Burt ; 1858, J. D. Knox, 
S. Burt; 1859, J. D. Knox, W. A. Stewart; 1860, J. 
J. Mclllgar, W. A. Stewart; 1861, J. J. Mclllgar, J. 
A. Pierce; 1862, Z. S. Weller, R. Cunningham; 
1863-65, W. W. Roup; 1865, M. J. Montgomery; 
1866-69, W. A. Stewart ; 1869-71, J. Meacham ; 1871- 
74, J. J. Hayes; 1874-77, W. Darby; 1876-79, S. 
Wakefield; 1879-82, H. H. Pershing. 

Of the above since 1851 all are living but R. Cun- 
ningham. The present incumbent, Mr. Pershing, 
was born in Indiana County in 1843, and has been 
fifteen years in the ministry. In 1882 the church 
officials are : Trustees, Eli C. Leightly (president), 
Samuel Coldsmith, Stevenson Pollock, James B. Sea- 
crist, Henry B. Goldsmith, Samuel M. Wallace, 
Gersham B. Horner; Building Committee, E. C. 
Leightly (president), Dr. B. H. Vankirk, Eandle 
McLaughlin, J. B. Seacrist, Samuel Coldsmith ; Sun- 
day-school Superintendent, Hon. Eli C. Leightly. 

The first Methodist sermon was delivered by Rev. 
S. Wakefield, Sept. 28, 1838, and was followed by 
stated supplies until Conference sent regular pastors 
two years afterwards. The original members were 
Jacob Longanecker and wife, James McGrew and 
wife, Matthew Carter and wife, David Banford and 
wife, and two others, eleven in all. Meetings were 
often held in Funk's saw-mill until the erection of 
the first church edifice in 1840. The first trustees 
were Jacob Longanecker, James McGrew, Benjamin 
Stewart, Randall Johnston, Samuel Hammond, Luke 
Beazel, and Rev. George Household. 

AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. 

This congregation has a neat church edifice on 
corner of Centre and Locust streets, where services 
are held every third Sunday by Rev. G. C. Sampson. 
Its Sunday-school meets at 2.30 p.m., and the weekly 
prayer-meetings are held Wednesday evenings. 



CHRIST EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. 

This congregation was organized Jan. 1, 1830. 
Preaching was held for five years in the old school- 
house, and in 1835 it united with the Presbyterians, 
and erected a one-story frame edifice on Vine Street. 
Here services were held until 1851, when this con- 
gregation sold out its interest in the Vine Street 
building, and in the same year erected on that street 
its present brick edifice. The pastors have been : 
1830-47, Jonas Mechling; 1847-58, W. S. Emery; 
1855-65, Samuel B. Lawson ; 1865-66, J. P. Hentz; 
1866-81, H. J. Lemcke. 

The congregation numbers one hundred and twenty, 
and its Sunday-school has twenty teachers and one 
hundred and four scholars. 

CHURCH OF GOD, "BETHEL," WEST NEWTON. 

The congregation was organized in 1842 and 1843, 
by Elder J. Dobson, and a brick edifice erected in 
1852, on the site of the present parsonage. The pres- 
ent brick building was built in 1879. Among the 
early pastors were Revs. Dobson, Hickerell, D. Wirtz, 
J. M. Domer, B. F. Bolton, Grim, and P. Loucks. 
The latter preached here several years. He was born 
in this county, March 1, 1828, and was the son of 
John Loucks, whose father, Peter Loucks, emigrated 
from Bucks County, and purchased a farm on which 
Scottdale now stands, where he farmed until his death 
in 1825. John, his third son, purchased the old home- 
stead near Stonersville in 1826. He married in 1816 
a Miss Basler. 

Rev. P. Loucks was converted in his twenty-third 
year. He attended the Mount Pleasant College, then 
under the supervision of the United Brethren, and 
taught school winters. He married the youngest 
daughter of John Fox, of Mount Pleasant, who came 
to this county when there was but one house where 
Mount Pleasant now stands. Her mother, Frederica 
Carolina Sherbus, was from the canton of Kireh- 
heimlanden, from whence she came in 1817, when but 
twenty years old, all alone, without any relative or 
acquaintance on board the vessel, and was married to 
Mr. Fox in 1820. Rev. P. Loucks was licensed to 
preach in 1858, and subsequently made missionary 
trips to New England. He died in 1881. The pres- 
ent pastor is Rev. J. S. Marple, whose predecessor 
was Rev. J. W. Bloyd. In 1881 Mrs. John Mellender 
donated to the congregation the parsonage, a neat 
frame structure, which she had built at a cost of 
$1200. It adjoins the church edifice. The present 
church officials are: Elders, S. P. Obley, Jacob 
Schoop, Samuel Brewer ; deacons, Henry Young, 
Charles Obley; Sunday-school superintendent, H. A. 
Obley. The membership is one hundred and ten, 
with an appointment at Sutersville. The member- 
ship at first consisted mostly of Germans, who wor- 
shiped in private dwellings, but after the great re- 
vival conducted bv Rev. Mrs. Beecher, now Rev. Mrs. 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



647 



Werts, large additions were made of the English 
community. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. 

The congregation was organized and the brick 
church edifice erected in 1851. The pastors have 
been: 1851, Alexander Ferguson; 1851-58, D. H. 
Pollock ; 1859-62, W. L. McConnell ; 1864-72, J. D. 
Walkinshaw ; 1872-81, W. R. Stevenson, since when 
there has been no pastor. The first elders were H. 
T. Hanna, Joseph McMillen, John Wallace, John 
Martin, Robert Patterson, and the present elders are 
Joseph McMillen, H. T. Hanna, J. H. Campbell, J. 
A. Dick. The Sunday-school superintendent is Alex- 
ander Dick. Before 1850 preaching was held in the old 
school-house, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches 
by occasional supplies. 

WEST NEWTON. 
At the August session of 1837 a 

" Petition signed by a number of the citizens and lot-holders in the 
village of West Newton having been presented to the court, praying 
that the said village may be incorporated into a borough, was by the 
court laid before the grand jury for their concurrence, and the grand 
jury reported ' That the conditions prescribed by the act of Assembly of 
the 1st of April, 1834, entitled " An Act to provide for the Incorporation 
of Boroughs," have been complied with, and certified it as their opinion 
that it is expedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners.'" 

A draft or plot of the boundaries of the borough as 
prayed for was appended to said petition. But the 
court refused to confirm the report of the grand 
jury. 1 

In an act of Assembly passed 8th of February, 
1842, was a section in relation to West Newton 
borough which read as follows : 

"That so much of the third section of tho act of the 1st of April, 
1834, entitled 'An Act to provide for the Incorporation of Boroughs," as 
requires applications for the incorporation of boroughs to be laid before 
the Grand Jury, be, and the Bame is, hereby repealed as respects West- 
moreland County, in the case for an application for the incorporation of 
West Newton, in said County, and the Court of Quarter Sessions of said 
county is hereby authorized to incorporate West Newton into a borough 
on application at their first term, if the said court think proper so to do." 

After the passage of the above enactment — namely, 
at the August sessions of 1842 — the citizens of the 
village again presented their petition to the court 
praying for incorporation of the borough (which in 
its bounds differed not much from the former one). 
The plot had been surveyed in January, 1842, by J. 
Stokely, and a plan was furnished the court with the 
petition. On the 26th of February, 1842, the court 
decreed that the prayer of the petitioners should be 
granted, and the borough was declared a corporation. 
The first election was ordered to be held at the 
school-house whereat the township elections were 
then holden. 

By an act of the 14th of March of the same year 
it was acknowleged as a borough in the legislation rel- 
ative to the election of an assessor and an assistant 

1 "And now, to wit, June 1, 1838, Court decline to confirm the Report 
of the Grand Jury. By the Court, George T. Ramsey, Clerk." 



1864. Alexander Plumer. 
I860. James A. Dick. 
18G6. J. M. Schroyer. 
1867. I. N. Downs. 
1868-70. E. W. Dumm. 

1870. James Hamilton, Sr. 

1871. I. N. Downs. 
1872-74. T. R. Reed. 
1874. A. G. Oliver. 
1875-77. E. W. Dumm. 

1877. Philip Rohland. 

1878. Henry Croushore. 

1879. J. H. Schroyer. 
1880-82. Henry Croushore. 



assessor. At the same time it was erected into a sep- 
arate school district. 

The limits of the borough of West Newton were 
extended by the Court of Quarter Sessions, upon the 
petition of the inhabitants, by an order of the court 
of May 27, 1850, confirming the action of the grand 
jury in that behalf. 

By an order of the court of 3d September, 1853, the 
privileges of the act of Assembly of 3d of April, 1851, 
were extended to the borough. 

BOROUGH OFFICERS. 
The officers of West Newton in 1842 were : 

Burgess, Alexander Plumer; Council, Andrew B. Funk, James Nicolls, 
David Shrader, Dr. John Hasson, William Linn; Clerk, James B. 
Oliver. 

Since then the burgesses have been : 

1844. John Swern. 
1845-47. Joseph Stokely. 
1847^9. John C. Plumer. 
1849-51. Samuel B. Weimer. 

1851. Andrew G. Oliver. 

1852. Isaac McLaughlin. 
1853-55. E. W. Dumm. 
1855. Thomas Hiliben. 
1856-58. Samuel B. Weimer. 

1858. Samuel Brennaman. 

1859. E. W. Dumm. 

1860. George H. Bear. 

1861. Alexander Plumer. 

1862. Jacob Everitt. 

1863. Philip Ituhland, Jr. 

The officers in 1882 are : 

Burgess, Henry Croushore ; Clerk, Randall McLaughlin : Treasurer, 
Dr. J. Q. Robinson ; Council, David Markle, Robert Taylor, Jacob 
F. Streicher, S. Burkhart, Jacob Behoof, Randall McLaughlin ; Jus- 
tices of the Peace, J. Campbell, John Swern ; Constable, Edward P. 
Campbell. 

LOCATION. 

The valley of the Youghiogheny from McKeesport 
to Connellsville and beyond teems with towns, vil- 
lages, and hamlets, from which, though unsightly 
tipples and slack-piles banish all show of beauty, and 
myriads of coke-oveus, like miniature volcanoes, ob- 
scure the sun and paint " palace and hovel,'' patrician 
and plebeian, a monotonous black, yet, with the whir 
and roar of machinery, the hideous shriek of the 
steam-whistle, and the long line of heavy-laden trains, 
tell of the highest temporal prosperity. Lying in the 
busy valley, midway between Pittsburgh and Con- 
nellsville, about fifteen miles from the mouth of the 
Youghiogheny, is West Newton, on the southwestern 
slope of a hill descending abruptly to the Youghio- 
gheny River, in the midst of a fertile and diversified 
country. By the Pittsburgh Division of the Balti- 
more and Ohio Railroad communication is made easy 
in every direction. 

PIONEERS, Etc. 
Its early settlers were men of good birth, cultiva- 
tion, and intellect, prominent among whom were the 
Markles, Jonathan and George Plumer, and An- 
thony Blackburn. Like most other towns in Penn- 
1 sylvania, the original settlement of Scotch, Irish, and 



648 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Yankees was augmented at a later day by many Ger- 
mans, and still later by foreigners of almost every 
nationality 

It was laid out in January, 1796, by Isaac Robb, 
who came from New Jersey many years previous, and 
entered the land now comprising its site. When in 
the " Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794 the army 
marched through Robb's farm it threw down his 
fences, and he would not put them up again. But he 
thereupon made a lottery and sold off the lots for a 
town. Its survey and plotting were made by David 
Davis and a Mr. Newkirk. The founder of the town, 
Isaac Robb, subsequently traded down the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers as far as New Orleans on boats. 
In 1807, while his boat lay at West Newton, he 
started one night when the river was rising to walk 
ashore to see if the fastenings were all right, but in 
the dark accidentally walked into the water and 
was drowned, although he was a splendid swimmer. 
His grandson, J. N. Robb, a prosperous farmer, lives 
about a mile from town. Notwithstanding the ori- 
ginal proprietor of the town named it West Newton, 
it was universally called " Robbstown," in honor of 
its founder ; but in 1835 the original and proper 
name was restored to it, and by which it has been 
since known. Before 1796 it was called Simrall's 
Ferry. There have been three additions to it, — first, 
Nicholson's, on the east ; second, Fulton and Baugh- 
man's, on the north ; and third, Baughman's, on the 
south. 

The earliest settlers in the country near the town 
were the Marklcs, John Crellis, Anthony Blackburn, 
Sr. and Jr., and George Plumer. Jonathan Plumer 
came out as commissary under Gen. Braddock's ex- 
pedition in 1755, and returned in like capacity under 
that of Gen. Forbes. His son, George Plumer, was 
born in 1762, near Fort Pitt, and married a daughter 
of Col. Lowrey, Lancaster County. He was a Presi- 
dential elector in 1820, and a member of Congress 
from 1821 to 1827. 

The first settlers in the town were Isaac Robb, John 
Hill, John Anderson, William McClintock, Mr. War- 
ren, Isaac Morgan, Andrew Fulton, David Morton, 
Edward Hill, and George Rolds. 

The oldest male citizen now a resident is William 
Plumer, born in 1800, and the oldest female is Katy 
Ann Kain, born in New Jersey in 1803. Her mother 
was a Luker, sister of David Luker. She came here 
when a little babe, and has resided here ever since. 
The oldest house is a log structure built by William 
Shreader, and now owned by Henry Croushore. It 
was a farm-house, but is now included in the corpo- 
ration. The oldest house in the town as originally 
laid out is the old William Brookens dwelling, but 
which has partially been remodeled. In 1805 there 
were not over ten or twelve dwellings here, of which 
one was the tavern, standing where the paper-mill is, 
and where Edward Hill kept for public entertainment. 
Another was a tavern kept by Joseph Vankirk, on the 



site of Obley's confectionery-shop. Another was the 
William Brookens house, and a fourth one was that 
of David Morton. The first brick house was erected 
by Dr. James Beatty on Vine Street. 

Dr. James Beatty was the first resident physician 
here, and after him came Dr. Henry B. Trout. Dr. 
Smith, however, who lived on the other side of the 
river, practiced largely here. The subsequent regu- 
larly settled physicians to 1849 were Drs. Abner G. 
Marsh, John Hasson, F. M. McConaughy, and J. K. 
Robinson. Dr. Hasson settled here in 1836, and died 
in 1873. Dr. Robinson was born in Rostraver town- 
ship in 1817, and was the son of Thomas and Achsa 
(Bailey) Robinson. His grandfather, Alexander 
Robinson, was an early settler, and came from Lan- 
caster County. He came here in 1846, read medicine 
with Dr. Hasson, graduated at the Medical Univer- 
sity of New York in the spring of 1849, and immedi- 
ately located here. He married Catherine, daughter 
of Hon. I. F. Krebs. 

The first store was opened by a Mr. Snodgrass in 
1797, the second by Robert Fulton and James Kirker 
as partners in 1802 (who soon removed to Zanesville, 
Ohio), the third by John Gambrell in 1805, the next 
by John Rowan, and afterwards one by John Latta, 
who removed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequently 
George and Alexander Plumer carried on the mercan- 
tile business. The first blacksmiths were Jeremiah 
Ong and his brother-in-law, Samuel Reed. Afterwards 
William Reed had a shop. The first nailer was John 
Anderson, and the next one William McClintock, 
who made by hand the wrought nails. The first sad- 
dler was James Smith, who had his shop on Water 
Street. William Anderson was the first cooper, and 
Frederick Steiner the first hatter. The first cabinet- 
maker was John Robb, the second David Luker, and 
the third William Brookens. The first painter and 
chair-maker was a Mr. Cannann, and the second a 
Mr. Cox. Joseph Vankirk, who kept a tavern, was 
a surveyor, and also the first postmaster. 

The town began to improve in 1806, from which 
time until 1820, when the National road was com- 
I pleted, there was immense shipping by keel-boat to 
Pittsburgh. Upon the slacking of the Youghiog- 
heny River travel by steamers was large ; the first 
steamer to make trips was the " Tom Shriver." 
When the dams were swept out this trade became 
impracticable, and boats no longer landed regularly 
at the wharves. Surveys were made through here for 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, but were ineffective. 
A much more important navigation scheme was that 
of the transatlantic canal, agitated in Congress and 
among the people. It was to follow the Youghio- 
gheny to its head-waters, thence cutting through the 
mountains a very short but terrible rugged way to the 
waters of Wills Creek, a tributary of the Potomac. 
This scheme likewise failed. 

The Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad was 
opened in 1855 from West Newton to Connellsville, 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



649 



fifty-eight miles from Pittsburgh, on the Youghio- 
gheny River. Its president and superintendent was 
Oliver W. Barnes, assisted by D. W. Caldwell. At 
West Newton connection for passengers and freight 
for Pittsburgh was made by the steamer " iEolian." 
The morning train left for Connellsville at 8.30 a.m., 
reaching there at 9.50 a.m., in time for the stage for 
Uniontown. The fare from Pittsburgh to Connells- 
ville was $1.75, and to Uniontown $2.25. A train 
left Connellsville at 6 a.m. for West Newton, and con- 
nected with the steamer at 8.30 a.m., in time to reach 
Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. The local freight and passenger 
train left Connellsville at 12.30 p.m., and returning 
left West Newton at 5.30 p.m. The opening of this 
road had an important bearing on the history and 
progress of the town, and was hailed with delight by 
its citizens, many of whom, as well as the people in 
the surrounding country, took stock in it, and liber- 
ally subscribed for its building. From that time the 
town has steadily increased in population and busi- 
ness. On April 2, 1853, the town, by a vote of ninety- 
eight to twenty-five, subscribed six hundred dollars 
to the building of the " Hempfield Railroad," which, 
however, was never built. 

THE TOWN IN 1855. 
This year AVest Newton assumed a new appearance 
in its trade and progress. The following hotels were 
kept : Youghiogheny House, corner Main and Second 
Streets, by George McCune; the Mansion House (just 
opposite), by Henry Drum ; and the Exchange Hotel, 
corner Main and Water Streets, by A. Lowry. The 
physicians were Drs. John Hasson, Franklin M. Mc- 
Conaughy, and J. K. Robinson. The merchants were 
John Bell, M. P. Smith, Dick & Brother, and A. F. 
Stevenson ; E. C. Leightty, George Armstrong, and 
Solomon Stough were grocers and druggists ; John 
Andy manufactured tobacco, snuff, and cigars; H. C. 
Griffith and Samuel Goldsmith were saddlers and har- 
ness-makers ; Douglass & Mattox were coopers ; P. 
Paul was painter and chair manufacturer; Brookens 
& Megrail were cabinet-makers and undertakers ; and 
William Sykes, dealer in boots, shoes, hats, caps, etc. ; 
E. W. Dumm was the fashionable tailor and draper ; 
S. B. Stough, surveyor and conveyancer ; George Arm- 
strong, postmaster; W. M. Sykes kept oyster-saloon 
and confectionery ; and M. Fry had a boot- and shoe- 
and hat- and cap-store; S. G. Srnutz was the daguerrean 
artist, who "took likenesses, colored or plain, on short 
notice and in the best manner." 

SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. 

The first school-house near the town was just north 
of it, and on land now owned by the heirs of Charles 
Robinson, and was built about 1795. Its first teacher 
was a Mr. Grim, who was succeeded by William 
Blackburn, Nathaniel Nesbit, and William Baldwin. 
It was a round log house, with earthen floor and 
clapboard roof. The windows were greased paper on 



sticks, and the chimney was in the centre and started 
from the joist. In 1809 a school-house was built on 
the farm of John Caruthers, and its first teacher was 

I William Baldwin. The first school taught in the 
town was in 1816, by N. Ruggles Smith, in a cabin, 

I which proving too small for the number of scholars 
it was changed to a larger log building of Col. James 
B. Oliver. In 1818 the first school-house was here 
built. It was an eight-square structure, and when 

j erected the best in the county. The first teacher in 
it was N. Ruggles Smith, afterwards principal of the 
Greensburg Academy. Among his successors was 
ex-United States Senator Edgar Cowan. The present 
school building, an elegant two-story brick building, 
was erected just after the late war. In 1882 the school 
board is George Plumer, president; Dr. A. O. Orr, 
secretary; Dr. F. H. Patton, treasurer; Benjamin 
Howard, Dr. J. Q. Robinson, and John Rial. The 
teachers are: Principal, Prof. J. A. Johnson, sixth 
room ; William S. Vandike, fifth room ; Miss Fanny J. 
Swem, fourth room ; Miss Josie Shutterly, third room ; 
Miss Mary Guffey, second room ; Miss Ella Lawson, 
first room. 

ORDERS, SOCIETIES, Etc. 
WEST NEWTON LODGE, No. 440, I. 0. 0. F. 

This lodge was chartered June 10, 1851, by George 
S. Morris, M. W. G. M., and William Curtis, M. W. 
G. Sec. The charter members and first officers were : 
N. G., T. R. Hazzard ; V. G., Eli C. Leightty ; Sec, 
John Klingensmith ; Asst. Sec, E. W. Dumm ; 
Treas., George Armstrong. The following are the 
Past Noble Grands yet members of the lodge : John 
Baer, James Baer, E. D. Baer, John Beamer, Michael 
Darr, A. T. Darr, Amos Eisenman, Morrison Fulmer, 
H. B. Goldsmith, B. Getchy, William Heidersdorf, 
Eli C. Leightty, William Miller, Martin Nahar, 
Leonard Nahar, P. J. Rohland, J. G. Ruoff, Simon 
Sampson, J. A. Stevenson, J. G. Steiner, R. M. 
Thomas, S. M. Wallace. The officers for 1882 are : 
N. G., J. H. Brundage; V. G., Wilhelm Lehna; 
Sec, A. T. Darr; Treas., B. Getchy; Asst. Sec, 
Amos Eisenman ; Trustees, Martin Nahar, P. J. 
Rohland, J. M. Baer. 

WEST NEWTON COUNCIL, No. 521, KOYAL ARCANUM. 

This council was chartered April 30, 1881, by E. A. 
Keyes, Supreme Regent, and W. O.Robson, Supreme 
Sec. The charter members were F. H. Patton, A. 
W. Orr, E. P. Campbell, John Hancock, John M. 
Wilson, John Darr, T. J. McElroy, James G. Guffey, 
James Emery, H. A. Douglass, W. W. Gregg, J. R. 
Porter, John Ingraham, John S. Douglass, William 
B. Miller, A. O. P. Guffey, Joseph C. Gregg, S. M. 
Wallace. The officers for 1882 are : P. R., A. W. 
Orr; R., J. T. McElroy; V.R., William Miller; O., 
F. H. Patton ; Chap., Gregg ; Sec, E. P. Camp- 
bell ; Col., J. Wilson ; Treas., A. O. P. Guffey ; G., 
John Hancock ; S., J. P. Hamilton ; Trustees, James 
Guffey, John Brown. 



650 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



JOSEPH MARKLE POST, No. 57, G. A. R. 

Its officers for 1882 are : C, John Markle ; S. V. C, 
J. T. McElroy ; J. V. C, E. D. Baer; Q.-M., Alfred 
Catlin; Capt., Edward Welty ; Surg., Dr. J. H. 
Ritchie ; O. D., E. Neff, Jr. ; 6. G., James Kyle. 

WEST NEWTON AGRICULTURAL AND DRIVING ASSOCIATION. 

Its officers for 1882 are : President, Capt. B. Budd ; 
Directors, Simon Sampson, C. C. Markle, S. C. 
Weimer, Dr. F. H. Patton, Philip J. Rohland, J. J. 
Guffey, R. J. Graham, Robert Brown, S. B. Markle, 
Jr., H. A. Douglass, J. G. Steiner, H. Lowry. This 
association was organized in 1881, and is arranging 
elegant grounds for its exhibitions and driving. 

THE ROBBSTOWN BRIDGE. 
The Robbstown Bridge Company was incorporated 
in 1831 with the following incorporators: Alexander 
Plumer, J. C. Plumer, James Bell, Jacob Baughman, 
Frederick Steiner, Andrew Smith, Joseph Stokely, 
and William Linn. The bridge was erected over the 
Youghiogheny River in 1834, and was the first and 
only one ever built over the river at West Newton. 
It is a wooden structure with two piers in the centre, 
and since its construction has been well kept and re- 
paired. In its building Alexander Plumer and Isaac 
Steiner were the contractors for the stone-work, and 
Jacob Mace for the wood-work. The cost was $18,000, 
of which the State paid $8000, the amount of its 
stock, but on Sept. 7, 1843, it sold its interest to the 
company. Bela B. Smith owned the land on the 
Rostraver, and Andrew Robinson on the West New- 
ton side. The officers of the company are : Presi- 
dent, Bela B. Smith ; Secretary, Howard E. Smith ; 
Treasurer, George Plumer ; Directors, Bela B. Smith, 
George Plumer, Benjamin Sampson, Hunter Ritchie, 
Howard E. Smith. There is no bridge in the State 
of its age, forty-eight years, that is in such excel- 
lent condition, or has stood the tests it has endured 
in all kinds of storms and floods. 

BANKS. 

James A. Dick organized and started the first bank 
in 1867, and which is still in operation under his 
management. Its first place of business was in the 
Weimer rooms, and in 1870 it was removed to one 
door east of its present place, to which it was changed 
in 1875. 

The second bank established in the town was the 
Farmers' Bank, which went into operation after the 
panic of 1873, and was some four years in existence. 
Its president was Dr. J. Q. Robinson. Its first cashier 
was Eli C. Leightty, and the second Capt. John 
Markle. Its place of business was on the corner of 
First and Main Streets. 

WEST NEWTON CEMETERY 
lies on the west of the Youghiogheny River, and is 
beautifully situated on a high elevation overlooking 
the town and commanding a picturesque view of the 
valley. 



THE FIRE DEPARTMENT 
was organized in June, 1879, viz. : Chief Engineer, 
John Arthurs; Assistant Engineer, John Darr; Hose- 
men, E. Neff, G. M. Ewing, E. Stevenson; Drivers, 
Eli Kelley, John Mattox ; Bugler, George Murray. 

The engine is a No. 4 Extinguisher. The company 
is composed of men in the employ of Gen. C. P. 
Markle & Sons (paper-mill), who own the engine, etc. 

VILLAGES AND HAMLETS. 
PORT ROYAL 

is on the Youghiogheuy railroad, in the western part. 
Here, tradition says, the Virginia authorities held the ■ 
first court ever convened in Westmoreland County. 

The extensive distillery of John T. Moss is located 
here, of which A. C. Hamilton is the United States 
gauger, andM. S. Taggart store-keeper. The Ohio and 
Pennsylvania Coal Company in 1882 sank a coal shaft 
one hundred and seventy feet, and erected a large 
number of miners' houses. The company's superin- 
tendent is Austin Shannon. This place was one of 
the points that suffered greatly during boundary 
troubles between Virginia and Pennsylvania, which 
retarded the progress of the early settlements in this 
region. 

SMITHTON 

is a flourishing village laid out by J. H. Smith, Esq., 
proprietor of the large paper-mill located here. It is 
beautifully situated on the Youghiogheny River and 
Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road. 

Smithton Lodge, No. 978, 1. O. O. F., was instituted 
April 20, 1881. Its first officers were : P. G., Wil- 
liam McLain; N. G., C. H. Weimer; V. G., J. B. 
Campbell; Sec, Henry Milliron ; Treas., William 
Hitterbrau; Con., L. H.Young; War., John Hex- 
inbaugh; R. S. to N. G., Cyrus Hepler; L. S. to N. 
G., Thomas Casey ; O. G., H. J. Nicolay ; I. G., D. O. 
Smith ; R. S. to V. G., J. S. Rhoads'; L. S. to V. G., 
Dr. H. Nicolay ; R. S. S., L. Corbet ; L. S. S., J. T. 
King. Its charter members numbered twenty-five. 

BELL'S MILLS. 

These mills, saw and grist, were erected on Big 
Sewickley Creek, at Sewickley Presbyterian Church, 
in. 1848, by Walter and William Bell. Walter and 
William Bell were born near Carlisle, in the Cumber- 
land Valley, and removed with their parents to Derry 
township in Westmoreland, when Walter was in his 
thjrd year of age. They were the sons of William 
Bell, who married Rosanna Bell. The latter was 
twice married, and both times to William Bells, and 
she and her two husbands were of no kin. Walter 
Bell married Polly, daughter of Andrew Finley, Esq., 
and his brother William married her sister Nancy. 
Walter Bell came to South Huntingdon township in 
1810, in which year he and his brother William, both 
carpenters, built the house now owned and occupied 
by Daniel Williams. Their grandfather Bell came 
from North Ireland about 1740, and settled in the 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



651 



Cumberland Valley, and married a daughter of John 

OTHER VILLAGES. 

Mendon is a thriving village in the central part of 
the township, and south of it is the pleasant hamlet 
of Centreville. Lying on the Youghiogheny River, 
and on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, is 
Jacobs Creek Station and post-office. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE SMITH FAMILY. 
Joseph Smith came from Berks County about 1800. 
He had a mill on Youghiogheny River, and another 
on Mineral Run, which were early and very exten- 
sive mills. He lived on a tract of land on which now 
stands the growing village of Smithton, which took 
its name in honor of him, the pioneer settler, who 
owned its original site. His three children were 
Henry, living at Falls City ; Polly, who died in 
1875; and Samuel, born in Smithton in 1801, and 
who died there in 1874. The latter had six children, 
four of whom live at Smithton, one near Madison, 
and one is Mrs. Paul Hough, of Redstone, in Fayette 
County. > 

THE HOUGH FAMILY. 
Joseph Hough at a very early period settled on 
Jacobs Creek, where he located a large tract of land. 
He erected a mill, which supplied the wants of the 
settlers for miles around. He died in 1847. He had 
eleven children, of whom seven are living, — Paul, in 
Redstone, Fayette, Co., three in Westmoreland, one 
in Iowa, one in Indiana, and one in Missouri. Joseph 
Hough, Jr., resides on the old homestead. 



THE LEIGHTTY FAMILY. 
John Leightty came from Eastern Pennsylvania at 
the close of the last century and settled in Hempfield 
township, where he married a Miss Walker. Their 
children were as follows : 

1. Jacob. 

2. John, living in Indiana. 

3. Sarah, married John Armbust. 

4. Mary, married Jonathan Shook, and lives in 
Unity township. 

Of the above, Jacob married Salome Leader, 
daughter of Michael Leader, who resided on an ad- 
joining farm. Their children were: 

1. Eli C. Leightty (only child), born Feb. 11, 1822. 
He was raised on a farm until his eighteenth year, 
when he went to learn the carpenter's trade. In 1839 
he located in West Newton, then a town of not over 
three hundred population. In 1844 he embarked in 
the grocery and drug business, in which he has con- 
tinued to the present time. He was elected on the 
Democratic ticket to the Legislature in 1878, and 



served two years. He was there a member of three 
committees, viz.: Coal and Iron, Vice and Immor- 
ality, and Constitutional Reform. He was married 
Sept. 6, 1846, to Hannah E., daughter of Jacob 
Markle, by whom were borne the following children : 

1. Normand M. 

2. John M. 

3. Adeline. 

4. Emma L., married to H. A. Douglass. 

Mr. Leightty is a leading member and official of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and most promi- 
nently identified with the Masonic and I. 0. 0. F. 
orders. He is the oldest merchant in the town in 
continuous trade, having been in business here thirty- 
eight years. 

THE DICK FAMILY. 
Rev. Mungo Dick, of the Associate Reformed 
Church, came from Dundee, Scotland, about 1800, and 
settled on Sewickley Creek. He was for many years 
stationed pastor at Brush Creek, Mount Pleasant, and 
Sewickley Churches. About 1829 he quit preaching 
at Mount Pleasant, in 1832 he retired from Bethel 
(Brush Creek), and in 1836 from Sewickley. In 1815 
he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jeremiah Murry, 
of this county. He was born in 1772, and died in 
1840. His wife died in 1876. Their children were : 

1. Matilda, died young. 

2. Rev. Jeremiah, an eminent Associate Reformed 
clergyman of Oregon. 

3. Mungo, a farmer living on the old homestead. 

4. Rev. John N., the pastor of the old Brush Creek 
Church (now Bethel). 

5. Mary Ann, married to Rev. James Greer and 
deceased. 

6. Elizabeth, unmarried. 

7. James A., banker in West Newton, born in 
1824, and married to Mary A., daughter of James 
Watt, of Latrobe. 

8. David M., removed to Iowa and Missouri, in 
which latter State he died. 

Rev. Mungo Dick, the emigrant and ancestor of 
the family of this county, was a man of a strong will 
and great intellectual powers, and for over a third of 
a century expounded the gospel with great success. 
He left the impress of his. strong mind on three flour- 
ishing congregations over which he zealously minis- 
tered with ability and piety. 



THE HOUGH FAMILY'. 
Paul Hough was born in 1809 in Fayette County, 
and was married in 1832 to Miss Martha Cook. He 
carried on extensive flour-mills in Fayette City from 
1832 to 1845, when he sold his mills and came to 
Westmoreland County, purchasing the farm now 
owned by Gen. C. P. Markle, and known as the 
" Dairy Farm." In 1874 he sold this valuable real 
estate and came to West Newton. His sons-in-law are 
ex -Sheriff John Guffey and G. R. Kemp, of Oil City. 



652 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



He had two sons who died before his death, one of 
whom was a Union soldier in the late war. He died 
in 1879, leaving a wife and seven children, of whom 
one, E. C. Hough, Esq., is the genial and able editor, 
publisher, and proprietor of the West Newton Press, 
one of the best local journals in the State. 



THE HECHT FAMILY. 

John Hecht, Sr., was born in Wiirtemberg, Ger- 
many, in 1800, where, Jan. 12, 1826, he was married 
to Louisa C. Eisele, who was born in 1802. In 1832, 
with his wife, a son, and daughter, he came to Amer- 
ica, and settled in West Newton. In September, 
1854, he removed to Clarence, Cedar Co., Iowa, 
where he died May 11, 1880. 



THE CUMMINS FAMILY. 

John A. Cummins was born in Derry township, 

May 9, 1796. He came to West Newton in 1856, 

and died in 1879. For nearly a quarter of a century 

he was largely identified with its growth and progress. 



PETER GREEN. 



J. H. Sutherland was a very wealthy planter, who 
resided in St. Mary's County, Md. He owned eleven 
slaves, of whom one was Peter Green. When the eman- 
cipation proclamation of President Lincoln went 
forth these slaves were liberated and scattered in vari- 
ous directions. The subject of this sketch went South, 
and was finally captured with a number of others by 
an Indiana regiment. He went with the regiment and 
cooked for the colonel, and at the close of the war he 
drifted around the country, and at last turned up at 
West Newton. Here he found employment at the 
paper-mill of C. P. Markle & Sons. Col. Sutherland 
returned to his old home in Maryland, where he died 
in 1881, and left the bulk of his fortune to his former 
slaves. Peter Green had no difficulty in making him- 
self known as one of the heirs to the estate, as he had 
on his person several scars and marks by which his 
aged mother easily recognized him. The amount of 
Peter's share of the estate was large, and puts him 
for the rest of his days in easy circumstances, to enjoy 
a peace and quiet heretofore unknown to him in his 
checkered career. 

COL. ISRAEL PAINTER. 
Col. Israel Painter was born in Hempfield town- 
ship, Westmoreland County, Pa., Nov. 11, 1810. 
He was of German descent on both his father's and 
mother's side. Jacob Painter, his grandfather, after 
marriage emigrated from Mecklenburg, Germany, 
and settled in Berks County, Pa. Here four sons 
and two daughters were born, viz. : Jacob, Michael, 
John, and Tobias, a daughter married to George 
Myers, and one married to Christopher Harrold. 



Jacob Painter and his wife died and were buried in 
Berks County. Jacob Painter, their eldest son, mar- 
ried a daughter of Rapiere, who lived in Indiana 

County, and settled on a farm in Hempfield township, 
situated on the Big Sewickley Creek, eight miles south 
of Greensburg, which became known for many years 
as the " Judge Painter place," and now owned by 
David Fox. By his first wife he had seven chil- 
dren, viz. : Betsey, Rebecca, Catharine, Tobias, George, 

Elias, and . His first wife died, and was buried 

at Harrold's Church. For his second wife he mar- 
ried Catharine, daughter of Christopher and Eliza- 
beth (Mueller) Lobingier. By her he had ten chil- 
dren, viz. : Polly, John, Jacob, Christopher, George, 
Joseph, Benjamin, Susan, Israel, and Sophia. Jacob 
Painter always lived on the farm on which he first 
settled. He built on the place a stone grist-mill, 
which he carried on in connection with his farming. 
He was an energetic, active business man, a member 
of the Legislature for several terms, justice of the 
peace for many years, was the Whig candidate for 
Congress against William Findley, and came within 
seventeen votes of being elected, and held the posi- 
tion of associate judge at the time of his death. He 
was a man of commanding presence, being about six 
feet in height, heavy set, and weighing about two 
hundred aud twenty pounds. In personal appear- 
ance his son, Col. Israel Painter, is said to have re- 
sembled him. ' He died at the age of fifty-nine, and 
was buried at Harrold Church. His widow, Catha- 
rine, survived him about thirty years, lived with her 
sons, Christopher and Israel, at the " Willow-Tree 
Farm," where she died, aged eighty-four, and was 
buried at Markle Cemetery. His daughter Betsey 
was wife of Gen. Joseph Markle, and mother of Gen. 
C. P. Markle, of " Millgrove." 

Christopher Lobingier, grandfatherof Catharine Lo- 
bingier, the second wife of Judge Jacob Painter, came 
from Mecklenburg, Germany, and settled in Dauphin 
County. He was married before leaving Germany. 
Little is known of him except that he was a farmer, 
and both he and bis wife died, and are buried in 
Dauphin County. They had one son, Christopher, 
who married (1766) Elizabeth Mueller, by whom he 
had eight children, viz. : John, Christopher, Catha- 
rine, Barbara, Mary, Elizabeth, Susan, and George. 
His wife died at Stoystown, Somerset Co., Sept. 15, 
1815, aged seventy-one years. He settled in Mount 
Pleasant township in 1772, was a member of the 
Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1776, and 
of the House of Representatives from 1791 to 1793. 
He died July 4, 1798, and was buried at the Presby- 
terian Meeting-house near Pleasant Unity. 

His eldest son, John Lobingier, was a prominent 

| man of his times, was associate judge, member of the 

Legislature, and justice of the peace. He was twice 

married, and left a large family. He became totally 

blind before his death. He died at the advanced age 

I of eighty-two years. Israel Painter lived at home 





£r£e/r 't tS' 



//„ <*/, 



^ 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



653 



until he was seventeen years of age. He then taught 
the district school two terms, was employed as clerk 
at Mount Pleasant in his brother Christopher's store 
one year. He then attended several terms at Jeffer- 
son College, Cannonsburg. 

In 1830, in company with a Mr. Newmeyer, he 
purchased his brother's store in Mount Pleasant and 
carried it on one year. He next built the " Mastodon" 
Salt-Works, and subsequently became interested in 
the " Fountain" and " Mammoth," and was the 
owner of them all at the time of his death. In com- 
pany with Daniel Waltz, he put down a salt-well in 
Monongalia County, W. Va., and established salt- 
works there, an enterprise requiring no small amount 
of pluck and energy, on account of the transportation 
through an almost unbroken wilderness of everything 
required in its construction and operation. He was 
interested in these works from 1832 to 1835. He be- 
came at an early date an extensive dealer in live- 
stock, — horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep. His opera- 
tions in this line of trade took a wide range, extend- 
ing through the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, and West Virginia, and during the last war 
his dealings with the government in cattle, horses, 
and mules were on a large scale. Though not of the 
same political faith, he enjoyed the acquaintance and 
confidence of President Lincoln, a relation which 
was of great service to him in his operations with 
the government. 

Through his brother Christopher he became at one 
time largely interested in the cotton trade, making a 
number of trips to New Orleans in that interest. His 
operations in real estate were carried on upon the 
most extended scale. These embraced the purchase 
and sale of over one hundred farms in Westmoreland 
County alone, while he also operated largely in lands 
in Fayette, Indiana, and other Western Pennsylvania 
counties. At the time of his death he was the owner 
of thirty-two farms. He operated largely in oil and 
oil lands ; was president of the " Ozark Petroleum 
Company" from its organization to its dissolutiou. 
He purchased the farms of John Rynd, John Brown, 

and Lake, situated in Venango County, and good 

producing oil territory, and held them at the time of 
his death. In 1853 he built the " Weaver" Grist-Mill 
at Painter's Station, at a cost of $25,000, capacity of 
one hundred and fifty barrels per day, the largest 
flouring-mill in its day in Western Pennsylvania. 
He was the owner of the Union Mills at Uniontown, 
with Henry P. Kifer of the steam grist-mill at Manor, 
and with Governor Geary of the " Latrobe Mills" at 
Latrobe. 

From 1865 to the time of his death Col. Painter 
gave much attention to coal and coal lands. He was 
the first to introduce into the Eastern market Western 
Pennsylvania coal as agas-coal, Eastern manufacturers 
of gas using up to that time an imported coal for that 
purpose. In company with John George, Jr., Col. 
Lewis McFarland, and others, he purchased large 
42 



tracts of coal lands on the line of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad in North Huntingdon township, selling the 
coal to the Penn Gas-Coal Company and Westmore- 
land Coal Company. 

In company with Gen. Herman Haught, John 
Derbyshire, H. N. Burroughs, S. B. and C. P. Markle, 
he bought and sold many hundred acres of coal lands 
in Sewickley township. 

In 1873 he built seventy-four coking ovens in Bull- 
skin township, Fayette County, and carried them on 
till 1S79. He owned one hundred and seventy acres 
of coking coal lands near Mount Pleasant at the time 
of his death. 

He was interested in contracts for the construction 
of sections of the Pennsylvania Railroad, of the 
Northwest Pennsylvania Railroad, also of the Pitts- 
burgh and Erie and Pittsburgh and Connellsville 
Railroads. 

He was a stockholder in the Mount Pleasant and 
Robbstown pike, also in the Youghiogheny Naviga- 
tion Company. He was prime mover in the building 
of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, also the 
Mount Pleasant and Broad Ford Railroad, and a 
director in both, as also in the Pittsburgh and Con- 
nellsville Railroad. 

He was associated with Governor John W. Geary 
in contesting the will of Stephen Girard, in behalf of 
the heirs of the latter against the city of Philadel- 
phia. He represented his district in the House of 
Representatives from 1846 to 1848 ; was canal com- 
missioner from 1849 to 1852; was a delegate to the 
Democratic National Convention at Charleston, S. C, 
identifying himself with the Douglas wing of the 
party. He was at one time a candidate of his party 
for nomination to Congress, but was defeated in the 
convention by Hon. H. D. Foster. His death was the 
result of an accident. By a fall a glass bottle was 
crushed in his hand, by which the latter was so badly 
cut and lacerated he survived the effect of it only ten 
days. He died on the 4th clay of July, 1880. It has 
fallen to few men " to fill a larger space" in their 
locality than did Col. Israel Painter. His energy and 
will seemed inexhaustible. He was constantly on 
the alert. With him to think was to act. Difficulties 
and obstacles which would have overwhelmed and 
swamped most men only inspired in him renewed 
exertions. All his enterprises were conducted on a 
large scale. To figure in a small way with him was 
an impossibility. In his disposition he was whole- 
souled and genial, consequently few men commanded 
a wider or warmer circle of friends. 



GEN. JOSEPH MARKLE. 
Gen. Joseph Markle was born in the township of 
South Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, Pa., Feb. 
15, 1777. The family are of German descent. His 
grandfather, John Chrisman Merklin (written in this 
country Markle), was born at Alsace, on the Rhine, 



654 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



about the year 1678. Some time after the Edict of 
Nantes, in 1685, he fled from Germany, passing down 
the Rhine into Holland, and settled in Amsterdam. 
Here he married Jemima Weurtz, or Weurtzen, a sister 
of the admiral of that name. In 1703 he emigrated to 
the United States, and settled at a place called " Salem 
Springs," in Berks County, Pa., Here he purchased 
fifteen hundred acres of land. He was by trade a 
coach-maker, and established on his purchase a 
wagon-maker's shop, blacksmith-shop, and grist-mill. 
He had nine children, of whom Gaspard Markle, the 
father of Gen. Markle, was the youngest. He (Gas- 
pard) was born in Berks County in 1732. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Grim, and in 1770 removed to West- 
moreland County. Not long after his removal to the 
West his wife died, and in 1770 he returned to Berks 
and married Mary Roadarmel. Gen. Markle was the 
eldest child by this marriage. 

Gaspard Markle died in September, 1819, aged 
nearly eighty-eight years. For several years after 
the settlement of the family in Westmoreland the 
neighboring settlements on the Allegheny and Kis- 
kiminetas were harassed by the Indians, and the 
residence of Gaspard Markle was the post of refuge 
to which the settlers fled for succor and safety. Gen. 
Markle's elder brothers were active participants in 
repelling the attacks of the savages, and distin- 
guished themselves by their courage, intrepidity, and 
power of enduring fatigue and exposure. Several of 
the general's near relations were engaged in both the 
war of the Revolution and that of 1812. George 
Markle, a cousin, was in the battle of Brandywine. 
Jacob Markle, a brother of George, was in the naval 
service under Commodore Barney, and was on board the 
" Hyder Ally" at the capture of the " General Monk." 
Barnet Markle, a cousin of both Jacob and Gen. Mar- 
kle, was also on board the " Hyder Ally" on the same 
occasion, and was wounded in the engagement. Jo- 
seph Roadarmel, the uncle after whom he was named, 
was in the battle of Long Island iu August, 1776, was 
wounded, captured, taken on board a prison-ship 
lying in the harbor of New York, where he died of 
the wounds received iu the battle. There were lour 
of Gen. Markle's family connection in the troop 
which he commanded in the war of 1S12. 

One of the first of Gaspard Markle's enterprises 
after his settlement in Westmoreland County was the 
erection, in 1772, of a grist-mill on Sewickley Creek, 
which traversed his ancient homestead. Here was 
made some of the first flour manufactured west of the 
Alleghenies. It was transported in flat-boats by 
Jacob Yoder, a citizen of Beading, in Berks County, 
to the New Orleans market. This feat of the enter- 
prising Yoder was repeated five different times subse- 
quently by Gen. Markle. The services of his elder 
brothers being required on the farm, at the early age 
of thirteen, and for several years thereafter, the duty 
of transporting from the Eastern cities the supply of 
salt necessary for the family devolved on Joseph. 



This was accomplished by pack-horses, and being 
through an almost unbroken forest, with taverns or 
habitations of any kind being " few and far between," 
the dangers and hardships attending one of these 
journeys can hardly be conceived by people of the 
present day. 

His first trip to New Orleans was made in 1799, 
followed by others in 1800, 1801, 1803, and 1809. 
Prom the first trip he returned by what is called the 
wilderness route by way of Natchez, Nashville, Lex- 
ington, Chillicothe, etc. From the vicinity of Natchez 
to Nashville the route was by the Indian trail through 
the Chickasaw nation of Indians, a distance of about 
six hundred and fifty miles. In all this distance there 
were no houses or wdiite inhabitants, and the traveler 
was compelled to camp out overnight. The thrilling 
incidents attending such a journey, its narrow escapes 
from the fording of rivers and attacks of savages, would 
fill a volume in their description. From the trip of 
1S00 Gen. Markle returned by sea, having entered as 
a common sailor on board the ship " Mars," Capt. 
George, owned by Tench Cox, of Philadelphia. She 
carried seventeen guns, with letters-of-marque, and 
was bound from New Orleans to Philadelphia, where 
she arrived after a passage of thirty-two or three days. 
From his other trips he also returned by sea, but al- 
ways as a passenger, his ambition as a sailor being 
satisfied by the first experiment. Previous to his first 
voyage his father had retired from active business, 
and devoted the whole management of the estate 
upon him. He farmed largely. In 1806 he erected 
another large grist-mill, and in 1S11 he formed a part- 
nership with Simon Drum, of Greensburg, and dur- 
ing that year erected a large paper-mill, the third 
establishment of the kind erected west of the Alle- 
ghenies. Mr. Drum residing at a distance from I lie 
paper-mill, its entire superintendence was added to 
his other duties. He was in the midst of these 
various employments when the war of 1812 broke out. 

In May of that year, in prospect of the war, he had 
raised from among his neighbors a troop of cavalry, 
of which he was elected captain. Their services were 
immediately tendered to the President. The accept- 
ance was a long while delayed, but upon the sur- 
render of Hull at Detroit they received orders to 
join the Northwestern army. Upon arriving with the 
troop at Pittsburgh, provisions which had been prom- 
ised were not forthcoming. In this exigency Gen. 
Markle raised the necessary funds by giving his own 
note, indorsed by his friends, William Fullerton, 
Major Joshua Budd, and John Daily, payable at six 
months, of $1250, which was discounted at the old 
bank at Pittsburgh. This amount, together with 
$800 raised by Quartermaster Capt. Wheaton, en- 
abled him to go forward with the troop. On their 
arrival at headquarters the commander-in-chief as- 
signed them the first rank in the volunteer cavalry. 
Of the distinguished part which Gen. Markle and his 
companions in arms bore in the service which fol- 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



655 



lowed the following general orders issued by Gen. 
Harrison at the termination of their term of service 
sufficiently attests : 

'• After (General) Orders. 

"Headqi \i:n:us, Si'mt v Towx. 
■■ 16th August, 1813. 

"The period for which the troop of Light Dra- 
goons commanded by Capt. Markle was engaged being 
about to expire, the commanding general directs that 
they proceed to Franklinton for their baggage, and 
that they be there discharged, or proceed embodied to 
Pittsburgh before they are discharged, as Capt. Markle 
may think proper. The General (Harrison) returns 
Capt. Markle, his subalterns, non-commissioned 
officers, and soldiers, his thanks for their good con- 
duct whilst under his command. In the course of 
eleven months' service, in which they have performed 
as much severe duty as any troops ever did, the Gen- 
eral has found us much reason to applaud their steady 
and subordinate deportment in camp as their coolness 
and valor when opposed to the enemy, both of which 
were eminently displayed at the battle of Missis- 
sinewa and at the siege of Fort Meigs. 

"A. H. Holmes, Adjt. General. 

"A true extract." 

A short time after his return from the army he was 
elected major-general of Pennsylvania militia for the 
division composed of the counties of Fayette and 
Westmoreland. 

Upon his return home he entered upon the duty of 
retrieving his private affairs, which had greatly suf- 
fered during his absence. The dam of his paper-mill 
had been swept away by an extraordinary flood in the 
Sewickley. It was repaired, and the manufacture of 
paper extensively carried on. He supplied a great 
portion of Western Pennsylvania with paper, and 
personally distributed large quantities of it through 
Kentucky and Ohio. His. farm, too, in the mean- 
while was cultivated with great industry and vigor. 
His flour-mill was kept constantly employed. He 
also kept a store, out of which the hands employed by 
him were partly paid for their services. The profits 
of the whole were no doubt very great, but the free- 
dom with which he lent his name to his friends 
ultimately swallowed them up and left him deeply 
involved. 

In 1820, in order to relieve himself from the vexa- 
tion consequent upon his embarrassments, he trans- 
ferred to two of his sons two tracts of land containing 
over three hundred acres, including the paper-mill, 
upon the condition of their paying his responsibili- 
ties. This condition was faithfully performed by the 
payment of every dollar for which he was morally or 
legally bound. He retained the ancient homestead of 
his father, and thenceforward devoted himself to its 
cultivation, and from this source, together with the 
proceeds of his ffouring-mill, he supported his family. 
The political principles of Gen. Markle are sufficiently 



indicated by his votes cast for President. His first vote 
was given for Mr. Jefferson. He voted for Mr. Madi- 
son in 1808. Being in the army in 1812, he did not 
vote. He voted for Mr. Monroe, was in favor of Mr. 
Adams. In 1828 voted for Gen. Jackson, but became 
estranged from him and the party in consequence of 
his course in relation to the tariff from the fir>t, and 
always maintaining strong ground in favor of a 
protective tariff. He was a stanch supporter of his 
old commander-in-chief Gen. Harrison, and also of 
Henry ( lay, and indeed of every Whig and Republi- 
can candidate for the Presidency to the time of his 
death. With one exception (when nominated by his 
party as their candidate for Governor, to which his 
assent to the use of his name was given with great 
reluctance), he never was with his own consent a 
candidate for any civil office, though often urged to 
do so, and a number of times placed upon the ticket 
against his earnest protest, on one occasion as candi- 
date for the Assembly, and on another occasion in 
1838 as a candidate for Congress, on both of which 
occasions he electioneered against himself. He lacked 
only about 4000 votes of an election at the time he ran 
for Governor in 1844, when Mr. Clay lost the State 
by over 8000 votes. The general was a great reader, 
and his memory, especially of facts, dates, and num- 
bers, was remarkable. His hearty good humor, his 
great fund of information, united with a vivacity of 
manner, made him excel in the social circle. Per- 
haps the most prominent traits of his character were 
his courage, honesty, hospitality, and benevolence. 
A physician who practiced several years in his 
neighborhood says he scarcely ever visited a poor 
family in sickness where he did not find that Gen. 
Markle had been in advance of him with a supply of 
whatever was necessary to their comfort. Traveling 
ministers of the gospel always found a welcome at his 
board and fireside, and the poor were never turned 
away without experiencing his kindness and liberal- 
ity. During the war of the Rebellion, when Penn- 
sylvania was threatened with an invasion, the gen- 
eral, though eighty-four years of age, promptly re- 
sponded to the call, and was elected captain of a 
company formed in the neighborhood for home pro- 
tection. 

He was for many years a member of the old Sewick- 
ley Presbyterian Church. 

The general was twice married. His first wife was 
Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Jacob Painter, whom he 
married Jan. 18, 1805, and by her he had four children, 
viz. : Shepard B., a resident of Rostraver township • 
Mary E., widow of John Boyd, living in West New- 
ton ; Elias R., died at the age of fourteen, in 1818 ; 
and Gen. Cyrus P. (a sketch of whom will be found 
in this volume). His second wife was Elizabeth, 
daughter of Col. Joseph Lloyd, of Westmoreland 
County, whom lie married Sept. 27, 1825. By this 
union there were twelve children, seven of whom are 
living, viz.: Lafayette, editor of the Ni/aek Chronicle, 



656 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Rockland County, N. Y. ; Joseph and George W., 
owners and occupants of the old homestead farm ; 
Roxanna, wife of Dr. William L. Miller, of Alle- 
gheny City ; Sidnie, wife of Robert Taylor, of West 
Newton ; Margaret, living with Mrs. Boyd at West 
Newton ; and Hannah, who died at the age of fifteen. 



GEN. CYRUS P. MARKLE. 
Gen. Cyrus P. Markle was born in the township of 
Sewickley, county of Westmoreland, Pa., April 18, 
1810, the third in a family of four children of Gen. 
Joseph and Elizabeth (Painter) Markle. (For gene- 
alogy of family see biography in this volume of Gen. 
Joseph Markle.) His education was limited to an 
attendance at the common school. One of the most 
pleasing incidents of his boyhood, and one remem- 
bered with no little pride, was his meeting Gen. 
La Fayette at Uniontown, Pa., and acting as one of 
his escort on horseback from that place to the city of 
Pittsburgh. This occurred when he was fourteen 
years old. Very early in life he became actively em- 
ployed in the business enterprises carried on by his 
father, and foreshadowed in the boy a capacity in the 
management of affairs which has been a marked 
characteristic of the man. In 1829, at the age of 
nineteen, a partnership was formed with an elder 
brother, Shepard B. Markle, under the firm-name of 
S. B. and C. P. Markle, which partnership continued 
for more than half a century. The manufacture of 
paper was the business in which the firm was chiefly 
employed, though farming was also quite extensively 
carried on. Two tracts of land containing over three 
hundred acres and the paper-mill at Millgrove were 
deeded them by their father on condition of their 
meeting certain pecuniary obligations for which he i 
had become liable by undersigning. These obliga- 
tions were eventually fully met by the firm. For 
thirty years the firm continued in the manufacture of 
paper at the " Millgrove" mill. In 1859, in order to 
meet the increasing demand for their products, and 
at the same time to avail themselves of better facili- 
ties for transportation, they built a large paper-mill 
(brick) at West Newton. At this mill paper from 
rags was manufactured until 1865, when they erected 
a straw pulp-mill (wood), and subsequently the pro- 
duction of wood pulp was introduced. 

In 1870, Mr. S. B. Markle retired from the firm, 
since which time the business has been carried on, 
largely extended, under the firm name of " C. P. 
Markle & Sons," the firm consisting of Gen. C. P. 
Markle and his sons, Capt. C. C. Markle and Shepard 
B. Markle, Jr. Iu 1881 this firm built at West New- 
ton another mill (brick), designated "Mill B," fifty- 
three by three hundred and twenty-nine feet, the 
largest and one of the most complete in the State, 
and one into which they have introduced all of the 
latest and most improved machinery. These mills 
are situated on the bank of the Youghiogheny River, 



between it and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 
(A representation of them appears on another page 
of this volume.) 

In 1880 the firm purchased five thousand acres of 
coal and timber land in Milford township, Somerset 
County, Pa., and in 1881 built thereon extensive wood- 
pulp works. The pulp-mill is two hundred and fifty 
by eighty-three feet, the evaporator one hundred and 
fifty by fifty feet. In addition to the works, a station 
house, store, and twenty-four dwelling-houses were 
built by them. The place, named after the general, 
is named Markleton. It is situated on the Castlemau 
River, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A better 
conception of the magnitude of these works can be 
formed by a visit to them. Something of an idea 
may be formed from the representation of them on 
another page of this volume. 

About twenty tons of paper are manufactured from 
the pulp produced at their Markleton aud West New- 
ton mills. While their mills at West Newton are 
devoted exclusively to the manufacture of printing 
paper, a very superior quality of hardware paper is 
produced at the "Millgrove Mill." The firm have 
their warehouse at 126 Second Avenue, Pittsburgh. 1 

While the manufacture of paper has been the lead- 
ing business of the general, he has also been largely 
interested in the product of coke. In 1871, in com- 
pany with John Sherrick, of Mount Pleasant, under 
the firm of "Sherrick & Markle," he built on the 
Mount Pleasant Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad the " Eagle Coke- Works," one hundred 
ovens. Sold his interest in these works in 1879 to H. 
Clay Frick. In 1873 he purchased of Peter Sher- 
rick and William McMasters their farms, two hundred 
aud sixty acres, in East Huntingdon township, near 
Mount Pleasant, and in company with the former 
firm, Markle & Sherrick, erected on the'Sheri 
farm the " Rising Sun" Coke- Works, one hundred 
ovens. On the McMasters farm C. P. Markle & Sons 
built the " Bessemer Coke- Works," one hundred and 
fifty ovens. In connection with these works about 
fifty tenant-houses were built, also about a mile and a 
quarter of railroad, which is known in that section 
as the " June Bug" Branch of the Baltimore and 
Mount Pleasant Railroad. 

In company with Col. Israel Painter, Gen. Lari- 
mer, Horatio Burrows, and Gen. Haupt, Gen. Mar- 
kle has operated extensively in coal lands in the 
township of Sewickley. To the original homestead 
tract of three hundred acres he has added nine hun- 
dred acres adjoining in the townships of Sewickley 
and South Huntingdon. 

For a number of years the general and his sons 



1 While the firm have been more than ordinarily successful in their 
business as paper manufacturers, they have met then full proportion of 
losses by fire. The old frame mill on Sewickley Creek was burned iu 
18G2. In 1876 the brick mill, in 1877 the frame, and again in 187S the 
brick mill at West Newton were burned, hut were all rebuilt the same 
year they were burned. 





;i^w^__ 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



657 



have taken interest in blooded stock. Four of the 
finest " Jerseys" in the country may be seen at their 
stock-farm. Their yearly sales of stock run into the 
thousands. 

In all the operations of C. P. Markle & Co. about 
six hundred men are employed. Owing to a partial 
stroke of paralysis, from which he has never fully 
recovered, Gen. Markle has for a number of years 
left the active conduct of the business to his sons, by 
whom he is kept thoroughly posted in regard to all 
operations, and who fully appreciate the value of his 
advice and mature judgment in all business matters. 
The general became very early in life interested in 
the military, a taste undoubtedly inherited from his 
father. At the age of fourteen he became a member 
of the Sewickley Artillery Company, afterwards its 
adjutant, and then captain. Still later he was elected 
major and finally general of the Thirteenth Legion 
Pennsylvania Militia, composed of the counties of 
Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland. 

In politics he has been a firm supporter of the princi- 
ples of the Whig and Republican parties, but, like his 
father before him, has always been more ready to help 
a friend to office than to accept official position him- 
self. Indeed, the successful conduct of his extensive 
business interests, which have made him one of the 
busiest men of his times, would have precluded his 
entrance upon public life, even if he had entertained 
any aspirations in that direction. He was interested 
in the construction of the Pittsburgh and Connells- 
ville Railroad, and served as one of its directors. He 
was for many years a member of the Sewickley Pres- 
byterian Church, but at the present time is a member 
of the church of the same denomination at West 
Newton. 

He married, May 5, 1835, Sarah Ann, daughter of 
James and Margaret Lippincott. Mrs. Markle was 
born June 12, 1814, at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland 
Co., Pa. Their children are as follows: Margaret 
Ann and Mary Elizabeth, twins, born Jan. 28, 1836. 
The former, widow of Thomas McMasters, residing 
at Turtle Creek. She has one child, Rachel, wife of 
M. C. Miller, Esq. Mary Elizabeth, died June 14, 
1843 ; Joseph L., born Nov. 7, 1837, died July 4, 1843 ; 
Jesse Henry, born Jan. 8, 1839, died June 10, 1843; 
Caseins C. Markle, born Oct. 31, 1840;' Shepard B. 
Markle, Jr., and Cyrus P., twins, born May 15, 1844 2 
(Cyrus P. died Jan. 8, 1845) ; Mary Emily, born Sept. 7, 
1846, wife of John M. Larimer, a merchant at Turtle 
Creek. Two children living, viz., Cyrus P. Markle 
and Thomas McMasters Markle. Harriet Cornelia, 
born Sept. 28, 1847, wife of A. O. Tintsman, living 
at Turtle Creek. One son, Cyrus Painter Markle. 
Amanda, bom July 26, 1850, died Nov. 18, 1850; 
Winfield Scott, born Feb. 14, 1852, died November, 
1853. 



1 See biography on another page of this volume. 
- For biography of former Bee following sketch. 



Mrs. Markle died Nov. 26, 1869. In the death of 
this most estimable woman the family, her church, 
and indeed the entire community in which she lived 
met with an irreparable loss. She possessed in large 
measure all the rare qualities which characterize the 
devoted wife and mother and the truly Christian 
woman. In the home and social circle she was easily 
a leader, and she was a helpmeet indeed in the 
"dispensation of a hospitality for which the Markle 
home has always been distinguished, — a hospitality 
without stint, extended to the stranger equally with 
relatives and friends. 

Honorableness and fair dealing have been the 
marked characteristics of Gen. Markle in the conduct 
of his business affairs. A contract once made has 
always been to him a sacred matter, something to be 
fulfilled and not shirked, though its fulfillment, as 
sometimes has happened to him, might entail large 
loss; but in the long run his successes have abun- 
dantly proven the truth of the old adage, " Honesty is 
the best policy." Though he has uniformly declined 
official position, few men have exerted a wider per- 
sonal influence in local and State politics. Men whose 
candidacy he approved and measures which he favored 
have always found in him a powerful ally. The 
Union cause in the late war had no more ardent sup- 
porter. Relying upon his discretion and good judg- 
ment in all business affairs, his counsel and advice 
have been frequently sought after by his neighbors 
and friends. In the development of the material 
resources of his locality and the advancement of all 
interests which look to the betterment of society it 
would be difficult to find one who has exerted a more 
commanding influence. 



SHEPARD B. MARKLE, Jr., 
youngest son living of Gen. C. P. and Sarah (Lippin- 
cott) Markle, was born at Millgrove, Sewickley town- 
ship, Westmoreland County, Pa., May 15, 1844. He 
was twin-brother to Cyrus P., who died Jan. 8, 1845. 
From a fall, which happened when about eighteen 
months old, and which affected the left limb, he was 
rendered a cripple for life. Many of the most eminent 
physicians of the country were consulted without favor- 
able results. Finally horseback riding and " plenty 
of it" was advised by Dr. Pancoast, of Philadelphia, as 
the means most likely to bring relief. The sequel 
proved the wisdom of the doctor's advice, for, though 
no permanent cure was possible in the case, he con- 
tinued to gain daily in strength, and his ability to 
discharge these many years the varied duties de- 
volving upon an exceedingly busy man is attributed 
almost solely by Mr. Markle to the benefit he derived 
from horseback riding. " Sheppy" Markle and his 
horse became, if not one, at least almost inseparable. 
The varied business interests of his father, in which 
he began early in life to participate, gave him ample 
scope for his favorite exercise. An average of from 



658 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



twenty-five to thirty miles per day for many years is 
no exaggeration of the extent of his riding. The 
necessity for this exercise, together with the impor- 
tant part he was thus enabled early to take in his 
father's business matters, quite precluded the idea of 
his entering upon any extended course of study, and 
in consequence his education was limited to an at- 
tendance at the neighborhood district school and a 
select school at West Newton. • 

In 1870 he became associated with his father and 
brother, Capt. C. C. Markle, under the firm " C. P. Mar- 
kle & Sons,'' in the manufacture of paper, the produc- 
tion of coke, raising of stock, and farming generally. 
He has given special attention to the stock department. 
In 1876 he purchased twelve head of registered Jer- 
seys at Philadelphia, the first introduced into West- 
moreland County, since which time the operations of 
the firm in that line, managed principally by Shep- 
ard B., have been very extensive, involving many 
thousands of dollars yearly. For the last five or six 
years he has been obliged to discontinue his horsebacj 
riding, having become too stout to use his favorite 
mode of conveyance with any comfort to himself or 
horse. Few men of soundest body, however, ride 
more miles in the day, or accomplish more in the 
execution of business. Rain or shine, cold or hot, a 
man may " set his watch" by the promptness and 
regularity with which he may be statedly seen with 
his carriage at his usual places of business. 

In politics he is a Republican, and though he has 
neither sought nor desired office, no man in the locality 
is more liberal of his time and money in forwarding 
the interests of the party. 

He married, June 11, 1874, Isabella, daughter of 
James P. and Jane K. (Moore) Carothers. Mrs. 
Markle was born in South Huntingdon township, 
Westmoreland County, Pa., Oct. 18, 1852. She is the 
great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Power, one of 
the pioneer ministers of the Presbyterian Church in 
Western Pennsylvania. It is not too much to say 
that the Markle home at "Millgrove," always pro- 
verbial for its unstinted hospitality, has lost nothing 
of its prestige in this respect since Mrs. Markle be- 
came its presiding genius. Mr. and Mrs. Markle have 
children, as follows: Sarah Ann, born June 5, 1875; 
Jane C, born Jan. 29, 1877 ; Maggie McMasters, born 
Dec. 30, 1878; Mary Emily, born Feb. 23, 1880; and 
Cyrus Painter, born April 7, 1882. 



He entered the army Aug. 25, 1861, as second lieu- 
tenant Co. E, 105th Regt. P. V. I., Col. McKingly, of 
Brookeville, commanding ; was promoted to first lieu- 
tenant, and afterwards to the captaincy of the com- 
pany. He was appointed and served as provost- 
marshal under Gen. Birney, and subsequently was 
appointed inspector -general of forts north of the 
Potomac, first under Gen. Hoskin, and afterwards 
under Gen. Hardin, and occupied that position at 
the time of the expiration of his three years' term of 
enlistment. He was honorably discharged Sept. 3, 
1864. Upon his return from the army he became 
actively employed in the business enterprises of C. 
P. Markle & Co., and upon the dissolution of that firm 
became a partner in the firm of C. P. Markle & Sons, and 
since the retirement from that position of his father, 
Gen. C. P. Markle, the management of their exten- 
sive paper- and coke-works has devolved chiefly upon 
him. He married Feb. 21, 1865, Mary A., daughter 
of Jacob S. and Mary (Fox) Overholt. Mrs. Markle 
was born in Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland 
County, July 1, 1846. Their children are Cyrus P., 
born Feb. 12, 1S66 ; Thomas McMasters, born Feb. 25, 
1868; Mary O., born Sept. 13, 1870; Sarah Bessie, 
born Feb. 2, 1873, died Nov. 27, 1874; Jessie Ben- 
ton, born May 25, 1875; and Margaret Z., born March 
8, 1878. 



CAPT. C. C. MARKLE. 
Capt. C. C. Markle was born at Millgrove, Sewickley 
township, Westmoreland County, Pa., Oct. 31, 1840, 
the fifth child of Gen. C. P. and Sarah A. (Lippin- 
cott) Markle. He received his primary and academic 
education in the district school of his native place, at 
Turtle Creek and Mount Pleasant Academy. He took 
a business course of study at the Iron City College, 
Pittsburgh. 



c 



HON. GEORGE PLUMER. 



George Plumer was of English descent. His great- 
great-great-grandparentS; Francis and Ruth Plumer, 
with their children, Samuel, Joseph, Hannah, and 
Mary, emigrated in 1633 from Newbury, in Berkshire, 
England, to New England, and in May, 1634, Francis 
Plumer took the freeman's oath in Boston. 

Francis Plumer was descended from an ancient and 
honorable family, which from the time of the barons' 
wars has always maintained a respectable standing 
in the midland counties of England. 

In 1635, Francis Plumer, in company with some of 
the inhabitants of Ipswich, under the pastoral care of 
the learned Dr. Parker, obtained leave of the General 
Court to remove to Quascacunquen, and began a town 
at that place which they called Newbury, Francis 
Plumer being one of the original grantees ; and it 
may be here mentioned that it is stated in a recent 
history of Essex County that "the meeting-house, 
which was likewise the school and the town-house, 
was on land owned by one of the descendants of 
Francis Plumer, who have held the paternal acres 
through all the years to this date" (1878). 

Joseph, the second son of Francis, was born in 1630, 
married Sarah Cheney, Dec. 23, 1652; Jonathan, the 
youngest son of this couple, was born May 13, 1668, 
and on the 10th of June, 1696, he married Sarah Pear- 
son ; John, the eldest child of the last-named pair, 
was born March 25, 1697, and Jan. 30, 1722, he mar- 
i ried Rebecca Wheeler ; and their second son, Jona- 





stctt^rct 



9- 










£# 




SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



659 



than, was born April 13, 1724, and June 6, 1744. he 
married M eh i table Herriman. 

Jonathan Plumer resided in Newbury, the place of 
his nativity, until the death of his wife, which oc- 
curred about the year 1749 or 1750. Her loss was so 
great an affliction that he decided to seek relief in 
change of scene. Accordingly he arranged to leave 
their three sons, who were entitled to a good estate 
from their mother, with her relatives in Rowley, and 
traveled southward. 

In his youth Jonathan Plumer had been converted 
under the preaching of Dr. George Wliitetield, and 
always took a deep interest in the religious move- 
ments of his day. Wliitetield in his travels through 
the colonies had made long visits in the congregations 
in Southern Pennsylvania and neighboring Mary- 
land, under the charge of the Finleys and Blairs and 
Smiths, then the great lights of the Presbyterian 
Church in those regions, and it doubtless was from 
his report of them, and of the fertility of the soil, etc., 
that young Plumer was led to seek his fortune among 
them. 

A record prepared in Newburyport many years ago 
says of him: "Jonathan Plumer (5th) emigrated to 
Pennsylvania in 1750 ; was commissary to Gen. Brad- 
dock in 1755." 

One of the foremost and most remarkable men of 
that day in Maryland was Col. Thomas Cresap, who 
had fixed his residence in what was then called " Old 
Town," near Fort Cumberland. 

Alter the disastrous failure of Braddock, Jonathan 
Plumer seems to have settled in Old Town, for it is 
shown in a published correspondence between Gover- 
nor Diuwiddie to Col. Adam Stephen, at Fort Cum- 
berland, and from the latter to Capt. Dagworthy, at 
Fort Frederick, that Cresap and Plumer were at the 
date, — March, 17-J7, collecting commissary supplies in 
that country. 

It is traditional in Mr. Plumer's family that he was 
also in the army of Gen. Forbes the following year, 
wdien that " Head of Iron" took possession of the smok- 
ing ruins of Fort Du Quesne and named the place 
Pittsburgh. 

The main portion of the army made only a short 
stay, and then returned to the east of the mountains, 
Mr. Plumer accompanying them. 

It was in Old Town, or in Fort Frederick, that Jona- 
than Plumer, on short acquaintance, married Miss 
Anna Farrell, who proved a loving wife and help- 
meet in all their after-life of dangers and trials. 

Their oldest son, William, was born in or near Fort 
Cumberland in 17-">7, and one other son in 1758, 
named John ; but while it is certain that the father 
was in Fort Pitt in 1759, there is nothing now to show 
that he had his family west of the mountains till in 
17(51. 

Col. George Croghan having obtained a grant from 
the Indians of fifteen hundred acres on the Alle- 
gheny River, extending from Two-Mile Run up to the 



Narrows, Jonathan Plumer became interested in the 

grant, ami in the summer of 1761, " by permission of 
Col. Henry Bouquet, built a cabin and made many 
valuable improvements thereon" (Binney's Reports, 
vol. ii., page 95, et seq.), and it was in that cabin, on 
lice. .">, 1762, that George Plumer, the subject of this 
sketch, was born. 

When Jonathan Plumer built his cabin all that 
ii was in a state of-transition. The claim of the 
British had not been acknowledged by France, and tin- 
territory to the westward was held by force of arms. 

Quebec had fallen the previous year, and the ap- 
proaching end of French domination seemed certain, 
but the hopes and fears of the settlers kept them in 
continued anxiety and alarm. Houses were going up 
around the fort, but until news of certain peace none 
could tell in whose territory they would stand. 

At the last, on the 21st of January, 1763, intelli- 
gence was received in Philadelphia that on the .'id of 
the previous November preliminary articles of peace 
between France and England had been signed, and 
as speedily as the army express of those days could 
reach Fort Pitt, the announcement there was greeted 
with great joy and thanksgiving. "This peace," says 
a writer in Mr. Craig's " < llden Time," " removed for- 
ever from our. vicinity all tear of the arts and arms of 
the French." 

And in the " History of Old Redstone" Dr. Joseph 
Smith says, pagfe ~>-, " After the encroachments of the 
French and their Indian allies were successfully re- 
pelled, and the treaty of peace signed at Fontaine- 
bleau, Nov. 3, 1762, secured to the British crown this 
long-disputed section of the West, emigrants from 
Eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, Scotland, and the 
north of Ireland began to pour in," etc. 

Other testimony might be quoted to show that the 
date of " British dominion" was then fixed as of the 
third of November, 1762. 

What i- here recited is in explanation, in so far as 
now may be, of what was said by the few settlers and 
the officers and soldiers then in and around Fort Pitt, 
that George, the son of Jonathan Plumer, was the first 
male child born " to the westward" under the 
" British dominion." 

The portion of Croghan's grant owned by Jonathan 
Plumer was held by him till about 1777, when he 
sold it back to Croghan ; but he, Col. Croghan, was 
then in financial troubles, and the whole was sold at 
sheriff's sale in July, 1783, and bought by Samuel 
Ewalt, whose old home on the land is yet in good 
condition. 

The Plumer cabin stood about one hundred yards 
east of the Ewalt mansion. 

George remained with his parents, becoming a noted 
hunter and scout, and occasionally accompanying 
parties of surveyor-. 

Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Miss 
Margaret Lowrey, the youngest daughter of Col. 
Alexander Lowrey, of Donegal, Lancaster Co., Pa., 



660 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



came over the mountains to visit her sisters, Mrs. 
Daniel Elliott and Mrs. John Hay. 

Col. Lowrey was a prominent, wealthy, and influ- 
ential Indian trader of that day. Miss Lowrey first 
met with George Plumer in the store of Mr. Elliott, 
who introduced him quite kindly to her, as he had a 
friendly regard for the young " Buckskin." 

They had occasional meetings, and became engaged ; 
but Mrs. Hay, with whom Margaret was staying, op- 
posed the match, but in the following August of 1784 
they made a " runaway match" of it and were mar- 
ried. 

The first home of the newly-married pair was on 
the right bank of the Pucketos (now called Puckety) 
Creek, near Fort Crawford, where the husband had 
taken up three hundred acres of land and built a log 
cabin and cleared thirty acres. Here they struggled 
against cares and trials new to the wife, with no hope 
of the father's forgiveness. He worked hard, clear- 
ing and cultivating the land. Deer, bears, turkeys, 
and other game were abundant, and afforded them all 
the fresh meat which they needed. 

They were, however, often annoyed by Indians, 
and compelled to take refuge at night in the adjoin- 
ing woods, and occasionally in Fort Crawford. 

Their neighbors were Samuel Skillen, James Gray, 
Alexander Logan, and Robert Hays, who had mar- 
ried Mr. PI timer's sister Nancy. 

George Plumer and Robert Hays being called on 
to perform one month of military service as scouts, 
an attorney of Pittsburgh took advantage of their 
absence to send a surveyor to survey their lands, and 
had patents taken out before, they knew anything 
about it ; by this they lost their all. 

Up to this time Mr. Plumer had never met his 
father-in-law ; their meeting was a curious one. Col. 
Lowrey had a body of land north of Hannastown, 
about which there was some litigation. Preparatory 
to the trial of the case, Col. Lowrey was out with 
surveyors, when George Plumer, who was hunting in 
that direction, accidentally met the party. The sur- 
veyors, with whom he was well acquainted, after 
shaking hands, introduced him to his astonished 
father-in-law; but the colonel, having been preju- 
diced against him by John Hay, was cold and dis- 
tant, but eyed him sharply. Mr. Plumer, however, 
maintained his serenity, and making gradual ap- 
proaches to the colonel, finally invited him to go 
home with him and see his daughter and grand- 
children. But the colonel declined, and after shak- 
ing hands they separated. 

But the old trader's heart was touched, and he fol- 
lowed his son-in-law in a day or so, and entering the 
cabin unannounced, overwhelmed his daughter and 
her little sons with embraces, and all was well again. 
After spending some days with them he told Mr. 
Plumer that there were three fine tracts of land near 
the mouth of Big Sewickley Creek belonging to Simon 
Gratz (with whom he was in extensive business rela- 



tions), and for him to go and make a selection, and he 
would give it to him and his wife. This was speedily 
done, and in 1791 George Plumer built a house on 
the tract, at the mouth of the Sewickley, and moved 
into it. 

After the Plumers had been two years on their new 
place Col. Lowrey made them another visit, and was 
so much pleased with improvements by Mr. Plumer's 
energy and industry that he gave him eight hundred 
pounds to erect mills. 

The next year the colonel was out again, and found 
the saw-mill up, running, and masons at work on the 
foundation for a grist-mill. He was delighted, and 
gave Mr. Plumer three hundred pounds, and sent 
him burr-stones for his mill. The following year 
Mrs. Plumer and her sister Mary went East to see 
their father, and just before they started for home he 
gave each of them five hundred pounds. 

Soon after his wife's return Mr. Plumer was taken 
down with fever, from which he recovered slowly. 
During his protracted illness a sudden freshet swept 
away his mill-dam, which in his feeble condition 
greatly discouraged him, and finally, in connection 
with his physician's warning against continued hard 
work, induced him to sell his mills, with some adjoin- 
ing lands, to Maj. Michael and Adam Frichman. 

In the following year Mr. Plumer built a large 
square log house on the upper portion of his farm, to 
which he removed, and in it spent the remaining por- 
tion of his days. 

Early in 1808 he opened a store in connection with 
his large distillery and farming business. In 1812, Mr. 
Plumer was elected to the Legislature, and was re- 
elected in 1813, 1814, 1815, and 1817. 

On the 24th of June, 1818, he lost his wife, the be- 
loved of his youth. In her cultivated and refined 
society he had in a great measure overcome the dis- 
advantages of imperfect education, and suited himself 
for the higher duties which, in the latter years of his 
life, he was called on to perform. 

In 182(1, Mr. Plumer was elected a representative to 
the Seventeenth Congress of the United States, and 
was re-elected to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Con- 
gresses. 

On the 14th of November, 1821, he was married to 
his second wife, Miss Martha Dean, of Indiana County, 
Pa., who survived hiin some years. 

In 1826 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church decided to establish a theological seminary 
west of the mountains, and a board of directors, con- 
sisting of twenty-one ministers and nine ruling elders, 
was elected by ballot to report the following year a 
suitable location for it in or near Pittsburgh. Mr. 
Plumer was one of the nine ruling elders; he, how- 
ever, did not favor the site finally selected on Hogback 
Hill, in Allegheny Town, but advocated the purchase 
of Braddock's Field. 

In 1832, Mr. Plumer was again urged to permit his 
name to be used as a candidate for Congress, but he 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



661 



declined, and spent the remainder of his days in the 
quietude of private life. 

Of the children of George and Margaret Plumer, 
four, namely, Jonathan, Alexander, John C, and 
Lazarus Lovvrey, were born on Puckety, and the re- 
mainder of their children, Mary, Nancy, Sarah, Wil- 
liam, Elizabeth, and Rebecca, were born on the place 
bounded by the Youghiogheny and Sewickley. All 
but Jonathan and Rebecca were married and raised 
families, and all are deceased except William, whose 
years go with the century, having been born in 1800, 
an old man indeed, but still erect in form, remarkably 
active, and with memory quite unimpaired in all mat- 
ters of the local history of his native county of West- 
moreland, an invaluable assistant in his recollection 
of men and events of a past generation. 

The following are a few of the names of the first 
Sewickley neighbors of George Plumer: Anthony 
Blackburn and his sons, Joseph, John, Anthony, and 
William ; James and John Thompson ; Isaac Miller, 
a soldier of the Revolution ; Isaac Robb, who bought 
out John Simerall, who established "Simerall's ferry" 
and laid out "Robbstown," now West Newton; Col. 
Davis, a surveyor; Christian Funk, fanner and miller; 
Gaspard Markle, the father of that noble man, Gen. 
Joseph Markle; Patrick Campbell; Alexander and 
William Simerall ; Nathan McGrew ; James Caldwell, 
whose father was cousin to the father of John Cald- 
well Calhoun, of South Carolina ; Benjamin and Abner 
Gilbert; James, David, and Isaac Maines; James and 
Abraham Davidson ; John Milligan, Esq. ; John Jack ; 
John Carnahan ; John Cooper; James Carothers, a 
soldier of the Revolution, and others, but these will 
suffice. 

We close this sketch of one of the representative 
men of the early day of Western Pennsylvania with 
the following notice of his decease from the pen of his 
nephew, the Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., at that 
time editor of the newspaper Watchman of the South, 
in which it appeared in Richmond, Va., June 22, 
1843 : 

"Died, near West Newton, Pennsylvania, on the 8th inst., Hon. George 
Plumer, who was a representative in Congress for six years from the 
Westmoreland district, aged eighty years, six months, and three days. 

"It has often been said of him that he was the oldest man living born 
west of the mountains. He outlived all his brothers, of whom he had 
seven. He was by nature remarkably generous anil kind. A more af- 
fectionate relative no man had. He has left a large family of children 
and grandchildren. His last illness continued more than four weeks. 
A large concourse of sympathizing friends and acquaintances attended 
his burial from his own residence, where his pastor, Rev. Mr. Gillett, 
delivered an appropriate and impressive discourse. By a fall in the 
winter he received considerable personal injury, but recovered so far as 
in the month of May to ride several miles to Sewickley Church, where 
he conducted a prayer-meeting with much ability and solemnity. That 
night he was taken with violent pains through bis whole frame. From 
the first of this attack he believed it would be fatal, and set his house in 
order. 

" His views of religious truth were clear and solemn and appropriate. 
The blessed doctrine of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ 
imputed to believers lay near his heart and was all his hope. He recom- 
mended the blessed Saviour to all who visited him. He had spiritual 
conflicts in his last hours, but hope and faith triumphed. 

" Thus has fallen asleep one of the best of men, who while living was 



revered by all good men who knew him ; one who proved what upright- 
ness and the fear of God can do for those who are called to drink deeply 
of the cup of human suffering and sorrow. 

" May bis children and relatives (the editor of this paper iB his nephew) 
and their descendants have like precious faith, and obtain like good re- 
port." 



ALEXANDER PLUMER. 

Alexander Plumer was the second child of George 
and Margaret Plumer, born in their first home on 
Puckety, Dec. 18, 1786. 

Feb. 15, 1810, he was married to Susan, daughter 
of Isaac Robinson, of Versailles township, Allegheny 
County, Pa. By this union there were two children, — 
Jean, born April 4, 1811, yet surviving, the widow 
of Jesse Greer. The mother died 8th of August, 1814. 

Nov. 3, 1815, Mr. Plumer married Elizabeth Moore, 
by whom he had four children. His second wife died 
July 16, 1844. Sept. 7, 1846, he married Miss Eleanor 
Reynolds, who died April 23, 1860. 

March 13, 1862, he married Miss Livia E. Maclay, 
who survives him, residing in Peoria, 111. 

Alexander Plumer had an aptitude for business and 
trade which in more propitious times would have 
brought him distinction and wealth. He was early, 
placed in his father's store on the farm adjoining 
Robbstown, and when it was transferred to the village 
was intrusted with its management. When it was 
closed out, Mr. Plumer formed a partnership with 
Messrs. Cromwell & Dent, merchants, in Pittsburgh, 
and conducted for several years a large general trade, 
including the receipt of goods by wagon from the East, 
and shipment by keel-boats to Pittsburgh to his part- 
ners there for the lower country. 

Robbstown was then one of the points of river 
navigation for emigrants to the Ohio country, and A. 
Plumer & Co. furnished boats and supplies to the 
"movers." But they were involved in the embar- 
rassments of the Pittsburgh house, the members of 
which removed to Missouri, where, on a farm on which 
he afterwards resided, near St. Louis, the daughter of 
Frederick Dent married Capt. Ulysses S. Grant. 

When A. Plumer & Co. were sold out by their 
creditors he was left with an indebtedness of six 
thousand dollars beyond their assets. For this he 
was given an extension of ten years, with annual 
payments, and to the payment of his firm's debts he 
bent all his energies. He took charge of the im- 
provement of the Youghiogheny River by dams and 
wing-walls under supervision of government en- 
gineers. Next he made several trading voyages on 
the lower rivers, and with William T. Nicholls, 
Samuel Hunter, John Robertson, and his brother-in- 
law, James Smith, brought droves of cattle, sheep, and 
hogs from Ohio to the Eastern markets. In 1826-27 
he built half the distance of turnpike from Robbs- 
town to Williamsport, and was one of the contrac- 
tors for building the bridge at Robbstown. He put 
down several wells for salt on the Sewickley Creek, 
iu doing which he invented the plan of casing his 



602 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



wells to shut off the fresh water, afterwards adopted 
as original in the oil regions of Pennsylvania. Mr. 
Plumer was an original Jackson Democrat, but in 
the excitement following the abduction of Morgan 
he was one of the leaders in the anti-Masonic party 
in Western Pennsylvania, but was afterwards with 
the Whig and Republican parties. 

He was a man of strong native powers of mind, a 
sincere, active Christian, always of cheerful ready 
humor, and ever ready to do his part in all local and 
public affairs. He died in West Newton, of which 
he was the first resident when laid out as a town, 
Dec. 15, 1875, and was buried the 19th of the month, 
his eighty-ninth birthday. 



GEORGE PLUiMER, Jr. 

George Plumer was born in the borough of West i 
Newton, Westmoreland Co., Pa., May 11, 1814, the 
only son of Alexander and Susan (Robinson) Plumer. 
Losing his mother when but three months old, George 
Plumer lived with his grandparents on the old home- 
stead farm until he was ten years old. He then en- 
tered his father's store, where he was employed as clerk, 
and was in other ways connected with his father's 
business for thirteen years. In 1837 he went to Pitts- 
burgh, where for a time he was clerk in the wholesale 
dry-goods store of Carter Curtiss. Owing to the panic 
caused by the suspension of payments by the banks 
his engagement with this firm was short, and he re- 
turned to West Newton, where he again became in- 
terested with his lather in merchandising and in the 
manufacture of salt. In 1850 he leased the tannery 
in West Newton owned by the Hon. John Klingen- 
smith for three years, and upon the death of the latter 
purchased the tannery and carried it on till 1867, 
when he sold it to H. Croushore, its present owner, 
and purchased a farm in and adjoining West Newton, 
in the carrying on of which, together with the busi- 
ness of notary public, lie now chiefly occupies his 
time. His present fine residence on Main Street, 
West Newton (a representation of which appears on 
another page of this volume), he built in 1873. 

He married, April 17, 1860, Lucretia, daughter of 
Daniel and Elizabeth (Turney) Cort. Mrs. Plumer 
was born Oct. 2t>, 1826, in Hempfield township, West- 
moreland County. Her father was born March 5, 
1780, in South Huntingdon township; her mother in 
Hanover township, Montgomery Co., Pa., April 15, 
1786. Her father died May 31, 1859 ; her mother, 
February, 1860. They had fourteen children, seven 
sous and seven daughters, all but three of whom are 
living, are married, and settled in Pennsylvania, Illi- 
nois, Iowa, and Colorado. 

Mr. and Mrs. Plumer have no children, unless, in- 
deed, the church and the church's poor may be called 
such, for to these it may be truly said they have been 
both "father and mother." They have been mem- 
bers of the West Newton Presbyterian Church over 



thirty years, and during that time have been closely 
identified with its every " good word ami work." 
With an interval of but two years, for the last fifteen 
years Mr. Plumer has been its Sabbath-school super- 
intendent. He was the heaviest contributor in the 
erection of their fine church edifice, built at a cost of 
twenty-two thousand dollars, and was chairman of 
the building committee, and spent the most of his 
time, gratuitously, for two years in personally over- 
seeing its construction. Mrs. Plumer has been a 
teacher in the Sabbath-school during her connection 
with the church, and for the last year has had charge 
of the infant department. For many years she has 
been leader of the choir and its organist. By their 
contributions to their funds, Mr. and Mrs. Plumer 
have been made life-members of both the American 
Bible Society and of the Board of Foreign Missions 
of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. 
They are also contributing two hundred and fifty 
dollars yearly to the support of a home missionary in 
one of the Western Territories. 

In politics Mr. Plumer is an ardent supporter of 
the principles of the Republican party, and has al- 
ways taken an active part in forwarding its interests. 
He has been called to fill most of the public offices of 
the borough. All public improvements have found 
in him a friend and liberal supporter. Indeed, in all 
qualities which constitute the good citizen it may be 
truly said of him, he is a "worthy scion of a noble 
stock." 



JOHN C. PLUMER. 

John C. Plumer was born Nov. 28, 1788, at Puckety, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. He was the third of four 
sons, and of the eleven children of George and Mar- 
garet Lowrey Plumer. His name (John Campbell) 
was given to him in honor of an event in early his- 
tory, the circumstances of which are as follows : On 
one occasion when his grandfather, Jonathan Plumer, 
was sorely threatened by the Indians he sought pro- 
tection for his family in Fort Pitt, and as evidence 
that his fears were not groundless it is related that on 
this occasion as they fled, on looking back, they saw 
the smoke of their cabin ascending. And it was at 
this time that the family was in the fort during the 
siege by the Indian chief Killbuck, and while re- 
maining near it, during the following summer, his 
son George, then a small boy, while attempting to 
swim in the Mouongahela, in company with his elder 
brother, William, was rescued from drowning by 
Col. John Campbell. It was this incident which has 
perpetuated the name of Col. Campbell in the Plumer 
family. 

In the home at Puckety the family was living in 
constant danger, and the Indians becoming openly 
hostile a removal was necessary. Two nights before 
leaving, the mother with her four boys, the youngest 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



663 



a tender babe, was concealed under an overhanging 
rock, while the father kept watch with his dog and 
gun. 

In the spring of 1791 his father came into posses- 
sion of the land " in the forks of the Youghiogheny 
and Sewickley Creek," long known as the " Plumer 
Homestead," and now owned and occupied by the 
heirs of Abraham Funk. The cabin in which the 
family lived for some years gave place in 1799 to a 
hewn log house, large and roomy, and which in that 
day was a model of architecture. In this house 
some of the family were born, the parents died, and 
the different members separated to form their respec- 
tive homes. It was removed a few years since, and 
the material now forms another, but the grand old 
elm, spreading its sheltering arms, and which stood 
in front, yet remains to mark the spot. 

At the time of the parents' removal here, John 
Campbell was between two and three years of age, ; 
and his childhood and youth was spent in helping 
clear and work the farm. In the year 1805, when 
about seventeen years of age, he went with his brother 
Alexander on a trading expedition. Their cargo 
consisted of flour, whiskey, and bacon, which they 
took on a keel-boat to the salt-works on the Big Ka- 
nawha and exchanged for salt. 

In March, 1810, he started on a more extended ex- 
pedition. His cargo at this time consisted of three 
hundred barrels of flour and a quantity of whiskey 
and bacon, which he took to New Orleans on a 
flat-boat, and finding the market dull he shipped to 
Havana, and at that place exchanged his cargo for 
coffee, which he took with him to Philadelphia in a 
schooner. Here he met his father and a merchant 
by the name of Kirker, who were there purchasing 
spring goods, and sending home their goods and a 
portion of the coffee, which they loaded in six wagons, 
and shipping the balance of the latter to Pittsburgh, 
he walked the entire distance of more than three 
hundred miles in six days. 

At the age of twenty-four he joined the cavalry 
troop commanded by Capt. Joseph Markle, and was 
appointed sergeant on the 12th of September, 1812, 
and was in the battle of Mississinewa, and at the 
siege of Fort Meigs. At the latter he acted as a vol- 
unteer guide or captain of a picket-guard in advance 
of Maj. Ball's squadron, which was about to make a 
sortie from the fort, covering the landing of Gen. 
Clay's Kentucky troops, numbering twelve hundred 
men. The surrounding woods were full of Indians j 
and British, ready to cut off any reinforcements that 
might come to it. He conducted them safely to the 
fort, and for his bravery and military skill displayed 
in this hazardous undertaking he was publicly com- 
plimented by Maj. James V. Ball (afterwards lieu- 
tenant-colonel), commander of the fort. 

We find the following reference to this incident in 
Howe's " Ohio :" " Capt. Hamilton was directed to 
proceed up the river in a periauger, land a subaltern 



on the left bank, who should be a pilot to conduct 
Gen. Clay to the fort." 

On the morning of the battle at Mississinewa, when 
the first alarm was given, and while in the act of 
throwing his holsters across his horse, the handle of 
one of the pistols was carried off by a bullet from a 
concealed Indian. 

He was honorably mustered out of service with the 
troops at Franklinton, Ohio, on the 19th of August, 
1813, after eleven months' service, carrying with him 
a scar which he received from the bursting of a shell. 

In 1814 he was elected captain of a troop of cavalry 
of the militia of Pennsylvania, in the First Brigade of 
the Thirteenth Division, composed of the militia of 
the counties of Westmoreland and Fayette, for the 
term of seven years, and his commission was con- 
firmed to him by Governor Simon Snyder. At the 
expiration of this time he received an earnest and 
flattering invitation to accept a second election, but 
he declined. 

Mr. Plumer was twice married. His first marriage, 
April, 1814, was to Miss Elizabeth Peairs, of Bound 
Hill, Allegheny Co., Pa., by whom he had two sons 
and three daughters, viz., Joseph Peairs, Margaret 
Lowrey, George Croghan, Susannah Allen, and Eliz- 
abeth, the last named the only present survivor. 

Susannah married the Rev. Thomas Stevenson, an 
esteemed minister in the Presbyterian Church. She 
died leaving four children, viz. : John C. P., who on 
the invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863 went out as a 
volunteer at the age of sixteen, and soon after died 
of brain fever, superinduced by exposure on duty ; 
Anna M., William P., and Thomas C. The latter 
on the death of his mother was from infancy reared 
in the home of his grandfather. 

William P. is the father of the only great-grand- 
child. 

Elizabeth married A. F. Stevenson, a merchant in 
West Newton. Their children are John C. P., Eliza- 
beth M., Susannah M., Martha, Robert H., William 
F., Walter L., Alexander P., and Joseph E. All are 
living except Susaunah. 

Mr. Plumer's son Joseph died at the age of aeven- 
teen years, and his two remaining children in child- 
hood. His wife died October, 1827. 

His second marriage, December, 1828, was to Miss 
Maria Elliott, of Fayette County. Her parents, Col. 
William and Ruth (Crawford) Elliott, removed at an 
early day from Franklin County and settled near 
Brownsville, Pa., on land which is yet in possession 
of the Elliott family. By this marriage there were 
three children, — Elisha James Elliott, Martha, and 
Ruth Elliott. The son died in infancy. 

Martha married John P. Hornish, attorney-at-law, 
of Keokuk, Iowa, who died September, 1874. Their 
children are John P., Elliott K., Martha, Walter A., 
Samuel, George P., and Philip Francis. Samuel is 
deceased, John P. is in the practice of law, and all 
reside with their mother in Keokuk. 



6fU 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



The youngest daughter, Miss Ruth E., owns and 
resides in the old home on the river-bank in West 
Newton. 

His second wife, Maria Elliot, died in 1872, less 
than one year before her husband. Mrs. Plumer was 
a woman of strong, well-balanced mind, which she 
had stored with study of the literature of the past 
and present, but so reticent in her habit of life that 
it was only with her husband and children that she 
would freely discuss questions of the day and the 
works of her favorite authors. She was a true " help- 
meet" of her honored husband, a gentle, loving 
mother. 

One who well knew the wives of Mr. Plumer says 
of them, "They were both of the best old-fashioned 
type of Pennsylvania women, abundant in hospitali- 
ties, their home always attractive in its order, of 
deep-toned piety, and ever ready in works of charity 
and kindness." 

Mr. Plumer was a man of great industry, energy, 
and perseverance. Having by principles of economy 
accumulated a moderate capital, he settled in Robbs- 
town, now West Newton, soon after his first marriage, 
and built on Water Street his dwelling-house, which 
in later years he enlarged and improved. This house 
is the place where all the births, marriages, and deaths 
in his family have occurred. 

He bought from his brother Alexander and Wil- 
liam Clark their grist- and saw-mills, which adjoined 
his property, and about 1820 or 1-821 he removed the 
old structures and erected a new grist-mill of stone, 
which at the time was one of the largest and best in 
Western Pennsylvania, and to which in later years 
he built an expensive addition. 

His dealings in wheat aud flour were extensive for 
those days, and the demand for his quality of flour in- 
creasing he purchased of Abraham Funk his mills on 
Sewickley Creek, and to secure sufficient water-power 
for his town mill he built a dam across the Youghio- 
gheny River, which in the time of slack-water navi- 
gation he was compelled to raise, and in order to 
facilitate the passage of heavily-laden boats from 
above he procured a charter, and erected a lock on 
the west side. This was followed by much persecu- 
tion from unscrupulous men, which was met by him 
with his native firmness and readiness to do the 
right. In 1866 he sold bis mill property, and from 
that time retired from active business. 

He was active in superintending the erection of the 
" Robbstown Bridge" across the Youghioghenv. and 
was an original stockholder, which interest he re- 
tained to the close of his life. 

In 1819 he was commissioned justice of the peace 
by Governor William Findley, and discharged the 
duties of the office with more than ordinary ability, 
few of his decisions being appealed to court, and in 
no case were they reversed. " Squire Plumer" was 
the distinctive title by which he was respectfully 
known in his community. 



In 1838 he received an appointment from Presi- 
dent Van Buren to visit West Point as an in- 
spector, but, taking sick before reaching there, was 
able for but little duty. This was followed by a long 
and serious illness. He was elected to the State 
Legislature in 1830, where he was on the House Com- 
mittee on Claims, and in 1839 to the Senate, serving 
in 1840-42. 

Mr. Plumer was a hard-money Democrat, and dur- 
ing the years of struggle for bank extension and leg- 
islative control he was known as the " Old Hickory" 
of Westmoreland, which appellation had been given 
to him from his resemblance in features to his great 
political chief, Andrew Jackson. _ 

Mr. Plumer had all the depth and strength of the 
religious conviction which belonged to bis Puritan 
ancestry. He was in membership with the old Se- 
wickley Presbyterian Church from early life until 
January, 1851, when an organization was formed in 
West Newton. He was liberal in church benevo- 
lence, was zealous and active, and served as ruling 
elder from the year 1866 to the time of his death. 

He exerted a wide influence in church, political, 
and business interests, and while of positive and de- 
cided character, was respectful and courteous in dis- 
cussion. He was self-educated, a man of stern integ- 
rity, a pioneer in the free-school system of the State, 
and a friend of liberal education. 

We close this sketch of John C. Plumer, which 
might justly be more extended, with the following 
from one who knew him well: "Strong, self-reliant, 
of great courage, afraid of no man, strongly attached 
to his own opinions, yet tolerant; somewhat stern in 
manner, yet affectionate; his ear ever open to the cry 
of the widow and the fatherless; his mental powers 
of such type that had he possessed the advantages of 
to-day he would have reached high rank in law, 
statesmanship, or a military career, in his death, 
which occurred July 18, 1873, was verified the say- 
ing, " Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, 
like as a shock of corn Cometh in his season." 

He is buried in the cemetery which overlooks the 
scene of his long and useful life. 



JACOB FORDNEY KREPS. 

Jacob Fordney Kreps was born in Greencastle, 
Franklin Co., Pa., June 15, 1806. His ancestors were 
Germans, who settled in Lancaster County about the 
middle of the eighteenth century. His grandfather, 
Michael Kreps, was a hatter by tra le, and established 
himself in business in the town of Lebanon, then a 
part of Lancaster County. By industry and frugality 
! he acquired a handsome estate. He raised a family 
of three sons and two daughters, viz. : Jacob and 
William (twins), Catharine, Polly, and Michael. 
Catharine was married to the Rev. Jacob Schnee, a 
Lutheran minister, who at an early day located in 
Greensburg, and for a short period ministered to the 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



G05 



Lutheran congregation there. He afterwards united 
with Mr. Rapp's community, at Harmony, Butler 
Co., Pa., and was cashier of their bank. 

His father, Jacob Kreps, was born in Lebanon in 
the year 1772, and was brought up to the trade of ] 
his father. In 1794 he married Catherine Hetter- 
ick, daughter of Jacob and Margaret Hetterick, of j 
Pittsylvania County, Va., to which place they had 
emigrated a short time before from Dauphin County. | 
The engagement having been made he was necessi- 
tated to make a journey of more than three hundred 
miles to claim and bring back his bride. They re- 
mained in Lebanon four or five years, and settled in 
Greencastle in 1798 or 1799, where he carried on his 
business for many years, employing a number of 
hands. He made annual business excursions South 
to dispose of his surplus stock, many of his acquaint- 
ances having settled in that region. They had seven 
children, six sons and one daughter, viz. : William, | 
John, Charlotte. Michael, Jacob, Albertus, and Au- 
gustus, all now deceased except Jacob and Albertus. 
On one of these excursions the subject of this sketch 
accompanied him, and the opportunity was afforded 
him of taking a boy's view of the institution of 
slavery. His impressions formed at the time were 
decidedly unfavorable and were never changed. His 
opportunities for acquiring a common education were 
perhaps as favorable as were enjoyed in those early 
times, having been kept at school from the age of four 
to thirteen years with some intermission, during the 
last two years of which, the study of grammar and 
geography having been introduced, he acquired a 
slight knowledge of those branches. At the age of 
thirteen he was placed in a hardware-store with his 
uncle, William Kreps, Esq., at Hagerstown, Md., who 
was also postmaster. This was a great advantage to 
him, giving him a better knowledge of arithmetic and 
improving his penmanship. His chief associate in 
the post-office was his cousin, John M. Kreps, who 
became a leading minister and D.D. in the Presbyte- 
rian Church, and was successor to the celebrated Dr. | 
Mason as pastor of the Rutgers Street Church, city of 
New York, the ouly pastorate he ever held, and where 
he died in the year 1867. (The doctor changed the 
name from " Kreps" to " Krebs," believing the latter 
to be the correct orthography. ) 

Mr. Kreps remained with his uncle until the death 
of the latter, which occurred in 1822. He then re- 
turned home to learn the trade of his father. In 
those days it was considered important (at all events 
it was very common) for young men, after serving 
their apprenticeship, to travel some ("take a tramp") 
in order to see the country and to become more per- 
fect in their occupation. 

"Tramps" of that period were quite a different 
genus of men from the tramps with which the coun- 
try is so much annoyed to-day. The business of man- 
ufacturing hats (by hand) was then carried on all over 
the country, and was profitable and respectable, and 



journeymen hatters constituted a large class, traveling 
over the country and stopping to work when neces- 
sary. They were united by associations, and were ever 
ready to give assistance to their comrades when in 
need. They were "traveled men," and consequently 
intelligent. Their acquaintance was sought and they 
were introduced into the best society of the place. 
The State of Kentucky was a favorite "tramping- 
ground," for the reason that in many of her chief 
towns large shops were located, in which a number of 
men were employed, besides, the people of that State, 
perhaps more than any other, were given to fine dress, 
and of course it required the very finest " beaver" to 
complete the dress of a gentleman. At the age of 
twenty-one, with a comrade, Joseph Gilmore, he 
started on one of these " tramps," and at the end of 
the fifth day arrived at Pittsburgh, footsore and 
weary, but cheerful and happy at the prospect of the 
pleasure before them. They remained at Pittsburgh 
a few days to rest and see the sights, boarding with a 
Mrs. Beltzhoover, who lived on the southeast corner 
of the Diamond. The grand river with its splendid 
steamers and the busy city were sources of never- 
ending wonder and excitement to our inexperienced 
boys. They took passage on board the " Ben Frank- 
lin" for Cincinnati and Louisville, remaining a few 
days at each of these places. While at the latter 
place they had a new and strange experience in as- 
sisting a brother hatter in taking a flat-boat loaded 
with hats over the falls. The pilot on this occasion 
was one Boone, a descendant of the famous Daniel 
Boone. It seemed to them a dangerous undertaking, 
and the service was rendered only to accommodate 
one of their craft. Upon leaving Louisville they 
visited a number of towns in the interior, among 
which were Lexington, Frankfort, Lancaster, Har- 
rodsburg, and Bardstown. At Lancaster, Mr. Gil- 
more concluded to stop for a while, and Mr. Kreps 
continued his travels in company with Joseph Lock- 
wood, also a journeyman hatter. After losing his 
traveling companion, and being without an intimate 
friend, a few months was sufficient to satisfy him with 
such a wandering life, and he set his face homeward. 
The steamer "Kanhawa," upon which he took pass- 
age for Wheeling, collapsed her boilers at the mouth 
of Guyaunotte River, and twenty-three of the pas- 
sengers, officers, and crew were either killed or badly 
injured. The heartrending scenes upon this occasion 
made an indelible impression upon the mind of the 
young traveler. A few months after this he settled 
in Greensburg, Pa., where, in partnership with James 
Wood, he carried on his trade for a couple of years. 
Jan. 20, 1831, he married Eliza, daughter of Adam 
and Hannah Turuey. Mr. Turney came to West- 
moreland County with his father in 1785. He mar- 
ried, 1811, Hannah, daughter of Rev. J. William 
Weber, one of three brothers who emigrated from 
Holland prior to the Revolution. They settled for a 
time in New Jersey, where two of the brothers, John 



666 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



and Henry, joined the Continental army. Henry 
was killed during the war. The Rev. Weber (now 
Weaver) came to Westmoreland County at quite an 
early day, and was one of the first ministers of his 
denomination (German Reformed) who preached in 
the counties of Western Pennsylvania and ( >hio, trav- 
eling extensively, preaching to the people, and plant- 
ing churches. He finally settled upon his farm on 
Big Sewickley Creek, where Col. Painter's mill and 
salt-works are now located, and where he died in 
1817. Adam Turney carried on the copper and tin- 
smithing business tor a great many years in Greens- 
burg. He died in 1872. 

Mr. Kreps returned to Greencastle with his fam- 
ily, December, 1831, where he engaged in different 
branches of business, railroading, merchandising, etc. 
In the spring of 1845 he was appointed postmaster, 
holding the office until 1849, when he resigned and 
settled in West Newton, where he now resides. In 
the spring of 1850 he engaged in the foundry busi- 
ness, afterwards adding general merchandising, and 
was moderately successful. At the commencement of 
the Rebellion he took a deep interest in every means 
employed for its suppression. He was called to pre- 
side over the first war-meeting that was held in this 
part of the county, and was elected one of the officers 
of a company organized for home protection, under 
the command of the venerable Gen. Joseph Markle 
as captain. During the summer of 1861 he enlisted 
nineteen men to make up the quota necessary to till 
the ranks of the company commanded by Capt. A. G. 
Oliver in the Twelfth Reserves, went with them to 
Harrisburg, saw them sworn in, and accompanied 
them to their camp at Washington. He never har- 
bored a doubt of the success of the Union arms. He 
was one of the first men in the county to invest his 
money in the 5-20 bonds of the government, when so 
many were doubting and faltering. Five of his sons 
volunteered, and spent an aggregate of twelve years 
in the service. One of them, Capt. John W. Kreps, 
was wounded at Liberty < lap, in Tennessee, June, 
1863, and was discharged on account of disability. 
His brother, Lieut. F. A. M. Kreps, took command of 
the company, and with a number of officers and men 
of the Seventy-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Vol- 
unteers was captured at the battle of Chickamauga, 
and after an imprisonment of fifteen months in differ- 
ent prisons, and six escapes and five recaptures (one 
through the noted tunnel at Libby), he, with Lieut. 
E. P. Brooks, made a final and successful escape from 
Columbia, S. C. Floating in a canoe by night, and 
under the protection of the colored people during the 
day. they reached the sea-coast, and paddled several 
miles out to the gunboat " Nipsic," and were taken to 
Hilton Head, where they were clothed and sent to 
Washington. 

In 1863 Mr, Kreps was appointed a commissioner 
to visit the Pennsylvania regiments attached to 
Rosecrans' army in Tennessee, where he spent rive 



or six weeks. Three of his sons were in this branch 
of the army. In 1S64, with a number of other gen- 
tlemen, he was again appointed a commissioner to 
visit the Pennsylvania regiments in front of Rich- 
mond and Petersburg, and to supervise the Presiden- 
tial election of that year. He has always felt a deep 
interest in the improvement and welfare of his 
adopted home, and has at different times been elected 
to a place in the Borough Council and school board. 
In 1869 he was honored by an election to a seat in the 
Legislature from the Westmoreland and Indiana leg- 
islative district, and served in the session of 1870. 
Mr. and Mrs. Kreps, although partially reared in an- 
other branch of the Christian Church, have for near 
half a century been attached to the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. A license to preach as a local preacher 
is among the many positions of honor and trust to 
which Mr. Kreps has been called by his church. Ac- 
cording to their means they have been liberal con- 
tributors to the different benevolent institutions of 
the church, especially to the Freedman's Aid Society, 
in which they have always felt a deep interest. 

Their family consists of six sons and two daughters 
living, and one son and one daughter deceased, 
twenty-eight grandchildren living and six deceased. 
We give the following personnel of their descendants : 
Catherine, the eldest, wife of Dr. J. Q. Robinson, of 
West Newton ; four daughters and one son living, 
and one daughter deceased. George Rippey Kreps, 
postmaster, Greenville, Mercer Co., Pa. ; four daugh- 
ters living and one deceased. Hannah, wife of A. E. 
Dravo, Sewickley township ; three sons and one 
daughter living, and one son deceased. Capt. John 
W. Kreps, proprietor of dry-docks, Allegheny City ; 
three sons and two daughters living, and one daugh- 
ter deceased. Maj. Frank A. M. Kreps, business 
manager of Evening Mail, Allegheny City; one son 
and one daughter living, and one son deceased. 
Lieut. Adam T. Kreps, manufacturer of engines, 
saw-mills, etc., Greenville, Mercer Co., Pa.; three 
sons living. David Dempsey Kreps, manufacturer 
of lumber, and planing-mill, Greenville; two sons 
and one daughter living and one son deceased. 
Capt. William Augustus Kreps, lumber manufac- 
turer and planing-mill, Greenville ; one son and one 
daughter living. His oldest grandson, Jacob Ford- 
ney Kreps, Jr., was appointed one of the pages of 
the House by Gen. Selfridge, Clerk of the House, at 
the session of 1870, and in 1879, after a competitive 
examination, in which twenty-three participated, he 
was appointed a cadet to the United States Military 
Academy at West Point from the Twenty-third Dis- 
trict by Col. Thomas M. Bayne, M.C., and he expects 
to graduate in June, 1883. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kreps still reside at West Newton, 
where, on Jan. 20, 1881, surrounded by their numer- 
ous descendants and a large company of their friends 
and neighbors, they celebrated the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of their married life. 




J. P. CAKOTHERS. 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



667 



.(AMES P. CAROTHEES. 
James P. Carothers was born near Port Royal, 
Smith Huntingdon township, Westmoreland Co., Pa., 
Sept. IS, 1806. 

His grandfather, James Carothers, emigrated from 
Ireland, and eventually settled on a farm situated on 
the Little Sewickley Creek, Sewickley township, about 
three miles north of the present homestead. He 
served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution, in a 
company raised principally in Lancaster County, Pa. 
He was twice married. By his first wife he had six 
children, viz.: John, James, Samuel, Martha, Jane, 
and Elizabeth. John and Samuel were twins. James 
was twice married. By his first wife he had two 
daughters; by his second, Elizabeth McClure, one 
son, John Carothers, a farmer, living in South Hun- 
tingdon. Samuel married Ruth Elliott, by whom he 
had two sons and five daughters. He carried on the 
old homestead farm in Sewickley, and both he and 
his wife died there. Martha, wife of James Kirker, 
a merchant in North Huntingdon township. Dr. 
William Kirker is their only son. Jane, wife of John 
Richey, a farmer and coppersmith, moved from South 
Huntingdon, and settled in Wayne County, Ohio, 
where they died, leaving a large family. Elizabeth, 
wife of Charles Hunter, a merchant in Port Royal, no 
children. Both died there. John Carothers, one of 
the twins above named, and father of James P., was 
born in Sewickley township, Westmoreland County, 
in the year 1789. He was a convert under the preach- 
ing of Rev. Dr. Power, whose daughter Isabella he 
afterwards married. He was a man distinguished for 
his kindness and charity, and his house was the home 
of the Christian minister ; his hospitality was shared 
alike by the poor and the rich. In 1808 he moved 
from a farm near Port Royal, and settled on the farm 
which has since been the homestead of the family, 
situated near Millgrove, on the Greensburg road. It 
consists of one hundred and eighty-one and a quarter 
acres, and was a portion of a tract deeded by patent 
to John Barr and James Wilson, described in the 
original patent as a certain tract of land called 
" Bachelor's Hall." At the time of his settlement on 
the place only a log house had been erected and a 
small clearing made in the forest. 

He was by trade a coppersmith, and while he 
cleared and worked his farm by day, he worked at 
his trade at night. He had remarkable health and 
vigor until within a few months of his death, which 
occurred at the homestead Dec. 2, 1858. His wife 
died many years before. Both are buried in the Se- 
wickley Church burying-ground. 

The children of John and Isabella Carothers were 
as follows: James P., Mary, Catharine, and William | 
Swan. Mary moved to Illinois with her sister Cath- 
arine, and died near Rockford, in that State. Cath- 
arine was married to the Rev. Joseph B. McKee, a [ 
Presbyterian clergyman, and pastor for several years I 
in the West Newton and Sewickley Churches, and '■ 



afterwards at Harmony and Indian Creek. He had 
made preparation to move to Illinois with his family, 
but was taken sick at West Newtou and died there. 
Eventually Mrs. McKee moved to Illinois, and sub- 
sequently to the State of Minnesota. She has three 
children, and at the present time she is living with 
her son John. William Swan was educated at Jef- 
ferson College, moved to Illinois, married, and died 
there. 

James P. Carothers was two years old when his 
father moved on to the farm which has ever since 
been held in the family. Upon the death of his 
lather he came into its possession by will after pay- 
ing certain specified amounts to his brothers and 
sisters. As a farmer he was thorough and painstak- 
ing. Pie made many improvements to the residence 
and farm buildings. In politics he was Republican. 
For many years he was a member of the Sewickley 
Presbyterian Church, and was three times elected to 
the office of ruling elder. He married, May 4, 1843, 
Jane K., daughter of Robert and Mary I Kerr) Moore. 

Mrs. Carothers was born in Nottingham township. 
Washington County, Pa., Oct. 11, 1824. On the father's 
side she comes from one of the oldest families of Ros- 
traver township. Her mother was a granddaughter of 
the Rev. James Power, D.D., the second clergyman 
upon the frontier in Western Pennsylvania, and the 
founder of the old Sewickley Church. Mr. and Mrs. 
Carothers' children are as follows : John O. born 
April 14, 1845 ; Mary F., born June 6, 1848 ; Isabella, 
born Oct. 18, 1851. By will of his father, which pro- 
vided for the payment to his mother and sisters of 
certain amounts of money, John C. Carothers became 
the owner of the homestead farm, and carries it on. 
The family at the homestead consists of himself, 
mother, and sister Mary F. Isabella is wife of Shep- 
ard B. Markle, Jr., living at the old Markle home- 
stead at Millgrove. There were eleven children in 
the family of Robert and Mary Moore, viz.: David, 
Eliza, Louisa, Obadiah, Ard, Robert, Maria, Jane K., 
James, Frances, and John Power. Obadiah died at 
the age of two, and John Power at the age of twenty. 
All the rest were married and, except Frances, raised 
families, and all are deceased except Mrs. Carothers 
and Louisa, widow of Robert McCullongh, who lives 
in Jackson County, 111. Mr. Moore was an elder in 
Pigeon Creek Church over forty years. 

The following extract from an obituary notice will 
give something of the estimate in which he was held : 
" In his death the church lost an efficient member, 
his family an affectionate husband and father, and 
the community a useful citizen." He died June 8, 
1850; his wife Oct. 19, 1838. James P. Carothers 
died Feb. 5, 1S79. We cannot better close this sketch 
of him than to quote the following from an obituary 
notice of him written by the Rev. J. C. Maloy, pub- 
lished in the Presbyterian Banner: "A conscientious 
upright citizen of more than ordinary intelligence, a 
man of liberal views in all matters pertaining to the 



668 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



public good, kind aud tender towards any who were 
in trouble, for integrity of purpose, sound morals, 
and consistent Christian conduct no man stood higher 
in the community. In his death the church lost a 
liberal supporter, and the county one of its best citi- 
zens. He was greatly afflicted the last four years of 
his life. His illness commenced with gangrene in 
his foot, which defied the skill of his physician, and 
little by little brought him to the grave. He died as 
he lived, in full faith in Christ as his Saviour, and in 
full hope of a blessed immortality." 



JACOB BAUGHMAN. 

Jacob Baughman was born in Armstrong County, 
Pa., March 14, 1802. His grandfather, Henry Baugh- 
man, and grandmother, Catharine Conkle, emigrated 
from Germany with their parents, the former when 
four years, the latter when two years old, and settled 
in the " Blue Ridge" region of Pennsylvania, thirty 
miles from Lancaster City. Here they were married 
and raised a family of eight children, four sons and 
four daughters. They moved from the Blue Ridge, 
and settled in the eastern part of North Huntingdon 
township, seven and a half miles from Greensburg, 
where he purchased six hundred acres of land at 
twenty shillings per acre. Their children were Mar- 
garet, John, Adam, Barbara, Catharine, Sarah, Peter, 
and Henry. Henry was killed by the falling of a 
tree at the age of twenty-two. All the rest were mar- 
ried and, except Peter and Margaret, raised families. 

Adam Baughman, his third child, and father of 
Jacob, married Magdalene, daughter of Peter Roof 
(or Rugh). She was born near Greensburg in 1770; 
her grandparents emigrated from Germany. Her 
uncle, Jacob Roof, represented his district in the 
Legislature for a number of years. There were four- 
teen children in her father's family, six sons and 
eight daughters, to each of whom he either gave a 
home or money to procure one. Six of them settled 
in Kentucky ; all the rest remained in Westmoreland 
County. 

After his marriage Adam Baughman settled on a 
farm in Armstrong County, about seventy miles up 
the Allegheny River, and here four children, viz.: 
Catharine, Michael, Polly, and Jacob, were born. 
Upon the death of his brother Henry, to whom in the 
division of their father's estate the homestead had 
fallen, he sold his place in Armstrong County and 
returned to Westmoreland, and became the owner of 
and occupied the homestead until his death. Here 
the following children were born, viz. : Elizabeth, 
Margaret, Peter, Anna, Henry, Christian, and Lydia. 
Henry died at the age of eleven. All the rest were 
married and raised families, and, with the exception 
of Polly and Christian, settled in Westmoreland 
County, and all are deceased (1882) except Jacob, 
Christian, Anna, and Polly. Catharine was wife of 
George Krok, one child ; Michael was twice married, 



and raised a family of fourteen children; Polly mar- 
ried Joseph Klingensmith, one son ; Elizabeth, wife 
of Joseph Lenhart, two sons and six daughters; Mar- 
garet, wife of George Croushore, six sons and four 
daughters ; Peter married Elizabeth Lenhart, three 
sons and nine daughters ; Anna, wife of John Berlin, 
six sons and three daughters; Christian married Sarah 
Diel, one son and six daughters ; Lydia, wife of 
Samuel Alshouse, four sons and six daughters. Adam 
Baughman died at the homestead in 1841, aged sixty- 
eight; his wife in 1831, aged fifty-two. 

Jacob Baughman was an infant when his father 
moved from Armstrong County to the homestead. 
Here he lived until he was twenty-two years of age. 
He received the education afforded by winter attend- 
ance at the common school. He married Aug. 5, 
1824, Margaret, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth 
(Turney) Cort. 

Mrs. Baughman was born in Hempfield township, 
Westmoreland County, July 24, 1804, the eldest in a 
family of fourteen children, all but one of whom 
were married, aud settled in Pennsylvania, Colorado, 
and Iowa. 

In April, 1825, Mr. Baughman moved on to a farm 
belonging to his father in North Huntingdon town- 
ship, five miles from West Newton, which he carried 
on for three years. During this time he accumulated 
a capital of $800, with which in the spring of 1828 
he came to West Newton, where he purchased of John 
Richie an acre of ground, upon which a tannery and 
log house had been erected, for which he stipulated 
to pay $1200, half down and half upon credit, leaving 
him $200 working capital. He built a slaughter- 
house upon the place, and for seven years carried on 
there the business of tanning and butchering. At 
the end of that time he purchased 85 acres lying 
north of the village, for which he paid $4000, and in 
1836 he added 76.1 acres at .$5000, lying on the south 
and east side of the village, purchased of John Nic- 
colls, Jr., and in the spring of 1837 moved on to the 
latter property. The house, still a substantial farm 
residence, was built in 1776 by Joseph Van Kirk. 
Here he resided until 1879. He built upon the place 
a new tannery and slaughter-house. 

In 1837 he purchased in West Newton a store, which 
he carried on for three years, and subsequently, from 
1858 to 1865, was interested in a store with Daniel 
Swaim. He owned and ran a grist- and saw-mill, to- 
gether with salt-works at the mouth of the Big Se- 
wickley, which he sold to Alexander Plumer in 1845. 
The same year he purchased the grist- and saw-mills 
now known as the Apple Mills, on the Big Sewickley, 
which he operated twenty years, selling them to Mr. 
Apple in 1865. His dealings for years in grain, flour, 
cattle, and hogs were very large for the locality, his 
sales in flour alone often amounting to seven and 
eight hundred barrels per day, while he kept not only 
his own but many of the neighboring mills employed 
in grinding his wheat. Though he operated at dif- 




i« C.J ' 



cLi^/Ur^M^i; 



SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



669 



ferent times in any commodity out of which he might 
realize a profit, he held well on to his original busi- 
ness of farming, tanning, and butchering as sheet- 
anchors, which from first to last under his vigorous 
management yielded him sure and ample returns. 
His dealings in real estate, besides the purchases al- 
ready mentioned, have been quite extensive in the 
vicinity of West Newton and in the State of Iowa, 
in all amounting to several thousand acres, enough, 
indeed, to give all his children a farm and still have 
enough left to occupy the time of his old age, either 
for farming or disposing of in village lots. 

From the first Mr. Baughman took an active inter- 
est in every effort to make West Newton accessible to 
the markets. To this end he took stock in the West 
Newton and Somerset plank-road, in the Youghio- 
gheny Slack-Water Navigation Company, in the 
steamers "Shriver" and " West Newton," plying be- 
tween West Newton and Pittsburgh, and in the Pitts- 
burgh and Connellsville Railroad, enterprises which 
benefited the town, but which yielded to their pos- 
sessor no dividends. 

He was on the building committee with Alexander 
and John C. Plumer, Henry Fulton, William Linn, 
and Judge Bell in the construction of the West New- 
ton bridge, and when Jacob Mace, its builder, was 
likely to fail of completing his contract on account 
of the difficulty of collecting subscriptions, Mr. 
Baughman came to his rescue by timely raising the 
necessary funds. 

Like many others, Mr. Baughman "took a hand" 
in oil operations, which only resulted in the loss of 
many thousands invested. 

In politics he is a stanch Republican, but has 
never desired or sought office. 

For many years he was a member of the Lutheran, 
and his wife of the German Reformed Churches, but 
for the last twenty-five years they have been members 
of the Presbyterian Church at West Newton. 

Their children are as follows: 

Lavina, born Aug. 28, 1825, married John Parson, 
a farmer living in Cass County, Iowa. Two children, 
Simon and Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth, born Nov. 3, 1826, wife of George Welty, 
farmer, living at Pleasant Unity, Pa. Nine children, 
Jacob, Louise, John, Sherman, Susanna, Rose, Cort, 
Samuel, and Clara. John and Susanna are deceased. 

William, born June 19, 1828, a farmer in Cass 
County, Iowa, and a member of the State Legislature, 
married Barbara Schwartz. Children, Henry, Jacob, 
Cyrus, John, Emma, Addie, Samuel, Mary, Clara, 
and Albert. 

Adam, born Feb. 16, 1830, living in California. 

Harriet, born Jan. 27, 1832, wife of George Greer. 
Both deceased. 

Sarah Ann, born March 7, 1834, wife of William 
Fritchman. Two children, Edith and Elizabeth. 

Cyrus, born Feb. 21, 1836, married Martha Ann 
Clark, living in Cass County, Iowa. Children, Henry, 
43 



Margaret (deceased), Joseph, Lewis, Lavina, Eliza- 
beth, William, and an infant. 

Martha, born March 2, 1838, wife of William Hay- 
worth, living in Iowa. 

Henry Harrison, born May 25, 1840, enlisted as 
private in Company E, One Hundred and Fifth Reg- 
iment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, wounded at 
the battle of Yorktown, from the effect of which he 
died April 19, 1868. 

Samuel, born Sept. 15, 1842, enlisted as private in 
Company E, Thirteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania 
Cavalry Volunteers, March 10, 1862, promoted to ser- 
geant, and honorably discharged March 10, 1865, at 
Wilmington, N. C. Now a merchant in West Newton, 
of the firm of Baker & Co. Married Margaret Baker. 

Joseph, born May 24, 1844, married Sarah Simrall. 
Both deceased. Children, Frank, Charles, and Eben- 
ezer. 

Lucian, born June 2, 1846, married Jane Gracely. 
Children, Margaret, George, Alvin, Martha, Annie, 
Wesley, and Ira. Living in Pottawattomie County, 
Iowa. 

Ebenezer, born March 21, 1848, married Amanda 
Smith. Children, Minnie (deceased), Grace, Edward, 
Mary, James (deceased). A farmer owning and liv- 
ing on the old Niccolls farm. 

In 1879 Mr. Baughman purchased in West Newton, 
on Vine Street, the property of Philip Nett, where 
he has since resided. The family consists of himself 
and wife, and his son Samuel and wife, and grandson 
Frank. As will be seen from this account, the Scrip- 
tural injunction " to multiply and replenish the 
earth" has been literally fulfilled in the Baughman 
family. A patriarch indeed is he who may number 
at a family reunion ten children, forty-one grand, and 
fifteen great-grandchildren. 

The declining years of Mr. and Mrs. Baughman are 
indeed blessed with the conscious enjoyment of the 
love and filial regard of this large family circle, and 
the best esteem of the entire community in which 
they have lived for more than half a century. 



DR. LEWIS SUTTON. 
Dr. Lewis Sutton was born in Rostraver township, 
Westmoreland County, Pa., April 15, 1820. His father 
relinquishing his trade purchased a farm in Eliza- 
beth township, Allegheny County, Pa. In the year 
1824 moved thereon with his family ; at a very early 
age was placed at labor in assisting his father on the 
farm. While thus engaged his primary education 
was not neglected, his father securing for him one or 
two terms annually at common school, at which he 
obtained a good English education. At or about the 
age of eighteen, desirous of furthering his education, 
obtained the consent of his father, was placed in a 
select school (Peter Hayden being the teacher), where 
he commenced studying the languages. He remained 
with him one year as a pupil, then was placed at a 



670 



HISTORY OP WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



select school in Elizabeth, Allegheny Co., Pa. (Rev. 
McKinstry being principal), he remaining about one 
year under his instruction, at the close of which time, 
being desirous of a more advanced education, became 
a student at Washington College, Washington County, 
Pa. ; continued his studies at this college for about 
two years. At the close of that period, being eager 
to study a profession, selected medicine as his choice. 
In the year 1845 entered the office of Dr. John Has- 
son, now deceased, in West Newton, Pa., as medical 
student, there remaining until the month of Febru- 
ary, 1846. Through the advice of his preceptor, went 
to Philadelphia, Pa., in view of facilitating his studies 
in medicine, where he spent about two months in at- 
tending anatomical lectures, dissecting, and clinics in 
Pennsylvania Hospital, at the close of which re- 
turned to the office of Dr. John Hasson, remaining 
under his instruction during the summer months. In 
the fall of this year returned to the city ; entered the 
office of Dr. A. B. Campbell (now deceased) as a stu- 
dent ; spent much of his time in the doctor's private 
dissecting-room, in the way of dissecting and securing 
anatomical knowledge; at the same time matricu- 
lated at the Jefferson Medical College, attending the 
medical lectures delivered therein. During the ses- 
sion of 1846 and 1847 entered the Philadelphia Hospi- 
tal for daily medical instruction and bedside experi- 
ence, remaining at this hospital for one year. After 
the close of the session at the Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege matriculated for the summer term of 1847 at the 
Philadelphia Medical Association, at the same time 
continuing his daily visits at the hospital. In the 
fall of this year matriculated again at the Jefferson 
Medical College for the session of 1847 and 1848, at- 
tending the lectures therein during this term. At the 
close of this session the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
was conferred upon him. 

In the month of March, 1848, after receiving his 
diploma, returned to his father's in Allegheny County, 
Fa., remaining there a few months, but spent a 
greater part of his time in traveling. On the 22d of 
February, 1849, selected Mendon and vicinity as his 
place of practicing his profession. In due time he 
built up a large and extensive practice, which he held 
without interruption till the fall of 1877, when he 
found his labor and close confinement to business re- 
quired a rest and relinquishment for a time. He there- 
fore withdrew from business in his old vicinity, went 
to Philadelphia, Pa., visited his old alma mater, Jef- 
ferson Medical College, became a regular attendant 
upon the course of lectures delivered therein, also 
attending the clinics delivered at the most important 
hospitals in the city. Returning in the month of 
April, 1878, he resumed practice at his former place. 

Finding much benefit derived from this course in the 
way of improving his health as well as medical knowl- 
edge, he returned to Philadelphia in the fall of 1878, 
which he has continued to do for the past five winters 
regularly, spending his time there in attending lectures 



and clinics, and in taking special courses in the science 
of medicine, such as on the eye, under Dr. Little, 
chief in ophthalmology in the Jefferson Medical 
Hospital ; heart and lungs, Dr. Bingham, chief in the 
medical department in the hospital ; ear and throat, 
Dr. Trumbull, also chief in the same hospital ; on 
dermatology, Dr. John V. Shoomaker, principal in 
the American Hospital for Skin Diseases. For the 
past ten years has always kept a young physician 
with him, in the way of aiding him in acute diseases; 
has for the past five years relinquished much of the 
general practice, attention to chronic diseases occu- 
pying much of his time in office practice. 

John Sutton, the father of Lewis Sutton, was born 
in New Jersey, Dec. 1, 1782; died Aug. 29, 1856; 
was the oldest son of Jonathan and Hannah Sutton ; 
was raised and educated there; learned the carpenter 
and cabinet-making trades. Came to Westmoreland 
County, Pa., the year 1812 ; located at Budd's Ferry, 
where he worked at his trades. Was married to Amy 
Budd, Sept. 21, 1813, who was the oldest daughter of 
Col. Joseph Budd, deceased. After moving, located at 
the Deep Cut (Rostraver township, Westmoreland 
County, Pa.), where he continued to labor at his trades. 
Had five children, three sons and two daughters. 
About the year 1824 purchased a farm in Elizabeth, 
township, Allegheny County, Pa., where he moved 
during the same year, at the same time quitting his 
trades, devoting his whole time to farming and stock- 
raising. By industry and economy accumulated 
wealth, investing in lands, and at his death possessed 
several hundred acres of land and a considerable 
amount of money. 

Amy Sutton, the mother of Lewis Sutton, was born 
at Budd's Ferry, Rostraver township, Westmoreland 
County, Pa., Dec. 2, 1783 ; was the oldest daughter of 
Col. Joseph and Susannah Budd ; was married to 
John Sutton, Sept. 21, 1813 ; died Nov. 13, 1871. 

Grandfather Joseph Budd died March 16, 1826, 
aged seventy-four years and twenty-one days. Grand- 
mother Susannah Budd died Feb. 19, 1849, in the 
eighty-sixth year of her age. 

Children of John and Amy Sutton : Joseph, born 
July 27, 1814; was married to Sabina Shields, Jan. 
1, 1846. Had eight children, five sons and three 
daughters. Joseph Sutton died Oct. 22, 1865; Sa- 
bina Sutton, his wife, died July 24, 1873. 

Jonathan, born March 3, 1816 ; died July 27, 1817. 

Susannah, born Oct. 9, 1817; was married twice; 
first husband, Walter Wall, who died; second hus- 
band, Robert Scott; had three children, a daughter 
by first husband, and a son and daughter by the last. 
Susannah Scott died Dec. 7, 1881. 

Lewis was born April 15, 1820 ; married Mary M. 
Buttmore, April 6, 1853. 

Mrs. Sutton was born in Hemprield township, West- 
moreland County, Pa., Dec. 15, 1830. 

Hannah, born Feb. 18, 1822, was married to Bris- 
ben Wall ; has a family of four sons. 




35 






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63 



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SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



671 



Children of Jonathan and Hannah Sutton : John, 
born Dec. 1, 1782; Nathan, born Jan. 7, 1784; Elsea, 
born May 5, 1786; Susannah, born Oct. 6, 1788; 
Lewis, born March 31, 1793 ; Zachariah, born July 
12, 1795 ; Manoah, born Sept. 15, 1797 ; Charity, born 
Aug. 1, 1800; Lewis, died April 27, 1882. 



SAMUEL B. WEIMER, 

Samuel B. Weimer was born in Donegal township, 
Westmoreland County, Pa., Jan. 27, 1816, the only 
child of David and Mary (Bossart) Weimer. His grand- 
father, John De Watt Weimer, emigrated from Ger- 
many, and eventually settled in Westmoreland 
County, Pa. David Weimer, his son, settled on a farm 
in Donegal township, and about nine miles from the 
old homestead. He married Mary Bossart, widow of 
Jacob Keifer. Both were members of the United 
Brethren Church. They lived all their married life 
on the place above named ; both died and are buried 
there. They were devoted Christian people, and 
commanded the respect of all who knew them. He 
died July 2, 1842, aged seventy-six years, two months, 
and five days. His wife died Feb. 6, 1849, aged sev- 
enty-nine years, one month, and twenty-seven days. 

Samuel B. Weimer lived at home until he was sev- 
enteen years of age. In 1833 he came to West New- 
ton, where he learned the trade of a hatter of David 
Weimer, a cousin. After learning his trade he con- 
tinued to work as a journeyman with his cousin until 
1839. He then went to Monongahela City, where he 
carried on his trade eight months. He then returned 
to West Newton, and after clerking a few months for 
Jacob Baughman, in company with Daniel Swem 
he purchased the store, and under the firm of Swem 
& Weimer carried it on until 1853, when he sold his 
interest to his partner. Their purchase of Mr. Baugh- 
man invoiced $7700 and was mostly upon credit. At 
the time of the dissolution of the partnership, thir- 
teen years after their purchase, they had paid oft' this 
indebtedness and had a good working capital left, 
and it is but just to say that this marked success was 
due very largely to the splendid business management 
of Mr. Weimer. Their store was situated where the 
Presbyterian Church now stands. 

For the next two years Mr. Weimer was manager 
of the business at the warehouses connected with the 
Youghiogheny Navigation Company, a most respon- 
sible position at that time. Upon the completion of 
the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad from West 
Newton to Connellsville, in 1855, he became the agent 
of the road at West Newton, which position he held 
for nineteen years, until 1874, from which time he 
retired from active business. In politics he was first 
a Whig, then a Republican. In his earlier years he 
took an active part in local politics, and was often 
called to fill local offices. He was member of the 
school board, judge of elections, and justice of the 



peace, in the latter office over sixteen years; took an 
interest in all public improvements; was a stock- 
holder in the Robbstown and Mount Pleasant pike, 
in the Youghiogheny Navigation Company, and in 
the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. 

He was a member of the United Presbyterian 
Church of West Newton from 1851, was for years 
an elder, and for eighteen years the superintendent of 
its Sabbath-school. He was indeed a pillar of the 
church during his entire membership in it. The 
poor never made their appeal to him in vain. His 
advice was much sought after, and he was often called 
to fill the position of executor of estates and guard- 
ian of children. He was pre-eminently a home man. 
Out of business hours, any one would always know 
where to find Mr. Weimer. He was a devoted hus- 
band, a kind and wisely indulgent father. In his 
death, which resulted from a combination of diseases 
ending in paralysis, bis family and the community 
met an irreparable loss. He died at his residence in 
West Newton, Sept. 3, 1881. His last words were, 
" My hopes are bright." 

His widow, Catharine Lucetta Weimer, whom he 
married March 17, 1842, was the daughter of Thomas 
and Esther (Trout) Hanna, and was born in South 
Huntingdon township, Westmoreland County, Nov. 
17, 1824. Her family were among the first settlers of 
that township. Her great-grandfather, John Miller, 
was its first justice of the peace. Her brother, Henry 
T. Hanna, is now living at the old homestead, the 
fourth generation in the family occupying it. Mrs. 
Weimer has been a member of the United Presbyte- 
rian Church since 1847, first in Sewickley, and of the 
church at West Newton from the time of its organi- 
zation. 

Their children are as follows : Mary Elizabeth, 
born Dec. 7, 1842, died Jan. 1, 1843 ; Thomas Hanna, 
born Jan. 27, 1844, died Feb. 8, 1857 ; Samuel Clar- 
ence, born Sept. 10, 1846 ; Hester Lucetta, born Dec. 
2, 1848, married to George G. Richie, Oct. 29, 1867, 
died Feb. 16, 1872 ; and an infant son, born April 17, 
1855. 

Samuel Clarence Weimer, his only surviving child, 
commenced merchandising in West Newton, in com- 
pany with his brother-in-law, George G. Richie, firm 
" Richie & Weimer," Jan. 1, 1872. Aug. 1, 1876, he 
purchased the interest of his partner, since which 
time he has carried on the business in his own name, 
and has done the leading trade in West Newton. 

The store building (a representation of which ap- 
pears on another page of this work) is by far the 
most complete establishment in the region, and is a 
model in every respect. " A place for everything, 
and everything in its place," is the motto literally 
realized. It embraces 10,190 feet of floor-room. Its 
clerks and other employes number twenty-two. Iii 
the conduct of this large establishment the lessons of 
order and thorough business management taught by 
the father have not been lost upon the son. 



ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. 



Allegheny Township was organized in 1796, 
and received its name from the river that forms its 
northwest boundary. Its first officers were : Super- 
visors, Ezekiel Matthews and John Leslie; constable, 
Thomas Reed. Its surface is diversified. The north- 
ern part of it abounds in coal, but the major portion 
of the township is utilized for agricultural purposes, 
to which it is specially adapted. The soil is fertile 
and susceptible of the highest cultivation. The 
farms are well kept, and the residences substan- 
tial, which evince a large degree of prosperity. In 
the northeastern part, near the post-village of Lu- 
cesco, is the confluence of the Kiskiminetas and 
Allegheny Rivers, also the junction of the Alle- 
gheny Valley and Western Pennsylvania Railroads. 
The former runs along the northwestern and the 
latter along the eastern boundaries of the township, 
affording a rare convenience, both for travel and 
transportation, to its inhabitants. Another village 
and post-office is Shearer's Cross-Roads. 

EARLY SETTLERS. 
Among the old settlers were the Stewart family, in 
1790 j the Leeehburgs, in 1791 ; Watts (William and 
John), in 1801; the Dimmits, Zimmermans, Hills, 
Cochrans, Hawks, before 1800 ; Bakers, Butlers, Al- 
ters, Wilsons, Lauffers, Longs, Trouts, Jacksons, 
McClellands, Garreys, Dodds, McKees, Copelands, 
Lynches, Armstrongs, McGossers, Ashbaughs, Town- 
sends, Faulks, Steeles, John Garrett, 1828; Joseph 
McElroy, in 1820; John Stewart, in 1833; J. H. 
Crane, in 1849 ; Judge Carpenter, McGearys. Wil- 
liam Watt was born near Chambersburg in 1781, and 
died March 5, 1855. 

PIONEER REMINISCENCES. 

The following accounts of depredations committed 
on the early settlers of Allegheny township by the 
Indians — murders, captures, battles, etc. — are full of 
interest: 

Massy Harbison was born in Ham well township, 
Somerset County, N. J., March 18, 1770, and was the 
daughter of Edward White, a soldier of the Revolu- 
tion, who served for three years, in which time he 
was in every battle but that of Long Island. He 
heard the roaring of the cannon and the din of war 
at the battles of Trenton, Monmouth, and Brandy- 
wine. After the establishment of peace her father 
and family moved from New Jersey to Redstone Fort 
672 



(now Brownsville), on the Monongahela River. This 
was in 1783, and in 1787, at that place, she married 
John Harbison. In 1789 she and her husband moved 
to Allegheny township and settled on the head-waters 
of Chartiers Creek, being among the very first to lo- 
cate in this region. In 1789 and 1790 the inhabitants 
on the banks of the Allegheny River and in this 
township enjoyed repose and cleared up much land 
and built several cabins, but in March, 1791, the In- 
dian war broke out. The first act of Indian aggres- 
sion and cruelty was the attack of the savages upon 
the house of Thomas Dick, living below the mouth 
of Deer Creek, March 18, 1791. Mr. Dick and his 
wife were made prisoners, and a young man living in 
the house with them was killed and scalped, and a 
considerable number of horses stolen. Mr. Dick and 
and wife were kept prisoners until Gen. Wayne's 
victory, in the fall of 1794. On the night of March 
2d seven Indians came to the house of Abraham Buss, 
living two miles below the mouth of Bull Creek, and 
twenty-three from Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny River, 
in a friendly manner, leaving their rifles at the door (a 
well-known token of Indian friendship), and solicited 
their supper. Their request was complied with and 
supper procured for them, and they sat down and 
supped. When they had finished their meal one of 
the savages went and placed himself against the 
door to prevent any of the family from escaping, while 
the rest, with their tomahawks, murdered and scalped 
four men, old Mrs. Russ (the mother of Mr. Russ), 
and six children, then plundered what they pleased 
from the house, bore away their plunder, setting fire 
to the house and burning the dead bodies with the 
buildings. Mrs. Dary, daughter of old Mrs. Russ, 
witnessed an Indian's taking her own child, eighteen 
months old, and knocking its brains out against the 
head of her mother, by which means her mother was 
also killed. She, however, made her escape in pull- 
ing open the clapboard-door, with three of her daugh- 
ters. Agnes Clerk escaped with two children, as did 
also Catharine Cutwright, who lost her husband and 
son, murdered in her sight. John Dary, a lad of 
thirteen years and son of Jacob Dary, the proprietor 
of the house, but who was absent from home, when 
he saw the Indians at supper, suspected from their 
manner that all was not right, and he privately es- 
caped from the house and hid himself in a hollow 
tree, where he remained until the next morning, 
when he removed to a hole in some rocks on Little 



ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. 



b'73 



Bull Creek. Here he remained until the third day, 
when he was frightened from his retreat by the ap- 
pearance of a wolf. Jacob, a younger brother of six 
years of age, escaped from the house during the 
bloody conflict and hid himself under a log and cov- 
ered himself with leaves. While he was thus se- 
creted the Indians repeatedly came upon the log with 
fire in their hands in quest of those who had escaped. 
The women and children who had escaped hastened 
to the river, when they called so as to be heard a 
mile and a half, and Levi Johnson, Mrs. Russ' son- 
in-law, ventured at the hazard of his life to cross the 
river in a canoe for them, by which means seventeen 
persons were preserved from the savages. The night 
was very frosty and severe, and those who had thus 
crossed the river had to run nine miles, many of 
them nearly naked, without shoes to their feet, and 
through the woods for a place of shelter. By eleven 
o'clock that night, William Critchlow and Samuel 
Orr carried the news of these heart-sickening events 
to Mrs. Mary Harbison, and to the other eight fami- 
lies within a mile of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas 
Rivers. Mrs. Harbison then mounted on a horse, 
with one child in her arms and another about four 
years old tied on behind her. Although within two 
months of confinement she thus traveled seven miles 
to James Paul's, on Pine Run, where she with her 
escort and children arrived about daybreak. By the 
time the sun rose there was between seventy and 
eighty women and children collected at this retreat. 
All the men, four excepted, had left them to pursue 
the Indians. The pursuers first went to the place 
where the awful massacre had taken place ; there 
they found the smell which proceeded from the burn- 
ing of the dead bodies to be so awfully offensive that 
they were scarcely able to endure it. From thence 
they went a mile below the Kiskiminetas, on the Alle- 
gheny, and erected a block-house called " Reed's Sta- 
tion," where in two weeks all the families who had 
fled from Allegheny township returned and remained 
during the summer. John Harbison then enlisted 
for six months, in a corps raised by Capt. Guthrie, 
and proceeded to the Miami villages, under the com- 
mand of Gen. St. Clair, and was in the fatal engage- 
ment in which the Indians so completely out-gen- 
eraled and defeated St. Clair, where he was wounded, 
on Nov. 6, 1791. The Indians attacked David Mc- 
Kee and another young man at a fish-basket on the 
river seven miles from the station, and most brutally 
massacred them. This was the last Indian barbarity 
perpetrated on the banks of the Allegheny that 
season. 

On the return of John Harbison from St. Clair's 
expedition, and on his recovery from his wounds, he 
was made a spy and ordered to the woods on duty, 
March 22, 1792. The appointment of spies to watch 
the movements of Indians was so consonant with the 
desires and interests of the inhabitants that the fron- 
tiers along this township now resumed the appearance 



of quiet and confidence. Those who had been for 
nearly a year huddled in Reed's Station block-house 
were scattered to their own habitations, and began 
the cultivation of their farms. The house of John 
Harbison was a favorite place for the spies to rendez- 
vous. On May 15th Capt. Guthrie, John Harbison, 
and other spies came to this house to get supper, and 
Mrs. Harbison, accompanied by a guard (William 
Maxwell), went to the spring for water. While there 
they heard a sound, like the bleating of a lamb or 
fawn, which alarmed them, and they hastily retreated 
to the house. Whether it was a decoy, or a warning 
of future trouble, they were unable to determine. On 
the night of May 21st two of the spies, James Davis 
and Mr. Sutton, came to lodge at the Harbison 
house, and the next morning at daybreak, when the 
horn blew at the block-house, within sight and dis- 
tant about two hundred yards, the two men got up 
and went out. Mrs. Harbison was awake and saw the 
door open, and thought the men had left it open. 
She intended to rise immediately, but having a child 
at the breast, and it being awakened, she lay with it 
at the breast to get it to sleep again, and accidentally 
fell asleep herself. The first thing Mrs. Harbison 
knew from falling asleep was the Indians pulling her 
out of the bed by the feet, when she looked up and 
saw the house full of savages, every one having his 
gun in his left hand and tomahawk in his right. Be- 
holding the dangerous situation in which she was, 
she immediately jumped to the floor on her feet, with 
the young child in her arms, then took a petticoat to 
put on, having only the one on in which she slept; 
but the Indians took it from her, and as many times 
as she attempted to put it on they succeeded in taking 
it from her, so she had to go just as she had been in 
bed. While she was struggling with the Indians for 
clothing, others of them went and took the two oldest 
children out of another bed, and took the two feather- 
beds to the door and emptied them. They then be- 
gan to destroy all they were unable to carry away, 
and while at this work Mrs. Harbison made for the 
door, and succeeded in getting out with one child in 
her arms and another by her side; but the other little 
boy was so much displeased by being so early dis- 
turbed in the morning that he would not come to the 
door. When she got out she saw Mr. Wolf, one of 
the soldiers, going to the spring for water, and be- 
held three of the Indians attempting to get between 
him and the block-house, Mr. Wolf being uncon- 
scious of his danger, for the savages had not yet been 
discovered. She then gave a terrific scream, by which 
means Mr. Wolf discovered his danger and started to 
run to the block-house, when seven or eight Indians 
fired at him, but the only injury he received was a 
bullet in his arm, which broke it, and he succeeded 
in making his escape to the block-house. 

When Mrs. Harbison gave the alarm one of the 
Indians came up to her with his tomahawk as though 
about to take her life ; a second came and placed his 



674 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



hand before her mouth and told her to hush, when a 
third came with a lifted tomahawk and attempted to 
give her a blow, but the first that came raised his 
tomahawk and averted the blow, and claimed her as 
his squaw. The commissary with his waiter slept in 
the store-house near the block-house, and upon hear- 
ing the report of the guns came to the door to see 
what was the matter, and seeing the danger he was 
in made his escape to the block-house, but not with- 
out being discovered by the Indians, several of whom 
fired at him, and one of the bullets went through his 
handkerchief, which was tied about his head, and 
took off some of his hair. The waiter on coming to 
the door was met by the Indians, who fired upon him, 
and he received two bullets through his body and fell 
dead by the door. The Indians then set up their 
terrific yells and pushed forward and attempted to 
scalp the man they had killed, but were prevented 
from this by the heavy fire which was kept up 
through the port-holes from the block-house. In this 
scene of horror and alarm Mrs. Harbison began to 
meditate an escape, and for this purpose attempted to 
direct the attention of the Indians from her and to 
fix it on the block-house, and thought if she could 
succeed in this she would retreat to a subterranean 
cavern with which she was acquainted which was in 
the run near where the Indians then were. So she 
began to converse with those nearest her, and they 
began to question her respecting the strength of the 
block-house, the number of men in it, etc., and being 
informed there were forty men there and that they 
were excellent marksmen, they immediately deter- 
mined to retreat, and for this purpose ran to those 
besieging the block-house and brought them away. 
They then began to flog Mrs. Harbison with their 
whipping-sticks and to order her along. Thus what 
she intended as the means of her escape was the 
means of hastening her departure in the hands of the 
savages. It was, however, the means of the preserva- 
tion of the fort and the people in it, for when the 
Indians gave up their attack and retreated some of 
the white men in the fort had the last load of ammu- 
nition in their guns, and there was no possibility of 
procuring more, for it was all fastened up in the store- 
house, which was inaccessible. 

The Indians, when they had flogged her, took her 
away with them, and also took her eldest boy, about 
five years old, for he was still at the door by her side. 
Her middle boy, of about three years of age, had by 
this time obtained a situation by the fire in the house, 
and was crying bitterly to his mother not to go, and 
making little complaints of the depredations of the 
savages. But the latter were unwilling to let the child 
remain behind them, and they took him by the hand 
to drag him away with them ; but he was so very 
unwilling to go, and made such a noise by crying 
that they took him up by the feet and dashed his 
brains out against the threshold of the door. They 
then stabbed, scalped, and left him for dead. This 



inhuman butchery drew from Mrs. Harbison a terrific 
scream, and drove her almost to blindness, from which 
she was brought to her recollection by a blow given 
her by an Indian across her face and head. During 
all this agonizing scene she kept her infant in her 
arms. They then marched her along to the top of 
the bank, some fifty rods, stopped, and divided their 
plunder captured, when she counted their number 
(thirty-two), two of whom were white men painted as 
Indians. Several of the Indians could speak English 
well, and some of them she knew, having seen them 
go up and down the Allegheny River. She knew two 
to be Senecas and two to be Munsies, for they had 
called at the shop to get their guns repaired, and she 
had seen them there. They then went some forty 
rods and caught her uncle John Currie's horses, and 
two of whom, into whose custody she was put, started 
with her towards the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, and 
the rest went off towards Puckety. When they came 
to the bank that descended towards the Allegheny 
the bank was so very steep, and there appeared so 
much danger in descending it on horseback, that she 
threw herself off the horse in opposition to the will 
and command of the Indians. Her horse descended 
without falling, but the one on which the savage rode 
who had her little boy fell and rolled over repeatedly, 
and her little boy fell back over the horse, but was 
not materially injured. He was then taken up by 
one of the Indians, who went to the bank of the river, 
where they had secreted some bark canoes under the 
rocks, opposite to the island lying between the Kis- 
kiminetas and Buffalo. Not being able to make their 
horses cross the river, they left the horses behind and 
took their prisoners in one of the canoes to the point 
of the island, and then left the canoes. When they 
landed one of the savages with his tomahawk mur- 
dered and scalped her oldest. boy in her presence, 
which caused her to sink senseless to the ground with 
her infant in her arms. She was brought to mind by 
severe blows from the savages ; but seeing the scalp 
of her darling boy again relapsed into unconscious- 
ness, when they hid it and led her into the water, 
which revived her. The Indians then proceeded rap- 
idly forward, crossed Big Buffalo, also Conequenes- 
sing Creek (where Butler now stands), thence six 
miles to Little Buffalo, and crossed it where the old 
Sarver mill is. Mrs. Harbison, now weary of life, 
tormented and beaten by the Indians, determined to 
make the savages kill her to end her miseries. She 
took from her shoulder a large powder-horn they 
made her carry in addition to her child, and threw it 
in contempt on the ground, expecting to be immedi- 
ately tomahawked. They put it on again, and twice 
she repeated this proceeding, thus inviting her de- 
struction ; but her action pleased the Indians for her 
boldness, and they did not molest her. 

They now changed their positions, putting the In- 
dian behind her who claimed her as his squaw, to 
protect and keep her from doing herself any injury. 



ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. 



675 



They reached the Indian camp two miles above But- 
ler before dark, and at night put her into a large dark 
bottom up a run, where they cut the brush in a thicket 
and pinioned her arms back, but left her hands with 
a little liberty. The next night they changed her to 
another station in the same valley. Ou the morning 
of the 24th, when her guard fell asleep, she escaped 
with her infant at her breast, being guided in her 
directions by a flock of robins, and wandered about, 
often hiding in rocks and caves to escape her pur- 
suers, who frequently passed almost over her. On 
Saturday, May 26th, the fifth day, she struck the head- 
waters of Pine Creek, which falls into the Allegheny 
four miles above Pittsburgh, not then knowing where 
she was. Several times she had narrow escapes from 
wolves and rattlesnakes. Changing her course she 
came to Squaw Run (head-waters), and in the even- 
ing to within a mile of Allegheny River. The next 
morning (Sunday), the sixth day, she was wellnigh 
exhausted, but wandered around, and came opposite 
to the fort at the point of Six-Mile Island. She saw 
three men on the other side of the river and called to 
them, but they seemed unwilling to risk the danger 
of coming after her, and requested to know who she 
was. She replied, and they asked her to walk up the 
bank for a while to see if the Indians were making 
a decoy of her or not ; but she answered that her feet 
were so sore that she could not walk. Then one of 
them, James Closier, got into a canoe to fetch her, 
and the other two stood on the bank with their rifles 
cocked ready to fire on the Indians provided they 
were using her as a decoy. When Mr. Closier came 
near the shore and saw her haggard situation he ex- 
claimed, " Who in the name of God are you ?" He 
was one of her nearest neighbors before she was taken, 
yet in six days she was so much altered that he did 
not know her, either by her voice or countenance. 
She had her infant at her breast, and was at once 
taken to the fort, where two of the women, Sarah 
Carter and Mary Ann Crozier, picked out of her feet 
and legs one hundred and fifty thorns, as counted by 
Felix Nigley, and the next evening at Pittsburgh as 
many more were extracted. 

After her capture the Indians, who had left her, 
went to John Curry's house and plundered and 
burned it, and then continued on to Puckety. But 
the inhabitants hearing of their approach were flying 
in every direction. A mile up the creek they fell in 
with the families of Flail and Mellon. The Indians 
fired upon them, wounding the two men and old Mrs. 
Flail, and captured Elizabeth, Mr. Flail's eldest 
daughter. They burned the house and barn of Hugh 
Mellon. Some sixty women and children, who had 
fled from their respective homes, collected together 
that night at the house of Mr. McLaughlin, where 
the Indians came and took a number of horses from 
the field. On the 24th they killed Bartholomew Gar- 
vey, who was on his way to Reed's Station with two 
horse-loads of bacon for the garrison there ; this 



happened fifty rods from Chambers' Station. In the 
following week Samuel Holmes, wife and daughter, 
on Crooked Creek, were taken prisoners. Miss Eliz- 
abeth Flail was six months in captivity. Shortly 
after Mrs. Harbison's return from captivity she and 
her husband removed to Coe's Station, seventeen 
miles above Pittsburgh, to begin life anew, having 
lost all their effects by the savages. There were no 
more Indian incursions until 1794, after St. Clair's 
defeat. In June of that year they attacked a 
canoe going up the Allegheny, and killed John 
Carter and wounded William Cousins and Peter 
Kinner. Two or three days after this the sav- 
ages attacked the boat of Capt. Sharp as he was 
descending the Kiskiminetas River, about fifteen 
miles from its mouth, and killed four of his men and 
mortally wounded the captain himself, who survived 
the wounds a few weeks and died in Pittsburgh. The 
boat in which they were killed and wounded floated 
down the stream, entered the Allegheny, and passed 
two stations in the night without being discovered, or 
without the assistance of any one on board to steer or to 
row her, and came opposite to Thomas Gurty's, a little 
below the mouth of Deer Creek, when the fourth 
man died, and when the women who were in the 
boat, fearing that the captain was about to die and 
that they would be left alone, called to the people on 
shore for their assistance, who immediately put off a 
boat to their rescue, and brought their boat to the 
shore. Four of the men had wives in the boat with 
them, who were compelled to witness the murder of 
their husbands, and to sit in their blood as it flowed 
freely and warm from their veins. The wife of Capt. 
Guthrie, who was in the boat with her husband, was 
shortly after she arrived in Pittsburgh delivered of 
her ninth child. In December, 1794, Mrs. Harbison 
and her husband removed again to the waters of Bull 
Creek. Her husband was at this time a spy and only 
came home once in eight or ten days. In the follow- 
ing spring they removed to the mouth of Buffalo 
Creek, at Cregg's Station. In the middle of May, on 
the approach of the Indians, all the women and chil- 
dren at the station, under the command of Mrs. Har- 
bison, got into a pirogue, assisted by Mrs. Mahaftey, 
and floated down to Owen's Station, where there were 
some men to protect them. 

In 1791, John Olough was in the corps commanded 
by Capt. John Cregg, 1 stationed on Crooked Creek, on 
the borders of Westmoreland County. Most of the 
settlers lived this year at the station of nights, but 
John Kilpatrick remained on his clearing. One 
morning in March the Indians attacked his house 
and fired through the door, wounding a man who 
kept the door, and killing a child lying in a cradle. 
Mr. Kilpatrick and one of the militia went into the 
loft, made an incision in the wall, and began to fire 
on the Indians, and killed one of them on the spot, 

1 Or Craig. 



676 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



whereupon the rest made a precipitate retreat. Mrs. 
Kilpatrick remained below, busily engaged in run- 
ning bullets, while her husband and his companions 
were firing them off. 

Allegheny township, from its peculiar position be- 
tween the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas River, was 
specially subject to Indian outrages at a time when 
the remainder of the county was enjoying compara- 
tive security. 

SCHOOLS. 

The condition of the schools in 1834, when the first 
free-school law was enacted, was as follows : The dis- 
tricts were few in number, and the houses built of 
logs and poorly seated, only rude slabs, without any 
support for the back, to which all the other appli- 
ances seemed to correspond. The schools were very 
large, often numbering over a hundred. The disci- 
pline was then enforced by a free use of the birch, 
for such a thing as moral suasion was not tolerated at 
that time, but it gradually and slowly made its ap- 
pearance, and unless the master treated the scholars 
when the holidays arrived he was of little value in 
the estimation of the pupils. Female teachers were 
not employed previous to 1834, and, in fact, the idea 
of a " girl" teaching school was wonderful to think 
about. The teachers did not have any order or sys- 
tem of recitation. In spelling many of the scholars 
seemed to be much interested, and many became fair 
spellers. The attendance was quite irregular, as many 
had a great distance to go. Among the teachers who 
were the most prominent were Samuel Owens, Lu- 
ther Bills, George Crawford, Robert Jeffrey, Samuel 
McConnell, and Wilson Sproull. If any one desired 
to teach, he would first apply to a member of the 
committee, and if he looked fit to teach he was then 
sent to some very learned man to be examined, who 
after a few scattered questions had been asked on the 
different branches taught was pronounced duly quali- 
fied, and immediately entered upon his duties. The 
wages ranged from ten to twenty dollars per month. 
Among the leading men in education outside of those 
employed as teachers were James Fitzgerald, George 
Bovard, John Artmau, and others. 

These men labored hard to advance the cause of 
education, yet there were not a few who worked hard 
in the opposite direction. From 1845 to 1860 the 
following persons were among the most prominent 
teachers : D. McKee, W. R. Trout, James Hawk, 
and others. The mode of teaching advanced slowly 
but surely ; such a thing as teachers' institutes was 
scarcely dreamed of, but after a great deal of reason- 
ing on the part of the best teachers the directors 
finally allowed the school-house for that purpose. In 
1844 a debating society was started in what was then 
known as Crawford's school-house, and considerable 
interest was manifested by teachers and citizens. 
About 1851 an academy or select school was started 
near where Lober's school-house now stands. The 
professors were A. S Thorn and D. McKee, who 



flourished finely for some time and accomplished 
much good. The text-books in the early days in this 
township were the Bible and Testament, spelling- 
book, and Western Calculator. The schools at pres- 
ent are in a fair condition, with a live and progressive 
set of teachers and directors. 

PINE RUN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

was organized by Revs. David Kirkpatriek and C. B. 
Bristol, with fifty-five members and four elders. It 
was reported to Presbytery April 13, 1847, without 
stating the date when it was done. For some months 
it was statedly supplied by Rev. Andrew McElwain, 
when, greatly to the regret of this people, he was sent 
to missionate on' the Allegheny Mountains. After 
this it was occasionally supplied until the last Tues- 
day of January, 1851, when Rev. T. S. Leason was 
installed its first pastor for half-time. Revs. L. M. 
Groves preached, S. M. McClung charged the pastor, 
and C. B. Bristol the people. His pastorate was very 
successful. He was released Jan. 10, 1855. During 
a vacancy of two years it depended on occasional 
supplies. Aug. 25, 1857, Rev. Robert McMillan, 
grandson of Rev. Dr. McMillan, patriarch of Presby- 
terianism in Western Pennsylvania, being ordained 
at Warren, was for half-time installed over Pine Run. 
Revs. John Starke preached from 2 Thess. iii. 1, S. 
M. McClung made the ordaining prayer, T. S. Leason 
charged the pastor, and W. W. Woodend the people. 
The labors of this humble, faithful, godly man, both 
publicly and from house to house, were so highly 
prized that for a year after he was disabled from pul- 
pit services they would not allow his resignation. 
They only consented when all hope of his recovery 
was lost, and he was released April 13, 1864. Dec. 
28, 1864, Rev. John Orr, also ordained at Warren, 
was installed for half-time over Pine Run. Revs. T. 
D. Ewing preached from Mark xv. 16, J. M. Jones 
presided, proposed the constitutional questions, and 
made the ordaining prayer, F. Orr charged the pastor, 
and Dr. Donaldson the people. To a very worthy 
pastor he was a not less worthy successor. In his 
pastorate an emergency arose such as often occasions 
serious divisions in congregations, the erection of a 
new church edifice, together with change of locality. 
Several circumstances connected with this case seemed 
strongly to portend a rupture there. But the cautious 
management of the pastor among a people by whom 
he was beloved obviated the threatened difficulty and 
kept the church united. But very soon after they got 
possession of their comfortable church a distressing 
neuralgic affection of the head and eyes constrained 
him to resign the charge, April 4, 1872. In all these 
pastoral relations it was connected with churches on 
the other side of the Kiskiminetas River, first with 
Leechburg, and in the other two with Warren, called 
Apollo in 1868. At the close of the last pastorate by 
locality it came under care of Blairsville Presbytery. 
In 1873 it was statedly supplied in the last three 




tftfr^VL M ' <^fUwJ^<2si^#t 



ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. 



677 



months by Rev. J. Molton Jones, to which time, with 
man}' occasional supplies, two stated supplies, and 
three pastors, it had sent forth no minister. 

ALLEGHENY UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
is situated about one-fourth mile from Kiskiminetas 
and Allegheny Junction. Services were held May 
23, 1873, in School-house No. 8, and the next day, at 
session of Presbytery there convened, members of the 
Puckety, Lcechburg, and Freeport Churches were 
organized into the Allegheny congregation. The 
elders are William M. McDougal, A. W. Watt, John 
T. Watt, James Jones, Robert Dimmitt, and Jacob 
P. Vantine. The edifice was completed and occupied 
Oct. 17, 1875, under the auspices of its present pastor, 
Rev. M. M. Patterson. 

BROOKLAND REFORM ASSOCIATE CHURCH. 
This congregation was organized in 1832. Its first 
edifice was a log structure, and was in 1856 replaced 
by the present brick building. Its pastors have been : 
1832 to 1843, Rev. Hugh Walkinshaw ; 1843 to 1860, 
Rev. Oliver Wylie, whose successor was the present 
pastor, Rev. Robert Reid. 

THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 
is located just east of Leechburg Station. 

RAILROAD STATIONS, POST-OFFICES, Eiv. 
The railroad stations are Soda-Works, McKean, 
Garver's Ferry, West' Penn Junction (formerly 
Kiskiminetas and Allegheny Junction), and Leech- 
burg, on the Allegheny Valley Railroad; Bagdad, 
Grinder, and Townsend, on West Penn Railroad. 
The post-offices are Lucesco, McLaughlin's Store, and 
Shearer's Cross-Roads. 

EMPLOYMENTS. 
The two coal-mines at Leechburg, operated by a 
company, of which David B. Ashbaugh is part owner 
and sole lessee and superintendent, and the one at 
Bagdad, owned by Hicks & Schwalm, are the only 
ones in the township. The former employ two hun- 
dred men, and produce annually one hundred and 
fifty thousand tons of coal. 

THE LUCESCO OIL REFINERY 
was first an oil-manufacturing establishment making 
cannel coal oil, and was started in 1858 by Dr. Alter 
and others of Freeport. It employed a hundred and 
fifty men, and built thirty houses near its works, a 
few hundred yards south of the Western Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad Junction. It was operated a few 
years, when the discovery of petroleum oil at Oil 
City by Dr. Drake caused its abandonment, as it 
could not compete with the newly-discovered pe- 
troleum. 

A few rods southeast of the old oil refinery is 

ARCHIBALD DODDS' STORE, 
established by him in 1865. He is the son of Joseph 
Dodds, whose father, Archibald Dodds, an emigrant 



from County Monaghan, Ireland, settled some forty 
rods from the store here in 1825. The latter was a 
substantial citizen, and left a numerous offspring. 
Near Mr. Dodds' store reside the Reeds and Carvers, 
descendants of old pioneer families. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



JOHN H. TOWNSEND. 

Isaac Townsend was born in Chester County, where 
his English ancestors, of the Friends' Society, had 
settled in the first part of the eighteenth century. 
About the year 1800 he removed to Kiskiminetas 
township, in Armstrong County, where he had pur- 
chased a farm on the Kiskiminetas River. Here 
with his sons he was largely engaged in the manu- 
facture of salt, and shortly after he became thus 
engaged the river from Dam No. 3 to Apollo was 
lined with these works, where now is but the one 
owned by Mr. Gammill. He used to ship the salt by 
boats to Pittsburgh, and pack it by horses over the 
mountains to the East, and afterwards his sons wag- 
oned it to the Eastern cities. He married Mary King. 
Their children were John, Isaac, Henry, Robert, 
William, Joseph, Polly (married first to Simon Tur- 
ney, and afterwards to Charles Gantz), and Susan 
(married to Daniel Ulam). Two other daughters 
died young. His second child, Isaac, married Mary 
Hill, daughter of John Hill (intermarried with Miss 
Waltz). Her father, John Hill, was one of the ear- 
liest and most prominent settlers on the Kiskiminetas 
River, and on it, in Allegheny township, very early 
erected a flouring-mill at what is now Bagdad Station, 
which was swept away two years after, as was another, 
built by Shiloh Hill and John Schwalm on the same 
site, a year later. The Hill family was of Irish extrac- 
tion. The children of Isaac and Mary (Hill) Town- 
send were John Hill, Eden, Darius, Elizabeth (married 
to Samuel Owens), Levi, Delilah (married to David 
Burkit), Polly (married to James Moore), Rachel- 
(married to John Moore), and Susan (married to 
William Kuhns). 

Mr. Townsend's father died Aug. 7, 1866, aged 
seventy-seven ; his mother died June 9, 1846, aged 
fifty. Of his father's family, Darius and Levi went 
to California in the time of the gold fever. They 
carried letters from Mrs. John Geary to her son, John 
W. Geary, afterwards Governor of this State. Levi 
died on shipboard on their outward passage, and 
Darius, after a residence of three years in California, 
went to Mexico, where he died. Eden Townsend, of 
the same family, a millwright by trade, was accident- 
ally killed in a mill he was building at McKeesport. 

Of this family, John Henry, the eldest, was born 
May 30, 1819, in Armstrong County. He was raised 
on his father's farm, and first educated in the old-time 
subscription schools, but when a young man attended 



678 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



those of the free-school system just then established. 
In 1832 his father removed to his present farm, located 
in the three-bottom tract of the "Horseshoe Bend" 
of the Kiskiminetas. It was then all in woods save 
a small clearing with a log house on it. The present 
frame mansion was erected about 1840. The place is 
a part of the original Johnston tract, very early pat- 
ented. He was married June 26, 1849, to Eliza, 
daughter of John Burkit and Polly (Stout) Burkit, 
of Armstrong County. Their children are Newton 
E., Frank, Eden Augustus, Alice (married to William 
Adair), Barton Hill, Grant Burkit, and Florence. 
After his marriage Mr. Townsend removed to Apollo, 
and with his brother Eden erected a flouring-mill, in 
which he was engaged until 1854, when he came to 
the farm where he now resides. 

In politics he is a pronounced Democrat, and active 
in the counsels of his party, of which he is a leading 
exponent in the county. Ever largely identified with 
the cause of education, he was for twelve years one 
of the township school directors, and greatly contrib- 
uted to the efficiency of the schools in his jurisdiction 
by elevating the system and in the erection of new 
and commodious school-houses. In 1878 he was 
elected a county commissioner, and served for three 
years, with great acceptance to the people. During 
this period his colleagues were Henry Keely and 
William Taylor, while the clerk of the board was 
Darwin Musick. During his administration the 
large and elegant " County Home" was erected, — an 
enduring monument to the honor and judgment of 
the board, — and many other valuable public improve- 
ments made. 

On the building of the Western Pennsylvania 
Railroad, in which he warmly enlisted, he gave to 
the railroad company the right of way through his 
lands, and also two lots, for the foreman's house and 
water-plug. The company on his ground built a 
station and named it, in his honor, " Townsend." 

He is a member, with his family, of the Apollo 
Lutheran Church, to which he is a liberal contrib- 
utor. His elegant seat, embracing some three hun- 
dred acres, is beautifully located three miles above 
Leechburg, on the banks of the Kiskiminetas, in a 
section rich in historic incidents and near the site of an 
old Indian town. He has lived to see this magnificent 
valley rescued from a wilderness and dotted over with 
fine farms and substantial houses. When a boy he 
helped to boat salt and grain in boat-sections to Hol- 
lidaysburg, but since then have passed away the old 
Portage Railroad and Pennsylvania Canal, and right 
by his door are daily seen passing by the fleet trains 
on a branch of the great railroad of the State, — its 
proud boast, — the "Pennsylvania." 



DAVID B. ASHBAUGH. 
Alexander Ashbaugh was born in Baltimore County, 
Md., and was descended from a family of German ex- 
traction that in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century settled in that region. He married Mary 
Vantine, of an old and prominent pioneer family, 
from which union were born the following children: 
Andrew, Thomas, Alexander, James, William, David 
B., and Edessima, married to Peter Grinder. David 
B. Ashbaugh, his youngest son, was born Aug. 6, 
1832, in Allegheny township, where his parents had 
settled several years previous. He has been twice 
married, — first to Elizabeth Grinder, who bore him 
two children, Albert W. and Mary Isabella, and 
second to Permilla Anderson, by whom the five fol- 
lowing children were born : Antes S., Robert N., 
James McCreighton, Bertie, and Custer, and also 
James, deceased. Mr. Ashbaugh was many years in 
the coal business on the Monongahela River, which 
he mastered in all its phases and shapes. Afterwards 
he was largely engaged in the construction of the 
Western Pennsylvania Railroad, four miles of which 
he graded and built. He then opened a coal-mine 
east of the Lynchburg tunnel to coal the railroad 
locomotives, and on the completion of the railroad 
began the shipping of coal. Soon after he opened 
the coal-mine west of the first one, and in the sum- 
mer of 1882 opened one west of Leechburg Station. 
These last two mines are operated by a strong com- 
pany, of which he is part owner, and the superin- 
tendent and lessee. These mines employ over two 
hundred hands, and produce annually some one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand tons of coal. This is shipped 
largely to the East, especially to the New Jersey Divi- 
sion, besides which his company coal all the engines 
on the Western Pennsylvania Railroad, and supply 
the Allegheny County work-house. The coal is of 
the noted Freeport vein, so well known in the com- 
mercial markets. Mr. Ashbaugh's residence is just 
at the east end of the Leechburg tunnel, where is 
the Kiskiminetas River. He has a beautiful seat 
of thirteen acres, finely located, and embracing a 
very large variety of the choicest fruit. He is a 
member of the Leechburg Lodge, No. 651, I. O. O. F. 
In politics he is a stanch Republican, and but few 
of his party in the northern part of the county are as 
active as he in maintaining its organization and in 
political campaigns. He has been sixteen years in 
charge of these coal-works, known now as the 
" Leechburg Colliery." In connection with H. H. 
Ray, he has a large store at Leechburg Station, which 
does a very extensive business. His company's coal 
lands embrace some eight hundred and twenty-eight 
acres of splendid coal-fields, all centring around or 
near the tunnel, which is fifteen hundred and sixty 
feet in length, and around which the river flows three 
miles. He is one of the most experienced coal men 
of the county, and stands high in the esteem of his 
fellow-citizens, and in the business world. 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION.— BOUNDS. 

East Huntingdon Township was organized by 
a subdivision of the original Huntingdon township, 
being taken from South Huntingdon in 1798. ' It is 
bounded north by Hempfield, 2 east by Mount Pleas- 
ant, south by a part of Fayette County, and west by 
South Huntingdon. The township has a varied sur- 
face, and one continuous substratum of bituminous 
coal. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

The first settlers in the township were Scotch-Irish 
from the eastern and northern counties of the State, 
among whom were John Vance, for many years a 
magistrate, William and Frank Vance, the Fosters, 
Barrs, Cochrane, McClains, and McCormicks. 

From 1790 to 1800 a heavy immigration of Ger- 
mans and Mennonites, the latter including some of 
Swiss birth, came, and these thrifty men fresh from 
the eastern part of the State, and all possessed of 
considerable means for those days, bought nearly all 
the lands occupied by the Scotch-Irish, and entered 
other tracts not then taken up. This last class were 
most settled between Stonersville and the Fayette 
County line. The Mennonites purchased about 
twenty-five thousand acres in this and other town- 
ships, their principal settlement being in and about 
Stonersville. They were from Chester, Bucks, Lan- 
caster, Bedford, and Northumberland Counties. 
Among their leading men who located in East 
Huntingdon were Henry Overholt, Rev. David 
Funk, the Stauffers, Weltys, Peter Dillinger, 
Strohms, Ruths, Shupes, Fulkerths, Sherricks, 
Loucks, the Mumaws, Christian Stoner, the Tin- 
mans, Fretts, and Foxes. The German Lutheran 
and Reformed settlers mostly located in the north- 
west part of the township. Among them were 
Mark Leighty, Henry Lowe, Henry Null, Joseph 

1 Efforts were made so early as 1794 towards the erection of this town- 
ship, as shown by the records of the Decemljer session of that year, viz. : 
" Upon the petition of a number of the inhabitants of South Hunting- 
don township, setting forth that they labor under great difficulty on 
the account of their township being so large, and praying a division, 
etc." (Read and continued under advisement.) 

2 By act of Assembly of March 14, 1845, it was directed that that por- 
tion of the township of Hempfield, in the county of Westmoreland, 
which lies south of Big Sewickley Creek should be attached to and 
Bhould thereafter constitute a part of the township of East Huntingdon, 
in that county, and that the said creek should thereafter be the division 
line between those two townships. It was provided in this act that the 
election district of New Stanton should remain as if the act had not 



Suter, Nicholas Swope (for many years a justice of 
the peace), the Aultmans, Klines, Harbaughs, Ruffs, 
Snyders, and Hunkers. 

The Stauffer family is one of the oldest in the town- 
ship, and from it was given the name of " Stauffer's 
Run," a stream rising above Stonersville and run- 
ning south, emptying into Jacobs Creek at Scottdale. 
Abraham Stauffer came from Bucks County, and 
first settled near Scottdale, on the Fayette County 
side. His wife was a Miss Nisley, of Lebanon 
County (then Lancaster). Their son Abraham mar- 
ried Elizabeth Myers. The former died July 9, 1851, 
and the latter Nov. 11, 1878, aged ninety-five years, 
eleven months, and six days. They had three sons 
and three daughters, the latter being Mrs. Martin 
Loucks, Mary, married to Jacob Tinsman, and Eliza- 
beth, married to Jacob Harkless. Among the earliest 
settlers near Scottdale were the Sterretts, a very in- 
fluential family, a descendant of whom, John Sterrett, 
a prominent farmer, resides on his elegant farm a 
mile southwest of Scottdale. His grandfather was a 
cousin of Daniel Boone, and when the latter was re- 
moving to North Carolina (from which he was the 
first white man to penetrate into Kentucky) he 
passed through this region, and passed several days 
visiting his kinsmen, the Sterretts, at their new cabin 
home here. 

EARLY SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. 
The early school-houses of East Huntingdon town- 
ship were similar to those of other localities in the 
county, being built of rude logs, and having other 
appliances to correspond. One of the earliest houses 
known was built on the farm now owned by Joshua 
Gant, another was located on the farm now owned by 
Jacob Leighty. It was built in 1802, and taught by 
a German named Leighty, who always opened his 
school with singing and prayer, a practice which has 
been continued in some localities of this township up 
to the present time. Some of the early teachers were 
John Selby, Peter Showalter, A. St. Clair, John 
Baughtencarges, and others. Early action was taken 
in this township in regard to the acceptance of the 
free-school system. At an election held at the house 
of Peter Pool, Sept. 19, 1834, the following persons 
were elected school directors, viz.: Jacob Tinsman 
and Jacob Overholt, to serve until the next election 
in March ; Solomon Luter and Peter Pool, for two 
years ; Gasper Tarr and Henry Fretts, to serve for 

679 



680 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



three years. This same set of directors met at the 
house of Christian Fox, Oct. 6, 1834, and after organ- 
izing appointed Jacob Tinsman as delegate, to meet 
other delegates in Greensburg the first Tuesday in 
November following, to perform such duties as were 
enjoined upon them by law to establish a general sys- 
tem of education. Agreeably to the time appointed by 
the general delegates at Greensburg, an election was 
held at the house of Peter Pool, May 21, 1836, in order 
to take the vote of the citizens whether there should 
be a tax levied or not; the result of said election was 
seventy-four voting no tax and two voting tax. How 
the schools were kept open from i834 to 1837 we have 
been unable to learn. We find, however, that direc- 
tors were elected each year, viz. : Jacob Tinsman and 
Jacob Overholt, re-elected in 1835 ; John Stoner and 
A. Overholt, elected in 1836; and William McMaster 
and J. Fulkerth, in 1837. After this we find another 
election was ordered to take the voice of the citizens 
whether the schools should be continued or not. Said 
election was held at the house of Peter Pool, on the 
first Tuesday of May, 1837, fifty-six voting no school 
and thirty-four voting school. The law required that 
in order to defeat the system a majority of the citizens 
in the district must vote against it, and fifty-six not 
being that majority, the system was declared adopted. 
Soon after this the directors began to sub-district the 
township and erect houses. In a few years after this 
the system began to gain favor, and at present in edu- 
cational matters it is considered one of the foremost 
townships in the county. It has been extremely for- 
tunate in always having good directors, who ever 
aimed to employ first-class teachers, and herein lies 
the cause of success in East Huntingdon. Blackboards 
were brought prominently into use in 1853. District 
institutes were organized in 1857, and have continued 
to be a leading feature of its schools ever since. 
Among the prominent directors since 1840 were J. B. 
Sherrick, II. W. Stoner, S. Dillinger, H. S. Overholt, 
Maj. R. Warden, S. Warden, D. Snyder, and many 
other good names. Among the principal teachers 
have been J. B. R. Sherrick, D. McGinnis, John 
Sample, William Foster, John Harrold, etc. At a 
later date there have been as directors, J. S. Fretts, 
J. B. Stoner, J. S. Warden, John Sillaman, B. Hurst, 
H. R. Fox, and others ; and teachers, J. D. Cope, P. 
Loucks, J. Sillaman, J. Chamberlain, J. H. Bryan, 
W. H. Morrow, etc. 

LUTHERAN AND (ZION'S) REFORMED CHURCH 
(UNION). 

This congregation was formerly known by the name 
of "Schwabs," afterwards changed to Swopes. The 
name was taken from that of a family in the neigh- 
borhood. The name of the family was doubtless 
derived from the country in Germany from which 
they came, — Das Schwaben Land. The congregation 
is now called " Zion's." The church is located four 
miles southwest of Mount Pleasant, about two hun- 



dred yards to the right of Ragentown road, and 
nearly four miles northwest of Scottdale. It was or- 
ganized about 1789, but no records are accessible prior 
to 1822. A log church which stood in the graveyard 
on the right of the road was used for many years as 
a place of worship. A brick church was built on the 
opposite side of the road, on land donated by Jacob 
Leighty, about 1862. It is a neat, comfortable, and 
substantial edifice. In the summer of 1872 the in- 
side received a coat of paint, the chancel was com- 
pleted and carpeted, and other improvements added. 
It was organized by Rev. John William Weber, and 
afterwards served by Revs. William Weinel, H. E. F. 
Voight, L. H. Keafauver, F. K. Levan, C. C. Russell, 
J. A. Peters, A. J. Heller, and D. B. Lady. Mr. 
Weinel took charge in 1817, and continued as pastor 
until 1825, the last year in which record of his com- 
munions are found. At the communion held July 
15, 1825, Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke, D.D., officiated, 
and at those of April 19 and Nov. 22, 1829, Rev. C. 
Zwidler officiated. These are the only communions 
held, or at least the only ones recorded, between 1824, 
when Rev. Weinel held his last, and 1835, when Rev. 
Voight held his first one. It is probable that there 
was no stated preaching between 1825 and 1835. Mr. 
Voight preached here until 1864. From 1858 to 1860, 
Rev. L. H. Keafauver was English supply, holding a 
service in this language once every two months. In 
1860 Rev. C. C. Russell succeeded him, who was fol- 
lowed in 1861 by Rev. F. K. Levan, who continued 
in the office of English supply or assistant pastor 
until 1864, when, Father Voight being disabled, the 
congregation became part of the newly-formed Mount 
Pleasant charge, and was placed under the sole pas- 
toral care of Rev. J. A. Peters. Under the ministry 
of Rev. William Weinel, especially from 1822 to 1825, 
the congregation seems to have enjoyed a season of 
great prosperity. In 1822 twenty-three persons were 
confirmed. Two years afterwards there were twenty- 
five more. In 1835 forty-five communed at one time. 
During the interregnum from 1825 to 1835 the con- 
gregation became necessarily much scattered. At 
the communion held by Rev. C. Zwidler in 1829 
twenty-eight persons communed, including nine who 
were confirmed on the occasion. The communicants 
during Rev. H. E. F. Voight's ministry ranged from 
ten to thirty-two, when the congregation numbered 
from forty to fifty. English services were first intro- 
duced into the congregation by Rev. Kefauver in 
1858. The following year a class of fifteen were con- 
firmed, and the congregation took a new lease of life. 
In December, 1865, under the pastorate of Rev. 
Peters, eight were confirmed, and in May of same 
year forty-one communed. 

In May, 1871, Rev. Heller being pastor, three per- 
sons were confirmed and thirty-four communed. The 
number of confirmations under the pastorate of Rev. 
Lady up to 1877 were twenty, and the highest number 
present at one communion thirty-nine. The congre- 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



681 



gation then numbered forty-eight confirmed and 
twenty-five unconfirmed members, with the following 
consistory: Elders, Peter Steinman, Jacob Leighty, 
Sr., M. J. Leighty ; Deacons, M. M. Leighty, Jacob 
Felgar, and George S. Lowe. Its flourishing Sunday- 
school numbers about one hundred teachers and 
scholars, of which for several years M. M. and J. R. 
Leighty were the superintendents. 

JACOBS CREEK METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
was organized with nineteen members in 1817, and its 
old log church erected the same year, and at that time 
was the only meeting-house of this denomination in 
all this region. Its present brick edifice was built 
during the late war, and is on the site of the old 
church, three-fourths of a mile southwest of Scott- 
dale. It has the same pastor as the latter. Its trus- 
tees are John Reiser, Daniel Fretz, John Kell, Jacob 
Hall, and J. D. Porter, Sunday-school superintendent. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (SCOTTDALE). 
The Presbyterian congregation was organized May 
13, 1874, with nineteen members, and O. B. Eobertson 
as elder. Previous to this time Presbyterian services 
were held in the school-house and Reformed Church. 
Rev. Dr. John McMillan, of Mount Pleasant, effected 
its organization, and preached statedly from Novem- 
ber, 1875, to the same month of 1876. Then was 
called Rev. J. H. Stevenson, late of Sewickley and 
Tyrone Churches, who has been its only pastor from 
1876 to the present. He was born in Bellefontaine, 
Logan Co., Ohio ; graduated at the Ohio University, 
at Oxford, and the Western Theological Seminary, 
and has been nineteen years in the ministry. His 
grandmother, Sarah Marquis, was the first white 
woman baptized by a Presbyterian clergyman west of 
the Allegheny Mountains. He preached also at Ty- 
rone Church. The present elders are O. B. Robertson, 
John Robertson, and Dr. A. J. Rogers, and deacons, 
John Walter and John Robertson. The superintend- 
ent of Sunday-school is John Robertson. The church 
membership is one hundred and eight. The edifice 
is a brick structure, erected in 1876, and dedicated 
April 22, 1877. 

TRINITY REFORMED CHURCH (SCOTTDALE). 
This church was organized July 20, 1873, by Rev. 
L. B. Leasure, under a commission from the West- 
moreland Classis. The following were the officers 
and members of this organization : Elder, Dr. N. L. 
Kline; deacon, Daniel Byers; members, William A. 
Kifer, Sarah Kifer, Eliza Kline, Christiana Schwart- 
zendruber, Rebecca Evans, Hannah Evans, Rebecca 
Martz, Mr. Waugaman, Mrs. Waugaman. Rev. L. 
B. Leasure was the first pastor. The first trustees 
were elected Nov. 7, 1873, viz.: Dr. N. L. Kline and 
William A. Kifer. The corner-stone of the edifice 
was laid Nov. 9, 1873, by the pastor, with a sermon 
by Rev. J. M. Titzel. May 4, 1874, Zephaniah 
Brinker was elected a trustee, and one elder and two 



deacons were added to the consistory, increasing the 
number of officers to five. At this date, as the records 
show, the name of the place was changed from Foun- 
tain Mills to Scottdale. The new edifice was dedica- 
ted June 27, 1874, Rev. N. P. Hacke, D.D., preaching 
in German in the morning, and Rev. G. B. Russell, 
D.D., in the evening. Soon after this Rev. Leasure's 
labors as pastor ceased. Aug. 2, 1874, the communion 
was administered by Rev. L. Cort, with twenty per- 
sons participating, showing an addition of nine new 
members. Another addition of nine members was 
made April 3, 1875, at the communion under Rev. L. 
Cort, acting as a supply. The next pastor was Rev. 
W. C. B. Shullenberger, elected June 28, 1875, who 
began his labors Aug. 8, 1875. Under his pastorate 
the constitution of the congregation was adopted and 
seventeen persons added to the membership, making 
in all forty-six. His successor, Rev. Samuel Z. Beam, 
took charge of the mission Nov. 1, 1876, and is the 
present pastor. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (SCOTTDALE). 

The congregation was organized in 1875, under the 
auspices of Rev. A. P. Leonard, of Jacobs Creek 
Church, three-fourths of a mile distant, southwest, of 
which it is the offspring. The pastors have been : 
1875-77, A. P. Leonard; 1877-79, B. T. Thomas; 
1879-82, D. N. Stafford. The latter was born in Tus- 
carawas County, Ohio, educated at Scio College, Har- 
rison County, in that State, and lias been seven years 
in the ministry. Up to the building of the present 
church services were held in rented churches and 
tabernacles. Its edifice, an elegant brick, two-story 
structure, sixty-two by forty-two feet, was erected in 
1881. The first service was held therein November 
27th of that year, and it was dedicated on December 
18th following, when Rev. Samuel Wakefield, aged 
eighty-five years, preached the sermon. Its vestibule 
is eleven feet square and its tower one hundred and 
five feet high. Its architect was Peter S. Loucks. It 
is a station connected with Jacobs Creek Church. 
The trustees are Dr. A. W. Strickler, Thomas Ten- 
nant, James Jones, Peter Campbell, J. W. Wiley; 
and Sunday-school superintendent, Clark Grazier. 
Its membership is one hundred. It is the second and 
the Presbyterian the first brick church erected in the 
borough. 

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 
OF SCOTTDALE. 

Before 1876 masses were said and services held in 
Mr. Kehoe's dwelling, attended by Rev. Father 
Watters and other priests from Connellsville. In 
1876 the old Protestant Episcopal Church frame edi- 
fice was purchased from Maj. Knop, in which worship 
was had until December, 1881, when the new and 
commodious brick edifice was far enough completed 
to hold services in it. Father Thomas McAnew was 
pastor from 1876 to 1879, when he was succeeded by 
Rev. M. A. Lambing, the present learned and popular 



682 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



pastor, under whose successful auspices the new 
church was erected, together with the frame residence 
adjoining. The parish extends from Morgan's to and 
including Mount Pleasant, and has over sixteen hun- 
dred souls. It is three times as large as when Father 
Lambing became the pastor. He also says mass every 
other Sunday at Bridgeport, near Mount Pleasant. 
Some four hundred Poles and Hungarians belong to 
his congregations. 

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST (SCOTTDALE). 

This congregation was organized in 1874, and its 
neat frame edifice erected the same year. Its pastors 
have been : 1874-76, W. A. Jackson ; 1876, Joseph 
Metzgar; 1877, David Speck; 1878, Martin O. Lane; 
1879-82, Isaiah Potter. He also preaches at Walnut, 
Fayette Co., Barren Run, at South Huntingdon town- 
ship, and at Mount Nebo Church, two miles north- 
west of Scottdale. The membership is fifty. The 
church officials are: Trustees, Albert Keister, Na- 
thaniel King, Joseph Herbert; Class-leader, David 
Metzgar ; Assistant, Peter Sherrick ; Steward, Na- 
thaniel King; and Sunday-school Superintendent, 
Jacob B. Sherrick. 

BAPTIST CHURCH (SCOTTDALE) 
was organized April 17, 1875, and May 9th following 
Rev. W. T. Hughes was called as pastor. It has now 
no pastor, its last incumbent, Rev. Collins, having 
left in 1880. Its edifice, a frame, was built after the 
town was laid out. 

THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN (SCOTTDALE) 
congregation was the first one organized in the town. 
It has never had a building, and at present has no 
pastor. 

THE MENNONITE CHURCH AND CEMETERY 
(STONERSVILLE). 

The first church building was a log structure, built 
in 1800, on the extreme lower corner of the grave- 
yard. In 1840 it was replaced by the present sub- 
stantial brick edifice. The first pastors were Revs. 
David Funk, Stauffer, and Welty, after whom were 
Henry Yetter, John Overholt, and Martin Loucks. 
For a good many years it has had no regular pastors, 
but has been supplied occasionally by ministers from 
a distance, perhaps as often as once a month. The 
membership is now quite small, as in the past two 
decades many have connected themselves with the 
Church of God and the United Brethren in Christ. 
The cemetery is now controlled by the Menuonite 
Cemetery Association, organized a few years ago. 

THE CHURCH OF GOD (STONERSVILLE). 
The congregation of this church was organized in 
1841, in which year was erected in Bethany a frame 
church edifice, now used as a cooper's shop. Its first 
pastor was Rev. Joseph A. Dobson. In 1863 the 
congregation abandoned the old meeting-house in 
Bethany and erected a commodious brick church in 



Stonersville. Here its first pastor in the new edifice 
was Rev. Jacob A. Dohmer, and the present one is 
Rev. Robert L. Burns. The congregation is very 
large and flourishing, with an excellent Sunday- 
school. The first two pastors at the old meeting- 
house in Bethany were John and Thomas H. Hicker- 
nell. 

SCOTTDALE. 

The Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad was com- 
pleted as far as Scottdale in the spring of 1873, when 
the present site of the borough was farm lands. The 
town was laid out that year by Peter S. Loucks and 
his sister Catharine, on the south side of the Pitts- 
burgh road, and by Jacob S. Loucks on the north 
side a short time later. Peter S. Loucks subsequently 
made two additions, one on the west and the other 
on the northeast, and Jacob S. one. After the Loucks 
laid out the original town Everson, McCrum & Co. 
made an addition out of land bought of the Loucks 
brothers. The town was the outgrowth of the rail- 
road, and was very appropriately named in honor of 
its then celebrated president, Col. Thomas A. Scott. 
The first store opened here was by Livingood & 
Miller, and the second by Parker & Smith. The first 
house built after that was by James Kehoe, on Pitts- 
burgh Street and still occupied by him. The next 
were Abe Bosier's and John Rites'. The first hotel 
was kept by Lewis Stimple, and the second by 
Henry Branthoover. The first resident physician 
was Dr. C. D. Fortney, the next Dr. A. Rogers, fol- 
lowed by Dr. B. R. Mitchell ; then came Dr. Robert 
McConaughy, who afterwards removed, and the last 
Dr. A. W. Strickler, who came from Fayette County 
in 1877. The only lawyer settled here is J. R. Smith, 
who came from Huntingdon County in 1881. The 
first magistrates were N. L. K. Kline and William 
G. Hays ; the latter resigning was succeeded by T. 
W. Ault, who with Joseph K. Eicher (succeeding 
Kline) are the present incumbents. The two oldest 
persons in town are Col. Brinker and Thomas Kehoe. 
In the fall of 1872, Peter S. Loucks had laid out 
fourteen lots, and his brother, Jacob S., ten, thinking 
these would answer, but in the following year such a 
demand arose for lots that they at once laid out the 
town regularly into a large number. Pittsburgh Street 
(road) was the division line between their two tracts. 
The first lots were sold in fell of 1872 (twenty-four), 
at one hundred and fifty dollars each, and were 
seventy-two by one hundred and fifty feet, since 
when several of them have sold at one thousand dol- 
lars. Subsequently a majority of the lots were one 
hundred and ten by thirty feet, and were sold at 
from one hundred and twenty-five to two hundred 
and fifty dollars each. About fifty acres of the land 
of the brothers Peter S. and Jacob S. Loucks and 
their sister Catherine went to make up the town. 
The " Fountain Mill" and distillery then stood where 
the furnace is, and was the property of W. A. Keifer. 
The houses of Peter S. Loucks, Jacob S. Loucks, and 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



683 



David F. Stoner (the latter built 1872-73) are in the 
limits of the borough, and were built before the town 
was laid out, but are not on the lots but are farm 
lands. P. C. Hockenbury, who has been a resident 
of this region since 1824, was the first saddler and 
harness-maker. When the old Fountain Mill was re- 
moved for the furnace it was the fourth mill. The 
first one, a log structure, was built about 1800 by a 
Mr. Hoke, and in 1822 the second one, a frame build- 
ing, was owned and operated by John W. Stauffer. 

BOROUGH INCORPORATION AND OFFICERS. 
The borough of Scottdale was incorporated by the 
Court of Common Pleas in the winter of 1874. 1 The 
first officers since 1874 have been : 

1874.— Burgess, Hubert Foster; Council, P. S. Loucks, T. W. Ault, James 
L. Klingeiismith, E. C. Price, James Morgan; Secretary, T. W. 
Ault; Treasurer, P. S. Loucks; Street Commissioner, 0. B. Robert- 
son; Assessor, P. C. Hockenbury; High Constable, A. G. H. 
Cooper. 

1875.— Burgess, P. C. Hockenbury; Council, J. D. Hill, Joseph K. 
Eicher, R. H. Everson, William Dick, Peter Campbell; Constable, 
H. C. Miller; Secretary, T. W. Ault. 

1876. — Burgess, P. C. Hockenbury; Council, James L. Dick, Peter 
Campbell, GL B.Gray, R. H. Everson, Morgan Keddle ; Cuustable, 
Reason Lynch ; Secretary, T. W. Ault. 

1877. — Burgess, P. C. Hockenbury ; Council, Morgan Keddle, David 
Dick, T. C. Kenney, John M. Smith, George H. Everson; Constable, 
S. J. Lint; Secretary, T. W. Ault. 

1878. — Burgess, P. C. Hockenbury ; Council, John Robertson, John 
Walter, Morgan Keddle, J. D. Hill, T. C. Kenney ; Constable, C. H. 
C. Cope ; Secretary, T. W. Ault. 

1879.— Burgess, John Robertson; Council, H. C. Hubbs, J. D. Hill, T.C. 
Kenney, William Dick, .Dr. A. W. Strickler; Constable, Samuel 
Bishop, J. K. Eicber. 

1880.— Burgess, H. B. Orr; Council, Nathaniel Miles, J. R. Taylor, 
Joseph McCullough, N. L. K. Kline, W. A. Lockard ; Constable, A. 
B. Finley; Secretary, T. W. Ault, J. R. Taylor. 

1881.— Burgess, P. C. Hockenbury; Council, Nathaniel Miles, P. S. 
Loucks, Johu Klingeusmith, John Robertson, E. H. Reid ; Con- 
stable, J. R. Torrance; Secretary, T. W. Ault. 

1882. — Burgess, Joseph K. Eicher ; Council, E. H. Reid, E. A. Humph- 
ries, William Kelly, J. D. Hill, J. W. Thomas. 

BOROUGH SCHOOLS. 

Before 1878 the schools were held in a small frame 
school building of one room, located on the site of 
the present two-story brick edifice, built in 1878. The 
first one was the property of the township, and was 
taken into the limits of the borough. The school 
board in January, 1882, consists of George H. Ever- 
son, president ; Dr. A. W. Strickler, secretary ; Jacob 
S. Loucks, treasurer ; James Smith, Dr. B. R. Mitch- 
ell, and John Lott. The teachers are : 

Room No. 1, E. P. Weddle, principal, succeeding 



tAt the February session, 1874, the petition of certaiu citizens of 
East Huntingdon township was presented to the court, praying for the 
organization of a borough in the vicinity of that portion of the town- 
ship known as Fountain Mills. By the affidavit of Robert Foster and 
J. P. Herrington it was set forth that at the time the petition was 
taken around among the inhabitants of the proposed borough of Scott- 
dale it was signed by a majority of the freeholders residing within the 
limits proposed. By order of court of Feb. 5, 1874, the prayer of the 
petitioners was granted and the borough was incorporated. The third 
Tuesday in February, 1874, was fixed as the time of holdiug the first 
election, which was to lie held at the school-house therein, with Walter 
P. Brown as judge, and Robert Foster and John Loucks as inspectors. 
The borough was also declared to be a separate school district. 



E. H. Bair, resigned from sickness. No. 2, John Wed- 
dle ; No. 3, H. R. Francis ; No. 4, A. T. Fleming. 
The number of pupils is over two hundred, and the 
annual cost of running the schools is $1650. 

ORDERS, SOCIETIES, Etc. 
SCOTTDALE LODGE, No. 885, I. O. 0. F., 

was chartered Sept. 2, 1874, with the following officers 
and charter members: N. G., J. M. Kelly; V. G., A. 
H. Brown; Sec, H. J. Shir,ey ; Asst. Sec, J. W. 
Whitey ; Treas., J. S. Klingeiismith. The following 
are the Past Grands who are yet members : J. S. 
Klingeiismith, E. A. Humphreys, Samuel Talham- 
mer, C. W. Mytinger, Hugh Wilson, J. S. Albright, 
David Christ, J. W. Ruth. The officers for 1882 are : 
N. G., John A. Husher; V. G., H. D. Leach; Sec, 
John S. Albright; Asst. Sec, Milton Peddicord ; 
Treas., J. S. Klingensmith ; Trustees, J. S. Albright, 
C. W. Mytinger, George Gettamy. The lodge has a 
membership of sixty-three, and meets every Tuesday 
night. 

FOUNTAIN LODGE, No. 443, K. OF P., 

was chartered May 15, 18 — , with the following char- 
ter members : J. V. Branthoover, David Jones, J. 
Prytherch, C. W. Mytinger, J. Caldwell, M. Jones, 
W. T. Brown, Charles Maguire, John Caldwell, Jo- 
seph McCullough. The officers for 1882 are : C. C, 
J. B. Klingensmith ; V. G, H. D. Leach ; Prel., Mil- 
ton Peddicord ; M. A., Desmoine Bewlby ; K. of R. 
and S., C. W. Mytinger; M. of F., L. Llewellyn ; M. 
of E., Johu Rutherford ; Trustees, Nathan Smith, J. 
B. Klingensmith, H. D. Leach. It meets every Fri- 
day evening, and has forty -seven members. 

SCOTTDALE CIRCLE, No. 121, BROTHERHOOD OF THE UNION, 

was chartered Aug. 10, 1876, with the following char- 
ter members : W. C. Kinney, Isaac Barnum, William 
Barnum, Franklin Chain, Joseph Reagan, Isaac Rob- 
inson, William Gorman, Daniel Kline, Robert L. 
Kline, James Kline, George W. Bowers, William S. 
Lynch. 

SCOTTDALE LODGE, No. 1UC3, I. O. G. T, 

was chartered April 8, 1878. Its first officers and 
charter members were: W. C. T., John F. Kaine; 
W. V. T., Lizzie Prytherch ; W. C. H. A. P., R. Mc- 
Conaughy; W. S. E. C, L. N. Eicher; W. A. S., 
Molly Prytherch ; W. F. S., Annie E. Eicher ; W. 
T. R. E. A., S. K. Hockenbury ; W. M., John Might ; 
W. D. M., Delia Browning; W. I. G., Jennie Crock- 
ett; W. O. G., David Jones, Jr. ; W. R. H. S., Lyde 
Jones; W. I. H. G., Maggie White; P. W. C. T., 
George Barkel. Members, T. B. Ivan, H. Lentz, B. 

F. Hubbs, David Jones. 

C0L. ELLSWORTH TOST, No. 209, GRAND ARMY OF THE RE- 
PUBLIC. 

This post was chartered May 26, 1881, with the fol- 
lowing charter members : S. L. Steinsman, John W. 
Thomas, J. S. Klingensmith, J. K. Eicher, Samuel 
Ferguson, John Connely, S. D. Altaian, Nathan 



684 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Smith, Benjamin Newcomer, George Lemon, John S. 
Booker, David Bare, J. G. Anderson, Henry C. Es- 
tep, John T. Moffett, George Segor, A. B. Findley, 
Joseph Cox, John Might. 

SCOTTDALE BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION 
was organized April 24, 1876, with the following offi- 
cers : 

President, W. T. Brown ; Secretary, T. W. Ault ; Treasurer, P. S. Loucks ; 
Directors, Dr. A. J. Rogers, G. H. Everson, J. W. Kobe, 0. B. Rob- 
ertson, T. W. McCune, S. J. Zearley, G. B. Gray, I. M. Kelly. 

1877.— President, W. T. Brown ; Secretary, T. W. Ault; Treasurer, P. 8. 
Loucks; Directors, T. W. McCune, J. W. Robe, S. J. Zearley, David 
F. Stoner, Dr. A. J. Rogers, G. H. Everson, P. 0. Hockenburg 

1878.— President, W. T. Brown; Secretary, T. W. Ault; Treasurer, P. S. 
Loucks; Directors, J. S. Kliugensmith, Dr. A. J. Rogers, Muj. J.M. 
Knap, 51. S. Loucks, S. R. Eicher, P. C. Hockenbury, John Walter, 
David F. Stoner. 

1879.— President, P. S. LouckB; Secretary, T. W. Ault; Treasurer, D. F. 
Stoner; Directors, John Klingensmitb, S. R. Eicher, L. N. Sisley.W. 
T. Brown, John Robertson, W. K. Herbert, Jacob S. Loucks. 

1880.— President, P. S. Loucks; Secretary, T. W. Ault; Treasurer, John 
S. Parker; Directors, John Robertsou, John Rutherford, W. K. Her- 
bert, S. D. Aultman, John Walter, David Dick, John Klingensmitb, 
S. R. Eicher. 

1881.— President, P. S. Loucks; Secretary, T. W. Ault; Treasurer, John 
P. Klingensmith; Directors, John Robertson, S. R. Eicher, T. W. 
Ault, W. K. Herbert, David Dick, Dr. A. J. Rogers, J. A. Barnhart, 
John Walter, John Rutherford. 

THE LECTURE ASSOCIATION. 

Officers for 1882 are : President, J. R. Stauffer ; 

Secretary and Treasurer, E. A. McConn ; Committee, 

E. H. Reid, George H. Everson, George H. Fulton, 

E. O. Humphries, J. D. Hill, Nathaniel Miles, T. F. 

Cummiugs. 

THE POST-OFFICE 

was established in 1873, and H. C, Hubbs appointed 
postmaster. The. first year the proceeds of the office 
netted him forty-five dollars. Before that time the 
office was " Fountain Mills," on the Fayette County 
side of Jacobs Creek. Mr. Hubbs first kept it in the 
" Company Store" building, and afterwards removed 
it to the Livengood building on the corner, where it 
remained until 1880, when it was changed to its pres- 
ent location. In 1881 he was succeeded by the pres- 
ent popular incumbent, J. C. Farrar, who removed to 
this town five years ago from Cumberland, Md. In 
December, 1881, it was made a Presidential office, 
with salary at fourteen hundred dollars per year, to 
take effect April 1, 1882. 

ADAMS EXPRESS OFFICE 
was established in 1873, with H. C. Hubbs as agent, 
who has held this position to the present time. 

STATION AGENT. 
The first depot or station was built in 1880, and 
opened in January following, with H. C. Hubbs as 
station- and ticket-agent. Previous to this there was 
nothing but a platform to accommodate people, who 
were obliged to stand exposed to the inclement 
weather, and that, too, iu a town named in honor of 
Col. Thomas A. Scott, so long the noted president of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. 



VARIOUS BUSINESS AND MANUFACTURING IN- 
TERESTS. 

The extensive planing-mill and lumber manufac- 
tory of Ruth & Stoner was established in 1873 by 
Peter S. and Jacob S. Loucks. They operated it on 
a large scale until January, 1882, when Messrs. Ruth 
& Stoner leased it. It employs some fifteen hands in 
manufacturing doors, sash, joists, etc., used by them 
in building houses. The Loucks brothers in their 
nine years' business erected many of the buildings in 
the town. 

The Loucks brothers, Peter S. and Jacob S., have 
a large warehouse, in which they store grain, seeds, 
wool, etc., in the buying and selling of which they 
are extensively engaged. 

In 1878, Zearley & Pool erected a planing-mill and 
lumber establishment, which E. H. Reid purchased 
and operated after them. It is now conducted by 
John H. Seivers, lessee of the property of Mr. Reid, 
and is situated on Broadway, one square from Pitts- 
burgh Street. It employs some twenty hands, and 
procures its lumber from the West and Northern 
Pennsylvania. Since its erection, four years ago, it 
has built many buildings in the place. The largest 
store here is that of E. H. Reid, formerly owned by 
the Furnace Company, of whom Mr. Reid purchased 
some years since. He is an old merchant, having 
been in business nearly fifteen years at Broad Ford. 
Another large dry-goods store, etc., is that of J. S. 
Parker, successors of Parker & Smith, who started the 
second store in the place. There are two large hotels, 
and every kind of industry is well represented. There 
are no licensed places for the sale of spirituous or malt 
liquors iu less quantities than the gallon or keg. 

The private banking-house of J. S. Stauffer and P. 
S. Loucks, doing business as the Scottdale Bank, has 
just (1882) been established in the borough. It pro- 
poses doing a general banking business, receiving de- 
posits and making discounts. John M. Stauffer is 
cashier. The bank is located in Loucks' Block, a 
new building, on Pittsburgh Street. 

STONERSVILLE. 
This town, a station on the South Penn Railroad, is 
on parts of the old tracts of land owned by Matthias 
Camp and Henry Fox. In 1800, when there was no 
building on the site of the present town, the Mennon- 
ite Church congregation purchased of Mr. Camp an 
acre and a half of ground, on which the same year 
they erected a log meeting-house, a school-house, and 
laid out a graveyard. This was the first start of the 
place. Shortly afterwards Christian Stoner erected a 
saw-mill, carding-machine, and fulling-mill on land 
purchased of Joseph Fulkerth. He also put up a 
cabinet-maker's shop and made coffins, being the first 
undertaker in the township. Next was the erection 
of a log house on the old State road, on the Fulkerth 
land, east of the railroad, which was built along here 
in 1872. The opening of the railroad was the be- 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



685 



ginning of the place, which before was hardly a 
hamlet. That year Hurst, Stoner & Co., composed of 
Braden Hurst, B. B. Stoner, Mr. Shaw, and W. B. 
Neal, established their coke-works, now having seventy 
ovens. They laid out thirty lots along the State road. 
Their firm is the same now, but the partners are 
Braden Hurst, with Messrs. Rafferty and McClure. 
The next year S. Warden & Co. opened their coke- 
works and built twenty company buildings for their 
workmen. This company (three-fourths of whose 
stock is now owned by the Southwest Coal Com- 
pany) have at present seventy-two ovens. The first 
physician here was the present practitioner, Dr. J. E. 
Rigg, who located in 1875. The State road, from 
Mount Pleasant to Smith's Ferry, passed by its site, 
and on it a mile west of Stonersville a Mr. Keggy 
kept tavern several years before 1800, when Rev. 
David Funk purchased the place. The post-ofiSce 
was established June 1, 1877, and Braden Hurst ap- 
pointed postmaster, who still holds the office. The 
present stores are kept by J. J. Hurst & Co. and Wil- 
liam A. Byers, and the grocery by E. H. Trout. 

THE SCHOOLS. 
The first school-house was a little rude log hut. It 
was torn down, and the second one erected, a small 
brick structure, in 1830. In this house the first 
teacher was a Mr. Lutis, an educated sea-captain 
from Germany. It being too small a new one was 
built (brick) in 1850, which was replaced in 1876 
by the fourth and present one, a fine two-story 
building, with two rooms. The four school-houses 
were on four different lots, two located north of the 
State road and two south. The present teachers are 
W. E. and E. Loucks, both experienced educators 
and sons of the late Rev. Peter Loucks. 

SHOUP'S MILL, 
an extensive steam flouring-mill, a frame building, 
three stories in height, is the first grist-mill erected 
here, and was built in 1881 by its proprietors, P. L. 
and J. B. Shoup, descendants of an old family, early 
settled in the township. 

KEAGANTOWN 
is a hamlet in the western part of the township, whose 
vicinity was early settled by the Suters, Smiths, Sny- 
ders, Lowes, McCurdys, Henkstellers, Reagans (from 
whom it took its name), Fosters. Here was the " Har- 
mony" Presbyterian Church, erected in 1840, and the 
place of attendance on church worship by that denom- 
ination for miles around until 1879, when the congre- 
gation was absorbed into the Scottdale Church. Two 
miles south of it is the Wesleyan Chapel, near which 
the old families of Hixons, Espeys, Felgars, Stein- 
mans, Houghs, Foxes, Kellys, Durstines, Hutchin- 
sous, and Fretts reside. 

HUNKER STATION 
is on the railroad just below the Hempfield township 
line, and is quite a shipping point. 
44 



" McKean'g Old Stand?' is in the northwest part of 
the township, in a neighborhood early settled by the 
Nulls, Ruffs, Lowes, Bryans, Reagers, and Kellys. 

THE SOUTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD 
traverses the entire length of the township, and has 
been the means of adding largely to its wealth and 
population, and has stations at every necessary point 
to accommodate the rich mineral and agricultural 
productions produced in its limits. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE OVERHOLT FAMILY (WEST OVERTON). 
In 1800, Abraham Overholt came from Bucks 
County, where his ancestors had settled half a century 
before, and located where is now the village of West 
Overton. His wife was a Staufter, by whom the fol- 
lowing children were born : Henry, Jacob, Abraham, 
Martin, Christian S., John, died young, Annie, mar- 
ried to John Tintsman, and Elizabeth, married to 
John W. Frick. 

I. Of these, Henry's children were: 1, Sarah A., 
married to A. S. R. Overholt ; 2, Benjamin F. ; 3, 
Maria; 4, Abbie C. ; 5, Abraham; 6, Henry C. ; 7, 
Jennie O, married to Nathaniel Miles. 

II. Jacob's children were : 1, Maria ; 2, Elizabeth ; 
3, Abraham; 4, Isaac; 5, Mary Ann; 6, Fenton ; 7, 
Christopher; 8, Jacob Webster ; 9, Emma Fox. 

III. Abraham's children were : ], George; 2, John; 
3, Norman ; 4, Mary. 

IV. Martin's children were: 1, Hudson; 2, James; 

3, Henry ; 4, Elizabeth, married to Mr. Richey ; 5, 
Ida. 

V. Annie Tintsman's children were: 1, Jacob O. 
Tintsman ; 2, A. O. Tintsman, a coal king of Pitts- 
burgh ; 3, Henry O. Tintsman, of Mount Pleasant ; 

4, John, died in late war in the army ; 5, Annie, mar- 
ried to Loren Leassure; 6, Emma, married to Dr. 
Kline, of Greensburg. 

VI. Elizabeth Frick's children were : 1, Maria, mar- 
ried to J. S. R. Overholt; 2, H. Clay Frick, a coal prince 
of Pittsburgh ; 3, Annie, married to Mr. Braddock, 
merchant of Mount Pleasant; 4, Aaron ; 5, Edgar; 6, 
Sallie. 

VI. Christian S. Overholt's children were: 1, Alice 
Carey ; 2, Charles ; 3, Elmore ; 4, Mary, married to 
George McKean ; 5, Annie ; 6, William. 

Jacob Overholt was a brother of Abraham, and 
came here from Bucks County about the time of the 
latter's arrival, and located midway between Scottdale 
and West Overton. He was a noted veterinary sur- 
geon in his day. He married Elizabeth Detwiler, by 
whom were born the following children : John D., 
Henry D., Annie, married to Abraham Sherrick, 
Jacob, Susan, married to Christian Staufter. and 
1 Martin. 



686 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Of these the eldest, John D., married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Christian Stauffer, by whom the follow- 
ing children were born : Agnes, married to Abraham 
Bechtell; Jacob; Ann, married to Alexander 11. 
Boyd; Elizabeth, Christian, John, and Aaron S. K., 
the last two being twins and the youngest. 

Abraham Overholt established a small still on his 
farm in 1810, which used only a bushel and a half of 
grain per day. Before 1859 it had been enlarged, but 
in that year the firm of A. & H. Overholt erected on 
the same site the present distillery. It is a brick 
structure, six stories in height, one hundred by sixty 
feet, with capacity for two hundred and fifty bush sis 
daily. On the first addition, about 1830, to the estab- 
lishment a flouring-mill was added and steam-power 
introduced. Both corn and rye whiskey are made, 
and the superiority of its brands of flour and whiskey 
has given the mills a great celebrity. They are now 
operated by A. C. Overholt & Co., who have oue 
hundred and thirty coke-ovens just north of the vil- 
lage, of which sixty-two were started in 1873, and 
the others in 1878. These give employmeut to over 
a hundred men, and produce one hundred and eighty 
tons of coke daily. With the distillery is connected 
a large farm, on which is the elegant brick mansion 
in which A. S. R. Overholt resides, and which was 
built in 1838 by Abraham Overholt. The post-office 
was established in 1850, and since 1866 A. R. S. 
Overholt has been postmaster, his predecessor being 
Jacob O. Tintsman. The village was laid out and 
built by Abraham and Henry Overholt, and grew up 
settled by their employes. The first store was kept 
by Christian 3. Overholt & Co., and the present one 
by A. C. Overholt & Co. The village is prettily lo- 
cated in a rich agricultural and coal region, and many 
of its residences are fine brick structures. This place 
owes its existence to the Overholt family, who early 
settled in and around it, and where their descendants 
are still very numerous, being intermarried with 
many of the neighboring families. 



THE STONER FAMILY. 
The ancestor of the Stoner family in this county 
came from Switzerland in the middle of the last cen- 
tury, landed at Philadelphia, and settled in Chester 
County. He subsequently removed to Morrison's 
Cove, in Bedford County. His son Christian, born 
in Chester County, came to East Huntingdon town- 
ship in 1799 from Bedford County, where he had 
lived several years. Here, near Stonersville, he pur- 
chased five hundred acres of land, now in four farms. 
Tobias Landis now lives on the old Stoner homestead, 
the other three parts being owned by the grandsons 
of Christian, viz.: Adam Stoner, Christian Stoner, 
and Solomon B. Stoner, there being a few small sub- 
divisions besides. He died in 1814, and his wife, 
Barbara, in 1816. Of his land when he came one 
hundred acres had beeu put in cultivation by previous 



owners, and had a cabin on it, the remainder being 
in woods. His neighbors were Abraham Ruth on 
the west, George Muman on southeast, and Rev. 
David Funk on the east. Abraham's children were 
John, Abraham, Barbara, married to John Werts, 
Elizabeth, married to Christian Sherrick, Christian, 
Jacob, Daniel (the first born in this county, the others 
having been born before their parents' arrival here), 
Heiirv, Anna, married to John Rudabaugh, and 
David. Of these the eldest, John, was born in June, 
1787, and was married Oct. 11, 1811, to Magdalena 
Fox, daughter of Henry Fox. He died Aug 7, 1868, 
and his wife April 21, 1858, in her sixty-eighth year. 
Their children were Elizabeth, born 1S14, and mar- 
ried to David Funk, grandson of the Mennonite 
preacher; Henry W., born 1816; John H., born 
1818; Mary, born 1821, and married to David Funk ; 
she dying he married her sister Elizabeth ; Jacob F., 
born 1823: Adam, born 1826; Christian F., born 
1828 ; Anna, born 1830, and married to David Landis ; 
and Magdalena, born 1833, and married to Rev. Reu- 
ben H. Bolton. 

The locality settled by the Stoner family was early 
called "the Stoner settlement," and the name of 
Stonerville was given to the village (now a thriving 
town) in recognition of this family, so prominent in 
this region since 1799. Leuffer Station is on the 
land of Henry W. Stoner. 



THE FOX FAMILY. 
Henry Fox was born in Chester County in 1745, 
and early (in 1797) settled in this township, two and 
a half miles west of Mount Pleasant, and near the 
Stoners. He had two sons and several daughters. 
Mr. Fox's selection of land, over three hundred acres, 
was ever considered the finest of the early purchases, 
being the clearest from the hollows and runs. His 
daughter Magdalena married John Stoner, and was 
the mother of the well-known citizen, Henry W. 
Stoner. Mr. Fox died July 25, 1824, aged seventy- 
nine years, and his wife, Mary, Aug. 30, 1834, aged 
eighty. 

THE DILLINGER FAMILY.— BETHANY STATION. 

Daniel Dillinger was born, Aug. 6, 1787, in the east 
part of the State, and came to this county at an early 
period, settling at Bethany, on the farm now owned 
by his son Samuel, and occupied by Moses Hickson. 
He died Feb. 9, 1845, aged fifty-seven years, and his 
wife (Mary Myers) June 19. 1871, aged eighty-one. 
She was born in Lancaster County. Their children 
were Daniel, Christian, Joseph, Jacob, Samuel, 
Daniel, Abraham, Elizabeth, married to Alexander 
Myers ; Sarah, to Michael Sheetz ; and Mary, first to 
John McCollum, and afterwards to John Billheimer. 
( (f these Samuel Dillinger was horn Oct. 28, 1810, and 
married Sarah Loucks, born in 1808. He moved to 
his home farm in 1832, before which, after his mar- 





,£/?0 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



687 



riagc, he lived near Seottdale. Their children were : 
Annie, married to Joseph Hickson, and deceased; 
Mary, married to Abraham Sherrick ; Catharine, 
married to Moses Hickson ; Sarah, married to J. 0. 
Fox ; John L., married to Mary Mclntyre : Elizabeth, 
married to C. T. Hanna; Eliza, married to A. A. 
Hasson ; Daniel' L. ; Samuel, married to Katie Hutch- 
inson. About 1830, Samuel Dillinger started a small 
still on his farm in 1851, and in 1853 erected a frame 
distillery at Old Bethany (West Bethany post-office), 
to which in 1856 he added a grist-mill, which was 
operated until 1881, when destroyed by tire. The 
same Mr. Dillinger, with his two sons, Daniel L. and 
Samuel, erected a new three-story frame distillery at 
Bethany Station, and began distilling in March, 1882. 

The firm of S. Dillinger it Sons manufacture pure 
rye whiskey, the only rye distillery now in operation 
in the township. It has a capacity for two hundred 
bushels a day. Its market is Pittsburgh and the 
East. All its grain is purchased in the West. Mr. 
Dillinger owns nearly a thousand acres of land in the 
township, half of which is full of undeveloped coal. 
They have at Tarr's Station sixty-fourcoke-ovens, and 
fifty-one at Havvkeye Station. The former were 
erected in 1879, and the latter in 1871. This firm 
does a very extensive business in its distillery, coke- 
ovens, and flour trade. 

Bethany Station is a growing village that arose 
nearly three years ago on the Dillingers establishing 
their coke-ovens, and is fast increasing in popula- 
tion and business. It lies a mile and a half northeast 
of Old Bethany and a mile northwest of Tarr's Station. 
The Dillinger family is excelled by no other in the 
northern part of the township in amount of business 
done, and has ever been specially active in the cause 
of education, several of the best school-houses being 
built through the persistent energy of Samuel Dillin- 
ger, Sr. He was one of the projectors of the South Penn 
Railroad in 1870 and 1871, at which time he and his 
sons had seventy coke-ovens in Fayette County, at 
Pennsville, now owned by A. O. Tinstman, who pur- 
chased them in 1881. They employ at their two coke- 
works over a hundred men. 



James R. ; Gasper; Margaret, married to John Hus- 
band; Matilda, married to Robert Neal; Henry; Paoli; 
and Samuel, who died in his twenty-second year. Of 
these, the venerable John Bal.ser Tarr was born Oct. 
9, 1799. He attended several terms of the neighbor- 
hood subscription school, three-fourths of a mile from 
hi- father's, taught by John Selby. He was married 
in 1827 to Harriet Reagan, who died some ten years 
ago. He moved to his present farm in 1835. He 
served twenty-two years as magistrate, having first 
been appointed under the old constitution by the 
Governor, and several times elected -by the people. 
His father, Gasper Tarr, was a soldier in the war of 
1812, and helped to build Reid's Station, on the Alle- 
gheny River, above Kittanning. Among the neigh- 
bors of his grandfather, in the early settlement of this 
region, were Jacob Gardner, Henry Loucks, Melchior 
Sherbondy, Matthias Camp, and Mark Leighty. 
Tarr's Station was named after James R. Tarr, who 
owned the land on which it is located. Here are the 
extensive coke-works of Peter Tarr, embracing eighty 
ovens, also the one hundred and thirty-eight coke- 
ovens of the Southwest Coal and Coke Company 
(Frick & Co., proprietors), which succeeded Stoner 
(Joseph), Hitchman & Co. It is a corporation 
which owns eleven hundred acres of coal land, em- 
ploys over two hundred men, and has fifty dwellings 
for its workmen. It has another opening at Stoners- 
ville. Since the building of the South Pennsylvania 
Railroad in 1872 all of its engines have been coaled 
here. One of the most active of its business men, 
who has very largely contributed to the development 
of the place, is Joseph Stoner, who has lately retired 
from the coke and mercantile business, and is now 
devoting his time to the Mount Pleasant Bank, of 
wdiich he is a fourth proprietor. The Robbstown 
and Mount Pleasant turnpike was completed in 1821, 
and was chartered in 1819. The managers from this 
region were Gasper Tarr, John Stoner, and Henry 
Null. The majority of its stock is now held by Henry 
H. Null, of Greensburg, but John B. Tarr is ite secre- 
tary and treasurer. 



THE TARR FAMILY.— TARR STATION. 
About 1794, John B. Tarr, whose father was an em- 
igrant from Germany before 1760, came from near Elli- 
cott's Mills, Md., and settled where Henry W. Stoner 
now resides. In this part of the township he purchased 
several hundred acres of land. His children were 
Henry, Peter, Christian, Daniel, and Gasper. Of these, 
Christian Tarr was a senator and representative in 
the State Legislature from Fayette County, and a 
member of Congress. Gasper married Ann Reid, of 
Lancaster County, and lived in the brick house where 
his son Henry's son now resides. His children were 
Catherine, married to Paoli Shepherd; Frederick; 
Esther, married to George Sherbondy ; John Balser; 



THE LOUCKS FAMILY 

in this county is descended from an ancestor who 
emigrated from Germany in 1759 and settled in 
Bucks County. From him sprang a grandson, Peter 
Loucks, who removed in 1800 and settled first just 
across Jacobs Creek in Fayette County, on a farm 
where now is McClure & Co.'s coke-works. Here he 
remained a year. He then purchased eighty acres of 
land, now a part of his grandson's (Peter S. Loucks) 
place, of John Hugus, with a cabin on it, into which 
he moved. Two years later he bought another eighty- 
acre tract, included in the present town of Seottdale, 
of a Mr. Galloway. At that time an old house, stable, 
and blacksmith-shop were on this place, all standing 
on the site of the Methodist Episcopal Church lot. 



688 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



He had married in Bucks County Anna Overholt, by 
whom there were born the following children : Henry, 
Catharine, Jacob, Mary, and Martin, and those born 
after their arrival here were Sarah, married to Sam- 
uel Dillinger, John, Nancy, died young, and Peter, 
the latter living in Indiana. The original emigrant 
Loucks died about 1S25, and his widow subsequently 
married Martin Stauffer. 

Rev. Martin Loucks, who was only a year old when 
his parents came here, was born in 1798, and married 
Nancy Stauffer. He was a well-known Mennonite 
preacher, and preached at the old church in Stoners- 
ville. He died Nov. 7, 1869, aged seventy years, and 
his widow resides with her son, Peter S. Their chil- 
dren were Elizabeth, married to David F. Stoner and 
deceased ; Jacob, Anna, Catherine, Abraham, Peter 
Stauffer, and John. In old times the nearest school- 
house to the Loucks place was on the Overton farm, 
a mile distant, and was a stone structure, octagon- 
shaped. The old Peter Loucks homestead of eighty 
acres is now included in the limits of Scottdale bor- 
ough. John, second child of Peter Loucks, born 
here after his arrival from Bucks County, was the 
father of the late P. Loucks, who became an eminent 
minister of the Church of God denomination. The 
latter married the youngest daughter of John Fox, 
who moved to Westmoreland County when there was 
but one house where the town of Mount Pleasant now 
stands. Her mother, Frederica Carolina Sherbus, 
was from the canton of Kircheimlanden, Switzer- 
land, and married Mr. John Fox in 1820. She died 
May 23, 1876, aged seventy-eight. 

Rev. P. Loucks had five children, two of whom, 
W. E. and E., are the teachers of the Stonersville 
schools. 

Peter Loucks, the first of the name in the county, 
died July 10, 1825, aged sixty-four years, and his 
wife, Anna (Overholt), March 15, 1845, in her sev- 
enty-fifth year. 

SAMUEL DILLINGER. 
In the early part of the present century Samuel 
Dillinger, of whose family a genealogical sketch ap- 
pears elsewhere in this volume, began his life-work, 
with no capital save a strong body, a stout heart, and 
willing hands. To any one who gazes upon his broad 
acres and busy manufacturing establishments to-day 
his success is manifest. Indeed, no one embodying 
his characteristics could fail. Owing to the fact that 
it was necessary for him to devote his youthful days 
to manual labor, his early education was very limited. 
This deficiency he supplied by diligent study during 
the spare moments of after-years. His business edu- 
cation is of the very best, and was obtained from the 
business world by careful study of business men. 
While he has labored diligently to promote his in- 
dividual interests, he has not been unmindful of his 
duties as a citizen. He has always taken a proper 
interest in politics, and has held the local offices 



usually intrusted to business men. The free-school 
system has ever found in him a true friend and liberal 
supporter. He has always taken an active interest 
in whatever contributed to increase the industries or 
develop the resources of the country. Benevolent 
and hospitable, the poor have always resorted to him 
confidently in their time of need. 

His life has been one of usefulness, and commands 
the respect of those who know him. Although he 
has passed the allotted time of threescore and ten 
years, he is still vigorous in health, and enjoys the 
results of his years of toil, having committed the 
management of his large business interest to his 
sons. May 19, 1881, he and his wife, Sarah (Loucks) 
Dillinger, who has contributed so largely to her hus- 
band's success by saving his earnings and making 
his home comfortable and happy, celebrated their 
golden wedding. Here were assembled their children 
and numerous grandchildren, together with the few 
who remain of the happy comjjany which met more 
than half a century ago to bid them Godspeed through 
their wedded life. Both Mr. Dillinger and his wife 
possess many of the virtues of the sturdy race from 
which they sprang. 



ABRAHAM OVERHOLT AND HENRY S. OVERHOLT. 
The late Abraham Overholt, the immediate pro- 
genitor of the large family bearing his name in West- 
moreland County, and who made that name a house- 
hold word, not only in Western Pennsylvania but in al- 
most every region of the country, was descended from 
the immigrant Martin Overholt, who came to America 
from Germany some time early in the eighteenth 
century and settled in Bucks County, Pa., where he 
died in his thirty-seventh year, leaving a family of 
children, one of whom was Henry Overholt, who 
married a Miss Anna Beitler, by whom he had twelve 
children, all of whom were born in Bucks County, 
and who came with their parents from that county to 
Westmoreland County in the year 1800. At that 
time several of the children were married. Of the 
married the 'daughters bore the names of Loucks, 
Fretts, and Stauffer. The family, with its married 
accessions, " colonized" on a tract of land then wild, 
but since long known as the Overholt homestead, in 
West Overton. The next to the youngest of the 
family was Abraham Overholt, with whose name this 
sketch opens. He was at that time in his seven- 
teenth year, and had learned the domestic weaver's 
trade in Bucks County, and while his brothers cleared 
the land he wrought at the loom for the family and 
the wide-about neighborhood. Mr. Overholt prose- 
cuted his trade continuously till about 1810, when he 
and his younger brother, Christian, purchased a 
special interest in the homestead farm, and after a 
couple of years' co-partnership with his brother in 
farming he bought out the latter's interest (com- 
prising one hundred and fifty acres), at fifty dollars 








y^fc^T 1 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



689 



an acre, a price then regarded high. This purchase 
included a log distillery having the capacity of three 
or four bushels of grain per day only. At that time 
nearly every farm in the neighborhood possessed its 
private distillery. Mr. Overholt soon after the pur- 
chase built a stone distillery, which had a capacity of 
from forty to fifty bushels per day, but he had no 
mill, and got his grain chopped on Jacobs Creek, in 
what is now Scottdale, and at Bridgeport. The haul- 
ing of the " chop" from those places to the distillery 
was principally done by cattle, driven by Mr. Over- 
holt's younger sons, in whose minds dwell vivid 
memories of those slow and dreaded days, when the 
cattle were likely to " stall" at various points along 
the road. About 1834, Mr. Overholt built a brick 
flouring-mill, and thereafter did his own chopping 
for the distillery. This mill and the distillery above 
mentioned were kept running till 1859, when both 
were taken down, and on their site was erected a 
large structure, comprising mill and distillery, and in 
dimensions a hundred feet in length, sixty-three feet 
in width, and six stories in height. The capacity of 
the distillery is two hundred bushels a day, that of 
the mill fifty barrels of flour. A short time before 
the erection of the new building, Mr. Henry S. Over- 
holt, the oldest child of Abraham Overholt, pur- 
chased a half-interest in his father's farm and flour- 
ing and distilling business, and with him conducted 
the same till Jan. 15, 1870, when Abraham Overholt 
died, and on the 18th of June in the same year, and 
after a short illness, Henry followed his father to the 
grave. During the period of his partnership with 
his father, in fact, for ten years before the partnership 
was entered into, Mr. Henry S. Overholt conducted 
the business of the mill and distillery, the elder 
Overholt generally supervising. It should be here 
noted that Abraham Overholt was the first discoverer 
of coal in this portion of Westmoreland County, and 
commenced to use it before others made use of it. 
Prior to its discovery coal was brought from the 
other sides of the mountains to the blacksmith-shops 
of the region, and which it was found stood over the 
finest strata of coal. Mr. Overholt used to exhibit 
his coal-mines in an early day as a curiosity to visit- 
ing strangers from the East. 

Mr. Abraham Overholt as a business man was dis- 
tinguished for the order with which he conducted all 
his affairs, for his firmness and decision, for prompt- 
ness, great energy, and punctuality. He was never 
known to disappoint a creditor seeking payment, was 
gentle to his employes, and straightforward in all 
his dealings. As a citizen he was what his character 
as a business man would indicate. He was public- 
spirited, and was one of the earliest and most earnest 
advocates of the present common-school system of the 
State. In politics he was ardent. During Jackson's 
latter term as President he was a " Jackson man," 
but opposed Van Buren, and became an old-line 
Whig, and continued such till the advent of the Re- 



publican party, when he naturally united with it, 
and took extreme interest in its welfare. He was a 
warm Lincoln man, and during the late war was 
deeply aroused over the affairs of the country. Be- 
ing then nearly eighty years of age, he nevertheless 
visited the seat of war twice, in his anxiety over the 
state of the country and to encourage soldiers in the 
field with whom he was personally acquainted. 

Mr. Henry S. Overholt, who was born Aug. 10, 
1810, and who was at the time of his death in his 
sixtieth year, possessed many of the characteristics of 
his father. He was considered one of the best busi- 
ness men in Western Pennsylvania. A marked pe- 
culiarity of this gentleman was his reticence as to his 
own affairs, and which he preserved in such manner 
that they who were curious and inquisitive, and 
deemed that they had some light at the beginning of 
impertinent investigations, were sure to find in the 
end that they then knew nothing. Socially he was 
not garrulous, and though quiet was very popular, 
and much beloved by all who knew him. His life 
was eminently moral from boyhood to the day of his 
death. 

In 1809, Abraham Overholt married Maria Staufl'er, 
daughter of the Rev. John Staufl'er and Elizabeth, 
his wife. 

Feb. 10, 1846, Mr. Henry S. Overholt was united 
in marriage with Miss Abigail Carpenter, born 
March 13, 1824, a daughter of Benjamin F. and 
Mary Sarver Carpenter, of Versailles township, Alle- 
gheny Co., Pa. 

Mrs. Abigail Overholt survives her husband, and 
resides in the village of West Overton. She is the 
mother of seven children, — Sarah A. Overholt, inter- 
married with Aaron S. R. Overholt (not a blood re- 
lative of hers), Benjamin F., Maria Carpenter, Abi- 
gail O, Abraham O, Henry O, and Jennie O, the 
wife of Nathaniel Miles, a native of Pittsburgh. 

The record of the children of Abraham Overholt 
will be found under the heading, " The Overholt 
Family," in another part of this volume. 



JACOB S. OVERHOLT. 
The late Jacob S. Overholt, of Emma Mines, East 
Huntingdon township, and who died April 20, 1859, 
was the second son and third child of Abraham Over- 
holt, and was born at West Overton, Oct. 18, 1814. 
He was reared upon the homestead farm, and was ed- 
ucated in the common schools, and while young, 
though somewhat employed upon the farm, was also 
engaged in his father's distillery, learning the busi- 
ness of distilling, in which the elder Overholt had 
peculiar skill, and in which Jacob soon became so 
proficient that he and his elder brother, Henry S., 
were practically intrusted by their father with the 
management of the business at an early age. At the 
time when Jacob entered the distillery the business 
was comparatively small ; but the close attention, 



690 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



prudence, and activity of the young Jacob, with his 
brother, pushed it forward with gradual and safe 
progress, so that at the time he arrived at thirty years 
of age the business of the distillery, with that of a 
flouring-mill, both in the same building, had reached 
large proportions. The brothers continued for sev- 
eral years to conduct a prosperous business at West 
Overton, and in 1855 Jacob amicably dissolved busi- 
ness with his brother and removed to Broad Ford, 
Fayette Co., where he took into partnership with him- 
self his cousin, Henry O. Overholt, and there estab- 
lished a saw-mill, mainly for supplying the firm with 
materials with which to build up a then prospective 
village and a distillery, which in time became the most 
famous of the Overholt distilleries. The old distillery 
has since been pulled down, a largerone having taken 
its place since the death of Mr. Overholt. Under the 
immediate oversight of Jacob Overholt, the locality 
of Broad Ford, containing three dwellings when he 
first went there, shortly grew into a busy village. Mr. 
Overholt paid strict personal attention to his large 
business until his last illness. He was a man of 
great energy and business activity and integrity, and in 
the expressive language of one who knew him well, 
" he was everybody's friend." He was noted for his 
charity, never allowing the needy to go unserved by 
his door. 

Dec. 29, 1836, Mr. Overholt was united in marriage 
with Miss Mary Fox, daughter of Christian and Eliz- 
abeth Funk Fox, who resided near Stonerville, in 
East Huntingdon township. Mrs. Mary Fox Overholt 
was born Dec. 6, 1816, and resides on the farm pur- 
chased by her husband the year after their marriage, 
and then called Emma Mines, and on which spot 
were born most of her children, nine in number, all 
but one living, and whose names are Maria F., 
Elizabeth F. (deceased), Abraham F., Isaac F., Mary 
Ann, Fenton ('., Christian F., Jacob Webster, and 
Emma F. 

OLIVER BOVAKD ROBERTSON. 
Mr. Robertson was born in South Huntingdon town- 
ship, Jan. 16, 1839. He was brought up on the farm 
and elsewhere until eighteen years of age, and in 
youth attended school in the " Old Gate School- 
House," but had no particular affection for his 
teachers, and was a truant boy who loved to roam the 
hills, generally alone, and does not regret that he was 
a romj) and escaped often as he did from what was to 
him a prison-house, that old school-house. From 
seven years of age on he often accompanied his father 
when going about the country engaged in the stock 
business, and thus his school-days were interrupted, 
and he was unable to keep along steadily with his 
classes, and was consequently discouraged. To this 
fact Mr. Robertson attributes in a measure his early 
desire for playing truant, which grew upon him, and 
he was only occasionally in the school-house up to 
eighteen years of age, when he "graduated" himself 



under a chestnut-tree on Painter's Hill, and started 
off (running away) to see honors in a higher school, 
that of the business world. He first hired out to a 
farmer, his uncle, Andrew Robertson, then an old 
bachelor, and proceeded to do the first real work he 
had then ever done. He found the plow and the 
hoe and the cattle and team-horses more congenial to 
his tastes than the teachers and the "picture-books" 
(geographies, etc.), which they understood little and 
he less. 

But his first bliss was short-lived. An old maid 
kept house for his uncle; he "did not like her much," 
and one night when his uncle was off courting, and 
Oliver was away a little late, she locked him out. 
The night was too cold to allow him to sleep comfort- 
ably in the oat-straw in a barn, and so he danced 
most of the night to keep warm. He " graduated" 
from this school the next morning, leaving his uncle's 
house, and "took a contract" for rooting up bushes 
for Col. Painter, of Hempfield township, for ten dol- 
lars; but a day's work demonstrated to him that his 
education there would cost him at least a hundred dol- 
lars, and he "graduated" thence the next day: but 
finally his uncle sought him and apprised him that 
the old maid would stay with him only a month, after 
which time the uncle married, and O. B. went to live 
with him, and remained with him two years and four 
months, doing good service as a farmer. He then 
went to work hauling coal for Painter's salt-works 
for ten dollars a month and personal board and horse- 
feed. He then felt rich, "and was, too." Three 
months at this business made him rich enough, and 
he then went to learn barn-building of one Jacob 
Pore, of his township, and stayed with him a year at 
seven dollars a month, "board and horse fed," and 
then took Pore into partnership for a year, and next 
year went to contracting alone in house-building and 
hired Pore. Pore worked a month, ami O. I'.. not 
being suited with him "turned him off," and Pore 
" went to farming' and peeling willows." O. B. ami he 
"are now and always have been the best of friends." 

About this time the Rebellion had come along, and 
was proceeding pretty briskly, when O. B. enlisted in 
the State service for three months in a cavalry regi- 
ment, furnishing his own horse, whiskey, and chickens. 
He "graduated" at this business at the end of the term, 
bearing oil' honors as a soldier, and the affection of 
his comrades as a good fellow more given to fun than 
blood. 

He returned to contracting in house-building for a 
year, and feeling that his country could not get along 
without his services in the field, exchanged the chisel 
and plane for a gun and bayonet, and started off with 
Company G, One Hundred and Third Regiment Penn- 
sylvania Volunteer Infantry, down into South Caro- 
lina, where he had plenty of fun and whiskey and no 
fighting, except for rations (the war closing up soon 
after he got into the field). Nearly all the regiment 
took sick of fever and ague in the South. Some died 




JfoJ £)oc*&r€f- 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP 



691 



on the way home. ( >. II. was left in South Carolina 
in charge of the sick, and remained there with them 
a few days, and then brought them to Harrisburg; 
and soon after the regiment was mustered out, and < i. 
B. "graduated" forever as a soldier. He returned to 
his native hills, and went to house-building again. 

In 1866 he bought a farm and went to tilling it; 
found the farm lonesome, and in a month hired help, 
put them in charge of the farm, and went himself to 
contracting, " graduating" then from personal farm- 
ing. His farm ran on in charge of his men for four 
years, at the end of which he sold it, making " a gi 
thing of it." Meanwhile he prosecuted house-build- 
ing, how successfully is nobody's business. A fter cell- 
ing his farm he rented another for two years, and put 
his family and stock on it, and continued building, 
too. At the end of the two years he sold his stock, 
but kept his family and two teams of horses and a 
spotted coach dog (" a good one, which he bought for 
ten cents when he was a puppy''), and moved into 
the ancient locality of Fountain Mills, then a deso- 
late place, containing a grist-mill and a couple of 
little houses, now the flourishing borough of Scott- 
dale. A rolling-mill ami a blast-furnace were at that 
time in process of building within the limits of the 
present Scottdale, and tenant-house-builders were in 
requisition. 0. B. contracted, and continued to 
contract till the spring of 1881, when he "gradu- 
ated" at contracting in house-building, saving to 
himself for his labor four good tenant-houses and his 
private residence, with sundry lots paid for to put 
more houses on, and a drug-store, a dry-goods store, 
and other unmentionable properties, to say nothing 
of the best team of bay draught horses in town. In 
1881, feeling inclined to take a rest, he went into the 
butchering business, thinking he could thereby easily 
be of great service to his fellow-citizens; but he finds 
it the hardest business he ever worked at, both for his 
back and his pantaloons, which are constantly torn in 
their legs, and he is "right in that business now," 
and docs not know whether he will quit it or not 
before he gets all his money scattered out. When 
that times comes he proposes to quit and go to col- 
lecting. 

0. B. was one of the primeval fathers of the 
borough of Scottdale, helping to organize the same. 
He was street commissioner the first year, but the 
people complained of mud in wet weather and 
dust in dry, and at the end of the year he ceased to 
be a candidate for further honors in that line. He 
was for one term a member of the Common Council, 
but next year sought retirement, and found it in the 
will of the people. The next year he was not made a 
burgess, though his fellow-citizens " ran" him for the 
office which that character is supposed to "fill" in 
boroughs, some of them forgetting, however, to go to 
the polls and vote for him ; they even voted for 
another, who bore the honors of the office, to the 
relief of the grateful O. B. 



0. B. is in polities a Democrat, and always has 
been, being the only one of hi^ family of that faith. 
In religion he is a Presbyterian, and an elder of the 
church. In this matter be agrees with his family. 

When the church was organized in Scottdale, in 
1874, there were but fifteen organizing members, about 
evenly divided as to sex. He was at the time of the 
organization of the church elected elder, and held 
the office for three years, as well as that of trustee, 
secretary, and treasurer of the church, and was never 
charged with defalcation or other peculiar misde- 
meanors in his church life. 

In 1863, just before going to the tented field, it 
occurred to ( ). B. that he better bring a five years' 
courtship to a close, and he married Miss Mary A. 
Mitchell, then a full orphan, a daughter of the late 
James and Margaret Martin Mitchell, of South 
Huntingdon township. She died in 1873, leaving 
three children, — Harry Ross, Nettie Bell, and Hazel 
James, — all now living, Nettie being the wife of 
Dr. B. R. Mitchell, whom she married at the age 
of fourteen. Harry is a graduate of the School of 
Pharmacy, at Pittsburgh, and is in the drug ami med- 
icine business in Scottdale. Hazel is going to school, 
and though but twelve years old enjoys sharing with 
his retired father the burdens of cattle-driving for 
Pittsburgh, riding bis Texan pony, which he would 
not part with for all Scottdale. 

In 1876, Mr. Robertson married Miss Anna Linda 
Livingstone, of Allegheny County. By her he has 
had two children, one of w"hom, John, is living. 0. 
B., who never allows anything to bother him, consid- 
ered himself always happy in matrimonial relations, 
and is apparently destined to enjoy a lengthened old 
age after he arrives at it. 

We must not forget to note here for the integ- 
rity of history that Mr. O. B. Robertson is probably 
Scotch, but perhaps of English, descent. His 
grandfather, who used to keep a hotel on his farm of 
about eight hundred acres in South Huntingdon 
township, and was familiarly known as "Old Johnny 
Robertson," came into Westmoreland County from 
east of the mountains, and, so far as known, brought 
no record of his ancestry with him, if he had any. 
He married a Miss Joanna Jack for his first wife, and 
by her bad seven children. She dying he married a 
Mi- Nichols. Losing the latter he married a third, 
a Miss Harriet Jewett, of Ohio. She is now living in 
Pittsburgh, and after the death of Mr. Robertson, 
wdiich occurred about 1852, she married again. The 
children of Mr. John Robertson by his first wife were 
named John (deceased), Andrew. Joseph, William, 
Thomas d . Sarah deceased:, and Eleanor 

[deceased . 

O. B. Robertson is the sou of Joseph Robertson, 
who is the only one of the sons of John Robertson 
who has been the father of male children. His 
mother, who died about 1858, was a Miss Isabella 
Bovard before her marriage, a daughter of Oliver 



692 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Bovard, of South Huntingdon township. Mr. and 
Mrs. Joseph Robertson were the parents of eight 
children who grew to manhood and womanhood, and 
six of whom are living, — Joanna J.; O. B. ; John; 

Eleanor (deceased i ; Margaret (deceased); Thomas; 
Andrew, and Isabella. 



DR. NICHOLAS L. K. KLINE. 

Dr. Nicholas L. K. Kline, surgeon dentist of Scott- 
dale, is a son of the late John Kline, of Penn town- 
ship, and was born Nov. 1, 1836, and is of German 
descent. A record of his ancestry in this country for 
several generations may be found in the interesting 
biographical sketch of W. J. K. Kline, M.D., in the 
Greensburg chapter of biographies in this volume. 

Dr. Kline was brought up on the homestead farm, 
and was educated in the common schools, and at the 
age of eighteen years made a trip at coal-boating 
from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, after which he en- 
tered Leechburg Academy, in Armstrong County, 
which institution he attended in summer sessions. 
In the winter he Caught school in his native town- 
ship, commencing his career as a school-teacher in 
1857. He followed school-teaching for four years. 
In 1861-62, Dr. Kline was occupied in the oil regions 
in Venango County, Pa., in company with his brother, 
now Dr. Kline, of Greensburg, operating in oil. Re- 
turning from the oil regions he went to the study of 
dentistry in the office of the late Dr. A. E. Fisher, of 
Greensburg, where lie remained for about two years, 
and then located at Irwin Station for the practice of 
his profession. When the doctor settled at Irwin it 
contained only ten houses, but the enterprise of the 
doctor and others so improved it that in a few years 
it was incorporated as a borough, the doctor being 
one of the incorporators. Iu 1867 he, in company 
with his brother Amos, established there a drug-store, 
which, together with his dental business, he con- 
ducted for some years. Finally he sold his interest 
in the drug-store, and after remaining a year longer 
at Irwin moved to Scottdale, August, 1873, where he 
still resides, practicing dentistry, and enjoying a good 
practice. He is devoted to his profession, and con- 
scientious in his work as well as skillful. Those once 
employing him remain his friends, and re-employ him 
on occasion. As an evidence of his sedulous industry 
it may be mentioned that he has without assistance 
manufactured over three thousand sets of teeth aside 
from all his other professional work. When he set- 
tled at Scottdale that now nourishing borough was a 
new place, almost as fresh and youthful in appearance 
as a Western city on the prairie when just staked out 
and boasting only the cabins of the first wagon-load 
of " colonists." Scottdale at that time had but five 
dwelling-houses. The building of the rolling-mill 
had just commenced. Dr. Kline was one of the in- 
corporators of the borough, and soon after its incor- 
poration was elected the first justice of the peace of 



the place. He served as such for five years and two 
months. He has always taken an interest in the im- 
provement of the borough, and has been one of the 
Council. Dr. Kline is a member and elder of the 
Reformed Church, and was one of the eleven found- 
ers of the church in Scottdale, and together with his 
wife, who for about seven years prior to the present 
has been the organist thereof, lias taken an active in- 
terest in its growth and maintenance. 

Jan. 17, 1865, Dr. Kline married Miss Elizabeth 
Boice, of Greensburg, whose maternal great-grand- 
father, Richard Hardin, was an Englishman by birth, 
but a soldier on the side of the colonies in the 
Revolutionary war. Her grandfather, also Richard 
Hardin, was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mr. and 
Mrs. Boice were the parents of nine children. Mr. 
Boice died in 1843 at the age of thirty-six years. 
Some years after his death his widow married Mr. 
Joseph Walter, of Greensburg, who is now dead. 
Mrs. Walter is living in Greensburg, and is seventy 
years of age. 



JOHN STERRETT, ESQ. 

Mr. John Sterrett, a venerable bachelor, well-to-do 
farmer, and highly respected and intelligent citi- 
zen and native of East Huntingdou township, is of 
Scotch-Irish extraction. His grandfather Sterrett 
came to America from the north of Ireland, 1760, 
and settled on a farm about seven miles distant from 
the battle-field of Brandywine, in Chester County, 
Pa. Two of his oldest children, James and John, 
participated in that battle. In Chester County he 
reared to maturity a family of four sons and three 
daughters, and about 1786 he with his wife and chil- 
dren started out for Kentucky to join Daniel Boone, 
but reaching the place now called Mount Pleasant, 
in Westmoreland County, on the day before Christ- 
mas, they found themselves snow-bound, the snow 
being three feet deep. Compelled to tarry till spring, 
they finally made permanent residence in Westmore- 
land County, settling on a tract of land of three hun- 
dred and fifty-five acres, with an allowance of six 
per cent, for roads, etc., thrown in, and which was 
bought of Isaac Meason. The present farm of John 
Sterrett belonged to this tract. Upon this land the 
boys put up (at a point only a few rods in front of 
where Mr. Sterrett's house now stands) a good log 
cabin, which the family occupied for some time. 
The third son in number was Moses, the father of 
our John Sterrett. He married Margaret Woodrow, 
daughter of John Woodrow, a farmer, and a de- 
scendant of Puritan stock. John and Margaret 
Sterrett had eight children, — Polly, who married 
John Smith, and moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, 
where she died Jan. 9, 1879; James, deceased ; John ; 
Elizabeth ; Moses, now residing in Springfield, Fay- 
ette Co., Pa.; William, who died young; Samuel, 
died aged about twenty-one; and Jesse, who died at 



EAST HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP. 



693 



about the same age. Moses Sterrett died Jan. 5, 

1830, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His 
wife preceded him to the grave, she dying Jan. 1, 

1831, at about the age of fifty-nine years. 

John Sterrett was born Nov. 23, 1805, and was 
brought up on the homestead farm, and got his book 
education in the common and subscription schools, 
going into arithmetic as far as "the rule of three," 
where the teachers of those days usually came to a 
halt. A few pages of what was miscalled " gram- 
mar" (a dictionary of synonymous terms prefixed to 
a spelling-book) was the end of "literary" education 
in the schools. On each Saturday Mr. Sterrett's 
teacher brought to the school-house a bottle of whis- 
key to induce the large boys to cut wood for the fires 
of the coming week. Thus the school was "run" in 
the winters. Mr. Sterrett relates several amusing 
anecdotes of the teachers of his early days. They 
all wrote a fine hand, though but few of them knew 
enough to keep a farm account. 

On his native farm Mr. Sterrett has resided all his 
life. After the death of his father the sister, Eliza- 
beth (still living in vigorous old age), and he accepted 
the farm as their portion in the settlement of the es- 
state, and have since occupied it jointly, keeping no 
accounts between themselves, both having wrought 
industriously. They have greatly improved the farm, 
erected upon it an excellent house and spacious out- 
buildings, and are passing their old days as farmers 
in peace and quiet. Mr. Sterrett, unvexed by a wife 
and family, has in his lifetime found much time to 
read, and is a gentleman of more intellectual prop- 
erty than most farmers or other men weighed down 
with family cares. 

In politics Mr. Sterrett is a Republican, and says 
he doesn't know how he could be anything else. 
(But this remark must not be construed as reflecting 
upon the honesty or ignorance of his neighbors who 
are not Republicans.) He was formerly an Old-Line 
Whig. 

About forty years ago he attached himself to the 
Methodist order, but has never attended church 
much. Miss Elizabeth Sterrett, his co-farming sis- 
ter, belongs to the Presbyterian Church. 

A branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, 
called the Hickman Run Branch, is now in process of 
grading across the Sterrett farm, running over the old 
play-ground immediately about the cabin wherein 
Mr. Sterrett was born. Thus the car of progress rolls 
on mercilessly, invading and destroying the sacred 
places of memory. Mr. Sterrett from his house 
looks down upon the broken and violated landscape, 
the theatre of his childhood's gambols and after- 
wards a beauty-spot of his farm, with no poetic 
affections, it may well be conceived, for railroad 
schemes. 



E. II. REID. 

Mr. E. H. Reid, merchant, operator in coal and 
coke, and a general business man of Scottdale, is of 
Scotch-Irish descent, his father when quite a young 
man having come to this country from Belfast, Ire- 
land, settling in Westmoreland County, Pa., where he 
married Miss Mary Henry, daughter of Edward 
Henry, after whom the subject of these notes was 
named. Mr. Reid, while receiving a good education, 
was early put to a practical business life, acting as 
clerk in his father's store until about his fifteenth 
year, when he " started out for himself," finding em- 
ployment in a store in Allegheny County, where he 
enjoyed special advantages for a business education, 
until about the age of nineteen. He then took a trip 
to the Western States, and located in Missouri for 
about a year, and then returned to Allegheny County, 
and engaged in business as before, continuing there, 
except for a short time in the oil regions, until he 
removed to Broad Ford, Fayette Co., in 1867, and went 
into business there for himself as a general merchant. 
He remained there until 1S78, in the mean time being 
engaged in the coal business and making investments 
in real estate, he at the present time owning in that 
locality an excellent farm, underlaid in good part 
with the famous coking coal, and on which stands 
Tyrone Presbyterian Church. In 1878, removing to 
Scottdale, he established himself in business, pur- 
chasing the merchandise and store buildings of the 
rolling-mill and furnace companies, thereby acquiring 
an extensive trade, which he has greatly increased, 
he now paying the largest mercantile tax in the 
county, besides owning several manufacturing estab- 
lishments in the place. 

In connection with a few other gentlemen Mr. Reid 
recently organized the Connellsville and Ursina Coal 
and Coke Company, having a paid-up capital of four 
hundred thousand dollars, and owniug six thousand 
five hundred acres of land underlaid with coking 
coal, iron ore, and immense beds of limestone, of 
which company he and his brother, Col. J. M. Reid, 
of Dunbar, own the controlling interest, as well as of 
the Ursina and North Fork Railroad, owned by the 
same company. 

Mr. Reid is the oldest of four brothers, three of 
them located in Fayette County, all active, energetic 
business men, who with their mother and one sister 
constitute the living members of the family. 



PETER STATJFFER LOUCKS. 

Under the heading " The Loucks Family," a chap- 
ter which appears elsewhere in this volume, will be 
found a brief record of the immediate ancestry, etc., 
of Peter S. Loucks. The parentage of Mr. Loucks is 
therein noted, but is here repeated for the convenience 
of this sketch. 

Mr. Loucks is the son of the late Rev. Martin 



694 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Loucks, who died Nov. 7, 18(39, in the seventy-first 
year of his age, and Nancy Stauffer (born Feb. 9, 
1808), his wife, still living, and who is the daughter 
of the. late Abraham and Elizabeth Myers Stauffer, 
natives of eastern counties of Pennsylvania, both of 
German descent. Abraham Stauffer died in Tyrone 
township, Fayette County, in 1855, at about sixty-one 
years of age. His wife, Elizabeth, died in Scottdale, 
Nov. 11, 1878, in the ninety-sixth year of her age. 
Martin Loucks and Nancy Stauffer were intermar- 
ried June 15, 1826. 

Martin Loucks was brought up on the homestead 
farm, and was educated in the common schools of East 
Huntingdon township, and became a farmer, and con- 
tinued such during life. He was reared under the re- 
ligious instructions of the Mennonite Church, and 
some time after his marriage, at about the age of 
thirty years, he was chosen, according to the customs 
and rites of his church, a preacher, and fulfilled the 
duties of his office, which was an unsalaried one, 
during his life. His duties took him frequently into 
various parts of his own county and adjoining coun- 
ties. Mr. Loucks was greatly beloved by his people. 
Though forbidden by tin- laws of his church to hold 
political office, he took interest in politics as a Whig 
and afterwards as an earnest Republican. 

Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Loucks were the parents of 
eight children, five sons and three daughters, whose 
names are cited in the record above referred to. Of 
these children Peter Stauffer Loucks is the sixth in 
number, and was born May 3, T841, on the old home- 
stead farm of his grandfather and father, a beautiful 
spot, lying about fifty rods west of Jacobs Creek in 
East Huntingdon township, from the site of the 
house in which he was born and from his present 
residence near by a fine view of Chestnut Ridge and 
Laurel Hill being afforded. 

Mr. Loucks was educated at home and in the com- 
mon schools. His father was a great friend of edu- 
cation, and look pains to instruct his children at 
home, as well as to watch them when attending 
school, to sec that they spent their time profitably 
and made progress in their studies. Indeed, he was 
exceedingly particular in the matter of the education, 
religious and literary, of his children. Peter contin- 
ued attendance upon school in the winter season till 
about twenty one years of age, and occupied himself 
on the farm under his father until, when about twen- 



ty-six years of age, he and his brother Martin were 
given by their father entire charge of the farm, which 
they conducted till after the death of the elder Mr. 
Loucks, whereafter, under the provisions of the 
father's will, they came into possession of the farm, 
and Martin, after about two years, sold his interest 
to Peter and his sister Catharine, who now own the 
farm jointly. The farm is devoted to the common 
agricultural purposes and to the raising of stock for 
the markets. Mr. Loucks has paid more or less at- 
tention to the rearing of improved breeds of Durham 
short-homed cattle and the imported English breeds 
of draught horses. 

A portion of Mr. Loucks' farm, or about sixty acres 
thereof, has been laid out at different times into 
dwelling-house lots and sites for business houses, a 
considerable part of the most active or business por- 
tions of Scottdale now occupying the same. 

In the spring of 1873 Mr. Loucks, in connection 
with his brothers and T. J. Larimer and William 
Leeper, under the firm-name of Loucks, Larimer & 
Co., established in Scottdale a planing-mill for the 
manufacture of all kinds of worked lumber necessary 
for building purposes, and took extensive contracts 
for building. After the death of Mr. Leeper in 
March, 1880, Mr. Loucks and his brother Jacob 
purchased the interests of all others in the concern, 
and carried on the business as the firm of P. S. Loucks 
& Co. till Jan. 1, 1882, when they leased the estab- 
lishment to Ruth & Stoner, who now conduct the 
business. Mr. Loucks has actively engaged in pro- 
moting the interests of Scottdale and largely contrib- 
uted to its rapid growth, and is the owner of several 
of the best buildings, dwellings, and business houses 
of that borough. 

Mr. Loucks, with his brother Jacob, has since 
April, 1881, been engaged in the grain-shipping busi- 
ness, with Scottdale as the centre of operations, bring- 
ing grain from the West and elsewhere and distribut- 
ing it to the East and various points. 

In politics Mr. Loucks is a Republican, but does 
not aspire to office, but has held borough and town- 
ship offices. 

May 29, 1878, Mr. Loucks married Miss Mary A. 
Boyd, daughter of George W. Boyd and Martha 
Smith, his wife, both of Fayette County, and descend- 
ants of the earliest settlers of that county. The issue 
of this marriage is one son, Arthur, born June 18, 1880. 



LIGONIER TOWNSHIP. 



DESCRIPTION, NAME, Etc. 

In historic interest no name in the annals of West- 
ern Pennsylvania is more conspicuous than Ligonier, 
the name of a township and a borough in Westmore- 
land County. But although the name is familiar in 
the earliest mention of that section of country now 
particularly identified with it, yet it does not seem to 
be generally known that the name " Ligonier" desig- 
nates any civil or political subdivision of territory. 
It was originally the name of the stockade fort first 
erected by the English and Americans when they 
came into Western Pennsylvania, and it thus came to 
be the general name by which that contiguous region 
of country was designated. The name has by com- 
mon consent been applied to the whole valley lying 
between Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge in our 
county. 

The township of Ligonier was not erected until 
1822. That part of the township lying in the interior, 
or between the more abrupt ridge of hills, is tolerably 
level, and is well adapted to agriculture. There are 
many streams, and the surface, of the land next these 
is well adapted for meadow, and these portions were 
among the first to be opened out and cultivated by the 
early settlers. Next the mountain ranges designated 
the surface is more abrupt and broken, ami although 
not specially adapted to farming, yet the labor and 
toil of three or four generations have made homely 
farms and comfortable homes to abound even there. 
Much of the surface is even yet covered with good 
timber, which has been and is now being raised with 
remuneration, and which is a source of some wealth. 

The principal streams are, first, the Loyalhanna, 
frequently called a river, as it is designated in the old 
colonial and French maps, a stream of much beauty, 
whose praises have been sung by many an aspirant 
to poetic fame, and whose name mingles in the ro- 
mantic stories of the Western border. Then follow 
the Four-Mile Run, Mill Creek, Coalpit Run, Fur- 
nace Run, and others, affluents of the Loyalhanna. 
These were early utilized for grist-mill and saw-mill 
purposes, and later for furnace and foundry purposes, 
at the time when water was the only expedient for 
motive-power. Thus it was that a large proportion of 
the early settlers located along these streams. Mill- 
seats were erected in the valley at a very early date, 
St. Clair being one possibly so early as 1781. on Mill 
Creek. 



Nathan Young made an improvement before 1769 
on Chestnut Ridge, in Fairfield township; about the 
same time Peter Detar, who afterwards removed into 
Hempfield township. Frederick Rohrer, innkeeper, 
from Hagerstown, Md., took up land in 177o adjoin- 
ing the mill-tract of St. Clair; Simon Eaker (Eicher), 
John Ramsey, James Pollock, Garrett Pendergrass, 
Daniel Savoyer, Andrew Bonjour, Samuel Shannon, 
James Knox, Richard Shannon, Isaac Stimble, Rob- 
ert McLaughlin, William McKinzie, John Campbell, 
Thomas Galbraith, an innkeeper in Ligonier, in 1773. 
St. Clair and Huffnagle both resided in Ligonier 
town then. Abel Fisher, Henry Kerns, McDowells, 
Kelsus (now Keltzes). 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Bedstone District of the Baltimore Conference was 
formed May 28, 1784, ami comprised all of Western 
Pennsylvania, extending from Maryland and Vir- 
ginia to the York State line. The two circuit-riders 
for that year were John Cooper and Samuel Breeze. 
In 1785 the presiding elder was Thomas Foster, with 
Peter Moriarity, John Fidler, and William Lee 
preachers. In 1786, Enoch Martin was presiding 
elder, with John Smith, Robert Ayers, and Stephen 
Deakrns preachers. In 1787 the presiding elder was 
Joseph Cromwell, and the preachers, William Phoe- 
bus, J. Willson, and E. Phelps. In 1788, under 
Richard Whatcoat, presiding elder, Jacob Seaton and 
Lashley Matthews, the circuit-riders, established the 
Ligonier Methodist Episcopal Church, and had 
preaching, the first Methodist preaching in Ligonier 
Valley, and the second in the county. It was held at 
the house of Jacob Shaw, now in the territory of 
Cook township. Mr. Shaw was the class-leader, 
and the class consisted of his wife, three daughters, — 
< 'harlotte, Jane, and Prudence, — and Betsey Gibbins. 
A few months afterwards Sarah, Elizabeth, and 
Esther Roberts, all noted singers, joined the class, 
which was the organization of this church, then as 
now called " Ligonier." In 1801 the name of the 
district was changed from Redstone to Pittsburgh, 
and in 1804 from the latter to Monongahela. In 1789, 
Robert M. and Mary Roberts, parents of the distin- 
guished Bishop Richford Roberts, joined the church 
in the month of May. The latter was born Aug. 21, 
1778, in Frederick County, Md., became bishop in 
1816, and died March 26, 1843. He came to Ligonier 

695 



696 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Valley when a little lad of seven or eight years with 
his parents. Thomas and John Roberts also joined 
the same year. In 1790 the place of holding preach- 
ing was changed from the house of Jacob Shaw to 
that of Robert M. Roberts, on the farm now owned, 
near Ligonier, by Benjamin Deeds. In May, 1792, 
Bishop Robert R. Roberts was converted. In 1797 
two of the members, Stephen Riley and William 
Lindsey, removed to Venango County. In 1811 the 
place of preaching was changed from the house of 
John Roberts to that of Cornelius Riley, father of 
Rev. James Riley and grandfather of Rev. Mc- 
Kendree Riley. From 1789 to 1813 the presiding 
elders and preachers were as follows: 

Presiding Elders. Preachers. 

1789 - Henry Willis, John Simmons. 

Lemuel Green. Nicholas Sebrell. 

1790 CharU-s Conaway. Amos G. Thompson. 

Thomas Raymond. 
1791 Amos G. Thompson. Daniel Kidler. 

James Coleman. 
1792 Amos G. Thompson. William UcClanahan. 

Jacob Peck. 
i: ' Charles Conaway. Thomas Hell. 

Seely Bunn. 
1794 Charles Conaway. Samuel Hitt. 

John Phillips. 

I7B5 CharlesC iwav. Daniel Hit! 

1790 Valentine Cook. James L. Higgins. 

Charles Conaway. 
1797 Valentine Cool; James Smith. 

Solomon Harris. 
IT'.i- Valentine Cook, Thomas Haymond. 

James Paynter, 

1799 ....Valentine Cook. Charles Burgoon. 

James Paynter. 

1800 Valentine Cook. Rezin Cord. 

Isaac Bobbins. 
18H1 Thornton Fleming. Jesse Stevenson. 

Asa Akin. 

Isoj Thornton Fleming Lash ley Matthews. 

Iso: Thornton Fleming James Quinn. 

Thomas Budd. 
1Sii4 Thornton Fleming. James Hunter. 

Simon Gillespie. 
Iso". lames Hunter. William Page. 

William Knox. 
1806 Thornton Pleming. James Hunter. 

S. Henkle. 
1807 .Thornton Fleming. William Page. 

Robert Bolton. 
Iso- Thornton Fleming. John W.>t. 

William Lawman. 

1809 Thornton Fleming. Thomas Dougherty. 

Joseph Lamston. 

1810 Thornton Fleming. Tobias Bile.v. 

James Wilson, 
lsl I Jacob Glllber. Jacob Young. 

1812 lacob Giuber. Simon Lonck. 

Lewis R, Fectigo. 

1813 ... ..JacohGniber. Thornton Fleming. 

Lashley Matthews. 

The latter dying on his way to the Baltimore Con- 
ference, by his will his horse, saddle-bags, cloak, 
and great cloak were sold, and the proceeds given to 
the chartered ministerial fund. From this time to 
1871 the record is lost. Since theD the pastors have 
been: 1871-74, A. B. Leonard; 1874-76, Samuel 
Wakefield ; 1876, C. W. Miller ; 1877-80, J. P. Riley ; 
1880-82, A. C. Johnson. The present large brick 
church edifice was erected in 1857, before which 
time the church was on the upper end of the grave- 
yard. John Murdock is the Sunday-school superin- 
tendent. The congregation is the second one of this 
denomination in the county, and only preceded some 
two years by " Fell's Church," in Rostraver town- 
ship. 



PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
Although this church, known as Ligonier Church, 
and situated in the borough of Ligonier, is compara- 
tively of modern date, the members of the original 
organization were made up of parts of the Fairfield 
and the Donegal congregations, which, we will remem- 
ber, were included in the Old Redstone Presbytery. In 
" Old Redstone," according to Dr. Donaldson, it is 
erroneously reported as organized about 1798, to get 
the portion of Mr. Hill's time withdrawn from 
Wheatfield. The first notice of it on the Presbyterian 
records is Oct. 22, 1817, when Mr. Hill having with- 
drawn from Donegal and begun to preach at Ligonier, 
by direction of Presbytery resigned the old charge 
and accepted a joint call from Fairfield and Ligonier, 
and over the charge thus modified was installed 
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1818. Rev. William Speer preached, 
R. Lee charged the pastor, and John Ross the people. 
At his decease, four years later, Donegal inquired of 
the Presbytery whether Ligonier should any longer 
be considered a separate church. April 6, 1823, Pres- 
bytery directed the two churches to settle this ques- 
tion between themselves, and it was decided in the 
affirmative. At the installation of Rev. S. Swan, June 
17, 1824, it obtained nominally one-fourth of his pas- 
toral labors. But during the larger part of seventeen 
years, on every alternate Sabbath, he preached one 
discourse in Donegal and another in Ligonier, or 
occasionally in Laughlinstown, belonging to the same 
church. Thus each of these churches had virtually 
half-time services. After the resignation of Mr. 
Swan, Oct. 5, 1841, Donegal and Ligonier constituted 
a full charge. Revs. A. B. Clark, David Harbison, 
J. A. Brown, Ross Stevenson, and E. G. McKinley 
were the pastors for the times respectively, as staled 
in the case of Donegal. The last named still con- 
tinues in the charge. Among the elders, Thomas 
Wilson, John McConaughey, and Dr. Johnson Miller 
may be mentioned. John McConaughey, Jr., son of 
the elder, is the only ministerial son of the church. 

LIGONIER REFORMED AND LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
In the Ligonier Valley Rev. John William Weber, 
the first Reformed missionary west of the Allegheny 
Mountains, preached to the pioneer fathers and 
mothers who settled in its forests a hundred years 
ago. He died in 1816, and was succeeded April 26, 
1818, by Rev. William Weinel. During his ministry 
a church was built about two miles southwest of the 
place now occupied by Ligonier borough. It was 
called the " Old Dutch Meeting-house." It was a 
rude structure, having but one window) and the pul- 
pit in the corner. They wanted a high pulpit, and 
not wishing to place it before the only window so as 
to exclude the light of the sun, they concluded to 
put the light of the gospel not under a bushel, but 
uii in the corner. It was customary for the men to 
go armed to worship, which had become necessary 
in earlier times, on account of Indians and wild 



LIGONIER TOWNSHIP. 



697 



beasts. Tlie habit clung to them after there was lit- 
tle clanger from either source. Sometimes game was 
killed on the way to Zion. On one occasion one of 
the elders, Henry Brant, on his way to church was 
met by a bear. Bruin climbed a tree. Mr. Brant 
discharged his gun several times at the bear and then 
climbed up after him. The animal had been se- 
verely wounded, but wa< not dead. In his death 
struggles he embraced Mr. Brant with more strength 
than affection, and the two fell together to the ground. 
Mr. Brant barely escaped with his life, and was too 
late for church. Rev. N. P. Hacke became pastor in 
1823, and held his first communion June 22d, witli the 
following communicants : Matthias Marker, Martin 
Philippi, John Brant, Fred Hargonet, Margaret 
Marker, Elizabeth Philippi, Eve Eliza Brant, Annie 
Maria Dietz, Sarah Nicely, Maria Marker, Eve Bar- 
rone. Rev. Dr. Hacke was succeeded June 17, 1832, 
by Rev. H. E. F. Voight, who continued to visit the 
people from his home in Mount Pleasant until March 
1, 1857. Under his pastorate the congregation with 
the Lutherans built a new union church edifice. A 
lot was purchased of Jacob Lowry,and a brick struc- 
ture erected in 1852 at a cost of $3000. The Re- 
formed congregation, being weaker than that of the 
Lutheran side, contributed less than half the means, 
but have an equal share in the property. It is on 
Main Street, near the railroad depot. In 1857 the 
Lutherans outnumbered the Reformed interest three 
to one, as from the unwillingness of the latter to 
have preaching in English many of its young people 
left it. In 1859, Rev. C. C. Russell was sent to it as a 
missionary. In June, 1870, Rev. John I. Swander 
became pastor of Latrobe charge, of which it was a 
part. Then the elders were Adam Brant, Daniel 
Bitner; deacons, Henry Brant, William Schaffer. 
The present Lutheran pastor is Rev. L. H. McMurry, 
whose congregation is large and flourishing. 

The United Presbyterian Church has a substantial 
edifice here, erected in 1876, before which preaching 
was had a year or two in the school-houses. It is a 
mission of the Fairfield Church, of which Rev. 
William H. Vincent is the pastor. The hitter's edi- 
fice was built in 1819, and took the place of an old 
log structure erected about 1800. Mr. Vincent was 
born in Lawrence County, and educated at West- 
minster College, and has been pastor of Fairfield 
since 1873. Under his labors this mission church 
was built to meet the wants of many of his flock 
living several miles from the mother-church. 

The Roman Catholic Church has a commodious 
edifice and a large congregation here. There is no 
resident pastor, the masses and services being at- 
tended by visiting fathers from St. Vincents Abbey. 

LIGONIER BOROUGH. 

HISTORICAL. 
The region of country about the Loyalhanna, and 
particularly about the site of old Fort Ligonier, was a 



familiar country for the early Indians. An evidence 
that the Indians were at one time numerous through- 
out the whole range of country from the Laurel Hill 
to the Ohio River is adduced from the fact of their 
having named all the streams which flow into the 
Allegheny and the Monongahela, no less than from 
the remains of ancient burial-places scattered all over 
the slopes of the hills that lie next the mountain 
ranges. There were several Indian paths or highways 
which crossed each other and came from many direc- 
tions together at this point. But whether the particu- 
lar line which might be indicated by the line of the 
Laurel Hill on the east was the boundary line of those 
nomadic tribes which at one time abounded in the 
space lying between these mountains and the source 
of the Ohio is a question which may reasonably be 
suggested to antiquaries. Without inquiring into the 
plausibility of the theory lately advanced that this 
region was a separate region for a race preceding the 
red man, we may state that from a time before it was 
known to the whites there were more or less Indian 
settlements about here. The oldest settlers declared 
that there were in Ligonier Valley remains of what 
they called an Indian fort, similar in structure to the 
fort at Indian Creek and at the Old Redstone, made 
before the whites ventured into these regions. They 
state also that it was evident there were places where 
they raised their corn, places cleared from the sur- 
rounding wilderness. As to the Indian trails about 
the Loyalhanna near Ligonier, it is certain that the 
great north-and-south trail from the New York In- 
dians to their Southern confederates passed near here, 
and that the trails from the western waters of Penn- 
sylvania joined this main trail here. One came from 
Kittanning and the Cherry Tree region to here, cross- 
ing the Conemaugh in its route, and one passing 
more directly west crossed the Loyalhanna between 
eight and nine miles west of the point fixed as Ligo- 
nier. These various paths separated into others, and 
struck out in divers directions. Thus we see by the 
Journal of Christian Post, 1758, that the last-named 
trail, after following the course of the Loyalhanna 1 
at the distance of nine or ten miles from Ligonier, 
for a distance of several miles farther divided, one 
path continuing along the stream towards the old 
Seneca town along the Kiskiminetas, and the other 
trending through the wilderness towards Fort Du- 
quesne, afterwards Fort Pitt. On these trails it was 



1 The name Loyalhanna, according to the best authorities, is derived 
from an Indian compound word, La-el-han-neck, and means Middle 
Creek. It was known to the Americans and to the French hy this 
name before the arrival of Bouquet It would appear also, not direi tlv 
it is true, but by necessary implication, to have been so designated or 
known from the uarrative of Capt. James Smith, who was taken pris- 
oner when he was one of the party who were sent to open the road 
from Bedford to Cumberland in the time of Braddock, some three years 
prior to the arrival of Bouquet there. This matter would scarcely bear 
repetition were it not to dispel some wide-spread and very erroueous no- 
tions and accepted opinions as to the etymology of this word. It is in 
its origin an Indian not an English word. 



698 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



that the few traders who ventured out into these fron- 
tiers, and the early settlers who located in now Indiana 
County, about Kittanning, and in Deny township of 
Westmoreland County, passed and repassed. In some 
places along these Indian paths, when the army first 
came out, the marks of the horses' hoofs which car- 
ried the stores of the Indian traders or audits had not 
yet been worn out. 

After the defeat of Braddock in 1754, the English, 
it will be remembered, organized an army at Phila- 
delphia, with the object of making another attempt 
to capture Fort Duquesne. This army was under 
Gen. Forbes. The advance-guard, under Col. Bou- 
quet, cutting their way from Bedford, about the 1st 
of September, 1758, arrived at the Loyalhanna, on 
the western side of Laurel Hill. Here Bouquet, 
erecting a stockade for their protection in case of 
an attack from the French and Indians, awaited the 
arrival of Forbes and Washington. Forbes could 
not advance hastily with the main body of the army 
on account of his physical inability, he being ver) r 
frail and shattered in constitution, although he was 
by no means an old man. It was during the interval 
between the arrival of Bouquet here and the arrival 
of Forbes, some eight weeks after, that the expedi- 
tion under Maj. Grant and Capt. Bullit was sent out 
to reconnoitre about Fort Duquesne, and following 
the unfortunate termination of which was made the 
attack on the stockade by the French and Indians 
under De Vetre, of which we have made mention in 
our general history. 

Forbes, with the rear division of the army, arrived 
about the 1st of November (1758) at the camp on the 
Loyalhanna. In a council of war it was then deter- 
mined not. to advance farther till the next spring, 
when this arrangement was changed by the return of 
several prisoners who had been captured and held by 
the Indians, from whom was found out the true con- 
dition of the garrison at Fort Duquesne, which in- 
duced the British and Americans to advance and 
secure that post shortly after. 

FORT LIGONIER. 
The stockade erected here by Col. Bouquet was 
called Fort Ligonier, in honor of Sir John Ligonier, 
under whom Bouquet had served in the wars on the 
continent of Europe. Sir John Ligonier was a Protes- 
tant Frenchman, a Huguenot, who having been ban- 
ished from his native country on account of his 
religious belief engaged in service in the English 
army. He commanded the British cavalry at Lauf- 
feld, near Maestricht, where the English and Dutch, 
with the Austrian* under Marshal Bathiany, encoun- 
tered the French under Marshal Saxe. Being taken 
prisoner by the French he was treated with the greatest 
distinction and consideration, and was sent back by 
the king, Louis XV., and Saxe to confer with the 
Duke of Cumberland (son of George II., and com- 
mander-in-chief of the British army) to make offers 



of peace. The peace which then ensued was subse- 
quently ratified by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, that 
great landmark in the history of Continental Europe 
and of North America, 174s. 1 

EARLY SETTLERS AND FIRST INDUSTRIES. 

Gen. James Ramsay, of Franklin County, bought 
at sheriff's sale Sept. 2, 1794, the "Ligonier Tract" 
of 660 acres, also 12 acres adjoining the same, the 
Indian field and mill creek, for £721. This was the 
site of Ligonier, and it was all sold as the property of 
Thomas Galbraith, deceased, at the suit of Jasper 
Moylan and Gen. Arthur St. Clair. Capt. George 
Eager and George Kelso lived in 1794 on the upper 
surveys, near Matthias Stockberger, Daniel Armor, 
and Henry Buzzard. William Jamison bought another 
large tract adjoining the Ligonier, as the property of 
the same defendant, in 1796. 

The oldest house now standing in the town is the 
one occupied by William Dice. Gen. Ramsay's house 
was a half-mile from town, where Harrison Gilbraith 
now lives. The turnpike was built through here in 
1817-18. The first house erected after the town was 
laid out was built by Samuel Adams, where now David 
Shoefall's carriage-shop is. The second was built by 
James Seaton on the lot now owned by John Bowser, 
and the third on the lot where James Lawson lives. 
The latter was built by Hugh Deever, who kept in it 
the first store. It was a log structure, weather-boarded, 
and is now used by Squire Black as a magistrate's 
office. Frederick Myers kept the first tavern where 
McMillan's tannery is; William Carnes early built a 
house; Samuel Adams was the first blacksmith; and 
James McMillan the first cabinet-maker. 

The first resident physician was Dr. Thomas Rogers. 
John Hargnett was the first postmaster. The latter 
was born within two miles of town, and came about 
1825 to clerk in Mr. Klopper's store. He was after- 
wards in the mercantile business as a partner with Mr. 
McGowan, then Dr. Miller, then Mr. Breniser, and 
later with Mr. McGowan again. Col. John McFar- 
land was born within a mile of the town in 1801, and 
has resided in it for many years. His parents and 
ancestors settled near here at an early period. Col. 
McFarland, Mr. Hargnett, and Conrad George are 
the three oldest citizens in the borough. Mr. George 
was born Jan. 1, 1804, and recollects the site of the 
town before it was laid out or had any buildings upon 
it. He is the son of Conrad George, who came, when 
a boy eight years old, with his father, Adam George, 
before 1780 and settled in the county. 

Among the first to settle in the town when it was 
laid out by Col. Ramsay in 1817 were Samuel Adams, 
Hugh Deever, Mr. Myers, Mr. Reed (tavern-keeper), 
Henry Ankenny (tavern-keeper), Samuel Knox, 
Thomas Wilson, Noah Mendell (tavern-keeper), and 
George Matthews. The latter was the first tanner, 

1 For services of Sir John Ligonier see Knight's Popular History of 
England, chap, clis., et setj. 



LIGONIER TOWNSHIP. 



699 



and George Scott the second. The first mill was 
operated by Mr. Miller, and the second by Hush 
Deever. 

After the town was laid out in 1817 the lots were 
sold by the proprietor. Gen. Ramsay, in accordance 
with the following- plan: 

11 Conditions or terms of the public s.i!<- of lots to lie sold in the town 
of Ligonier agreeably to a plan on the ground, March 3, 1817, viz.: All 
minors or servants are hereby prohibited from bidding at this sale (as 
well as insolvent persons), 

"Second, For the amount of purchases of each and every Lott three 
equal different payments will be required of six, twelve, ami eighteen 
months each, the purchaser to come forward within twenty-four hours 
anil give his obligations with approved Becurity,OE otherwise to he sub- 
jected to have then Lott or Lutts again set up and sold at public sale, 
when they must sustain the loss if any is thereby accrued. 

" Third, The highest bidder to be the buyer. 

"Fourth, Any person or persons purchasing either of the coruer lost 
iu the Diamond (or main cross street) wall be hereby obliged to build on 
such Lott within the space of seven years a two-story house of either 
brick or frame painted, or otherwise to forfeit the sum of one hundred 
dollars to be appropriated towards the erection of Public Buildings iu 
case a new county can be obtained ami Ligonier made its seat of justice, 
or in case of said town not becoming a seal of justice, then the above for- 
feiture is to be paid to the proprietor and to be deposed of at bis option. 
Those who buy any corner lott on Main Street, and not complying with 
the aforesaid requisition, must forfeit the sum of fifty dollars to be ap- 
plied as aforesaid. Any person buying any other Lott on Slain Street 
and not complying as aforesaid must forfeit the sum of thirty dollars, to 
applied as afotesaid. Any person purchasing a Lott on the main 
cross street (or Market Street) and not complying as aforesaid must 
forfeit the sum of twenty dollars to be applied as aforesaid ; and any 
person or persons purchasing any Lott on any other cross street or back 
street and not building thereon withiu seven years must forfeit the 
sum of ten dollars to be applied as aforesaid. 

"Fifth, The proprietor reserves a bid in all eases ; he also reserves 
llis old Barn, his young Apple Trees, and all movable property within 
the limits of said town. These conditions to be lodged with James 
Clark, Esq., where regular conveyance will be made within four weeks 
to all such as apply [or] who have complyed with the terms of sale. 

" John Ramsey." 

BOROUGH ORGANIZATION. 

The town of Ligonier, as it is called in the act. 
was erected into a borough by the Assembly on the 
10th day of April, 1834. The boundaries were those 
which were included in a plot referred to as being 
on record in the recorder's office. The officers of 
the borough were those which were prescribed for the 
borough organizations, and their duties and powers 
were set out at length in the same act. The inhab- 
itants entitled to vote were to meet at the place where 
they had usually met to vote for members of the 
General Assembly on the first Monday of May then 
next. 

By act of 11th April, 184S, the limits of the bor- 
ough were further extended so as to include William 
Atchesou, Robert Galbreath, Robert Graham, Joseph 
Moorhead, and Andrew Bellinger on the east end of 
the borough, including the lands on both sides of the 
turnpike, described by certain metes and bounds, and 
Henry Lowry on the west. 

The limits were again extended by act of March 
15, 1872. 

Borough Officers. — The records from 1834 to 1866 
are lost. The officers in the latter year were: Bur- 
gess, James S. Black ; Clerk, John Murdock ; Treas- 



urer, John Hargnett; Constable, J. H. Murdock; 
Street Commissioner, John Mitchell; Collector, Wil- 

liam Cams; Assessor, J tunes Moore. 

Since then the burgesses have been : 1867 69, James 
[ S. Black ; 1869, James Lawson ; 1870, no record; 1871, 

Thomas A. Seaton ; 1872, Peter Lenhart ; 1X73, R. C. 

Breniser; 1874, James \V. Ambrose; 1875, W. II. Co- 
! vode; 1876, W. D. McGowan;'l877, J. \V. Kepper; 
| 1878, C. S. Vannear ; 1879, W. H. Dice; 1S80, Thomas 

M. Brady : 1881, Alexander Glessner and Jacob Blan- 

set, the latter acting part of the time. 

The officers in 1882 are : Burgess, William J. Potts ; 

Clerk, Audrew Grove (for six years); Council, J. H. 

McConaughy, Andrew Grove, Michael Keffer, C. A. 

Lowry, John H. Frank, Noah M. Marker ; Consta- 
ble, John Glessner; Treasurer, J. H. McConaughy; 

Street Commissioner, H. F. Hartley. 

GROWTH AND PRESENT STATUS. 

The chief place of interest in both a historical and 
a business view in Ligonier Valley is Ligonier town. 
It is the only place of importance in the township of 
Ligonier, and is located — speaking iu general terms — 
near the centre of the township, and ou the north 
bank of the Loyalhanna. The situation of the town 
is delightful and romantic. It lies in the valley, 
having on the east and northwest the blue line of 
Laurel Hill for the rim of partial amphitheatre, on 
the southwest the Chestnut Ridge, the pleasant valley 
of the Loyalhanna extending down towards the west 
until it loses itself in the gap in the Ridge, and 
northwestward the lower valley itself rolling and 
hilly in all its extent from here to the Conemaugh. 

The Ligonier Valley Railroad from Latrobe to Li- 
gonier is a narrow-gauge road completed in 1878. It 
had been graded in 1872-73 for a standard gauge 
road, when the panic of that year put a stop to its 
further building. Its length is ten and a third miles. 
Its president is S. H. Baker. Its completion has con- 
tributed largely to the development and growth of 
the town, converting it from a village of the olden 
type to a village of the modern type. There could 
be no stronger evidence of the effect of innovation 
than there is in this town. Before the construction 
of the railroad running from the Pennsylvania road 
at Latrobe to Ligonier as terminal points, the busi- 
ness of the place, although fully equal to that of any 
other place of the same size within the county, has 
largely increased in volume and changed in character. 
The commercial commodities of the region, which 
largely consist of timber and its products, such as 
railroad ties, posts, sawed lumber, and bark, have here 
found a market for sale and a point of shipment. 

The population of the town from 1870 to 1880 in- 
j creased about one hundred per cent. It now is prob- 
ably about seven hundred and fifty. This rapid 
increase, spasmodic in its character, is to be attributed 
to the completion of the railroad rather than to any 
I other cause. The sudden rise in population was made 



700 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



up in great part of business men, who expected an 
unwonted impetus to be given to business of all kinds, 
such as had been evidenced by the rapid growth in 
population, and in the volume of business in those 
new towns which had suddenly sprung into existence 
along the line of the Southwest Railway. With this 
accession and this fresh start began a spirit of im- 
provement which took hold of the older inhabitants, 
not seriously it is true, but moderately. For while 
most of the citizens and inhabitants showed a spirit 
of reform and a disposition of progress, it is apparent 
from the appearance of some portions of the town 
that this spirit has not been universal or too general 
in its manifestations. The most complainable objec- 
tion, and the one which meets the inquirer from all 
directions, is as to the disposition in many of the 
property-holders not to improve, nor to dispose of an- 
tiquated and decaying buildings at reasonable prices 
to those who even with limited means have inclina- 
tion and disposition to make thrift and taste go hand 
in hand. 

For a number of years before the completion of the 
Ligonier Valley road the village of Ligonier was re- 
garded as an agreeable summer resort for the middling 
classes of Pittsburgh, and a desirable point for pleas- 
ure parties at all seasons of the year from the sur- 
rounding towns. It is in summer-time at this day a 
Mecca for those who are attracted by the beauties of 
nature, the grandeur of mountains, and the placid 
sweetness of the silent summer fields. The " valley" 
in its physical topography is in itself composed of 
many smaller valleys or vales, lying between hills 
more or less abrupt. The numerous streams that rise 
in the mountains on either side, forming runlets and 
small creeks, flow through these smaller valleys, and 
these make many agreeable prospects. 

The drive between Youugstown and Ligonier on 
the old Stoystown and Greensburg turnpike, notwith- 
standing the bad condition in which it has latterly 
been kept, is, for natural scenery, for changeful and 
varied beauty, perhaps the finest in the county. The 
high mountains on the one side are, in their season, 
covered with foliage to their very tops, in which all 
the trees and shrubs indigenous to this latitude blend 
in the harmony peculiar to American forests ; the 
great family of ferns, the rugged rocks, monsters of 
an ancient world, now hoary and lichen-covered; the 
endless murmuring of the Loyalhanna down beneath 
the road-bed as it is, through the intermediate part of 
the gap ; the walls of hills beyond and behind ; the 
ever-changing views and prospects more resemble a 
picture than they do the landscapes which are ordi- 
narily designated with the conventional term pic- 
turesque. 

The Ligonier Valley Railroad is the modern luxury 
of travel to the tourists through these regions in which 
nature has been so lavish. Hence, after Ligonier was 
brought into direct communication with the great out- 
side world the advantages which so many people 



having the means are ready and willing to pay for 
were readily and fully appreciated. Thus Ligonier, 
by no great effort of a few public-spirited persons who 
were interested in the matter, of whom perhaps Judge 
Mellon and Mr. John Hargnett Frank were the most 
conspicuous, became a public place of resort for those 
who spend the season away from home and business. 
Its chief distinction among the villages and towns of 
our county at this time lies in this : Having every 
natural advantage it was fortunate in possessing citi- 
zens of spirit and enterprise, who realizing this 
brought their worldly means and their experience 
into requisition in offering and affording suitable and 
attractive accommodations to this class of patrons. 
The public accommodations have latterly been inade- 
quate for the wants of the public, so that in the sum- 
mer season many private boarding-houses are fitted 
up, and the business of these is dependent on the 
summer visitors. Its public-houses have a reputation 
of being more than ordinarily good. The excursion- 
ists or the denizens who abide there during the sum- 
mer season can have every attention, every conveni- 
ence, and every luxury which taste and judicious 
outlay can provide. 

ORDERS AND SOCIETIES. 
LIGONIER LODGE, No. 331, F. AND A. M., 

was chartered March 7, 1859. The first officers were: 
W. M., George S. Kemble ; S. W., Joseph Moorhead ; 
J. W., John McClintick. The Past Masters of the 
lodge have been Noah M. Marker, William H. Lowry, 
Joseph W. Moorhead, Joseph Clifford, John G. Al- 
bright, Noah M. Weller, William C. Knox, William 
A. Hall, John Ashcom, John McClintick, John A. 
Miller, John C. Fagan, Daniel F. Steck, D. Wilt, 
William Hall, Dr. M. M. McColley, W. E. Thatcher, 
Dr. J. A. Ashcom. The officers in 1882 are : W. M., 
Dr. M. M. McColly ; S. W., W. E. Thatcher; J. W., 
N. M. Marker; Sec, Dr. J. A. Ashcom ; Treas., An- 
drew Grove. Its meetings are held on the Friday 
evening preceding full moon of each month. 

LIGONIER LODGE, No. 960, I. 0. 0. F., 

was chartered April 1, 1879. The officers in 1882 are : 
N. G., A. F. Fowler; V. G., William Robb; Sec, 
Schell Marker; Treas., T. M. Brady. The Past 
Grands have been Thomas M. Brady, M. W. Miller, 
John T. Robb, Dr. J. A. Ashcom, H. L. Jones. The 
charter officers were: N. G., Thomas M. Brady; V. 
G., Scott Martin ; Sec, A. F. Fowler ; Asst. Sec, 
Schell Marker; Treas., A. C. Breniser. It meets 
every Monday evening ; number of members, seventy- 
five. 

LIGONIER LODGE, No. 1224, KNIGHTS OF HONOR, 

was chartered Sept. 17, 1879, but instituted Nov. 7, 
1878, by special dispensation. The charter members 
were J. C. Culp, Andrew Grove, N. M. Marker, G. 
W. Ambros e. D. A. McColly, Dr. J. A. Ashcom, G. 
R. Murdock, William H. Covode, C. A. Lowry, J. W. 
McFarland, William Bush, M. B. Smith, Dr. M. M. 






^ 



LIGONIER TOWNSHIP. 



701 



McColly. The officers in 1882 are: D., J. W. Am- 
brose ; Rep., J. M. Graham ; Fin., Dr. J. A. Ashcom ; 
Treas., Andrew Grove ; P. D., C. C. Griffith ; V. D., 
Dr. M. M. McColly ; G., John Ray ; S., M. B. Smith ; 
Guide, C. A. Lowry ; Chap., Rev. A. C. Johnson. It 
meets on alternate Thursdays, and has twenty-five 
members. 

LIGONIER COUNCIL, No. 501, ROYAL ARCANUM, 

was instituted July 17, 1880, with the following char- 
ter members : M. W. Miller, H. L. Jones, J. S. Ber- 
key, H. S. Denny, Andrew Grove, T. M. Brady, D. C. 
Zimmerman, L. A. Dennison, J. H. Ream, William 
H. Covode, J. F. Laughery, Benjamin Deeds, Noah 
M. Marker, J. G. Nicely, C. R. Withow, G. R. Mur- 
dock, Hamilton Smith, W. E. Thatcher. The officers 
in 1882 are : R., William H. Covode ; V. R., M. W. 
Miller ; O., J. S. Barton ; P. R., L. A. Dennison ; 
Sec, H. L. Jones ; Treas., N. M. Marker ; Col., An- 
drew Grove. It has a membership of twenty, and 
meets alternate Thursday evenings. 

BOROUGH SCHOOLS. 
The school board in 1882 consists of : President, Dr. 
M. M. McColly ; Secretary, John Hargnett; Treas- 
urer, A. F. Fowler, and David Marker, R. M. Graham, 
C. A. Lowry. The teachers are J. M. Graham (prin- 
cipal), Room No. 3 ; C. C. Griffith (ten years teach- 
ing here), No. 2 ; Miss Nannie E. Horrell, No. 1. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



JOHN POLLOCK. 
About the year 1760 five brothers, bearing the 
name of Pollock, settled in Cumberland County, Pa. 
They came from Ireland, whither they had emigrated 
from Scotland a few years previous. One made his 
permanent home in Cumberland County, and ex- 
Governor James Pollock is the only representative of 
his family known to the writer. Of the others, one 
returned to Ireland, two settled in Erie County, and 
one, James, came to Ligouier Valley with some In- 
dian traders, and with his hatchet marked a tract of 
land for his future home. He returned to Cumber- 
land County, where he married Mary Herron, and in 
45 



1767 they settled upon the farm which he had lo- 
cated. Here they spent their lives, diligently per- 
forming whatever work their hands found to do. Mr. 
Pollock was prominent in both Church and State. He 
brought with him to Westmoreland County a com- 
mission as justice of the peace, which office he held 
until incapacitated for its duties by old age. He was 
elected a member of the State Legislature, and at- 
tended the opening of the session, but soon returned 
home, where he remained and gave his attention to 
his farm. He was long a member of the Presbyterian 
Church, and was an elder in the same, but afterwards 
united with the Seceder Church, in which organiza- 
tion he was an elder. He and his wife were endowed 
with strong intellects, and were noted for their intel- 
ligence and piety. Their son John, whose portrait 
is here given, was born Oct. 8, 1783, in Mount 
Pleasant, where his parents had taken refuge be- 
cause of an incursion of Indians into Ligonier Val- 
ley. He learned the business of farming upon his: 
father's farm, where he spent his entire life. He 
never attended "school," and his vast fund of 
knowledge was obtained by his own exertion and 
the assistance of his mother. He was in the true 
sense " self-taught," and consequently well taught. 
Although he never learned a rule from a book, his 
j knowledge of mathematics was such as enabled him 
i to solve readily the most intricate and diverse prob- 
lems in that science. He was an elder in the United 
Presbyterian Church, and was a frequent contributor 
to the religious periodicals of the day. He took an 
active part in politics, but would never accept an 
office. His clear, well-balanced mind, amiable dis- 
position, and gentle Christian life made him a worthy 
exemplar. 

He married Elizabeth Hamill, Sept. 15, 1807 
Their children are David, who married Jane John- 
son (both now dead); Ann S., married to Robert 
Graham (both now dead) ; James, dead ; Robert, who 
was a United Presbyterian minister, and married Jane 
H. Scroggs (now dead) ; Thomas C. married Martha 
J. Barnett, and resides on the old homestead ; Mary 
married Rev. Moses Arnot ; and Jane E., who is un- 
married. 

John Pollock died March 16, 1862. His wife, Eliz- 
abeth, died Feb. 15, 1864. 



LOYALHANNA TOWNSHIP. 



This township was formed out of portions of the 
territory of Salem, Derry, and Washington town- 
ships, the inhabitants of which section began their 
efforts for a new township in 1831, as appears from 
the following, taken from the records of November 
session of that year : 

" Upon the petition of a number of the Inhabitants of Derry, Salem, 
& Washington Townships, praying the Erection of a new Township 
thereout, with the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the tun- 
nel on the Connemauth, in Derry Township, thence to Robert Foster's 
on the Loyalhannah Creek, in Salem Township, from thence to inter- 
sect the line between Salem & Washington Tps. at or near Wm. Cald- 
well's, ,fc fr. that place to Kichards'B Dam on the Kiskaminites, & fr. 
thence up the Kiskaminites A Conemaugh Rivers to the place of Begin- 
ning; & praying the Court to appoiDt Viewers according to Law. The 
Court thereupon appoint John Horel, of Derry, James McCutcher, of 
Salem, & Michael Kunkle, of Wash. Tps." [Nov. 23, 1831]. 

Loyalhanna township was organized by the court 
in 1833, and received its name from the Loyalhanna 
River, which flows through its central part. Its 
boundaries are north by the Conemaugh River, east 
by Derry, south and southwest by Salem, and north- 
west by Bell townships. 

It is watered by the Loyalhanna and a few minor 



streams that are tributary to the same. The North- 
western Pennsylvania Railroad runs along its north- 
ern boundary, with a branch called Fairbanks' Ex- 
tension, which intersects the main line, and runs to 
the famous Fairbanks Company Coal-Works, a dis- 
tance of about two miles. Coal exists in abundant 
quantities in most parts of the township, and is in 
many places developed. 

Among the early settlers were the Georges, Hensels, 
Robinsons, Kerrs, McBrides, Adairs, and Stewarts. 

Among the prominent family names that have fig- 
ured conspicuously in the history of the township 
and vicinity are those of Kirkpatrick, Campbell, 
Sterritt, Bowman, Johnson, Semon, and others. 

There are no villages in the township, and the only 
settlement is around the coal-works. 

The main occupation of the inhabitants is agricul- 
ture, to which the land is generally well adapted. 

The township, though small in area, is equal in en- 
terprise and prosperity to its sister townships. Its 
inhabitants are characterized by their industry and 
thrift, intelligence and morality, and constitute a 
very excellent community in all respects. 



SEWIOKLEY TOWNSHIP. 



ERECTION, BOUNDS, Etc. 

Sewickley Township was erected in 1835, and 
was named after the Big Sewickley Creek, that flows 
along its southwestern boundary. It is bounded north 
by North Huntingdon, east by Hempfield, south by 
South Huntingdon, and west by the Youghiogheny 

River. 

EARLY SETTLERS. 

Among the earliest settlers were Caspar Markle, 
Judge Jacob Painter, Anthony Blackburn, the Caro- 
thers, Carnahans, Campbells, Biggses, Dr. Lewis Mar- 
chand, John Milligan, Capt. William Pinkerton, James 
Milligan, the Gilberts, McGrews, and others. James 
Milligan, yet living, is ninety-one years of age, and has 
voted for sixty-five consecutive elections. Capt. Wil- 
702 



liam Pinkerton was six feet four inches in height, and a 
man of immense muscular power. Anthony Blackburn, 
who had settled here about 1778, removed to Canada, 
taking with him a large family, several of whom had 
been schoolmates of Gen. Joseph Markle. One of these 
sons returned ten or twelve years afterwards, and re- 
sided in this neighborhood. The sons who remained 
in Canada were drafted and served in the British army 
in the war of 1812 on the Northwestern frontier. After 
the war was over one of them paid a visit to his rela- 
tions in Westmoreland County, and here stated that a 
few days before the commencement of the siege of 
Fort Meigs he was lying with a company of Indians 
in ambush near the fort; that while there Gen. (then 
captain) Joseph Markle and his orderly sergeant, 



SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP. 



703 



John C. Plumer, and a part of his troop passed by ; 
that he, Blackburn, recognized his old acquaintances, 
Markle and Plumer, and consequently permitted them 
to pass without firing upon them. This recognition 
saved the lives of all the party. 

THE MARKLE FAMILY. 

The progenitor of the Markle family in Westmore- 
land County was John Chrisman Markle, who was 
born in Alsace, on the Rhine, in 1678. After the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, he fled from 
Germany, passing down the Rhine, and settled in Am- 
sterdam, Holland. Here he married Jemima Weurtz 
(or Weurtzen),a sister of the admiral of that name. In 
1703 he came to America, and settled at Salem Springs, 
Berks Co., Pa., where he purchased fifteen hundred 
acres of land of the Penns. He was by trade a coach- 
maker, and he there established a wagon shop, black- 
smith-shop, and grist-mill. 

His son Gaspard was born in Berks County in 
1732, and married Elizabeth Grim, and in 1770 re- 
moved to Westmoreland County. Shortly afterwards 
his wife died, and he returned to Berks County, 
where he married Mary Roadarmel, whom he brought 
to his home in this county. His residence here was 
the post of refuge to which the settlers fled for succor 
and safety. He and Judge Jacob Painter entered 
large tracts of land that extended several miles up 
and down Sewickley Creek. Several of his sous 
served in the desultory wars growing out of the in- 
cursions of the Indians, one of whom, George, was 
especially distinguished at the defense of Wheeling. 
George, his nephew, was in the Revolution and at the 
battle of Brandywine, and his brother Jacob was in 
the naval service under Commodore Barney, and on 
board " Hyder Ally" at the capture of " Gen. Monk." 
His brother-in-law, Joseph Roadarmel, was at the 
battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, where he was 
wounded, captured, and taken prisoner on the British 
ship of war in New York harbor, on which he died of 
wounds received in battle. Another member of the 
Markle family, Abraham Markle, removed from Ger- 
many, and settled in Canada, and became a delegate 
in the Provincial Parliament. In the war of 1812 he 
came to the United States, and became colonel in the 
American army. The British government confiscated 
all his property in Canada, but the United States gave 
him four sections of land near Fort Harrison, in In- 
diana. 

Gaspard Markle in 1772 erected a grist-mill on 
Sewickley, which traverses his ancient homestead. 
Here was made some of the first flour manufactured 
west of the Allegheny Mountains. It was transported 
in flat-boats by Jacob Yoder, a citizen of Reading, to 
New Orleans. So much consequence was attached to 
this feat that the citizens of Spencer County, Ky., 
where he afterwards lived and died, erected a monu- 
ment to him to commemorate the fact. All the salt 
used was transported by the Markles (Gaspard's sons) 



from Eastern cities on pack-horses, the intervening 
country being an almost unbroken forest and impass- 
able with wagons. Of course taverns and habitations, 
if any, were few and far between, and the caravans of 
packers were compelled to carry with them from 
home the necessary provender for the whole journey. 
But often the weary packer was turned out to graze 
on the mountains, or in the rich valleys which di- 
versified and divided them, while the rider himself 
reposed under the shadows of the overhanging forest. 
His son, Gen. Joseph Markle, was born Feb. 15, 1777, 
and was the most daring of all the packers over the 
mountains. 

In 1799, (Jen. Joseph Markle, then a young man 
twenty-two years old, made his first trip to New Or- 
leans with a load of flour from his father's mill. He 
left Robbstown (West Newton) in March, and was six 
weeks on the voyage. The early traders and boatmen 
on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers followed quick on 
the heels of the pioneers, and were a hardy and ad- 
venturous race. Before the introduction of steam- 
boats on the Western waters they were the common 
carriers of the Great West. Pittsburgh and Robbs- 
town were their headquarters, and New Orleans the 
Ultima Thule of their voyages. It was a long and 
tedious journey, the difficulty of returning adding 
greatly to its perils and the time occupied. As far 
as communication with white inhabitants was con- 
cerned, the voyage might as well have been made 
on the wide ocean. The unwieldy and sluggish flat- 
boats crawled slowly along with the current until it 
entered the Mississippi, where, amidst its whirlpools 
and eddies and its rushing waters, the sturdy voyager 
strained every nerve to save it from wreck on snags 
and sawyers. At night they lashed their boats close 
under the shore, and again at early dawn set out for 
their voyage. The boatmen generally returned by 
what was called the " Wilderness route" by the way 
of Natchez, Nashville, Lexington, Chillicothe, etc. 
From the vicinity of Natchez to Nashville the route 
was by the Indian trail through the Chickasaw nation, 
a distance of about six hundred and fifty miles. 

Gaspard Markle had retired from business before 
1799, when the management of the mills, farms, etc., 
all devolved upon Gen. Joseph Markle. 

In 1806 he erected another grist-mill, and in 1811 
formed a partnership with Simon Drum, of Greens- 
burg, and during that year built a large paper-mill, 
the third establishment of the kind west of the Alle- 
ghenies. Mr. Drum, father of Adjt.-Gen. Drum, of 
the United States army, residing at a distance, the 
entire superintendency was added to Gen. Markle's 
other duties. Gen. Markle was captain of a com- 
pany of light dragoons (troop) in the war of 1812, 
and was in the battle with the Indians on the expe- 
dition against the Mississinewa towns on the Wabash 
River, in which Lieut. Waltz (from his vicinity) and 
sixteen others were killed. Four other members of 
the Markle family were in this troop, one of whom, 



704 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Jacob, was appointed to fill the vacant lieutenancy 
occasioned by Waltz's death. Gen. Markle was under 
Gen. Harrison, and was at the siege of Fort Meigs, 
and the sorties which accompanied it. While away 
in the West fighting the British and Indians the dam 
of the paper-mill on the Sewickley was swept away by 
a flood, but it was immediately repaired by the super- 
vision of his wife, and the manufacture of paper ex- 
tensively carried on. His dealings with a single 
house in Pittsburgh in a few years then amounted to 
more than a hundred thousand dollars. He supplied 
a greater part of Western Pennsylvania with paper, 
and personally distributed large quantities in Ohio 
and Kentucky. His farm, too, in the meanwhile was 
cultivated with great industry and vigor. The flour- 
mill was kept constantly employed. He also kept 
a store, out of which the great number of hands em- 
ployed by him were partly paid for their services 
The profits of the whole were no doubt very great, 
but the freedom with which he lent his name to his 
friends ultimately swallowed them up and left him 
deeply involved. In 1S29, in order to relieve himself 
from the vexation consequent to his embarrassments, 
he transferred to two of his sons, S. B. and Cyrus P., 
over three hundred acres of land, including the paper- 
mill, upon the condition of their paying his respon- 
sibilities. This condition was faithfully performed 
by the payment of every dollar for which he was 
morally or legally bound. He retained the ancient 
homestead of two hundred and twenty-five acres. It 
is one of those retired and fertile nooks into which 
our German population are so fond of retiring. 
Though selected by Gaspard Markle with far dif- 
ferent views, it is just such a spot as the eye of the 
lover of nature would delight to survey. It is beau- 
tifully situated on the east bank of the Sewickley. 
The principal part of the farm, descending gently 
from the east, terminates with a more abrupt descent 
at the stream. On an elevated point between the 
creek and a small rivulet which traverses the farm 
stands the family mansion, now occupied by George 
Markle. It is a large stone building, erected about 
1818, and of rather modern construction. The frame 
mansion built in 1817 is occupied by Gen. C. P. Mar- 
kle. Immediately below the former is the mill built 
in 1806. From this point the stream, rushing and 
brawling among the rocks, pours along the base of a 
high and precipitous hill, crowned with oaks and 
fringed below with spruce and cedar. Hemmed in 
by the hill, it sweeps around a beautiful plateau of 
cultivated fields, and again approaches the mansion 
house. It has evidently at one time, after traversing 
a distance of a mile and a half, returned to within 
fifty paces of its present channel near the mill. 
Through the narrow isthmus thus formed Gen. 
Joseph Markle cut a tunnel, and through this and a 
canal cut along the deserted bed of the creek the 
water is now conveyed to the paper-mill. Here after 
having performed its office it is precipitated into its 



parent stream, which rushing through a cleft in the 
rocks rolls down its water towards the Youghiogheny. 
All or most of these objects are directly under the 
eye of the mansion. The hill towering and stretch- 
ing along it towards the setting sun, the creek at its 
base with its fringe of evergreen, the fields embossed 
in their midst and dotted over with the houses, paper- 
mill, the residences of the proprietors, and the neat 
white cottages of the hands, the clatter of the mill, 
and the ceaseless rush of the waters, all conspire to 
make this a spot where its owners may seek repose 
from the cares and vexations of life. 

In the " Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794, Maj.-Gen. 
Daniel Morgan's wing of the Federal army encamped 
on Gaspard Markle's homestead, and the garlic still 
found in this region troubling the land-owners is at- 
tributable to its being introduced by that army. Gas- 
pard Markle was opposed to the lawless opposition 
engendered against the excise laws and the officials 
sent here to enforce it, and saw with chagrin the de- 
fiers of law erect a liberty-pole on his lands, being 
unable in the excitement of the then maddened pop- 
ulace to prevent it. He died in 1819. Gen. Joseph 
Markle, his son, in 1837 purchased of his friend and 
old commander, Gen. Harrison, five hundred acres of 
land near Princeton, Ind., and eighty acres of another 
party near Vincennes same day. He died March 15, 
1867, in his ninety-first year. 

Gen. C. P. Markle has some one thousand acres of 
rich lands on the Sewickley, all underlaid with the 
finest Youghiogheny coal. His splendid stock and 
dairy farm consists of three hundred acres, from 
which the annual sales of Jersey cattle exceed ten 
thousand dollars. His cattle and herds are among 
the best in the. State. He and his sons have also a 
large butchering establishment in West Newton, 
where are daily slaughtered animals from their farm 
to feed the people of that manufacturing town. 

The first paper-mill was erected in 1811, by Gen. 
Joseph Markle, in connection with Simon Drum, 
who only continued in the business a few years. It 
was a frame structure, located half a mile below the 
mansion, and was torn down in 1826. Gen. Markle 
built the steam paper-mill in 1827 by the narrows. It 
was constructed of stone and wood, and was over one 
hundred feet long. The stone end is still standing, 
and is used for a warehouse. In 1829 he turned the 
mill over to his sons, S. B. and Cyrus P., who in 
1846 built the frame paper-mill in South Huntingdon 
township. It was operated both by steam and water- 
power. It was burned in 1862. In 1859 they erected 
the brick steam paper-mill in West Newton, to which 
in 1864 they made extensive frame additions. It was 
burned in 1876, and rebuilt in 1878. 

It was again burned in 1878 and rebuilt the same 
year. In 1879 it was again burned and rebuilt the 
same year. In 1881 Cyrus P. Markle & Sons, who 
for several years have been the active partners of 
their father, the general, purchased some five thou- 



SEWICKLKY TOWNSHIP. 



705 






sand acres of land on the Castleman River, in Somer- 
set County, where they invested over two hundred 
thousand dollars, and erected very extensive " pulp- 
works," in which the live trees of the forest are 
manufactured in two days into pulp, as elsewhere 
in this book minutely described. The principal paper 
manufactured by them is the glazed hardware paper, 
a particular fabric of extreme niceness and rarity, 
of which they are the only manufacturers in Amer- 
ica of this special kind. Part of it is shipped to 
Pittsburgh and the balance to New York, where 
much of it goes to foreign shores, and a large amount 
to China. 

The Markle paper-mills have been operated by 
three generations. Formerly they made all kinds of 
writing and bank-note papers, manilla wrappers, etc., 
but now their chief fabrics manufactured are the 
glazed hardwares, of a great variety of shades and 
textures. When Gen. Joseph Markle established the 
factory in 1811, and for a long time afterwards, the 
paper was all made by hand shaking, but now the 
latest inventions of skilled machinery are employed 
in all departments of its manufacture. The glazed 
hardwares are used by hardware manufacturers and 
dealers in the packing of all kinds of steels, cutlery, 
etc. The business of their paper-mill this year will 
reach a million dollars, and gives employment to 
several hundreds of hands of both sexes and all ages. 
The firm has also very extensive coke-ovens, — the 
" Bessemer" and " Rising Sun," — located near Mount 
Pleasant, which are among the largest and best in 
the State. 

The pulp-factories of C. P. Markle & Sons at 
Markleton, in Somerset County, are said to be the 
largest in the world in their capacity for the produc- 
tion of wood pulp. The following sketch of these 
great works was written by one of a party of recent 
visitors, and published in the newspapers : 

" Markleton is a station created out of nothing by Mr. Markle. He 
has already built ten dwelling-houses, and is building five more; has 
erected a church, a store, and an elegant little railroad station, besides 
his factories. The town lies in a little basin, surrounded by great hills 
densely wooded, and the Castleman River winds along beside it. On 
the opposite side of the river is one of the timber tracts belonging to C. 
I'. Mark 1<- A: Suns. They have over 8000 acres in Somerset and Westmore- 
land Counties. From Markleton a tram road extends back into the 
forest for eight miles. The road is carefully built, and T rails of excel- 
lent quality are used on it. The scenery along the road is highly pic- 
turesque, and its beauty was heightened by about a quarter of an inch 
of snow which lay upon the ground under the evergreen trees, although 
there was no snow in the open spots where the sun's rays could strike it. 
A large gang of men were at work about two miles from the station, 
getting wood ready for the mill 

"They do not use axes or cross-cut saws up there in cutting down 
trees. Such tools are too slow in performing the required work. They 
simply blow a tree up with dynamite. A specimen of this sort of thing 
was witnessed by the visitors. \ few large spruce were selected as the 
victims, ami the 'feller' who fel s began to quickly bore a hole in the 
base of the tree with an inch aug< \ The hole was driven in about ten 
inches, the chips were removed, and a dynamite cartridge was inserted 
in the hole. The dynamite used comes in sticks like a candle, and re- 
sembles moist brown sugar. A fuse whs attached to the charge, and 
after it was lighted the men sought a place of safety and waited. In a 
few seconds there was a mighty roar, and the great tree was lifted up 



into the air about ten feet, then with a swoop and crash it came to the 
earth, splintered half way up the trunk. 

"Dynamite Is not cheap, but it may truthfully be said that a little of 
it goes a great way. 

"The trees are cut up into four-foot lengths and split up into pieces 
like cord-wood. Then they are hauled over to the storage-yards beside 
: the factories. Almost any kind of timber could be used for making 
' pulp, but the fibre of spruce and hemlock is so straight and soft that it 
can be worked more speedily and economically than any other available 
wood. The machinery in Markle's mill is strong enough to make pulp 
out of lignum vite, but it would dot pay. 

"About a hundred feet above the railroad is the mill proper. It is a 
superb building, one hundred and sixty-two by eighty-six feet, built in 
the most substantial manner atid fitted out with the finest class of ma- 
chinery. It is here the process of manufacture is carried on. The pro- 
cess is briefly this: The sticks of wood are brought into the mill and 
thrown into a large funnel which feeds a clipping-machine. This ma- 
chine consists of a large wheel furnished with five knife-blades, and the 
blades chip the wood off just as the knives of a fodder-machine cut 
straw. The chips are conveyed by an elevator to the second story of the 
mill and are dumped into 'digesters. 1 There are eight digesters in 
this mill. They resemble vertical boilers. The chips are fed into the 
digesters from openings in the top, and then a preparation of soda ash 
and lime is poured upon them, and they are boiled. The pressure of 
the chips as they spread apart ami the fibres Separate is immense, and 
the digesters have to be made to resist a pressure of one hundred and 
fifty pounds to the inch. In a short time the chips become a stringy 
pulp, and the liquid is run off by a pump and conveyed to the evaporator, 
of which we will speak later. The pulp next goes through a wet ma- 
chine, where it is strained and cooled. It then passes between rollers, 
and is made into sheets like pasteboard. Indeed, t'> the uninitiated, the 
sheets seem to be pasteboard of a fine and strong quality, and of a pure 
white color. The most striking feature about the mill is its water sup- 
ply. Four six-inch pipes are supplied with water from a strong moun- 
tain stream a hundred feet above the mill. The water is carried to the 
mill through thirteen hundred feet of huge pipe, with a fall of one hun- 
dred and sixty feet. A more magnificent supply of water could not be 
desired, aud it is so remarkably soft it does not require any artificial 
softening. 

"The evaporator which has been alluded to is a great building, one 
hundred and forty-eight feet long and thirty-eight feet wide. It is sup- 
plied with a long battery of small furnaces, above which are the retorts 
into which the alkali is pumped from the null. It is then evaporated 
until soda ash is the result, and this ash is again used in preparing pulp. 
There is but a trifle loss in evaporation, and the same alkali is used 
again and again. This evaporator is the most perfect building of its 
kind in existence, and yet it is not large enough to do all the work re- 
quired, and the foundations of another one have already been laid. 

"On the mountain side, a couple of hundred yards above the evapo- 
rator, is a six-foot vein of coal, which is opened, and which is to be con- 
nected with the works by a tramway. 

"The capacity of the mill is sixty thousand pounds of pulp daily. A 
cord of wood will make twelve hundred pounds of pulp. This pulp is 
worth one hundred and forty dollars a ton. About five tons of the pulp 
will make three tons of paper, we believe, although we base this on a 
guess. The pulp is transported to the Markle paper-mills at West New- 
ton, and there it speedily becomes paper. The firm has invested over a 
quarter of a million of dollars in its works at Markleton, but they will 
be amply repaid for their outlay. The mills will be in operation in two 
weeks, and will give employment to nearly two hundred men. A new 
paper-mill has been built at West Newton by the firm, and in a day or 
two it will begin work. The store of the firm is managed by Mr. John 
A. Miller, a very clever young gentleman, and the post-office — called 
Fibre— is in charge of Mr. John Cannon. 

"This mere outline of this great enterprise gives but a poor idea of 
its merits, but it shows how, as Capt. Markle remarked, 'a tree that 
waved its branches in the forest wind at noon on Monday may be sold 
on Tuesday morning by the newsboys of Pittsburgh, who shout, Here's 
your morning paper ! All about the great pulp- works at Markleton I' " 

CHURCHES. 
MARS HILL BAPTIST CHURCH 

was organized in 1840, with Rev. Milton Sutton as 
its first pastor. The Revs. R. R. Sutton, J. P. Rocke- 
fellar, G. Tonham, D. Webster, R. C. Morgan, and 



706 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



others have held pastorates at various periods. The 
Rev. O. P. Hargrave has been pastor for nearly seven- 
teen years. Its membership is over one hundred, 
and the Sunday-school numbers one hundred and 
fifteen. The value of the church property is four 
thousand dollars. 

THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

is situated, with its cemetery, two miles northwest of 
Mill Grove. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

is located one mile north of the United Presbyterian. 

FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE 

is situated just north of Millville and near the Baptist 
Church. At the beginning of the century the Friends 
were strong in numbers, and among the leaders were 
the well-known Gilbert family. 

THE UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH 

is at Mars Hill post-office, and its membership ex- 
tends for several miles. It is supplied by circuit 
preaching from non-resident pastors. 

THE MARKLE CEMETERY 
is eligibly situated on the south side of Big Sewickley 
Creek, on the original homestead of Gaspard Markle. 
and near the old block-house, the refuge of all the 
settlers during the Indian incursions. In it lie the 
remains of 

Gen. Joseph Markle, <lied March 15, 1S67, aged 90 years and 1 month ; 
his first wife, Elizabeth, died Dec. 6, 1815; his second wife, Eliza- 
beth, died Dec. 30, 1868. 

Jacob Markle, born April 13, 1780, died July 22, 1804; his wife, Catha- 
rine, horn Nov. 24, 1791, died July 29, 1845. 

Sarah A., wire of Gen. Cyrus P. Markle, died Nov. 26, 1868, aged 54. 

Sarah, daughter of GaapeE and Polly Markle, died July 6, 1820, aged 1 
year, ID mouths, and 8 days. 

David Markle, died Aug. 10. 1828, aged 32. 

Hannah Markle, died July 30, 1805, aged 83. 

Andrew F. Thompson, died April 20, 1825, aged 34. 

William Ross, died May 25, 1881, aged 77. 

James P. Cat-others, died Feb. 5, 1877, aged 72. 

Jane, wife of Henry Lewis, died April 1, 1877, aged 70. 

Catharine, wife of Jacob Painter, diet! Jan. 10, 1856, aged 84. 

Near this cemetery, on the lands of Gen. Joseph 
Markle, was the site of old-time musters and militia 
trainings, and the great resort for public and political 
meetings. " Mill GrdYe," the Markle seat, was the 
great centre of all public assemblages of people, who 
came for miles around, as the most accessible point 
for meeting. 

VILLAGES. 

There are several flourishing villages along the bank 
of the Youghiogheny River, and on the railroad which 
runs through the township, following the course of 
the river. The principal one of these is 

SHANER'S STATION, 

a place inhabited by the employes of the coal com- 
panies. Very extensive coal-works are operated in 
and around the place, and it derives its existence 
mainly from this source. It contains several stores, 
railroad depot, post-office, and other evidences of sub- 



stantial prosperity. A lodge of L. O. L., No. 78, was 
instituted here in 1881. 

SUTERSVILLE 

is on the site of the old Suter homestead, and is a 
village laid out by Eli Suter, a member of this old 
family, that has resided in the vicinity of the village 
for many years. 

GUFFEV'S STATION 

was named after A. Guffey, an early and prominent 
settler. It has a distillery, several stores and shops, 
and near it are large coal-mines. 

Buena Vista, Armstrong, and Moore's Stations are 
all hamlets on the railroad. 

The Youghiogheny Railroad stations in this town- 
ship are Sewickley, Marchand's, Cowan's, Millville, 
and McGrew's, of which Cowansburg is a growing 
village. 

THE COAL COMPANIES 

now in successful operation are those of Penn Gas- 
Coal, N. J. Bigley, Scott & Co., and C. H. Armstrong, 
giving employment to eight hundred men. 

THE GREAT FLOOD. 
July 26, 1879, witnessed one of the greatest fresh- 
ets ever known in this region. Mrs. John Daily, 
residing between Shaner's and Guffey's Stations, was 
drowned. She and her sister had become frightened 
at the sudden rise of the water, and fearing that their 
home would be washed away by the water closed the 
house and left. Mrs. Daily's sister left first, and had 
succeeded in safely crossing the run ; but Mrs. Daily, 
in attempting to cross, was overtaken by the flood, 
carried down by the stream, and drowned. The cul- 
verts were all washed out, Robbins', Guffey's, and 
Shaner's Stations, and all trains for hours delayed. 
The Buena Vista school-house was swept away, and 
two dwellings at Shaner's coal-mines carried off. The 
stone bridge at Guffey's was completely washed away, 
with four hundred feet of the track, and the school- 
house near the track carried across it. One car 
was wholly smashed. The storm began with the 
falling of hail, followed by torrents of rain, and the 
Youghiogheny Railroad became the scene of great 
devastation. The storm and flood extended to other 
townships, and in Rostraver the farms suffered greatly 
by washes. Tinker Run and Brush Creek Valleys 
suffered by the inundations largely, and, taken alto- 
gether, this section of the county was never before 
visited by such a destructive flood. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



THE MILLIGA.i FAMTLY. 
John Milligan was boin in Ayrshire, Scotland, 
and came to this country before the Revolution, liv- 
ing for some time near Carlisle, in the Cumberland 
Valley, where he tended a mill. He often ground 



SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP. 



707 



flour and meal for the Continental soldiers during 
that stormy period. Here he married Mary Adams, 
and in 1780 came to Westmoreland County, and lo- 
cated on the farm of John Carnahan, now known as 
the " Willow-Tree Farm." He then patented four 
hundred acres of land in Sewickley township, sharing 
with other first settlers the trials and hardships of 
pioneer days. He served for many years as justice 
of the peace, and married more couples than any 
magistrate in the county. The long and tedious 
ceremony of Revs. Dicks, Power, Swan, and later, 
Patterson, being almost a terror to young people, 
many visited him where a short ceremony was per- 
formed. He raised three boys and five girls. ( )f the 
former, Alexander died in 1860 ; John, in 1872 ; and 
James, born in 1790, is still living. Jane, the eldest 
daughter, married Col. David Nelson, of Crawford 
County, and Nancy married Richard Simmons. 
Mrs. Mary Myers, a daughter of Col. and Mrs. Nel- 
son, is now living in her eighty-second year. Of 
Richard Simmons' children, one daughter married 
Mr. Jamison, Margaret married Samuel Miller, and 
Ann married Hon. William Hutchinson, the last two 
of Fredericksburg, Ohio. John Milligan, the emi- 
grant, went in 1802 to New Orleans with a boat-load 
of flour, but it souring on the voyage down the rivers, 
and finding it there to be unmerchantable, he shipped 
it to Liverpool, England, and traded it off to starch- 
makers, and invested his proceeds in various merchan- 
dise to bring back to this country. While in the old 
country he visited his native place in Scotland, and 
when he returned to America he was accompanied 
by his brother, James Milligan. The latter was a 
noted minister of the Associate Reformed Church, and 
one of the best known of the early anti-slavery agi- 
tators and persecuted abolitionists. He was located 
several years in New England, and while pastor of 
a church in Ryegate, Vt., was rotten-egged by a mob 
of excited pro-slavery men. His son, Rev. A. M. 
Milligan, of Pittsburgh, was burned in effigy in 
Greensburg for daring to raise his voice in behalf of 
the oppressed negro slave, and one Sabbath morning, 
on coming there to preach, his eyes were greeted 
with a very large cartoon, on which was drawn the 
picture of a big burly negro woman and a tall, gaunt 
figure standing over her, and below the inscription, 
" Milligan kissing the nigger." But this fearless de- 
fender of oppressed humanity soon saw the shackles 
torn from the Southern slaves by the wicked Rebel- 
lion inaugurated by their selfish and cruel policy. 



WILLIAM GUFFEY. 

William Guffey was born in Sewickley township, 
Westmoreland County, Pa., Jan. 16, 1821, the fourth 
in a family of eleven children of James and Hannah 
(Scott) Guffey. 

His parents were both of Irish descent. 

William Guffey, his great-great-grandfather, emi- 



grated from Ireland with his family about the year 
1738, and eventually settled in Westmoreland County, 
Sewickley township, and was the progenitor of the 
many families of the name in Western Pennsylvania. 
He died in Sewickley, January, 1783. 

His son, James Guffey, born in 1736, was two years 
old when his father emigrated. He was twice mar- 
ried. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Wil- 
liam and Margaret Campbell. His second wife was 
a Miss Findley. By his first wife he had three chil- 
dren, viz. : John, Polly, and Bell. By the second, 
Sarah and William. James Guffey died March 9, 
1806, aged seventy years; his first wife, Margaret, 
May, 1791. John < iult'ey, son of James, was born in 
Sewickley, Aug. 6, 1764. His first wife, Agnes Lowry, 
was born April 18, 1773. 

Eleven children were the fruit of this union, viz. : 
James, William, Anna, John, Robert, Joseph, Alex- 
ander, Margaret, Isabella, Mary, and Nancy. 

By his second wife, Rebecca Stewart, he had two 
children, viz. : Benjamin and Stewart. John Guffey 
was for many years justice of the peace, and spent 
his whole life on the place now owned by Maj. Dick 
and occupied by Jesse Husband. He was a man 
greatly beloved in his family, and highly respected 
by all who knew him. 

James Guffey, eldest son of John, and father to 
William, was born at the old Guffey homestead Dec. 
15, 1791. He was a soldier in the cavalry troop 
under Gen. Joseph Markle in the war of 1812, and 
was engaged in the battle of Mississinewa. Soon 
after his return from the army, April 20, 1813, he 
married Hannah, daughter of James and Mary P. 
Scott. The latter was born March 6, 1791, in Eliza- 
beth township, Allegheny County, Pa. Her father 
at the age of seventeen emigrated from Ireland and 
settled in that township. After his marriage James 
Guffey settled upon the place now owned and occu- 
pied by his son William and daughter Sarah Jane. 
A log house had been built upon the place, but the 
land was cleared and improved and the present brick 
residence was built by him in 1833. He died here 
March 22, 1841. His wife survived him many years. 
She died at the homestead June 10, 1878. 

Their children were as follows: John, born March 
24, 1814, married Harriet Ingraham ; three children 
living, viz., James G., Mary M., and Hannah S. 
Mary P., born May 23, 1816, wife of Jacob Funk, 
died Sept. 21, 1842. James Guffey Funk, her son, 
died from exposure in the army during the last war. 
James Scott, born Aug. 2, ISIS, married Mary F. By- 
erly Oct. 20, 1844; a farmer living in Elizabeth town- 
ship, Allegheny County, Pa. ; two children living and 
three deceased. The latter were Henrietta, Mary J., 
and Martha R. ; the former, Hannah S. and James 
Adam. William, subfect of this sketch; Zacheus, 
born July 25, 1823, died at the homestead Sept. 22, 
1842, a cripple for the last twenty years of his life ; 
Joseph, born Nov. 20, 1827, died Aug. 1, 1828 ; Nancy 



708 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



L. and Margaret Ann, twins, born July 31, 1829. 
Nancy died March 30, 1837, Margaret married to E. 
R. Griffith, now a farmer in Rostraver township. 
Mrs. Griffith died May 25, 1876 ; three children, Sam- 
uel C, James G., and John W. Sarah Jane, born 
March 6, 1832, always lived at the homestead, and 
since her mother's death has kept house with her 
brother William ; Rebecca, born Feb. 27, 1836, wife 
of John Freeman, a farmer in Ligonier township; 
five children, George, James, Sarah Jane, John, and 
Anna Lucinda. 

William Guffey has spent his whole life on the place 
of his birth, receiving the education afforded by the 
common school of the neighborhood. A bachelor 
uncle, William Guffey, was half-owner with his father 
of the homestead farm, and upon his death, which 
occurred Oct. 2, 1840, he willed to his nephew Wil- 
liam a portion of his property. This uncle lived 
and died at the homestead. By will of his father his 
property was placed under the control of his mother 
until her death. After his father's death, which oc- 
curred when he was nineteen years of age, he man- 
aged his mother's affairs. The farm was worked by 
his brother, James Scott, up to the year 1876, when the 
latter removed on to his farm in Elizabeth township. 
From twenty-one years of age Mr. Guffey has suf- 
fered from heart-disease, on which account he has 
not been able to engage in the hard work incident to 
the carrying on a farm. Upon the death of his 
mother he and his sister Sarah Jane purchased of the 
rest of the heirs their interest in the homestead. He 
employs to work the farm Mr. John C. West, whose 
wife, Anna Mary, daughter of Samuel and Catharine 
Henderson, had lived with Mr. and Miss Guffey from 
the time she was eight years of age, and was married 
at the homestead May 2, 1878. The family at pres- 
ent consists of Mr. and Miss Guffey, Mr. and Mrs. 
West, and their two children, Sarah Louisa and Mary 
Catharine. 

The Guffey family in politics have always shown 
an unbroken Democratic front. It is said that at one 
time there were twenty-one Democratic voters in the 
family in the township of Sewickley. Mr. Guffey is 
no exception to this rule. Both he and his sister 
have for many years been members of the West New- 
ton Presbyterian Church. Honorable in all business 
transactions, hospitable to all comers, charitable to 
the poor, of a genial, social disposition, Mr. Guffey 
well deserves the high estimate in which he is held 
by the community in which he has spent his days. 



CAPT. CALEB GREENAWALT. 
Capt. Caleb Greenawalt was born in Sewickley town- 
ship, Westmoreland County, Pa., June 1, 1830. The 
family on the father's side are of German, on the 
mother's of English origin. His grandfather, Jacob 
Greenawalt, a native of Lancaster County, Pa., moved 
from there in the latter part of the last century, and 



settled on a farm in Sewickley. He married Martha 
Breuneman, the issue of which union were four sons 
and five daughters, viz. : Daniel, Abraham, Martha, 
Jacob, Maria, Nancy, Fanny, Henry, and Susan. All 
were married, raised families, and all are deceased. 
Daniel Greenawalt, the eldest child, and father of the 
captain, was born in Sewickley, Sept. 3, 1796. He 
married Feb. 20, 1821, Emily, daughter of Caleb and 
Ann Squibb. The marriage ceremony was performed 
by the Rev. Mungo Dick, and his address to the 
young couple upon this occasion is said to have oc- 
cupied one hour. Mrs. Greenawalt was born in the 
neighborhood of Connellsville, Pa., Sept. 4, 1798. 
Her father was among the first operators in devel- 
oping the iron interests in Western Pennsylvania. 
After his marriage he settled on what was known 
as the " Brown's Ferry tract" of land, situated on 
the Youghiogheny River, in Sewickley township, and 
containing one hundred and ninety-six acres. Here 
all of his children were born. He died March 9, 
1838. His wife died at the residence of her son 
Caleb, April 26, 1868. 

Their children were as follows: Martha, born 
Nov. 10, 1821, wife of Capt. J. B. Copeland, a farmer 
in Audrian County, Mo., three sons and four daugh- 
ters ; Jacob, born Nov. 16, 1823, died Jan. 1838 ; Ann 
Eliza, born April 9, 1826, wife of Robert Hamilton, 
moved to Iowa, where she died July 27, 1867, four 
sons and two daughters ; Angeline, born Feb. 24, 
1828, wife of O. H. McAlister, M.D., residing in 
McAlisterville, Juniata Co., Pa. ; Caleb, subject of 
this sketch; George, born June 30, 1S32, died Aug. 
16, 1833. 

Capt. Caleb Greenawalt has always lived on the 
place of his birth, having come in possession of the 
homestead farm by inheritance and by purchase from 
the rest of the heirs. He received the education af- 
forded by the common school of the neighborhood. 
When a boy he made an occasional trip on coal-boats 
bound for Cincinnati and Louisville, but most of his 
minority was spent on the farm. From the first 
breaking out of the Rebellion he took a lively inter- 
est in all measures looking to its suppression. With 
Col. J. B. Copeland, his brother-in-law, he raised a 
company for the three months' service, which was 
not accepted, but the company subsequently enlisted 
in the three years' service as Company F, Twenty- 
eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. 
[ He was mustered in as second lieutenant at Camp 
Coleman, Philadelphia, July 6, 1861, by Maj. Ruff, of 
the United States army. He was promoted to first 
lieutenant, and subsequently to the captaincy of the 
company. The company was attached to Gen. 
Banks' division of the army, and was first located 
at Point of Rocks, in the regiment commanded by 
Col. John W. Geary. While here, Sept. 24, 1861, 
they were attacked by the rebels, the first skirmish 
, in which he was engaged. A similar affair again oc- 
i currcd October 2d, between Point of Rocks and 



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SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP. 



709 






Harper's Ferry, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road, October 16th. His company was in the spir- 
ited engagement at Bolivar Heights, in which the 
first sergeant and one private were wounded. The 
regiment was ordered to Edwards Ferry, with the in- 
tent of participating in the battle of Ball's Bluff, but 
did not reach there in time to engage in the battle. 
The regiment was next employed in guarding the 
Potomac River, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, between Nolan's 
Ferry and Antietam Aqueduct, his own company 
being located on the Maryland side opposite Harper's 
Ferry, a most important post, dividing the lines of the 
contending forces. 

The captain was detailed to construct the rope 
ferry over which the advance of the army crossed 
the Potomac, Feb. 24, 1862, and remained in charge 
of the same until the 1st of May following. He then 
returned to his regiment, then located at Reetortown, 
on the Manassas Gap Railroad, being engaged in 
guarding a distance of fifty-two miles of that road, a 
duty quite necessary and not a little dangerous, but 
with very little glory. He was in the battle of Cul- 
peper, Aug. 9, 1862, and under Gen. Pope was en- 
gaged in very many of the skirmishes and battles 
along the Rappahannock River and Orange and Al- 
exandria Railroad, ending with the second battle of 
Bull Run. After the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 
1862, in which hia regiment and company lost heavily, 
the company having a sergeant and four privates 
killed and seventeen wounded, the regiment occu- 
pied Harper's Ferry and Bolivar Heights. He was 
in the famous battles of Chancellorsville, May 1, 2, 
and 3, 1863, having both lieutenants wounded se- 
verely, and two corporals and seven privates prison- 
ers, and Gettysburg, July 1st, 2d, and 3d, having five 
men wounded. Following up Lee's retreating army 
until it had recrossed the Rappahannock and Rapi- 
dan, the regiment stopped at Raccoon Ford, on the 
latter river, where it remained until the Eleventh 
and Twelfth corps were detached under Gen. Hooker 
and ordered to join the Army of the Cumberland. 
After assisting to open up communication with Chat- 
tanooga and the Army of the Cumberland, and par- 
ticipating in the different skirmishes incident thereto, 
he took part in the glorious battle of Lookout Moun- 
tain ('-battle above the clouds"), Nov. 24, 1863, in 
which three of his men were wounded, and the next day 
that of Missionary Ridge, pursuing the retreating rebels 
all of next day, and on the 27th of November, at Ring- 
gold, Ga., on Taylor's Ridge, where a lieutenant, 
sergeant, and two privates were killed, and quite a 
number wounded, thus ending the campaign of 1863. 
During the winter of 1863-64 his company veteran- 
ized, with headquarters at Philadelphia, Pa., where 
its decimated ranks were filled with excellent re- 
cruits. In March, 1864, it again took the field, and 
engaged in all the battles and skirmishes from Chat- 
tanooga, Tenn., to Atlanta, Ga., notably that of 



Rocky Face Mountain, Ga., May 8, 1864, in which 
one sergeant and four men of his company were 
wounded; Resaca, May 15, 1864; Pumpkin Vine 
Creek, May 25, 1864, and on same day New Hope 
Church, where two privates were killed and six 
wounded, continuing for seven days and being under 
fire the whole time. He was in the battles of Pine 
Knob, PineHill.and Lost Mountain, June 14th ; Mud- 
dy Creek, June 16th ; Nose's Creek, June 19th ; Kolb's 
Farm, June 22d, in which seven men of his company 
were wounded ; Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th ; Mari- 
etta, July 3d; and was honorably discharged the ser- 
vice July 20, 1S64, arriving home on the 27th. 

From this brief resume of Capt. Greenawalt's army 
experience it will be seen that he participated in 
most of the notable battles of the war. From first to 
last he was impressed with the idea that the Rebellion 
must be fought down, and it would be difficult to find 
any one who more thoroughly practiced what he 
preached. On this account he uniformly declined to 
accept clerical or any other position which would 
take him from the fighting ranks, and fought against 
all attempts to transfer his best men from the ranks 
to such positions. For the number of engagements 
in which he participated he was exceedingly fortu- 
nate in receiving no severe wounds, and with the ex- 
ception of an attack of typhoid fever in August, 1861, 
he enjoyed remarkable health during his entire term 
of service. It is said the best soldiers make also the 
best citizens. Capt. Greenawalt is no exception to 
this rule. As a thorough, painstaking, and successful 
farmer he ranks among the first in a township of 
good farmers. To the original homestead tract he has 
added the Caldwell farm, adjoining it, and another 
farm of one hundred and fifteen acres in the same 
township. In politics he has been a stanch supporter 
of the Republican party since its organization. He 
has been for fifteen years a justice of the peace in his 
township, and was candidate of his party for the 
State Senate in 1876. He married, Dec. 7, 1864, Mary 
M., daughter of William M. A. and Elizabeth S. 
(McFadden) Bell. 



A. M. CARLINE. 

A. M. Carline was born in Baldwin township, Alle- 
gheny County, Pa., June 23, 1840, the fifth in a family 
ofsix children of Adam and Elizabeth (Miller) Carline. 
His grandfather emigrated from England and settled 
in Baldwin township, where he kept an inn on the 
Brownsville road. He was twice married, and by his 
first wife he had four sons. 

Adam Carline, father of A. M., was four years old 
when his parents emigrated. He was a carpenter, and 
followed that trade during his life. Upon the death 
of his mother a division of the estate was made be- 
tween Adam and Jacob, the only children then living. 
Adam Carline lived and carried on his trade in Pitts- 
burgh a number of years, but the last years of his life 



710 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



were spent on his portion of the farm in Baldwin, 
where he died in 1844. The children of Adam and 
Elizabeth Carline were as follows, viz. : Joseph A., 
born April 2, 1832, connected with the police force of 

Pittsburgh; James W., born , 1836, died ; 

Adam M., subject of this sketch ; Millicent G., born 
■ 1842, twice married; first husband, John Peter- 
son ; second Elder, now living in Alliance, 

Ohio. 

His mother married for her second husband Daniel 
W. Morgan. By this union there were two children : 
Benjamin, deceased, and Kate, wife of James W. 
Smiley, living in Kansas. His mother died at his 
residence in Suterville, Dec. 25, 1880, and is buried 
in the West Newton Cemetery. 

Having received the education afforded by the 
common school, at the age of ten Adam M. Carline 
became a clerk in the store of J. P. Stall, on Water 
Street, Pittsburgh, with whom he remained until the 
death of the latter, about ten months ; then was em- 
ployed in the store of his brother, Joseph A., first on 
Grant Street, then on the corner of Fourth and Lib- 
erty, next as clerk for John Grazier, on Smithfield 
Street ; two years at each of these places. He then 
returned to his brother's store. For one season he 
was employed as second clerk on the steamer " Grand 
Turk," plying between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. 



At the age of nineteen, in company with Robert Mar- 
tin, firm Carline & Martin, he purchased his brother's 
store, and carried on the business until the spring of 
1861. Aug. 9, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier 
in Company H, Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cav- 
alry, and continued in active service until near the 
close of the campaign of 1863, when, having been 
confined by disease contracted in the army for a num- 
ber of months, returned home, January, 1864, on a 
sick furlough, and was honorably discharged at Pitts- 
burgh, May 28th of the same year. When he had re- 
covered from his illness he was employed by the gov- 
ernment until the spring of 1865 in shipping stock 
from the yards at Pittsburgh. 

April 1, 1865, he moved to Suterville, where for 
nearly seventeen years he has carried on a successful 
business in general merchandising. 

In politics he is Republican. He married, June 
22, 1865, Amelia, daughter of John and Eliza (O'Con- 
nor) Battie. Mrs. Carline was born near Sharpsburg, 
Allegheny Co., Pa., Feb. 5, 1830. 

Mr. and Mrs. Carline are members of the Presby- 
terian Church at West Newton. Their children are 
Elizabeth, born June 10, 1866; John Hasson, born 
Aug. 18, 1870; Eleanor Kate, born July 10, 1872; 
Adam Morris, born Nov. 29, 1874; William Thomas, 
born Oct. 18, 1876, died July 25, 1878. 



LOWER AND UPPER BURRELL TOWNSHIPS. 



ERECTION, BOUNDARIES, Etc. 

Lower and Upper Burrell Townships were 
erected in 1879, by the division of Burrell into Upper 
and Lower Burrell townships. 1 The original Burrell 

1 The petition of divers citizens, inhabitants of the township of Bnr- 
rell, respectfully represent that they lahor under great inconvenience 
and disadvantage for want of a division of said township into two town- 
ships hy a proposed lino commencing at a marked rock on the right 
hank of Puckatos Creek, uear a walnut-tree, about twenty-five rods 
above the residence of William Parks, and running thence north forty- 
two degrees east until it intersects the line dividing the townships of 
Allegheny and Burrell, near the residence now or late of Matthew 
Young, it being the same line which divides said Burrell township tutu 
two election districts. 

Therefore your petitioners pray the court to appoint three impartial 
men commissioners to inquire into the propriety of granting a division 
of said township. 

And now, Dec. 22, 1877, petition presented to the Court of Quarter 
Sessions of said county, and the same order to be filed, and James B. 
McFarland, John Steel, and Robert S. Sproul appointed commissioners 
to inquire into the propriety of granting the prayer of the petitioners 
and to make a plot or draft of said township and the division line pro- 
posed to be made therein, if the same cannot he fully designated by 
natural lineB or boundaries, and to make report to the next term of the 
said court, together with their opinion as to the expediency and pro- 
priety of granting the prayer of the petitioners, as directed by the act of 
Assembly in such case made and provided. Per Curium. 



township was taken from Allegheny township, and 
organized in 1852. It was named in honor of Judge 
J. Murry Burrell, who was president judge of the court 
when it was erected. 



May 18, 1878, the report of the commissioners was filed, and on Sept. 
21, 1878, the following order was made: 

"After due consideration of the premises, it is ordered and decreed 
that a vote of the qualified electors of said township be taken on a divi- 
sion thereof on Tuesday, the fifth day of November, 1878 (being the day 
for the holding of the general election), by au election to he held by the 
election officers of said township at the places fixed by law for holding 
township elections, and governed therein by the several laws of the 
Commonwealth relating to township elections. The ballots to be de- 
posited by the electors shall have written or printed on the outside there- 
of the word ' Divis™:*.',' and on the inside thereof ' Foit Division' or 
4 Against Division.' The constable of said township shall give at least 
fifteen days' notice of the time and places of holding said election by 
posting not less than six written or printed handbills in the most public 
places in said township. The election officers, after closing the polls, 
shall count the ballots and certify within five days thereafter the number 
of votes for and against a division to the clerk of the Court of Quarter 
Sessions. Per Curiam. 

" Retmn of election, filed 7th November, 1878. 

" Vote for divison, 114; against, 6, 

" And now, to wit, Jan. 18, 1879, it appearing to the court that at an 
election directed to be held by the qualified electors of the township of 
Burrell, in the county of Westmoreland, on the 5th day of November, 



LOWER AND UPPER BURRELL TOWNSHIPS. 



711 



Its boundaries were north by Allegheny, east by 
Washington, southeast by Franklin townships, west 
by Allegheny River, separating it from Allegheny 
County, which was its southern boundary. It was 
watered by the Allegheny River, the Big and Little 
Pucketos, and other smaller streams. Coal exists in 
all parts of the original township, in which are located 
some extensive coal-works. Its surface is rolling ; 
soil very fertile and highly cultivated. The chief oc- 
cupation of the people is agriculture. 

PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Of the early settlers nearly all of Scotch-Irish ex- 
traction. The Crooks family located on Pucketos 
Creek in 1791, and came from Antietam Creek. Wil- 
liam Ross was born in Ireland, and on his arrival in 
this country first located in Franklin and then Adams 
County, and removed to the glades here in 1794, and 
John Ross followed in 1801, who died June 23, 1827, 
aged fifty-four. The former died Aug. 28, 1849, aged 
eighty-seven years. His wife was a Miss Esther Reid, 
of Greencastle, to whom he was married April 19, 
1803. John Stewart settled in 1804, with his brother 
William, who died April 19, 1850, aged sixty-eight 
years. John Bales settled in 1805. Among other 
early settlers were the McLaughlins, Birelys, Millers, 
Hummels (of whom David died May 23, 1867, aged 
sixty-nine), Donnells, the Hunters, Skillens, Moores, 
Logans, Shearers, Leslies, Bessorts, Blacks, Georges, 
Swenks, Milligans, Sands, Woolslayers, Rowans, 
Nelsons, Gills, Ludwigs, Dugans, Henrys, Leslies, 
Reisers, Lanes, Ingrams, Crawfords, Caldwells, 
Mencks, Younkins, Fredericks, Kunkles, Loves, Mc- 
Williams, McCutchens, and Ashbaughs. 

One of the first pioneers was James Johnston, a 
Revolutionary soldier, who lived to be one hundred 
and three years old, and is buried in Dugan's grave- 
yard in Allegheny County. 

David Alter came to Pucketos Creek from Cumber- 
land County. His father was born in Switzerland, 
and emigrated to America before the Revolution. 
He married Elizabeth Mill, and his sister married 
Governor Ritner. Of David's twelve children, the 
eldest daughter became the wife of Maj. George 
Dugan, and his eldest son, Joseph, was the father of 
Dr. David Alter. David Alter was born in 1775, and 
was a captain in the war of 1812, and built the noted 
" Alter's Mills" on Pucketos. His son Joseph mar- 
ried Margaret C. Dinsmore, of an early family. 

During the period from 1791 to 1795 the settlers 



A.p. 1878, by the order of said court, and agreeably to the act of Assembly 
id such case made and provided, a majority of the qualified electors of 
said township of Burrell voted in favor of a division of said township ; 
therefore it is ordered and decreed that the said township of Burrell he, 
and the same is, hereby divided into two townships, Hgreeably to the 
lines marked out and returned by the commissioners appointed to view 
and make report as to the propriety of granting the prayer of the peti- 
tioners for a division ; the eastern or upper division to he known here- 
after as 'Upper Bi'rrell TowNsinr,' arid the western or lower division 
to be known as 'Lower Burrell Township,' and John Ingram ap- 
pointed constable of Lower Burrell." Per Curiam. 



were subjected to many invasions by predatory bands 
of Indians, who carried off many into captivity, mur- 
dered and scalped others, and burned their cabins 
and plundered them of their stock. 
,• About the first land entered or patented was a five- 
hundred-acre tract to a man named Wharton, which 
was subsequently purchased bv the McLaughlin fam- 

iiy. 

CHURCHES IN THE COUNTRY. 
THE PUCKETY UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Located some two miles southeast of Chartiers Sta- 
tion is the oldest religious organized congregation in 
the limits of the original Burrell township. It had 
its origin in the settling of several families in the 
neighborhood from the Associate Reformed congre- 
gations of Adams and Franklin Counties, among 
whom were the Rosses, Crooks, etc., and of families 
of the General Assembly Presbyterians, among whom 
were the Watts, Skillens, and others. Preaching was 
had at several intervals from 1795 until 1804, when 
began the first stated supplies. Mrs. Esther (Reid), 
wife of William Ross, received her certificate from 
the Greencastle congregation Nov. 22, 1804. At a 
meeting of the Monongahela Presbytery, held Aug. 
31, 1803, at Yough Meeting-house (now Bethesda), 
an application was received from Puckety for preach- 
ing here, and at its next meeting Rev. Joseph Kerr 
was appointed to preach on the first Sabbath in Jan- 
uary, 1804, which he did, the first regular stated ap- 
pointment here filled. At the meeting of Presbytery 
on March 4, 1804, a petition was received from Puck- 
ety for a regular supply, when Rev. Mungo Dick was 
appointed to preach, but was not always able to be 
there, but did preach the third Sabbath in November, 
1805. Mr. Henderson preached in 1810, Mr. Bu- 
chanan in January, 1811, and Mr. Galloway the Feb- 
ruary following. These ministers came very long 
distances on horseback, and at a time when there 
were no roads or bridges. The place of the first 
preaching was a grove still standing on the Ross 
homestead. In 1806, William Ross built a barn, in 
which worship was held for some months. Shortly 
alter a "tent" was put up at the forks of the road 
near the residence of Squire Irwin, and about a mile 
from Chartiers Station. It was a temporary affair, 
built by putting four posts in the ground closed in 
on three sides, with a rough floor raised oil' the 
ground, and a covering for the preacher. 

Here services were held until the first edifice was 
erected. John and William Watts, John and Wil- 
liam Stewart, and John and William Ross were early 
connected with this church. The congregation was 
really organized in 1810, but not formally until the 
following spring. The first elders were John Ross, 
William Ross, John Stewart, William Stewart, John 
Watt, James Robertson. March 27, 1811, the Pres- 
bytery received an application to unite Deer Creek 
and Puckety into one charge. On Sept. 4, 1811, Pres- 
bytery met at Puckety, and installed Rev. James Mc- 



712 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Connell as pastor of Puckety and Deer Creek, on 
which occasion were present Rev. Proudfit, Monro 
Dick, Galloway, and Buchanan. Mr. McConnell re- 
signed his pastorate at Puckety April 2, 1833. 

About 1816 measures were taken to build a meeting- 
house, which was erected on land conveyed by John 
Bales in 1825. The trustees in receiving his deed 
bound themselves and successors to let him and his 
family have one seat in the northwest corner of the 
house. The edifice was built of logs, thirty-two by 
thirty-eight feet, clunked and daubed, with no ceiling. 
It was warmed with a ten-plate stove for burning 
cord-wood. In 1833 the connection between Puckety 
and Deer Creek as two charges with one pastor was 
dissolved. Mr. McConnell was a native of Ireland, 
and received his theological education under the 
learned John Brown, of Haddington. He still 
preached at Deer Creek until Jan. 15, 1845. Puckety 
was now without a pastor until June 5, 1838. 

In May, 1836, just after the edifice had been re- 
paired and enlarged, it was destroyed by fire. Ser- 
vices were now held at the residences of Millers, 
Hummels, Bales, or in their barns, and sometimes in 
the school-house. The second church, the present 
brick edifice, was built in 1837. In 1834 these elders 
were installed : A. R. Stewart, William Watt, Francis 
Crooks, and Patrick Donnell. On Oct. 12, 1837, Rev. 
J. G. Fulton was called, and installed June 5, 1838, 
whose pastorate was dissolved Aug. 13, 1849. A. R. 
Stewart resigned his eldership in 1840. On the forma- 
tion of Blairsville Presbytery, Nov. 10, 1840, Puckety 
came under its territorial care; Rev. W. A. McKin- 
ney was installed pastor in July, 1841, and died Aug. 
16, 1842. Robert Stewart was elected elder in 1842. 
Rev. J. W. Duff was installed Dec. 5, 1843. In 1845 
the elders were William Stewart, Robert Stewart, 
Patrick Donnell, William Watt, Francis Crooks, 
James McMath, and David McLean. Mr. Dutf re- 
signed his pastorate April 13, 1848. In 1849 the 
elders elected were John Anderson, David Hummel, 
and William Stewart. The congregation had no pas- 
tor until the installation of Rev. John C. Bryson, 
Nov. 12, 1850, who resigned Oct. 31, 1854. In 1853 
the elders elected were John Wylieand George Leslie. 
April 11, 1855, this church came under Westmore- 
land Presbytery's charge. The next pastor was Rev. 
James Given, installed June 21, 1859, who was re- 
leased April 8, 1873. In 1859 the elders elected were 
Daniel Hawk and William Vantine, and in 1868 
William Crooks. The present popular pastor, Rev. 
M. M. Patterson,- was installed June 15, 1875. He 
was born in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, in 1845, 
and graduated at Westminster College, and later 
at Allegheny Theological Seminary. This is his first 
charge, and is in a flourishing condition. 

The church officials are Elders Daniel Hawk, Wil- 
liam Stewart, Robert Crooks, Edward Newell, Robert 
Stewart, Jr., and William Douglass ; Sunday-school 
superintendent, Hiram Gill. 



BETHESDA LUTHERAN CHURCH 

is located near the Allegheny township line. Its con- 
gregation was organized in 1864. Before that time 
the meeting-house was on the Ross farm, which was 
erected in 1850. The pastors have been: 1850 to 
1864, Rev. D. Earhart; 1864 to 1S75, Rev. D. Hoover; 
1875 to 1881, Rev. Barry ; and in 1881, Rev. M. G. 
Earhart, present incumbent. He also preaches at 
" Hankey" (Christ's) Church, in Franklin township. 
The church officials are: Council, Holmes George, 
Amos Willery, Abraham Sloanaker, Thomas George, 
and Henry Bair; Trustees, James G. Borland, Jacob 
Keiger, Henry Willery, Thomas George, Henry Ash- 
baugh ; Sunday-school Superintendent, Jacob Reiser. 
Number of members, one hundred and twenty. 

MANCHESTER REFORMED ASSOCIATE CHURCH 

was organized out of Brookland Church, and is lo- 
cated about a mile south of Milligan's Mills. It is 
supplied by the pastor of the Brookland congregation. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

has a congregation and edifice in Lower Burrell town- 
ship, about a mile and a fourth east of Tarentum Sta- 
tion. It is a part of the Parnassus Circuit, and its 
present pastor is Rev. Gray. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY (PARNASSUS). 

This congregation was organized May 18, 1842, by 
Revs. James Graham and S. M. McClung, with John 
W. Logan its only elder. It had occasional supplies 
for eight years. Rev. S. M. McClung was installed 
its first pastor Oct. 10, 1850. Revs. C. B. Bristol 
preached, David Kirkpatrick .charged the pastor, and 
James M. Hastings the people. He was released 
June 24, 1857. Oct. 6, 1858, Rev. D. W. Townsend 
was ordained and installed. Rev. Robert McMillan 
preached from 1 Corinthians i. 21. Rev. Dr. Donal- 
son presided, proposed the constitutional questions, 
made the ordaining prayer, and charged the pastorj 
and Rev. Robert McMillan the people. He was re- 
leased June 25, 1867. Dec. 29, 1868, Rev. J. P. Ken- 
nedy was installed, when Revs. J. D. Moorhead 
preached, W. W. Woodend proposed the necessary 
questions, D. J. Irwin charged the pastor, and J. E. 
Caruthers the people. From its situation this church, 
as well as Plum Creek and Pine Run, were placed by 
reconstruction, in 1870, under care of Blairsville 
Presbytery. This church has sent out no minister. 
Rev. J. K. Black became pastor in 1876, and is the 
present incumbent. The church officials in 1882 are : 
Elders, G. C. McJenkin, John Dugan, George Arm- 
strong, O. M. Bessort, William Bakewell, and Mr. 
Moody, and superintendent of Sunday-school, Win. 
Bakewell. Mr. Black also preaches at Arnold Chapel 
every other Sabbath. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (PARNASSUS). 

Its edifice was erected in 1874, but before that time 
preaching had been held in the second story of the 
station-house and at other points. The first pastor 



LOWER AND UPPER BURRELL TOWNSHIPS. 



713 






was Rev. J. T. Riley, whose successors have been A. 
H. Norcross, Robert Cartwright, Robert Hamilton, 
Alexander Scott, and J. B. Gray, present incumbent. 
This point with McLaughlinsville, Bethel, and New 
Hope form one circuit. 

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (PARNASSUS). 

The congregation was organized 1868, and its neat 
frame structure erected in 1870. The first pastor, 
Rev. J. M. Johnston, continued until 1872, when he 
was succeeded by Rev. J. C. McFeeters, the present 
incumbent. The church officials are : Elders, A. B. 
Copeland, Alexander Miller, John Reid ; Sunday- 
school Superintendent, A. B. Copeland. 

THE UNITED PRESBYTERIANS (PARNASSUS) 

have occasional services here, but have no regular 
congregation or house of worship. 

PARNASSUS BOROUGH. 
This borough lies on the east bank of the Alle- 
gheny River, in Lower Burrell township. When the 
Allegheny Valley Railroad was completed, in the 
winter of 1855-56, where the town is stood the Pres- 
byterian Church, the farm residence of John W. 
Logan, a house of his tenant near the church, and the 
dwelling of Alexander Cook, the latter. erected dur- 
ing the construction of the railroad. The town took 
its name from the church (Parnassus), so called after 
that of the original tract of land, and which was 
given to the latter by the laud-office in designating 
the land warrants and patents. John W. Logan laid 
out the town immediately after the completion of the 
railroad. The first building erected was by A. B. 
Copeland for his store, the first here, the second by 
A. H. Wylie, the third Mr. Copeland's residence 
(burned in 1868), and fourth the " Eagle Hotel." 
Drs. Curtis and Edgar were the first physicians here, 
but did not remain long. Dr. David Alter settled in 
1863, and has been in continuous practice ever since, 
save when in the army during the war as surgeon in 
the Two Hundred and Sixth Regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers. He is a graduate of Jefferson Medical 
College of Philadelphia, of class of 1861, and a grand- 
son of Capt. David Alter, who settled on the Pucketos 
about 1800. The post-office was established in 1856, 
with John W. Logan as postmaster. His immediate 
successor was George L. Lee, and the present incum- 
bent is J. E. Lane, also station and express agent. 

BOROUGH INCORPORATION. 
By an act of the Assembly of 9th of April, 1872, 
the village of Parnassus was erected into a borough. 
The first section of the act empowered and directed 
the Court of Quarter Sessions to appoint three persons, 
whose duties were to make out and define the bounda- 
ries of the borough, and to file a report of the same in 
the office of the clerk of the court. In the petition 
of A. B. Copeland, A. H. Wylie, W. R. Logan, and 
Samuel Skillen these tacts were brought to the notice 
of the court, and on May 15, 1872, C. F. Warden, John 



M. Dickey, and John F, McCulloch were appointed 
commissioners to perform the duties defined by the 
act referred to. On the 6th of August, 1872, the above 
commissioners filed their report in the clerk's office, 
and in it they fixed the boundaries and limits of the 
borough. 

The commissioners in making their report in- 
cluded in the limits described about fifty acres of 
land, part of the real estate of Maj. Hugh Logan. 
Upon his death his executor made petition to the 
court to modify the boundaries of the borough, so as 
to exclude the land above mentioned. After a time, 
and upon regular proceedings, the petition was dis- 
missed at the costs of the petitioners, and the legisla- 
tive status of the borough defined at length in a 
lengthy opinion filed by the Hon. John P. Blair. In 
this opinion he held that the court had not the power 
to change the limits of the corporation after the same 
had been regularly laid out by and under the direc- 
tions of the act of Assembly. 

CORPORATION OFFICERS. 

The first municipal election under the borough 
charter was held on the first Monday in December, 
1872. The officials have been : 

1872.— Burgess, John Fluke ; Council, J. C. Stewart, W. J. Sproul. James 
II. Elder, S. Y. Crusan, A. 11. Wylie, \V. J. Wentz, W. R. Logan, 
Stephen Hughan ; Clerk, D. S. Dewalt ; Treasurer, J. C. McCutcheon ; 
Street Commissioner, William Bright; High Constable, J. W. Neff. 

1873.— Council, J. C. McCutcheon, S. Hughan, J. H. Elder, Samuel Skil- 
len, J. C. Stewart, John Fluke, W. J. Wentz, A. II. Wylie ; Clerk, 
D. S. Dewalt. 

1874.— Burgess, Dr. David Alter ; Council, A. H. Wylie, J. H. Elder, W. 
R. Logan, Daniel Yetter, J. C. Stewart, W. Wentz, John Parry, Dr. 
B.L.Calhoun; Clerk, Garret Crusan (who has been continued to 
the present time). 

1875 —Burgess, W. J. Sproul ; Council, J. II. Elder, Stephen Hughan, Dr. 
B. L. Calhoun, R. K. Armstrong, William Lindsay, J. C. Steward, 
John Glenn, S. B. McBride. 

1870.— Burgess, W. J. Sproul; Council, W. R. Logan, S. Hughan, S. B. 
McBride, Dr. David Alter, Dr. B. L. Calhoun, William Lindsay, 
John Glenn. 

1877.— Burgess, F. M. Johnston ; Council, W. R. Logan, S. B. McBride, 
J. H. Elder, Dr. David Alter, Dr. B. L. Calhoun, B. F. King, Samuel 
Skillen, Josiah Masters. 

1878. — Burgess, David Lewis; Council, R K. Stewart, O. M. Bassert, Jo- 
seph McCutcheon, F. J. Zimmerman, J. II. Elder, Josiah Masters, 
W. Went/.; High Constable, F. Alward. 

1879. — Burgess, Samuel Skillen ; Council, It. K. Slewart, J. Masters, 
John Agey, Josiah Masters, T. J. Cooper, W. R. Logan, T. M. Boal, 
O. M. Bassert. 

1880.— Burgess, W. J. Sproul ; Council, W. Wentz, J. M. Johnston, J. F. 
Zimmerman, W. R. Logan, R. K. Stewart, J. M. Masters, John 
Agey, Josiah Masters. 

1881. — Burgess, JohuN. Aker; Council, Alexander Cooke, R. K. Stewart, 
Reiiwick Rowan, Robert Parks, J. M. Johnston, J. F. Zimmerman, 
William Truby ; Constable, W. J. Masters. 

IsS'j. — Burgess, John N. Aker; Council, Alexander Cooke, Dr. David 
Alter, Robert Parks, J. F. Zimmerman, J. M. Johnston, John Mas- 
ters, A. W. Logan, J. A. McCutcheon. 

PARNASSUS BANK 
was organized in April, 1872, with Dr. David Alter, 
president; A. B. Copeland, vice-president; and K. 
C. Hill, cashier. Four of the six first directors were 
Dr. David Alter, A. B. Copeland, A. H. Wylie, and 
R. Rowan. Dr. Alter was succeeded as president by 



714 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



W. R. Logan, present incumbent, and Mr. Copeland 

has remained vice-president. The present cashier is 

A. W. Logan. It is a private institution and not a 

corporation. 

THE NEW CEMETERY 

is pleasantly located on ground commanding a pic- 
turesque view of the Allegheny River, and which was 
donated by the late Hugh Logan. The only three 
interments are Hugh Logan, born Dec. 3, 1788, died 
June 29, 1873; his wife, Elizabeth, born April 24, 
1798, died Nov. 3, 1878. Nancy Hultz, born Nov. 17, 
1802, died Nov. 28, 1878. 

PARNASSUS LODGE, No. S04, I. 0. 0. P., 
was chartered by William Stedman, M. W. G. M., 
and James B. Nicholson, M. W. G. Sec, May 24, 
1872. The first officers were: N. G., Joseph E. Mur- 
ray ; V. G., John McElwain ; Sec, O. M. Bossert; 
A. S., John Agey ; Treas., George B. Armstrong. 

The officers in 1882 are : N. G., James Neely ; V. G., 
W. J. Masters; Sec, A. Jack; A. S., G. T. Jack; 
Treas., J. F. Zimmerman ; Trustees, L. L. Toy, G. B. 
Armstrong, Foster Alward. 

It meets every Saturday night at its hall over the 
bank. Membership, thirty. 

LILY DALE LODGE, No. 1216, I. 0. G. T., 
was chartered April 9, 1877, with the following char- 
ter members and officers : P. W. C. T., George Stailey ; 
W. C. T., W. D. Hare; W. V. T., Miss L. Magee; 
W. Chap., A. A. Hill ; W. Sec, F. J. Glass ; W. F. S., 
Michael Dearoff ; W. Treas., Miss Eliza Masters ; 
W. M., W. J. Masters; W. D. M., Kate Dunlap ; W. I. 
G., Jennie Hare; W. O. G., C. Phillips; W. I. H. S., 
Mrs. L. R. Noss. Charter members, John Agey, F. 
Alward, George Gillon, George Noss, William W. 



Davis, Cyrus Masters, John Kirkwood, Harvey Wentz, 
Eliza Masters, Margie Masters. 

KNIGHTS OF HONOR. 

A lodge of this order was instituted here Feb. 21, 

1882, with the following officers: D., J. M. Kerr; S. 

V. D., S. M. Thorp ; A. V. D., J. E. Lane ; Rep., R. 

K. Stewart; F. R., John Masters; Treas., B. F.King. 

VILLAGES AND RAILROAD STATIONS. 
McLAUGHLINSTOWN 

lies in the southeast part of Upper Burrell township, 
and in a region early settled by the McLaughlins, 
Kunkles, Swanks, Wylies, McClintocks, Cochrans, 
Byerlys, Murrys, Hunters, and Borlins. It has a 
store, post-office, and several shops. Dr. William 
McWilliams is the resident physician, and a prac- 
titioner of long and successful practice. Two miles 
northwest are 

MILLIGAN'S MILLS. 

Going north from Parnassus the first station on the 
Allegheny Valley Railroad is 

ARNOLD, 

near which is the residence of Capt. R. P. Crawford 
and his coal-mines. Here were located the salt-works 
and oil refinery of Porter, Crawford & Co. 

TAKENTUM STATION 

is a mile farther northeast, and opposite to which, in 
the Allegheny River, is Harris' Island. 

CHARTIERS STATION 

lies in the northwest part of Lower Burrell township, 
and is an important shipping-point. Near it live the 
old families of Leslie, Shearer, Goldinger, George, 
Miller, Reed, and others. It was the scene of many 
Indian depredations from 1790 to 1795. 



BELL TOWNSHIP. 



FORMATION, DESCRIPTION, Etc. 
Bell Township was made out of parts of the town- 
ships of Loyalhanna, Salem, and Ligonier, and le- 
gally organized in 1853. Its present boundaries are : 
North by the Kiskiminetas River, east and southeast 
by Loyalhanna township, south by Salem, and west 
by Huntingdon townships. The West Pennsylvania 
Railroad runs through the township, following its 
northern and northeastern boundaries. The princi- 
pal streams are the Kiskiminetas River and Beaver 
Run. There are some smaller water-courses tribu- 
tary to these. There are several extensive coal-mines 
in the township, also some large brick-yards for the 
manufacture of fire-brick, which forms an extensive 
industry. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 

John Carnahan, the first settler, built a block- 
house on his land, which was the refuge of his neigh- 
bors for miles around on threatened invasion by the 
Indians. 

Among the early settlers were the Yockeys, Carna- 
hans, Callens, Marshalls, Whitfields, Clawsons, Ew- 
ings, Hines, Rumbaughs, Taylors^ Alcorns, Neelys, 
McKees, Hiltys, Thompsons, Kuhns, Blairs, Pauls, 
Kennedys, Weisters, Glasses, Sparkers, Whitezels, 
McDivitts, Buzzards, Klines, McCauleys, Walkers, 
Beattys, Gartleys, Montgomerys, Goorteys, Bow- 
mans, Househoulders, Learns, Robinsons, McCon- 
nels, Elwoods, Wolfords, Bears, Roughs, Smeltzers, 
Huffs, Grimes, and Longs. 



BELL TOWNSHIP. 



715 



Perryvsille is the principal village, located in the 
centre of the township, but there are several small 
stations on the railroad. 

ST. JAMES' UNION CHURCH (REFORMED AND LU- 
THERAN). 

Some three-fourths of a mile north of Helena, on 
the brow of a precipitous bluff', between two and three 
hundred feet above the stream of the beautiful Kis- 
kiminetas River, and but a short distance below the 
once famous Indian village of "Old Town," sur- 
rounded on all sides by heavy growth of timber, 
there is a graveyard of one-half acre, well inclosed 
with post-and-board fence, where repose the remains 
of from fifty to one hundred souls. This land, to- 
gether with some more remaining uninclosed, was 
donated by Simon Hine for the purpose of a Lutheran 
and German Reformed Church and burial-ground. 

Here, to the south, and outside of the inclosure, 
was begun the building of a church. The timbers 
had been dressed and drawn to the place, the day ap- 
pointed for the raising of the log house, the members 
were on the ground from far and near, one or two 
courses of logs put on their foundation, when came 
the question, " To whom shall the houses and ground 
be deeded?" and until that was decided not another 
hand to build was lifted, and when decided the issue 
remained the same. There the few logs placed upon 
pillars of stone remained untouched, as well as the 
large heaps lying all around, and there they are to- 
day, a decayed and decaying monument of human 
infirmity and folly. 

This happened in 1803, but the graveyard was 
opened a few years sooner. Some years after this 
failure, Christopher Yockey, of the Reformed Church, 
gave a lot of ground, about three miles southwest of 
the meribah (the place of strife), described above, the 
site of the present brick church. 

The old or first Union Congregational constitution 
bears date March 9, 1815. The lot of ground was 
surveyed October 10th of that year, and the deed for 
the land dated the 5th of the following December. 
Although the land was not deeded and surveyed until 
1815, this church edifice, log structure, was built 



about 1808, when the ground was simply marked 
out. 

The first Reformed pastor was Rev. John William 
Weber, who came not earlier than 1808, nor later 
than 1812. He labored several years, not later than 
1816. His successor was Rev. William Weinel, whose 
pastorate continued until 1838. The contract for the 
building of the present brick church, for the sum of 
twenty-two hundred dollars, was executed April 9, 
1838, between Jacob Smeltzer and John Ringle, Lu- 
theran, and John Whitesell, Reformed, together with 
others of both congregations. The builders were 
Matthew Callen and John Paul. Rev. Henry Knep- 
per, Reformed, preached here about two years, resid- 
ing at Kittanning, preaching also at Butler. He 
was here as late as March 13, 1846. Rev. B. D. Ernst 
visited the congregation some, and preached Oct. 7, 
1847. Rev. H. E. F. Voight preached here, probably 
between the pastorates of Revs. Weinel and Kuepper. 
Rev. Samuel H. Geisy began his labors Nov. 19, 1848, 
and served the Reformed congregation until July, 
1855. The pastorate of Rev. Thomas G. Apple began 
Jan. 1, 1856, and continued until April 1, 1857, when 
the Salem and this congregation were separated from 
Greensburg and Irwin and constituted a charge. His 
successor was Rev. Richard P. Thomas, from April, 
1858, to April 1, 1863. Rev. T. J. Barkley immedi- 
ately succeeded him, and resigned Jan. 1, 1867. Rev. 
T. F. Stauffer's pastorate was served from May, 1867, 
to September, 1871. 

On Oct. 30, 1870, the whole number of members 
was one hundred and twenty-four, of which fifty-nine 
communed. At this time the congregation fell into 
confusion and strife, starting in a proposition to sep- 
arate from the Lutherans, some favoring the project 
and others opposing, which led to the pastor's resig- 
nation, who preached his closing sermon May 14, 
1871. Rev. J. B. Welty preached his trial sermon 
Aug. 18, 1872, and was elected pastor, and ordained 
and installed September 18th following. He resigned 
Sept. 16, 1873. Rev. John McConnell commenced his 
pastorate June 2, 1874, and in the next three years 
baptized twenty, confirmed seven, and added one on 
certificate. 



COOK TOWNSHIP. 



ORGANIZATION. 
There is a diversity of opinion respecting the 
causes which brought about a division of Donegal 
township and the formation of Cook. Many regarded 
the division of the township, especially for the prac- 
tical purposes of elections and the keeping up of 
roads, a necessity long before it was actually accom- 
plished ; and the causes which operated, and the in- 
fluences which brought it about, had been at work 
much earlier. Before the township was divided the 
elections were held at Stahlstown. This was a matter 
of complaint to those resident beyond the village of 
Donegal, in the southern portion of the township. 
But it is a matter of notoriety that while a small 
portion of the people on both sides of the line were 
dissatisfied, yet the township was divided before the 
majority of the people knew it, so do they still pro- 
fess. The advantages, however, of the division have 
been, and are now, so apparent that no one should or 
does cavil. It seems altogether probable that those 
gentlemen who were very zealous for the popular 
good and exerted themselves in having the division 
made early secured the co-operation of the Hon. 
David Cook, at that time an associate judge. Mr. 
Cook, by the way, was father of William A. Cook, 
Esq., a practitioner at the District of Columbia bar, 
and at present retained in some important cases as 
counsel for the government. Mr, Cook proved to be 
the right man in the right place, and his influence, 
coupled with the active efforts of the friends of the 
project, were entirely successful. The township was 
divided, and the new one was called " Cook." 

EARLY SETTLERS. 
Of the early settlers within these limits were Rob- 
ert Campbell, father of "Elder" Robert Campbell, 
and the progenitor of a numerous offspring, many of 
whom reside within easy distance of their paternal 
homestead. He came in with his family before the 
Revolution. He was murdered by the Indians and 
left in the fields, where was also left his murdered 
wife, when the Indians made their descent on that 
family and carried off the children, all except one. 
Of this we have spoken in a former chapter. The 
children taken were Thomas, Polly, Ibly (Isabella), 
Sarah, and the Robert of whom we spoke. The cap- 
tives were separated, and part of them taken to Can- 
ada. Thomas was bought by an English officer and 
taken to England, and it is not known what became 
716 



of him. After a captivity of about four years the 
girls returned to the valley. Robert returned about 
the close of the war, having been in captivity about 
six years. Isabella was afterward married to a man 
named Galbraith, and was the grandmother of George 
Campbell, Esq., of Mansville. 

The old inhabitants say that about that time, 
probably subsequent to that, there was a block- 
house near the Campbell farm, which itself was about 
a mile westward of Pleasant Grove Church. The 
location is now on the farm of James Freeman. 

Capt. Richard Williams was a very old settler 
along the Four-Mile Run, and the block-house built 
on his land was called " Fort Williams." All re- 
membrance of him or his family appears to be en- 
tirely dissipated in the upper valley. This was in all 
reasonable probability the same structure which lat- 
terly was known as the " Miller block-house," on the 
farm then owned by George Miller, some of whose 
descendants still own the place. Miller left a large 
family, most of whom have children living through 
Ligonier Valley, Unity and Derry townships. Miller 
was one of the first Roman Catholics in the valley, 
and he and his family to attend church had to go to 
the " Hill Church," now St. Vincents. Thither also 
they removed the remains of the members of the 
family when they died. 

Others of the early settlers not specially named in 
the history of the county at large or in the history 
of the other townships of the valley were the Get- 
temys, the Pipers, the Thompsons, the Biukeys, the 
Bests , the Phillippis, the Beistals, the Matthews, the 
Groves, the Parks, — one of whom, Zebulon Parks, 
was a Revolutioner with Washington, — the Hangers, 
Hineses, Hoods, Felgars, Noehls, Stahls, Brants, Ca- 
vens, Withrows, McDowells, Wellers. 

CIVIL OFFICERS. 

Among the first justices of the peace of the town- 
ship after its erection was Seymour Campbell, a very 
prominent local man, and a great adviser and peace- 
maker among his neighbors. His name is borne by 
many namesakes. There also were James McDowell, 
James McClain, John Campbell, John Berg, James 
Witherow, Eli K. Caven, J. G. Weaver, Lewis Thomp- 
son, and Josiah McDowell. The constabulary duties 
have been divided between a very meagre number, the 
evident policy being when a man is found fit and 
competent to exercise the duties of the office to keep 



COOK TOWNSHIP. 



il7 



him in. The first man on the list (in the recollection 
of these and without consulting the records) is John 
Berg, who was succeeded by William Gettemv, he by 
William Thompson, and he by George Campbell. 

EARLY TIMES. 

During the times of the Indian troubles, through 
the Revolution, and down to even a few years after 
the end of the war, the district of what is now Cook 
township was the scene of many savage outrages. Of 
these particular incidents, which we think sufficient 
to cover the whole grounds, we have mentioned in the 
general history of the county. The captivity of An- 
drew Harman, and the troubles about the Williams' 
block-house on the Four-Mile Bun, as also the inci- 
dents connected with the early life of Robert Camp- 
bell, belong to the little region of territory bounded 
by the lines of the township. 

In order to understand how it was that the Indian 
depredations were carried into this remote region, 
bounded as it was by hills on both sides, and difficult 
of access from the North and the South, we must re- 
member that the great Catawba war trail, which ran 
north and south, ran along the summit and sides of 
the Chestnut Ridge, thus passing along the whole 
length of Ligonier Valley. These depredations, as 
has been said, were mostly committed by the Indians 
who traversed this path. 

At one time, late in the Revolution, there was in 
this part of the valley no security against the toma- 
hawk, the scalping-knife, or the torch. 

VILLAGES. 
The elections for Cook township are held at the 
school-house at the village and post-office of Mans- 
ville, which is located in the middle western part of 
the township, but in a nearly central location with re- 
gard to the populated portion thereof. It scarcely is 
entitled, in point of numbers, to be ranked as a vil- 
lage, but from its situation it has always been a point 
of interest for the people of the whole township. It 
is a " veritable village at a cross-roads," and these 
roads are much traveled. The gentlemen who owned 
the land there when there was talk of founding a 
town, some seventy years ago, from the inducements 
seemingly presenting themselves along one of the old 
wagon-roads, were James Phinney, Campbell, James 
McClain, Esq., and James McKenzie. The first 
house was built by George G. Campbell. Most 
all the old settlers were Campbells, and with all 
propriety it should have been named " Campbell's 
Town." Shortly after that date a tavern was kept 
there by a Henry Knox, and since that time William 
Gettemy was in the tavern business there. From 
the temperance proclivities of the inhabitants, and 
their known aversion to intoxicating beverages, it 
would not justify a person now to take out license. 
At one time there were two country stores in the 
village, but at present there is only one store, owned 
and kept by the Messrs. Keffer, of Ligonier. 
46 



STAHLSTOWN VII. LACK 



is situated on the " Old Felgar road," running from 
Somerset to Greensburg, and became a village in the 
days of the road-wagons. It lies in the middle 
southern part of the township, and within the line 
which divides Cook from Donegal. The road from 
Donegal down the Valley to Ligonier crosses through 
the place, and it is distant from Donegal four miles, 
and from Ligonier ten miles. 

Most of the ground upon which the buildings of 
the village have been built was owned by Leonard 
Stahl. Enos King built the first house ; it is a stone 
house, and is now owned by John Roadman. 

When the matter of opening out a village was first 
talked upon, it became a subject for discussion what 
the name of the place and post-office should be. 
Being then in Donegal township, many were for 
naming it Centreville. To this some objected, and 
especially did the Post-office Department object to 
the name on the ground that there was a Centreville 
post-office in Somerset County, Pa., and this but a 
few miles away. It was finally called Stahlstown, 
because the name of the original proprietor, as has 
been said, was Stahl. 

Many years ago a tavern-house was kept in Stahls- 
town by George Campbell ; William Rickart figured 
in the same business afterwards. These, as was the 
custom of nearly all public-houses of that day, sold 
whiskey. But now two public-houses for the enter- 
tainment of passengers are kept in the village, but 
at neither are liquors sold. There is not a licensed 
house in Cook township. 

In the census report the village of Stahlstown is 
not tabulated, but its population is included in that 
of the township. It has, however, two good stores, a 
resident physician, a Methodist Protestant and a 
Methodist Episcopal Church, which, although a part 
and parcel of the village, are really located within 
the limits of Donegal township, the parsonage for 
the former, a school-house, tannery, and the various 
shops common and needful in country villages. 

PLEASANT GROVE. 

A very alluring by-way resting-place is Pleasant 
Grove, the name given to the cluster of buildings 
about Pleasant Grove Church. This is on the right 
hand side of the Valley road, going from Stahlstown 
to Ligonier. The two churches, the Old Done- 
gal, or " Pleasant Grove," and the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church (organized in 1847), the one of stone, 
the other of brick, lie in close distance of each other, 
embowered among the monster trees of the old for- 
ests, and around them in the quiet country are spread 
the quieter graves of the dead. It is a spot to attract 
a loiterer who wanders by when the weather is warm 
and dry, and the harvesters are out in the "happy 
harvest-fields." Few churches in the valley have a 
more interesting history than the " Old Donegal," 
which we give herewith. 



718 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



DONEGAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NOW KNOWN 
AS "PLEASANT GROVE," 

tbe last of the five primitive churches which belonged 
to the Old Redstone Presbytery , but which now belongs 
to that of Blairsville, obtained, April 25, 1785, Rev. 
James Power to supply one day. With Fairfield and 
Wheatfield, April 21, 1787, it called, unsuccessfully, 
Rev. James Hughes. Rev. George Hill, as stated in 
the case of Fairfield, became its first pastor, April 
17, 1792, giving it for six years one-fourth of his 
time, and then one-third, till Oct. 22, 1817. At this 
time, without authority from Presbytery, he ceased 
his labors there. Of this the church complained to 
Presbytery, which declared emphatically that he ought 
not to have done so. He then tendered his resigna- 
tion, and was released, giving afterwards to Ligonier 
the portion of time thus disengaged. For over six years 
Donegal had occasional supplies, until June 17, 1824, 
as already stated, it obtained Rev. Swan, than whom 
no other man ever held so high a place in their con- 
fidence, esteem, and tender love. Oct. 5, 1841, he re- 
signed. From this time, with Ligonier, it became a 
separate charge, and received as pastor Mr. A. B. 
Clark, who was there ordained and installed, Jan. 26, 
1842. Rev. George Hill preached, A. Donaldson 
charged the pastor, and P. Hassinger the people. 
This acceptable pastor was released Oct. 22, 1851. 
May 31, 1853, his successor, Rev. D. Harbison, was 
installed, Rev. George Hill again preached, S. Swan 
charged the pastor, and R. Lewis the people. He, 
too, was acceptable and useful, but resigned Oct. 3, 
1855. June 3, 1856, his successor, Mr. John Allen 
Brown, was ordained and installed. Rev. S. H. Shep- 
ley preached, N. H. Gillett charged the pastor, and 
R. Stevenson the people. Acceptable as his predeces- 
sors, he resigned Oct. 21, 1859. June 8, 1860, he was 
succeeded by Rev! R. Stevenson. At the installation 
Rev. S. H. Shepley again preached, Dr. Smith 
charged the pastor, and J. W. Walker the people. 
Donegal township being divided, and this church 
being in the new organization, changed its name, by 
leave of Presbytery, to Pleasant Grove in this pas- 
torate. Mr. Stevenson resigned the charge Oct. 18, 
1871. Oct. 29, 1872, the present pastor, Mr. E. G. 
McKinley, was ordained and installed at Ligonier. 
Rev. D. W. Townsend preached, W. Cunningham 
charged the pastor, and T. R. Ewing the people. 
This church has had no stated supply, seven pastors, 
but never produced a minister. Among all its elders, 
one noble, old, godly man, Father Robert Campbell, 
was greatly pre-eminent. 

Donegal, now Pleasant Grove, is regarded as exem- 
plifying a sentiment and illustrating a theory of bi- 
ologists. They maintain that affectionate, tender, 
frequent, and prolonged intercourse between different 
persons tends to induce a similarity of appearance, 
attitude, movement, face, and features among them. 
Thus a husband and wife, who at first have no notice- 



able resemblance to each other, after years of happy 
wedded life grow gradually like each other, and seem 
as if they had been kindred born. The philosophy 
is this : Frequent free flow of feeling in a social, 
lively way, as a great chemical life-power, predis- 
poses the respective capacity of our nature to take 
impressions. Just then the sunlight of the happy 
faces of fellow-beings beaming brightly upon us leaves 
on our features in photograph, more or less noticeably, 
the impress and imprint of theirs, while they in turn, 
by reciprocal emotion, carry away the " image and 
superscription" of ourselves. . Thus whole communi- 
ties, in some cases, are assimilated, and may be readily 
recognized by their common likeness. Donegal in 
"the olden time" was eminently, notoriously charac- 
terized by the freest kind of frequent social intercourse. 
It was so indulged as to bring their whole being into 
a very glow of warmth and life. Beyond controversy 
they did wondrously assimilate to a commonness, a 
oneness of feature and expression which no observer 
could fail to notice. To such a degree did this occur 
that in surrounding localities it was a common thing 
to hear the remark, "I cannot tell who he is, but I 
know he is a Donegalian." Even at the distance of 
a day's journey from their native, social homes have 
they been recognized as Donegalians, from their 
manifest peculiarity of face, features, and style of 
speech. 

In the upper part of Ligonier Valley are still pre- 
served many anecdotes of this eccentric man, and in 
nearly every religious work having reference to the 
early history of the Old Redstone Presbytery there is 
something said about " Father" or " Elder" Robert 
Campbell. If his character was not vouched for by 
some good authorities we might be led to think that 
the designation was more of a nickname than a well- 
earned cognomen. For of nicknames it may be ob- 
served that they very often describe, and are intended 
to describe, the character better than any other de- 
scription whatever ; for this use came they into the 
world ; but we have noticed that they are to be taken 
contrariwise when a churchly word is applied by a 
worldly people. There is, for instance, a one-story 
log church, with bench seats, standing on the top of 
the Chestnut Ridge, which having been built on land 
donated by Mr. Solomon Blank, has been for half a 
generation known as " Solomon's Temple," and we 
know a man who from his pious manner and worldly 
ways is known to every one as the "Apostle James." 
Campbell was a man of wonderful placidity of temper, 
and his mind taking a religious turn he excelled in 
organizing pious devotional exercises and system- 
atizing the efforts of the pastors, just as he would 
have excelled an executive officer had he devoted 
himself to politics or civil affairs with the expecta- 
tion of advancement. He was a representative of a 
class of men, hardy in body and mind, who were bred 
in Western Pennsylvania. A few observations on his 
character will readily illustrate what we say. 



COOK TOWNSHIP. 



719 



The Rev. Adam Torrance, speaking of him, says 
that he enjoyed but limited advantages of religious 
instruction in his early youth, yet being of an inquir- 
ing turn of mind he gave considerable attention to 
the doctrines of the Bible, and tried to understand 
them as they were generally believed and taught. 
But looking at the doctrines by reason and experience 
only he could not understand some of them, and es- 
pecially the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, 
which appeared to him utterly incredible. During 
his captivity among the Indians a circumstance oc- 
curred which served to strengthen his unbelief in 
that doctrine. 

A fellow-prisoner who twice attempted to escape 
was pursued and recaptured both times. By attempt- 
ing to escape a second time he had forfeited his life, 
and was accordingly bound to a sapling at the bead 
of a ravine, and with a pile of wood built around him 
and fired he was burned to ashes. All the white 
captives in possession of the Indians of that place, 
Robert Campbell being one of them, were obliged to 
witness the scene, as a warning against attempts to 
escape. The night following there was a very heavy 
fall of rain, and soon afterwards Campbell visited the 
scene of the burning and found the ashes and re- 
maining brands and everything else on and about 
the spot completely swept away by the land-flood. 
Where, he asked himself, are the particles of which 
that body was composed? Some of them evaporated 
and diffused through the air, others mingled with 
ashes and various forms of rubbish and swept into 
the stream below ; and how can they ever be collected 
and reunited so as to form a living body ? Such 
were his silent reflections on the subject, and more 
than ever was his unbelief in the doctrine of the res- 
urrection confirmed. 

After his return to the Valley he occasionally heard 
sermons, but being preached by uneducated preachers 
he received no light on the subject of his doubts, but 
hearing of a certain minister going to preach at a 
particular place he went to hear him, when it chanced 
that the doctrine of the resurrection was a branch of 
the principal subject of the discourse. The min- 
ister's last answer to the objectors was given in the 
words of the Saviour to the Sadducees : " Ye do err, 
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." 
From that date Campbell dated his spiritual regener- 
ation. 

The following remarks as to the religious tempera- 
ment and zeal of the worthy man are from Rev. Aaron 
Williams' article, " The Religious History," in the 
Centenary Memorial: 

" Still another of these elders, ' who through faith obtained a guod 
report,' was 'Father' Robert Campbell, of the church of Donegal, now 
in the Presbytery of Blaiisville. He loved communion seasons, and be- 
sides attending those of his own church, with all the accompanying ex- 
ercises of four or five days, he was found at the communions of neighbor- 
ing churches, even when, as he once said, ' in order to do so he had to 
fight the devil and a buckwheat-field ready to be harvested, and at last 
only gained the victory by running away from both.' Before the pastor's 



arrival on such occasions he would not allow the people either inside or 
outside of the house to be unemployed. He would sing or prny, or call 
on some one else to do so, generally dropping a weighty thought, pun- 
gent remark, or brief exhortation. He seldom spoke five sentences at a 
time. His very soul would sing. He had no stereotyped prayer, but 
talked familiarly, though reverently, to God, as a child pleading with a 
father. Rarely could he afford to lodge with Christians if Godless fam- 
ilies lived near. These he went to visit, and with them read the Bible, 
talk, and pray." 

The first church building was a rude log cabin, in 
which the congregation worshiped for many years. 
In 1832 a substantial and for the day a very neat stone 
building was erected. John Lane did the mason-work, 
and Seymour Moses the carpenter-work. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



LEWIS THOMPSON. - 
John Thompson, the father of George Thompson, 
and grandfather of Lewis Thompson, the subject of 
this brief memoir, migrated from Cecil County, Md., 
to Greene County, Pa., in the early part of the present 
century. From there, after a residence of one year, 
he removed into Westmoreland, and settled within 
the bounds of Cook township, then Donegal, where 
he remained until his death in 1874. He was of 
Scotch-Irish nativity. His wife, Alice Nelson, of 
English extraction, he married in Maryland. Of his 
children, George, the second son, was born in 1811 in 
Maryland, before the removal of his father. He was 
married to Rachel Felgar, a resident of that part of 
Donegal township which is now Cook. He was a 
farmer by occupation. Beginning without any means 
of his own, like many of the best bone and blood, he 
by frugality, economy, and energy secured a farm of 
his own, and raised and educated a family of three 
sons and three daughters, three of his children out of 
a family of nine dying young. His children were 
the following: John (died young); Lewis, whose 
portrait appears in connection with this sketch ; Mar- 
tha Jane (died in youth) ; Harriet, married to 
Seymour Brant ; George W. ; Eveline, married to 
William Fisher; Mary, married to William Parke; 
James, now a partner with Lewis Thompson in the 
mercantile business ; and Elizabeth, who died in 
childhood. 

Lewis Thompson was born Oct. 20, 1836. He passed 
his first years at home upon his father's farm, and in 
due time secured all the benefits of such a common 
schooling as the school system of the day afforded. 
Being soon recognized as a scholarly boy, he had no 
difficulty in securing a school at the early age of sev- 
enteen. Devoting himself to his books, he in the 
mean time pursued his studies under private tutors, 
in special classes, and in the graded schools which 
were instituted for training teachers in their profes- 
sion. He devoted himself to the profession of teach- 
ing, which he followed for eighteen years. He held 



720 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



all grades of certificates, from provisional to perma- 
nent, and was regarded as one of the principal and 
most successful educators in the county. 

When the civil war broke out he enlisted in 1863 
in the First Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. Dale, and 
served in this regiment until he was discharged at 
the expiration of his term of enlistment. He re-en- 
listed in the latter part of 1864, in the Two Hundred 
and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. Trim- 
ble, afterwards Col. Levi A. Dodd. He went out as 
second lieutenant of Company E, was promoted to 
first lieutenant of the company, and served as quar- 
termaster of the regiment; was in the battles of Fort 
Steadman, Hatcher's Run, and in the closing battles 
before Petersburg, and was honorably discharged at 
the end of the war. 

After the war he again took up his profession, and 
taught a select school in Ligonier borough for ten 
months, and continued teaching in different places 
until 1868, when he engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness at Derry Station as junior partner of T. G. 
Stewart & Co., in which he remained for one year, 
when he went to Indiana County, where he started 
in business for himself in his own name. After re- 
maining here eighteen months he removed to Stahls- 
town, in Westmoreland. Here he began business in 
his own name in 1870, and so carried it on with such 
success that after it had assumed such proportions 
that it was necessary for additional assistance in its 
management he took in his younger brother, James, 
as a partner. The firm is now styled Lewis Thomp- 
son & Brother. 

Mr. Thompson, possessing all the essential elements 
of a successful business man, has built up a trade of 
great extent. Their business is the largest in their 
section of the country. He was elected a justice of 
the peace while he was a resident of Indiana County, 
and in 1874 when he removed to Stahlstown, and 
again in 1879. He is known as a gentleman who 
takes an active part in all public improvements, and 
as an advocate of all reform measures calculated to 
better the society and the world about him. His 
family has been in politics Whig and Republican, 
Mr. Thompson casting his first vote for Lincoln. He 
is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and has held the office of class-leader and steward in 
the congregation to which he belongs ever since he 
has resided in Stahlstown. 



He was married in 1863 to Miss Malinda Withrow, 
oldest daughter of James Withrow. Esq., of Cook 
township. She died in 1865, leaving a daughter. 
He again married in 1867, Lucinda Parke, who is a 
daughter of Zebulon Parke, deceased, of Cook town- 
ship, and a granddaughter of Zebulon Parke, a Revo- 
lutionary officer of considerable distinction. Their 
family consists of one daughter, a son dying in infancy. 



WILLIAM WEAVER. 

The now venerable William Weaver, of Cook town- 
ship, was born in Somerset County, Pa., Sept. 18, 
1809. His grandfather was William Weaver, a native 
of Germany, and a minister in the German Reformed 
Church. He emigrated to America when a young 
man, and died in the early part of the present cen- 
tury in Sewickley, Westmoreland Co. His father was 
also named William. He was a millwright by trade, 
and married Mary Aukeny, daughter of Christian 
Aukeny, of Somerset County, Pa., where he located 
and engaged in milling. In 1812 he removed to what 
is now known as Weaver's Mill, in Westmoreland 
County. Here he spent the remainder of his life. 
There were fifteen children in his family, thirteen of 
whom are still living. 

William is the fourth child, and was about three 
years old when his father settled here. His oppor- 
tunities for obtaining an education were very limited. 
He learned the business of farming and the milling 
trade, and after his father's death, in 1828, he pur- 
chased the mill and land belonging thereto. He was 
married Sept. 7, 1837, to Jane Grove. They have 
five children, — Mary, married to L. N. Phillippi, 
resides in Kansas ; Jacob G., married to Sarah J. 
Hood, is engaged in the milling business at the old 
homestead; Margaret, married John W. Phillippi, 
and lives near Ligonier; William C. is engaged in 
the manufacture of buggies in Somerset, Pa. ; Lewis 
A. is a merchant, and resides with his father. 

Mr. Weaver holds the important local office of 
school director, and during George Ritner's admin- 
istration was first lieutenant of the Donegal militia. 

He and his wife have long been members of the 
Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church. Mr. Weaver 
has held the office of elder in that organization for 
more than thirty years. He has lived a quiet, useful 
life, and has the respect of his neighbors. 






'^yoj-t^t^ 






PENN TOWNSHIP. 



After the application for the erection of a new 
township had been pending for ten years the Court 
of Quarter Sessions for this county, on Feb. 23, 1855, 
erected the new township, entitled " Penn township." 
It received its name from the founder of the State of 
Pennsylvania. The new township was formed out of 
portions of Hempfield, Franklin, Salem, and North 
Huntingdon townships. 

Penn township includes within its bounds the 
" Manor of Denmark," as laid out by the proprie- 
taries of the Province of Pennsylvania, and is con- 
sidered to be one of the most fertile portions of the 
State. We annex its boundaries as erected : 

" Beginning at a point on Turtle Creek where the State road from 
Greensuurg to Chalfant's crosses the same; thence in a direct line 
southeast to John I. Marchand's; thence southeast along the road 
leading to Walthour*s mill on Bush Creek ; thence up said creek, and 
by Altman's mill, IUingeusmith's mill, and John Harman's mill to 
where the State road to Salem crosses the same on Peter Row's farm ; 
thence along said road to near the house of Isaac Keck, in Salem town - 
■ hip ; thence by the Pockety road to the Cross-roads on Borland's farm ; 
thence HOUth of John Borland's and Gluilt's farm to Lyons' run ; thence 
down Lyons' run to Turtle Creek; thence down Turtle Creek to the 
place of beginning." 

Within its limits is a part of the old Penn Manor, 
and also the village of Bouquet, named after the 
famous British officer who was engaged in the early ! 
Indian wars in its immediate vicinity. 

The surface of the township is hilly, the soil fer- 
tile, and the farms well cultivated. There exists an 
abundance of coal, which is susceptible of easy ex- 
traction, being very near the surface. The veins are . 
generally six feet in thickness. There are extensive | 
coal-works in various parts of the township. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT. 
Its territory was occupied by pioneers at an 
early date. George McWilliams located on a farm 
now owned by his grandson, A. McWilliams, and was 
driven off and kept off his lands seven years by the 
Indians, and went for safety to McKeesport, where 
there was a small fort for the protection of the early 
settlers. He brought a saddle from Ireland when he 
emigrated, with which he paid for about three hun- 
dred and fifty acres of land, now located in the north- 
west part of the township. The fifth generation of 
the family is now residing on the place. He built a 
house near where the present residence of A. Mc- 
Williams stands, which is considerably over a hundred 
years old. Jacob Berlin settled in the township very 



early, and in his house the Rodgers family was cap- 
tured and carried away into captivity. The house of 
Jacob Berlin was better than the cabins generally, 
and had a bright shingled roof, which frightened the 
Indians off" from attacking it, as they looked upon 
that sparkling roof with fear and superstition. 

Among the first settlers were Balthazer Myers, the 
Ewings, Fritchmans, George McWilliams, Paul 
Neligh, Adam Kemerer, Christian Eberhard, Jacob 
Brinker, Michael Fink, the Knappenbergers, Keisters, 
Heislers, Kistlers, Byerlis, Snyders, Berlins, Laufters, 
Degardens, Beswicks, Gongaures, Mulls, Waugamans, 
Blackburns, Millers, Holtzers, Soles, Walthours, 
Highbergers, Shusters, Brawleys, Sowashes, New- 
dorfers, Kifers, Kiuglensmiths, Thomases, Klines, 
Clarks, and others. 

The Klingensmith family, on the farm formerly of 
Man-hand or Foster, now owned and in possession of 
Mr. Ferree, were all massacred by the Indians, except 
a little boy, whom they carried off, and who was kept 
away until he was twenty-eight years of age. He 
then returned and claimed the farm, but as no one 
could identify him he lost it, and returned in disgust 
to the Indians, among whom he ever afterwards lived. 
This murdered family, father, mother, and four chil- 
dren, were buried by the neighbors, all in one grave, 
behind their cabin. An apple-tree grew at the grave, 
and fell only a few years ago. For several years after 
this sad occurrence the children at school were in 
constant dread of Indian raids, and alarms were 
common. 

We are indebted to Dr. Frank Cowan for the fol- 
lowing, it being part of a letter from Cyrus Cort, Esq., 
n descendant of Andrew Byerly, addressed to Mr. 
Cowan, who has taken much interest in our early 
county history, and by whom we have been much 
encouraged in the course of our inquiries : 

"In the northern and western parts of Westmoreland you will find 
persons bearing the name of Byerly, or whose maternal ancestors bore 
that name. These are the descendants of Andrew Byerly, who came to 
this country from the German Fatherland in the early days of colonial 
history. He settled first in Lancaster County, Pa., and built either the 
first house or first hotel erected ill that place. He afterwards moved to 
Cumberland, Md., where ho followed the occupation of baker. He 
baked for Braddock'a army when it lay at that place previous to its ill- 
fated expedition. And now for an incident. While the army was en- 
camped at Cumberland, a number of friendly Indian chiefs, with their 
warriors of the Catawba tribe, visited the camp and offered their ser- 
vices to Gen. Braddock, desiring to nee panj bis army in the expedi- 
tion that proved so disastrous The haughty Briton despised such allies, 
and foolishly declined to accept their services. In his chagrin at being 

721 



722 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



rejected one of the chiefs laid a wager of thirty shillings that he had 
a warrior that could beat any white man running. Gen. George Wash- 
ington, then niiijor and aide-de-camp, took the bet, and g t Andrew 
B.veiiy to consent to a foot-race with the Indian, wbtch he did, and 
came off victorious. In course of time Byerly moved to Bedford, Pa., 
where he baked for the British garrison stationed at that place, lie 
afterwards received a grant of three hundred acres of land on Bushy 
Run, near where Harrison City now stands, from Hi" British ofhYer com- 
manding at Fort Duquesne, in order to make a comfortable stopping- 
place for ex press-rid era and parties traveling between Fort Duquesne 
and the more eastern forts and stations, viz.: Ligonier, Bedford, Loudon, 
etc Vndrew Byerly had occupied his station in the -wilderness lot ;i 
few mouths when the l'ontiac Indian outbreak occurred. A general 
rally of the Western savages took pi. ice for the extermination of the 
whites. All the f.nts in Western Pennsylvania were speedily invested 
by the Indians. Providentially the Byeilys were notified in the nick of 
time by an Indian or Indians whom they had befriended. The family 
sought protection in Fort Ligonier. Jacob Byerly, who resided so many 
yearn along the. turnpike between Jacksonville and Stewartsville, West- 
moreland Co., Pa,, and whose remains lie beneath a military monument 
in the Brush Greek burial-ground, was then three years old, and used 
to say that be distinctly recollected the flight of the family from their 
borne at Byerly's Station to Fort Ligonier. 

"The first night the family occupied one of the outhouses attached to 
the fort. Next morning a body of Indians commenced firing upon the 
fort for admission. Before the family could get in the bullets of the 
savages were rattling against the gate above their heads. 

" At length Col. Bouquet, or Bosquet, as they used h» spell it, the gal- 
lant Swiss officer in the British service, came from Carlisle to the relief 
of the besieged forts with an army of five hundred men. The Indians 
withdrew a few days before the arrival of Col. Bouquet to Fort Ligonier. 
From this point Andrew Byerly accompanied Col. Bouquet. He took 
along his son Michael, with the view of recovering some of the prop- 
erty which was left behind in their flight to the fort. After proceeding 
a few miles from Fort Ligonier, for some cause or the other, the boy 
Htch&el was directed by his father to return and remain at the fort. As 
he ran back to Fort Ligonier, he saw a great many trails where the Iu- 
dians had crossed the road immediately in the rear of the advancing 
army. Next day, when Col. Bouquet with his forces wan in the immedi- 
ate vicinity of the Byerly farm aud station, the advanced guard or for- 
lorn hope, consisting of Andrew Byerly aud eighteen soldiers, was fired 
upon by the Indiana In ambush. Twelve out of the eighteen (ell from 
the effect of t lie first volley from the concealed savages. Mr, Byerly 
and six other survivors succeeded in reaching the main body of the 
army. Thus began the battle of Bushy Run. It commenced about two 
in the afternoon and continued till Dight, when it ceased. At daylight 
next morning it waB again resumed, and lasted until about 11 o'clock 
a.m. At this point Capt. Bullet told Col. Bouquet that they must try 
some other plan, or they would all be slain by the Indians. The col- 
onel asked Bullet what ho thought had best be done. Bullet proposed 
a manoeuvre by which he might move down a ravine with a company of 
soldiers and get in the rear of the savages. The colonel directed Mm to 
proceed accordingly. With his company the captain soon gained the 
rear unperceived by the Indians, and gave them an unexpected volley 
from that quarter. This, in connection with other movements on the 
pari of the soldiers of Bouquet, led the savages to believe that reinforce- 
ments bad come to the aid of the whites, and with a despairine yell 
they took to their heels in wild dismay. Andrew Byerly himself heard 
Capt. Bullett ask Ool. Bouquet for the company which gained the rear of 
tges and turned the tide of battle. His oldest son, Michael By- 
erly, used to say thai !"■ frequently heard Col. Bouquet and other British 
officers state afterwards, at his father's house, that they lost one hun- 
dred and thirty men in the battle. A number of wounded died after- 
wards, ten of whom were buried where Harrison Cily now stands. Mrs. 
Byerly, whose maiden name was Beatrice Gulden, or Qoolden, was a 
Swiss by birth, and from the same part of Switzerland that Col. Bouquet 
hailed from. They had several long conversations respecting the battle 
afterwards when Col. Bouquet stopped at their station-bouse, as he went 
to and fro between the different forte on the frontier." 

EARLY SCHOOLS. 

As may be supposed, the standard of education was 

not very high. The old-time schoolmasters went 

around nearly every fall, as soon as the farmers had 

housed their potatoes and corn, with their subscrip- 



tion-books or papers, and when any pedagogue ob- 
tained the necessary number of scholars to remuner- 
ate him for his winter's work he signified the day he 
would take up school. The class-books were the New 
England Primer, United States Spelling-Hook, West- 
ern Calculator, and Bible and Testament. The cate- 
chism had to be committed to memory, and was a 
very prominent feature throughout the term, which 
usually was from December 1st to April 1st. The 
picture of John Rogers at the stake was indelibly 
fixed on every young mind. The writing department 
was exclusively by copies written at the top of a page 
of foolscap by the master himself, such as "Com- 
mand you may your mind from play," and as steel or 
other metallic pens had not then come into existence, 
it kept the "master" pretty busy to have all the 
quill-pens mended before school opened in the morn- 
ing, and mend for such as had no pen-knife or could 
not do it during the day. School-hours were from 8 
A.M. to 5 P.M., with an hour's recess at noon for din- 
ner, when the very young but old-fashioned little 
women unrolled from the lunch-basket or satchel the 
thick slices of solid home-made bread, well covered 
with the yellow, and that again deeply overlaid with 
apple-butter or sauce, and they and their young 
brothers demolished it all with keen, sharp appetites. 
Those who could not pay for their schooling were not 
neglected, as all were free and expected to attend 
school, and at the end of the term the township offi- 
cers certified such scholars as were too poor to pay to 
the county commissioners, from whom the " master" 
received his pay for the indigent ones. Education in 
all essentials, solid education to make good and use- 
ful citizens, was as thorough then as now. It was 
more highly prized then than now. Boys went to 
school every winter from the age of seven or eight till 
about sixteen. Their time was of value, they had to 
pay for tuition, and they appreciated the importance 
of it in after-life, hence they went at it with a will, 
just as energetically as they would go into a harvest- 
field, consequently they became expertand thoroughly 
drilled in spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
These are the essential tools for the transaction of 
business, as well as the keys to knowledge, and as the 
latter is impossible in the aggregate either to acquire 
or retain, and as each can profit most by acquiring 
that which belongs to his trade or profession, the old 
system worked well, and produced strong men and 

women in all departments of lite. Tlio.sc who bad a 
taste for going farther than the rudiments of these 
schools always succeeded in obtaining what they 
wanted, tor " wherever there is a will there is away." 

MANOR CHURCH (UNION). 

*' Denmark Manor," a fine tract of land, lying from 
eight to twenty miles west of Greensburg, was so des- 
ignated by the Penns. This part of the county is at 
home called simply "The Manor." Hence the name 
of this particular district. The settlement very early 



PENN TOWNSHIP. 



723 



contained among its hardy pioneers a goodly number 
of Germans, among whom were the Degardens, 
Brinkers, Nelighs [Nalys], Lauffers, Finks, Eber- 
h.inls, Snyders, Berlins, Byerles, Kemerers, Kistlers, 
Heislers, Keisters, Knappenbergers, etc. Many of 
the immigrants came from Northampton, York, 
Adams, and Franklin Counties, and some from 
Maryland. For years the members of the Reformed 
Church in this section belonged to the Brush Creek 
congregation, one of the oldest in Western Pennsyl- 
vania. They would come from Puckety Run, Beaver 
Run, and from beyond New Salem. But these dis- 
tances being found so inconvenient, they resolved to 
organize a congregation more accessible to themselves 
and children. Nothing is on record of their action 
prior to December, 1809, when a building committee 
was appointed to erect a union house of worship. It 
was composed of Paul Neligh and Adam Kemerer, 
Reformed, and Christian Eberbard, Lutheran. Be- 
zahlmeisters, paymasters for the work, or treasurers, 
were Jacob Brinker, Reformed, and Michael Fink, 
Lutheran. Jan. 12, 1811, a contract was entered into 
for the erection of the church edifice, to be in size 
thirty-eight by forty-six feet. Peter Henkel was to 
receive two hundred and twenty-five dollars for the 
mason-work. May 15, 1811, the work began. The 
committee furnished the material, such as stone, 
brick, mortar, scaffolding, and the boarding of the 
hands. The corner-stone was laid June 3, 1811, by 
Revs. John William Weber, Reformed, and Michael 
John Steck. Jacob Dry contracted with the building 
committee, Dec. 24, 1813, at six hundred dollars, for 
doing the joiner-work, the painting, and glazing. All 
the material needed and a dwelling for the contractor 
was to be furnished him. The work was to begin by 
May 12, 1814. He was to be paid in full for his work 
June 7, 1815, when, no doubt, the edifice was finished 
and dedicated. A debt, however, for materials still 
remained at late as the fall of 1825, when it was paid 
by subscription. The church grounds were owned by 
Conrad Knappenberger and Jacob Brinker, from 
whom two acres were at first bought, and afterwards 
more was added by purchases from Paul Brinker and 
Jacob Lauffer. 

Universally at that time the German Churches 
had a school-house near by, which was the case here. 
The (Jerman school-teacher at this place when Dr. 
Hacke came into the charge was Andreas Almose, 
who also led the singing of the congregation. After 
the school-house was in part turned into a dwelling 
it furnished a home for the sexton. The old structure 
is now over sixty-five years old. In the severest cold 
weather the public services were held in the old log 
school-house, which, "when no school was kept, was 
a convenient and common retreat for the neighbors' 
sheep, which sought shelter there." The windows 
furnished sufficient light, and the old log benches, 
splitting at the auger-holes or losing a leg, would 
sometimes, when heavily crowded, break down in the 



midst of the solemn services, causing some most 
ludicrous interruptions. From such considerations, 
among others, it was finally determined to introduce 
itoves into the church. Hut there the difficult prob- 
lem then was how to get rid of the smoke. There 
were in this church, as in those elsewhere, no flues or 
chimneys built, against which omission Jacob Brinker 
had stoutly remonstrated. As the smoke had to be 
passed out somehow, they first ran the end of a pipe 
through a broken window-pane, then they put the 
pipes out over the two doors, and next one was put 
through the wall on either side of the pulpit. This, 
it was true, gave some warmth to the minister, but 
when the wind came from that quarter it put him 
under a cloud sometimes, greatly to his discomfort. 
According as the wind blew the house would be filled 
with smoke, not of incense, well-nigh suffocating the 
pastor and incensing the people to tears. Then the 
pipes were taken at the next trial through the ceiling 
and out of the roof, but this at one time set the house 
on fire, so at last the chimney was built, and relief 
was thus obtained. 

The Reformed pastors have been : 1815-16, John 
William Weber; 1816-19, Henry Habliston ; 1819, 
Nicholas P. Hacke, D.D. 

Hill's congregation and that at New Salem are 
daughters of the Manor Church, but lately other 
great losses have befallen it by removals to Manor 
Station, Scottdale, Greensburg, etc. 

THE LUTHERAN CONGREGATION, ST. JOHN'S, 

was organized in 1807-8, but divine services were 
held occasionally ten years or more previous to this 
date at the houses in the vicinity of the present 
church edifice by Rev. Michael John Steck. The 
Lutheran pastors have been : 1807-30, Michael John 
Steck ; 1830-48, John Michael Steck (son of above) ; 
1848-68, Jonas Mechling, after whom the congrega- 
tion was served by several ministers till March, 1875, 
when Rev. J. A. Scheffer received and accepted a 
call. 

In early times, and largely continued to the present 
time, all their church properties were held in union 
between the Reformed and the Lutherans. This 
grew out of the circumstances holding in olden times. 
In Germany and in Eastern Pennsylvania many 
families of the twin churches of the Reformation were 
intermarried. The original sharp controversial dif- 
ferences had to a great degree subsided into a broader 
fraternity. The two denominations were practically 
much alike in origin, history, customs, language, and 
worship. They mutually intermingled freely in social 
and religious life. Their aims, trials, dangers, hopes, 
fears, and gains were one. Being each weak in num- 
bers, and so unable at that time to build separate 
churches for each denomination's scattered people, 
they joined both hands and means in the work. 
Neither church had ministers enough to supply every 
small congregation with its own service, if but only 



724 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



once a week. In most cases, indeed, every four weeks, 
or at longer intervals, was as often as they could hold 
service. Hence, living in the same community, they 
could reciprocally attend each other's service alter- 
nately in the same house of worship. Thus at the 
same time, whether the appointment were by a 
Lutheran minister on one Sunday in each month, 
and by a Reformed minister on a Sunday at an inter- 
val between, the same mixed audience would be pres- 
ent at church. So, too, the same schoolmaster taught 
all the children of the two denominations, the cate- 
chism of the Reformed Church to the children who 
were designated to be trained in that system of doc- 
trine, and the Lutheran catechism was as carefully 
taught to the children sent by the Lutheran families. 
Sometimes children of mixed families were divided 
between the two systems of faith held respectively by 
the father and mother, so that some were taught by 
the schoolmaster as Lutheransand others as Reformed. 
Then, too, if the minister of the one church was 
more popular, more partisan, or of greater personal 
influence than his colleague of the other, he could 
get most of the children to attend his " Kinder- 
lehre," and confirm them in that faith. Generally 
this union relation was respected and worked har- 
moniously, but sometimes was liable to friction, if not 
indeed to engender party jealousy and become subject 
to proselyting. 

BEULAB ONITED I'RESBYTEKIAN CHURCH 
is situated on Byers' Hun, in the northwestern part 
of the township. Its congregation was organized 
June 4, 1845. Its tir.-t pastor, Rev. William Conner, 
was born in Allegheny County, May 17, 1799, edu- 
cated at Jefferson College, and studied theology with 
the Rev. Alexander McCahan, licensed to preach 
April 14, 1836, by the Monongahela Presbytery, or- 
dained April 12, 1887, and installed at Beulah in 
1850. Before that time there was stated supply 
preaching. He resigned in 1858, and died Sept. 24, 
1864, when a member of the Blairsville and Cone- 
maugh Presbytery. His successors were Revs. J. D. 
Walkinshaw, T. F. Boyd, and A. R. Rankin, present 
incumbent. He was born in Washington County 
Oct. 15, 1828, and was the son of John Rankin, and 
grandson of James Rankin, who, with James and 
David, were the three sons of James Rankin, who 
settled in Chester Count; in the middle of the last 
century. Rev. A. R. Rankin was educated at Wash- 
ington College, where he graduated in 1S47, studied 
theology at Cannonsburg, was licensed to preach Oct. 
2, 1851, ordained Aug. 17, 1852, and installed at 
Beulah and Murrysville June 10, 1879. He has 
been thirty years in the ministry, and his brother, 
Rev. James G. Rankin, an eminent clergyman, died 
Dec. 17, 1868. His mother was Miss Agnes Burns, 
and married his father in Washington County. The 
church elders are David Tallant, James Morrow, 
Richard McCall, and John Duff. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (PENN BOROUGH) 
was organized in the school-house by Revs. J. Davis, 
R. Caruthers, and J. A. Marshall, May 16, 1872, with 
fourteen members. Its first elders were R. A. Hope, 
L. B. Highberger, and W. H. Guthrie. Its first pas- 
tor was Rev. William Kain, called in June 18, 1873, 
and dismissed in October following, since which 
time it has had no regular pastor, but stated supply 
preaching. 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (PENN BOROUGH) 
was the pioneer church of the town, and was erected 
in 1860 on a lot donated by J. H. Oliver, the founder 
of the place. It has no resident pastor, but is sup- 
plied from a distance. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
was built in 1860, and is part of the circuit compris- 
ing Harrison City, Penn Station, Paintertown, and 
Manor Station, its present pastor, Rev. Ash, residing 
at the latter. 

PENN BOROUGH. 

This town is most eligibly located on the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, some six miles from Greensburg. It 
was laid out in 1859 by J. H. Oliver, on the south of 
the railroad, and by the Penn Gas-Coal Company 
shortly after on the north of the railroad. 

George Loughner and J. F. Landia were here before 
the place was laid out, and are the persons who have 
resided here the longest time. The former was a coal- 
miner, and is now a very aged man. The first store 
was kept by Gustavus Storey, for whom J. F. Landis 
clerked five years. The second store was owned by 
James McHugh, and the third by J. F. Landis. The 
lirst postmaster was James McHugh, whose successors 
have been Cyrus Ludwick, George Buzzard, J. B. 
Laufier, William Guthrie, and Isaac Wilson (the 
present incumbent). The first tavern was kept by 
Catherine Bowersmith, and the second by Robert 
McMinnis. The first resident physician was Dr. N. 
W. Brown, the second Dr. L. S. Claggett, whose suc- 
cessors have been Dr. J. W. B. Kamerer, Dr. L. Ofl'utt 
(present practitioner). The town rapidly grew in 
business and population on the development of the 
coal-mines, which built up the place and made it what 
it is. The oldest person in town is the mother of 
George Bell, who was born in Prussia in 1790. The 
first justices of the peace here were John F. Landis 
ami Jacob Bankart. The land on which the town 
was lirst laid out was purchased by J. H. Oliver, its 
founder, of Henry Kifer and the Penn Gas-Coal 
Company. 

INCORPORATION AND OFFICERS. 
Penn borough was incorporated in 1866. On May 
16, 1865, at the current sessions of the Quarter Ses- 
sions Court, the petition of the inhabitants of that 
part of Penu township which included the residents 
of the village then known as Penn Station was pre- 
sented to the court and filed among the records of the 






PENN TOWNSHIP. 



725 



same. The necessary oath that she petitioners in- 
cluded the majority of the freeholders within the 
bounds of the proposed borough was made by J. F. 
Landis before Reuben Shrum, justice of the peace. 
On the same day the grand jury considered the peti- 
tion and returned it. Although there was a remon- 
strance, feebly signed, presented and filed some weeks 
later, the court on October the 19th, 1865, granted the 
prayer of the petitioners, and conferred on the in- 
habitants within the limits and boundaries designated 
the privileges of incorporation. It also appointed 
Friday, November the 2d, 1S65, as the day on which 
to hold their first borough election, which was to be 
held at the house of Ralph Pratt; C. Smith was to 
give notice, Hiram Fisher was to be the judge, and 
S. H. Boyd and Joachim Schultz were to be the in- 
spectors. The borough was also at that time made 
a separate school district. On the 20th of November 
following the decree of the court was amended so 
that the annual elections of the borough should there- 
after be held at the school-house in the borough. 

Since the date of its incorporation the burgesses 
have been Hiram Fisher (the first), James McMan- 
nis, L. B. Highberger, William Holmes, Joachim 
Schultz, John F. Landis, Henry Hall, John Helly, 
Mr. Brisbane, and James Mullin. Since 1875 the 
clerks have been: 1875, T. M elver ; 1876, D. L. 
Masters ; 1877, J. P. Wilson ; 1878, T. C. Mclver ; 
1879, Simon Peters; 1880-82, J. P. Wilson. The 
officers in January, 1882, are : Burgess, Joachim 
Schultz : clerk, J. P. Wilson ; constable, Frank 
Herholtz; councilmen, R. A. Hope, Lemuel OfTutt, 
Ralph Pratt, Henry Truxal, Valentine Cole, Leo- 
pold Baker. 

The first drug-store was kept by John Zimmerman, 
and the second by Thomas C. King, who came here in 
1870 from Johnstown and is still in business. The 
substantial frame school building of three rooms and 
a basement was erected in 1880. The school board 
consists of: President, Dr. Lemuel Oflutt; Peter Mc- 
Graw, secretary ; J. P. Wilson, treasurer ; James Ma- 
son, John Helly, Edward Gratz. The teachers are 
William Griffith (principal) and Miss Ella Toole. 

RESOLUTION LODGE, No. 609, I. 0. 0. F. 
This lodge was chartered Sept. 2, 1867. Its first 
officers were : N. G., Joseph Wilson ; V. G., Samuel 
Wilson ; Sec, Joseph McMannis ; Asst. Sec, John 
Buckner ; Treas., A. L. Kamerer. 

REBECCA DEGREE LODGE, No. 91, I. 0. O. F. 

It was chartered April 7, 1874, with the following 
officers: N. G, John S. Albright; V. G., Elizabeth 
V. Kamerer ; Sec, Mary E. Fisher ; Asst. Sec, Ella 
Dawson ; Treas., Fannie Westwood. 

COVENANT LODGE, No. 59, K. P., 
was chartered Sept. 2, 1870, with the following char- 
ter members : George Mclntyre, Henry Levy, John 
B. Watterson, Paul Jones, John F. Landis, John 



Giles, William Goodman, Henry Sager. Leopold 
Frank. 

PENN STATION LODGE, No. 52, A. 0. U. W., 
was chartered June 4, 1873, with the following char- 
ter members : John S. Albright, D. J. Miller, Wil- 
liam Goodman, J. P, Wilson, James McMannis, 
Thomas Dawson, John Nicholson, D. T. Miller, 
Ralph Dawson, James Truxal, J. Wilson, D. Riddle, 
William Thomas, James Riddle, W. D. Edwards, 
John Loughner, Daniel Collier, Philip Kifer, J. P. 
Klingersmith. 

PENN STATION DIVISION, No. 170, S. of T., 
was chartered Feb. 24, 1870. The charter members 
were Alexander Watson, John Painter, George Pain- 
ter, Henry Truxal, George Hamilton, Thomas C. Mc- 
lver, William Courtney, Andrew Buck, Wilson Sica- 
foce, Thomas Henderson, William Watson, Israel 
Linselinger, William Goodman, Joseph Shotts, Mary 
E. Mclver, Mary McMannis, and Lizzie Pratt. 

ANCIENT ORDER OF KNIGHTS OF THE MYSTIC 
CHAIN. 

The first officers and members were: Sir K. C, 
William Goodman; Sir K. V. C, John S. Albright; 
Sir K. 1st Lieut., James McMannis ; Sir K. R. S., 
William McKloeen; Sir K. A. R. S., John Nichol- 
son ; Sir K. F. S., Daniel M. Kelly ; Sir K. Treas., 
A. L. Kamerer; Sir K. I. G., William Thomas; Sir 
K. O. G., Ralph Dawson ; Sir K. P. C, William Mc- 
Kloeen, Robert Harrison ; Trustees, Philip Kifer, 
James Truxall, Thomas Dawson ; Members, Joseph 
Wilson, D. J. Miller, H. W. Heasley, Cyrus Overley, 
Jerome Lake, D. T. Miller, George Shorthouse, Jacob 
Myers, Walter Nicholson, H. R. Klingersmith. 

HARRISON CITY AND MANOR STATION 
are both growing towns, situated on Brush Run, and 
have mills, tanneries, and various other industries. 
Both have neat Methodist Episcopal Churches, with 
flourishing congregations. The Presbyterian Church 
at Harrison City was organized Oct. 6, 1856, by Rev. 
Drs. Samuel M. Farren and David Kirkpatrick, and 
Revs. William Edgar and J. C. Carson, with Elders 
John Larimer and Joseph Miller, after a sermon by 
Mr. Carson. The members were fourteen, with three 
elders. The house of worship was erected in 1859, 
and Rev. William Edgar, pastor at Murrysville, hav- 
ing frequently preached there before the congrega- 
tion, was released for half-time from Murrysville, 
April 11, 1860, and for that portion was installed at 
Harrison city. May 8th of that year Dr. Smith 
preached. Dr. McFarren charged the pastor, and 
J. C. Carson the people. April 8, 1865, he was re- 
leased from his whole charge. The church was 
statedly supplied then for some time by Rev. James 
Davis. Nov. 21, 1871, Rev. G. K. Scott was installed 
for half-time, when Rev. W. M. Moorehead preached 
and charged the pastor, and G. M. Spargrove the 
people. He was released Oct. 2, 1872. June 29, 1873, 



726 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Rev. William M. Kain was installed for half-time, 
Revs. Henry Bain preaching, D. Harbison charging 
the pastor, and W. W. Moorehead the people. The 
original elders were Hugh M. Robertson, Samuel 
Earhart, George SrJwash, and William Chambers. 
The accessions were John K, Foster, John Sowash, 
George Ramsey, Sr., L. B. Highberger, James A. Dible, 
and Dr. Henry Piper. Mr. Robertson removed and 
Mr. Dible died. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



JOSIAH BRINKER. 
Joseph Brinker is a native of Penn township, and 
was born Aug. 27, 1810. His life-work has been farm- 
ing. The high state of cultivation of his ancestral in- 
heritance and of the several farms added thereto by 
his patient toil bears witness that he has done his 
work well. His grandfather, Jacob Brinker, and 
his wife emigrated from Germany, and settled in 



Northampton County, Pa. They moved westward, 
and located upon the farm where Josiah now resides 
when most of it was a wilderness and the country was 
chiefly inhabited by Indians. Josiah's father, whose 
name also was Jacob, was then a youth of fifteen 
years. He was a farmer, and married Catharine 
Berlin, of Westmoreland County. He resided here 
until his death in 1846 ; Catharine died in 1835. 

Josiah Brinker was married first in 1833 to Anna 
Kistler, of his native county. They had nine chil- 
dren, five of whom grew to maturity. Those living 
are Jacob, Paul, Hiram, and Mary. Anna died in 
1862, and in 1864 Josiah was married again to Mary 
E. Anient, of Westmoreland County. By this mar- 
riage there are two daughters, Sadie M. and Ida M. 

While Mr. Brinker has always been diligent in 
business, he has not neglected his duties as a citizen. 
Whatever has contributed to promote the best inter- 
ests of the community in which he lives has always 
enlisted his support. In his youth he united with 
the German Reformed Church, of which organization 
he is _a valued member. 



ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP. 



The territory now comprising St. Clair township 
was taken from Fairfield, and made a separate and 
distinct municipality in 1856. It received its name 
in honor of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the Revolutionary 
hero and patriot, who after the close of the war of in- 
dependence resided in its vicinity. 

The present boundaries of the township are: North 
by part of Indiana County, cast by Laurel Hill, south 
by Fairfield township, and west by Conemaugh River. 
It is the smallest in territory in the county. 

Its surface is generally hilly, butnmcli of its soil is 
tolerably productive, particularly in the central part 
of the township. The main line of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad runs along the bank of the Conemaugh 
through to the township, with a depot at Nineveh 
(Verona post-office) and at New Florence. There 
are no mineral developments in the township, though 
stone and coal both exist under the surface. Its in- 
habitants are of the thrifty and industrious class, and 
keep the few acres of fertile land contained in its lim- 
its in a good state of cultivation. 

M:\V FLORENCE BOROUGH. 
At the February sessions, 1865, the citizens of the 
village of New Florence prayed the court to grant 



them corporate privileges. The grand jury passed 
on the petition on the 24th of February, 1865, and 
did not report adversely to the desire of the petition- 
ers, but it was held over by the court, and on the 27th 
of May, 1865, the report was by it set aside. It has 
been since incorporated. 

The borough is pleasantly situated on the Cone- 
maugh River and Pennsylvania Railroad. It was 
laid out as a village by Judge Robert Given. The 
depot is centrally located in the place, and the rail- 
way runs through the borough east and west. The 
streets are neatly laid out. It contains several stores, 
hotels, and shops; has a foundry, woolen-mill, and 
three churches, — Methodist, Catholic, and United 
Presbyterian. Its population is over five hundred. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

SAMUEL PERSUING. 

Samuel Pershing, of New Florence, was born May 

6, 1833, in Indiana County, Pa., about three miles 

from his present home. He is of German descent, 

the third son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Hice) Per- 



ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP. 



727 



shing. Hi, literary ec 
common schools and 1 
few years „»fore he bei 
9tore of R( bert Johnson 
a clerk, an) followed tl 



was received in the 
Ridge Academy. A 
of age he entered the 
Armagh, Indiana Co., as 
vocation until 1858, when 
he located in New Flor. ce and engaged in merchan- 
dising for limself. He .vas married June 8th <>f the 
same yeai vo Susau id. Covode, eldest daughter of 
George W. and Jane (Welshons) Covode. They 
have had .•■ oral children. Their eldest son, Harvey 
Covode, d». ' Dec. 15, 1867, aged eight years; the 
second, Cha > 8 M., died April 13, 1863, aged three 
years. Thos living are Curtis M., Cora R, George 
C, Jennie C, n d John R. 



Mr. Pershing had no pecuniary start in life. By 
his own exertion, and the assistance of a most excel- 
lent wife, he accumulated his present ample fortune 
which he little enjoys owing to his enfeebled condi- 
tion, resulting from disease and too close applica- 
tion to business. He has held all the important local 
offices usually intrusted to thorough-going business 
men. He early in life united with the Methodist 
Church, and as the Lord prospered him contributed 
liberally to its support. His active life has been one 
of usefulness to the community in which he has re- 
sided. He is respected by all who know him for his 
integrity, his industry, his devotion, his unselfishness, 
his charity. 



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